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| Immigrant Entrepreneur: | Amine Rahal |
| Company: | IronMonk Solutions |
| Place of birth: | Algeria, North Africa |
| Employees: | 7 |
Show notes
Amine immigrated from North Africa, Algeria at the age of 12 years old with his family to Canada. They came initially because his parents wanted to relocate to another city where French was spoken. His parents came to give their kids better opportunities and a better life.
Amine was always interested in software since he was a young boy. All because, back in Africa they had a computer when they were growing up. So he naturally gravitated towards anything related to computers or software development.
Amine never imagined that he was going to become an entrepreneur, so when he was fired from his job something inside of him told him that he should start a side hustle. His journey took him to New York, and then to China and that’s where he turned his side hustle into his full time entrepreneurial venture.
Amine is also an author of the book: Immigrant Hustle. This book featured 50 amazing immigrants from all over the world and shares their stories and experiences to entrepreneurship.
Quotes by Amine
I didn’t know that I wanted to be an entrepreneur.
Entrepreneurship was not even on my radar.
Had I not been fired, I would’ve still been at that company.
That’s the danger of being in a comfortable 9-5 is that oftentimes you really need a major kick in the butt if you want your career path to change.
In my day job, I wasn’t learning as much.
I didn’t mind leaving all the security behind and taking a risk to be an entrepreneur.
You can find the most successful people in any space that you’re involved in and you can just follow them and read their material, their content, that’s the best way to learn.
What’s the point of getting into 6 figure debt going to college, when you can learn stuff today with millions of websites that offer classes, or even YouTube, it’s free.
I would encourage anyone that’s getting started to seek a mentor in the beginning. It would take you way less time to succeed.
You don’t have to follow that traditional path because your parents are pushing you.
You’re in a country like the U.S. you can do anything, it’s really easy to open a business.
Where to find Amine
IronMonk Solutions | LinkedIn | Twitter
Links mentioned
- Book: Immigrant Hustle (Amazon affiliate link included :))
- Team Work
[read more] Alina Warrick (1s):
Welcome to the Immigrant Entrepreneurs Podcast Episode 46.
Amine Rahal (7s):
So there was some terrorist attacks occasionally, especially in the capital, and they were targeting like people working for the government. And so, if you worked, for example at a university, you were a target. So both my parents were University teachers.
Alina Warrick (21s):
My name is Alina Warrick, and today we have Amine Rahal on the show. I’m super excited to chat with Amine because he’s the author of the book called Immigrant Hustle. For those of you guys who haven’t picked up the book, the book is absolutely amazing. Amine, featured 50 immigrant entrepreneurs and their stories to entrepreneurship. So Amine immigrated from Algeria, North Africa, with his family when he was 12 years old. But his family emigrated to Canada. So in this episode, we talk about what the Canadians immigration process is like, what his journey was like to writing his book, and what his journey was like to entrepreneurship.
Alina Warrick (1m 5s):
Amine, never imagined that he was going to become an entrepreneur. After being fired from his job, he left his country in Canada, and went to New York for a new job. That is when his eyes were opened. And he realized that he did not want to be an employee anymore. So let’s dive right in and hear all about his journey. Okay, Amine, thank you so much for joining me on the Immigrant Entrepreneurs Podcast. And I’m super excited to talk all about your journey because you’ve immigrated to Canada. So you’re a very special guest on my show.
Alina Warrick (1m 47s):
So welcome to the show.
Amine Rahal (1m 48s):
Thank you. Thanks for inviting me.
Alina Warrick (1m 51s):
So let’s talk about your immigrant journey. Tell us where you’re from. And when did you come to Canada?
Amine Rahal (1m 57s):
Yes, I’m from North Africa. So I was born in Algeria. My family moved to Canada. I was 12 years old. So I was a kid. Yeah, I mean, they moved for the same reason as many other families move, mostly looking for more opportunities for the kids. You know, my parents had good jobs, North Africa. So they didn’t really do it for them. It was mostly to give us kids, me and my brother, you know, more opportunities, and basically similar reasons, as many other families that move to Canada, US, or Europe, right?
Alina Warrick (2m 25s):
And so what was it like growing up in Algeria?
Amine Rahal (2m 29s):
You know, it was a very simple life. We had everything. We really didn’t need much. Didn’t have, like, the internet, and iPads, and all the technology we have today. We kind of just played in the streets with our neighbors. But I mean, we had all the basics. We had all, you know, we have food, we have shelter, we had everything that we needed. My parents, like I said, have good jobs. So for a kid, I guess it’s kind of hard to understand at that age, why the families moving. But you know, I was still at the age where I understood. You know, there was a lot of security concerns as well, back then. Country was struggling with some terrorist attacks and things like that. So it wasn’t just about opportunities, it was also about security, and freedom to be able to be walking alone at night at whatever time at night without risking your life, that kind of stuff.
Amine Rahal (3m 16s):
Yeah, so it was peaceful. Well, peaceful. I mean, it was a good life for a kid. Like I said, because you do get, when you don’t have technology, you kind of have to socialize with other kids.
Alina Warrick (3m 26s):
Yeah.
Amine Rahal (3m 27s):
So like today, I see the advantages of that kind of life. Back then, you know, obviously, every kid they always want like the latest gadgets, and toys, and then gaming consoles and stuff. But today, as I got older, I do see the benefit in that kind of life that you no longer find today, and even in poor countries now kids have access to all these technologies. So it’s sad, that kind of life, but I had as a kid no longer exists. Children no longer really have access to it today.
Alina Warrick (3m 56s):
Yeah, yeah. So did you say you lived through a period of war?
Amine Rahal (4m 0s):
Well, it was kind of like a myth, like a civil war kind of, you know. It was like an extremist. You know, those people that were extremists on like, Islamists kind of–
Alina Warrick (4m 9s):
Activist?
Amine Rahal (4m 9s):
Yeah, kind of like that. So there was some terrorist attacks occasionally, especially in the capital, and they were targeting like people working for the government. And so if you work, for example at a university, you were a target. So both my parents were university teachers, because yeah, when you work for university, you basically work for the government. You know, in those countries, universities are not private institutions like in the US or Canada, they are part of the government. Yeah, so there was, that’s security risk.
Alina Warrick (4m 37s):
So why did your parents decide Canada, and not United States, or another country? Do they have family or friends out here? Any connections?
Amine Rahal (4m 46s):
Well, it was mostly for the French language.
Alina Warrick (4m 48s):
Oh, okay.
Amine Rahal (4m 50s):
Yeah. So the east part of Canada, obviously in Quebec, you know, it’s a bilingual province, so you can work in French or English. But it’s mostly French in Quebec. Actually, French is the first language.
Alina Warrick (5m 2s):
Oh.
Amine Rahal (5m 2s):
Yeah, English is second. So that was the main reason, you know. And also my dad had done his PhD in Montreal. So he already knew the city when he knew some people in Montreal. It just seemed like a logical next move for the family. Yeah.
Alina Warrick (5m 19s):
Got it. Got it. And did your parents find jobs right away when they immigrated?
Amine Rahal (5m 23s):
No, it was a struggle, especially for my dad, he was a chemistry teacher back home. It wasn’t really easy to find a job as a chemistry teacher. There wasn’t really a high demand at the time. So he had to do all sorts of odd jobs, you know, all types of minimum wage jobs. And he would occasionally find like a small contract position at a university or college as a chemistry professor. And so he took advantage of all those little contracts you could find. And eventually, I think after 10 years, he was able to find like a permanent position of a chemistry, you know, for being like a chemistry professor at a college. But yeah, for 10 years, it was a struggle. It was like just little jobs here and there, little contracts that would last like a semester.
