Whenever someone asks how my startup Sophie Summer Ltd came to be, my answer is seldom straightforward. I was never an entrepreneur, nor was I trained to be one. But lately, I realised that’s not entirely true.
At 7, I helped my older sister sell sweetened plantain snacks around our neighbourhood.
At 17, I sold beaded bracelets to my classmates in college.
At 26, I was selling software products and services in trade exhibitions abroad.
My childhood in third-world Philippines was the toughest of times, at the centre of which was an even tougher mother, who, along with my father, raised five children all through college and beyond.
With scarce resources for a full family, my mother turned to entrepreneurship decades before the term became trendy. She ran a small shop from one of the two windows of our small terraced house in Manila, aptly called in the Philippines a “sari-sari” store which means selling literally anything, from fresh produce to feminine napkins. She had side hustles left and right. She sourced scholarships so we could study.
On Mother’s Day, I can’t help but reflect on my mother’s influence on me not only on parenting but also on hustling and living.
These are my mother’s lessons on entrepreneurship:
When I was about 8, I remember my mother nudging me rather urgently out of bed way before it was time for school. Together, we stepped out into the chilly Manila morning, down the main road of the village, and onto the street where her sister lived. When we reached my aunt’s house, the gate was locked. No one was home. She had already left for work.
The next day, we went back, a little earlier this time. We caught sight of my aunt who also saw us, but my mother, seeing that my aunt looked stressed in the morning rush, didn’t bother to approach her.
On the third day, we caught her at home as she was preparing to leave. My mother asked if she could borrow some money. We got the money. Three days of trying paid off.
I don’t know why my mother had to bring me with her, but I learned something that day.
Lesson Number 1: If You Don’t Ask, You Don’t Get.
Before I launched my business last year, I approached a private investor and told her about my business. I needed £50,000 capital to take my business off the ground, build an inventory of stocks, and hire a small team.
I got rejected.
Then I approached another who told me she was not interested in investing in new businesses at the moment. The third one also rejected me with hardly a hope that she might reconsider in the future. All these rejections took place during a global pandemic and I don’t blame them for not taking a risk during a very uncertain time.
After a fourth ask and my fourth rejection, I decided I would need to come up with the money myself.
Which brings me to —
Lesson Number 2: Be Self-reliant.
When I was 16, there was a youth camp out of town that everyone in school was excited about. It was an annual event that ran from the 26th until the 31st of December. The entry fee was 3,000 pesos (about £50). This was in 2000 and, even if I saved up most of my daily food allowance of 20 pesos for a year, I wouldn’t be able to afford it.
But I also knew better than to ask my parents, who were already struggling every day to make ends meet. I didn’t want to hear a negative answer, so I decided to find the money on my own.
First, I came up with a list of relatives who would likely lend me money and asked them.
Next, equipped with an official solicitation letter, I went around our neighbourhood, knocking on each door, asking for contributions.
Then I went to the City Hall and visited the local politician’s offices. Surely they wouldn’t hesitate to help a teenager asking for a donation? Or so I thought. But one of them told me off about soliciting without permission.
I remember feeling hurt and rejected, but I kept my eyes on the prize.
The eve of the camp came and I was short by Php 1,500. All that money chasing didn’t get me anywhere close to my target. I remember the emotional exhaustion that enveloped me that Christmas evening as I flipped through the few bills and coins I collected. It was not enough.
Accepting defeat, I imagined joining the camp another time instead. Thinking that if I started saving now, I would have enough in a year. Only to realise that it was already my last year in high school and there wouldn’t be any more camps to look forward to.
Deep in sorrow, I looked up as the bedroom door opened. It was my mother. She asked how much more I needed as if she could read my thoughts. She opened her palms and there sat the 1,500 pesos I needed to be able to join the camp. It was a Christmas miracle.
Lesson number 2, be self-reliant and independent and once you’ve done your part, trust that things will work out.
With virtually no capital at all, I diverted my focus onto finding the money on my own to start my business. Using a £4,000 credit limit, I started building up my inventory of products to sell. With a plan to sell at least five handbags a month, my credit card payments would take care of themselves. As long as I had cash flow, my business would continue to exist.
I didn’t have to start big. Most of the business icons I look up to, such as Sara Blakely and Tory Burch, started from their apartments’ kitchen tables. I started with one bag design, one supplier, one day at a time.
Instead of focusing on the things I didn’t have, I decided to double down on the ones I had. What are my strengths? What am I good at? What innate talents can I tap to make this work?
I began work on my e-commerce site before I even had all the stock I needed to start selling. I worked in IT for over a decade and launching a website is second nature to me. I also knew that I had other skills like copywriting, an eye for good design and, probably the most important one, selling.
I tried not to think about the money, the team, and the stocks that I didn’t have. I focused on the things I could control, and started with that.
Which brings me to —
Lesson Number 3: Always Be Hustling.
