Body Jar, a business concept that won second place at the Tamkeen’s Mashroo3i programme. Read on to find out more about the team, their concept and how the programme benefitted them.
Tell us briefly about yourself, your team members?
I’m Sara Shehab, 24 and a self-employed woman. I am married to Ahmed Aljasim who’s also part of the team along with Abdulaziz and Talal Aljasim, my brothers in law, we all form the Body Jar’s team.
Give us a brief summary about all of your educational background.
I have pursued accounting and finance and currently hold a Bachelor degree in Accounting and Finance.
What are your guys doing for a day job? where do you work?
Our day to day job starts with receiving purchase requests from our customers, then we jump into the production, where we first check our inventory, start producing and end up with a packed and labelled finished products. We deliver our products once or twice a week through a third party. We keep a record of all our sales and expenditure. We also have a person in our team who regularly updates and handles our social media pages.
When and how did you get around to developing the idea of Body Jar?
I am a very hygienic person and I was curious about the body cosmetics products that I use. So, I started exploring and researching on the topic and I found that most of these types of products contain chemicals that can affect the skin in the long-term. So I thought of filling this gap in our market and add more natural and organic-based products and spread awareness about this matter and the importance of taking care of our skins.
‘Body Jar’ is an interesting idea. Tell us more about it and how did this idea strike you?
I and my husband were thinking of the body cosmetics, and as we were brainstorming a unique brand name, thus we came up with a name and a business concept at the same time which is the “jar” that we sell.
What have been the initial challenges and how did you overcome them?
One of the biggest challenges is financing the business, we started it with investing whatever amount of money we had and we borrowed some.
How is Body Jar unique?
Body Jar is unique in many aspects, aside from our creative name and concept. We produce a rare commodity, hand made natural and organic based body cosmetics, and most importantly made in Bahrain by Bahrainis. In addition, we do customized orders, providing the customer with the scent they like from our different range of fragrances, make it fresh upon their requests and deliver it.
Where do you see body jar in the next 3 years?
In three years we see Body Jar as one of our community favourite brands, located in the heart of Bahrain within everyone’s reach welcoming our customers and delivering to them. In addition, Body Jar would be exporting our products regionally and perhaps internationally through e-commerce.
If you were to list 5 essential qualities of a successful entrepreneur, what would they be?
Teamwork, Communication, Self-management, Positive thinking and problem-solving
How has body jar developed so far?
It is about a year since we have started this journey, Initially we started selling it on Instagram, we got positive feedback, some beauty salons were interested in our products, so we started selling some of our products through their shops, and now we are working together on dealing with local and regional commerce platforms. In regards to our sales, we reached our full production capacity, coping up with the demand, and future expansion plans are on the move.
How did you find Mashroo3i programme?
It was a wonderful experience, full of young spirits and expertise. It added so much to our business learning experience. We learned a lot and we took our ambitions higher and aspired to do more in such a motivating atmosphere.
Being the second place winner of Mashroo3i, how do you feel?
It feels great! Although we were aiming
for the first place, we are satisfied
with what we gained. In fact, the first 3 places almost have the same prizes
and that’s nothing but fairness and support from Tamkeen. It is amazing to add this big achievement and event to
our history, and we hope that one day
we would contribute back to the community through supporting such competitions.
Mashroo3i along with Tamkeen? List us three things you have learned.
One of the important learning outcomes that we had learned is making a proper business plan, it really helped us drawing the roadmap of our business for the short and long term.
Another thing of equal importance is learning and practicing how to pitch our business idea in front of judges and people confidently.
Lastly, we also learnt how to break down our work and assign the task to every member of our team, work as a team and meet our deadlines. In fact, we learnt how to set up deadlines for ourselves and I believe it will help us in many ways, such as meeting the customer demand in time, and setting goals as deadlines so we achieve them.
What is your message to aspiring entrepreneurs in and around GCC?
As they say, a journey of thousand miles starts with a single step. As much as you see your dream hard and far to reach it, don’t be hesitant just take the first step to reach your goal. It’s the first step that’s the hardest to take.