Entrepreneurs advise young people to keep up with developments and self-development (Getty Images)

Amman -

The Fourth Industrial Revolution and the unprecedented communications revolution in human history have created many investment opportunities and horizons that did not exist before for young people and entrepreneurs in various parts of the world, including our Arab world.

Many Arab youth have taken advantage of these new and promising investment opportunities provided by the digital revolution, establishing pioneering projects of their kind that have achieved success and become an example to follow.

The beginnings of these young people were not easy, as most of them did not have the money necessary to start the project and transform the creative entrepreneurial idea in their minds into a living reality, but they did not surrender to the scarcity of capabilities, lack of money, and moments of fear and doubt about the failure of the project, but rather they began to work.

Some of them sold their cars, others postponed their marriage project, and used the money they had saved for marriage in the previous years of work in order to pursue their dream and start their project, and a third was a university student who only had his daily allowance.

In this report, we highlight a number of these pioneering experiments.

“Zajel” is a pioneering experience in e-commerce

The journey of the “Zajel” project began in 2016, with a simple but ambitious idea in the mind of the young man Abdullah Munir Hayajneh, who was studying engineering at the Jordan University of Science and Technology.

The idea that Abdullah had in mind was to establish an electronic platform specialized in selling flowers and gifts, where anyone can send a gift to his loved ones within a few minutes, and since it is an electronic website, orders can be made from all over the world.

Abdullah says: “My vision was to have my own project without the need to be tied to a specific time or place of work, and I was fully aware of the importance of keeping up with the times, and moving to e-commerce instead of traditional commerce as a future field, even though e-commerce was not very widespread in particular.” Jordanian society at that time, and this was an obstacle, but I bet on the future, and that Jordan, like the rest of the Arab world, was heading in that direction, and that it was only a matter of time.”

Al-Haijana was convinced that investment is not limited to money only, but the most important thing is “investing in oneself and developing individual skills” (Shutterstock)

Challenges and efforts

Regarding the challenges he faced at the beginning of his project, Abdullah says: “I faced great challenges at the beginning of my project, the most important of which were the large financial costs and the lack of money. I was a student, and I only had my daily allowance.”

Abdullah needed money to secure goods and products, design and program a website, and digital marketing through social media and search engines.

But Al-Haijana was convinced that investment was not limited to money only, but that the most important thing was “investing in oneself, developing individual skills, and learning new programs.”

Abdullah relied on himself, and began learning programming, graphic design, and digital marketing methods, taking advantage of free resources on the Internet.

Abdullah explains: “Learning these skills myself allowed me to significantly reduce the basic costs of the project, as I did not need to hire or use anyone to build and market my online store.”

Another challenge that Abdullah faced was the lack of money or warehouses necessary to buy and store the flowers and gifts that his digital store markets. Instead, Al-Hayajna used the “direct shipping” strategy, which relies on directing orders directly to suppliers or manufacturers of products without the need to purchase and store them in advance. Like traditional local stores.

Signs of success

Regarding the signs of success, Abdullah says, “Despite the challenges I faced in the beginning, I did not need to wait a long time to start seeing the success of my project. After I learned electronic marketing skills and targeting methods, I applied them to my website (which he designed himself), targeting the appropriate group.”

Al-Hayajna: Do not wait until you have large capital, but rather invest in yourself and learn the skills necessary to build your projects.

The digital age opens the doors for you to realize your dreams and turn your ideas into reality

The company's current status and advice for Arab youth

Regarding the company’s current situation, Abdullah says: “Thanks to the success of “Zajel” in Jordan, and the acquisition of great experience and the skills that I have learned and are still learning, I decided to expand the scope of work to include Saudi Arabia, Palestine, Dubai, and the United States of America, and I currently have an office in the Jordanian capital, Amman, and a work team. Consisting of 18 individuals, we were able to build a wide gift delivery network in these countries.”

Al-Hayagna plans to expand into the European Union countries, as he visited Spain, Italy, and Austria, and entered into partnerships with some stores in these countries.

