Vivien's Story
Many people asked me, “Vivien, you are indeed doing well in TVB, but why you still want to start your own business? That’s torturing!” Being a host of beauty programme over the years, I received many messages from my friends and fans complaining that they have spent a lot of money and time but ultimately could not find skincare and slimming products that best suit their needs. And they came to ask for my recommendations. In fact, whenever someone ask me about slimming and beauty stuff, I feel pleased because many of them acknowledge my knowledge of and insight into aspect of beauty and slimming, while my words actually affect their purchasing decisions.
Thus, an idea popped into my head: Since most of us have the same trouble, which is feeling annoyed about buying ineffective products or concerning with the product safety, I might as well act as a distributor to introduce the products that I have used before to you all. More importantly, those products should be recognized as safe, effective and efficient. And that’s how I start my business, a path that I had never thought of before I came to Hong Kong.
Like any entrepreneurs else, I knew nothing about launching a company at the beginning. So, I pursued continuous learning and exploring, which helped me to grow as I go. In the early stage, I nearly had to handle everything. Soon, my business started to make profit and was able to hire assistants to alleviate my workload, but if possible, I persisted in being engaged in shop operation. Since I am always a customer elsewhere, therefore, I knew that if I want to be a competent boss, I should keep myself updated with the actual operation situation and understand customers’ needs, in order to rectify the inadequacies identified, provide attentive customer service and develop credibility with all of our customers.
Although working with unfamiliarity is uneasy, I learnt more about tips on doing business from experiments and mistakes. I especially stress: Everyone makes mistakes, that is normal, but the most important thing is to learn from our mistakes and figure out the best course of action for improvement to avoid repeating the old same mistakes. I can only say that it is not easy to tread the path to start a company, from site selection, store layouts and designs planning, online orders receiving, international order shipping to online-to-offline promotion and discovery of superior quality products. Luckily, I received tons of assistance and advice from many great people to help with my business. Without them, I’m sure my startup business will probably be even more difficult.
Apart from those loved and great ones, I am grateful to have colleagues who are willing to lend me helping hands. Being a founder, “teamwork” is always the uppermost core value in my mind. I remember the days when my business was still not on track, they assisted me in establishing sales network, handling invitation for distributing diverse products, building system to manage orders and stocks, training front-line staff and so on. Now, the business is on track, but this is not attributed to my own efforts. I alone definitely could not complete all these affairs without my team.
My dream-chasing journey is tough, but even so, I encourage those who have a same thought as mine to dare to try! Achieving anything you want in life! I do not mean that persevering to the last minute certainly brings to a success. Perhaps “perseverance leads to success” only happens in fairy tale. However, think of it: There is one thing that you want to accomplish in your lifetime, but at the end of your life, you realize that you did not give it a try in your youth. You will only regret it! Make more attempts, you may succeed or fail. The fear of failure can be quite crippling, yet teaches us more. Once you stick with the process of learning, you may WIN eventually. But if you do nothing and stand still, you absolutely will turn out to be nothing.
Performing an artist and entrepreneur at the same time is not that easy, so I inevitably have to sacrifice my rest time and moments of leisure with my family and friends. Nevertheless, every time I receive messages and comments saying that products in VY Beauty Store are truly effective, I am so thankful for all the support and love and really feel a great sense of satisfaction. Every one of you drives me to do my very best in VY Beauty Store where I can share my favorite products and the latest and practical information about beauty and health.
