An Interview With… Selini Bishop

Yes, I was 24 when I started Chapters! But the journey started long before that…

I moved to Dubai in 2017 at 18 years old. My uncle, Paul Bishop, generously opened the doors to his interior design company to me, and that’s where my career in PR and marketing started.

Over the next five or six years, we achieved so much: magazine covers, awards, the list goes on. Being a one-man band marketing team comes with a lot of challenges, but I always took a lot of pride in the role, I enjoyed the responsibility and I was so proud of what we achieved as a company.

Then one day, out of nowhere, I quit.

I would always describe myself as a driven person. Looking back on it now, I think I had a sudden realisation that I had gotten as far as I would ever get in that role. A hunger for something bigger, one that had perhaps been building for some time, suddenly came to the surface.

So there I was, with a two month notice period to serve, with no idea what I was going to do after it was over.

I remember being sat in my hairdresser’s chair telling her the story. She told me she needed help with her socials, and it sounded like something I could help with until I figured out ‘what I really wanted to do…’

One client led to a few and somewhere along the way, Chapters Marketing became official.

And it really started with the idea that I could help people share their stories. I had become so overwhelmed with social media at that point, AI was starting to become a serious thing, and all the information out there was about posting every single day or how to grow from 0 to 100k in a week. It all felt so intimidating and impossible. I started being a different voice based on my own relationship with social media: telling people to think beyond the likes and enjoy the process, be themselves, that if one post can encourage a positive action the ripple effect continues, and those principles still stand today.

Months six to eight of the business were the toughest. I had severely burnt out, a result of repeatedly waking up at 6am, opening the laptop straight away, and not going to bed until the early hours of the morning.

But Dubai rewards the ambitious. I’ve never known another place in the world where people work this hard, and even though I speak openly about burnout, workload, and the challenges of running a business, admittedly, I yearn for the pressure because I know it pushes me to grow and be better.

The nature of our business also means I can work from anywhere. Which sounds glamourous! Until you’re working on your holidays…

If someone was thinking about starting a business in Dubai, my advice would be to be fully aware of what it takes. It requires grit, hard work, and a lot of personal sacrifice. Only do it if you’re willing to give your everything to it.

Back in 2017, the design industry felt quite small at the time. There seemed to be a handful of big players that everyone knew, you would always see the same faces, and you’d recognise all the names in an award shortlist. The majority of companies at the time also weren’t on social media, only a few were taking it seriously and doing it well.

By the time I returned from a travel break in 2022, everything felt different.

The industry was more saturated, every company was on social media, and now, you’re constantly meeting new people at events.

At Chapters, our guiding philosophy is people connect with people. The way you make people feel, the way you deal with problems, and what you bring to the table beyond the service itself is what makes you memorable. Especially in a world where you can make everything look good, how you show up for people and how you deliver work time and time again has never been more important.

This year has been a challenging one, and if I’m being honest, we’re not quite out the other side yet. I think the main thing the industry is hoping for is that next year goes a little easier on us. There will always be exciting projects, new developments and positive progress. Those who persevere, plan ahead, diversify and keep on doing good work will come out stronger.

Looking beyond, I think those who challenge the status quo will be the ones who see the most success. More people are setting up their own businesses, there’s more choice than ever, and fresh, bold thinking is only getting more important.

In some cases, doing the bare minimum seems to be accepted, and this is something that genuinely frustrates me. You see it particularly in large corporates, where outdated processes are blindly followed and people get comfortable doing things the way they’ve always been done.

I’d love to see that change: more people taking real ownership, challenging how things are done, and pushing themselves further. There will be no room for average, and quite rightly so.

It’s the land where anything is possible.

Since I’ve lived in Marina, just from my balcony alone, I’ve watched Dubai Harbour get built, there’s been a new Atlantis on the Palm, and two new towers are getting built right on my doorstep. When our family visit once a year, the skyline is different than the last time they saw it.

I do believe our pace and scale can be underestimated. But when you’re here, you see that anything is achievable simply by looking around you. Nowhere else is more inspiring.

There came a time after burnout where I gave myself an ultimatum: I can either stay on my own and only ever take on a certain number of clients, or, I can hire someone that I trust to grow this business with.

That person ended up being my ex-colleague, Sharnie Jones-Trotter, who is now our Growth and Marketing Manager. The business changed for the better after that: we were able to increase our clients, take on larger scopes, and start working towards the legacy I wanted Chapters to make on the world. You can only do so much as one person.

Running a business is messy and you don’t have a lot of structure in the early days because you’re figuring it out. Your first hire has to be someone you can be open with, someone who doesn’t need their hand held and can also bring business in.

We then hired Hanaa Azmi as Creative Manager around six months later.

Hanaa brought a different skillset to the table and allowed us to expand our business offering. Once again, we were able to take on different clients, offer new services, and keep all of that in-house.

At the time of hiring Hanaa, I didn’t foresee a regional conflict, but having our in-house branding department has allowed us to not only make it through this year but grow the team.

My advice to anyone trying to grow a business is to spend more time than you think on the hiring process. Those early hires need to be senior people that are going to change the trajectory of your business. You can hire junior members later.

I’ve never been one that likes to ‘train people how you do things.’ I’d much rather surround myself with people that can elevate what I’m currently doing. Hire full-time and hire good. The additional salary might seem scary in the beginning, but it’s always worth it.

My uncle always used to say that you’re only as good as your last project, and it’s very much true in a market like Dubai where reputation is everything. Don’t get complacent when things are going well.

Most importantly, surrounding yourself with the right people is everything. Spend time building a network before you make the move, and don’t underestimate the power of networking and getting your face out there.