Amine Rahal (6m 3s):
And then he had to find something else. So it was rough for him. For my mom, she went back to school, because her diplomas, her degrees, she had a master’s degree back home, but that wasn’t really recognized. So she kind of had to go back to school. I think she got like a bachelor’s degree or something like that, I don’t even remember. But yeah, after that, she got a job at a bank. And she worked for a few years, but then she didn’t really like it. So she tried different things. But eventually she found a job she liked. But it was mostly for my dad that it was really difficult, because he just didn’t expect that, right? He was just so comfortable. Back in North Africa, he had a really good job. So he wasn’t ready for that. But I think for him it was more difficult.
Amine Rahal (6m 43s):
My mom was just ready to do anything, right? When we were there.
Alina Warrick (6m 47s):
Yeah.
Amine Rahal (6m 47s):
Yeah, because she was even the one pushing for immigration for years, and my dad never wanted to. He kept saying, “Hey, we’re good here. We had a good life. Both have jobs. We get to travel.” You know, we were traveling. We were going to Europe every summer. We had two cars. We had basically all, everything we needed for… you know, everything that a middle class family would have here, we already had it back there, right?
Alina Warrick (7m 9s):
Mm-hmm.
Amine Rahal (7m 10s):
So my dad kind of saw all the risks, especially since he was in his early 50s. You know, and he had, he was also like thinking of retirement, right? Like, as with any immigrants, like you move to a new country in your 50s, you kind of have to start from scratch, and you only have about 15 years of work left. So, you know, that kind of, you kind of jeopardize the comfort of your retirement. Yeah. So he didn’t want to move for years. And so my mind — you know, he kept saying, “Hey, this is like taking a big risk. We’re leaving everything we’ve built here.” And my mom, like she never really cared about that. Because she said, “Hey, I don’t mind starting from scratch. I don’t mind doing minimum wage jobs.
Amine Rahal (7m 50s):
I wouldn’t even mind cleaning people’s bathrooms. That’s how badly she wanted to move.”
Alina Warrick (7m 55s):
Wow.
Amine Rahal (7m 55s):
So that’s why for her, it was’t really difficult. You know, she was happy every day being in Canada. For him, it was more difficult.
Alina Warrick (8m 3s):
So does Canada provide any government assistance? I know in America, we have like welfare, and food stamps to help the immigration process out a little bit in the beginning stages. Does Canada have something like that, too?
Amine Rahal (8m 15s):
Yeah, they do. I mean, it’s very similar. You have access to all these different programs.
Alina Warrick (8m 21s):
Did you guys take any of those government assistance
Amine Rahal (8m 23s):
No.
Alina Warrick (8m 24s):
No?
Amine Rahal (8m 24s):
No, we never did. And that was one thing that my parents never wanted to. They always said, “Hey, for as long as we’re healthy, we can work. We can find work.” Right? So they never really wanted to even think about that as an option kept trying to get whatever job they could get, especially in the beginning. But yeah, that was never really an option for them.
Alina Warrick (8m 43s):
Got it, got it. And so, Amine, 12 years old, I don’t know if you remember, but what was the immigration process like for your parents? Do you remember at all? Because I know in America, it’s pretty long, and inundated process. I want to hear what is the process like in Canada?
Amine Rahal (9m 2s):
What do you mean by immigration process?
Alina Warrick (9m 4s):
So to get fully citizenship, like your citizenship to like complete residency in Canada.
Amine Rahal (9m 13s):
So, it’s not as complicated as the US. So, I think the process only takes like three years or maybe five years. I think it was three years back then, maybe now it’s five.
Alina Warrick (9m 23s):
Okay.
Amine Rahal (9m 23s):
But when you’re an accepted immigrant, so basically, it depends what status they give you, right? It obviously, if you come in as a refugee is way more complicated. But when you’re in an accepted immigrant, they accepted you because they feel like you have the professional qualifications to find work and eventually become a citizen. So it’s a little bit easier than, as I said, if you’re a refugee, or as different statuses that you can get. But yeah, so it took, I think, three years to get citizenship, or maybe five. To be honest, I don’t really remember three or five.
Alina Warrick (9m 54s):
Got it. It’s okay.
Amine Rahal (9m 55s):
Yeah, I know the US is like 10, right? Or something like that?
Alina Warrick (9m 59s):
You know, it really depends. I hear, you know, from couple of years to 10 years, and sometimes people even give up, and then they go to Canada and live there, yeah, because Canada is a lot easier process. That’s why I wanted to see what the immigration process is like in Canada because America needs to follow their processes.
Amine Rahal (10m 17s):
Yeah, because it also depends if you got like invited from a company like, right? If you come in on a business type of —
Alina Warrick (10m 25s):
Invitation.
Amine Rahal (10m 26s):
Status or visa, right?
Alina Warrick (10m 27s):
Got it.
Amine Rahal (10m 29s):
Because right now, for example. Right now, from my company, I’m hiring someone that’s based in the UAE because I need someone that speaks Arabic, and that has experienced with that market, is we’re trying to expand to that market. And so because I sent them a business invitation to my company, I think the process is like six months or something now. From what they told me, they already did the interview at the embassy and the medical checkup. And all this stuff that took us years to do, it was done within six months, just because they have a business invitation. If you have a certain amount, you want to invest in real estate, like 100,000 or something. I mean, I’m not sure about the exact amount, but I think it’s way easier, also right? Because then you qualify for a different type of visa, cuz you’re like seen as an investor.
Amine Rahal (11m 9s):
And the amount is not that high. I know in the US, I think it’s much, much higher, maybe like half a million or a million. But I think in Canada is much lower than that.
Alina Warrick (11m 17s):
So, when you guys immigrated you guys all spoke French, right?
Amine Rahal (11m 21s):
Yeah, yeah.
Alina Warrick (11m 22s):
Okay. And then how did you pick up English? You don’t even have an accent.
Amine Rahal (11m 26s):
I mean, I do have a little bit of an accent, I think, but maybe hard to perceive because I lived in the US, I lived in China. And in China, you basically speak English, you learn Chinese on the side, but you speak English with other people. And yeah, I live in the US. And now I’m in Toronto. So my partner, my girlfriend is Anglophone. She doesn’t speak French. So yeah, all these factors basically, got the force you to pick it up real quick.
Alina Warrick (11m 51s):
Got it, yeah.
Amine Rahal (11m 51s):
No, but I mean, we.. you speak the basics, like, you know, even at 12, you kind of learn English at school as a second language. So I’d say that I was like, I spoke basic English, even as a teenager, and then at 18, 19, 20, that’s when I really started to really learn much faster and practice more often. Yeah. And then when you start traveling, then it’s game over. Yeah, you kind of have to learn fast, because that’s the international language, right?
Alina Warrick (12m 20s):
Yeah. Yeah, I hope so. I don’t know. So, Amine, before you tell our listeners about your company, tell me a little bit about the path you took. And I want to know if you tried to go into any other fields before starting your business?
Amine Rahal (12m 36s):
Yeah. So, the short answer is no, I never tried any other field because I knew at a very young age that I wanted to be involved in computer science.
Alina Warrick (12m 45s):
Wow.
Amine Rahal (12m 46s):
Yeah. I think at six years old. Because my mom was a computer science teacher.
Alina Warrick (12m 50s):
No way.
Amine Rahal (12m 51s):
In Nigeria. Yes. So we had a computer at home. I was six years old. Yeah, and it’s funny because when we came to Canada, a lot of kids didn’t have a computer, and I already had one back in North Africa. A lot didn’t believe it. They said, “Hey, how’s that even possible?” They thought like everyone there was just living, had a camel, and the whole place was a giant Sahara desert.