When I was in high school and throughout college, my mother always had a side hustle. She went full-time homemaker after quitting her office job to focus on her five children. My father worked full time but the wages as a government employee were hardly enough.
My mother never stood still, woke up earlier than everybody else, and helped to increase the income of the family with her hustling. At any given time, she was either running a small home-based sari-sari store, making snacks to sell, or working in a factory that made coffee mugs. She took contractual jobs at a bakery during the peak holiday season. She would take any job to help make ends meet for a family of seven.
She was the epitome of an entrepreneur — industrious, fearless, and resourceful.
Resourcefulness is the skill I learned from her that led me to the products I wanted to sell. I discovered elegant, traditionally made handbags from Colombia, Portugal, and Ukraine despite never having visited those places. It is also how I started a business with barely any capital, by simply tapping into my own skill sets and will to win.
Knowing scarcity first hand, there is no other option but to be resourceful.
When I was selecting designs to launch with, I would always come across a similar story about women hustling to help with the family’s livelihood. In Colombia, the women of the Wayuu tribe are considered the centre of the family who not only protect their weaving traditions by passing it down to their daughters but also sustain a livelihood for their families.
In Philippine culture, the mothers would stay at home to look after their children and inevitably take side hustles to eke out a living. I like to call them the original work-from-home workers. Filipino wives had always been the ones who practiced entrepreneurship, not entirely by choice, but out of necessity. As the proverbial saying goes, necessity is the mother of invention (no pun intended).
When lockdowns happened one after the other last year, I couldn’t just stand down, wait and watch things unfold. It was a hard time for most, but it also presented an opportunity. I had always put off starting a business.
But Covid made me do it.
The notion of an uncertain future and circumstances worsening took me from spectator to active participant. Whilst my own household’s livelihood was not directly affected, who can say for sure what the future holds post-pandemic?
Which brings me to —
Lesson Number 4: Resilience.
My mother gave birth to five children. She had survived numerous surgeries, countless calamities, typhoons and tragedies. Where does one even begin to tell about a mother’s life of resilience?
When I moved to the UK in 2016, I didn’t have a bank account, a local number or a utility bill with my name on it. I was denied too many credit card applications for having no credit history in the UK. I didn’t know anyone outside my family, didn’t belong to any community or neighbourhood, or even a mobile phone provider! I didn’t exist, according to the standards of modern life.
I felt lost.
It was like starting from the very beginning. It was a curse.
Then it was a blessing. It meant that I could redo my life over. I could start something I really wanted to do without fear of judgment from people who know me. Sophie Summer turned out to be not only a business idea but also a form of self-expression. It is a creative integration into the new environment that I found myself in. It is a nod to nostalgia over the summer days in Manila that I miss the most and was solely familiar with. It is what I know and what I love to do.
Resilience is finding yourself in unfamiliar territory and still trying and thriving.
Which brings me to —
Lesson Number 5: Do What You Love.
If passion had a face, it would be my mother’s, steadily stirring sticky rice in the kitchen with coconut milk and brown sugar to make her rice pudding speciality.
Biko is a family favourite, a traditional treat that my late grandfather would request my mother to make for Easter. Every aunt and uncle would receive a satisfying serving of Biko wrapped in banana leaves and garnished with toasted coconut milk curds, good for sharing within their respective families. It’s the recipe that would wake her up in the morning or keep her up all night until the rice is just right. Biko is a product of passion and patience.
As my mother grew older and naturally frailer, she would make the same recipe the same way. My sisters and I would suggest switching to an electric mixer to make things easier but she’d say, “there’s nothing like making with your own hands.”
Before I launched my business, the idea kept me up every day for months. Every night, when my toddler went to bed at half-past 7, I would stay up for another four hours to work on my website. Every day would start at the sound of her first cry to the calm of midnight. Parenting during the day, hustling during the night, then start again the next day. I didn’t know where my energy came from. It was simply passion fueling me. That’s when I started to believe that if you “choose a job you love”, “you will never have to work a day in your life.”
Believe in what you do and do what you believe in.
Which brings me to —
Lesson Number 6: Keep A High Standard.
“Merlyn” is my mother’s name but she might as well be called Goldilocks.
From food to furniture, it’s always either too salty or too sweet, too soft or too uncomfortable. She has an opinion on every issue and oftentimes a ridiculously high standard for certain things that her daughters always try their best to meet.
As a result, all of us grew up with a particular preference for freshly-made delicious food, long-lasting hard-wood furniture, and black leather shoes that lasted through all the years of schooling.
My mother is not from a wealthy background but she has fine taste.
She expresses her opinions openly about things and is never apologetic about telling the truth to your face. She is your best and worst customer. She can sell your merchandise for you if it passes her own standards. She will give you honest customer feedback if she thinks it sucks.
Quite ironically, she is also the most thoughtful person I know.
