OmanHomes Article On Business Today (Review : Rating: 10/10)

Okay, so this topic is a bit unorthodox, but I couldnt help myself. So I thought I would review Business Today article on My Company (Omanhomes.com), and how well they captured the spirit within me. And I speak for all my staff in my company, especially my wife that the article was superb and deserves 10/10. Read it for yourself below. For those who are interested, the Magazine (Business Today) March edition is on stand now.

PS/ Check out my photo, do I look cute or do I look cute :)




Salim al Harthy, managing director, Oman Homes, is in the business of real estate ­ the business of helping people find a base. The entrepreneur himself prefers multiple bases when it comes to work. The 31 year old is an oil engineer with PDO and the manager of the online discussion channel Oman Forum, besides being the mind behind Oman¹s first real estate website ­ omanhomes.com. And Harthy doesn¹t think that he has more on his plate than he can handle.

You know what business is? It is busyness. You have to be busy in order to do business,² he says. For someone who works 16 hours a day, busyness is really a way of life. ³As an entrepreneur, you¹re always thinking of new ideas. Then you work on those ideas. That¹s your business.² He says that with the confidence of someone who worked on an idea, put in a capital of RO50, and made a net profit of RO500 with his first deal. ³About a year and a half ago, I was looking to start a business that was connected to the Internet. At first, I really didn¹t have real estate in mind. I was just finding out about different business ideas. I came across this interesting software, which was designed for cars actually. I thought that it would be good if I adapted it for housing. It took me about a month and a half to do that. And that was the beginning of Oman Homes.²

In the beginning, it was just Harthy and his partner, and an advertisement in the paper about the houses. ³Three weeks later, we were getting 10-15 emails per day, with people enquiring about the houses. We got an email from this man in Australia, who wanted a house here. He saw the house on the website, liked it, and transferred the money. We had made our first profit - RO500. And it was a net profit because I hadn¹t really spent on anything apart from registering the website.²


To start with, Harthy¹s wife Adhra managed the administration of the business with a telephone and a computer from home. As Oman Homes grew, office space, a team of seven and two company cars, entered into the picture. More expansion is on the agenda now, both in terms of infrastructure and ideation. ³We¹ve bought land at Ansab, and are planning on building and selling next.²

He credits the success of Oman Homes in significant part to how user-friendly its website is. ³How we¹re different at Oman Homes is that you can see the inside of the house through photographs on the site. It is very easy to find what you are looking for.² Besides, Oman Homes has a sponsored link on Google that improves its visibility. ³Sixty per cent of those checking out the website are from overseas. Mostly they¹ve got job offers from Oman and want to find out about the real estate scene here. So the link helps.² What also helps is an arrangement with a certified real estate appraiser. ³Whatever enquiries we get, we forward it to them and we get a commission out of it,² Harthy explains about the value addition.²

The self-taught programmer and web designer describes the real estate business as one which is steeped in the art of negotiation. ³It is essentially all about how you talk to people.² And then there are the three Ls of real estate ­ listing (the number of houses you have), leverage (the people) and leads (the enquiries that come in). ³If there aren¹t enough listings, then I have to check how hard the people are working. If there aren¹t enough leads, I probably have to increase my advertising. They¹re all
interconnected.²

The interest in interconnections was what led to Oman Forum. Oman Forum actually started as the discussion board of the Oman Auto site. ³I realized that people just came to the discussion board to chat, and not even about cars at that. As it¹s popularity increased, we decided to make it Oman Forum.²

The website, which started with about 15,000 hits a day, now gets about 14000 hits a day. Ask Harthy if he is trying to evolve it into a commercial platform and he says, ³Advertisers have shown interest. But I enjoy the fact that it provides information about Oman. And it will continue that way.²


For the continuing success of business, Harthy puts a premium on advertising. ³If you give me RO1mn to invest in a business right now, I¹ll put RO900,000 in advertising and RO100,000 in the business. There are so many companies here who think that the RO50 they might be spending per week or per month on advertising is too much. But they don¹t understand the power of that RO50. With that RO50, you could get RO1000.²

That sentiment makes its way back to his business. ³Every call is a potential RO1mn. You help out one guy with a house worth RO100. He is happy, he tells another guy. You help this other guy, he is happy as well and he tells his big boss. It is a chain reaction that leads to bigger things really. Each customer is important.² He points to a copy of The Millionaire Real Estate Agent by Gary Keller and says, ³That is my favourite book and that is what I am trying to become.² He adds quickly, ³But I don¹t think money is everything. When you die, you cannot take the money with you. I realise that, which is why I am not afraid of taking risks.²