A young businesswoman from 9-Compassion, Juliana Tan runs her online shops by herself: she talks to her customers, she models for her ads, and she ships her sales out on her own. At first, she ran both Resin Designs Philippines, an online resin crafts store, and trendyclothes.mnl, an online fashion boutique. Now, she focuses her time and energy on running the clothes shop.
On a video in her TikTok series of business how-tos, Tan shares that she started selling bracelets and slime in third grade then became invested in online selling in sixth grade. As she switched schools and entered high school, she stopped to focus on her studies.
trendyclothes.mnl was launched in August 2020, and Tan comments that the free time 2020 handed to her was what allowed her to start opening up businesses again. Ambitious, she says that she might just open a third later this year.
The Mover reached out to her to discuss her sartorial shop.
The Mover: What made you start taking trendyclothes.mnl more seriously?
Juliana Tan: I had less time to make handmade crafts due to requirements, so I didn’t promote them as much anymore. I started experiencing eye strain from the time I spent on-screen, so I decided to buy these anti-radiation glasses. I posted them and saw a demand from [them]. So, I decided to start selling them and I got lots of orders. They became my star product for [trendyclothes.mnl].
I still wanted to be doing business even if it wasn’t the handmade crafts business, so I was so happy I found this item! I still had to pack and advertise but it took less time compared to the 24-36 hours it took to make each product for my handmade crafts business. It was just as fun!
TM: Why do you think the anti-radiation glasses were popular?
JT: I believe they’re even more popular due to the pandemic [resulting in] people having to use gadgets for longer periods of time, be it from online classes or working from home.
TM: How do you usually decide which products you'll be selling?
JT: I decide my products based on market trends and what I believe is essential. I choose to sell things I would personally buy and use. Business owners should be the number one users and promoters of their products.
TM: Did you learn how to manage a business yourself?
JT: Yes. I learned through trial and error and experience. Business wasn’t something my parents pushed me to do and actually neither of them are into business.
TM: You told us you aim to expand your business. What exactly are your plans?
JT: I want to expand my range of products that are “essentials” [like] the anti-radiation glasses. They’re not necessarily something you can’t live without but they’re really helpful! I want to expand my product range to include more things like that.
TM: Do you have any words of advice to share with other student entrepreneurs in our school?
JT: You can’t start a business just by buying a bunch of things and posting them online. You need to put effort into advertising and marketing the right way.
In case anyone wants more advice on starting a small business and how to run it, I recently started a series on my TikTok, @julianadenisee, where I post clips tackling the different processes and things that I learned. I actually started it for the purpose of helping anyone who wants to start a small business.
Support a fellow Monarch by following, viewing, and shopping from trendyclothes.mnl on Instagram and Facebook! Follow Juliana Tan on Instagram and TikTok too, at @juliana.denisee!
Innovator of the Week is a feature showcase of our school’s creatives and entrepreneurs! If you consider yourself an innovator, step right up and answer this form, or contact the head of this column, Io Carpiso, via email at 08-0032@sgen.edu.ph.
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