This Women-Led Startup Is Here to Make Growing Your Small Business Easier

(SPOT.ph) There are high chances you know someone who owns a small business. Heck, you might be a small business owner yourself. The lockdowns did many things, and one of them was push people to start their own brands, making products or offering services, anything of the sort—with that period now over, though, how will these so-called "pandemic babies" survive? This is the question FullFill came to answer.

You can think of FullFill as an all-around solutions provider for MSMEs. And because seeing is believing (and understanding), their goal makes manifest at their spacious headquarters in Pasig. Serving as a warehouse in the city, this is where FullFill's partner tenants and collaborators store their goods, and also, depending on the needs, where they operate and from where they fullfill orders; the 100% Pinoy-owned startup makes it possible for MSMEs to scale up and gain sustained footing.

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The origin story of FullFill, a women-led business services provider

FullFill was officially started just this year by Joy Chua and Che Secillano, two women with backgrounds in corporate. "The big chunk of the pie right now is really on MSMEs, which actually contribute to 99.5% of total businesses or enterprises in the Philippines," noted Chua, the CEO, in a media visit on September 21. It also contributes around 63% to employment. Chua notes that even with those big shares, total sales from MSMEs make up just about 35%, according to data from the Philippine Statistics Authority for the first half of 2023. What these numbers point to, is that while there are a lot of them, "ang budget nila maliit. In general, 'di ba, compared to the big companies."

With ecommerce being the biggest platform for sellers out there, it became easier for these small business to start during the lockdowns. How they remain sustainable now, and grow and scale, is a different story.

"We came from corporate before as well. So we have that balance of corporate background and entrepreneurship. So during the pandemic, nakita namin lahat ng data about that. Sabi namin, we wanted to solve problems," said Chua, referring to herself and Secillano.

She shared that they had started their own business back then, and were faced with a ton of problems, from not knowing how to reach suppliers to operationalizing their store "So sabi namin, we wanted to solve these problems. It would make it easy for other techies and startups."

This is what pushed her and COO Secillano to use their corporate knowledge and start FullFill, all with the aim of helping small business operationalize, scale up, upskill, and more. Now they've got a core team of four (all women) and around 10 staff helping them out with daily ops at FullFill HQ. They've also partnered up with many other service providers, from a company that can help you get standardized barcodes to delivery service Pahatid and more, FullFill is practically a one-stop hub.

Their space in Pasig has two expansive floors with multiple spaces businesses can use. The main thing are micro-warehouses, going from 20 sq. meters in size to 50 sq. meters—there's even an option to simply rent a rack in their Incubation Hub area, a service they began after speaking with their tenant partners. From there, you can choose what other help or services you might need for them to, well, fullfill. From packaging to delivery, heck, even social media. Yup, there's a co-working space on one floor, as well as a decked out studio you can shoot your products or other materials in.

"When we have partners here who need a certain service that we don't have, then we endorse them to our partners. So, it's really an ecosystem then of everyone helping each other," explains Secillano.

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MSME's partnered with FullFill

In the eight or so months they've been operating, they've already partnered up with 35 brands at FullFill HQ. Some are pandemic babies that have grown too big to operate from the owners room, and others are more established brands like Messy Bessy.

One partner, a father who owns Play Date Collection, a brand which supplies kids toys, shared in a video that they started small, "nasa bahay nga lang." This meant that he sometimes found himself packing orders from 6 p.m. until 2 a.m. to adhere to the specific way he wanted his products wrapped up. "He wanted to have more time with his family, kasi wala siyang ginawa kundi mag-pack ng orders," shared Secillano on why he chose FullFill. And yes, FullFill helps him pack his orders the way he wants it done, too.

They've also partnered up with businesses far from the Metro. Take Nature's Apothecary. This brand was started by a couple in 2019; they sell loose leaf teas made from plants in Agusan del Norte, which means that yep, their market is very far from where they are based.

"We aim to enrich the lives of Filipinos who are new to teas while uplifting our rural community," they said in a video. "Our operations require a reliable partner due to the geographical distance between our location in Mindanao and our main market." FullFill stocks their supplies as well as delivers them, ensuring that every order is yup, fulfilled.

"How do I empower, essentially? That's why we created FullFill," said Chua. Their startup wants to "serve the underserved," and give all the MSMEs out there carving a space for themselves better chances.