Alina Warrick (13m 12s):
Desert.
Amine Rahal (13m 13s):
Yeah. But I couldn’t be further from the truth. I mean, the city was very developed at the time. Yeah, a lot of people that worked in universities, they had access to all this technology. And so yeah, we had a computer at home. So I was playing video games at six years old. And yeah, that’s when I really fell in love with the field. And I knew at a very young age that I wanted to be involved in this field. I just didn’t know that I wanted to be an entrepreneur. I just knew I wanted to be working with computers. But entrepreneurship was not even on the radar. It was no entrepreneur around me. Well, I mean, they were, but, you know, they weren’t really successful. They were just kind of hustling and trying. But these people though that had like a comfortable life, they all had advanced university degrees.
Amine Rahal (13m 57s):
So that was the model that I had. Just like a lot of immigrants, we kind of think that going to universities is de facto path to success, right?
Alina Warrick (14m 6s):
Right.
Amine Rahal (14m 7s):
There’s no other option. Especially people my age that grew up in 80s and 90s. Today, it’s different, obviously. There’s so many examples of entrepreneurs, successful entrepreneurs out there, and they’re given a lot more coverage, and on TV, and radio, and media in general.
Alina Warrick (14m 23s):
So did you end up going to college?
Amine Rahal (14m 25s):
So I went but I only… I lasted for like a month. It wasn’t for me.
Alina Warrick (14m 31s):
Yeah, it’s not for everyone. No, you’re totally right.
Amine Rahal (14m 34s):
Yeah. So basically, I went to like a technical school and I got like a programming degree. Like I learned how to program, how to code. And that was more than enough for me, right? Those couple of years I spent in that technical school, I learned everything I needed to basically get a job.
Alina Warrick (14m 52s):
Oh, got it. So you went to like a community college or a technical college. And then, but you didn’t go to a university to get like a bachelor’s degree or a masters degree?
Amine Rahal (14m 60s):
No.
Alina Warrick (15m 0s):
Okay, got it. But you know what it seems like a software field, even back, well, I don’t know back then. But even nowadays, the software field, the IT field, they don’t really require a bachelor’s degree or a master’s degree. So I hear a lot about like these certifications, and experience.
Amine Rahal (15m 21s):
Yeah. You know…
Alina Warrick (15m 23s):
So, you’re totally right.
Amine Rahal (15m 24s):
It’s funny because now I hire programmers for my company occasionally. And when I look at their resume, really, the first thing that I look at is experience and portfolio. Like, I want to see what they produced, rather than any paper that they have from education. Like that’s the last thing I care about is education. Actually, you know, I hired about five programmers in the last few years, last five years, and the most skilled out of all those five programmers was a guy that only has a high school degree. So he learned everything on his own. And I hired him and he was even surprised. He said, “Hey, I never thought I’d be given a chance, I’d be given even an interview, given that I only have a high school degree.”
Amine Rahal (16m 5s):
But the thing is he produced a lot of web applications on his own for fun. And he showed me that in when he applied in the cover letter, and I thought that was fantastic. That shows passion, that shows dedication, that shows incredible skill to be able to code all these applications without going to school. So to me, it was a no brainer. Why would I hire someone that has a bachelor’s or master’s degree, but has absolutely nothing, that has done nothing in practice. It’s just all theory.
Alina Warrick (16m 33s):
Yeah.
Amine Rahal (16m 33s):
They never coded anything.
Alina Warrick (16m 35s):
Self-taught people are complete geniuses.
Amine Rahal (16m 37s):
Yeah. And in this field we have lot of them.
Alina Warrick (16m 40s):
Yeah, absolutely. Okay. So tell me a little bit about the path that you lived in New York, and then you lived in China. What was all that about? Did you just tell your parents one day, I’m going to move to New York City, and just hang out there for a little bit, and then you woke up one day and decided to go to China? What was that journey like?
Amine Rahal (16m 60s):
It’s funny, because there’s a lot of, I don’t know, I feel like, there’s a lot of faith in this whole thing. Like, there’s a lot of things that you don’t really control, like events that kind of happen, and lead you in specific directions. Because I never really planned for all of this to happen. So I had a good job. When I graduated from the technical college, I got a really good job from my age, I was in my early 20s, and I was working as a programmer for this big oil and gas company. And things were going really well. So I was programming, working on this application that was like a electronic library. Anyways, the whole experience was fantastic and I was really happy working there. And, you know, I have great relationship with my colleagues, my boss, and everyone. But one day, when I didn’t see this happen at all, I got fired.
Amine Rahal (17m 42s):
So it was like a new boss that came in that replaced my old boss. And this new lady didn’t really like the way things were. And she wanted to change a few things. And so yes, so she came to my office, and she called me to her office. And she presented me with that letter saying that, “Hey, starting today, you’re no longer an employee. And so you have to pack your bags and go.”
Alina Warrick (18m 2s):
Wow.
Amine Rahal (18m 3s):
So that day, in hindsight, that was the best day ever. Because if had I not gotten fired that day, I think I would still be at that company. I think I would still be working there because I had really no reason to do anything else. I was very comfortable. I have good salary. And all my colleagues back then are still there today. No one really left.
Alina Warrick (18m 26s):
Wow.
Amine Rahal (18m 26s):
So, that’s the danger of being an uncomfortable nine to five is that oftentimes, you really need like a major kick in the butt if you want your career path to change. So that’s why I said, it’s kind of fate because I really didn’t expect that to happen, and I didn’t really expect to move to New York, or China was not even remotely in the plan.
Alina Warrick (18m 50s):
Amine Rahal (18m 52s):
Exactly. So yeah, when that happened, I kind of got depressed for a bit. And I didn’t really want to do anything. And yeah, I think one day, my dad actually was the one that recommended that I tried to travel. He tried to get a job in another country. And I thought that was a great idea, but I just thought that I had no chance given that I didn’t really have an advanced college degree. I always thought that if you really want to get a job in another country, you kind of need like a solid resume. I only had like two years of experience in a technical degree, not degree, diploma. So I thought, “You know what, it’s a good idea. I’ll try, but I really don’t think it’s going to lead to much.” And so I basically start sending resumes to a bunch of places that I wanted to go to.
Amine Rahal (19m 36s):
So I sent resumes to places in Europe, Latin America, and in New York. I think in New York, in the US, New York was really the only place that I wanted to work in.
Alina Warrick (19m 47s):
Mm-hmm.
Amine Rahal (19m 47s):
Yeah, so I got a few calls and New York was one of them. And I did a few interviews, and you know, I ended up getting an offer to work in New York City. So it was for UNICEF, UN charity for children.
Alina Warrick (19m 59s):
And what did you do there? What was your job?
Amine Rahal (20m 1s):
So, it was to be a web developer. It was a logical continuation of what I was doing in Montreal. So, yeah, great experience and stayed there for a couple of years. But I think that was…
Alina Warrick (20m 14s):
That you hated it?
Amine Rahal (20m 15s):
Well, it’s not that I hated it, it’s just that I… It was a great experience, but I just realized that I wanted to start something on my own. I think that was the moment where, I don’t know, I caught the bug, the entrepreneurial bug, right? Like, I just felt like I was ready to start my own company. And I was developing —
Alina Warrick (20m 35s):
Amine Rahal (20m 51s):
Yes, so two reasons. So the first reason is, I already had kind of like a side hustle. I was already developing websites for other people and companies on the site on my free time, right?
Alina Warrick (21m 5s):
Got it. Okay.
