We're having a clearance sale. The clearance Sales is to help us remove some case types from our inventory. The three cases types are our limited edition wooden cases, our OG cases - the Slim, and our Beauty Cases.
The Slim cases were the first case type we had in stock when we first started. They are a hard plastic case that allows the image to wrap around the edge. The models avaiable in this case type are limited to iPhone 4, iPhone 5, Samsung S3, and Samsung S5. These model in Slim are currently for $15.
The other model on clearance is Beauty. The models available in Beauty are Samsung S4, Samsung S4 mini, Samsung S8, Samsung S8+, Samsung J1, Samsung J2, Samsung J3, Samsung J5 (2016), Samsung J7 (2015) and Samsung Note 4. The Beauty is on clearance is for $20.
The third model is our wooden cases. Models avaibale in wood are iPhone 6, iPhone 6+, iPhone 7, iPhone 8, iPhone X, Samsung S5, Samsung S6, Samsung S6E, Samsung S6E+, Samsung S7, Samsung S7E, Samsung S8, Samsung S8+, Samsung S9, Samsung S9+, and Samsung Note 5. Wooden cases are as low as $22.
Note that the amounts in these models and cases types are limited so get them while supplies last. Don't say I didn't warn you. Message us on any of our social media platforms or on Whatsapp at 628-4758.
]]>October is finally here and with the start of a new month comes the start of a new promotion. As you may know by now, you can order your case and other customized items from our website without the need of a credit card. If you're making a purchase through the website, make sure you use one of our Ambassador's code to get 10% off your purchase. Find the Ambassador's codes here and remember that some restrictions apply.
If you're still not comfortable with making the online purchase, then we also have some promotions for customers who order through our social media pages. For the month of October, we have several promotions that include: 1) Buy 1 case get a screen protector 50% off. We’ve recently added screen protectors to our inventory and their regular prices are $25 and $35. 2) Buy 1 case get a popup 50% off. 3) Get $5 off your next purchase if you provide us with a picture of a case you’ve bought before for us to use on our social media pages. 4) You can also get $5 off from your next purchase if you let us take a picture of your new case. 5) and yes you can bundle does 2 promotions to get $10 off.
Looking for something beyond a case or a popup? Check out the rest of our inventory here. You can Whatsapp us at 628-4758 with your questions.
]]>It's officially September and we have a lot of things going on. First off, our website now facilitates orders. Most models on the website now allow you to design your case before ordering. Once payment is confirmed we process your order without the need of contacting us.
Ordering and purchasing through the website automatically gives you a discount since you are designing the case yourself. On top of that discount, for the entire month of September you get an additional 38% off when you use promo code Belize38 on orders over BZ$60.
Do you rather have us help you with the design of your case? Well we still assist in aligning your design for your case, popup, mirror, earring or any of our products. For our assistance simply inbox us on one of our social media accounts of Whatsapp us at 628-4758.
]]>Today is our 5th birthday! Believe it or not, 5 years ago we opened our doors for business. We've come along way since working from inside of Armando's bedroom, only offering 10 types of phone cases and having no employees.
Today we have our own space which holds 5 full time employees, we have partners all over the country that resell our products and we can now print on just about any phone case. The most interesting known fact now is that you can finally bring in the phone case of your choice for us to print on.
To celebrate this milestone we have two announcements so read carefully. Firstly, we are excited to announce that as of today you can officially make your orders through our website without the need of a credit card. Grip cases start at $40 and Beauty starts at $30. There is a catch to the price drop, if you order through the website then you will create your own design. This way, you can design it on your own, order and confirm payment without the need to contact us.
Secondly, for those that do order on the website from now until Saturday 31st will be entered into a raffle to get their order for free. Please remember to leave your phone number and email address for us to reach you if there's need. Also, you can order popups, mirrors, key chains and all of our items through the website.
Not confident to order through the website? Then reach out to us through our social media accounts or through whatsapp at 628-4758.
]]>In case you missed it... last week we unboxed our brand new printer. Unboxing this new printer was definitely a call for celebration and champagne as it was something we had wanted for many years.
This new printer, a UV printer, will now allow us to accept your items such as phone cases, Yeti cups, metal tumblers, wine glasses and much - much more. If you missed the unboxing video, click here to watch the play by play.
Because some of you have been following us religiously, you might already know that we were taking down contact information for people that were interested in trying new items, especially phone cases, that we did not have in stock. You might have even left your contact information already waiting for this printer. If you did, you are among over 100 other people on our waitlist that will be the first to get their items. If you are not on our waitlist, you can contact us and provide your email address, phone number, and your order.
We are still in the testing phase trying to learn the ins and outs of the machine, but early this morning Armando successfully did his first print. If you missed it here is a live video of the printing and end result of the print. Remember to contact us on our social media platforms or through Whatsapp to get on our waitlist.
]]>We are over the moon with this new machine. Yes, we can now engrave on materials like wood, plastic, silicon, paper, rubber, cardboard, glass and we're still experimenting on others. In the picture above we engraved on one of our wooden cases to test out the new machine.
If you purchased one of our wood cases at full price, you qualify to get your case engraved for free. Simply inbox us on our social media accounts or WhatsApp us at 628-4758 to make arrangements for your complimentary engraving. If you didn't purchase one of our wooden cases but have an item you want to engrave like a wallet or watch, also feel free to inbox us to make arrangements.
]]>Have you met our Toledo Brand Ambassador Chesnee Garcia? Here's a short biography about her.
