Small Business Spotlight: Crafty Station

During this time (and always!) it is so important to support local and small businesses in our communities. Plus it’s great for the economy too! We are constantly inspired by the ambition and resilience of small business founders and feel that the risks that they take lead to innovation and help in moving the world forward.

Inspired by these entrepreneurs and their stories, we recently chatted with Noha T.Abuhussien – owner of Crafty Station, about being an entrepreneur, running a small business while also running a family, and how she has adapted to the changes that Covid-19 had brought to her business.

What is your business about and why did you start it?

Crafty Station is all about learning something new everyday but in a fun engaging method! It’s the best way of education specially in early childhood years that’s why we call it “Edutainment Arts and Crafts Station ”

Learning through play develops a lot of sensory and communication skills and widens kids imagination and here comes our slogan “ UNLEASH YOUR IMAGINATION”, we try through our stations all around the UAE to develop little crafty kids skills while delivering certain messages and lifetime lessons for little ones who visit us like: developing sensory and motor skills, Self confidence and communication skills while teaching them about the importance of Sharing, recycling, love to earth, respect to others etc..

Crafty Station came out of our own home. From lessons and skills I personally wanted to teach Selim my older child. One of them was communication, social skills, sensory and motor skills etc, being an expat made me think of having a station where kids can gather and have fun while developing their communication skills and all that start at Jumeirah Islands clubhouse the place we had our first Crafty Station.

What do you love about your business?

Away from the colorful sparkly days that we spend on ground with the kids that bring so much joy and happiness to us every day, the amount of love and engagement we get from our Crafty Family all around the UAE is beyond words, we have built a Crafty community where we share principles and support through charity initiatives that mean the world to us.

Teaching kids early about sharing with less fortunate, or caring about sea creatures by reducing and reusing, packing iftar Ramadan boxes or donating your old school books to help other kids read and get education is something that we cant put in words and we cant be thankful enough to our partners and families who have supported us to be able to help and support others.

How do you manage your time between running a business and a family?

I take my kids with me everywhere! 🙂

Selim used to join my meetings, which are always fun and engaging talking about crafts, and activities.  Tarek, the little one attends all events and gatherings, they are my inspiration from day one!

We spend quality time at home trying new recipes, coloring and getting messy! Once my Crafty little ones approve then we start executing the new activities to all of our Crafty kids.

With the support of my family it wasn’t going to be as easy, which is am super thankful for!

How has Covid-19 affected your business and how have you adapted?

“Problems are not stop signs, they are guidelines.” 

Covid-19 guidelines was social distancing and as our station is a place for gathering and learning together! So we followed the guidelines and launched our Crafty Kits. We delivered our station activities to families in a reusable bag, filled with arts and crafts ideas and materials with a manual of steps to follow. Which develop little ones: cognitive skills, problem solving, sensory and motor skills, eye and had coordination and much more! And at the same time make family times memorable and lots of fun for the adults before the kids.

Any piece of advice to other small businesses owners or anyone wanting to start their own business?

It’s a fun ride with lots of ups and downs! Never give up, always try and look up high see yourself achieving all your dreams.

Work hard and reward yourself everyday for your small achievements. All your baby steps are going to grow in a blink and you will look back and wonder how did I get this far, I never dreamed of achieving this much!

NEVER STOP DREAMING, YOU CAN DO IT!

Be sure to follow Crafty Station on Instagram!

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