KARACHI: It all began with bedbugs and termites in a Karachi home two decades ago, a nuisance that eventually gave birth to what is now a thriving home maintenance business and, in its founder’s words, a small movement to empower women to make decisions inside their own households.
Samina Faisal Khan, 44, launched ForiFix in 2015, offering professional home maintenance services ranging from pest control to painting, heat-proofing and handyman work. Over time, the company built a clientele dominated by women and, according to Khan, gradually changed how many of them approached household decision-making.
Khan says the idea for the business emerged from her own experience after moving to Karachi in 2004 for work. Born in a village in Larkana district, she had spent 13 years in the Middle East before returning to Pakistan and pursuing a Master’s in Business Administration.
During her early years in Karachi, her home was infested with bedbugs and termites. Living with her mother and five sisters while her father worked abroad, Khan struggled to find reliable help for basic maintenance work, a challenge that planted the seed for what would eventually become ForiFix.
“With zero investment I started this business,” Khan told Arab News.
Being bedridden after an accident in 2008 gave her time to research pest control and home maintenance services, eventually revealing what she saw as a major gap in Pakistan’s market.
Khan began offering small services to friends and family that year but lacked the resources to formally launch the business until 2015, when she partnered with a family friend, Faisal Khan, whose family had worked in industrial pest control for three generations.
The company, whose name combines the Urdu word “fori” — or “immediate” — with “fix,” offers quick-fix solutions to day-to-day issues facing families not just in Karachi but also in other parts of the country.
“The first few women who reached out to me were single mums or women whose husbands or fathers lived abroad and they didn’t have any men in the house, just like my mother’s [household].”
One of her longtime clients, Ambreen Salman, whose husband frequently travels, said the company proved to be a reliable solution.
“Whenever I have contacted ForiFix, I have felt safe and secure despite being alone at home,” she said.
Today, Khan says women make up about 90-95 percent of her more than 5,000 clients, adding she has noticed a shift in how they approach decision-making over the years.
“Earlier, most women used to initiate the conversation and ask to talk about the rest with their husbands or brothers,” she said.
“I used to feel that despite being in charge of household affairs, women did not have the decision-making power,” she continued. “Women are called ‘homemakers’ and ‘queen of the kitchen’ but they still don’t have the power to make a financial decision or hire someone [for a task at home].”
ForiFix not only provided professional home maintenance services to these women, said Khan, but also led a movement to empower them.
“I wanted to make life easy for the woman who spends her day in the kitchen and cleans the house. Later down the lane, the male counterparts started calling and telling me they will not be around and the women in their homes will take care of things.”
At ForiFix, she has also tried to create opportunities for women in the workplace.
Speaking about the company’s workforce, Khan said her entire backend team consists of women working in roles ranging from customer service and social media to marketing, sales, business development and graphic design.
“I have given them the comfort to work at their convenience as long as they meet the deadline. This was something that I opted for myself and I understand how important it is for women to have that flexibility,” she said.
Khan also personally visits sites for certain clients, including single women, women who observe strict privacy norms, and overseas Pakistanis who require clear communication about work being done in their homes.
Her early efforts were not always easy. Initially, her mother was hesitant about her visiting distant work sites alone because of social perceptions about women working in such roles.
At the time, her business partner Faisal Khan proposed marriage so that the two could work together more freely, and the couple later married. They now have two children.
Faisal leads her company’s technical team of more than 25 permanent and project-based staff.
“Our major USP is the fact that all our technicians are background-checked [and] police-verified,” Khan said.
From just 10-12 clients a month in its early days, ForiFix now handles about 20-25 clients a day, she added.
“I started off with Rs35,000 annual profit in the first few years. It was very low-scale and I was doing other jobs simultaneously to help my family. Now, our annual turnover is around Rs3.5 million.”
Despite receiving inquiries from clients in other cities and even overseas, Khan says expansion is not an immediate priority.
The company has occasionally provided services in Islamabad and Lahore for Karachi-based clients who own homes there, but Khan says the business is currently focused on strengthening its operations in Karachi rather than expanding further.