Video: A British expat's journey from job loss to Dubai success
Ann Rae journals her growth from a personal assistant to a successful entrepreneur
Dubai: A British expat has found her true calling in the United Arab Emirates after losing her job in the UK.
Today, she is a successful businesswoman in Dubai.
Rae shared with Gulf News her remarkable journey from a personal assistant who was made redundant from her last job in Sussex, in southeastern England, in 1995 to an entrepreneur behind a thriving business in the UAE.
How it all started
Rae said around the time she was made redundant, there was a job advertised in Dubai for the role of a personal assistant for an insurance company. She had friends working in Dubai and encouraged her to try out for the position.
“Dubai just sounded interesting. So I applied and no sooner, the hiring team flew down to the UK to interview me. The rest is history as they say,” Rae said.
Rae had started working in Dubai in 1995. “One time, my boss, who was the managing director of the company, said he wanted to gift all the staff for Christmas. He asked me to put together a gift basket.
I came up with an idea of gifting in a basket. We got all gift items. I had my team in the office help pack the gifts onto the basket. We wrapped the basket and everyone loved it.
“We had 130 staff working and we had to think of something for everyone. Back then, the internet was not widespread. We worked on fax machines. There were no online orders or Google to show us the way.”
Putting together the gift basket
Today, Rae is the founder and CEO of Mange Tout Gifts. She has nine staff and the company is a multimillion-dirham outfit servicing the entire UAE.
Rae recalled she had to put it all together herself. “I came up with an idea of gifting in a basket. We got all gift i tems. I had my team in the office help pack the gifts onto the basket. We wrapped the basket and everyone loved it,” she added.
Growing gifting culture
She said this set her thinking about going out on her own and start a business of gifting.
“Around that time, many people of various backgrounds were making their way into the UAE,with the country being a melting pot attracting different cultures. On the side, the gifting culture was getting bigger and bigger. Whether it was Valentine’s Day, Eid, Diwali, Christmas, New Year, people were keen on gift boxes.
“After working five years I decided to quit my job and start out on my own. Mange Tout Gifts was born.”
Leap of faith
Leaving her job and starting a business was a huge leap of faith for Rae. She added: “Like anybody going into the entrepreneurial world, I stopped getting a monthly salary. Back then there were many benefits for expats too and I gave it all up. But I had taken a year to work out the math and logistics before I dived in.”
Rae said she left her job in October 2000 and launched her company a month laterShe poured all her savings into the new firm.
How the leads began
Rae said she had a friend working in a bank who was looking to gift his clients.
“He wanted to put together some dates, chocolates, and nuts. Another friend of mine working in the logistics company also wanted to gift his staff 1,000 boxes for Christmas. And that became my second order. These two were my launching pads.”
Licensing the business
Two decades ago, the venture had humble beginnings.
“We started out as just the two of us online. E-commerce was not in its fancy either back then. There were no payment gateways as such. Everything was done manually. We were still in the world of faxes, to be honest. No social media as well. So things were done traditionally. But that also gave me a great learning pad,” Rae said.
The culture of gifting is massive in the UAE. People have big hearts here in the UAE and they simply love to gift their loved ones, extended families or clients.
Growing her business
Rae said her business grew from just word of mouth. “It has been purely organic.” She found that rich diversity of cultures in the UAE, home to more than 200 nationalities, ensures gifting happens all through the year.
“The culture of gifting is massive in the UAE. People have big hearts here in the UAE and they simply love to gift their loved ones, extended families or clients,” the CEO said.
She added: “We are not a marketplace. We have our own internal florist, internal chocolate designer, balloon artist. So everything is designed in-house and then produced in-house. We have chiller vans and our own drivers to deliver our gift boxes.”
Having an in-house team which handles the creation and design process, its own delivery system has proved advantageous a wide selection of options and customer focus has greatly helped spread the word about her business.
It also helps that the UAE’s diverse culture contributes to a year-round culture of gifting, driven by the population’s inclination to gift to family, extended relatives, and clients.