Amine Rahal (21m 6s):
Evenings and weekends, so that people knew, “Hey, you need a website, go ask Amine.” You know, people in the family, friends, everyone, right? So I was already doing that and I could see that this could turn into a business at the time, right? You know, I just realized that I didn’t have enough time to take on all this business. And I was working way too much on weekends and evenings, sometimes doing these side projects, and I just could see that if I did this full-time, it would be a great business. And also, because in my day job, I just realized that I wasn’t really learning as much. It was mostly like I was working on old technology. You know, the thing is, the UN, just like any other government, it’s a little bit like you work on outdated software, like everything is slow there, right?
Alina Warrick (21m 52s):
Yeah.
Amine Rahal (21m 53s):
Like, anytime you want to do something, there’s multiple levels of approval.
Alina Warrick (21m 57s):
Yes.
Amine Rahal (21m 57s):
And it can take months or years to get done. So everything was slow. We were — you know, half of my week was just sitting in meetings, that I had nothing to do. Like, yeah, meetings that really didn’t concern me whatsoever. It’s obvious they just wanted an audience for whoever was speaking, so they would invite everyone on the floor, “Hey, there’s a meeting, come attend.” And they were mandatory. If you were to skip a meeting, you’d get shit from your boss. So I hated that part. I was like, “Why am I sitting at these meetings?” And then you go back to your cubicle, and you kind of do the same thing. You work on this old outdated software that everybody hates, and it’s full of bugs, but they have been planning to change it for years.
Amine Rahal (22m 39s):
And it’s still in planning stages. And there’s still many people that need to review it. And everything is just so slow and I just… To be honest, like, if I had kids, let’s say I had kids, and I was maybe in a certain age bracket where I really needed that job security, I think I would have stayed there, right?
Alina Warrick (22m 58s):
Mm-hmm.
Amine Rahal (22m 58s):
Because it was just too good of a job, in terms of job security and benefits, honestly, like, it’s the best in the world. Like when you work for the government or for the UN, it doesn’t get any better than that in terms of benefits, right?
Alina Warrick (23m 10s):
Mm-hmm.
Amine Rahal (23m 11s):
But given that I was in my 20s, it didn’t really matter to me to have all those benefits and because I didn’t have kids, I didn’t have family, I didn’t really have that many financial obligations. So I didn’t mind leaving all the security behind and then kind of taking the risk to be an entrepreneur.
Alina Warrick (23m 27s):
Got it. Got it. Yeah, no, it totally makes sense. Thank you so much for sharing that. And okay, and so what led you to China?
Amine Rahal (23m 34s):
Yeah. So after New York, my girlfriend at the time she had planned, or she was planning to teach English in Asia, right? She had always wanted to have that experience. A lot of our friends had done it. And so it was something she wanted to do. And I love traveling. So for me it was, I have nothing planned. I just left this job and I can work remotely on these side projects that I have.
Alina Warrick (24m 0s):
Oh, but you quit UN?
Amine Rahal (24m 2s):
Exactly, yeah.
Alina Warrick (24m 3s):
Okay, got it.
Amine Rahal (24m 4s):
Yeah, I quit. Yeah, this wasn’t part of the job to travel to China. I was like quit my day job, and then I went with her. So she applied to a bunch of jobs in Asia, and she got an offer in China, and so I went with her. And I ended up finding a job as well, myself there. But I only lasted for a few months. I didn’t really like the job there. And so I would say that in China is where I officially became a full-time entrepreneur.
Alina Warrick (24m 29s):
So you keep your web designing business, your side hustle to full-time in China?
Amine Rahal (24m 34s):
Exactly, in China, yeah.
Alina Warrick (24m 36s):
Oh, okay. Okay. Awesome.
Amine Rahal (24m 38s):
And so how old were you when you did that full-time in China?
Alina Warrick (24m 41s):
27. Yeah, 27 years old.
Amine Rahal (24m 44s):
So then how long did you guys last in China and what was next for you? Yeah, we sit for about a year and three months.
Alina Warrick (24m 51s):
Okay.
Amine Rahal (24m 51s):
Well, it was mostly my girlfriend that wanted to come back to North America. I could have stayed a little bit longer because I wanted to travel a little bit more on around Asia. But she wanted to come back because she wanted to go back to university. So we went back to New York, stayed in New York for a bit and then we went back to Canada. Yeah, that’s what happened.
Alina Warrick (25m 11s):
So is IronMonk Solutions of what you started doing full-time in China?
Amine Rahal (25m 17s):
Exactly, yeah.
Alina Warrick (25m 18s):
Got it, okay. Okay. So you’ve been doing this ever since?
Amine Rahal (25m 22s):
Pretty much. Yeah.
Alina Warrick (25m 24s):
Got it. Got it. Okay, so tell us a little bit more about your company. What you guys do? What you guys focus on?
Amine Rahal (25m 29s):
Yeah. So when we started… Well, when I started because it was a solo game at the time. It was really just designing websites. That’s what I was doing. It was just, you know, mostly simple websites for small businesses or self-employed entrepreneurs. My first ever job was for a photographer. Like when I say first meaning a job that’s not a friend or a family member, or someone that came through my direct network. Yeah, so it was like simple websites, mostly front end, HTML, CSS, that kind of stuff. And over the years, I added, I started adding a little bit more services around web design. So like web marketing, search engine optimization, search engine marketing, social media, conversion optimization.
Amine Rahal (26m 14s):
Basically, everything you’d expect from a digital marketing company.
Alina Warrick (26m 18s):
And how did you grow into that? Did you start picking up books and learning stuff on your own and said, “This is the next thing. And I got to help everyone out from a web designing to, you know, like a one-stop shop digital marketing?
Amine Rahal (26m 32s):
Yeah. So in the beginning, it was just, I was just learning everything on my own because I needed to market my own company, right? I needed to learn how to use Google ads, how to optimize my own website for search results, how to start up my own social media presence, how to do email marketing, write newsletters, all that stuff, I was learning it on my own, because I didn’t really have any other choice. I was in China at the time. So I didn’t really have access to anything. It’s not like I could go to a school to learn it. Like I wasn’t even in a big city, I was in a small city. I wasn’t in Shanghai or Beijing, where you could probably find English schools if you want to learn something.
Amine Rahal (27m 13s):
You know, I was in a small town. So I had to learn everything online.
Alina Warrick (27m 18s):
How did you learn online? Did you do online courses? Or just watched what people did? How did you do that?
Amine Rahal (27m 24s):
So it’s just reading articles, being part of online forums, following the leaders in the space. You know, that’s the most beautiful part of the internet. You know, you can find the most successful people in any space that you’re involved in. And you can just follow them and read their material, read their content. To me, that’s the best way to learn. So that’s what I was doing at the time. I knew who were the top people in my field. And I was following them. I was attending whatever online conferences or talks that they were involved with. And yeah, reading their blog posts, and also learning from just trying everything myself, and that’s something that I’m a big fan of, is just getting your hands dirty, right?
Amine Rahal (28m 7s):
You know, you read about something, just try it with a live website. You have nothing to lose. If you fail, you learn something when you fail, right?
Alina Warrick (28m 16s):
Mm-hmm.
Amine Rahal (28m 17s):
Yeah, I was just trying a bunch of different things with my own site, my own websites. And yeah, eventually, I developed enough of a skill set, enough knowledge to be able to offer these services to other clients that I wanted to achieve the same thing. And a lot of clients would call the company and say, “Hey, I found you on Google on the first page. So can you help me get on the first page as well?” They basically, yeah, the thing sells itself. Like if you’re already doing it for yourself, then you know how to do it, right?
Alina Warrick (28m 46s):
So, and then, did you market yourself using a Facebook ads, Google ads in the beginning stages? Or people kind of just found you and started asking you for help?
