Q: You’ve been a long time blogger. Is there any tips you can share for bloggers on working with brands?
This is a big concern for me as a blogger. When you have built your blog from sincere passion of writing and sharing, and when your readers connect with you on a personal level even though you’ve never met, nothing is more disappointing when a blogger becomes “commercial”. But also, you can’t blame bloggers for monetizing their blog because they have built a huge following and it’s fair that they want to earn income too.
I think the only way to do this is to just accept advertorials or engagements in products you really believe in. I have an agency who gets these for me, but I have turned down so many ad offers simply because I don’t believe in it. Especially if it’s baby items that I don’t use as a mom. Why would I ask other moms to use it on their children if I myself don’t? The money is tempting but it’s not worth it to ruin your brand. So be honest to your readers because they are the ones who built you, after all.
Q: How is Vivy as #LADYBOSS?
She’s naggy and she will message you at 2 am in the morning to check if you’ve finished a task.
To be completely honest, I expect a lot from my team and they know it. Every little mistake I will point out and it is to make sure the team improves and never repeats it. I’m very hands-on when I check work, and even grammar mistakes get me so worked up. A lot of people say they would love to work for me, but quite honestly, when they do, they get shocked because I’m quite serious and blunt, which is different from the Vivy they know from Instagram. Anyone can tell that I’m very passionate about my work, both in FashionValet and in dUCk, so I always expect the same kind of passion and commitment from my team. I always tell them, “Never hand in work you won’t be proud of.” Do things sincerely and wholeheartedly, not just in work but in every aspect of your life.
Q: Any tips you want to share to readers who are planning to create business together with their spouse?
Firstly, you have to really think about it. Not everyone can work with their partners and if you don’t think you can, you shouldn’t force it just to “follow the trend” or because it seems convenient. Trust me, I’ve heard just as many failed husband-wife businesses (that in turn becomes failed marriages) as successful ones. Be realistic about your relationship. Once you have established that and you think it’s a go-ahead, the first thing you should do is set boundaries and tasks for each other. You need to draw the line on who does what, so the decision-making and responsibility becomes clear. Of course, always ask for each other’s advice because we can’t assume to know everything, but don’t undermine the spouse in charge of that said project.
Also very important is mutual ambitions and goals. It’s inevitable. Your whole life will be about work because your company will be your baby with your spouse too. You will find yourself talking about work at home, so both of you need to be ok with that. Once one of you gets sick of work talk or isn’t feeling it anymore, alarm bells will start ringing.
At the end of the day, prioritise your spouse as your marital spouse first. Respect him as a husband, never ever undermine or argue with him in front of his employees and prioritise his personal needs at home before work. It’s easier said than done and I’m still struggling to be the “perfect” wife, but hey, no one said it was going to be easy!
Q: If you can start FashionValet all over again, what would you do differently?
I would hire experienced people to begin with. Fadza and I started FashionValet with USD 30,000 of our own savings and borrowings from family members. That’s considered playmoney for big e-commerce groups! But that’s all we had to use, and with that limitation, we had to build everything on our own and we learned everything the hard way. There was no ready system to use, there was no expert experienced people, and no fancy warehouse method, it was all manual labor at the start. Although I have no regrets because everything is a learning curve, I always think FashionValet could’ve grown faster and much bigger if we had the expertise from the start. But then again, every startup works from ground up. So considering how we started against the “big boys”, we are still one of the leading sites in Asia 5 years on. A lot of e-commerce sites have failed, and somehow FashionValet amazes me by being able to beat all odds. I thank God everyday for His mercy and always pray for Him to guide us the right path, as leaders, as parents and as partners.
Q: Any good news for shoppers in Indonesia from Fashion Valet?
We will be implementing free delivery! We have just started our warehouse, office and operations in Jakarta. Our new country manager Windy is handling all Indonesian operations and I’m in contact with her more than my own mother! Haha. It’s hard going regional when you long to be there to see the operations for yourself, and this is my weakness in that I tend to be too hands-on with everything. So far, even without me, FashionValet Indo is running smoothly and the team is getting bigger. Products will be shipped from our Indo warehouse too, so Indonesian customers can get their items fast and with free delivery!
We are having more and more brands from Indonesia coming on board on top of our Malaysian bulk of brands. 2016 we will be getting more Singaporean and Thai brands. At the end of the day, we are chasing our goal to become Asian’s multi-label online store carrying brands from Asia. So not only Indonesians, but everyone around the world can shop easily from our pool of very talented designers in Asia.
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Did you read that, ladies? Soon we’ll have more choices to shop online! Thank you for making the time to do the interview, Vivy, amidst your busy schedules in preparing Raya collection, FashionValet Pop up store, dUCk Stationery launch, Ramadan and taking care of the kids. Best of luck for everything and hope to see you soon!
