It started out as a solution to a problem Kate Yu and Edie Acedera shared. The hardworking moms wanted to be at home, fully present for their kids while still being able to pursue their passions.
At the time, Kate was in marketing/product development while Edie was also thriving in her career, which involved market research. But both moms decided to leave their corporate jobs. That ending was the beginning for what would prove to be a successful venture, which would eventually grow into Mommy Republic.
“We left our corporate jobs to start this because we also wanted to collaborate with other like-minded moms!” Kate told theAsianparent Philippines in an interview.
After conducting more research in order to better understand the Filipino Millenial mom, they found that, next to raising successful kids, Filipino moms’ desire to be entrepreneurs.
photo: Edie Acedera (left) and Kate Yu (right)
Knowing this, Kate and Edie wanted to provide a platform through which moms can start and grow their very own online business.
“As online shoppers-we found current options confusing to navigate and we have been let down by sites that don’t sell good quality products. We don’t have a lot of time to browse online, and we certainly didn’t want to spend any more time stuck in traffic!” said Kate. “Mommy Republic was thus born.”
Wanting to make life easier for other moms, they came up with a unique product, a pre-filled grocery list, making it easier for moms to not forget anything!
To share their knowledge, Kate and Edie co-wrote a book entitled Mommy Republic – Understanding Filipino Millennial Moms. Through their book, they wish to help other business owners “understand and better serve moms by helping them fine tune their products and services.”
“We really sought out to fix problems we encountered in our personal lives but we wanted to do it in a way that helped others as well.”
photo courtesy of Kate Yu
“We really sought out to fix problems we encountered in our personal lives but we wanted to do it in a way that helped others as well,” added Kate.
Read on for more of our interview with Kate Yu.
We understand that while helping mompreneurs grow their business, you also give them parenting advice and how to build a happy home. Please give us examples on how you do this.
I believe it truly takes a village to raise happy kids and build a happy home. It’s a journey. It is easier said than done most days. The best way I give advice is by participating in online groups and share in a discreet/non-judgmental way from my experience and pass on advice I, too, have received from other moms who generously helped me.
I can’t survive without my group of mom friends- online and offline. Sometimes we just need to hear from each other that we are all going through the same challenges and that we don’t need to know everything- we just need our tribe of moms to help us out. I also benefit a lot from reading theAsianparent. So incredibly grateful for what you guys give parents like me!
I work from home and I found that the line between business and home has blurred so much so I needed to pull back. So I make it a point to ‘create’ special moments within the pockets of time we have. We work with what we have. This is my guiding principle when I think about building a happy home- lets make the most of what we have because there will never be a perfect time, or perfect situation we just need to make it happen best way we can.
Next page: Find out her top 3 tips for moms who want to start their own business!
Please share advice for would-be mompreneurs? What tips and words of inspiration can you give them?
First of all I would say more power to you mom, because it’s an incredibly brave thing to do and it is truly the best thing!
My biggest three barriers when I started out were fear (of the unknown), overwhelmed (where to start!), and financing (boot-strapping is incredibly challenging).
A post shared by Mommy Republic (@mommyrepublic) on
My top three tips would be:
1. Choose the intersection between your passion and what will reward you – Early wins are critical to keep you motivated. Your passion will help you ride out the tough times, and the rewards will give you a longer “financial runway” as we all need a bit of time to see our ideas grow and blossom.
2. Focus on solving a genuine problem – I believe products and services that truly address a “pain” point in a person’s life have a higher chance of success. Talk to your potential clients/customers and really find out how they define their problem (i.e. pain point) and how you can help them
3. Focus on growing your business – It’s tempting to do so many things at once and we can get overwhelmed. Focus first on the critical things that will have an impact on your business, the rest can wait. This is why we designed Mommy Republic’s service – to allow mompreneurs to focus more on growing their busines s- we will take care of fulfillment, admin, customer service, payment collection! I wish I had Mommy Republic years ago!
How can harnessing the power of tech help mompreneurs grow their business?
Mompreneurs are incredibly time-starved and can be really unlocked through the power of technology. Technology can help you reach more people, automate, and grow your business. It also evolves fast so always check if there are tools that can help you because even the price of these tools are becoming more affordable which is always a plus!
How can moms be a part of Mommy Republic? How can they get in touch with you?
Mommy Republic is a community of moms who make things happen. We are looking for Moms who: write/blog with an authentic voice to help us with reviews and exciting content, moms with a strong instagram following who can be part of our ambassador program, and moms who are good with operations, sales, and finance to help us with partnerships.
We created a small e-book/handbook for mompreneurs who want to get started. If they email me at [email protected], I will be happy to send this to them in PDF version for free
You started in 2016 and have achieved a lot as a website for moms, what do you hope to achieve in the coming years? What expansion plans are in the works?
Thank you! We do feel like we’ve been doing this forever so it’s good to look back and see what has been done instead of focusing on the other 100 million things that have yet to be done. For now our goal is to simply continue to provide trusted, quality service and to collaborate with more mom-bloggers, mom-creatives, and mom-merchants. We would love to meet more mom creators!
To learn more about Mommy Republic, visit their official website.
READ: Lactabites founder on her journey: “Even with limited budget you can still become a mompreneur”
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