I’m starting a set of articles for September called The Courage Series featuring women who have pursued their dreams with courage, persistence, perseverance and devotion so you can be inspired to pursue yours.
Roma (right) with her sister and co-founder Maan
Common Room (a haven of handmade products or as it is described in their Instagram account, “a place where makers and artists gather”) is one of my favorite retail stores in Manila. Co-founder Roma Agsalud’s entrepreneurial story isn’t as pretty as the products being sold in her stores. Like any hand-crafted piece, it begins with difficulty and tears until lots of practice and learning helped her grow and evolve. Roma talks about her early days as an entrepreneur and the knowledge that allowed her to continue and persevere when things were hard.
1. How did you get here? How did the path of entrepreneurship begin for you?
HARD. First, it’s not the life that my entrepreneur parents wanted their children to have. They knew too well how hard this life was so what they really wanted for their children was a stable future. Because of this, they enrolled me in political science hoping that, one day, I’ll be a lawyer. While I did graduate from this pre-law course, I went on to enroll in a masteral degree in mass communication. I thought it was the closest thing I could get to bringing back creativity and color into my life.
After five years as a reporter, the entrepreneurial bug just caught up with me. It was a good thing that I had a good excuse. Being the family breadwinners, my sister and I needed extra money to help augment family finances.
Our crafting business [editor’s note: it was Popjunklove, handmade dolls made from up cycled fabric], however, didn’t stem from our innate desire to make. Our reasons, initially, were practical. It was the only business we could afford. We just used what we had at home and transformed them into something other people would like to buy.
While we received good feedback from customers at that time, any business without enough resources was bound to have lots of hurdles ahead. One, it needed lots of time to grow. We really couldn’t expand too fast because we didn’t have money. Another, mistakes were costly. While these are both critical ingredients to success, understanding this doesn’t change the fact that IT WILL HURT. Every mistake meant loss of finances for family necessities. We made bad loans to make ends meet. I quit my job only to look for another part-time job. I joined a networking company, hoping that this would be the answer to all my problems. I only ended up being in deeper debt because of it.
LIFE WAS HARD. REALLY HARD. BUT. Being in the business for a couple of years, I knew that if I could only reach peak season (Christmas), there would be a chance to continue. I quit my job in August 2012 after five years of juggling my full-time job as a reporter and sideline crafting business. I cried. I saved. I didn’t sleep. I fought a lot with my dad who didn’t understand why I had to leave a stable job for a struggling business. I questioned myself. I prayed. I lost money. I gained a bit. I saved. I prepared. I did all these just so we could survive until the next Christmas.
Christmas after Christmas, we became better entrepreneurs. We made less mistakes. We knew [the bazaars] to join. We were able to save more after each season. After eight years, we were able to put up our very first Popjunklove kiosk in Alabang Town Center from our savings. We opened there during Christmas so we would have more savings than we had initially projected for the year. A few months after that, Common Room was born.
2. What do you wish you did when you were just starting out?
That everything will make sense someday. That it will be okay. That it is all part of the process.
I could have saved a lot of tears if only I learned to accept the fact that you can’t force life. That it will all fall into place when it’s time to fall into place.
What I wish I had done? To save harder (even if we were breadwinners) when I was still working so that when I made the job to become a full-time entrepreneur, it wouldn’t have been such a devastating experience.
3. How did you cultivate the patience and perseverance when things were slow, when business was harder than you thought it would be?
Experience. Years of doing it slowly and consistently. I persevered because I already gained the knowledge of my high seasons and my low ones. At the back of my head, I knew there would be a light at the end of the tunnel. That it is hard now but it will be okay. This piece of information is gold. Despite all the hardships, there is hope. I just needed to survive until then.
4. How did you push past your fear of failure, fear of losing money, fear of putting yourself out there?
That I can make it right. That every failure was an opportunity for me to prove to myself and to other people that my story didn’t end here.
5. What would you say to someone who’s just starting out in their business?
To just start. You won’t succeed tomorrow. Or even in a year’s time. Or even in years. But you will get there if you just start today. Do it now. Make mistakes. Learn from these mistakes. Do it again but better. Do all these consistently, slowly. And eventually, you will reap the fruits of your hard work.
6.What advice would you give to someone who can’t get over the fear of starting?
Why are you so afraid to start? You don’t have to give up everything to try. JUST TRY. MAKE MISTAKES. JUST GET IT OVER WITH. As soon as you start ticking off this long list of possible mistakes, the sooner you get to live THE DREAM.
Thank you for sharing, Roma. If you want to know more about her, listen to this podcast (her episode is #5). Also, check out the Common Room Instagram account where you will find both cheerleader and wise woman who wants you to succeed as an entrepreneur.
I will be featuring another entrepreneur for The Courage Series every Monday.
