#TUEmpower by @sjwijaya
Hello! My name is Samantha, I’m 29 years old. I’m a mother of two girls and am the co-founder of a beauty startup, Rosé All Day, and a content creator.
I wanted to be so many things when I was little: an adventurer, a fashion designer, an artist, a stylist. It was always constantly changing but it always had something to do with art. Eventually in 2016, my friends (Tiffany and Cindy) and I came up with a business idea in beauty; one year later in 2017, Rosé All Day Cosmetics was born.
Rosé Co-founders (Cindy, Tiffany & Samantha)
We identified a rising trend and knew that it’s something we wanted to be a part of. Then after that we just sort of jumped right into it: working on the identity and branding of our company whilst also figuring out our business plan as we go.
For me personally, the biggest challenge in kickstarting Rosé was juggling the long hours with motherhood.
Sam and her two girls, Belle & Riley
It’s very important for me to prioritise my schedule and be present. When I am at work, I’m fully there and when I’m with my children, I’m fully present with them too.
As for the struggle on the business side, though we’ve always been a beauty advocate, the entire process taught us so much more about the industry. Since we were self-funded and had limited resources, one of the greatest challenges was that in the beginning we had to do everything ourselves; we had to think outside of the box and get creative with our organic marketing to get the word out there. But with challenges there’s always a positive side, we learned so much—like the legals, product development, marketing in the industry, our consumers—and built stronger connection with our beauty community.
Rosé’s bestselling Gloss Pills
Even today as an agile startup we are still learning with every step we take. For example, one of the most painful experiences of my career is happening right now because of the pandemic (perhaps for many of us too).
Rosé Co-founders (Tiffany, Samantha & Cindy)
We had so many offline plans in 2020 but we had to put a lot of things on hold, go back to the drawing board and create contingency plans.
People have also asked me about how I deal with co-founder conflicts. Cindy, Tiffany and I don’t fight but we do have plenty of disagreements, but that’s what makes our partnership great. We push each other to be better without overstepping each other’s boundaries. We trust each other enough to make the best choices in our own areas, we cheer each other on in our successes—be it together or individually—and when things happen to go south, we are compassionate enough to understand that mistakes are normal and there is plenty of room to grow for everyone.
I believe that humility, respect and kindness are the key to being good partners and leaders.
Having said all that, the three most valuable lessons that I’ve learnt from starting my own business would be:
If God wills it, then it will be. How we made it this far is not just hard work, it’s a whole lot of answered prayers. I’ve learned so many other valuable lessons that puts everything in perspective by putting my faith first in everything.
Scheduling is everything, especially for me as a working mom doing creative work. I had to learn how to make my calendar my best friend. I even have an alarm for how long I can use Pinterest in a day! Scheduling helps me to stay focused and calm in whatever I am doing - thus enjoying it knowing that I am present.
Humility and taking my creative ego down a notch. I’m sure plenty of people can relate to this one. Sometimes because we do the research, have the skills and are so engrossed in our creative vision - we think we know best. But do I? I’ve came a long way since learning that the more creativity poured in, the more creativity will be poured out and the best possible creative outputs are made.
And here’s my advice for girls who aspire to build their own brand: be ready to work hard in your craft passionately, always be open to learning from everyone and your own experiences, practice to be a good and compassionate leader and build strong relationships with those around you.
And though I wouldn’t attribute any of my success to luck, I also believe that when you pray and do your part to prove that you are ready and responsible enough, God will open doors for you in His time.
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@sjwijaya’s story is an exclusive blog post by Things Untouched.