Amine Rahal (28m 57s):
That’s exactly what I did. I started marketing my own website to all these different channels, social media, Google. And one thing that I did that was a game changer and I recommend every entrepreneur do it when they start is working for free to build a portfolio and to get some reviews and testimonials. That’s literally the most important thing you can do when you start because no one trusts you if you don’t have anything to show, right? So I basically built about 10 websites, and help 10 different companies with their online marketing for free, or for very little money. Basically, just a basic to cover my own costs, just to get the testimonial from them. And, you know, to be able to show any prospect, “Hey, look, these guys are happy customers.
Amine Rahal (29m 41s):
Look what I’ve done for them.”
Alina Warrick (29m 43s):
Then no one knows if they paid you or not, right?
Amine Rahal (29m 45s):
Yeah, yeah, exactly.
Alina Warrick (29m 47s):
That’s awesome.
Amine Rahal (29m 48s):
Nobody knows, yeah.
Alina Warrick (29m 50s):
And so how did you generate the revenue when you were taking these free clients? Did you have something on the side that kept on trying like monthly revenue?
Amine Rahal (29m 59s):
Yeah, so it’s money saved to my other jobs, right? And the beauty but being in China is that the cost of living is very low.
Alina Warrick (30m 6s):
Yeah.
Amine Rahal (30m 6s):
So whatever. And that’s something that honestly, I tell people, if you’re on a really low budget, and you can do your work online, like 100% online, like you could be an accountant, you could be a coach, whatever you are, there’s a lot of jobs that you just could do just online, right? You don’t need an office. Like I say, move to a country where the cost of living is much lower, because like right there, and then you’re going to be able to spend a lot more invest, like invest a lot more in your business. And a lot of them are doing it right now. There’s the whole movement of digital nomads. A lot of people moving to Indonesia, to Mexico, to Portugal, to all these places where the cost of living is way cheaper than the US, or Canada, or the UK, and you can do your job remotely, and your rent is 10 times lower.
Amine Rahal (30m 51s):
So yeah, we’re in China, our rent was $250 a month.
Alina Warrick (30m 54s):
Wow.
Amine Rahal (30m 55s):
Yeah, for like a beautiful apartment right by the lake, and one of the most beautiful parts of town, it was like a postcard. You look out of our window, and it’s literally a postcard, and $250 a month.
Alina Warrick (31m 6s):
Wow.
Amine Rahal (31m 7s):
You don’t need much money to live for it to cover your basics in those countries. So I saved a little bit of money, not even that much from my job in New York. And I was able to live for a long time just with those savings.
Alina Warrick (31m 19s):
That’s amazing. And so thank you so much for sharing that powerful tool.
Amine Rahal (31m 23s):
Mm-hmm, yeah.
Alina Warrick (31m 24s):
I love it. Amine, who are your major clients right now? These small businesses, medium sized businesses? Who do you guys normally serve?
Amine Rahal (31m 35s):
It’s small and medium. So it used to be just small businesses for like under a million dollar in revenue.
Alina Warrick (31m 41s):
Okay.
Amine Rahal (31m 41s):
But now we have a lot more medium size that are between 1 and 5 million in revenue. But yeah, no big corporation governments, anything think like that. Those are whole different markets that we don’t really specialize in.
Alina Warrick (31m 54s):
Yeah, yeah. Awesome. Okay, great. And so I do want to switch gears a little bit, and we’ll come back to IronMonk Solutions. I want to talk about your book, Immigrant Hustle.
Amine Rahal (32m 5s):
Yeah.
Alina Warrick (32m 6s):
Let’s talk a little bit about that. And what made you decide to write a book that outlines the amazing immigrant entrepreneurs journeys?
Amine Rahal (32m 14s):
Yeah, so there’s several reasons. I say the number one reason is that I wanted the book that was for the 18-year-old me that I wish I had at the time. So basically, my parents really didn’t like the idea that I didn’t want to go to college, right? And I was working at this company. And even though I had a job, I was a programmer, I was in my early 20s, my parents were still kind of gently pushing me to kind of go to university and get a bachelor’s, and maybe a master’s, and something like that. So they still felt, like even though I had that job, they felt like I’d be limited in terms of what I could achieve, in terms of like being promoted.
Amine Rahal (32m 54s):
You know, they kept saying, if you want to become like, upper management at that company, whatever, you do need to have university degree. And they kind of were right, because when I was looking at all the managers and VPs, and stuff, they all had at least a bachelor’s. But that wasn’t really what I wanted to… I wasn’t aiming for that. So I think at that time, I was already thinking that I could potentially open my business once I have enough experience. As I said, even back then I was still doing these little side hustles, doing these little websites on the side. Yeah. So I wish I had that book to see that, “Hey, look at all these people that were able to create a successful, comfortable life for themselves by pursuing entrepreneurship and pursuing their passion.
Amine Rahal (33m 38s):
So that was the first reason, it really was like a selfish book that I wish I had, so I can show my parents. “Look, here’s the reason why I don’t need to go to college, that all these people, most of them don’t have a college degree.”
Alina Warrick (33m 49s):
Right. Did your parents see the book?
Amine Rahal (33m 50s):
Well, so my dad has passed away. So, unfortunately.
Alina Warrick (33m 53s):
Oh, I’m sorry.
Amine Rahal (33m 54s):
Yeah, I wish he had a chance to look at it. But yeah, my mom loves it. She loves the concept. And she now totally understands it, and totally sees that it’s definitely like, not just an alternative, it’s actually oftentimes a better path for a lot of people, especially those that know exactly what they want to do, and that can learn without going to college. Because what’s the point of getting like six figure debt going to college, when you can learn stuff today with all these millions of websites that offer classes or even on YouTube, it’s free, right?
Alina Warrick (34m 25s):
Right.
Amine Rahal (34m 25s):
Do you want to learn coding, it’s right there. Anyways, so that was the first reason for making the book. The second reason is that, so when I moved to New York, you know, I was meeting a lot of immigrants, especially when you take taxi’s in New York, you get to meet a lot of these cab drivers that basically ended up driving the cab because they couldn’t find a job that matched whatever qualifications they had in their home country. Right?
Alina Warrick (34m 48s):
Mm-hmm.
Amine Rahal (34m 49s):
And oftentimes, you talked to them, they say, “I’ve been applying to tons of job offers and never got called back. I was an engineer, or a doctor, or a lawyer in my home country. In here, I can’t even get like a paralegal, or legal assistant job.” So oftentimes I would ask them, like, “What about just working for yourself? What about just being an entrepreneur? You could be your own lawyer, you could be your own engineer, you know, create your own products, whatever.” And I just, a lot of them would respond saying, “Well, I don’t have a business degree, or I don’t have connections, or I don’t have the money.” Like all these reasons that to me, don’t really make any sense because you don’t really need any of that.
Amine Rahal (35m 30s):
But to them, these were valid reasons for not starting a business, not because they didn’t want to, but because they thought it was so complicated, because you need all these things. So it’s funny, because it’s true that in a lot of second and third world countries, you do need connections, right? Even in China, like, it’s funny when I lived there, they had this concept called the “Guanxi” to Chinese word, and it basically means, how well connected you are. So and they say, like someone that doesn’t have “guanxi” has no chance to really do anything substantial. And that’s how it is in a lot of countries in the world, but it’s not like that in North America or Europe, right?
Alina Warrick (36m 9s):
Yeah.
Amine Rahal (36m 10s):
Anybody can start a business, if you have a good quality product or service, you’re gonna sell. You’ll have the chance to be successful, no one’s gonna stop you.
Alina Warrick (36m 19s):
Okay, so talking about your book, you have absolutely amazing stories in there. And you’re totally right, because there is no clear path to any entrepreneur and to any immigrant to starting their business. You’re totally right, you do not need a college degree, unless you’re in like the medical field or some kind of lawyer, attorney field that you will for sure need some sort of license or a JD diploma.
