We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Elham Gamal. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Elham below.

Elham , thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. If you’re open to it, can you talk to us about the best (or worst) investment you’ve made. What’s the backstory and the relevant context behind why you made the investment

I remember before I launched my business, I spend weeks figuring out how I am gonna manage my budget, website cost, my own domain, ads and etc.. All of that and I know that my bussiness may not work, most people do not succeed in launching their own business, and I had to prepare myself for the worst scenario

I spend half of my salary and time on purchasing my own domain and a host. I went the old-school, the common, and old tips you found on the internet when you decided to open your own online shop. Let me tell you, I regretted every cent and every second wasted with following the guides of the old school. Later I knew from younger and more successful entrepreneurs that I don’t have to buy anything to guarantee customer trust. The customer won’t care who is my host or what is my domain name or whether it ends with org, com, or anything. What reminds customers of my business is the quality of my products and my content. They trust more in my intentions in delivering them the best service I can.

Later on, I found ways to open a totally free website builder with all the marketing services too. I don’t even have to renew my domain again. I can put one link including all my social media accounts, my youtube channel, and my store in bio, in every place I want. Now, I save more money, got more time to focus on my content and digital products, and got more time for myself as a human being.

If you ask what I have learned from that financial and time disaster during my beginnings, I would say that the world of business and tech is now like an unsepereated twin, they develop together, I can not depend only on the old-school guide that everyone knows. I got to learn from the newbies, learn from my competitors, and see what works for me. Not every famous and common online service or paid software is the key to a successful business. They are small treasures on the internet that can help me efficiently and they are waiting for people to find and use them.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

I am Elham, a content creator. I have been always in love with planners, or anything used to plan your day out. Back in college, I noticed that in every planner or notebook my friends got, they always start to decorate them with stickers or get boring with it later or complain about a disturbing thing in this planner this page is very colorful and I like it too be a little aesthetic. Another one is an Anime huge fan, who struggles to find one suits her taste. Not just my friends, and even people commenting about their wishes on digital planners creators on Instagram, YouTube, etc…

Then, I figured out I got various skills I can with them to open my own shop and promote it too. I can create my own digital planners and offer a service for anyone who wants customized planners with specific details. Also, can deal with social media platforms regarding marketing. I start my own business called “MeraaKee”, a Latin word that means devotion, inspiration, etc..

If you go through my online shop, you can see different planners with different themes. We have aesthetic planners, coffee lovers planners, and artistic ones like Van Gogh Planner, or Watercolor. Even the Tv shows, or movie fans, we didn’t forget about them. You can say hi to La Case De Papel or We Are The Bears Planners on your way. A Lot of Themes will be created. And you can order your own product with the details you set and would get a credit if you decide and allowed us to publish your own details, suit yourself.

Our Attention is to spread life to your tasks, just like the meaning MeraaKee’s color, and mix your entertainment with the organization to get you the best experience. Whether you are an iPad, Tablet,or desktop user, we got your digital planner, Whether, you are a digital, or printable person, both are with us. And If your soul likes to color digitally or on paper, we got a Mandela Notebook for coloruing ready for you.

Okay – so how did you figure out the manufacturing part? Did you have prior experience?

My Products are digital, so they are manufactured by laptops. I face a challenge in the beginning, cause’ most digital planner shop owners create theirs by iPad or Keynote software, an IOS product, and I am a PC and Android Person. O have never bought an apple device and don’t have the budget to buy one to create my own. So I learned how to use my own devices to create and it went well. It was hard at the first, cause there is not enough information about using them for such purposes, but I think I did well with much less expensive devices than Apple’s.

Do you sell on your site, or do you use a platform like Amazon, Etsy, Cratejoy, etc?

At first, I went for Etsy, but couldn’t use it, cause’ their payment method does not work where I live, in Egypt. Other alternative platforms got fewer services with more money. Then I decided to build my own website with a host, but it turns out it is just very expensive to pay for building a proper website, the hosting fee and for owning a domain. All of that costs, even without mentioning the ads and the marketing plan I had in my mind, all cost a fortune. It was just a losing game for me. Then I found “Payhip”, an unpopular platform at all, but with incredible options that famous platforms don’t have.

It gives me the ability to build my website for free, including all the marketing services. I didn’t even pay a cent for those services.

About its only con, I guess taking 5% of every purchase you got would be expensive for the most. Even you can reduce this rate by upgrading your plan with them. This is their only service that costs money.

So far, this is my most beneficial tool I ever found online.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://meraakee.site/collection/all
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/meraa.kee/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/meraa.kee/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC26nhVT8DuH14hPRkpkCnvw