Being a Young Business Owner

During the Pandemic

Multicultural specialist in foreign trade, Maria Kim, talks about her business success during the Pandemic and how it has been an opportunity worldwide to make us stop and think of the changes we want to make.

You may think starting a new business during the Pandemic is too challenging and risky. Will you make any mistakes? Is it too dangerous to innovate? What if you make a bad investment?

And the answers are – yes, mistakes are inevitable, innovation is always dangerous, and we need to face all the consequences of our actions. Now, whether we turn this danger into success is up to us. Actually, the Covid-19 Pandemic brought hidden business opportunities which can be discovered and transformed into advantages for our companies and personal lives.

Pandemic effects and challenges

I come from a family business operating in the trading of textile products all over Latin America and Asia, giving them consulting and logistic services.

By the beginning of 2020, the struggles were real: tendencies in consumption suddenly changed, and so did the sales of many standard products. By April, sales in the retail apparel/accessories stores dropped more than 50 percent. The US exports in apparel products decreased around 30 percent as people worked from home and spent less on garments. In the US, the flow in trade of raw material and shipments of yarns decreased 30% and fabrics around 20% . In Guatemala, the imports of yarns decreased by 11%, while the imports of textiles (fabrics) decreased by 22% (Banco de Guatemala).

Moreover, the increasing lockdown orders, the application of new non-tariff measures, and the restrictions on exits/entrances at borders, created a disbalance in trade. While many of the containers travelled from Asia to all over the world full of medical products, they came back empty, creating supply-demand problems, skyrocketing the price of sea and air logistics.

In order to make real profit, I opened my own business in April with what I thought were millionaire opportunities: I had suppliers of Covid-19 related products, potential buyers and enormous margins on the table.

What I did not know then is that, at the same time, many people were also joining the market: people who had never done international business before and were trying to trade products, creating a toxic market full of scams, threats and mistrust.

In addition, I made a big mistake: I invested the little money I had in the imports of masks right before the market prices dropped dramatically. By the time they arrived in LA, it became extremely hard to sell them.

All of these experiences have been a real challenge and sometimes discouraging. And yet, by the end of the year, our sales in textile yarns had increased over 22% year-over-year and my own business increased the quantity of customers exponentially, its sales and visibility once I found the right opportunity. How?

It is not about the unicorn

Covid-19 has been - and still is - an opportunity worldwide to make us stop and think of the changes we want to make, how we can improve, and the new potential networks we can create to grow both professionally and personally.

I learned that it is not a matter of becoming a unicorn company from one day to the other, but instead, we need to know to adapt to the current context and work hard to achieve our goals.

One of the most important recommendations I would make is to leave Netflix on one side and expand our networking. Keep in touch with your current customers and contacts, but continue trying to reach new ones, doing videocalls, joining online conferences and creating strategic partnerships. You never know when you will meet the right people who may change your life and the right customers to make the difference in your pocket.

Although I spent several months on many calls that did not make me a penny, many of them allowed me to create a great network that in the end involved me in organisations such as the Women Economic Forum, Women in International Trade and the USMCOCCA.

Plus, because we kept advising our current and potential customers from the textiles industry, when the opportunity came, many of them started purchasing like never before. We were just there for them at the right moment to assist them.

Another issue is the importance of having good presence in social media and online marketing. Investing in the right communication strategy is the key on how you want to show your company and yourself.

When I started investing in Facebook ads, someone posted a gif in one of our publications saying that the money invested in this platform was completely worthless. In the first two months I thought it was somehow true, but my communication team kept insisting we needed to keep trying to promote different services and exploring our market until we found the right target and star service. When we finally found them, the interactions of the publications increased more than 16000% (yes!) and the visits to our social media pages increased by 300%.

This is also true with the clothing industry. Although the traditional sales decreased during 2020, the Pandemic benefited those companies which innovated and invested in online platforms.

Last but not least, it is important to constantly analyse the market and find a niche for your company.

If you haven’t done so, I strongly recommend you learn about the market you want to deal with, the political and economic context of the country, and find a specific target to make you unique amongst the competitors.

Believe in yourself!

Personally, as a business owner I face different challenges: as a woman, as part of a minority group – being from Argentina with Asian features- and for my age.

Last year, during a negotiation, someone called me “f*** little housewife” behind my back and in a very disrespectful context. Why? Simply because I was being selected as a paymaster of the group instead of him!

These challenges may actually discourage you when you are doing business. However, if we start believing in them as disadvantages, they may become our reality. We need to let our positive thoughts lead us, be constantly creating good habits, and sustaining ethical business.

By continually looking to educate ourselves, there is no doubt we shall discover opportunities and transform them into the advantages to change our lives.

Maria Kim, M.A. in International Economy Relations, is amulticultural specialist in foreign trade and the application of non-tariff measures with years of experience in the textile industry, logistics, trading and international business. Vice-president of the WICCI Western USA, Board Member of the Women Economic Forum West Coast (WEF) and of the Women in International Trade (WIT) Los Angeles Chapter.

Maria Kim,