From Recife, the couple Flavio Daniel and Marcela Luiza, 34 and 32 years old, respectively, are transforming the lives of hundreds of people teaching how to thrive through digital entrepreneurship.They transformed their own experience, with the Tradition Mobile stores, a business that was born in physical retail 16 years ago and in which they currently earn R$ 50 million, but which underwent a digital transformation during the pandemic, when they were forced to migrate to online commerce.
The furniture store was born from the desire of Daniel to become independent.He worked in his father's furniture trade in Recife, and wanted to progress when he decided to have his own business.
However, without money to invest, the young entrepreneur did not get credit with banks, much less with product suppliers. That was when he had the idea of selling for a cheaper value the damaged products that were stopped in the father's store, evaluated in R$ 40 thousand.
With the store open, the first sales were emerging and the entrepreneur, in addition to paying off the debt with his father, was investing in new products and, gradually, as he was getting credit with the manufacturers, was offering more furniture options for customers.
Since the opening of the store, Daniel already had the partnership of his then girlfriend, Marcela Luiza, who soon became a wife and business partner. From humble origin, in the neighborhood of the Distillery of Cabo de Santo Agostinho, she never imagined that she would be successful professionally, especially in the face of the challenges of being a woman undertaking together with her husband while unfolding with the other activities, the home and the children. “When I remember where I came from, from my trajectory, I say that I am the unlikely, because everything did not direct to be here, but we prospered and persistED”, he says.
Pandemic x online sales
The first contact with online sales began with a loss generated by the opening of a store in another city, which resulted in a debt of R$1 million. The sale by Facebook was the solution found to cover the gap.
Following the Coronavirus pandemic forced the couple to completely change the way of thinking about the work model. With the confinement, they came to fear for the sustainability of the business and the maintenance of employees TODAY the company employs 70 people. “But then we started selling remotely, through social networks and WhatsApp. With this, we had a growth and no one needed to be dismissed”, recalls Daniel.
With the increase in online sales, the couple began to invest in a virtual store, formatted through Tray, an e-commerce platform, owned by LWSA. The digital solutions brought by the company provided the couple to sell more online, optimize business management with inventory control, issuance of invoices, pricing and marketing, all in one environment. “We needed security in customer transactions and a reliable website, as well as sales organization and online catalog, so we went in search of the technological solution that our business needed”, he highlights.
Currently, they operate the stores omnichannel, that is, with physical and online sales in virtual store and in the company's digital channels. The success of the business made the couple also invest in content strategy on social networks and together have become, in addition to entrepreneurs, mentors for people who want to invest or are running their own business, but need knowledge to perform better.
“O improbable happens, so our tip for those who are undertaking or intend to have their own business is to always seek knowledge, partnerships with platforms, with technology, and not forget to focus on the customer, who always needs to be at the center of the business to grow more and have recurrence in the sale”, Marcela points out.
