Did you know that more directors at the top of the corporate world are named Peter, than there are female CEOs in the Netherlands? Time to make a change. ELFIN interviews a Female Founder each month, this time Omara Nahar (46), founder and managing director of Stark Narrative.
Omara, tell us ëverything about Stark Narrative….
“In one sentence, we are WD40 in communications between business and the media. Stark Narrative is a specialized public relations agency for specific sectors in business and government agencies. We work with three very specific pillars, because as a boutique agency you cannot be involved in everything, but be very good at something. In six months, we will proudly be start-up finished. We are with a small team and always have been. My team really feels like my family.”
How long did it take for you to think, yes, this is how my business is doing well?
“I’m always looking for the right balance between fun jobs, team happiness and enough revenue to keep it running healthily. Stark is not set up to be a hard profit machine, which I think is what sets us apart from traditional companies and tech start-ups. I still don’t just think everything is going to be okay, in that respect I am conservative. Not that I am not easily satisfied, but once I see development and steps we can make then I am happy. We are going for a sustainable and patient strategy. I do regular sanity checks because I want our work to matter to clients. We work without lenders. This company belongs to ourselves, to the people who work here.”
What can still give you a stomach ache?
“That my environment does not want to go along with everything as quickly, a lack of innovativeness. It is quite difficult to turn everything around and look at things differently; I had to learn that too. What can also cause stomach aches: setbacks, big or small. Negative energy can affect so much. I used to hate it when my parents said “it will be okay,” but they were right. If you dwell too much on what is not going well, it will pull you into a downward spiral. You have to move forward. I don’t see that often enough.”
What do you think is the biggest misconception about running your own business?
“How the leadership of an organization is organized. The team is not there for you, you are there for them. Not a day goes by that my people walk out and I haven’t said ‘thank you.’ We do it together, without them there is no Stark. Stark is not just Omara, but a hard core of people with access to their own community. We are transparent about that, which is why we recently launched the Friends of Stark platform. I wanted to be more transparent about how we do our work here. Never alone, but with creative people we’ve worked with for a long time. From content creators to photographers and designers. I regularly get the question: do you know anyone else? With this platform, these independent PR professionals become more accessible. The platform has no revenue model, it is there for access and I hope it will regulate itself.”
What trait do you most benefit from as an entrepreneur?
“Patience, but also to staying close to myself and listening to my gut feeling. That combination works for me, even if it’s not always the conventional entrepreneurial rationale. And I’m multilingual, also always helpful.”
How do you handle the financial side of your business?
“Number one is having insight. I know on the day what comes in, what goes out and how to plan accordingly. I have elevated that to a higher art. I want to give my people security of income, there are six households running on the tent. That’s how I see it, it’s a piece of responsibility for me. I make sure we have that peace of mind so we can put our creative brain to good use. Insight and rest is inseparable. I prefer to have a buffer, even though we are still officially a start-up. Ten percent of annual sales I use as a space for emergencies. If anything is left on the bow, it goes back into the company.”
Best advice ever received and given?
“Got it: Don’t move too fast. I am super hands on, so if you throw something at me I already start running and while running I am thinking gigantically fast. That usually goes well, but sometimes it’s good to take a moment to let the cat out of the tree. Personally, I always say: working together. The world is evolving, together you have more leeway to innovate. Try looking for others and teaming, this will give you more of an edge. And lead gives peace of mind.”
Which female entrepreneur do you personally admire a lot?
“Annemarie Macnack van Gaal. Because of her efforts in sharing her experiences as an entrepreneur, even in times when it was not so obvious.”
