Gaelle Nohra, Staff Writer

December 15th, 2020

Amidst Lebanon’s financial and socio-political turmoil, growth and expansion would be the least terms you would expect to gain relevance. While the excessive burdens brought forth by this year ended up overwhelming the entire economic cycle, many local businesses approached the pandemic and the recent financial difficulties as an opportunity to further invest their set of skills and take their businesses to a whole new level of expertise and commitment. 

With all the disturbances it introduced to the Lebanese routine, the COVID-19 pandemic was a much-needed pause button for a great number of individuals to rethink their life path and reshape their daily motives. Hence, staying home allowed many to explore different means through which their hobbies could upgrade to a business or even, have their already existing businesses drastically improve.

As opposed to the commonly circulating convictions, 2020 was a positive turning point for a considerable share of the Lebanese community in the sense that it stimulated them to truly reconsider the details they used to over/underestimate.

 It remains of critical importance to not romanticize the escalating tragedies of the country, and with that said, this article will shed light upon the outstanding performance of local businesses and how they succeeded in swapping the ‘decelerating’ characteristic of 2020, into a ‘catalyst’ one. 

For some, price hikes, the drop in the consumer’s purchasing power, and the confinement along with the currency devaluation had a fair share in lowering profitability expectations, thus rendering a shut-down option the most feasible alternative. For others, the same exact situation prevailed, except for more eagerness at seeing a light at the end of the tunnel and beating the circumstances. 

Following several discussions with local businesses, it became explicit that the factors behind their sustainable success are largely associated, not just with opportunities available within the market, but also with their persistence on delivering quality products with reasonable prices in addition to maintaining solid relations with customers. From buying the product’s inputs to cooperating with local drivers, the multifarious advantages of shopping local could thus be observed at each phase of the entire production process. 

 

On forward, this section of the article will offer the different insights that actual local business owners shared with The Phoenix Daily, while discussing the valuable realizations they made following the tumultuous 2020 period.

 

Yara Hashem – Owner of “The Hashbites “

“During the first COVID-19 lockdown in Lebanon I had to stop taking orders out of fear of the virus and the possibility of spreading it in my line of work. I got more confident after I read articles about the inability of the virus to spread through food while taking into consideration all the food safety precautions both COVID-related and those I learned in my university Food safety courses. But despite all that, I gained lots of time to practice different techniques and thus introduced new products due to the free time I had. The fact that people were home made their demand for desserts increase. Towards the summer, this became more explicit to me as I realized the rise in my reach and orders. What probably also contributed to that was the fact that some bakeries and patisseries have become relatively expensive so there was a shift towards online shops. I won't say I regret all the events of this year because in fact it was an opportunity for more exposure and growth.” 

 

Joyce Naddaf – Owner of “JoicesSecret”:

“Being forced to stay home encouraged me to pause and truly consider what calms my mind and gives me serenity. It was always cooking. I’m always stress-free while cooking. I started posting stories on Instagram about the food I prepared which attracted much attention. I started receiving lots of messages and recommendations to move into a business and I thought why not give it a try. It was the most defining moment of my life. I knew what I wanted, start a business of my own and fulfill my passion by having my own brand. From there ‘JoiceSecret’ was born. I personally felt I have two options: either to let the isolation depress me or let it empower me and I chose the latter. The whole experience took me out of my routine and pushed me towards my goals and dreams. We are now taking orders on a daily basis; we have happy customers and excellent reviews and feedback. “

Jana Rabbat – Owner of “Jana Cake Beirut”:

“2020 is the year of unpredictable events. You’re on a sailing boat with no clear vision when the storm will come to an end. All you have to do is use your creativity, check your surrounding and see the light in every opportunity so that you stand out and be stronger once the storm is over. And here I am, 9 months later, developing and growing my business of homemade cakes. A week after the beginning of the confinement, I realized that the best way to stand out was being productive. I've never focused that much on my passion until I found out that I have nothing else to do. No schools, no outings, nothing but moving from the room to the kitchen. I've started to develop more desserts by combining several textures and flavors. I figured out that there was a gap in the fine pastry in town, so I've started to develop and recreate some of my favorite desserts to bring a new experience to the market. And with the effect of social media, I found myself spending 18h a day in the kitchen, trying to fulfill all the orders. Today Jana Cake became a brand with 5 employees, 22 cake varieties, a bigger kitchen, and around 170 cakes delivered every week. We covered the whole Lebanese territory as we take orders from Marjayoun, Koura, Zahle, Tripoli... We've been approached by several people to replicate the concept abroad, to San Francisco, Riyadh, Kuwait and Cairo but at this stage Beirut's expansion is still my priority...
What I've learned from this experience, is that: no matter what, focus on your goal and nothing will stop you from reaching it… even a pandemic!”

