Making it in the UAE – Donna Benton

But when her first job didn’t work out, Benton began to the city could offer. Dubai, to Benton, was a place of opportunity. At the time, it was also a city filling with restaurants, hotels, beach clubs, spas, waterparks and other places to spend money.  Residents wanted to enjoy more of it. Businesses needed customers through the door. Benton, who came from a family with “not much money”, saw the gap. Her answer was buy one, get one free “Everyone does discounts,” she said. “Buy one, get one is the strongest deal in the market.” Year one, Benton admits, “wasn’t easy”. She had no product to show, only an idea, and was trying to convince hoteliers and restaurateurs to sign on just as September 11 froze travel. After printing 10,000 books, the ambitious young entrepreneur sold just 997. She was undeterred. , the books were wrapped, more merchants had come on board, and the model was starting to prove itself. The business later expanded into Abu Dhabi, Qatar and the wider GCC, before moving into markets including Jordan, Egypt, Singapore, Malaysia, Hong Kong, South Africa, Malta and the UK. At its peak, Benton said, The ENTERTRAINER  was in 15 countries. In 2012, she sold 50% of the business to an investment company to help fast-track international growth and the shift from print to digital. The move to an app made the product easier for customers to use and gave the business better data. It also helped grow its B2B offer with banks and other corporates. In 2018, Benton sold a majority stake to a private investor group, before announcing her full exit two years later, after selling her remaining 15%. By then, she was already building a wider portfolio through The Benton Group. She launched CAHA CAPO, a Dubai-based swimwear label; became a board member of Sunset Hospitality Group, whose brands include restaurant chains SushiSamba and Black Tap; opened Chloe’s Beauty, Nail and Hair Salon, named after her daughter; and became a shareholder in the MENA Golf Tour, a professional circuit for players across the Middle East and North Africa. Her next focus is wellness and longevity. Benton is developing KYB – Know Your Body – a liposomal supplement brand aimed at improving nutrient absorption, and building a wellness centre in Phuket, Thailand, where people can go to “lose weight, get fit, feel good about themselves” or simply “have some downtime”. What connects these initiatives, Benton says, is that they are all things she genuinely cares about, and all, in different ways, are about helping people. “I don’t like greedy people,” she said. “If you’ve done well, you should give back in some form.” With The ENTERTAINER, it means a family can go to a waterpark four times a year instead of twice.