There are no limits to what you can accomplish, except the limits you place on your own thinking." I was born and raised in the beautiful district of Toledo. I'm more than honored to be representing my district.I'm mixed with Ketchi & Garifuna many refer to me as the "ketchifuna Curly hair girl." It has defined me a lot more than you would think. This part of my life shaped the way I grew up. Differences make you stand out.No matter if you're tall, green-eyed, black, white or all of them. If there's one thing I've learned through my experiences, it's that it's something to be proud of. I have two very different sets of genes inside of me and I feel lucky to say so. It's okay that I look a little different, my hair is a little bigger and my parents don't look like they're related to me, because, like Michael Jackson said, it doesn't matter if you're black or white (or both).
Click here to follow her on Instagram or find here using @chesneeeeee
]]>Part 12: Expansion
When we first opened what is now A&S Covers, we had hopes of doing much more than just cases. Our equipment had the potential to do more items but we did not expand to other items for several reasons. Some of the reasons were that to add more items to our inventory we would need more money, also because we were still very new and it would be hard to compete with the other more established companies, but most importantly, we didn’t do anything else but cases because Armando’s vision was to be known for cases and then expand.
At the time we refrained from adding more items to the inventory mostly for financial reasons. Today, in the middle of 2019, we have more factors to our advantage. We are not as small and unnoticeable as we were at the start, and we have gained much more credibility from the customers that we have gained. People aren’t as afraid to deposit money into our account because they trust that we will send their item as promised, that’s because they have either purchased from us before, or know someone that has purchased from us and received their order. We’ve even been able to gain a customer base in the Caribbean because we have a lot of good customer reviews, we have also made the payment method more convenient for them and our staff’s professionalism has portrayed nothing but trust to our customers.
This year was scheduled to be huge for us. We had plans of hosting a large expo like event along with the conclusion of our e-gaming tournament. The event was scheduled for August of this year and was to bring gamers and tech-savvy participants together all in the name of marketing our brand. Unfortunately, we have made the hard decision to postpone this event until next year. Like with everything in life, there wasn’t just one reason for this decision but a combination of multiple factors. Some of the bigger factors have been, the fact that a lot of players signed up for the tournament but did not complete their registration by paying the registration fee, and we have had a delay with obtaining our new machines to expand and add more items to our inventory.
The new machine was to have been here months ago and would allow us to have items for the event such as t-shirts, water bottles, trophies for the winners and much more. The plan to get the new machine is still a go, but that when that arrives, it will take up a lot of time and manpower from us to be able to handle both the expansion of the business and the promotion and execution of the expo event. It was an extremely hard decision to make but we know that it is only a delay and not a cancelation, we also know that when we do host the event, it will be more than welcomed by our supporters.
With our new campaign scheduled to be launched before the end of the summer, we are still very excited and busy with what will happen this 2019. With 6 more months in the years, we are sure to still be able to get a lot of other secret and not so secret plans that we have had in the drawing plan. Entrepreneurship is a rollercoaster ride, but a ride we enjoy living.
We are resilient, and we will persist until we are able to host this event. If you have read the event series you will know that failures have never held us back and we won’t allow them to start holding us back today. The next 5 years ahead of us will be as exciting and eventful as the 5 years we have faced already. We look forward to sharing our journey with everyone.
]]>If you haven't purchased one of our wooden cases yet, or want one for someone, this is the best time to get one. We only have a limited amount of wooden cases left and when they are finished we will not be restocking.
Our Limited Edition wooden cases and their designs were a collaboration with Coastal Zone Management Authority and Institute, Oceana and WWF. All three organizations prepared their own phone case design and chose the wood finish. Coastal Zone's phone case design promotes an integrated approach to informed management and sustainable development by enhancing land to sea connectivity while paying tribute to the wealth of resources and marine biodiversity. The WWF phone case design depicts mangroves. Mangroves signify resiliency and coastal protection. The importance of mangroves lining our shores are innumerable. It acts as coastal buffers against storms and as a nursery to juvenile marine life. Oceana's phone case design signifies the theme, "To love and protect". Oceana represents ocean advocacy and the graphic is centered around one of their slogans, "save the oceans, feed the world". It features their trademarked dolphin graphic in an underwater mosaic. It encompasses their love for Belizean marine life which is dependent on a healthy reef for its survival.
Purchase your cases today for $30 while supplies last. Message us on any of our social media accounts or WhatsApp us at 628-4758.
]]>
LESLEY ROBINSON - STANN CREEK AMBASSADOR
Use the code: Lesley19 for a discount when purchasing from us and support your ambassador.
Click here to follow her on Instagram or find her using @les._lee
KYLA CUEVAS - CAYO AMBASSADOR
Use the code: Kyla19 for a discount when purchasing from us and support your ambassador.
Click here to follow her on Instagram or find her using @ky.cuevas
ANGELES LOCKE - BELIZE AMBASSADOR
Use the code: Angeles19 for a discount when purchasing from us and support your ambassador.
Click here to follow her on Instagram or find her using @angeleslocke
DANIEL POP - BELIZE AMBASSADOR
Use the code: Daniel19 for a discount when purchasing from us and support your ambassador.
Click here to follow her on Instagram or find him using @iphone6nerd
NYSSA MAGANA - ORANGE WALK AMBASSADOR
Use the code: Nyssa19 for a discount when purchasing from us and support your ambassador.
