Business Overview

Arif Hossain was born and raised in Bangladesh. In 2012, he entered Greece through its land borders with Turkey and acquired Asylum status in 2016. In 2018 he opened a Mini Market in a bohemian Athenian neighborhood, Exarchia. His capital was the savings he had from his time in Greece. Arif, with his friendly demeanor and his almost non-stop working hours, has established his shop as an integral part of the neighborhood. 

Mini Market - Exarchia, Greece

Economic Challenge

Arif’s small business has little competitive advantage over the local market making it difficult for him to do proper financial planning regarding ordering and pricing. Also, he’s working on adding a delivery service which is challenging due to lack of funds as well as managing Social Media for his business.

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The Business

Arif Hossain was born in 1986 in Bengali, a district of Bangladesh. As a teenager, Arif moved to Dhaka, the capital of the country, where he opened a cosmetics store with his brother. In 2011, they had to close their business, and Arif, with the help of his family, started his journey to Europe.

In 2012, he entered Greece through its land borders with Turkey, acquired the Asylum status four years later, in 2016. Since 2018, he has had a Residence Permit. The first 6 years in Greece were difficult. He worked in many jobs and managed to create the small capital he used to open, by the end of 2018, a Mini Market in a traditional neighborhood of central Athens, Exarchia.

Arif, with his friendly demeanor and his almost non-stop working hours, has established his shop as an integral part of the neighborhood. His goal is to cater to the wider audience of Exarchia and introduce Greeks and foreigners to Bangladeshi and Asian products. 

The vision is to later add a wider variety of products as well as improve the decoration and set up of his business. Arif also wants to hire another employee to better distribute the workload.

Competitive Advantage

  • His main Competitive Advantage is the operating hours of his business. People from the neighborhood know that they can go to Arif’s shop, even when the big supermarkets and other stores are closed.

Obstacles

The three main challenges that Arif is currently facing are the following:

  1. Lack of funds
  2. Lack of time and fatigue

Business Snapshot

Year of establishment
2018
Employees
1

Next Steps

The tasks thatMini Market has prioritized are:

1: Improve the set-up and decoration of the store
2: Hire an employee
3: Add a larger variety of products

Page Last Updated:April 26, 2022