Side hustles are the new norm for Doha’s women go-getters

With income diversification becoming a trend, especially among young people, it’s very common to see employees holding regular full-time jobs pursuing side hustles to meet their financial needs and goals. And women who are often known to be the good ‘multitaskers’, seem to be comfortable in doing this. More and more women in Doha are successfully running their online businesses while maintaining their day jobs. Not an easy feat, but definitely worth it, they reason.

Fatma Ibrahim Asad, the Founder of Lovah Collection, is currently employed full time with an oil and gas company in Doha. Her transformation from a regular office worker to an entrepreneur did not happen by chance. She has always planned to be a businesswoman. And with the help of social media, she successfully transformed into one. With over 10,000 followers on Instagram, her business, which focuses on women’s wear such as abayas, is making a buzz online.

“It’s about managing the time. Your job is a commitment. But the challenge is how to also stay committed to your business. My job actually demands a lot of time, effort, and focus from me. But because I’m also passionate about my business, I find time for it. Also, I love communicating with my customers, which energizes me. My business actually brings me relief because I’m doing something that I enjoy,” Asad said while speaking to The Peninsula on the sidelines of the Arab Women in Tech session organised by the Ministry of Transport and Communication (MoTC) recently.

Abir Bouguerra, Co-Founder and CEO of Vectorize, a 3D printing business in Doha, recalls the sacrifices she made early on in her business career. “I do remember there were a couple of years where I was working a 9-to-5 job, and then I go back home, barely eat, and then go back to my business. It’s a sacrifice that you need to do to develop the business itself. Otherwise, it will never happen. It’s a choice. And there’s no easy way to do it. The entrepreneurial life is very attractive, but it comes with consequences,” she added.

Bouguerra, who had bigger aspirations in her business career, soon left her full time job to focus on establishing her career as a businesswoman. She started taking entrepreneurial courses at Qatar Foundation (QF), where the idea for Vectorize was birthed. She partnered with QF during the first year of the company’s operation, and later started operating as an independent company.

Giving advice to women entrepreneurs on how to successfully manage their online business, Hanan Mohammed Al Shikh Abobakr, Co-Founder of Bfive, said that while it is good to build a strong online presence, entrepreneurs should not forget to actually cater to what the market really needs.

“They can spend a lot in building mobile applications or fancy websites. But at the end of the day, its success will only depend on who visits that website or downloads that app. We need businesses which are smart enough to reach out to their clients and deliver good products,” she added.

Abobakr, who co-founded Bfive, a creative freelancing platform in Qatar, is also currently working in the computer science field. She is also a strong advocate of bringing value to the market. “We really want to do something that the market needs. We feel that our existence as a business won’t have any meaning unless we give value to the Qatari market,” she added.