"Understand your 'why' and always keep that in mind" with Cindy + Carmen of Commerce Chicks
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Three years ago, best friends Carmen and Cindy officially left their corporate jobs to pursue their eCommerce business together. With the desire to leave the rat race and reach financial freedom, they had initially worked on the venture as a side hustle until they reached their goal of 1 million in revenue in their first year!
Now they have multiple e-commerce stores and a following of 75k on TikTik, @CommerceChicks, where they share their story and tips on how to use dropshipping as a way to generate passive income.
Can you tell readers about your background?
Cindy & I met during frosh week of university. We were both in the same competitive 5-year program where you got two degrees from two neighbouring Universities in Math and Business. We bonded instantly. Both of us coming from similar backgrounds; being raised by first-generation immigrants parents who had to hustle and start small businesses to survive in a foreign country. We’ve been best friends ever since.
In 2017 we graduated and took offers to do consulting at Deloitte. Shortly after,
we decided the corporate life wasn’t for us and tried our hands at a side hustle. We started our first business together in e-commerce! With limited funds and knowledge, we built our first store together selling women’s accessories and fashion using Shopify. We used the drop-shipping model as it allowed us to limit our risk and only order the products after a customer has paid us.
Promoting our brand through social media & digital advertising, we were able to make 1 million dollars in revenue and quit our full-time jobs at Deloitte within our first year of business. For the next three years, we travelled & lived nomadically across the world while building multiple eCommerce stores using the drop-shipping model.
Recently, we launched our first non-drop ship brand, kimonol.com, designing luxury silk & satin kimonos inspired by Japanese flowers. During the pandemic, we also started a TikTok account @CommmerceChicks to share our story and inspire others to start their own side hustles. Much to our surprise, our first video went viral - gaining over 5 million views! Due to popular requests, we started a mentorship program, CommerceChicks.com, and have since mentored over 70 students on how to start their first eCommerce brand from scratch.
What inspired you to start your business?
The university program we were in actually required us to do internships in order to graduate. Through there we were able to experience different roles in finance, tech, marketing and even teaching at an all-boy boarding school. What we realized was that we hated the grind that the modern work culture promoted and aspired to break free of the rat race and be able to work for ourselves.
Where is your business based?
Since our business is online, I guess everywhere and nowhere! It’s wherever we are, I suppose.
How did you start your business? What were the first steps you took?
We started by first finding our products and suppliers. From there we built our own site through Shopify and learned basic Facebook ads skills from our close friends who were already in the e-Commerce space.
What has been the most effective way of raising awareness for your business?
Definitely through social media. It’s different for each business but we invest a lot into paid ads for our e-commerce stores. Ads on Facebook, Instagram, TikTik, Pinterest, Google, etc. They’re also great platforms to grow organically.
What have been your biggest challenges and how did you overcome them?
How do you stay focused?
This is always tough especially working for yourself with no real deadlines. We like working as partners because we hold each other accountable. We try to set daily, weekly, and monthly goals to help us stay focused.
How do you differentiate your business from the competition?
The biggest differentiators in our business are ourselves! We only sell products we personally love and would purchase, so it definitely gives us an advantage when it comes to connecting with our customers and marketing. I think the same thing can be said about our mentorship program, our students say they loved our course as it feels like they can truly connect with us.
What has been your most effective marketing strategy to grow your business?
The most passive one has definitely been Facebook and Instagram ads. It’s how we’re able to generate profits even if we step away for a few days to travel. Another great one but much less passive to do now is micro-influencer marketing. Try to find a niche where the influencers have a small but very active and engaged following.
What’s your best piece of advice for spring and new entrepreneurs?
Our number 1 advice for new entrepreneurs is to really understand your “why” and always keep that in mind. Why are you doing this? It has to be a strong reason because there will be times where you feel like giving up but remembering you “why” will help you push through. Don’t give up!
What’s your favourite app, blog, and book? Why?
We love to listen to the podcast “How I Built This”. It’s so inspiring to hear the stories behind huge companies and their early struggles. It helps to motivate us and remind us that great things weren’t built in a single day and to never be comfortable or give up on trying to be the best that we can be.
What’s your favourite business tool or resource? Why?
We think communities are really important. The first place we go when we have questions is our communities of other e-Commerce or like-minded people. Come join our growing Facebook community “Side Hustle to 7-Figures”.
Who’s your business role model? Why?
In all honesty, we look up a lot to our friends. We have friends doing their own startups, e-commerce, or other side hustles. The non-stop hustle and drive always motivates us to challenge ourselves, try new things, and to grow.
How do you balance work and life?
It’s definitely a bit tougher when you do your work at home to separate work and life. We try to set a daily schedule where we block off different hours of the day for certain things and try to reserve after dinner time for laptop free life things.
What’s your favourite way to decompress?
We love to travel. We of course have not been able to do much of that lately so we’ve been focusing a lot more on random DIY projects, trying out new recipes, and going on nature excursions like hikes or uni hunting.
What do you have planned for the next six months?
We’re currently on a break from TikTok & just finished the latest round of our mentorship program. In the next 6 months we’re focused on some more new e-Commerce brand ideas and also focusing on how to make our mentorship program even better. Also getting back to our TikTok page!
How can our readers connect with you?
Find us on CommerceChicks.com, Instagram @CommerceChicks or email us at hello@commercechicks.com