SHE described her stint on Dragons’ Den as the “biggest and the most public rejection” ever – but Zara Saleem has had the last laugh.
The 37-year-old mum-of-two, who quit her underpaid £27k-a-year job, now has a business worth £5 million – and she started it all with just £500 at her kitchen table.
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But things haven’t all been smooth sailing for Zara, who has two daughters, aged eight and seven and her thriving beauty brand, Delhicious.
Not only did she deal with a huge plummet in sales during the coronavirus lockdown, but she’s also been faced with numerous rejections by top high-street retailers too.
However, now sales are flying for the award-winning skincare brand, which is approved by dermatologists and clinically tested.
Opening up on her business journey, Zara exclusively tells us: “I had no money when I started – we had no more than £500.
“We started with just buying a small batch of ingredients and a tiny bit of packaging. Everything else that we could do for free, we did for free, including making the website.
“The first year of revenue was very low. It was around £50,000 in year one. But now, we’ve made over £5 million since we launched.
“We’ve sold over 100,000 bottles of hair oil – we sold 10,000 bottles in three days.
“We are currently on track to make between £2 and £3 million this year and are hoping to scale the business to £8 million in the next two to three years.”
Making products in the kitchen
It was when Zara found herself having to mark up to 150 school books a day that she realised being an “underpaid” teacher was no longer for her.
And it was when Zara, who is married to her co-founder Zak Ismail, 36, came face to face with skin challenges in 2018 that the mother began making products in her kitchen.
Zak helped out too and whilst on maternity leave, things really took off, as the beauty guru, who lives in Wembley, London, explains: “I had really dry skin and really ugly, scaly patches that were really painful.
“I didn’t really want to use steroid creams and that’s when I started to experiment with ingredients that I knew had anti-inflammatory properties.
“I used to use black tea as a face toner, so I would brew the tea and add some oils, and I knew that it was a good anti-inflammatory.
“I formulated the body scrub in my kitchen and it had incredible results. Within a couple of days, my skin had almost completely cleared.”
We were really scared in the beginning but we took the risk. We were quite delusional
Zara Saleem
At the time, while Zara was employed as a teacher, her husband Zak was working in a corporate job.
However, their lifestyle was far from lavish, as she adds: “I wasn’t living a luxurious life at all.
“The money wasn’t great – teachers are incredibly underpaid for the amount of work that they do.”
The GlossyBox deal that changed everything
Unsure of the brand’s future, Zara shares: “It was never really meant to be a proper beauty brand – I didn’t really have it in my head how far I could take it.
“It was literally just me and my husband with the scrappy website that we made, hoping that we would get some sales.
“I had 20 bags of body scrub at the time and we had no sales coming in.
“I was like, ‘if I sell a couple of body scrubs, I’m great,’ but I was very much at home with my two children under two.”
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But it was a huge deal with GlossyBox that really made the business take off, as Zara recognises: “Once we’d launched and started to get a couple of sales, I was adamant that I wanted to try and get some press, so I started to reach out to a couple of journalists.
“I went on the radio and then after that, we got approached by GlossyBox, who at the time were the biggest beauty box around, and beauty boxes around that time were really taking off. They wanted to place an order of 100,000 units.
“We were still making products in our kitchen. We had no manufacturer, we had no idea how we would actually be able to fulfil the order, but we took it on and turned our house into a factory.
“Our neighbours very kindly took our furniture in, we had our family and friends coming and filling body scrubs for us and we had a crazy four months where we hand-packed and made 100,000 body scrubs.
“I think it was at that point that we kind of thought, ‘this could actually be something.’”
Going viral on TikTok
After the success with GlossyBox, Zara and Zak turned to body balms – now one of their bestselling, award-winning products.
Zara explains: “We made our body balms which went super viral on TikTok because they had incredible results for people with eczema and psoriasis.
“Our fridge was full of balms and we couldn’t make enough because the minute we would put them online they were gone.
“We created waitlists. I think we had a waitlist of around 50,000 people at one point. It was actually insane.
“We started hitting five-figure sales a month. We were growing, growing, growing and sales were pouring in.”
How to start your own business
Dragon’s Den star Theo Paphitis revealed his tips for budding entrepreneurs:
- One of the biggest barriers aspiring entrepreneurs and business owners face is a lack of confidence. You must believe in your idea — even more than that, be the one boring your friends to death about it.
- Never be afraid to make decisions. Once you have an idea, it’s the confidence to make decisions that is crucial to starting and maintaining a business.
- If you don’t take calculated risks, you’re standing still. If a decision turns out to be wrong, identify it quickly and deal with it if you can. Failing that, find someone else who can.
- It’s OK not to get it right the first time. My experience of making bad decisions is what helped develop my confidence, making me who I am today.
- Never underestimate the power of social media, and remember the internet has levelled the playing field for small businesses.
- Don’t forget to dream. A machine can’t do that!
Whilst running the business, Zara returned to her teaching job, but shortly after, realised it was time to quit for good and focus on her business full-time. Soon after, Zak followed suit.
The couple were initially fearful to take the risk and Zara describes her actions as “delusional.” But in just three months, she had matched her monthly teacher wage.
The businesswoman shares: “We had no business background whatsoever. We were really scared in the beginning but we took the risk.
