Meet Your Neighbor: Farhana Huq

 

 

I am the daughter of immigrants— my mother is from Pakistan and my father is from Bangladesh.  I have been to Pakistan once and to Bangladesh several times to visit my family there so my connection is definitely stronger to the latter.  The youngest of 3, I was born in a small town on the central coast of the New Jersey Shore. Being near the ocean, fishing, cooking, baking and traveling are some of my fondest childhood memories.  My mother was the first woman in her family to graduate from high school, born with a natural gift to sew, knit and create things.  My father is a successful doctor with a love of simple things, including fish and golf. They instilled in me a strong work ethic and like many immigrant families, placed a high value on education.  Both my parents are world travelers and avid, competitive golfers themselves so it’s no wonder I grew up spending much of my time traveling as a competitive athlete. At the age of 14, I became the first South Asian girl member of the U.S. Junior National Karate Team.  It afforded me the experience and opportunity to travel, train, compete with international athletes and work towards a goal, and understand what it feels like to be empowered and achieve a dream.  

Despite the opportunities I had to pursue my dreams, other women in my family were without them.  I watched as one of my favorite aunts suffered through an arranged marriage that turned abusive and which consequently trapped her in a life of poverty.  It made me sensitive to women’s issues and taught me the importance of making sure women could stand on their own two feet.  I started volunteering at an alternative housing site for women and their children when I was 15.  While a college student in South Africa, I became inspired to work so that women had resources and opportunities for a better life.    I learned of Muhammad Yunus’s groundbreaking approach to microcredit in Bangladesh which inspired me to focus my adult career on entrepreneurship in low-income communities. I graduated from Tufts University with a dual major in Philosophy and Economics.  

My siblings still live back east.  My sister is a biomedical engineer and cancer researcher and also an aspiring filmmaker.  My brother, who contributed a lot to the film, is happily married and settled, spending his time investing, doing photography, and traveling.

 

 

13 years.  While in college I was out of martial arts training but looking for a new passion.  I happened to stumble across a classical Indian dance class (Kathak).  I fell in love with the music and dance of North India. I moved to California so I could study with Pandit Chitresh Das and start my career supporting women entrepreneurs.  I also enrolled at the Ali Akbar College of Music and began my study of North Indian percussion (tabla). Of course my parents nearly fell over in their seats when I told them I was moving to California to pursue this dream, but it was the best decision I ever made in my life and I do not regret any of it. 

 

 

I started C.E.O. Women in 2000 to help low-income immigrant and refugee women achieve their dreams of becoming successful entrepreneurs.  I had completed a year of Americorps/VISTA at a start-up organization that provided training and capital to low-income women entrepreneurs.  When that organization ran into a cash flow crunch, the board shut it down.  I then raised $4,101 from friends and began C.E.O. Women.  I worked very hard the first few years, ran operations out of my bedroom for 3 years before it really took off.  I partnered with local adult schools and non-profits to begin delivering services to immigrant women with the goals of supporting them with training, business coaching, access to networks and capital to start or grow their own businesses.  Today the organization has helped thousands of women and operates with a team of 9 full-time people and on a budget of almost 1M.

 

 

I am inspired by people who face significant barriers and obstacles but who have such determination and perseverance that they are able to overcome these barriers to achieve their dreams or fulfill a goal.  

I am also inspired by people who are really bad at something when they start – perhaps have no natural talent, but they commit themselves to learning and keep falling on their face until they get it.     

Great figures like Nelson Mandela, who spent almost 3 decades of his life in jail fighting for something he believed in so strongly is also inspiring, and humbling.  It makes my battles seem so much smaller in comparison and gives me inspiration when times seem tough.  

 

 

We arm women with basic skills, tools and concepts so they can become successful entrepreneurs and minimize their business risk.  These include English communication skills, networking skills, time management skills, budgeting and financial management, how to market and advertise (including using social networking and otherwise), how to manage employees, understanding contracts and legal issues etc…Basically it’s like an entrepreneurship boot camp with English language support.  There are many intangible skills women acquire as well such as confidence building, which is so essential to their success.  Many of these skills and knowledge are imparted to our entrepreneurs through our robust guest speaker program.  We’ve had entrepreneurs like Lara Trupelli, my good friend and proprietor of San Francisco’s famous Beach Chalet, come talk to our women about marketing and advertising.  Other recent speakers have included attorney Shirish Gupta, the Founder of Flashpoint Law, Sundari Mitra, Executive VP of Engineering at MoSys and entrepreneur Deepika Bajaj.  It really does take a village. We’ve received tremendous support from the South Asian immigrant community over the years and I’m extremely grateful for it.

