AMMAN — Local entrepreneur
Romouz Sadeq believes that there
is a lot of misinformation in the beauty industry. From hair salons to stores,
she noticed that customers are often driven to spending money on products they
may not need.
اضافة اعلان
“I joined the beauty industry to set things right for the Arab
consumer,” said Mrayti founder Romouz Sadeq. “Unethical practices within this
industry are very common, and people have no protection against them.”
This realization drove the entrepreneur to launch her own
beauty services platform,
Mrayti.com.
After years working at world-renowned companies in the
computer science and marketing sectors, Sadeq packed her go-getter mentality,
left the stable corporate world, and dove into the unfamiliar realm of
entrepreneurship.
Her first entrepreneurial experience with Jeeran.com, an
online restaurant directory, gave her insight into the sector. Then in 2016,
Sadeq knew it was time for her to pursue an idea she’s been considering for
years: Mrayti (which means ‘my mirror’ in Arabic).
“Mrayti was like Uber but for beauty services. We offered
home-beauty services to women,” she told
Jordan News. After booking a beauty
service, such as a hair or makeup appointment, professionals would arrive to
complete the service at the customer’s home.
At first, Sadeq experienced resistance from the market. This
concept was unfamiliar to the community and she was competing in a saturated
industry. However, delivering on promises and establishing trust built up the
businesses’ reputation over time, explained Sadeq, and this was reflected in
their performance.
“In 2017 we opened the door for people to book services with
us. In 2018 we got a sophisticated mobile app, and in 2019 we began operating
in five cities: Amman, Irbid, salt, Zarqa and Cairo,” Sadeq said. “And then,
COVID-19 hit.”
Bookings on the platform, which averaged around 600 to 1000
a month, plummeted to zero. “All our bookings were canceled, all the brides
withdrew their appointments, we could not move around, and we had no work,” she
said.
Instead of giving up or waiting for help, Sadeq knew that
her team needed to save the company themselves.
Mrayti pivoted and launched an ecommerce site selling clean
and organic beauty products.
Taking this idea further, Sadeq is now preparing to launch
her own line of locally made products during
Eid Al-Fitr. “It will be our own
label and will follow the spirit of our brand,” she explained.
Selling ethical products is, according to Sadeq, like
selling trust. She said that the Jordanian market is hungry for risk-free
products as they are constantly on the lookout for things that are guaranteed.
Even the company logo features a girl smiling, with her eyes
closed. “It’s about blind trust, knowing that you will get what you need and
that you will be content,” she said.
Building a company, its reputation, and expanding it to cope
with a global crisis, is not an easy feat. It takes a lot of sacrifices and
compromise, Sadeq explained, but when entrepreneurs have a clear goal, they
will pave the way.
Her goal has always been to be the best at what she does.
“We want to be the top choice for consumers in the Middle
East, for their favorite products and services,” Sadeq said. “COVID-19 killed
part of our business, but it gave life to something bigger.”
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