Meet the Members: Rajaa, a Syrian Entrepreneur Expanding her Online Business to In-Person During COVID-19

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Name: Rajaa Belkasem
Business: Good Moms
Home Country: Syria


Before coming to Turkey, Syrian entrepreneur Rajaa Belkasem had no background in the business world. But as a housewife who had married young, she had a wealth of experience preparing delicious and creative recipes for her family. These skills helped Rajaa find community in Turkey by working with a group of divorced and widowed women making traditional Makdous.

What started as a small business in a home kitchen soon expanded into a small workshop and then a 500-square-meter factory producing authentic Damascene food in Istanbul. As the manager, Rajaa oversaw wholesale deals with restaurants and shops around the city. The company’s reputation continued to grow, and Rajaa’s family soon opened a shop in the Fatih district to sell and promote the products directly.

Rajaa’s success hit a barrier when new work regulations in the city caused her to lose the women refugee workers who formed the foundation of the business. At the same time, she was having difficulty expanding to the European side of the city. She moved production from the factory to a smaller workshop beneath the Fatih storefront.

It was during this period that Rajaa learned about the LIFE Project. There, “I met a network of women who were a lot like myself in the food sector,” she recalls. She decided to combine this network with her business experience and started a website called Good Moms, which connects home cooks with new customers.

As she was launching her website, the COVID-19 pandemic brought new challenges for food businesses. Because her primary business was online, Rajaa was still able to operate - but not without difficulty. “While my website was doing well, the logistical issues of delivery were incredibly challenging,” she says. “I knew that in order for my website to really bloom, I had to unite my staff under one roof and have the delivery process start from one point on the map instead of multiple locations.”

After the economy started to open back up, she found a cafe and restaurant space that was completely ready and suitable for her business idea. She rented the space and used it to bring the Good Moms business from online to a physical space. This new iteration of Good Moms followed the original business model, with Rajaa contracting women to use the kitchen as part of her staff. The addition of physical space also offered new opportunities to expand the business: Good Moms is planning to host and cater events, and will offer courses in professional skills for youth. 

“This is the fourth year for me working in the food sector,” Rajaa observed. “My advice to fellow entrepreneurs would be: set a goal for yourself and be patient. If you fail once or twice do not give up, so long as you have a project you just have to be patient.”

Rajaa’s advice comes from experience - and Good Moms is an example of that patience and persistence paying off. “I am finally seeing the fruits of my labor after four years of my hard work and getting the experience,” she says. “If I had stopped at the first obstacle, I would not have reached where I am today.”

Are you interested in Rajaa’s story or see potential in his business as an investor? Learn more and get in touch with her at https://gdmoms.com, on Instagram @gdmoms, or on Twitter @goodmoms1.