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Training enables entrepreneurs to produce, market prototypes, learn from failure

By Suzanna Goussous - Mar 18,2015 - Last updated at Mar 18,2015

AMMAN — It typically takes about six months to start a new business, but when its products are finally in the market, demand is too low, according to a local entrepreneur. 

“So [entrepreneurs] basically waste their time, money and effort to realise it’s for nothing,” said Ashraf Samhouri.

In a bid to avert this result, Samhouri was involved in organising a three-day workshop for 80 entrepreneurs over the weekend to find solutions to problems in the market and learn more about business and marketing techniques.

“This workshop aims to be more flexible; instead of waiting for six months, we build a prototype... try it in the market and work on fixing it and making it more efficient,” he said. “When you fail, you learn, when you fail harder you work harder.”

The Lean Start-up Machine event included six workshops, four motivational speakers, and “getting out of the building” activities, Samhouri told The Jordan Times.

Co-founder and CEO of Jobedu Tamer Al Masri said the workshop is about how participants apply their ideas.

“There are 65 potential jobs from this workshop. If more workshops like this were organised every weekend, we will ensure that 8,000 job opportunities are generated a year,” Masri added.

Rania Bader and Anas Hamdan, who participated in the workshop, said their product is an online shop that buys and sells second-hand dresses at “cheap prices”.

“Finding the perfect dress for a good price is always a problem, which is why we are creating a website. It will ask users to enter their e-mail and their request, whether it is to buy or sell dresses,” Bader told The Jordan Times.

Another group of participants said their idea is to create a website that connects to mobile game applications, where users can compete against each other and win prizes for getting high scores.

Aya Kayali and Nora Salah said their team is working on a mobile application that offers a traffic map that shows areas of road congestion for the benefit of motorists.

“This application will use GPS to measure the number of cars on a certain road,” Salah said.

The “Rate your doctors” team member said their idea is to launch an app that will help people know which doctor to go to in Jordan by asking each user to rate the doctor they book an appointment with.

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