 

Some of the common mistakes I have seen people make include signing contracts that they do not fully understand or read through.  We are lucky to have support from top law firms such as Jones Day, who often provides pro-bono legal assistance to our entrepreneurs so they can get help and advice on negotiating and understanding contracts.  Other mistakes I’ve seen include not having a thorough financial understanding of one’s business by carefully considering expenses and all that it will really take to do a business at the get go, and realistically substantiating revenues.  There are always unforeseen costs and if you’re not careful about budgeting from the onset, you will not have an accurate plan to project what you need to be profitable.  

 

 

PASSION is number 1.  New entrepreneurs need to eat, drink and sleep their idea.  It has to be exciting and fulfilling enough that you are willing to make personal sacrifices for it.

MENTORS – No single book on entrepreneurship or MBA program or class is going to tell you all you need to be empowered to run your business.  New entrepreneurs need to seek out mentors in their industry so they can learn the ropes from people who have been there and done that.

EMBRACE REJECTION - When you put yourself out there and take a risk, there is always the chance you will get rejected.  In fact, new entrepreneurs will face rejection 90% of the time. They need to embrace this as a learning process, perhaps take feedback on why they were rejected and use it to improve their idea, presentation, business service to make it even better. 

GET OUT THERE! – What I mean by this is to get out into the world and network away. Business is about relationships and if you don’t know how to start and grow these, your business will not grow.  

BE SMART – I always encourage entrepreneurs to find a way to keep one foot on their business idea and another foot on a secure source of income so they can be supported during the start-up phase of their enterprise.  In other words, don’t quit your day job right away to finance your dream.  Be smart about it and have a plan of where you are going to get support.  I know plenty of entrepreneurs who have started a business on credit cards.  If you do your planning carefully, have a good idea and execute well, it’s all possible.  

 

 

I would say getting funding is 10% strategy and content and 90% relationships.  People invest in ideas but at the end of the day, people invest in people.  People give to people.  People give to passionate people who have integrity, leadership and execution skills.  The biggest lesson I learned are that relationships are key and when you hit a wall with someone, you need to open the dialogue and try to talk it out. You need to listen 80% of the time  - really listen to people and consider their ideas.  Don’t be so hell bent on your way that you may not see the brilliance of another way someone might suggest to you, even if they happen to be wrong.  Listen even if you disagree.  You also have to move, speak and act with integrity, at every step of the way.  This is important.   

 

 

Recognition can feel good and I am extremely lucky I think to have gotten some of these awards on behalf of the organization.  At the end of the day, it is not about recognizing me, it is about the work of the organization and all that it stands for to empower women who otherwise would not have the opportunity to reach their dreams.  When people recognize my work, they recognize C.E.O. Women.  They are affirming the values of independence for women, freedom, and the entrepreneurial spirit.  

 

 

I am in my 11th year of leadership with the organization and have instilled in it vision, creativity, passion, commitment and execution.  Like a parent, we want our children to become independent and thrive and carry on the values that we have instilled in them. It is the same when you start an organization.  Real social change takes real commitment over a very long period of time and it takes investment of time and resources.  Like anything, you have to be nimble and be able to respond to shifting conditions and work with extremely limited resources and figure out paths to sustaining your efforts.  This is always a challenge and I think we’ve been able to face it head on.  It hasn’t been easy and it takes courage and sacrifice, but it is all part of the package. 

 

 

 

I live my values – the values of freedom, independence and the entrepreneurial spirit.  I live vicariously everyday through the women we serve at C.E.O. Women.  I personally have had a few business ideas percolating in my head over the years.  There is nothing set in stone but in the next few years I hope to take the plunge myself to start a new venture.  I am not sure what it will be, but I intend for it to be an extension of my belief systems that will add value to our world.  

