MWP SPOTLIGHT: FATMAH MUHAMMAD WILLAIMS
Fatmah Muhammad williams, co-founder of knafeh queens
May 28, 2020
Fatmah Muhammad-Williams greets me with her signature ‘Hey girl!’ when I call her up to interview her. She asks me about my husband, my baby, and my family in Dubai. It’s never business as usual with Fatmah — she takes time to get to know you and truly connect.
I interviewed Fatmah and her daughter and Knafeh Queens co-Founder Rheyanah for MWP’s newsletter last year and to bring it full circle, I asked her how much has changed for their business in one year. “Alhamdulilah (Praise be to God), we have had so much growth in one year,” she said. “We now have 7 members on our team. Our shipping orders doubled in the last year and we have elevated our packaging. I have started adding a personalized touch to my order deliveries now and I include a crown. Our customers love it and I have had people sending me pictures with the crowns on including grandparents wearing the crowns to celebrate their anniversary. We’ve come a long way since our first shipping order — the knafeh pie was not round and it looked like a truck had run over it.”
Last time around, Fatmah mentioned not having a clear social media strategy. She had never taken professional pictures for her feed but would just use the Knafeh Queens social pages as an extension of her personality. This seems to be working for her as she crossed the 10,000 followers mark a few weeks ago. A collaboration giveaway with American Olympian Ibtihaj Muhammad took this number to more than 16,000.
With the rise of social media and the ease of starting an online business, we’ve also seen an increase in people ripping off business ideas and concepts. Because of this, Fatmah said, since we last spoke, she has invested time and money to trademark the name — Knafeh Queens.
“The trademarking process took about a year. I am glad that I did it though because we had some people recently trying to use the name to start their own business,” she said.
Another big step has been the launch of the Knafeh Queens website. Before, you had to order knafeh by DM-ing Fatmah on Instagram or calling the hotline. Now fans can order and pay directly for their knafeh fix via the website.
“I have had my website ready for about a year, but only launched recently because we had to iron out some kinks. Our website crashed when it went live. We were overwhelmed with orders and sold out by the second day. To date, I am still trying to catch up on orders. I really was not expecting this response,” she said. “I want to give a shout out to Alaa Allaboudy, my graphic designer, Nadia Cohen, who has been a great advisor every step of the way, and Sood Saeed and my sisters for helping bring the website to life. Alaa was instrumental in pretty much designing the whole website.”
Midway through our chat, Fatmah’s youngest daughter Kareemah chimes in to join the interview. She tells us her favorite part of Knafeh Queens is the recipe, the cook, and the two layered cakes. Her daughters are an integral part of the business and her oldest Rheyanah is co-founder of the company.
I asked Fatmah next about her future plans. In the near future, she says she has some exciting partnerships in the pipeline.
Knafeh Queens recently collaborated with The Dirty Cookie to launch an exciting limited edition knafeh shots for Ramadan. Being the big fan that I am, I had pre-ordered the knafeh shots to pick up on the first day of Ramadan.
“Girl I am glad you pre-ordered because it sold out so fast! People were so disappointed that they missed out but inshaAllah (God Willing) we will have more collaborations in the future. I met Shahira, the lady behind The Dirty Cookie at a pop up at New Horizons School. They had a cultural event before the pandemic. She tried my knafeh for the first time and she fell in love with it — she fell in love with the product, the business, and wanted to instantly collaborate,” Fatmah said. “She’s a visionary. When the stay at home orders were issued, she had a lot of catering events cancelled. In spite of the situation, she wanted to be positive and get creative so she asked me to collaborate. We used her molds to create the knafeh shots and after much trial and error, when we got it right, we literally jumped for joy.”
The knafeh shots had fillings of custard and pistachio, a classic combo of strawberries, cream and nutella, smores and whipped ricotta.
“The collaboration with The Dirty Cookie was a great way for us to make the most of the situation with the pandemic. Alhamdulillah, even though I had catering orders cancelled, I was able to make up for it with shipping orders. With everything slowing down, I was also able to focus on some other partnerships for giveaways. I was also able to partner with different organizations to give back,” Fatmah said about shifting her business strategy with COVID-19. “I was able to give back to healthcare workers who are in the front lines. I have always supported the Give Light Foundation, Sahaba Initiative and Islamic Relief and I took this time to start a Launch Good campaign to raise money for Yemen. Alhamdulilah when you give, God gives you back tenfold. We’ve always given back with our profits but I was able to increase that during this time Alhamdulilah.”
Echoing what she emphasized in our last interview with her, Fatmah stressed that rizq (your sustenance) is always from God and that with success you should not be greedy but always give back. She hopes to hold on to this principle even as she expands and more staff join the Knafeh Queens family.
“I learned the ins and outs of business from my father and uncle when I worked during my college years at my uncle’s store called the Super Penny Mart. And it’s important to me to hold on to the values and principles they instilled in me even as I expand. Everybody I hire for the company — and especially those who deal with my customers — I make sure they have a positive attitude,” she said about staying true to herself as Knafeh Queens expands. “I make sure their vibe fits our business motto of serving royal happiness and unity with every bite. I had a customer drive down for the weekend from NorCal just to have his wife meet me because she was a fan. You don’t realize the impact you have on people. People always tell me that I am the same online as I am in person — and sometimes even friendlier in person. I truly love meeting my customers and that’s what I am most worried about when it comes to expanding. I emphasize to my customer service team that they have to go the extra mile for the customer.”
She closes our interview with the words, “I want to be the Muslim Oprah so I can touch more lives.”
