Nahel.com: Hassle-free shopping

At a time when many are looking to switch industries or try something different, we bring you first person accounts of the lives of entrepreneurs or senior executives, outlining a typical day in their business. Who knows, maybe the perfect idea is waiting for you. Read on and get inspired.

Saeid M. Hejazi is the Founder and Managing Director of Nahel.com, one of the largest online shopping sites in the Middle East. Established in Dubai in late 2008, Nahel.com’s original business model won the University of Toronto’s National Business Plan Competition, having beaten 470 teams. At present, this online shopping forum offers over 20,000 products across more than six departments.

7:00 am: I turn on the laptop; I’ve been having problems for months getting my emails on my BlackBerry. I have acquired special skill where I can turn on my laptop, without being completely awake. Usually, the only email I get are from the US, because of the time difference. Of course, I check on how many orders we got over night. This can either make or break my day. Lately, it’s been getting me off to a good start.

7:15 am: Swim time! This is something I just picked-up again, because it’s the only cardio I can do. After coming back from a month long trip in the US, I’ve definitely gained some weight. America has the best pizza, wings, and nachos, all of which I ate too much of while on vacation.

8:30 am: I leave for Costa coffee across the road with a sandwich in hand.

9:00 am: I arrive at work, usually as most of the team arrives.

10:00 am: I review various departments’ daily tasks with marketing, operations, Web development and business development. I go over operational reports that cover average delivery time, supplier performance, incoming calls, emails and customer complaints.

I have another coffee and then sit with the marketing department; we go over CPC, CTR and conversion rates and then optimise for better results.

11:00 am: Work on business development and finding new business opportunities.

12:00 pm: More coffee and then get back to some business development and opportunities

1:00 pm: I sit with the Web development team. The focus recently has been on back-end development and modules in order to scale the business. With the increase of orders monthly, we need to make sure we are maintaining our level of customer satisfaction, and delivering faster than we promise. This means working with the warehouse, operations and our various suppliers.

2:00 pm: Social media time; the team monitor our Facebook Twitter and see what our followers have been up to, what they have to say and how we can help them. Then we analyse the campaigns and their results and plan for future campaigns.

3:00 pm: I spend some time going back over some more emails.

3:30 pm: We normally hold a conference call around this time with our business and web development teams in Beirut and Amman; focus has been on the folding of a major Arabic books ecommerce store, into Nahel.com.

5:00 pm: I have a meeting with the special projects catalyst on various initiatives Nahel.com is working on.

7:00 pm: Again I go over emails and follow ups, using the time difference to make international calls and follow-up with new partners and promising opportunities.

7:30 pm: Wrap-up work and go home.