“I believe that a woman does not have to choose only one version of herself.”
Mariam Hamdan reflects on motherhood, entrepreneurship, and building a career that can evolve alongside different stages of life. From launching her first business after becoming a mother to helping other women turn ideas into businesses, she shares the lessons that shaped her journey.
Can you introduce yourself beyond your work and business titles?
I am Mariam Hamdan, a Lebanese woman born and raised in Kuwait, a wife and a mother of three. Beyond being an entrepreneur, business consultant, and content creator, I see myself as a curious person who loves learning, trying new things, and connecting with people.
Motherhood has played a very important role in shaping who I am and even influenced the beginning of my entrepreneurial journey. I believe that a woman does not have to choose only one version of herself. She can be a mother, build a business, learn, change direction, start again, and continue discovering herself at every stage of life.
What first inspired you to become an entrepreneur, and when did you decide to build something of your own?
My entrepreneurial journey started in 2014, after I had my second son. At that time, traditional working hours were becoming difficult for me because I wanted more flexibility and more time with my children.
Instead of seeing that as a limitation, I started thinking about what I could build for myself. That is how Mariam Beauty Cosmetics began, initially focusing on eyelashes and makeup.
I started small, but I was very involved in every detail. I shared my products, my daily life, and where customers could find my lashes. Gradually, people started following not only the products but also my personal journey. Looking back, motherhood did not stop my career; it actually pushed me to create a different one.
Starting a business can look very different from what people imagine. What was the reality of your early journey?
The reality was much less glamorous than people might imagine. I had to learn almost everything by doing: finding products, dealing with suppliers, importing, pricing, marketing, selling, and communicating with customers.
There was no perfect roadmap. I made mistakes, learned from them, adjusted, and kept going. Social media also became an important part of the journey. People were watching me build the business while I was actually learning how to build it.
That experience taught me something I still tell women today: you do not need to know everything before you start. You need to start intelligently, stay curious, and be willing to learn.
What has building Mariam Lounge taught you about running a business and understanding what women really want?
Mariam Lounge taught me that what we think customers want is not always what they actually need. Running a physical business puts you very close to your customers. You hear their comments, see their habits, understand what makes them return, and learn what they truly value.
It also taught me that a beautiful concept alone is not enough. You have to understand costs, pricing, staff, customer experience, marketing, and changing market conditions.
Most importantly, women appreciate feeling understood. Sometimes simplicity, comfort, good service, and trust are more valuable than creating something complicated just because it looks impressive.
You work with other entrepreneurs as well. What are some of the biggest challenges you see women facing when they are trying to turn an idea into a business?
One of the biggest challenges I see is overthinking before taking the first step. Many women have very good ideas, but they believe everything has to be perfect before they launch: the logo, packaging, social media, products, and full business plan.
Another challenge is not understanding the numbers. A product can be beautiful and sell well, but if the pricing, costs, and margins are wrong, it is not a sustainable business.
Through my consulting work, I try to make business feel practical rather than intimidating. My goal is to help women break a big idea into small, realistic steps they can actually execute.
What is one business lesson you learnt through experience that you wish you had known when you were starting out?
I wish I had understood earlier that you do not have to invest heavily to prove that an idea is good. Test first.
Start with a smaller quantity, listen to customers, study the response, and then decide whether the idea deserves more investment. I learnt this through real experience in products, importing, services, and different business projects.
Today, I always encourage women to validate an idea before putting too much money into it. Starting small is not thinking small; sometimes it is the smartest way to build something bigger.
How do you approach making difficult decisions when a business idea, plan, or strategy does not go the way you expected?
I try not to become emotionally attached to the original plan. I can love an idea, but the market does not have to love it just because I do.
When something is not working, I look at the numbers, customer response, timing, and what can realistically be changed. Sometimes the answer is improving the idea, sometimes it is changing direction, and sometimes it is knowing when to stop.
I have learnt that changing your strategy is not failure. As an entrepreneur, flexibility is one of your greatest strengths.
Through your content, you share both business knowledge and parts of your everyday journey. What made you want to show the real side of entrepreneurship?