 

Mireille and Sarah Cherfan – Owners of “Les Merveilles de Mireille”

“My business started after the COVID-19 pandemic forced us to stay home with no jobs and no universities. My mother Mireille has always been passionate about cooking, especially deserts, so I started helping her. After hearing our friends' feedbacks and love for our sweet and salty bites we thought "why not start selling?"
And that's how it began. Step by step, we started expanding our market and wrote a menu containing all of our personal favorites to try and spread the joy of eating homemade snacks prepared with passion and love.”

 

Rita Atieh Saliba – Owner of “Bakings By Rita”:
“I started my small business 3 months ago and the reason was, beside my love for baking, the economic situation in Lebanon.  Not going to lie, I tried many times to search for a job related to my major, but you know it's 2020 and we live in Lebanon.

One day I was feeling really down and then I thought why not be my own boss and start a small business?  And that's how Bakings By Rita was created. My message to everyone wanting to start a business during this economic crisis and is afraid of failure, start now! We all started from zero and in order to succeed you need to take the stairs step by step. To every single person reading my message, buy local, support local & share local work with your surrounding and friends. That’s what most local businesses need at the moment”

 

Romy Hajj – Owner of “Simply By Romy”

“It all started in 2017 when I graduated from university knowing it will be very hard to find a job that would really interest me which pushed me to start my own business and work from home. Little by little and with the support of my family and friends, I started having new customers that always came back for each event and celebration.

When 2019 came, I held back a little bit with the orders not knowing what to expect in the near future and that’s when ups and downs started. The 2020 events were rough as well. People were afraid and almost every booked event was canceled.

I couldn’t let a little difficulty regress my outcome, so I released the DIY (do it yourself) kits. It was an activity for the kids and their parents, both fun and delicious, and it was a huge success. The sad part is that the prices are constantly changing. Not having much else to do, and having a lot of free time, I decided to rebrand my business. I practiced a lot on my cookie decorating skills, tried many recipes, watched lots of videos, and read every article related to the cookie world. I started filming the whole decorating process, and got lots of new followers, hence new customers and new orders. A little advice to other small businesses struggling amidst these times, keep on going and make sure to differentiate your business from the others. Even though you might have some difficult days, keep in mind that everything happens for a reason and we’re all here to support local businesses.”

 

Tsoline, Garine and Arine – Owners of “Catering Chief”

“We started as a restaurant back in 1964. But seeing the declining economic conditions, we shifted to catering last May in order to boost our productivity and better focus on delivering quality products with affordable prices. The 2020 happenings further affirmed to us the importance of the decision we made considering the burdensome expenses resulting from renting a place and having employees. 

It is true that Lebanon, at least at the moment, isn’t a fertile ground for local businesses to grow and expand. But that’s how it always begins. Slowly and gradually, the hard work and effort start paying off. Local businesses are what Lebanon needs now.

Why for example, do we import jams, things that can be easily and even better produced in Lebanon? The growth of the country is definitely in the hands of its community who can always choose to give supremacy to local products.”

 

Boushra Hassanieh – Owner of “Teabah.lb”

“Lebanon, with his nature and people, is the core of Teabah’s identity! After exactly one month of Teabah getting into life Lebanon’s economy collapsed, but nothing held us back from proceeding in what we believe is a Lebanese privilege to be shared with the world; a Lebanese cup full of kindness and nature. Instead of giving up… we saw in what happened an opportunity to spread awareness about our local products and community. For all the Lebanese brands out there struggling, keep believing in your core value in enriching Lebanon’s economy. Things will only get better if we keep on innovating and producing more of our beloved countries goods.”

 

From the new businesses that entered the market, to the ones that rebranded and introduced new selections, great lessons were learned. First, adaptability is no longer an added plus but rather a substantial feature for businesses to pull through the 2020 inconveniences. Second, given Lebanon no longer represents a ground of opportunities where business creation gets a smooth proceeding, it has now became explicit that meeting the success benchmark requires creativity and self-reliance considering the lack of governmental support.