"Failure is not the opposite of success, it's part of success."
 |
| Source |
In 2014, Leandro and I made a bold decision: we quit our corporate jobs and started an e-commerce business. As you can imagine, that journey came with countless failures—failures we learned to use to our advantage. As a wise man once said, every success carries failure somewhere along the way. 😉
Our very first startup didn’t survive. I won’t go into detail about how broken and devastated we were at the time—but that’s life. And yes, we moved forward. We overcame the challenges and, true to our nature, we started another venture.
I’ll never claim that we’re “pros” (haha), but we are committed to learning and relearning. Today, we have two thriving businesses—but that’s not what this story is about. This is about a recent loss.
Please know this: I’m not sharing this to discourage you. Read on—I hope you’ll find inspiration in it. 😊
How It Started
My husband has a lot of ideas. I’m not exaggerating. 😄 And when I see that look on his face—the tone, the body language—I know something big is coming and I should brace myself.
Two years ago, Leandro couldn’t stop talking about starting a logistics-related business. Laundry pickup and delivery. Express delivery. Errands. The ideas kept flowing.
We initially thought about starting a laundry business to fulfill the logistics component. We surveyed commercial spaces and searched for washing machines. It wasn’t easy. Eventually, we had to pause—not because the idea wasn’t good, but because we simply weren’t ready yet.
Where It Began
Relentless is an understatement. 😋
On December 25 of last year—right in the middle of a pandemic—Paleehug Iligan Delivery was born. It felt like the perfect day to begin.
Paleehug was an all-around express delivery service. We handled errands, food and medicine delivery, parcel delivery, and merchant pickups. We served both individuals and businesses.
For the first two days, it was just Leandro and me—doing everything from customer service and accounting to the actual deliveries. On our first day, we received four orders. That felt like a win.
By the fifth day, we were handling thirty orders.
That’s when we knew—we needed help.
We hired our first rider, and the growth continued. Our families were proud. My mom especially. 😄
Course of Action
By January 2021, we decided to expand the team. We hired three permanent riders and six commission-based riders.
As owners, our days started early—and didn’t really end. The moment I picked up my phone in the morning, I wouldn’t put it down until 8 PM. Inquiries came in nonstop. It was exciting at first, but soon I became exhausted and inefficient. I was still doing almost everything myself.
By the second month, we paused operations for two weeks to reorganize and become more systematic. We considered developing an app, but the cost—around ₱60,000—felt too risky while we were still testing the waters. Thankfully, after extensive research, we found an affordable system that met most of our needs.
I also had to step back. Leandro took over daily operations while I regained balance.
Despite our efforts, challenges kept coming—rider conduct, hiring issues, customer expectations, merchant demands. The learning curve was steep.
Why We Closed
This was the hardest part.
We didn’t want to unpublish Paleehug—but we had to.
Ironically, the business was growing fast. That was the problem. We could no longer meet demand given our resources at the time.
Here are the biggest lessons we learned:
1. Capital Is Critical
You will burn money in the first few years—office rent, salaries, systems, operations. Profit doesn’t come quickly. Don’t start without enough capital to sustain the long game.
2. You Need a Team
You can’t do everything yourself. You need people—HR, operations, accounting, sales. This was our biggest limitation. We couldn’t fully build the team when we needed it most. 😔
3. Perseverance Is Non-Negotiable
Yes, it sounds cliché. But entrepreneurship requires long hours, creativity, innovation, and relentless effort. Giving up is easy. Enduring is not.
That may sound like a narrow summary—but these are the essentials. The rest, you learn by doing.
Looking Back
Because we’ve experienced failure before, we’re no longer afraid of it. The lessons, the growth, and the journey itself were worth every tear, every drop of sweat, and every sleepless night.
I still miss Paleehug to this day. I genuinely loved serving our clients—every single one of them. We chose to pause, not because we failed, but because we learned.
And who knows? Maybe we’ll be back someday.
P.S. If you have questions, feel free to leave them in the comments below. I’d love to hear from you. 😀
0 comments:
Post a Comment