What is more important, having the entrepreneurial genes or trying again and again? She is Sylvia Ben Galim, an entrepreneur originally from Monterrey, Mexico, who had to go through several failures to realize that the best idea is to be her own client. She so she created ellazthe Mexican brand that has exceeded expectations.
Sylvia studied marketing at Tec de Monterrey and as part of her training, she moved to New York for a year and a half. It was at that time that the idea of having her own business began to emerge.
In an exclusive interview for Entrepreneur.com, Sylvia told us the story of how she became the leader of a Mexican company that continues to grow and expand its scope. Of course, not before having several setbacks, which left her various lessons as an entrepreneur.
“In New York I worked in a fossil diamond business. At that time, they had good prices and I said, well, I’m going to sell in Monterrey. So, I opened like a mini jewelry store.” However, this first attempt did not work as expected and she launched into a new adventure. “Then I started a juice bar, I had it for a year and a half. Then a florist of preserved flowers through e-commerce, but due to logistics issues, it was not a good idea either”, said the entrepreneur.
One, two or three failures do not define you as an entrepreneur
If there is something that characterizes entrepreneurs, it is never giving up. Sylvia, she went through several failures until she reached ellazthe brand that today is the solution for many Mexican women.
Perhaps he never dropped the towel because in his family there were always examples of entrepreneurs. “My dad is, so are my uncles, like my grandparents and great-grandparents. I was always in this culture of entrepreneurs”, confesses 28-year-old Ben-Galim.
However, one of the factors that pushed her to become successful was her husband. “He is Israeli. When she arrived in Mexico, in a matter of six months or 8 months, she started a business, a startup, and sold it to the owners of Uber. For me he was super shocking. A person who doesn’t speak the language, who isn’t from here, comes along and does something so big and fast. So I said, I want to do something that memorable too.”
The business idea, the most important step
When or how do you have a million-dollar idea? That is the million dollar question, worth the redundancy. Some carry out market studies, others life took them down that path, but for others it has always been their passion. However, for Sylvia, the idea came from herself.
“With each business I learned many things, but I do believe that as ellaz It was inspired by myself, that’s when I achieved it. Because I was the ideal client.
She told us that she got very desperate when buying clothes, because, although she liked how she looked in the garment, she did not buy it because the neckline was very pronounced or there was no back. So what bra could she wear? Sylvia didn’t feel comfortable, so she, she just discarded them. “It gave me a lot of courage that for such little things I stopped using things that I actually liked,” she explains.
But she was not the only one, when talking about the subject with her friends, the same thing happened to them: they discarded clothes for fear of showing the bra or that some part peeked out more. “So that’s when I started to see this market opportunity and said I’m going to do something. It cannot be that we stop living, or stop doing things because we feel uncomfortable, if there are actually solutions that can fix it and not just go for surgery to be able to use what you want”.
This is how the idea of Boobz Tapeone of the most loved and requested products of the brand.
The beginning of ellaz
Sylvia Ben-Galim had in mind what she was looking for and couldn’t find it in the market. So, she began to inquire with more than 25 providers to find the ideal one. The entrepreneur tells us that she discarded and accepted the proposals, but that she always found “little details” like the banks of the reusable nipples (covers silicone nipples). “The point of this product is that you don’t want the nipple to show, and with the super thick edges, they are twice or even triple their size.”
Therefore, the process of having a product that was liked and out of quality was long. The entrepreneur gave feedback about the color, the size and clear the edges. Finally, after six months of trial and error, they arrived at the four products with which the brand began. ellaz: Disposable Nippz, Reusable Nippz, Boobz tape and Style tape.
“As a client, I was able to understand them 100%, and understand what we need as women,” says Sylvia. In addition, she reflects that in past businesses it was not the same in the measure of realizing the needs of consumers. As a result. that is the main differentiator of it.
“What’s more, we were always super inclusive. From day one I wanted to show all kinds of women, size, body type”. In addition, she wanted to break certain taboos regarding breasts. Of course, in its beginnings it was exclusively a bust, even the mottos or slogans showed it. For example, Love Your Boobs either Engrave Your Boobs. Thus demonstrating the power of understanding them and making them visible, semiotically speaking.
Starting a business in the midst of a global pandemic
“I launched in October 2020, obviously alone. All the orders came to me and I went ‘crazy’. I asked myself how am I going to do it? For example, in one day we received about 300 orders, so I invited my family and friends to my house to work. As it started in times of pandemic, it was come right now to pack all the products and send them”, the young woman narrates.
However, that did not stop her from continuing to keep the focus on female consumers. “I wanted everything to reach the clients well and super fast. They told me, ‘hey Sylvia, do 20 today and another 20 tomorrow’, but I refused, the client’s experience is the most important thing”.
The 28-year-old entrepreneur attributes her success to the fact that from the beginning she focused on the well-being of her clients and could understand them perfectly.
Ellaz and the challenge of creating a community to grow digitally
The founder and CEO of ellaz, says that his biggest challenge was to create a community. “We want all our clients to feel part of this project. Not just sell them and that’s the end of the story. We want to listen to them, help them and make them feel part of the brand”.
Sylvia explains how she continues to be impacted when she reads consumer reviews. That is to say, that was the moment in which she realized how their lives had changed, because they told her so. “So I said, if we can impact women’s lives through the boobiesImagine all the other things we can help them with.”
On the other hand, now the challenge is run the business focused on boobsto be one of beauty hacks and solutions. “We want people to know us for something more,” she declares.
Currently, the Mexican brand Ellaz has 13 product categories. In addition to boob solutions, she has other hacks, which she also drew inspiration from herself. While you can get them elsewhere, Sylvia has them all together.
For example, the Buttonzwhich help you adjust your jeans if they are too big for you at the waist, another are the heelzthese help you so that the tip of the heel does not sink into the grass, or the favorite product of the entrepreneur that she always carries in her bag: the hair stick. “I love it because I’m really in meetings, I see the loose hairs, and I can’t stand them being seen, I feel like I’m messed up.”
The trick is not to give up
Sylvia didn’t let herself fall, and she showed it. The business started selling only through e-commerce during the first year, while now they are focused on opening more digital stores or vending machine.
Today Ellaz has seven points of sale in three cities. Monterrey: Fashion Drive, Valley Point; Mexico City: Antara, Satellite, Interlomas, Mitikah; and Queretaro: Antea Square. But they hope that by the end of the year, there will be more than 45 digital stores throughout the country.
“To future entrepreneurs or entrepreneurs, I would say that never give up. Even if the first business you have doesn’t work out, don’t lose hope. I was even ashamed to say that I was going to start another one. I even wondered ‘how am I going to tell people that I’m going to start another business, if I already had I don’t know how many and they didn’t work? What a pity!’ But don’t be sorry. It is truly admirable to learn from each failure, and whatever comes, I am sure it will be better than what you had”, concludes Sylvia Ben-Galim.
“We don’t just want to impact women in a matter of boobsbut in your life in general.
Mariel Otero Journalist passionate about fashion, the world of beauty and the source of lifestyle. Lover of stories worth telling, series, movies and sagas. Cheesy and closet geek.