About Us

Hello, I'm Mark.

I'm the founder and creator of I Want It Now. We launched in September 2015, but the journey started long before that—with plenty of ideas, hard work and a few unexpected twists along the way.

Always making something

From an early age, I was always interested in making and creating things—from drawing and painting to cutting, gluing and experimenting with different materials and designs.

After leaving school, I worked several jobs to earn money that I could put into my business ideas. I knew I still had skills to learn, so I studied Product Design at college and later completed a degree in Interior Design at the University of Lincoln. While studying, I bought a heat press and started a small business making T-shirts and selling products from independent brands. I ran it alongside my degree until the recession in 2007. In 2009, I moved to the UAE and worked in both retail and design, but I never lost the ambition to create a business of my own.

The first AED 5 sale

In 2014, I started making wall stickers for my new apartment, and the ideas kept coming. I spent months designing products and testing different materials.

In January 2015, I took those products to my first market in Abu Dhabi. I was excited, nervous and probably arrived with far too much stuff—including an entire tent. The market was slow, but then a little girl bought an AED 5 pin with her pocket money. She became the first customer of I Want It Now.

I still remember that sale. It wasn't about the AED 5; it was the fact that someone I didn't know had chosen something I had created. Customer feedback encouraged me to keep going, first at markets in Abu Dhabi and later in Dubai. Eventually, I resigned from my job. That was when the pressure really started.

From markets to more than 20 shops

Eight months after that first market, we launched the I Want It Now website. The business grew from there and, at one stage, our products were stocked by more than 20 retailers across the UAE.

It hasn't been a straight line or an overnight success. There have been busy years, slow years, products that worked, products that didn't, a storage fire in Jebel Ali and more than a few moments when I wondered whether the business would survive. Each chapter forced me to adapt, learn and start building again.

Today—still figuring it out

Today, I Want It Now is mainly online, and I still run the business independently from Dubai. I design, make, source, photograph, pack and ship everything from doormats and personalised prints to magnets, mugs, pins and stickers. Some days are spent developing new ideas; others are spent covered in coir fibres or packing orders late into the evening.

After more than a decade, this still isn't a perfectly polished success story. I'm still learning, testing ideas and trying to build a better business. But the reason for doing it remains the same as that first AED 5 pin: creating something with personality that connects with someone and makes them smile.

Thank you for supporting an independent UAE business and allowing me to keep creating.
— Mark