How It Started
My Small Business Story
It was late 2012 when Georgina Sasha, my brand, started.
After meeting my husband (now) in Makati City, Philippines, I quit my corporate job for a leap of faith. While waiting for my fiance visa, my Instagram rapidly grew organically. Back when there were no "DMs" yet, and everything was just via comment and exchange of emails to get in touch with the customers. I'll take you down memory lane for a lil fun throwback of my products! I hope this inspires you somehow if you are also planning to start your own business!
I didn't start a physical store right away, no crazy budget so I was selling from my own network on Facebook and friends nearby. And these DIY tops are the first few products I sold.
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Summer Switch-a-Roo
From a plain basic large XL T-shirt, cut out to turn into a cover-up and added a few crochet hearts, snap buttons to wear it multiple ways!
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Summer Switch-a-Roo
Available in so many vibrant colors! Wear it whichever side you want, the snap buttons are movable, made of crocheted yarn with color-block design in mind.
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Summer Switch-a-Roo
Bonus heart shaped crochet that can be snapped on and off for a mix and match look with other colored hearts to choose from. Courtesy of Georgina's Mama.
I sold ready to ship products too!
Aside from my DIY stuff, I also sold a lot of ready made products. Mainly imported cosmetics like Naturactor concealer from Japan, and lots of Korean BB Creams! It was that phase of BB Creams obsession that so many celebrities magnetized to my shop on Instagram because it was not easily available in the Philippines. Through Instagram, I made so many connections and built my rapport to all these famous celebrities! None of them were paid that time to post on IG.
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Korean BB Creams
I cannot even count how many celebrities ordered this from me. But I would like to give a shout out to two huge celebrities that helped promote me on their IG account when I was just starting. It was Kristine Hermosa-Sotto and Rhian Ramos. I wish I could hug and thank them because they upended my biz-life.
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Naturactor Concealer
This product I sourced directly from Japan and imported to the Philippines. The hottest seller that was hard to keep up! Luckily, it was Heart Evangelista's ultimate holy grail that she still uses upto now! She occassionally ordered this from me.
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Fun Rings
View more pics of the ringsThis was an unforgettable moment in my business where Heart Evangelista wore this ring and tagged me on Instagram with the Naturactor that she ordered from me.
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My First Logo
GS stands for Georgina Sasha, and my tagline was "DIY stuff with love". Proud to say that I designed this round logo myself even if it doesn't look so fancy haha! I thought it was cute back then! We all start somewhere, right?
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Painted Cluth Bags
Close-up shots of the clutchCrazy to think that I painted some clutch bags too. Although it wasn't a lot, because it was very time consuming, it was fun to do and still helped boost a lil bit of my small business.
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GSkin Miracle Set
This was that product that went viral on my FB page! My before and after picture that people accused me of Photoshopping the picture! 😂 It was the biggest seller I've had that helped so many people got rid of their acne and transformed their face in 30 days.
My DIY Switch-a-Roos got an upgrade!
After making a lil bit more money, I was able to find a small manufacturer near my apartment in Quezon City who can help stitch my next collection that I called, GSignature Collection.
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GSignature Collection
I remember my Ate (sister) took these photos in our apartment as I didn't have any cameras that time. She let me borrow her nice camera to help shoot my design. This can be worn multiple ways with so many poppin' colors to choose from!
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GSignature Collection
Having zero budget, I even modeled all of it! 🤣 At least I became a model somehow! I remember we had desk lamps to use as our photography lights! Thanks Ate for helping out!
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GSignature Collection
Even my accessories were all borrowed from my Ate! Haha! You can use this as a skirt even! It's a better quality spandex than the first DIY tshirts I sold. So don't forget to count and appreciate all the lil upgrades because they matter!
Then I moved to the U.S.
The idea was for me to end my online shop, but due to the continued growth, it was so hard for me to end it. My Mama volunteered to continue shipping the products and doing the labor job on my behalf. Of course I paid my Mama with all her hard-work. I remember one of the proudest moments of my business was when I was able to help pay-off my Mama's credit card debts! After that, I wanted to do more and promised myself that I will help my family more moving forward.
As my business continued to grow, I was able to afford a small team. I hired two ladies, one based in the Philippines, and another Filipina based in Australia. GeorginaSasha turned into a group of 4 women running the online business 24/7 (including my Mama). The team worked around the clock in three different timezones: Las Vegas, Manila, and Sydney.
Fast forward to 2017, I was able to put up my own physical store that I called GS Unicorn Land. Take a peek of the before and after of the space!
Majority of you discovered my brand from my swim pieces
I guess if you're reading this, you might have bought or owned one of my swimwear pieces if you're following @georginasasha since 2017. These onesies were my babies. I designed them to cater to Filipino lifestyles wherein the coverage of the bum is not too cheeky and not too covered either. It's just the perfect coverage that will flatter the legs, to make it appear longer from the high-cut design. We released a lot of fun colors, from pinkish nude, to poppin' rainbow colors!
My swim pieces are still available for purchase via @sunday_stroll—at a whopping 30% OFF, shipping from the Philippines. So if you want to get your hands on these, just DM the account.
Below are a few more pictures and features that I'll be forever grateful
This chapter has come to an end and I welcome you to join me on this new chapter ahead! Thank you so much for reading if you made it this far. I guess you are now fully invested in my small business background 😄 and I cannot wait for you to own my new handmade creations!