Amine Rahal (36m 49s):
Exactly, yeah.
Alina Warrick (36m 49s):
But more often than not, and I don’t want to discount education, but more often than not, people really don’t need a college education to start their businesses. And like you mentioned, your top employee only has a high school diploma. And that’s because he came energetic, he came determined, he came to learn and grab everything to be successful in that particular position. So I want to know, I think from what I heard and read, you had over 500 people that submitted their stories to be in your book. How did you choose the 50, out of the 500, or 500, or something that you collected?
Amine Rahal (37m 33s):
Well, to be honest, it was mostly the ones that were the quickest of getting back to me. You know, I was sending — like, so I had my assistant, Sarah, follow up with a lot of these entrepreneurs to set up times to talk, or to answer some questions. And a lot of them will take a long time to get back to us, weeks or months sometimes. So we, for the 50, I really needed 50 entrepreneurs that are going to be able to communicate with me on a regular basis, so that the book can be actually completed in a reasonable amount of time. And even though they were super responsive, it still took two years to get this book done.
Alina Warrick (38m 12s):
No way.
Amine Rahal (38m 13s):
Yeah. It took two years, because there’s just a lot of back and forth for each story. A lot of back and forth a lot of details missing. And then you hire an editor. And then the editor goes over the stories and say, “Hey, they’re talking about this, but then they introduce this event, but there’s no logical connection between these two events.” So they asked for additional feedback or additional details from each entrepreneur. So then you have to email them back and ask them all these additional questions. And then some of them you get on the phone with them. Some of them, they reply to you with the right answers. And yeah, there’s a lot of back and forth. And same with the publisher, when you send everything to the publisher it takes a while, then they get back to you with some issues, then you have to fix those issues, get back to them.
Amine Rahal (38m 54s):
And then, the whole process is not easy. I thought it would be easy given that the content would be provided by each immigrant. But I feel like it was harder than actually writing the whole book on your own because you depend on each person to give you the answers.
Alina Warrick (39m 8s):
Wow.
Amine Rahal (39m 8s):
They know their story, you don’t know their story. You know, if I had written a book of 290 pages about me, I only have myself, if anything is missing, if the publisher emails me and says, “Hey, I need this.” I’ll reply right back, “Here’s what you need.” But when you have 50 people, and some of them might take a longer time than others to get back to you, you kind of have to wait for all of them to send you all the information, and then you send it all to the publisher. So I’d say that that was the main criteria because out of all the immigrants that I interviewed, and a lot of them, you know, as you said, you found them on medium or thrive global. They all have interesting stories for the most part. Yeah, I feel like it just came down to 50 people that were willing to be part of this book project and willing to give me any information that I needed, and willing to be responsive.
Amine Rahal (39m 55s):
And yeah, so that’s what it came down to be honest. It’s not like I chose them based on who I — I like to personally.
Alina Warrick (40m 1s):
Yeah.
Amine Rahal (40m 2s):
You really just I need it, what I love about this, Alina, is that somehow I ended up with 50 very diverse stories coming from all continents, and 50% men, 50% women. And I swear to God, Alina, I didn’t really plan for this to be this way.
Alina Warrick (40m 19s):
Wow.
Amine Rahal (40m 19s):
I kind of, at the end of the book, I was looking at this. So I was like, “Oh, let me see, like how many men do I have? How many women? How many people from Africa do I have? How many people from South America?” And it just was like so well balanced, but magically. So I was like, I couldn’t believe it. I was like this is amazing.” Because it was I really didn’t planned for it.
Alina Warrick (40m 36s):
Amazing. It was meant to be.
Amine Rahal (40m 37s):
Yeah, yeah.
Alina Warrick (40m 37s):
Yeah, it was meant to be. Wow, amazing. So is this the very first book that you wrote?
Amine Rahal (40m 40s):
Yeah, yeah, very first.
Alina Warrick (40m 41s):
Okay. Any more books coming in the future?
Amine Rahal (40m 43s):
Well, you know, depending on the success of this one, I’d say. Because obviously, I spent a lot of money on it. And I don’t expect that I’d be making it back, or if I do, that’d be great. But it’s really just, it was mostly to get the message out there.
Alina Warrick (40m 58s):
Yeah.
Amine Rahal (40m 58s):
But I’ll see, if results are good over the next few months, and years, if I see that people are still interested in the book, then I have other angles of entrepreneurship that I’d like to cover. For example, an angle that I really like is older people. So people are above 60, that start of business. Because a lot of them, you know, especially in my family when I talk to my mom, whatever. Like, it’s out of the question, like I’m too old for this, right?
Alina Warrick (41m 23s):
Right.
Amine Rahal (41m 23s):
But oftentimes, like meet these entrepreneurs, and they tell you that they started their business after 60. So I feel like that could make an interesting book.
Alina Warrick (41m 32s):
Yeah.
Amine Rahal (41m 33s):
And then by the way, I’m saying it on your podcast, because I don’t even care if someone takes the idea and does it. I just… be done, you know.
Alina Warrick (41m 39s):
Yeah. So yeah, I totally love your book. And I’ve talked about it so many times on my show. So I will link it again in the show notes after our show. So people can grab a hold of it.
Amine Rahal (41m 50s):
Amazing, thank you.
Alina Warrick (41m 50s):
And share with all their immigrant friends and family members.
Amine Rahal (41m 55s):
Yeah, yeah. It’s super important for a country like the US or Canada, or any other developed country to be able to attract talented people, or even just like motivated people, passionate people. You know, they don’t have to be, even if they aren’t talented in their home country, but they want, deep they badly want to immigrate because they want more opportunity for them and for their children. To me that’s, I feel like in the future, there’s going to be a war on talent, because you have all these countries that need manpower. You know, China is going to be big country, and I think they’re going to be needing a lot of skilled people in the future.
Amine Rahal (42m 35s):
So now you get the US, you got Canada, you get the UK, Australia, all these countries are going to need skilled people. Yeah, I feel like the country that’s going to make it the easiest and it’s going to give them more opportunities. And by the way, the US is still leading in this space, even though obviously a lot of people move to Canada, Europe, Australia. Entrepreneurs are still more interested in the US because they know that they can make it bigger in the US than any other country. Right? So I feel like the US has that advantage, but they must be careful not to lose it.
Alina Warrick (43m 5s):
Right.
Amine Rahal (43m 5s):
China or any other country. You know, you look at Elon Musk, he was in South Africa.
Alina Warrick (43m 9s):
Yeah.
Amine Rahal (43m 10s):
Then he moved to Canada. He studied in Canada, but then he moved to the US because he wanted Silicon Valley, right?
Alina Warrick (43m 16s):
Yeah.
Amine Rahal (43m 16s):
There’s only one Silicon Valley, there’s not two of them, there’s one. There’s only one Hollywood when someone wants to be an actor they move to Hollywood, right? There is only one. Like the musical industry, look at the biggest Canadian artists like Justin Bieber, or Drake, they go to the US. Like people from the UK or Australia, the most ambitious people tend to move to the US, and that’s a major advantage that the US has. If they lose it, I feel like it’d be like a horrible thing for the country.
Alina Warrick (43m 42s):
Yeah, no, you’re totally right. Thank you so much for writing this book.
Amine Rahal (43m 45s):
No problem.
Alina Warrick (43m 46s):
Okay, so let’s go back to IronMonk Solutions. I want to know, did you have any mentors that helped you out to start your business?
