A Natural Born Entrepreneur

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Lorie Jane declares that online marketing has advanced her business more than expectation. Through social media, her clients and sales swelled, extending beyond neighbors, friends, and kinfolks. This is her story.

 

Early Start

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Lorie who hails from Binan, Laguna has been an entrepreneur at heart even as early as her elementary years. To augment her meager school budget, she recalls selling various stuff like peanuts, dried fish, ballpen, and even paper to classmates. Her sales in school funded her all the way to college, up to third-year in Bachelor of Science in Education. She married a schoolmate who works in the Veterinary Section of the Municipality of Binan. They have one child whose future they want to secure. They also dream of owning their home.

 

To increase family income, Nanay Lorie worked as a tutor. The pay was regular, but it was not very much. So when a neighbor motivated her to join ASHI, she saw the chance of obtaining capital to pursue her selling skill. She liked the ASHI programs and services, especially the micro insurance. According to her, becoming a member of ASHI was a turning point in her life. She belongs to Almeda 30 Center of the Metro Binan Branch.

 

Her first loan of five thousand pesos (P 5,000.00) was her start-up capital to venture into RTW. Nanay Lorie and husband traveled weekly to Divisoria to purchase RTW products. She knew how to choose the items which she sold at affordable prices, so the RTW products sold quickly. She started to develop a loyal clientele. Managing her business wisely, she developed the habit of saving some of her earnings which obtained her an outstanding performance score as an ASHI member. Over time, Lorie’s capital grew, widening her product portfolio. She added basic items such as shoes, watches, make-up, perfume, soap, shampoo, and other beauty and skincare products. Lately, she became a supplier of gadgets to ASHI gadget loans. She explored new venues by joining bazaars in Pavilion Mall and Nuvali but had to close them for poor sales. Luckily, the bazaar organizers agreed to an early termination of the stall’s contract, preventing further losses. Undeterred by this bad experience, she continued selling, temporarily turning their house into a shop. 

 

Since business was good, she opened Trendsetter Shop, located at the second floor of the MB Aguirre Building, Bogy. San Jose, Binan Laguna. She decided to rent the second floor because Binan gets flooded during the rainy season.

 

During the pandemic, she ventured into other businesses: a pizza house and a water station also in the same building as Trendsetter Shop for easy monitoring. Needing more space, she rented three additional units in the first floor for the pizza house, water station, cosmetics and skin care, and her office. 

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Going Digital

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Exploring the social media platform, Nanay Lorie opened a Viber and Facebook accounts giving birth to “Cosmetics and Skin Care Rebranding PH” (in 2018), “Trendsetters Avenue”  (in2020), “Cosmetic Beauty Products Trading” (in 2021), which are in three FB pages plus the post in Marketplace which she created. She also registered as a Shoppe and Alamode merchant. She says social media was a boon because she is not good at sales talk. 

 

The first ones to benefit from her success are family members who she employed to help run her business. They support her by repacking products, responding to online orders, and answering queries and concerns of customers.

 

She also operates through 300 to 500 regular and loyal resellers (the number depends on the season), comprised of students and housewives, some from Barangays and Cavite. It gives her great consolation that through the reseller program, she provides additional income to many families. Now, she supplies beauty products to ten salons in Laguna, Barangays, and Manila.

 

Having established her business through social media before the onset of the Coved pandemic was timely.  Starting from a monthly sale of one hundred thousand (P100, 000) this ballooned to around nine hundred thousand pesos (P900, 000) since on lockdown, customers had to shop online. To date, Nanay Lorie’s revolving capital is estimated at 1.2 million. With her savings, she invested in a Mitsubishi Expander last August 2020; fully paid for a motorcycle vehicle, and has given a down payment for a lot. This year, she acquired a new car (Wigo).