The One Life-Sustaining Skill Set Your Business Needs

The One Life-Sustaining Skill Set Your Business Needs

Sean: Good evening guys. It’s Leadership Stack Live and I’m here tonight with the CEO and founder of EIKA Swimwear, eika.ph. It is the pioneering online swimwear brand in the Philippines.

She’s an advocate of entrepreneurship and women empowerment. She’s been featured in online publications such as Preview, Cosmopolitan Philippines, Smart Parenting, Candy Magazine, speaking engagements for Go Negosyo, Save the Children Philippines, and I could go on and on and it would eat up 30 minutes of our time.

So without further ado, let’s just get to meet her. Welcome to the show, Ms. Erika Rodica.

Erika: Hello, hi, everyone! Good evening!

Sean: All right! Are you ready to dive in a couple of questions that we have, Erika?

Erika: Game! I don’t know what to expect, but you told me that this talk would be chill.

Sean: This would be a chill and casual talk. It’s just questions from the crowd. We’re all about paying it forward. We’re all about helping people in their leadership, in their business, in managing people, hiring, creating a culture of leaders, and that’s it.

So first question from Niño. The term “Jack of all trades, master of none”, pretty much sums me up. Should I stick to that term or would it better to find and focus on one thing and do the others on a later date?

Erika: If you’re starting your business alone, I think, you’re going to be the one doing everything. You have to be Jack of all trades.

Sean: I agree with where you were going that in the beginning, you’ll have to do everything. You’re going to inevitably be Jack of all trades.

Erika: True.

Sean: I’m sure you have experienced that as well, Erika.

Erika: Yeah, so you’re going to do the marketing, you’re going to do the production and you’re going to do the fulfillment. You’re going to do all of that and of course, it also depends on the business that you’re going to go in. But then eventually, when you have more people, when you delegate more stuff to them, the situation would be better.

Like for me right now, I’ve already delegated the other departments and I’m just now doing the marketing, which is what I really love in the business. I don’t like doing all the operation stuff, I like doing the marketing. That’s it. So right right now, I’m at that point. But at the start, I did all of that. I also did the delivery.

Sean: Yeah, but you know you figure out quickly along the way that you’re not so good in some of them or a lot of those things don’t energize you. You’re still a master of something. You quickly figure that out when you’re in business.

So for you Erika, you like marketing. You’re probably really good at it as well because you want to do it, you want to keep on improving, and you’re passionate about that. For me, it’s also sales and marketing when it comes to SEO. That’s what I was passionate about.

I still do the strategies, I still do sales, and I still do the marketing up to today. So you quickly find out that you actually are a master of something, even if during the start, you’re going to have to do pretty much everything, all the way to cleaning the restroom if you don’t have any sanitary personnel yet.

Erika: You’re right. By doing everything then, you’ll figure out which ones you like and which ones you really don’t like.

Sean: All right, what are your tips for people having a hard time choosing what type of business they want to start?

Erika: I guess you have to keep asking yourself questions like: What are your options? What’s your situation? What do you offer? What are your talents? What resources do you have? Like I said earlier, I just really focused on what I wanted to do, what I wanted to be at, and that was fashion, and then something that I knew that I could do at the comforts of my home online.

Because during that time, I was young. I think I was 18 years old and I was a mommy. I had to take care of my baby and at the same time earn a living. So, given the situation, I can’t go out. At that time, I didn’t have a helper I could afford so I had to do everything. I really am the Jack of all trades that Niño mentioned. Even changing diapers, I also did that.

So, ask yourself those questions, and then eventually you’ll figure it out. And of course, don’t forget what you really want to do so you won’t get burned out of the business and it won’t feel like work in the beginning. Because it’s really the first few months or the first few weeks, you won’t probably earn enough or sustainably for it to go.

Sean: Yeah, at the beginning it’s really a grind. You don’t really make much and then you hire people, and sometimes their salary is bigger than your take home. I mean I personally experienced that when I was starting out, and those are the times that you’re going to be questioning your purpose. Why did I start? Why is my employee’s salary bigger than my take home salary? It’s tough.

It’s tough so my answer to this question is, make sure you choose the business that you’re willing to suffer for. Erika said the word passion earlier. And passion, if you take it from the latin definition, means suffering or sacrifice.

It should be something that you’re willing to suffer for, something you’re willing to sacrifice yourself for. That’s going to be the business that you should start, because otherwise you’re going to quit halfway and you’re not even getting the first fruits of your efforts. It would be a waste if you quit halfway. So that’s my advice for you there.

From Tin, what could be your best advice for those who can relate with the Jack of all trades thing mentioned earlier? Tin has a small clothing business and she’s a one man team. And yeah, that’s the question. What’s the best advice?

Erika: Congratulations on your small clothing business. It won’t be forever. You’re not going to be Jack of all trades forever and you’re going to reap the reward too soon.

You know, just keep hustling, keep grinding, and eventually, you won’t be all that. It’s all going to be worth it, especially if you’re doing something that you love, your clothing business. You’re not going to stay there that long.

Sean: My advice would be to look at yourself and ask yourself, what am I willing to pay myself for X amount? So, for example, you want a salary that’s Php 50,000 a month. What would be the work that you need to do to earn that money from your own business? So if it is sales and marketing, then that’s what you have to focus on. If I wanted Php 50,000 per month for myself when I was starting out, I wouldn’t spend my time cleaning the toilet. That’s why I hired someone to do that.

Erika: What’s with you and cleaning toilets?

Sean: I mean literally I did that, so I was really cleaning the toilet when I was starting out. I didn’t have someone doing that and I rented an office that had its own bathroom inside. So we didn’t have a rest room that is common with other offices around. So no one’s cleaning the toilet, guess who has to clean it?

I think that’s the best way to see it, because if you’re the Jack of all trades, you’re doing some stuff that you think you could pay someone else for and that person could specialize in those things, while you’re paying yourself the right salary, doing the things that you really love doing and that you’re really good at, then you should focus on that area.

For me, it’s sales and marketing. Up to today, that’s what I’m doing and the overall strategy of our SEO blueprint. Those are things that I’m in charge of. So I’m no longer in charge of HR, I’m no longer in charge of legal, accounting, and of accounts management.

I’m no longer in charge of a lot of things actually, like a lot of things. I have delegated my authority to a lot of leaders already in the team and all I’m in charge of is the sales, the marketing and the SEO blueprint, and that’s it. So yeah, I hope that helps.