Her not so small business is Pinkbox One of her babies
Nelly See did not have a lecture or a presentation. But she spoke spontaneously from the heart, and which deeply reflect her love for her business and deep personal mastery of the business. Nelly See's story is very electrifying and inspiring to entrepreneur wanna bees especially to mom who are bored with staying in the house waiting for their husbands to come home. And "hatid sundo to her children"
She had 4 kids and was having post partum depression and her husband wanted her to do something. She upon egging of her husband attended seminars and joined SunLife as financial advisor to sell financial instruments. She was good at it and eventually got bored too.
Her turning point in her life came when by mistake (due to miscommunication) after her trip to China with her husband (who is an indentor) she had P762,000 worth of hair accessories (she only wanted several pieces for her children). Out of desperation, she had to dispose off these merchandise and even had to look for warehouse (her father who is into manufacturing) to store the containerful of hair pins and hair accessories. All she wanted to do was to sell the stuff and then close down the business. (she later changed her mind when she heard the cash register!
Immediately she did the following:
l. Looked for a kiosk in Ayala Mall
2. Had a brand name: Pinkbox
3. Think of ways on how to dispose her hair pins and other hair accessories.
She did find a kiosk and although the rent was astronomic: P85,000 in November l, P100,000 in Christmas and back to P85,000.00 afterwards. Her sales girl was her maid; she sold P81,000 on November l, 2002.
The rest is history: she even when into franchising. She has 30 company owned stores either at Robinson or SM or Ayala and 40 franchise. She had gone a long way from just being a housewife. Thus when she said that she is going to enroll at ME, I said maybe there is no need. She has done more than enough to show that she is blue true grit entrepreneur. The ME diploma can not fully capture what she has done. Not many can follow her footsteps. She did great.
Some of the insights:
l. Some of the best people you have may not have a degree or are within the organization Her GM before was in operations, and a second year engineering student. But she did great as a GM
2. You really have to think of something new for the business every day.
3. You never ever give up. Giving up is not an option.
4. Attending seminars like that in CCE exposed her to many practitioners in retail.
5. Build leaders within your organization. Be sure you and your people are on the same boat.
6. Never take no for an answer. Whenever her supplier says that her design is not possible, she says it is bad bad bad.
Others:
l. Most sought design in PHL is butterfly, second is flower
2. In China you have good and bad suppliers: but the good supplier have Class A, B, C and they will provide what you want.
3. Guandong is a retail center. But you can buy bulk and cheap in Yiwu.
NELLY SEE, FROM MOM TO RETAIL TYCOON! Simply Amazing.
I am sure, many moms in the class changed their outlook after her speech. All things are possible.
