Okay, so…
This is the story of that one time I tried to start a business that had nothing to do with me
Remember Koralli?
Well, I kind of missed the idea of having a business again 😅
Look, I know what you are thinking. Nobody likes to hear unsuccessful stories of random people (especially designers). But, since I’ve got nothing to lose and this seems to be like some sort of case study, I just figured why not. Plus, I designed everything!
Background
It was a time that I needed extra cash for survival. You know, pandemic destroyed a LOT of businesses. Also, add chain supply problems, delays on shipping, shortage of certain products and also inflation. Things were getting more and more expensive so I decided that maybe I could pull off a small store in social media and maybe later add an e-commerce platform.
Makeup used to be one of my hobbies: collect it, treasure it and once in a while get a full face of all the make up I owned. So, I decided to import makeup and my mom kind of joined me and imported some interesting gadgets. Also, something that inspired me to go into the retail world is that I often shop online and import stuff. I’ve had some annoying experiences as well. I even got myself into a course about Amazon, its business model and how to export products in USA and sell them. Crazy, I know. Nothing to do with design or UX or whatever is that I do.
Understanding the problem
Where do I start? Well, there are tons and tons of makeup stores that import the same brands I did. All over social media, including TikTok. It’s a huge market out there, but I thought: “If they all can sell, so can I”. The problem was not the competitors, but what can I do different so my users/buyers can really enjoy a smooth and easy shopping experience? What if I build a brand? Clean slate. What about I “craft” beautiful content that seeks to build trust.
My goal was basically to sell good and valuable products online and deliver a friendly experience when it comes to shopping.
I’ve also had bad experiences shopping online here in Guatemala. Packages delay. Delivery guys don’t think they can communicate with you or call you for more directions. Lack of payment methods (credit cards) and so on and so forth. The only good thing about the pandemic is that it accelerated the common use of e-commerce and online shopping, triggering other vendors to solve the problems of accepting credit cards, quick bank transfers or even safe links in which you could make your payment.
Process
The name was the first thing I was brainstorming in my brain before I decided to pull this project off. And it hit me.
Aventurera.
Which means: “Adventuress/female adventurer”. May seem like Natalia Lafourcade’s song was the inspiration, but not really. This whole thing of pulling off a store, ship orders and everything was simply the «ADVENTURE».
This may sound dumb, but whenever I work on a brand I just close my eyes and try to imagine how it may look like. Based on 3 words, obviously. What color scheme should I pick? What might be the tone of voice? Art direction? Type family? and so on and so forth.
For my little store I imagined warm pastel colors, natural or earthly textures. A whimsical type family perhaps. And a colloquial tone of voice.
One of the brands I used to look up to was ban.do, which is a some sort of life style brand. It’s super girly and so cute! I loved the creativity in everything they do. (Disclaimer: I’m aware that Jen Gotch resigned this company due to racism accusations, which I’m glad she did.) Anyways, getting back to the point: I wanted to design brand that reflected these 3 adjectives:
Friendly
Trustable
Joyful
Fun fact: Sometimes I do garage sales through Instagram and Facebook, because I would hoard too many stuff and hardly use or wear most of them. I don’t want to sound harsh or something but I got inspiration from this popular quote: “One man's trash is another man's treasure”. How could I transform this quote into something delightful, pretty and modern?
For the typography, I have this habit of searching and evaluating big (or medium size) type families. I just love that I can play with different styles afterwards. And the one I chose is just HUGE. Later on, I came up with the idea of a cute and shiny treasure as the landmark 🤩.
Now, let me tell you about the color story. When I was in college, someone once told me that in order to get inspiration to pick a good color palette we should get inspired by nature. This advice changed my world completely, since I kind of struggled when it come to selection colors for a brand. And so I did. Your welcome. Anyways, I figured that natural textures of earth, terracota or maybe not so natural at all such as terrazo might work. If not from color, maybe shapes?
Outcome
When I came with this idea, the first thoughts I had were: “No more deadlines, no more problems, I’m being my own boss! Yay!”.
Truth is, it’s so hard to pull off a business all by yourself. Especially retail/e-commerce related. You gotta do 👏🏼EVERY👏🏼THING 👏🏼. I was working a full time job by then, but I still had to ship orders, create content, answer chats and more. But at some point, my work levels were so high that I just thought: “Okay, since I am my own boss, I need to stop, at least for now”. Later, things changed. My career was growing exponentially and had to dedicate time to other tasks in order for me to fulfill my personal goals during that time.
Sadly, had to put this project on a definite hold and maybe I can “reboot” it some other time. People who run businesses like this one and still have a family, children and/or full time jobs … let me tell you that you have my biggest respect and admiration! ⚡️👏🏼
I am not afraid nor ashamed of my failed attempts at businesses. You always win because you learn on different levels; and hopefully inspire someone somehow.
Social Media Content
Key Takeaways
Posting on social media in different apps and formats can be annoying and sometimes errors can be made. For me, it was important to be constantly creating content for Instagram and Facebook in post format and stories. But, I was constantly busy working my regular job 9 to 5. Tools like Hootsuite, Later or Buffer can help schedule all posts and add descriptions if needed. It’s important to use tools that make our life easier and efficient.
Whatsapp Business (not sponsored) turned out to be helpful whenever I paid for advertising and took the orders in such app. It is very common in Guatemala to shop or engage in a shopping process via Whatsapp. I think most latinos have had an experience with this tool.
Even though this business did not thrive, I had so much fun and learned so much about costumer service, challenges on shipping and payments. I already did know certain processes for this kind of retail structure though and got to enrich this knowledge.