Interestingly, I started sharing my everyday life before I ever thought of myself as a content creator. When I launched Mariam Beauty Cosmetics, I would share my lashes, makeup, where people could buy the products, and parts of my daily routine. People gradually became interested in both the business and the person behind it.
Over the years, content creation became an important part of my professional journey. I have had the opportunity to work with different brands and have also been one of the personalities featured on Boutiqaat, one of the region’s well-known beauty and lifestyle platforms, for several years. This experience allowed me to connect with an even wider audience and gave me a deeper understanding of how personal branding, content, and business can work together.
Even as my platforms grew, I wanted to keep sharing a realistic journey. I do not want entrepreneurship to look like a collection of perfect moments. There are successful days, difficult decisions, ideas that work, ideas that do not, and constant learning.
I believe people connect more deeply with a real journey than with an image of perfection.
What changes are you seeing in the way women in the region are approaching business, independence, and building their own careers?
I see women becoming much more confident about creating their own opportunities. A woman today can start from home, build an audience online, source a product internationally, learn a skill digitally, and reach customers without needing the traditional structure that was once necessary to start a business.
Technology, and especially AI, has made this even more accessible. Today, many tasks that once required a large team, a bigger budget, or many hours of work can be done much faster. AI can support entrepreneurs with research, brainstorming, content creation, planning, presentations, and even organizing their ideas. I see it as a tool that saves time and effort, but the vision, decisions, creativity, and understanding of the customer still have to come from the entrepreneur.
I also see more women wanting financial independence and something that represents their own identity and ambitions.
However, access to information is not always the problem anymore; sometimes there is too much information. What women often need now is clarity: which information applies to them, what to ignore, and what their actual next step should be.
For a woman who has a business idea but keeps delaying the first step, what would you tell her?
I would tell her: make the first step smaller.
Do not tell yourself, “I need to start a business.” Ask yourself, “What is one thing I can do this week to test this idea?”
Find ten potential customers. Ask questions. Get a sample. Calculate the cost. Create a simple version of the service. Take one practical step.
You do not need to see the entire staircase before taking the first step. Clarity often comes after you start moving, not before.
Entrepreneurship can take up a lot of your time. What helps you stay connected to yourself, your family, and the things you enjoy outside work?
This is something I am still learning, and I think that is important to admit. I do not believe balance means giving everything equal time every day. Some periods require more from the business, and other periods require more from the family.
Being a mother is actually one of the reasons I chose entrepreneurship in the first place. I wanted the freedom to build my professional life without completely losing my presence in my children’s lives.
Today, I try to stay connected through simple things: family time, conversations, coffee, everyday routines, meeting people I enjoy, and occasionally giving myself permission to slow down. For me, balance is not perfection; it is being aware when one part of your life has been neglected for too long and bringing your attention back to it.
Looking ahead, what would you love to build, learn, or contribute next, and what kind of impact do you hope your journey will have on other women?
I want to continue building spaces where women can learn business through real experience, not only theory.
My experience with importing is a good example. I first learnt how to import through Alibaba because I needed it for my own business. After successfully going through that process myself, I developed my knowledge further and became a certified import consultant after joining Sanctuary, a businesswomen’s club. What started as something I needed for my own business became knowledge I could use to help other women.
Since then, I have helped many women take their first steps toward small businesses, particularly by making importing and business planning easier to understand.
I also genuinely love women’s gatherings. I believe that when women come together, beautiful opportunities are created to exchange ideas, broaden our perspectives, learn from one another, and sometimes even create new collaborations. This is why I regularly organize a gathering called “Coffee with Mariam” at Mariam Lounge, where women can meet, talk, exchange experiences and ideas, and build meaningful connections in a relaxed environment.
Looking ahead, I want to expand this impact through consulting, workshops, content, communities, women’s gatherings, and new business projects of my own. I also want to keep learning because I never want to reach a point where I think I know everything.
If my journey leaves one message for another woman, I hope it is this: you are allowed to evolve. The business you start today does not have to define you forever. Every experience can become knowledge, and that knowledge can eventually become something that helps someone else.
