Antoinette Escario started making fashion jewelry for herself and her sister. What started as a hobby turned into a money-making venture! Here’s how two sisters used their after-work hours to build a profitable, creative business.

Before setting up our fashion jewelry and accessories business, Toni & Berne, my sister, Bernardette Sto. Domingo, and I were both career women. We still are, actually. I’m a corporate planner and my sister is a magazine editor. At the time we put up the business, we knew we were fulfilling a life-long dream of disrupting the norm and creating something new and artistic.

We started making a few handcrafted earrings, necklaces, and bracelets mostly for us and our family. These jewelry pieces attracted the attention of friends so we started selling to them. And that’s when we realized its potential as a viable business venture.

Toni & Berne is like a union of two of our greatest passions in life—creativity and women empowerment. Together with my sister, we conceptualized it to be a one-stop source of a wide range of fashion accessories. It was challenging because we had our day jobs. We would squeeze in as much time as we could researching market trends, sourcing raw materials, and designing and crafting the pieces ourselves. My sister and I have devoted after work hours and weekends to design jewelry pieces and meet with prospective clients.

Our creative philosophy is simple: We design and produce jewelry pieces that resonate with modern consumers because the products are one of a kind and infused with color and character. At the moment, our products are sold through Facebook and Instagram. Clients can also visit our showroom in Manila.

Every lesson that we learned along the way was part of the journey and we are extremely grateful for it. If there’s one thing we wish we had known from the very start, it would be how to better harness the power of the Internet and social media in marketing and promoting our products.

Here’s our advice for women who want to explore this type of creative venture: Find your passion and commit to it. There’s a lot of business ideas out there but the most important thing is to find something that you are passionate about—a job or hobby that inspires you to wake up very early in the morning to work; sparks your interest and creativity; and gives you fulfillment at the end of the day.

Planning to set up a business and putting that plan into action have had a tremendous impact in our personal and professional lives. It made us realize that if you really put your mind and heart into something, you can make it happen. Toni & Berne started out as a few words on paper, a draft, a plot. And now it’s a reality. We’d like our story to inspire others as well to go after their dreams and make the first step. That’s all it takes—the first, small step—and everything else will follow.

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Edits: Kath C. Eustaquio-Derla | Image Credit: Antoinette Sto. Domingo Escario / Toni & Berne