Delivery service industry attracting Saudi women

The field of service delivery is gaining increasing attention from many young women, who seek to turn their hobbies and skills into a professional business to earn a decent income.
Pages on social networking sites, such as Twitter and Facebook, are emerging as a place where these women can connect with families and friends to take orders and discuss various matters, from purchasing presents for customers to putting together healthy nutritional meal plans.
One these entrepreneurial women is Raya, who supports her husband and family with her home-based service delivery business, which she says began after she was unable to find an appropriate job in the market.
She says she receives orders for various services over the phone, which include purchasing gifts, delivering flowers between friends, and picking up and delivering food orders in return for a fee of about 50 riyals.
Similarly, Fawzia and her husband began their home-delivery service due to lack of job opportunities for Fawzia, a mathematics graduate. Her business involves picking up certain items from shopping centers and delivering them to customer’s homes within one day.
Both she and her husband run the service delivery business, which often involves traveling between Jeddah, Makkah, and Taif to reach customers.
Many women, have also resorted to Instagram and other social networking portals to market and advertise their service businesses.
“Women are no longer passive recipients of social security subsidies or available government jobs, but instead have taken initiative to access wider fields for employment, from cooking to making handicrafts,” explained Kholood Dahwa, vice president of the Productive Families Committee and an accessories designer.
“Currently, women are marketing their businesses from their homes, and engaging in such profitable work to help not only themselves, but also many families facing transportation problems,” Dahwa elaborated.
The designer encouraged women to work in this important field provided they have a trustworthy driver, such as a brother or husband, who can take care of the delivery service, as well as working on building their skills to expand their opportunities.