Click here to follow her on Instagram or find her using @nyssamagana
ANDRE ACOSTA - ISLANDS AMBASSADOR
Use the code: Andre19 for a discount when purchasing from us and support your ambassador.
Click here to follow him on Instagram or find him using @andreainbze
DIGNA RAMIREZ - COROZAL AMBASSADOR
Use the code: Digna19 for a discount when purchasing from us and support your ambassador.
Click here to follow her on Instagram or find her using @idee.bz.cu
Have you met our Stann Creek Ambassador? Here's a short biography about her.
“Make your life a masterpiece, imagine you have no limitations on what you can be, have or do.” Hi! I am twenty-one years old Lesley-Anne Monique Robinson hailing all the way from Belize`s culture capital Dangriga. I was very blissful when I received the news that I would become A&S`s new ambassador for Stann Creek. I see it as my duty now to represent A&S Covers and my district proudly. As I said before making life your masterpiece and it is my responsibility to make all my dreams a reality because you become what you believe so you must believe in yourself and I will start from here. I look forward to interacting with all followers and making sure we all have a memorable experience as we continue this journey together.
Click here to follow her on Instagram or find her using @les._lee
]]>Part 11: 10X Everything
If you have been following our page or personal accounts for some time now, you would have come across us using items with the words “10X” on them. The term 10X comes from a book called The 10X Rule written by Grant Cardone. The 10X Rules is two-fold and basically means that you must set goals for yourself that are 10 Times more than what you think you want and also take 10 Times the action you think is required to get to that goal. Armando came across this book when he was looking into Grant’s real estate business and philosophy. He began reading The 10X Rule and absorbing all the information that it had and later moved on to more and more books from Grant Cardone.
He listened to the books day and night and more than once. He got pretty much obsessed with the content Grant was providing. That’s when he came across an Ambassador’s program that Grant was offering. The program allowed you to get coaching along with other entrepreneurs and interact with Grant’s team. He applied to the program and was accepted and was even given access to Cardone University for a very special price. Cardone University is an online and interactive training hub that allows you to learn the content and be tested by the program to determine if you are retaining the information. For the purpose of the timeline, this happened in the first three months of 2018.
This new rule is what lead to the summer employees and us finally getting our official space. It had been a dream of many years to finally get employees and be able to step away from the office and work still getting done. Grant says that even though on paper an employee may appear to be an expense, in reality as long as that employee is doing their job properly, they should be making you more money than what you’re paying towards their salary. Sounds confusing? It's not. You hire an employee to buy time, so when we hired someone to help, all the work that Armando once did alone was now taken away from him and was still being done, leaving him to get other tasks that he once was never able to do. With all the new “free time” Armando was able to do way more. He did way more live streams playing mobile games, created more ads for local and regional customers. He even had time to read and go to the gym, all with the show running smoothly. Had it not been for this book, who knows how long it would have taken us to get employees.
The employees were hired in November of 2018 and when I realized that the workload was so much and the demand was still so high, it hit me that it was really happening. That’s when I decided to buy my ticket to the 10X Growth Conference 3. Armando had been talking about the event for what seemed like forever but in my small 1X thinking, it seemed like it was not going to happen for me. That all changed when I saw how the new employees were able to come in and take over the business with ease needing very little help from us. Another very important factor was the fact that on Black Friday Grant slashed all his entrance fee prices. So I took advantage and purchased the ticket without even thinking about all the logistics. How did I decide on buying event tickets without permission from work and without airline tickets or hotel confirmation? Frankly, that’s the only way I can get myself to make those types of decisions. I’m an overthinker and if I were to stop and think about the details, I would discourage myself, so I’ve learnt to go with my first instinct. The logistics would all fall into place, especially since Armando was also planning on going since he had a free pass for being in Grant’s Ambassador program.
We didn’t get our tickets and Airbnb until January 2019, just a few weeks before the event. and that’s when it hit me that we were going to the largest business conference in the world. I've represented Belize at large scale events before but to represent my business among 30 thousand people from more than 50 countries was all new to me. We arrived the night before the event and went straight to the stadium for our passes. It still hurts me to think about it, but we were about 5 feet away from Grant Cardone himself but missed our opportunity to get pictures with him. We were on the phone with a relative when he passed and it wasn’t until he got into the building nearby that others ran towards our direction shouting for Grant in hopes of him coming back out to take pictures. Today Armando still gives me the stink eye because it was my bright idea to make the call the same time Grant was about to pass by.
At the event, I learnt so much because compared to Armando, I had only read 2 of Grant’s books and hadn’t heard much of the content from the other speakers like Tai Lopez, Russel Brunson, John Maxwell, and Ryan Deiss. It was all a new experience for both of us as information was being thrown at us and we had to scatter to pick up whatever we could. One of the most meaningful parts of the event was when we were invited to a special information meeting were business owners and decision makers. The meeting was organized for Grant’s team to get a chance to make a sales pitch. The item being pitched was the Cardone University, but it was on sale for businesses to get multiple accounts. This package allowed us to have employees registered on the course and be able to monitor their progress. Armando jumped on the deal quickly, without working out the numbers as what is now our most used method of making a decision, and signed us up for a 2-year contract at an amazingly low deal. This deal was rock bottom and we can cancel at any time. We would have not been able to attend the event had we not hired employees to manage the business while we were away for the weekend.
