Story & Photo by Rizal Raoul Reyes
IT was a leap of faith for Lara Martirez. She enjoyed her job as an equities fund manager of a local commercial bank. She loved numbers, banking and finance. But Martirez felt her corporate job was “weighing” her down.
Hence, the management engineering graduate of Ateneo de Manila University resigned. She began organizing Launchspace Branding and Design Co., a digital marketing firm, where she is its chief executive officer—the boss at 28.
In an e-mail interview with the BusinessMirror, Martirez shared the inspiration and other things that her fellow millennials will find quite relevant in their pursuit of their goals and aspirations.
Do you consider yourself the typical millennial who is always on a rush to make an impact in her career?
Honestly, I just want to reach my dreams of being a successful businesswoman and hopefully travel all over the world, too! So I guess I’m a millennial in that way.
Although I don’t agree with the perception of millennials that success in one’s career has to happen overnight. Rome wasn’t built in a day.
As an entrepreneur, I’ve learned to be patient and appreciate my clients and new projects because of the hard work and time I’ve put into building Launchspace. With Launchspace, I hope to improve the entrepreneur scene in Manila and encourage more people to take the leap and pursue what they love doing. That’s why I’ve been focusing the Launchspace target market to small businesses and start-ups.
I hardly ever lose my drive or get bored art directing or making social-media plans for my clients. Every day I’m excited to get up early in the morning because I love what I do and I think that’s so important to ensure success in one’s career.
Millennials are perceived to abhor a structured work environment. Do you think this is a right perception?
I believe and know from firsthand experience that a structured work environment is necessary. [In] my case, my corporate job environment was where I was trained to have the professional discipline and attitude in conducting business operations and formulating strategies.
I learned that business is business. I prefer to be punctual, efficient and honest with my clients. From my corporate jobs I learned to do sales calls, make proposals, write business e-mails and memos, all of which I am doing now with Launchspace.
The part that I like to keep experimental and free would be the creative process and marketing strategies we implement for our clients. I like experimenting and changing things up in the direction we take for our clients’ brand and image.
Another structured environment that has helped me in my discipline would be my past triathlon training. I did “Cobra Ironman 70.3 Philippines” in 2012 and 2013.
I would train before and after work, as well as on weekends. I learned to follow my training schedule, unless I was sick, despite the difficulty of the workout. This has helped me in my business to do the most difficult task (usually making presentations) in my day so that the bulk of my work is done and I feel like I can handle the other tasks easily.
What made you decide to become an entrepreneur?
A big inspiration for me is my 98-year-old lolo (grandfather) who started from little— just a carinderia (small restaurant). But through hard work and relentless determination, he ended up having different businesses [that] he grew himself.
The second reason is I also wanted to do something that gives me fulfillment, something that makes it a bit easier to wake up at 6 a.m. and makes every day different and exciting.
I knew that becoming an entrepreneur would have me do human resources, sales, marketing, taxation [and] networking; all as I go along. And I like looking back knowing that I’m much more comfortable meeting new clients nowadays.
Having my own thing has made me realize the success that comes with being an entrepreneur is much greater than promotions or salary raises, because the work put into it has definitely been blood and sweat (no tears so far).
I also wanted to do something creative and that would help other businesses and entrepreneurs, as well. I love hearing and knowing about different businesses and in my job, I get to meet people from diverse backgrounds who have different businesses who love what they do.
Did you have to make major adjustments in terms of work ethic, finances and business networking?
I definitely had to do a lot more work, although the times I choose to work would entirely be up to me.
At my lax moments in my bank jobs, I would be surfing the Internet, going online window shopping, maybe reading an e-book. I can’t do any of these things unless they involve Launchspace or my online clothing shop, Bonita (bonitathelabel.com).
The great thing is, work now doesn’t feel like work even if I don’t have time to read my e-books anymore (except after work). In the first few months of becoming an entrepreneur, I’d save every single centavo because I wasn’t sure if I would still have income in the next month!
After eighth months of entrepreneurship, I’d say I still feel it sometimes but I am hopeful that my business has become more stable with our regular clientbase and potential clients.
Since becoming an entrepreneur, I’ve been going to start-up talks and entrepreneur meet-ups to get more exposure for Launchspace. It’s fun talking to other entrepreneurs too, because I learn about their start-up stories. Each one is different and it’s fascinating.
How would you describe your post-corporate life right now?
I’m enjoying work days 100 times more now. I work more now than when I was in the corporate world but the work is much more fulfilling and every day is different!
Sometimes we have photo-shoots that normally take a half a day or we have meetings the whole day. I love meeting entrepreneurs because every start-up story is unique, and to me—they’re all interesting. From other entrepreneurs, I get insight on how to improve my businesses and services further because of their needs.
How do you compare your workload in the corporate life and as an entrepreneur?
Having my own business entails double the workload, especially since I want Launchspace to keep growing or expanding.
Now, the success of the business primarily is on my shoulders, unlike in a corporate job where I was just one person in a team of 10 so I didn’t have much responsibility. I could afford to be lax and complacent because there were others who were doing the same thing. But, at the same time, I wasn’t learning much except analyzing stocks, which is good knowledge to have as well.
I’ve always thought of myself as good in time management but that skill has been definitely put to the test! From 8 a.m. to 6 p.m., it’s just all work for me (with a lunch break, of course) if I hope to finish before I go for a workout or go home, although entrepreneurship is indeed 24 hours.
When I get home, I still end up thinking about work, while in a corporate job my brain would shut down by 5:30 p.m.
You mentioned you plan to enroll in a short program in design. Did you have an inkling in design when you were working in a bank?
I’m still contemplating if I’ll be studying design, fashion or business short courses (I have too many interests!) in New York. But even when I was working corporate, I’ve always loved design since aesthetics has so much relevance to me.
I also love fashion, being fit and working out. Also I did a home baking stint back in 2013 and I remember being so meticulous with my logo, menu and packaging that I would spend hours on them. I never forgot the labor and time I spent on those. Ever since that time, I’ve been contemplating on a business that entails design. Now my outlet for design is Launchspace Branding & Design, which concentrates primarily on branding, social media marketing and photography services. I also have Bonita, which is a women’s online shop since fashion is also a big interest of mine.
Did your corporate background provide you the discipline in running your business?
Yes, I learned to manage my time, be efficient, prioritize and always be professional despite being a startup. I’ve learned to answer business inquiries within a day because people want answers fast and they need to know we work efficiently and care about their businesses since we are a B2B (business-to-business platform).
Also, since I was working at a bank, the financial portion of the business wasn’t a problem. I was used to computing for our costs and returns. It also made accounting much easier and where to invest our savings.
What are your plans for your business?
I plan to expand. Currently I am hoping to expand from a team of three to a team of five. I also want to offer more services.
We just recently started offering web design and development since most, if not all, businesses need a web site.
I also want to get into business consultation and one way I’m doing this is with my employees’ business plans and funding, which is a benefit that we offer.
I also hope to expand geographically. Other cities in the Philippines are expanding a lot faster than Manila and hopefully we get to capitalize on that. Other countries may also find our services very reasonable and why not if we can travel, right?