Before digital calendars and email alerts, my mother memorised the birthdays of important people in her life. She would send birthday cards to relatives living abroad. She would cook something special in honour of someone’s birthday even if that person was not around. She would remember people’s favourite dishes.
Inspired by my mother’s thoughtfulness, I decided to sell products where thought, time, and attention are an integral part of the creation process— handmade. There is nothing more meaningful than giving a piece of oneself to another. There is nothing more thoughtful than a handmade gift.
So, I started my search for handmade pieces that I’d like to sell. My principle is simple — I offer only what I believe in. I will sell what I will use myself.
Finding the perfect products meant a lot of trial and error. I sampled bags that looked very good in the photos but were mediocre in reality. Needless to say, I lost money buying stock that I didn’t get to sell. Even if it makes financial sense, I can’t bring myself to sell something that I can’t bring myself to use.
Eventually, I found the right suppliers. My website was shaping up. I was ready to launch.
Which brings me to —
Lesson Number 7: Claim What You Want.
If you want something, claim that you already have it, my mother would say.
Starting a business is not easy, especially with zero capital, zero relevant experience in the industry that I found myself in (ie fashion), during a once-in-a-century global pandemic. The odds have spoken.
But you can’t expect positive things to happen to you with negative thinking.
You have to claim the vision you want for yourself, but it starts with taking action.
Every day, I set out to make progress and celebrate small successes at my startup. I think about how to market better, whom to reach out to, where to improve. I set a weekly content calendar, work on strategies, and watch trends. More importantly, I let my mind wander and be receptive to new ideas, feedback from friends, and potential customers.
Staying positive is a decision I make every day.
When things don’t go my way, I remind myself that I am a student with loads to learn in the school of life. Struggle is a part of it. But with positive thinking, even struggle tastes sweet. It’s because every second and every effort is a step in the right direction. Failure is always lurking around the corner, but so is success. A friend of mine once said,
You have to prepare for success.
And it starts with a positive mindset.
Which brings me to —
Lesson 8: Be Optimistic.
If you know a Filipino friend or colleague, we would forgive you if you thought we all look alike. Perhaps it’s the black hair, the brown skin, or our almond-shaped eyes.
But I really think it’s the smile.
Our culture of optimism goes beyond keeping a happy face. It is the trait that allows us to be the best carers in the world, the best in customer service, and even at mastering a foreign language, such as English, so that we could communicate and understand you.
When I was 26, I was tasked to lead the Philippine Software Industry Association, as its executive director. Part of the job entailed me organising trade missions outside the country and join exhibitions in Japan, Australia, and Canada. At every exhibition, we would set up a booth. In front of the booth would be posters of Filipino IT companies that displayed their services and capabilities. There would be small seating areas for business meetings, and souvenirs and sweets to give away to delegates passing by.
And then there was me.
With an enormous smile across my face. A happy expression is more likely to get approached than a neutral one. Foreign delegates attending the exhibition would stop by the booth and either stay or move on. Half the time, they would ignore me. The other half, they would approach, we would exchange business cards, and the game was on.
It is so easy to be pessimistic when you feel rejected or frustrated when things don’t go as planned. Obstacles are part of the journey towards a destination, so the only way to keep going is to keep moving in that direction.
Which brings me to —
Lesson Number 9: Know Your Destination.
My mother started with a vision, that all her children would have their education.
How my sisters and I went to college and lived a considerably normal life on meagre means is beyond me. Before any of us were old enough to plan for our future, our parents imagined it. My mother didn’t take no for an answer. Her resourcefulness landed us scholarships. She looked for opportunities. It was through her seemingly obsessive focus on a singular end, on reaching a destination regardless of how discouraging the journey looked, that she created possibilities.
My mother was visionary. With my father at her side, she delivered.
When my e-commerce site went live in October 2020, I felt pride. It was the culmination of consistently showing up every day to work, the product of sleepless nights, and of juggling hustle and home life.
But it was only the beginning.
My vision for Sophie Summer is to be the leading marketplace for high quality, artisanal design. The brand’s mission is to discover inherently unique pieces that speak of one’s culture and traditions, and to celebrate their individual beauty by promoting them to the wider digital community. At the same time, to help artisans sustain livelihoods, promote sustainability through slow fashion, and do my part in ensuring no one is left behind by the pace of technology.
Without a clear vision of where I wanted to go, I would have given up on day one when I didn’t sell anything at all. Or on the third month, in the middle of winter when no one needed what I sold. Or whenever “no” was the only response I got.
I aspire to build a brand and a company that lasts long enough for my daughter to see when she grows up.
But first, I gotta make my momma proud!
Whilst I learned all the above lessons from my mother, I don’t believe she would make a good entrepreneur. She is too selfless to charge more for what she makes, too giving to ask for anything in return, and too thoughtful of others to think of herself.
Happy Mother’s Day to my Nanay, and all mothers around the world!