We returned home excited and with new motivation and drive that we tried to transfer to our team. Today the team is still required to do 3 lessons daily before showing up to work. This means that every day they are expected to consume information that Grant teaches while we also learn from the same courses. It is very important to us that our team learns as much or even more than we know, we show them that learning must happen daily, we also show them that getting a side hustle is not a bad thing, but that is encouraged. It is encouraged because Grant teaches that to survive in this world you need multiple streams of income. My team might not remain a part of the team forever, their goals will change and one day they will say their good-byes, but our hopes for them is that when they leave, they will reminisce on their A&S days and say, “all that I know today is thanks to my family at A&S”.
This entry ends in February 2019. Next week we will be finishing up the series so you will be hearing of all the plans we have for the remainder of 2019.
]]>Father's day is just a few days away and we know that some of you might still be looking for gift ideas. Sometimes it hard to decide on a picture to use for your customized case or popup and sometimes you don't want your face or any face on your phone case. If that's you, or your dad, we have a few of these designs available for your dad's popup and/or phone case.
If you are into pictures, we would be happy to show you how your picture will look on your phone case or popup. Just send us the picture you want to use to any of our Social Media accounts, and we'll show you a preview. Don't forget that Father's day is this Sunday so don't wait until the last minute to place your order.
Did you hear about our collaboration with the Ice Cream Shoppe?
We are doing a giveaway. If you purchase a Turtle Twirl ice cream from any of the Ice Cream Shoppe's locations and post to Facebook AND Instagram with the hashtag #TurtleTwirlBZ you get a chance to win customized phone case, fridge magnet, and a popup from us. This is all in honor of World Ocean day that was on June 8th but you can still enter to win until June 17th. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact us at 628-4758.
]]>
Part 10: New Light
In January 2018 the year started off on a good note with political cases in high demand. Municipal elections were coming up and loyalists were demanding their red and blue cases more than we were able to handle. Many of them were sold in the first two months of the year and much advertising wasn’t necessary then, but we realized we didn’t to create our own excitement for the cases to be sold.
We decided to make a collage template for Mother’s day so that customers could easily submit their pictures and we align the pictures into the collage. A lot of people liked the idea of having the collage because not everyone can decide on only one picture. This was something we wanted to do more of but it wasn’t possible at that time. We did pick up a very helpful habit.
We began posting other young people’s start ups. We started to share posts for Hello Body Belize, The Candle Shop, Naturally Belizean, Soby’s Sweet Treats, and LG jewelry. The collab was to help these businesses get more attention on their pages by sharing their posts, doing giveaways together and recommending them to customers. We promoted their sales, events, and giveaways. We worked so much together that year that we because friends with the business owners and still promote their products. The goal was to continue adding more businesses to the group but so far we haven’t really been pushing for more brands.
After creating the collab with other businesses, it occurred to us that establishing brand Ambassadors would have been a good marketing strategy. Armando had me work on a proposal for the project but I never finished it so that was left untouched (Read part 11 for more on our Brand Ambassadors Program) for the rest of the year.
In June we were part of the Coastal Zone Management Authority and Institute’s (CZMAI) 20th Anniversary celebration. The celebration was so big, Oceana and World Wildlife Fund (WWF) were also partners. Each of the organizations designed their own case design and were put on wooden case that we were tasked to provide in honor of the anniversary. This collaboration to use to a whole new level; it should how much we had grown and how much respect others had simply by acknowledging us as an established business. All three organization assisted in promoting the sales of the cases and the profits from the sales from the CZMAI designed cases would go towards a scholarship fund for students studying Natural Resource Management. We took the cases as far south as Placencia at their lobster fest, as west as San Ignacio and they even made it to Caye Caulker.
When school was closed for the summer, Armando had the bright idea to hire “employees” for a job job. These “employees” were going to be answering the phone, answering whatsapp messages, Facebook and instagram messages, and even creating collages and previews for customers. These “employees” were our sister, Alicia, and our cousins Joshua McGill and Ashley Carias. For them to be able to take us serious, I planned a training session where they learnt how to create previews in Photoshop, as well as learn how to navigate inside our Facebook business page. I even did a training to teach them to answer the phone properly. I had Kimberly, Erwin and Aldo call in and pretend to be real customers asking questions, they were nervous and freaked out and failed that call, but with time they gained courage. Normally, the summer months would be very slow and would pick up again during September when people wanted patriot designs for their cases. This time, with the help of many hands, the summer months were the higher in sales they had ever been. So when September came along and Armando went back to be a one-man show again, it was difficult for him to adjust to the shortage of support.
Armando came up with this idea of the summer employees because he had come across another book, this time the book was from the very flamboyant real estate and serial entrepreneur, Grant Cardone. Armando because very captivated by his philosophies and principles of doing business. He began getting every book he could afford to get his hands on and started to consume the material from the moment he woke up to the moment he fell asleep. He would listen to the books over and over to the point that by the time I actually listened to the books myself, I had been familiar with much of the material from second hand listening. The book gave Armando a lot of courage and insight on how to plan and organize and to set goals. The book was the inspiration for our first e-gaming tournament.
Armando had ordered some gaming accessories called triggers that when placed on your phone, would emulate the triggers or a console’s remote. When they arrived, we sat one evening trying to brainstorm ways of how to market the new product. That was when it occurred to us to host a PUBG Mobile tournament. Initially we wanted to do the tournament inside the September Expo since we already had plans to be at that even. But realizing that it would be difficult to get players from all over the country to show up at the Expo just for the tournament, we decided to host it in October with all players playing from the comfort of their own homes. The idea was quickly accepted by gamers of all ages. We hosted may “open rooms” that allowed for Belizean players to practice playing against other Belizeans leading up to the official tournament. When the tournament happened, it was just the two of us managing the scores, talking as commentators and moderating the event. The event was our marketing idea for the triggers and it was one of the smartest ideas we came up with. With our confidence very high, we decided to do what we had dreamed of for years; get our own space for the business.
