Several young women here have set up their own small businesses in fashion design, photography and candy making despite facing various challenges including a lack of finance.

Manal Al-Zamil, a management information systems graduate, and Latifah Al-Zamil, a computer science graduate, said they started their business by chance when they made some candy for a gathering of women.

"Everyone praised our work, so we decided to invest our monthly university allowance in our project," said Manal. “We saved on expenses by using our family's refrigerator and oven at home," she said.

When they started to make some profits, they decided to name the enterprise and began selling their products at bazaars during the summer months.

Manal said they initially found it very difficult to balance their business, school and social life. “We tried to organize our time by taking orders that we could produce in three days.”

“Using the expertise we gained at university through our studies, we were able to create a special website to advertise our work and our products. We also presented our project to several professors who loved it and encouraged us to continue.”

Latifah said the profits vary depending on the season. “During the Eid festivals we make up to SR4,000. At other times we only make SR200."

Fatimah, a university student, decided to use her love of fashion to start her own design business. “I've loved designing clothes for a long time. I often design my own clothes for various occasions. I made a decision to start my own business, which I advertised on social networking sites.”

She started out by spending her spare time and summer vacations designing and producing clothes. “I started with a small amount of money that I received from my family. I'm trying my best to manage my time between work and school. I've not decided yet whether to pursue this as a career or keep it as a hobby."

Maram Al-Qadhi, a social services graduate, decided to use her passion for photography to start a small enterprise. She started out by publishing some of her work on social media websites while still at university. Maram said her former university also agreed to host an exhibition of her work. “The exhibition was held in cooperation with the student activity committee at the social services college. I then had the opportunity to participate in several exhibitions at the university including the career day and a scientific conference.

"After I graduated I searched for a job for two years without success. It was then I decided to pursue photography.”

She has held photography training courses at schools and festivals and cooperated with the Ministry of Culture and Information on a photography competition for children. With the support and encouragement of family and friends, she bought her own equipment. She has her own studio at home and covers weddings and celebrations.

When Sarah Al-Humidan, Amjad Al-Dohan and Asmaa Al-Dohan could not find jobs, they decided to start their own fashion design business. They said it is less stressful working from home and they can get much more work done. Their business is producing top international designs at reasonable prices for college students.

"After we could not find jobs, we decided to use our time to make money from our hobby. We saved the money from our personal allowances until we had SR3,000," said Sarah.

“We divided the work between us and started advertising on social networks. We have just started our business so we've not calculated our profits yet, but we have many orders, thanks to Allah. We will continue with this project even if we find jobs," said Sarah.