Omani Sisters, Cousin Launch Miss Independent for Women Entrepreneurs

Three Omani sisters and their cousin have established a digital platform to encourage women to turn their talents, skills and interests into business opportunities. Their initiative aims to provide women with a space to promote their products and services reach customers and build sustainable enterprises.

Miss Independent (MI) is a community-based marketplace that connects women entrepreneurs, home-based businesses and small and medium enterprises (SMEs). In addition to offering a platform to showcase their work, it supports business development through networking opportunities, professional guidance and connections that help women expand their ventures.

Introduced in October 2026, the Omani-founded initiative also extends its support to retired women interested in pursuing new activities, sharing their expertise and exploring entrepreneurship. By bringing together women from diverse backgrounds and professional stages, Miss Independent aims to foster an inclusive community that promotes women's entrepreneurship and economic empowerment.

Key Highlights:

• Three Omani sisters and their cousin launched Miss Independent to support women entrepreneurs
• The platform offers a marketplace, networking, mentorship and professional guidance
• MI also supports retired women and plans to expand across Oman and GCC markets

Combining social networking, an integrated marketplace and access to professional experts, MI seeks to offer women more than an online space to promote and sell products and services.

Speaking exclusively to Muscat Daily, founder Omniya Al Barwani said the idea emerged from her experience of balancing a demanding career with family responsibilities.

“My working hours could extend until 2am during events. Balancing that with my home and children became exhausting, so I started looking for a way to work from home. That is when the idea was sparked,” she said.

She envisioned a single platform to enable women to display their talents, start businesses, advertise products, find professional guidance, and meet women of the same mind.

After a health challenge, her sister Noha Al Barwani joined the initiative, as it reinvigorated her priorities. They were then joined by their other sister Balqees Al Barwani and cousin Heba Al Barwani, who became co-founders.

However, it wasn't exactly easy to make it happen. The project started as a web, but it was difficult to work on it while working full-time. A failed effort to hire freelance developers resulted in the loss of the work half way through development. A second attempt to develop the platform on its own was unsuccessful due to the high cost of customizing and integrating the platform.

Each failure was a lesson learned.” Last but not least, we found a developer who got our vision and created this platform like we wanted,” Omniya said.

The four founders fund-raised for the project and continued to support it through difficult times.

MI is different from regular online marketplaces as it not only promotes, but enables business networking, knowledge sharing and professional assistance. Among its functions is the possibility of filtering searches so that users can find products, services and registered members, the Create Your Ad feature to allow members to create their own ads, and MI Talks to discuss and share experiences.

The feedback before the actual launch was good. Balqees said over 125 women, including 46+ women-led businesses, had registered for the event. Within a couple of months she says the platform had 100 members, mainly organically and through word of mouth.

In addition, MI's goal is to provide interaction between entrepreneurs and coaches, mentors and consultants who specialize in branding, financing, marketing and business development. Its members can find professionals and schedule one-on-one sessions for specific information.

One of the key fields of the project is the participation of retired women. The concept was born from the mother of the founders, who used to work in banking for over 30 years. The family got to understand the importance of following their own interests outside of the workplace when they participated in an activity where they painted flowerpots.

“Retirement does not mean the end of ambition. It can be the beginning of an entirely new chapter,” Noha said.

There are currently three offers of free membership: Tulip, which is for women discovering their passions, Orchid, which is for service-based businesses and Dhalia, which is for women who sell products via their own online store. Coaches, mentors and consultants can also register as service providers.

The proposed revenue model will involve membership fees, commissions on paid professional service, premium advertising templates and images, and advertising opportunities for members and brands, said Heba.

The first thing that the founders need to do is to secure their foothold in Oman and then move onto other GCC markets. It also involves more comprehensive geographical networking and events, as well as the presence of more experts within the region.

The four founders believe that MI will be more than just another digital marketplace. It aims to empower women to build their confidence and ideas, opportunities at various stages of their lives. The platform's slogan is: Bloom, your way.