We had a part of the ground floor of our house rented and when the tenants moved out we took it as a sign to move in. We packed up all our stuff and moved into our own official space. The place needed a lot of work and we didn’t have enough to equipment but it worked for a few weeks until Armando again decided to test our limits. He told me he was going to hire people. I said sure that would be beneficial since we had proof that the business would do much better with the help of more people. And as promised, I got home one November evening to be told that two people had already been hired. Those two people quickly turned into four full time employees and four part time employees by December. The workload was enormous. Order after order came in and the even with the amount of extra hands around, we would stop answering messages at 9pm and still leave a lot of unanswered messages. ALL does extra hands helped to make our December sales the highest it had ever been in the last four years.
What was the real reason for the big rush of getting employees? Find our next week as we venture into 2019.
]]>It was our first time at the Made in Belize expo and we had loads of fun! We packed up the whole office and our army and set off to Belmopan. It was the first time we were able to print cases and popups on site and people enjoyed being able to get their order the same day.
We also had our monitors and consoles there to allow gamers to get to play while we streamed the game live on Facebook. It was the first of many different things but we enjoyed it. The experience was just a taste of the amount of work that is ahead of us for the TAG EXP19 event that we are planning for August of this year.
We want to take the time to tell everyone that visited our booths a huge Thank you! If you want more information on our TAG event call, us at 628-4758.
]]>We've been waiting for weeks for tomorrow's Made in Belize Expo and it's finally here! We'll be packing up EVERYTHING tomorrow. We're taking our cases, popups, triggers, our printing machines, our graphic designer, our in house gamers and consoles.
Yes, for the FIRST TIME EVER, we will be making our cases on site. We'll have our Limited Edition wooden cases for an expo price of $30. This offer is for purchases made inside the expo only. We are also having a special offer tomorrow only where you can get a free case. Visit our Information Area to find out more.
Find us at booths 1, 2, 3, and 4 near the main entrance. Here's a map for you to find us. Since everyone is off to Belmopan tomorrow, no pickups from our address will be possible. For more information contact us at 628-4758.
]]>Have you met our Cayo Brand Ambassador Kyla Cuevas? Here's a short biography about her.
My name is Kyla Cuevas, and I'm a 20-year-old student, currently pursuing my degree at the University of Belize. I'm a small girl with big dreams and my love for life is even bigger! It's all about growing, learning, going on adventures and just having fun. I'm looking forward to sharing all these adventures with you and with the crew at A&S Covers.
Click here to follow her on instagram or find her using @ky.cuevas
]]>If this is your first time here I would recommend you read the first parts so that you could better understand the other. Here you can find Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6, Part 7 and Part 8 for your easy access.
Part 9: Redeeming Ourselves
At the end of 2016, we got a surprising call from an organization that wanted to collaborate with us to celebrate an important week in their calendar of events. The head of Marketing from Coastal Zone Management Authority and Institute (CZMAI) wanted us to work with them or celebrate their Coastal Awareness week, a week they use to highlight the work they have been doing and bringing awareness to sustainable uses of our waters.
The idea behind the collaboration was for us to have a design to put on our cases that would highlight the event and we would help them promote the event and they would promote the sales of our cases. It was THE first time anyone considered us for anything at the level. We were super excited because it felt like the end of a losing streak, and it felt like we were finally being recognized as an established business.
We spent weeks planning our part of the collaboration and it paid off. We hired someone from a freelance website to create what we named our “Coast of Belize” design and my vision for it was from a painting I’ve been admiring from the day I started working at my current job 6 years ago. The joy the final design brought me is indescribable. Seeing it, and seeing how people responded to the final design made all the hard work and countless hours worth it. We had also decided to bring in workout armbands since one of the activities for the Coastal Awareness Week was a run from BTL Park to Baron Bliss Lighthouse and back.
All of these exciting news had to be kept a secret because the celebrations were scheduled until March. Imagine me having to keep all of this a secret. It was torture. So we spend all of January and February working getting the design and armbands in time. So close to the big reveal in March, CZMAI had an excursion to Goff’s Caye and we went on it so that Armando could get some awesome pictures for the big reveal and other posts we wanted to do.
When the “Coast of Belize” cases were launched they were a bit hit. We got back great feedback from customers, especially from the new ones. And that good feedback help push us to want more. Armando was so motivated that he when to several gift shops to convince them to sell the cases. Not a lot of them agreed but some did, like the gift shop inside Cahal Pech. this new arrangement was the start of something new for us.
With the new motivation, Armando started to post more pictures and those pictures made for new ads that were sponsored. Sponsoring a post means that we pay Facebook to show our posts to more people that it would have if we weren’t to pay them. When we do this we almost always get way more inquiries than we would have we not sponsored the post. Armando was still answering messages, making the previews and making the cases. So whenever he would sponsor a post the would be bombarded with work. So humanly he would want to not sponsor a post but with the new motivation, he felt more inclined to do so. This meant that even during the summer, which was our slower months, he was still very busy. That year, our Belize Flag cases were trending. Yes, we had sold plenty of our flag cases every year, but this time we sold way more. Again, I don’t have any statistics on how many we sold that year, but it was a lot. The flag cases became an item that you wanted to take with you when you traveled. I personally to my Flag case to Cuba and Russia in 2017 and it was definitely a conversation started while being away from home.
