Leza Parker: A Home Grown Idea That Outgrew A Home

In summary before I take you on a journey back in time, some six years ago, I was a stay home mother. I got married at 20, had three children and was struggling financially making ends meet. My daughter inspired me to start my first company and the rest is history. You can read more about my history in my previous article "I am not supposed to be a CEO."

Today, I still find it bewildering that I somehow survived to be where I am today. My track records include lecturing in universities, awards in business, numerous media articles, ownership and investment in several businesses, and managing a few companies operational in six countries - two of which are VC funded.

My First Office

Forget the offices I have now, let's take a look at the very first one I had. Yup, I started from home like most stay home mothers who are desperate to earn side income. And yup, I also started with selling on Facebook to plead support from my network of friends and family.

This is a spare room I had, it's probably 3 steps away from my Master Bedroom which clearly makes travelling time absolutely minimal. There is no dress code, and not necessarily reporting from 9 am till 5 pm. It is still functional with a working laptop, my online stock and a proud banner vertically standing - it does feel like an office. Except I got three children making noise ten steps away.

Today we operate in five countries, with five offices in Philippines, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore and India. But I am based in Singapore at the moment, until I migrate to Indonesia to build the head office in Jakarta this Quarter 4.

My First Company

For someone who has been staying home far too long, and being married young means I did not have the chance to complete tertiary education - my first business idea is a craft business. I was watching youtube one night, and was inspired to make hair accessories out of grosgrain ribbons. I started ordering the ribbons from USA (since I did not know where to source in Singapore at that time) from my $100 savings and started making a few for my daughter, Ilana who was a newborn at that time, to wear. Snapped some photos and placed on Facebook. I was not even selling them but some dear friends started messaging if I can do the same for them.

I did, and making tens became hundreds. I learnt to make my own website too, taking in more orders. I was sleeping way past midnight and started to feel tired though by then, I had become an expert at bow-making.

The stuff I needed to make these items are grosgrain ribbons, headbands, glue gun and some accessories.

They looked really good on baby girls, and they are exclusively handmade and uniquely designed. People were willing to pay more for something that had no duplicates. And if you wonder how it looks like on a baby or infant - here is Ilana, my daughter, the 'unpaid' ambassador for Bebebows Pte Ltd back in 2011 when it started.

Thank God she has quite the commercial face and is photogenic, so she went on to 'model' for me for the next year or so, attracting many mothers on social media to start purchasing direct from me.

It got the attention of department stores and we were invited to start supplying the big giants such as Metrojaya, Parksons, Toys R Us, OG, John Little and more. Within 2 years, using my own savings and profits as capital, we made it to about 54 departments stores and exporting to 9 countries - at its peak.

Of course, by then my two hands can never cope making them. So I trained some local stay home mothers to make it for me, before they struggled as well. Then I had it outsourced to China to manufacture. By then we can no longer promise exclusive design anymore, but kept the manufacturing of each design minimal in quantity.

And I got smarter with packaging, so check this out.

We went on to produce tens of thousands every month. I started to struggle monthly with customer service, logistics and admin so that is when I thought, I should hire my first employee.

My First Employee

She was an ex-student of mine. When I was 17, she was 11 and I was her private tutor. Somehow our paths crossed again, she was a teenager without a job and just ended school. I had her working part time for me, before converting her full time as we expanded. She was reporting to my office, but within 12 months - we moved out to our first office outside home in Serangoon North where I hired two more colleagues to keep her company. The company by then developed more products by being sole distributor of an Australian toiletries range for children and our costume jewelry line called 'Mix & Match'.

Fast forward, we have expanded and streamlined multiple times with over 55 full time employees entering and resigning from our establishment, hence they are no longer in the team.

My First Investor

I love blogging. I used to share a lot more of my business growth only because I had more time to spare than I do now, and way less responsibility. I was never on LinkedIn until March 2017 so all along, my entries were shared on Facebook. By that time, I had growing number of followers on social media accumulating to about 100,000. I was already in the newspaper a few times, so that added assurance that I was a legit business owner.

I won more contracts to supply to the store, but struggled with putting together the capital to first manufacture and supply to the big contracts. So I got the contract signed anyway, then I shamelessly asked in social media posting if anyone would be willing to invest in that project. (Bear in mind, I had no business sense so no idea how to get investment loans from anywhere else)

Within a week, some people transferred $75,000 into my bank account (some of whom I know personally, some of whom I never met and residing in another country). The funds were used to invest in the contract, expanded the business and I self-proclaimed myself as a real entrepreneur after that!

I went on to take more investment loans for the next two years, owned and co-owned several more small businesses, expanded human resources. Then I lost money at one year, before I rebuilt everything again - better with more safety nets - then sold my shares to the VC before expanding regionally.

My role got bigger over years, so were my businesses and their crisis. I solved as many as I can, seek help for what I can't but stayed focused on expansion and creating opportunities for others to gain from what we built. It is never a smooth sailing journey, I have days I can breathe a little bit more than most days - but the whole entrepreneurship plus the motherhood added on to my wisdom and developed my character to be who I am today. That would be my greatest achievement.

I started a business from a home, with no capital, and no business sense. Because it's possible, anyone of us can do it too. As long as you set your heart and mind to what you want to pursue, be surprised the road might take you further than you've ever imagined.

About me: Leza Parker

✎ Follow me on Youtube and my business blog. Over the many years, I've helped businesses grow and raised funding, invested and exited a few, and built my own tech start ups. Feel free to contact me.

You might like to read my other articles too:

1. How I "tricked" my way to land endless speaking gigs.
2. How three people sub-consciously mentored me.
3. The Know How of Personal Branding - It can backfire you or win you massively.

Please share and comment, if you enjoyed this article so others could share the same pleasure to learn from reading this too.