“We were quite delusional. I don’t think we thought things through enough to be honest.
“We were really lucky. We had a really supportive circle of family and friends who helped us get through.
“Who knows, if anyone did doubt us, but it wasn’t to our face.”
Rejection after rejection
But things haven’t always been easy for this couple, as Zara shares: “When we first launched, we aimed to get into Boots and buyers rejected us straight away.
“They were like, ‘no you’re not ready’, and I agree with that now.
“We’ve had multiple rejections – every single retailer you can think of rejected us.”
After sales plummeted in lockdown, just four years after launching the business, Zara decided to go on Dragons’ Den, where she asked for £50,000 for 15% of the business.
But Zara left the infamous den without an investment, as she shares: “I felt like the Dragons didn’t quite get the brand.
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“But also, what had happened was, we had a spike in our sales with the GlossyBox order, and then after that, it was lockdown, which meant that I had both of my very small children at home, so I had to step back because I didn’t have any childcare available.
“I had to make that conscious decision to not invest as much time as I could in the business and obviously to the Dragons that didn’t sound good.
“I think they just didn’t really get it and they thought we were a TikTok brand. It felt like a little bit more of an excuse as to why they may not have wanted to invest.”
Reflecting on her time on the BBC show, the mother admits: “Dragons’ Den was probably the biggest and the most public rejection I’ve had, which was really difficult.
“Even before it aired, I was really nervous because I felt like I’d let myself down, I felt like I’d let the brand down because I didn’t get the investment.
“It was a really tough experience and at the time, I felt like I doubted everything about the brand.
I thought it would be good if I could have secured the investment, not for the money but more for the guidance, because obviously I didn’t have a mentor and we didn’t really know what we were doing
Zara Saleem
“They didn’t think it would scale and they didn’t think it was investable because of that one dip.
“And actually, rejection is always redirection and it’s something you need to overcome if you truly believe in whatever it is that you’re building.
“And I do fully believe in the brand, I believe in the ethos and the values of it, so I guess that keeps me going.
“I wasn’t relying on Dragons’ Den for the success of the business. I thought it would be good if I could have secured the investment, not for the money but more for the guidance, because obviously I didn’t have a mentor and we didn’t really know what we were doing.”
Expansion and £120,000 salaries
But despite walking away empty handed, it didn’t take long for things to pick up again for Delhicious.
As well as being online for Debenhams, Zara says: “Retail was a big move for us – we always wanted to be on the high street. We are in store in Beauty Base and exclusively in store with Superdrug.”
Things have since expanded from Zara and Zak’s kitchen and now, Delhicious is a team of five.
Zara adds: “We’ve got all UK manufacturers now – that process took us quite a long time.
Zara’s advice for those starting out in business
FOR those looking to start their own company, Zara shares her top tips.
She advises: “Even if it’s not perfect, just start. The way our brand looks now is very different to what it looked like five years ago. You can always change as you grow.
“I think a lot of women are held back by the idea that it needs to be perfect. Your business idea does not need to be perfect, you just need to make a start and believe that you can do it.
“You don’t need experience or lots of money. You do need to have resilience and determination, because you will get rejected a lot.
“It’s hard, business is hard, but don’t let the rejections put you off and just keep going. And be prepared for a lot of rejections.”
“Obviously when you’re making products at home, it’s a very different process – you’re making a couple of hundred to now making thousands at a time.”
“We used to pack every single order that used to come in. Now we have a fulfilment centre and it’s a very, streamlined process compared to how it was before, which was very hands-on by me and Zak literally seeing every order coming in, making the products, printing labels, and packing them ourselves.
“We’ve outsourced all of that so we can actually focus on the growth of the business.”
Being able to focus on the business growth has proved profitable for Zara and now, both she and Zak are on £120,000 salaries.
Life-changing success
Reflecting on the company’s success, she acknowledges: “We’ve had six-figure months – we’ve done at least £200,000 in one month.
“It’s been so life-changing in so many ways. Financially, to have that ease of mind, it’s incredible.
“I’m not a big spender but if we want to go on a nice holiday, we can go on a nice holiday.
“We’ve recently done a big house renovation, which was amazing – it’s something we’ve always wanted to do.
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“Going from a £27,000 salary to then being able to be on six-figures now – I would never have been able to get that in teaching.
“We’re very, very blessed and very lucky, but we’ve worked really hard for it.
“I’m still very modest, I’m very conscious of the way that I spend my money, and that’s something that I pass on to my children as well.”
Now that Zara is her own boss, she has much more flexibility over her life, as she beams: “I absolutely love that I can do all the school drop-offs and pick-ups. I have a lot of flexibility over my time which is so nice.
“Of course, we still do work a lot. People get the impression that when you run your own business, you’re not working as much.
“We work a lot but it’s on our own terms – that was the one thing that I couldn’t get in teaching and it used to break my heart.”
Zara is now on a mission to get more women into the industry, as she continues: “I’m a really big advocate for women going into business. I think it’s such a great way for women to be independent, but still be able to be present in their other roles. We need more women in business.”
Discussing the future of the business, Zara concludes: “Hopefully we’re going outside of the UK now as well and hoping to be able to expand distribution and go to more multiple retailers as well.
“We’ve definitely got our eyes on Australia and the US, as well as Kuwait and Dubai.”
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