Our cases were being recognized by people from all walks of life. So when a curious girl inquired about buying our cases in a large quantity, it left us wondering what she wanted them for. Turns out that the person inquiring about our cases was none other than Shatefa Garbutt who created the brand, Naturally Belizean. She had an idea of what she wanted to put on the case and Armando quickly put her design on the case to show her, she loved it and purchase a bunch. When we realized that she wanted to resell the cases (we usually call this white labeling) we were happy that she would want to do it. Other businesses wouldn’t dream of doing something like this for fear of losing customers. The truth is no one would lose customers, instead, we would be capturing people from each other’s customer base. She would post and give us attention and when we post her products she would get attention from our customers. A lot of Belizean businesses fail because of fear, fear that other people would somehow steal their shine. When in reality, collaboration like what we established with CZMAI and Naturally Belizean is what strengths a business. To this day she still purchases our cases and other items and we still send our customers to her.
The biggest accomplishment of note for 2017 for me, was finally getting the kind of packaging I’ve wanted since day 1. When we first began, we were making our own packaging from chipboard that was covered with plain colored paper and folded into the shape we wanted. It took me hours to do and Armando did it faster, but I needed to do it so he could spend more time on other more important items. But before the end of 2017, we finally got our boxes with our logo on it. It gave me the most accomplished feeling that year because it took us about 3 years to finally get them.
Was the losing streak finally finished? I would want to hope so. We had heard on several occasions that it take 3 to 5 years for your business to be established and boy it took us some time indeed. From here it feels like we’re on an uphill trail.
]]>Yesterday I had the privilege of attending a SHEMentors networking event. The event allowed me to be among several women entrepreneurs and aspiring women entrepreneurs. The women in the program were being empowered for several weeks to develop their business ideas or expand their existing business.
It was an awesome experience for me to see the rising number of entrepreneurs as only a few years ago, not having a job and risking it all to generate your own income was looked down upon. At the event I got to sit at round tables with women from the program and discussed with some ideas and concerns relating to their business.
The highlight of the event was the launched of a Facebook group that would allow for any Female Belizean entrepreneur to join to network and meet new people. If you or someone you know is a female entrepreneur and wants to join the group use the link here. If you have more questions about the SHEMentors program you can contact SBDCBelize on their Facebook group by clicking here.
Don't forget we'll be in Belmopan on June 1st at the Made in Belize Expo. See you there!
]]>Have you met our Corozal Brand Ambassador Digna Ramirez? Here's a short biography about her.
Hi Everyone! My name is Digna Ramirez. If I had to describe my self in three words, they would be ambitious, detailed and introverted. However, even though I am introverted, I don’t let that get in the way of what I want to achieve. This means I constantly find myself coming out of my comfort zone which is pretty scary at times but like how David Cotrell said: “Our comfort zones can be the greatest enemy to our potential”. Taking these risks has helped me discover who I am as an individual. Currently, I’m an Environmental Science major at Galen University. My aim is to become a Renewable Energy Engineer to
help mitigate Climate Change with cleaner, sustainable and renewable sources of energy. I care about our planet Earth and take pride in my country, Belize. I’ve had the opportunity to represent Belize internationally and I do it with the best of my abilities with the help of A&S Covers, of course! Before my trips, I make sure to order Belizean Flag merch from them. So, it’s an incredible honor for me to be one of their brand ambassadors and share with you all how great they are at what they do and stand for.
Click here to follow her on Instagram or find her using @idee.bz.cu
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Part 8: All downhill
So we ended 2015 with a bang and a lot of energy. We had so much order for Christmas that after the rush we decided to remain closed for a few days so that Armando could rest and we could regroup. We began to take orders again in around midday January of 2016. During this time, we began meeting often with a potential business partner.
This person had proposed to us that he would be able to push us to another level. He talked about how to increase our inventory with more items that had a higher value to reach another market of customers, he told us about the contact he had made of potential buyers for us and how we could create an amazing website. These were things that we did need at the time and also seems too far or difficult for us to obtain so we were very excited about the collaboration.
Perhaps it was the fact that we were on a high from the very eventful 2015, or perhaps it was overconfidence with no action or being dependent on the expected partnership with this new person; whatever the case was 2016 was by no means as good as 2015 was.
In May of that year, we had our first set of matching phone cases design. The designs were made by a friend that had a full-time job but was making designs and logos for people on the side. We posted them hoping that people would be interested in that type of design but didn’t get much attention from it. We continued our best to keep on pushing sales even though we had absolutely no type of sales training and were just passing by as the days went by.
In late April we needed more ink. At the time we were getting ink from a company in the US where we had bought a new printer. [SIDEBAR: Last week I had mistakenly thought that we bought the printer in 2016 but turns out we bought it in 2015 so that story will only be seen in the compilation of this series] The company was pretty strict with the way they took payment. Armando had an Atlantic bank account opened after we received the prize from the Entrepreneurship Challenge so we were using that account to transfer money to the US for the ink. We had it and were following up with both the bank and the supplier because it was crucial that we got the ink on time. So while waiting for the money to go through we were informed by the supplier that the money wasn't cleared and that they suggested we contact our bank to speed up the process. They even told us that all they needed to verify was the name on the account, date of birth and address. Armando went into the bank that day and spoke to someone from foreign exchange and they said that everything would be fine and we should give the transfer a couple more days to complete. But like with a lot of other things going wrong in this story, that was not so. We later got an email from the supplier saying that the money was still not cleared. How can something so simple be so difficult?
