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Her eight-to-five job as information and marketing officer of the University of Southern Philippines Foundation (USPF) has kept Iris Vera Petralba, 27, focused in delivering her duties well for close to a year now.
But that did not stop her from juggling the roles of an employee and an entrepreneur, selling bags and wallets to girls and women through electronic mail (email), at the same time.
A Mathematics graduate from the University of San Carlos, Petralba started what she referred as email store ?Fabuleuse? with close friend, Diana Rose Bacarisas in July 2008.
Bacarisas is a Computer Science graduate of USC. Their virtual store is coined from the words, ?fashionable? and ?useful.?
There was no deliberate attempt to open a business of their own.
?My friend (Diane) saw this wallet from an officemate. She got interested and thought that she can buy it online,? said Petralba.
Bacarisas was able to find the wallet but since the supply comes from Manila, the product still needs to be shipped to Cebu.
It would be costly if she alone would pay for the parcel price. Bacarisas asked Petralba if they could encourage other girls to buy one wallet each. One parcel can carry 12 wallets.
From there, the business took off. One woman after another saw the wallets and started asking for more supplies.
They were encouraged to pursue the business and invested P2,400 for the next shipment.
As July ended, Petralba said they added bags and bag organizers to the list of apparels they are selling.
The bags sold were made of canvass and features metallic colors and loud designs, which easily caught the attention of many women.
At present, they are also selling bag tags, card holders and magnetic book markers.
?The bags became known. Unlike wallets, girls would want to have more than one bag so we got more orders on bags,? she said.
But unlike other resellers, Petralba and Bacarisas do not maintain a Multiply site where they post stocks and get orders online.
?We want to make it as simple as possible. We don't tap the market that are already searching in the net for good buys. We target the market that are not that techie, who do not look at Multiply or those type of sites. We send sample pictures of our stocks using the conventional e-mail and text blasts,? said Petralba.
Her e-mail is passed on from e-mail contact to other. True enough, orders come in the form of e-mail inquiries. Others reply to text messages she sent.
From their first investment of P2,400 (P1,200 each), Petralba and Bacarisas now have P16,000 (P8,000) in pooled financial resources, which keeps the business running.
Bacarisas, who is currently working in Singapore as software engineer, communicates often with Petralba.
Petralba said they communicate through Google Talk often. On weekends, they hold video conferences to discuss their growing business venture.
To make sales systematic, she said, they use Google Documents to list down sales, collectibles and profit. This system keeps both of them updated of all transactions they entered.
Since the prices of the bags are lower than what are sold in malls or other shops, Petralba said they are able to get a good share of young professionals, with ages ranging from 25 to 30, as their loyal customers.
Bags are sold below P600, while wallets are priced below P400 to P300 each. Petralba said malls and other shops sold these bags for more than P600 each.
Petralba said they also get orders from Bacarisas' officemates from Singapore after they learned that she is running a bag business in the Philippines.
Asked why they can afford to bring the prices low, she said: ?It's because we don't need to rent space to sell our bags. After the orders are delivered to us and our stocks are here, we communicate with clients and ask them to meet us at a particular date and time.?
Petralba, however, admitted that they have plans of putting up a boutique in the future. Target date? The year 2013.
She said convenience is the major reason why people would prefer to purchase products in this manner. ?On the sellers' side, you incur savings because you don't need to pay rent. Internet is free. On the buyers' side, it's fast and with less hassles.?
Petralba said the business taught her that being organized can make or break any venture.
?It's a fulfillment to earn from your own hard work. In business, your hardwork is proportional to income. In our case, the opportunity (to go into business) presented itself and since it's there, we grabbed it,? she said.
Running the bag business takes creativity, knowledge on fashion and patience.
With the way things are turning out for the Bacarisas and Petralba, it seems that they do have the values necessary to survive and grow.
