Shavebox - Pakistan’s first Subscription-based Shaving Club

Introduce Yourself and tell us how you got the idea of Shavebox?

My name is Osama Qureshi, and I am the Co-Founder at Shavebox. I came up with this idea when I realized booking a cab, hotel room, or plane ticket is just a click away. Immediately, I asked myself why shaving can’t be this easy?

While living abroad I realized consumers had a wide range of options within the premium-shaving category all over the world. Unfortunately, in Pakistan consumers have been suffering due to the monopoly of big brands that charge a hefty amount. We thought this is where we should come in with Pakistan’s first Shave Club! The main aim behind this innovative idea was to bridge the gap and offer high-quality products at an affordable price at the customer’s doorstep without them leaving the comfort of home.

So, this is actually why we’re here and how we got this idea of disrupting the men’s grooming industry in Pakistan. By keeping customers’ satisfaction and convenience in mind, we have partnered up with Dorco, a Global Razor Giant from Korea, to offer high-quality shaving supplies at competitive prices.

What are your responsibilities as a business owner?

To introduce such a new concept to Pakistan, it is a real challenge to keep it this unique and to make the general public understand this idea. For this, I am responsible for some of the tasks like:

Day-to-day operational activities since we strive to accomplish 100% customer satisfaction.

Managing a highly talented and motivated team to make sure we are on top of things.

Research and Development.

Continuous lookout for improvements in the process.

Making sure we are hitting the targets.

What sacrifices have you had to make to become an entrepreneur?

This is a very tricky question for me as I have made many sacrifices to stand where I am standing today and I count myself lucky to have experienced so many things before I embarked on this innovative journey.

For instance, I was working as a full-time employee in Nestle and I had to choose between my job and my dream and now you can see me as a successful entrepreneur.

Furthermore, before I sacrificed my social life for ShaveBox, I was known as an outgoing person back in the USA and Qatar. As soon as I decided to leave my glorious life behind and to come back to Pakistan, I sacrificed my social life completely to focus on ShaveBox alone. But trust me when I say this, these experiences have taught me so much and this is helping me now.

How are you currently marketing Shavebox? What strategies are working and what isn’t?

Up till now, our main focus has been reaching the general public through Social Media. Through this excellent medium, we have been focusing on customer retention and loyalty since the beginning. We want to build up a community, not just customers, and I believe this has been one of our biggest strengths. Thanks to our community, we have been able to get organic traffic mostly through word of mouth and are continuously growing.

We have been very fortunate throughout our journey. Most of our strategies have worked out very well so far. To be precise, we have kept it very simple and have captured targeted audiences. But as we are moving into phase 2 of our plan, we have very different and innovative strategies in the pipeline where a lot of exciting and engaging content shall be seen.

What have been your most satisfying moments in business?

The small milestones that I as a business owner together with my team have achieved so far are some of the most satisfying moments. However, if I could point one moment out of all would be when last year we reached a toll of a total of 5000 subscribers quite early on. To be honest it was definitely a great moment for all of the team. You see, this is how little effort when shape up makes you stronger and motivated.

Tell us about a time where you had to take a risk in your business?

I had to take risks at a very early stage. Initially, we had tested the market when we launched our own brand earlier in 2017. There is always a risk attached if you are not launching a branded product to compete with already well-established competition. But at this stage, we wanted to test the market and test the consumer’s willingness to accept change. Fortunately, it went very well, and soon afterward, we successfully partnered up with Dorco, which we all know is another giant in the men’s grooming industry.

What advice do you have for aspiring entrepreneurs?

The best advice I can give to an aspiring entrepreneur is don’t be afraid of trying and failing! I think if I hadn’t failed earlier, I wouldn’t have ever reached this point. These small little failures on the course are reminders to constant improvement being essential. In the words of Confucius “Greatest glory lies not in ever falling, but in rising every time you fall”