Turns out that the name “Armando Perez” is pretty common. Yup. So common that it was also the name of a suspected drug dealer. So the bank of the supplier just needed to confirm Armando's date of birth to ensure that he wasn't the drug dealer. To our surprise, our bank never managed to confirm the date of birth on the account and like any bank without the proper documentation would do, they sent our money back. Banks have a policy that if they can't verify who the money came from they won't clear the money to go into your account and would basically return to the sender. The catch to the return to sender policy is that you are still charged for attempting to transfer money. So we were charged by our bank and they did not provide the proper service we were charged for. We were mad. Very mad. Armando stormed into the bank that day and closed the account he had and we were left having to find another way around to send the money and buy the ink.
We eventually ended up using Aeropost to make the purchase and bring in the item. So we got the stuff and we're trying to get back into our routine. That's until around June when I came across a post on Facebook.
The post was about someone complaining about a business that she bought a case from an online store in Cayo. Not sure if the business name has changed but the last I saw, the name was Mobi Belize. The customer complained about the quantity of the case they received was nothing like that of what they received. I was moved by the post and offered to give the person one of our cases at no cost simply to prove that some online businesses still exist. The customer sent in the image we made the case and they gave us an awesome review in Belize Business Review group on Facebook. They were happy, we were happy, everyone was happy. But someone was not so happy.
A few weeks after the good review in that group I started to see some bad reviews on our page. A couple at first, but then they kept on coming, to the point where there had to be over a hundred all giving us 1 star and pushing our total starts to 1. I was furious because Facebook doesn't allow a page to remove bad reviews. We had no choice but to completely disable the review section of the page.
We had been very slow but sales got even slower. It was so slow that Armando was able to handle the messages that were coming in and I became disconnected from most of the day to day activities. Armando was also discouraged because we were both looking forward to the collaboration with the possible partner that eventually didn't work out. There was no argument or discord but there was silence. The silence lasted a long time before we completely give up on the idea. It was very disappointing because we had been very dependent on the partnership for the website to go up, for the connections and most importantly for the support. Getting an outside person to trust us would have given us the validation we needed that the business was worth more than just the money we had invested in it.
Honestly speaking, we did not try hard enough to maximize sales in 2016 and we were in a slum. So when December was coming, Armando decided to change things up a bit. He ordered 3 different colors of chargers for both iPhone and Android phones, namely USB type and lightning. These came in time for the Christmas rush and they went quickly.
Having this new product on the inventory was a turning point for us because it represented us waking up from the fog that had been clouding our judgment as well as opening the doors for newer items that were to come. Because people responded so good to the new item we had newer motivation to promote, push and create opportunities for us to get sales. This was displayed by the numerous requests for a buy one get one free promotion like the one we had the year before.
So although 2016 was a mentally difficult year for us, and it showed in the number of ads, posts, and pictures of that year, it also showed in the numbers. We worked so hard in 2015 to increase sales just to lose out a lot in 2016. So after the Christmas rush, we were super excited by a call for collaboration we got. The call was a secret collaboration that was announced in 2017.
Overall 2016 defeated us because we allowed it to, but it also taught us a lot. It showed us that we needed to put way more effort into creating sales and we were super excited about the collaboration we had been asked to do.
]]>Make sure you enter to win asap because the deadline for entry is Monday at 8pm. Don't know our Ambassadors? Click here to see the list of all of them and their bio or click on their names to find them on Instagram.
These are our Ambassadors - Chesnee Garcia for Toledo, Lesley Robinson for Stann Creek, Kyla Cuevas for Cayo, Angeles Locke and Daniel Pop for Belize, Andre Acosta for the Islands, Nyssa Magana for Orange Walk and Digna Ramirez for Corozal.
Don't forget to sign up for our upcoming tournaments by clicking here. Also if you are going to be in Belmopan or near by on June 1st, stop by our booths inside the Made in Belize expo. Feel free to contact us with whatsapp at 628-4758.
]]>We have been preparing for the Made in Belize Expo that's coming up on June 1st. This will be our first time at the event and the entire team is looking forward to it. If you haven't heard about the expo, it was organized by the Belize Chamber of Commerce to bring together all Belizean businesses of all sizes. We have been able to obtain the first 4 booths near the entrance so there's no way you'll miss us.
For the first time ever, we will be making cases and popups at an event. So you can place your order and receive it before the end of the day. We will also be registering players for the tournament and even hosting friendly matches at the booth.
If you're interested in the tournament or our TAG EXP19 then visiting us at the Made in Belize expo will give you the opportunity to meet us in person, get your questions answered and get to play with others that will be there playing. For additional information feel free to whatsapp us at 628-4758.
]]>Part 7: Off to a good start
We had decided to purchase a waste ink tank being that we would be printing a hell of a lot more, and that had caused the problem in the first place. Since we did not have a credit card we ordered the item through a shipping company (that no longer exists because it was blasted on Facebook countless times) and it was scheduled to arrive in mid January. When the scheduled day of its arrival came around, we found out that the company took our money, did not purchase the item and was giving us a hard time to refund the money. With tensions running high we managed to later collect a cheque for our refund to order the item again. By this time Armando had figured out a way how to bypass the error message from the printer.