Amine Rahal (43m 54s):
Mentors? No, actually, no. No, and I feel like that was a mistake on… I feel like that was my mistake. I should have seeked mentors. I feel like that helps you grow tremendously. So I would encourage anyone that gets started to seek out a mentor in the beginning. It would take you way less time to succeed, and then it took me.
Alina Warrick (44m 16s):
Yeah. And what about networking? Do you do any like entrepreneur networking organizations? Are you plugged in anywhere right now?
Amine Rahal (44m 24s):
So now I am. But then again, that’s also something I should have done in year one that I didn’t do. But now I am a part of Forbes Communication Council, and YEC, which is Young Entrepreneur Council.
Alina Warrick (44m 36s):
Okay.
Amine Rahal (44m 37s):
And also like the various other groups that I met online, or through meetup, or through like online forums. So now I network a lot more than I did in the beginning. In the beginning, I just believed that I could do everything on my own. I didn’t believe that I needed anybody. And that was a mistake in a sense that it everything was so much more complicated, and everything took longer, and I made a lot of mistakes, and I could have avoided if I networked with the right people, yeah.
Alina Warrick (45m 4s):
Yeah. Awesome. So networking and finding mentors is crucial in an entrepreneurial career, right?
Amine Rahal (45m 11s):
Yeah. And there’s also about organization. I think it’s called entrepreneur… EO, Entrepreneur of…
Alina Warrick (45m 15s):
Yes.
Amine Rahal (45m 15s):
What is it stands for?
Alina Warrick (45m 15s):
Yeah. It’s Entrepreneur Organization, I believe.
Amine Rahal (45m 20s):
Oh, okay, yeah.
Alina Warrick (45m 22s):
Yeah, I know, and I believe it’s like a $1000 or $1500 to get in.
Amine Rahal (45m 26s):
I don’t know about the cost, because I just learned about it recently, that’s the funny thing.
Alina Warrick (45m 30s):
Oh, yeah.
Amine Rahal (45m 32s):
When doing this book, I really like… because we were part of a WhatsApp group with all the immigrants of the book, right?
Alina Warrick (45m 37s):
Yeah.
Amine Rahal (45m 38s):
A lot of them started talking about this organization and they would refer to it as E-O. So they would say, “Hey, I’m part of EO Texas. I’m part of EO Seattle. I’m part of the… And I was like, “What’s EO, guys?” And like that’s when I learned about it. I didn’t even know about it. Because like yeah, like I said, I’m part of other ones. But this one seems to be quite popular.
Alina Warrick (45m 55s):
Yes. Yeah. So I’m on their website right now. A member dues, global dues are currently at 24, 70. So $2,470.
Amine Rahal (46m 5s):
Okay.
Alina Warrick (46m 5s):
So it is kind of pricey. But if you do.
Amine Rahal (46m 7s):
Yeah, it is pricey, yeah.
Alina Warrick (46m 8s):
It might be a business expense, if you’re making good money up there, right?
Amine Rahal (46m 12s):
Yeah. Forbes. Forbes Communication Council is cheaper, actually, I think it’s like $1500.
Alina Warrick (46m 18s):
Got it.
Amine Rahal (46m 19s):
And they allow you to post content on forbes.com, which is amazing to market your business.
Alina Warrick (46m 23s):
Oh, okay.
Amine Rahal (46m 25s):
So, to me, I would spend the money there before I’d spend it on Entrepreneur Organization. But then again, I don’t know what EO offers. Maybe they do offer a lot of stuff that Forbes doesn’t.
Alina Warrick (46m 36s):
Mm-hmm. Got it. Yeah, okay. So moving along. Amine, how do you stay productive throughout the days to ensure that all business things are getting taken care of?
Amine Rahal (46m 45s):
How do I stay productive?
Alina Warrick (46m 47s):
Yes, do you have like a to-do-list, or goal list, monthly quarterly goals?
Amine Rahal (46m 54s):
So we do have a lot of tools that we use at work to keep track of all the projects. So I know, like, the status of each project we’re working on. One of my favorite tools is called Teamwork, teamwork.com.
Alina Warrick (47m 5s):
Okay.
Amine Rahal (47m 6s):
And it just allows you to create projects and assign different people to the project. And even the client can log in, and post messages, and upload files and stuff. So yeah, we have these tools. So that helps us stay productive. You know, it’s also about us. You know, we’re human beings, right. So we have to be in tune with our mind and body, and know when we’re in a productive phase, and when we aren’t. So, like for me, like for example, sometimes early morning, I feel really productive, and I get a lot of work done, but then that production window kind of dies gradually, as we get closer to lunchtime. So then what I do is I just forget about work, I do something else, whether it’s working out, whether it’s going for a walk, whether they’re like just watching a program, like something on Netflix that I like, like a TV show, or watching a documentary, or watching a sports game.
Amine Rahal (48m 1s):
I do something else that doesn’t have anything to do with work. And working out is a big one, by the way. And you look at, if you look at the book, all of these entrepreneurs work out one way or another, whether it’s yoga, whether it’s jogging, running, walking, whatever. They all do something because you can’t just be working all day and expect your brain to be sharp nonstop for eight hours, that’s just not possible. And by the way, even when you’re doing nine to five, you’re not productive from nine to five, right?
Alina Warrick (48m 25s):
Yeah.
Amine Rahal (48m 25s):
No one ever is, right?
Alina Warrick (48m 27s):
No.
Amine Rahal (48m 28s):
You gonna be wasting a lot of time on social media. You’re going to be chatting with your colleagues, you’re gonna be on the phone, you’re gonna be —
Alina Warrick (48m 33s):
Coffee breaks.
Amine Rahal (48m 34s):
Coffee breaks, cigarette breaks, whatever, right?
Alina Warrick (48m 37s):
Yeah.
Amine Rahal (48m 37s):
So you know, you might be productive for like, three hours. Right?
Alina Warrick (48m 40s):
Hopefully not.
Amine Rahal (48m 44s):
Yeah, well, you know, what, it’s not about how many hours it’s really just like, how much quality work you can deliver in that timeframe.
Alina Warrick (49m 21s):
Right.
Amine Rahal (49m 21s):
You know, I feel like sometimes in 15 minutes, I product… I miss… like those 15 minutes, like, made my whole week, you know like I… they made the whole week worth it. Right? Like they… Even if I did nothing for the rest of the week. Those 15 minutes, I wrote a fantastic email that’s, you know, got me some, like the ROI of writing that email is like substantial, right?
Alina Warrick (49m 21s):
Yeah.
Amine Rahal (49m 21s):
Or writing an article just in that in an hour in the morning, right? You write an article that ends up getting you so much coverage, or so many clients are. So it’s not about how many hours I find, it’s really just how efficient you are during that time, but you’re working.
Alina Warrick (49m 25s):
Got it. Got it. So are there any top marketing tips, or maybe one that you can share for new business that just came into the market?
Amine Rahal (49m 35s):
Well, the number one really is to build yourself a portfolio of happy clients. You know, whether you sell a product or service, you just have to have positive testimonials. If you want to get a paid client to actually pay you, right, to trust you.
Alina Warrick (49m 50s):
It’s not having 1000s of followers on social media?
Amine Rahal (49m 54s):
No, not really. Because those guys are not gonna pay you a trust. You know, they might be fans because there’s something to get out of it.
Alina Warrick (50m 2s):
Yeah.
Amine Rahal (50m 3s):
But, you know, they’re not fans necessarily because they want to buy your product or service. Social media is, you know, it’s more like an ego thing to be able to say like your company has this many followers, with this many fans, with this many subscribers, but at the end of the day, it doesn’t really translate to revenue that well. I’ve seen companies with 100,000 followers that make less money or they have less clients, less revenue than companies whose 150 followers. So it really doesn’t mean much, you know. It’s important still, because you still want to be able to communicate. And when you post something, you want to be able to reach as many people as possible. But as far as getting business goals, I wouldn’t really worry about it at all.
