Qatar Living speaks to Sabrine Saadmalek, an entrepreneur, businesswoman, blogger, and the founder of SabrineCat Swimwear and SabrineCat home, to learn more about her journey building her business and inspiring women to find alternative ways of expressing themselves.

30-year-old Sabrine is a Moroccan who was raised in Rotterdam in the Netherlands. She is known as SabrineCat.

She moved to Doha in 2017 and started her own company here.

Sabrine shares her lifestyle and travels on social media to inspire women all over the world to live their best lives. Her brand rises above the stereotypes about what it looks like to be a woman in the 21^st century.

Sabrine has influenced a lot of women and encouraged them to live their lives confidently.

Although Sabrine now has over 340k followers on her Instagram page, she says she never planned to be a blogger.

“To be an influencer/blogger was never my intention, but somehow over the years I grew my page into my own little ‘blog’. It kind of just happened. I started my page almost 10 years ago! Back then, just to share pictures with friends and family,” she said.

“I have always wanted to inspire women and younger girls that they can do whatever they put their minds to. I want to inspire people to dream big and to let go of fear. I always take big risks with everything I do in my life. If it does not work at the end, I can say to myself, “At least you have tried.” If people look at me, I want them to think they can chase their dreams as well. No matter how small or big. You just must go for it,” Sabrine said.

Sabrine has always dreamed to be an entrepreneur since she was a young girl. She used her social media platforms, especially Instagram to build new customers for her brands.

“I wanted to have something that was mine. I was always playing games when I was younger, pretending I would have my own store, or my own restaurant,” she recalled.

Referring to her Instagram page she said, “I think I was ‘lucky’ to already have a big following, because that’s where most of my customers come from. It is not easy to build a strong customer base as a small business who just started. But I have always told myself to not expect too much for the first year, as people still must know the brand,” she added.

Sabrine came up with an innovative way of modest swimwear under the name of SabrineCat Swimwear (SCS). She designed her own style of swimwear after she evaluated the feedback and concerns from women worldwide.

“I started SabrineCat Swimwear because I’ve always been struggling to find the perfect modest swimsuit, so I decided one day I wanted to design my very own swimsuit,” she said

The idea of SabrineCat Swimwear is to give women all around the world the opportunity to swim more comfortably.

Sabrine’s interests are not only limited to fashion but she is also inclined toward home decor and cooking. She founded SabrineCat Home as she noticed that a lot of her followers showed interest in her home interior and cooking.

“I started a separate new page and called it SabrineCatHome, to have everything in one place and to share everything related to home on it,” she mentioned.

Sabrine was inspired by her mother, she said. “The person who inspires me 100 percent is my mother, who always stays positive no matter what. She inspires me to stay strong and make the best out of every situation. My mother has taught me to take care of myself and I am so grateful for that,” she added.

Her journey as an entrepreneur has taught her a lot of lessons, Sabrine said.

“The biggest lesson would definitely be that it is not as easy as it may look like on Instagram! I thought it would be ‘easier’ to start your own company from scratch but it’s super hard work.”

COVID-19 delayed a lot of Sabrine’s plans and new projects, and during this period she could not travel to finish her new collections.

“I had many plans for this summer but unfortunately I have to postpone everything until next year. As for now I am being patient and waiting for everything to go, somewhat, back to normal.”

Being an entrepreneur is all about hard work and patience against all the challenges, Sabrine said.

“Another huge challenge has been not to give up when times would get hard. There were so many scenarios that happened, and I would just want to give up everything. It is a challenge to get yourself together and finish what you started,” she added.

Sabrine was able to face all those challenges because of her family’s support and encouragement. She also took all the positivity from her followers on Instagram.

“My family, my husband, my friends. I have the best supporters I could wish for. And of course, my amazing followers on Instagram who support me even when they do not know me personally,” she said.

Sabrine believes that there is no impossible, and anyone can make his/her dream come true.

She concluded with this advise: “I think being yourself is an important key, and don’t give up easily when times get hard would help a lot. Consistently working on yourself and your company would make you successful. Listen to your customers, listen to your followers. They are the ones who make your entrepreneurship successful. And always trust God.”

To know more about Sabrine Saadmalek and her projects, you can check her on her Instagram: @Sabrinecat, @Sabrinecatswimwear and @Sabrinecathome.

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