The waste ink tank arrived at the ending of January and we quickly processed the orders that had been pending from December since a few people had agreed to wait for us to get the part. Since a lot of people didn't get their order in December, they came back in February for their case. It worked out great since a lot of people had gotten new phones over the holidays.
So we entered February with high energy, especially so because we got some unexpected attention. Municipal elections were going to be help in March 2015 and a lot of die-hard fans loved the idea of putting their political flag on their case or their Standard Bearer's name on their case. The idea spread like wildfire and political cases of all colors were being requested from all over the country. Cha-ching. It wasn't really our intentions to do political cases but it was a God sent. We needed the sales and they needed to boast about their party so it was a win win. It was very unfortunate that we have no real data of how many political cases we sold for that elections but I would want to go as far as to say that at least 80% of that month's sale was from political cases.
When election mode was over we did our best to optimize sales. Armando stayed home and worked on making the cases and I stole a lot from time from work to answer messages, create previews and compile orders for Armando to process. We posted a lot into buy and sell groups, and we got a lot of referrals in there and we were helpful.
In May of that year we had a Mother's day sale and it was the first time we experimented with "sponsoring" on Facebook. My friend Michael ( from Michael Palacio photography) was at the time working for an American company that paid him to an American account. He agreed to pay for our Facebook ads and we paid him cash in Belize dollars. Was a win win for both sides since he lived nearby. That access enabled us to experiment a lot and learn a lot from Facebook's boosts.
In August of 2015 we celebrated our first anniversary and to commemorate the occasion we announce our new logo. The logo we had for the first year was a logo I made in power point out of necessity so a new logo change how we advertised and promoted. That same month we came across a very unique opportunity to win money. We lost our opportunity to win the first challenge so we weren't going to miss this one. We registered for the BTL Entrepreneurship Challenge and was structured the same format as the Emprende Challenge where business advisers from SBDC had training sessions for the participants to learn about target market, value proposition, the problem the business was solving and more. Honestly, at the time we signed up I felt like we had it in our pockets but had forgotten the struggle it was doing the lean canvas and all the details that goes into the sessions. Nevertheless it was worth a shot. We took turns between Armando and I to go to the sessions and we prepared presentations to present to the judges.
We were not aware that the first submission of our presentation was sent to the judges. What we knew was that we did not like the presentation we had and weren't giving them that. I cringed every time we read our value proposition and the rest of the topics to cover were hard to understand The advisers weren't much help because they were just there to guide but didn't help us come up with the answers. Days before the final presentation we were so close to give up. I remember Armando called the BTL employee that was in charged and told her we were considering giving up. She begged us not to give up because two other groups had given up. When the call ended she called Omar, our business adviser that was also a part of the project and had him call us to discourage us from giving up. We still felt like we didn't stand a chance at winning. So the day before the final presentation to the panel of judges we decided to scrap everything we had previously been working on an start over. We knew it would be a lot of work and would require an all nighter but didn't think about all of that, we just started working. I worked on putting together the accounting for the past year (we had been functioning for 15 months) and gave a whole account of the break down of our sales. Then we began a whole new power point presentation that had the same content but with our own take of it. The eureka moment happened when we came up with our first solid Value proposition. Once everything was prepared we decided to print the entire report along with the accounting as one report and have a copy for each judge. It had to be somewhere around 3 or 4 in the morning when we finally felt contented in our printed report as well as our oral presentation of it. The next day we felt like a train had ran over us but the excitement of presenting to a panel or surprise judges has us on adrenaline.
We were the last of the three presentations so seeing the first two teams come back confident in them doing their best was a bit nerve wrecking. Then it was our turn. I'm not normally nervous when talking in front of a crowd, but knowing the pressure on us to win made it a bit difficult. It was shaking, my hands felt cold and and I felt like I needed to lay down. But we just had to pull up our booth straps on finish the last part of this long journey. I'm not really sure what part of our presentation won over the judges but I just remember one saying, "this was not the level of energy or content I was expecting based on your first submission." and at that point I knew we had done great. We ended up winning the event, and winning $10,000 for the business. The level of excitement had me smiling even when my cheeks were tired. I was so happy and excited that I went back home and couldn't even sleep.
So you would think that we just got a cheque the next day and that would be that. Wrong. BTL had sent us a contract that they had wanted us to sign saying we would be restricted from doing certain things and saying certain things for a year. It did not fit well with us because it was not initially disclosed to us. So I forwarded the agreement to a lawyer friend to review to see if it was even in our best interest to sign. They also wanted to meet and discuss other issues in person, so we decided to take a friend with us as a business adviser to ensure that they didn't take advantage of us. At the end of it, we ended up getting our money with no strings attached. One small victory for the underdog.
That December we experienced our first Xmas sales. We were so excited to just be able to sell cases in December, we were even more excited when we were invited to the Xmas expo hosted by the Chamber of Commerce.
Finally the Murphy streak had ended. Or at least that's what we thought. Next week's entry will be about our 2016 events and let's just say it was that pretty.
]]>We officially announced our Brand Ambassadors this week and have updated our website to showcase them. You can take a look at their profiles here. We have also been updating out TAG website with sponsors and food vendors, check them out here. If you have a food vendor you would want to see at our TAG EXP19 event feel free to message on whatsapp at 628-4758 or message your on our social media accounts.
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