Lina Hamadeh is a Mowgli Lebanon mentee entrepreneur. She joined our year-long mentoring programme in October 2011.

1. Mowgli Lebanon Case Study
Lina Hamadeh- Mowgli Entrepreneur
Lina is a graduate in Arabic Literature and Education, speaks English,
French and Arabic, and is skilled in dealing with children with extensive
experience in child educational psychology. After a career in teaching,
Lina launched her business, Busy Box, with her business partner Maha
Ayass, in December 2008. Busy Box is a small but growing company,
employing one full-time member of staff as well as the two partners, and
has taken on several art students who work part- time. The company
runs activity sessions aimed at developing artistic awareness and
creativity.
Things haven’t always been easy for Lina, and becoming an
entrepreneur has created
“My mentor is always its fair share of challenges.
pushing us, urging us not She reflects on faces as a
difficulties she
the
to give up on ideas.” female entrepreneur in
Lebanon. “I think it’s a
little different for women here. You are not always seen as
equal. But you learn from your mistakes. Some things I do in
spite of the difficulties- but some things I have learnt it is best
not to do.” Current events in Lebanon have also created challenges. “It hasn’t been easy. The
political and economic situation in the country is often changing, but we are doing well given
the climate.”
Lina met her mentor, Imad Moghrabi, at the Mowgli matching event in October 2011, and she
has very fond memories. “The event was extremely interesting,” she says. “It was a fantastic
opportunity to meet with lots of different people from different backgrounds and I was able to
learn a lot from them. Working takes up a lot of my time and the event helped to teach me the
importance of planning.” She got on well with Imad from the start. “Every time I need Imad,
he’s around,” she says. “He always comes up with new ideas.” One of his ideas- a school art
competition- created so much of a buzz around Busy Box that it’s Facebook page grew from 750
followers to almost 7,000 in just a couple of weeks.
Imad has also helped Lina to become more Key Impacts:
confident in planning ahead, decision making and
restructuring the business. “He is always pushing  Expanded staff
us, urging us not to give up on ideas and has
supported us as we launch a number of new
numbers
marketing initiatives.” Lina and Maha have  New marketing ideas
ambitious plans for acquiring a wider range of  Planning/strategy
customers and are hoping to expand into regional
markets in the near future.
 Motivation