Trixie de Guzman started creating genuine leather bags and accessories in 2011 as a passion project but her full-time job kept her from pursuing entrepreneurship. After attending the pilot run of #SheMeansBusiness in June 2017, the learnings and confidence pushed her to realize her goals.

Genuinely Everywhere is a bag and accessory company that founder and owner Trixie de Guzman started in 2011 as a passion project. However, due to her then very time-consuming full-time job as a vice president of marketing and communications, she wasn’t able to focus on it. After attending the pilot run of Connected Women and Facebook’s #SheMeansBusiness program in Makati, Philippines on June 2017, Trixie gained the confidence and knowledge to pursue her passion project full-time using social media.

Through #SheMeansBusiness, she learned how to market her products online the right way and what types of content will attract her clients. She also learned how to stay consistent with the brand she started. Trixie runs her business 95 percent online through Facebook and Instagram. By embracing technology and various business solutions that she learned through Connected Women and its members, Trixie was able to turn her passion project into a legitimate business in only a few months.

#SheMeansBusiness also provided a Grow Your Business In 30/60/90 Days guide that she followed. It helped her get started and finally be able to operate a legitimate business with increasing sales.

The analytics features of both Facebook and Instagram help Trixie choose the right content to drive purchases. She’s able to identify what types of photos or content would increase revenue. The messenger features of platforms are the lifelines of her business. These allow Trixie to interact with clients, making them feel that they are valued. These also let her run the business remotely. She can take in orders even when traveling.

Genuinely Everywhere products focus on a travel buff’s must-haves. The company serves clients from all over the world. What’s more, their local clients in the Philippines buy products for their trips abroad or as gifts for friends and families overseas.

What makes their products unique is that they keep the leather bags and accessories “raw and bare” to ensure clients are getting genuine leather material where the qualities of leather are not hidden through folds and artificial coating. Keeping it that way also keeps their products lightweight and easy to bring along during trips.

This is her success story.

What does success mean to you?
Success to me is being able to start and grow the business at a low operational cost and most importantly, be able to still travel and pursue my other advocacies that can easily be done through Facebook and Instagram as against having a brick and mortar store. This is mainly the objective and being 95 percent online has helped me achieve continuously increasing sales.

What or who would you attribute your success as an entrepreneur to?
I must say, I owe a lot to Connected Women and the community as they not only provided the inspiration to finally pursue my passion but gain new learnings and contacts as well. The Connected Women members I’ve met since I joined have been instrumental in my business growth. I’m very blessed to have met ladies willing to share their areas of expertise.

What were the challenges or barriers you faced in starting your own business? How did you overcome them?
Manpower, particularly in finding crafters. It was challenging especially when the volume of orders or purchases started to increase. At first, I was able to accommodate orders through my own effort but it took a toll on me physically due to the handmade nature of our products. Time seems to be the biggest challenge for women as most have to juggle between jobs, businesses (or starting one), and their responsibilities to their families or kids.

What are you focused on for the business? How do you think FB/Instagram can help you achieve your business goals?
I’d like to explore putting my items on concept stores in the near future. I believe that through Facebook and Instagram, I will continuously be able to advertise what products are available offline.

What are some tips or advice and words of encouragement you can provide?
Embrace technology and the various business solutions for SMBs that are out there. In this day and age, there are unlimited solutions and means that make it easier to start a small business and grow it.

Are you a business owner? Tell us how Facebook and Instagram help your business thrive.
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