Social media is a powerful tool, but credible reputation can’t be built online alone. It’s in how you treat people, respond to challenges, and in the work you deliver.

In my situation, when I first moved to Dubai, I attended every event I could, I was active on social media, always went the extra mile, and built relationships with people across the industry, from suppliers to media and designers. Even though it wasn’t really a conscious decision to build my personal brand at the time, it’s exactly what I was doing, and eventually, it put me in a strong enough position to start my own business.

You’re competing with a lot of noise in a big city, but your reputation travels further than you, and one act of kindness has the habit of coming back around later.

You’re only ever ready to do something the second time you do it.

In the first year of business, everything feels that extra bit harder. You’ve never done it before and you’re figuring everything out. It can feel like that phase will never end! But it takes a lot to shake me now. Even my partner will tell you I’m so much calmer!

The conflict this year has also brought many lessons.

When I started Chapters, it was just me on my own for a while, so I was earning all the money with very little overheads. There wasn’t any real need to forecast.

But when you have multiple salaries, visas, and health insurance to pay for, you have to know what’s coming in, what’s going out, and plan for different scenarios. I’ve lived in excel (ew) more than ever this year and been up until the early hours of the morning mapping out different situations. And sometimes, your plan B leaves the country. So now we plan for the alphabet!

But we grow the most in the challenging times, and we learn who we are and what we’re capable of in our toughest moments.

We also learn how others show up for us, and my partner deserves a special shoutout on this one. A lot of attention goes onto the founder but never the founder’s partners, and in my case, Chapters wouldn’t have been possible without him. He’s seen the late nights, been there through the meltdowns, and been my constant cheerleader in the background. We speak a lot about having the right people in your business, but it’s equally important to have the right ones in your personal life too.

By making a lot of mistakes!

You learn to spot the red flags along the way. One being hard ‘negotiation’ from the beginning. These kinds of clients usually don’t appreciate the service that you’re providing, and more often than not, they are the ones that cause you the most stress. In my opinion, it’s never about price, it’s about value, and those that appreciate the service that you’re providing will always pay your fee.

Over time, you know yourself more as well. You get clearer on where you can provide the most value, and what clients you work well with. There’s a lot of guidance around ‘know your niche,’ but quite often, you end up finding that along the way.

This reminds me of a conversation I had with someone recently about the difference between hiring for a name and for a service. You wouldn’t hire Antoni Gaudí and then ask for a minimalist façade, for example. Sometimes people want the name and the work or style associated with it, other times they simply wish to fulfil a service and the name behind it doesn’t matter so much.

Chapters very much aspires to be a name you aspire to work with. In order to get there, we need to communicate who Chapters is, what you get by working with us that you don’t get anywhere else, and the unique style and flavour you’re buying. We’re slowly starting to make a name for ourselves in that respect. Now people say they want to work with Chapters because we’re the “cool ones,” a label we haven’t given ourselves by the way, but one I’ll very much take!

Some of the questions we ask to find the right opportunities are: does this company align with Chapters? Are they good people? Are we going to have the chance to push the boundaries? Do they value our services?

Don’t get me wrong, sometimes you need to say yes to things because you have a business to run and things to pay out for. But this mentality should be a rare occasion, not the standard mindset.

You can only dominate a market for so long.

Businesses that can diversify their services, have at least one retainer-based offering, and have the ability to work in different markets across the region and beyond, have the strongest chances of success.

I heard Steven Bartlett speak about the red and blue ocean theory before. Red oceans are saturated and fiercely competitive, whereas blue oceans are untapped markets. Blue is where you want to be, but you only have a certain amount of time in there before it starts to become red. Then you need to find another blue ocean.

The main point being, don’t ever get comfortable, especially when it feels like you’re in the lead. Quality and reputation are everything.

And relationships go a long way. But talk will only take you so far, you have to be able to deliver.

Success to me has never been about money (although I’ve given my all to this business for over three years now and I deserve a VERY big pay rise)!

Even with Chapters, my biggest priority is culture. We spend most of our time at work, so I’ve always tried to create a place people genuinely enjoy being a part of. It’s much harder, by the way, to run a business like that, especially in a place where everything moves so quickly and everyone is operating at a million miles a minute. It’s easy to get straight into ‘what needs to get done’ without asking people how they are. It requires a certain level of discipline to show up with kindness and be a good person.

But I wouldn’t run Chapters any other way.

I believe we all have the power to change the world. One small action can create a ripple effect. If I do one good thing to one person, they go on to do something nice, and that snowball continues. That’s how I choose to do business.

In terms of what I want my life to look like; I don’t want to be working nights and weekends forever! It’s needed for a certain time to get a business off the ground, but freedom is the goal after all, right? Having the ability to choose where I invest my time across the business and outside of it, that’s the end goal.

My advice would be to stay visible.

I gave everything to running the business behind the scenes that I went off the grid for a while. If I look at someone like Grace Andrews, who is a huge inspiration to me, she shared her journey from employee to self-employed so well, and by doing so, she remained front of mind.

I know I had my reasons (I was giving my all to the clients 24/7) but if I was more visible online and in person during that first year, I do think the business would have been further along by now. Ironically, it’s the exact opposite of what I teach clients, but I forgot myself in that.

I also would have saved more while I was a freelancer and not seen the incomings as my salary. I would have treated it like a business from the beginning.

Knowing what I know now, I’d still do it all again, but there are a few things I’d do differently. I would charge more, take on less, and do it in a healthier way.

I’ve worked the hardest I’ve ever done in my life, but in return Dubai has been very good to me. I’m forever grateful to the opportunities and people that have made it all possible. There’s nowhere else I’d rather build a business.