SWITCHING IT UP

This Pretoria woman left school to start her online beauty company. Six years later, the money’s rolling in

- KIM ABRAHAMS

AT the age of 20 many young people don’t know what they want to do with the rest of their lives and are still dependent on Mom and Dad for everything from a roof over their heads to food on the table.

But not Rabia Ghoor. This go-getter has been running her own business since the age of 14 – and just six years later, her little enterprise has grown into a seven-figure company that employs seven people and ships around 3 000 orders a month.

Rabia has been described as South Africa’s answer to Kylie Jenner because, like the youngest member of the Kardashian-Jenner clan, she too is making her mark in the beauty industry.

She’s the creator and owner of SwiitchBeauty, an online beauty product store she developed from her bedroom in her family home in Laudium, Pretoria, when she was barely in high school.

“The beauty scene on YouTube was just starting to boom and around the same time I’d just got my first smartphone,” she tells us via video call. “I’d spend hours on the app watching tutorials and reviews and immersing myself in general beauty banter.”

She became obsessed with creating her own beauty line, she says. “School was never fun for me. All of a sudden I had this side hustle that I really enjoyed.”

But school was getting in the way, she found.

“It was taking up so much of my time. I’d work on the business till 4am then have to be up at 6am to go to school.

“My time management was bad and my grades were definitely worse off for it.”

Initially, Rabia was doing everything by herself – product formulation, marketing her business through social media, packaging, and managing orders.