As for his advice to Arab youth, Abdullah says: “My advice to ambitious Arab youth is to keep pace with modern developments and start their own projects. Do not wait until you have large capital, but rather invest in yourself and learn the skills necessary to build your projects. The digital age opens the doors for you to achieve your dreams and transform Turn your ideas into reality, and take advantage of every opportunity to achieve success in the modern business world.”

“Sajaya” started with an idea and has become a major company

Another project began with an idea of ​​a young man who had recently graduated and was planning to get married. He worked as an employee in a company in the Jordanian capital, Amman, but he postponed his marriage and chased his dream until Sajaya Software Company was born, becoming in a few years one of the most prestigious technology companies in the Arab world.

Iyad chased his dream until Sajaya Software was born, becoming in a few years one of the most prestigious technology companies in the Arab world (Al Jazeera)

Engineer Iyad Al-Shala, Regional Director of Sajaya Company, says: “My friend Ahmed Farhouda and I were working in a technology company that had many technological services and programs, and we were providing business and technology solutions to companies, but we were always facing a problem with the company’s financial flows, which forced it to delay salaries and not pay them on time.” On time, we were also facing another challenge, which is raising the level of services so that they are provided in a better way to customers.”

The two friends decided to establish a company that would meet their ambitions, “and through it we could implement our ideas and turn them into reality. Indeed, we founded the company in 2004 to begin the journey of success,” Al-Shalah says.

Challenges and obstacles

Regarding the most important challenges they faced, Engineer Iyad said: “Saving money was the most important obstacle, as I was a young employee at the time working on a limited salary. To overcome this obstacle, I withdrew the amount saved for marriage that I had saved in the previous few years of work, and postponed the marriage project. My friend also sold his car. A third friend joined us and was convinced of the idea of ​​the project, and he borrowed a sum of money to become a partner with us.”

Engineer Al-Shallah continues his talk about the beginning stage: “We conducted a feasibility study for the project, and the need for capital was urgent. The amounts we had painstakingly saved were not enough, and we needed a larger amount to start strong.”

The partners took advantage of the public relations network they had built with businessmen during their previous years of work, so they presented the project to “a number of businessmen who have confidence in us through their previous work with us. Indeed, one of the businessmen was convinced of the idea of ​​the project, accepted our offer, and contributed an amount of money that we desperately needed.” "He received him in exchange for a share in the company, and we started working immediately."

The partners submitted their resignations from the company in which they were working, rented a small office, furnished it with simple furniture, and hired 5 employees to work with them and assist them.

Engineer Al-Shallah says: “We were doing all the technical and financial work, buying and selling, and with time we began to gain the trust of our customers, and our sales increased, thanks to God.”

A major challenge faced by Sajaya Company with the development of customer requests and their need for advanced programs (Shutterstock)

Evolve and expand

Regarding the company’s development, Engineer Iyad says: “In 2008, we faced a new challenge with the development of customer requests and their need for advanced global programs to raise work productivity, and that are compatible with local customer needs in terms of laws and support for the Arabic language, in addition to their availability at reasonable prices.”

Engineer Iyad continues: “We conducted research aimed at developing an Arab product that competes with the products offered by international companies, and meets the needs of the Arab region. Indeed, we partnered with a software company that has a local product called “Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) software,” but the program needed To develop, which is what we started working on, as we developed the program through our acquired experiences, and we also hired experts and consultants in several fields until we released the first version of the program in 2010.”

Regarding the company’s expansion after developing the program, Engineer Iyad says: “We initially sought help from some international companies to market the product in Arab countries. We also used consulting studies to determine the best countries for investment.

He added, "We started from Jordan, participated in the largest technology exhibitions in the Arab countries, and initially established a branch of the company in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Today we have more than 50 employees, and our sales volume has reached more than 8 million dollars annually, and we provide our services in more than 17 countries." Arab, and we always strive to develop and excel in our services to reach the international level, God willing.”

Source: Al Jazeera