 

 

Starting a non-profit is a lot of work.  Just like any business, expect 110% dedication to your endeavor so you do absolutely have to love it and feel passionate about it.  I started C.E.O. Women under the fiscal sponsorship of a family foundation.  I formed 2 advisory boards and spent a lot of hours writing grants, doing focus groups in the community, determining the need for services that could help immigrant women.  I worked all the time – I mean, all the time – on vacations, at night, during holidays…but it did not feel like work.  It was a passion.  The first year I raised $4,101.  Two years later, with little funding and little help, I was ready to give up.  Then I checked the mail one day only to find a grant for $2,500.  Then a few months later another one came in for $1,000, then another for $5,000.  It wasn’t much but it’s what I used to start-up. I transitioned the advisory board into a board and we incorporated into our own non-profit 2 years later.  I got the services up and running by partnering with a lot of institutions – adult public schools, ESL programs, etc….It was collaboration that really helped in the start-up phase.

Be able to say what the world will look like after your mission is complete.  You will bring in supporters and people that will help you and that is really valuable.  I cannot stress the importance of communication enough.  

 

 

We are taught to respect our elders.  When you are a young founder, growing up in a South Asian culture, you are constantly dancing on a line between being assertive and appearing respectful at the same time.  At times it may have been difficult to disagree with elder South Asian mentors or Board Members and perhaps it was seen as being disrespectful if I did even I did and still do hold those people and relationships in extremely high regard.  So I had to re-program myself to be able to assert my opinions and thoughts while not seeming disrespectful if they were at odds with those older and more experienced than me.  It has been a tricky dance and I’m still dancing it!  But coming from an immigrant family has been a very positive aspect in achieving my goals.  For one thing, C.E.O. women would have never existed were it not for this very unique experience growing up in an immigrant family in America.

 

 

Yes I do.  Being here has exposed me to some of the top entrepreneurs in the history of technology.  It’s awesome that Sanjay Mehrotra, one of the Co-Founders of SanDisk is a personal supporter of ours, or that Robert Chatwani, Head of Internet Marketing at eBay, Radha Basu, the first South Asian woman to lead a public company in North America, and Lata Krishnan, once the highest compensated woman in Silicon Valley, all sit on our Board of Directors. It has not only helped accelerate the growth of C.E.O. Women, it has helped provide valuable strategic advice and input to our non-profit organization.  

 

 

My favorite thing to do in the Bay Area is surf.  I spend a lot of time in the water – usually a few days a week.  I’ve traveled to many countries just to explore the surf including Indonesia, Fiji, Costa Rica, The Dominican Republic, Brazil, and Portugal to name a few.  I also love to dance.  I’ve studied North Indian Classical dance now for 14 years with Pandit Chitresh Das and also study Ori Tahiti (Tahitian dance).  The Bay Area has such a rich dance culture and it is so fun to go and see live performances of artists and musicians when I get the chance to do so.  

If I’m not in Oakland, I’m usually at Ocean Beach or down in Pacifica surfing and taking in the beautiful views, sounds and smells of the ocean. My all time favorite place to hang between a surf and getting work done when I’m at Ocean Beach is the Bazaar Café.  It’s so quaint and cozy and quiet.   I also love to go to Sausalito, eat at Horizons, a beautiful restaurant on the Bay, people watch or hang out on my friend’s houseboat there after surfing.  I love California and the Hwy 1 drive North to Bolinas to surf is one of my most favorites.  There is nothing as strikingly beautiful as the rugged California Coast at sunset.

 

 

I’m often frequenting uptown Oakland restaurants like MUA and Ozumos – they are favorites of mine as are my local cafes. I also love Tamarindo, an Old Oakland Mexican food place that has the best tacos.

I took a drive up past Tomales Bay a few months ago and encountered a new favorite find – it’s a place called Nick’s Cove in Marshall – they have an awesome pier overlooking the water where you can sit back with your $1 oysters at happy hour and soak it all in.  I LOVE oysters.  

 

How can people learn more about you & stay connected to you in future. 

 

People can stay connected to C.E.O. Women through these links:

http://www.facebook.com/pages/CEO-Women/15428582241

http://www.youtube.com/ceowomen

https://twitter.com/#!/ceowomen

http://www.linkedin.com/company/88097