Alina Warrick (50m 44s):
Amazing. Yeah. And in the world that we live in, it seems like a lot of people are pushing social media. So that’s really good to know, and good to hear.
Amine Rahal (50m 52s):
But then again, it depends on your line of business, maybe, you know, certain types of business.
Alina Warrick (50m 56s):
Yeah.
Amine Rahal (50m 57s):
Businesses might benefit more than others, in terms of having a lot of fans and followers. So I don’t know.
Alina Warrick (51m 4s):
Got it.
Amine Rahal (51m 4s):
But my experience, most businesses, most traditional businesses don’t really need as many fans or followers as the thing they do. Right?
Alina Warrick (51m 13s):
Yeah, that’s really good to know. Thank you. And how do you reinvest in yourself to keep up to date with your market?
Amine Rahal (51m 20s):
Well, I mean, you read a lot of, like I said, you know, who are the leading companies and organizations in your field are. You just have to follow them and keep up with the content that they’re posting. To me, that’s the number one way. Because if they’re successful, if they’re leaders, they’re there for a reason. So you don’t reinvent the wheel, you just have to learn from the ones that are very successful at it. So to me, that’s the number one way. I just keep, I follow all the top people on Twitter. In my field, I follow like, you know, like, Google, for example, when they post updates their search engine, I’m like, I follow them everywhere. Like on Twitter, I follow them on their blog and stuff. So anyone, anytime there’s an update. I know about it. Yeah, I follow the most successful owners and CEOs of the top companies in the space.
Amine Rahal (52m 3s):
I read articles, whether it’s on Forbes or any other popular network. So yeah, a lot of reading. But it’s not like I go to, I don’t go to school. It’s not like I’m buying, you know, I’m signing up for classes. I think I don’t do that at all. But I’m not saying it’s not, it cannot be useful. It’s just for me, I find like there’s so much information available online. It’s just about knowing who to follow, and doing it on a consistent, you know, being consistent with it, right? Doing it every day, or at least once a week.
Alina Warrick (52m 35s):
And it seems so simple, right. But I think it’s overlooked in so many different ways where people think that they need to pay thousands of dollars for a program, or thousands of dollars for you know, to relearn something. We’re like, you’re saying you just you don’t have to reinvent the wheel, if someone is doing it and doing it successfully, just follow what they’re doing in, and follow that path, and maybe tweak it in, in one way or another to make it work for you. But it just sounds so simple, but a lot of people overlook that. So thank you so much for sharing that, yeah.
Amine Rahal (53m 10s):
Yeah, and to me, like when you’re passionate about it, it comes naturally, right? You want to learn more about it, you want to see what’s latest developments. If you find it hard, if you’re an entrepreneur, and you’re finding it hard to keep up with the trends or feels like pulling teeth to you. You know, and to read about a new developments in your industry. To me, maybe that’s a sign that you don’t really like it that much. Because if it’s something you really enjoy, then it should come naturally. It shouldn’t be like, feel forced, “Oh, I gotta read about this new tool that came up, that can help me in my business.” Like it should be natural.
Alina Warrick (53m 44s):
Yeah.
Amine Rahal (53m 45s):
You know, so to me it never really, it’s not like when you’re at school, when you have to take these classes, and you don’t really like them, but you have no choice.
Alina Warrick (53m 53s):
Yeah.
Amine Rahal (53m 54s):
Yeah.
Alina Warrick (53m 55s):
What are some things you would advise the next aspiring immigrant that wants to start their own business?
Amine Rahal (54m 2s):
I talked about it in the book a little bit of the at the end, but you kind of have to know. Like, so if you’re really passionate about something, you also have to know to figure out whether or not you can be competitive at it. So you know, an example is if you’re passionate about basketball, but if you are five foot three, then the odds are very low that you’re going to make it to the big leagues, right? So you kind of have to know and this is like a concept called the hedgehog principle I think, from a Stanford professor that came up with it. His name is I think Robert blank. Robert, something. Anyways, he came up with this concept that there’s like three circles. One is something you’re passionate about. One is something that drives your economic engine.
Amine Rahal (54m 45s):
And one is something you can be really good at. You can be competitive at, right? So you can have to find an idea. Like new idea has to ideally fall within these three circles. So it has to be something that you’re good at, it has to be something that’s economically. Like you have to know your economics, you have to know like what’s the cost, like you have to know all the data of your competition, what’s going to be the cost to get a client, what kind of profit you can make per sale, right?
Alina Warrick (55m 11s):
Mm-hmm.
Amine Rahal (55m 11s):
And it has to be obviously, something you can be good at. So going back to that example, if you want to play in the NBA, you kind of need certain things to be able to compete, so you might not feel fall within that circle, you might have two out of three, right? If you’re super passionate about it, and you’re in a city where it’s sport is number one sport and everyone is passionate about it. But then if you lack that thing that everybody else has in the top leagues, then you’re kind of at a disadvantage right there. So you have to be realistic, also. Yes, so to me, like if you’re an immigrant, and you do have something you’re really passionate about, and you’re skilled at it. And it is in demand, and you know your numbers, you know how much profit you can make for your sales, you know which competitors you’re going against, you’ll be basically able to create a business plan and sell your idea, then to me it’s a no brainer.
Amine Rahal (55m 57s):
You should definitely do it. You really have not, you don’t have much to lose. You don’t have to like follow the traditional path because your parents are pushing you direct. You know, your peers are saying you have to university, you have to get going in these fields. You don’t have to do that. That’s not true. You’re in a country like the US, you can you can do anything. It’s really easy to open your business. And by the way, in the book, you’ll see that a lot of these entrepreneurs, they started with nothing. No upfront capital, no education, no connections, but you got resources available. And one of the entrepreneurs, she’s from Afghanistan. I don’t know if you’ve read her story, Eva, Eva Hanafi.
Alina Warrick (56m 34s):
No not yet.
Amine Rahal (56m 34s):
She talks about, how she got upfront capital from a bank. And she had nothing, right. No education, whatsoever. Well, she had education I think back home, or perhaps she had education from Germany as well, because she had spent some time in Germany. But anyways, the point is, she didn’t have any upfront capital, she didn’t have any business degree, anything like that. And she was still able to get a substantial amount of capital, I think even a grant to start a business. And a lot of them fall in that category as well. They were able to get some money without going to investors, just from traditional financial firms. Yeah, you got the resources. So why not give it a try, right? What’s the worst that’s gonna happen?
Alina Warrick (57m 12s):
Yeah. Exactly. So much powerful advice. Oh, my goodness. Yes. Thank you so much. Amine, thank you so much for coming on the Immigrant Entrepreneurs Podcast, we really appreciate your time and such valuable advice. And your journey is going to inspire so many immigrants I know. And I hope to hear more future books in your path, and hope to see more good things out of your businesses, and wishing you all the best of luck. So thank you so much.
Amine Rahal (57m 40s):
Thank you, Alina. Thanks a lot for the invitation. Thanks for your time. And yeah.
Alina Warrick (57m 45s):
Awesome. We’ll connect again in the future, I’m sure. Alrighty, guys, thank you so much for tuning in. If there are any links that were mentioned in this episode, make sure to check them out on my website under this episode to find all the links conveniently located in the show notes. I just wanted to ask for a quick favor, if you could please leave a review wherever you’re at listening to this podcast. Also, if you’re an immigrant entrepreneur and would love to be on my podcast, please email me and we’ll get connected. I’ll see you guys all next time for another exciting and impactful episode. Take care.
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