We recently connected with AnaPaula Gomes and have shared our conversation below.

AnaPaula, appreciate you joining us today. Let’s jump right into the heart of things. Outsiders often think businesses or industries have much larger profit margins than they actually do – the reason is that outsiders are often unaware of the biggest challenges to profitability in various industries – what’s the biggest challenge to profitability in your industry?

The biggest challenge to profitability within my industry is how highly saturated the market is. Many small businesses are being launched daily, which I think is fantastic, but with these new businesses, finding new and exciting ways to keep customers interested is a daily task and can be overwhelming some days. Getting caught up in the stressful hamster wheel of being “different” or stressing your competitors is not, in my opinion, a good way to run a business.

I think it is imperative to be mindful of what others are doing to stay up to the trends, but it is also essential to stay in your lane and do what you want with your business. Keeping true to yourself and your brand will help any business stand apart from the rest, and those who love the brand will stick around! While many challenges come with owning a business, especially one within a saturated market, one thing I constantly remind myself of is that there can only be one me and only be one Shop.TripleP within the industry.

As people say, if Rihanna were nervous about launching within the beauty community, which is heavily saturated, there would be no Fenty Beauty, and THAT would be absolutely tragic.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers

I run an e-commerce women’s clothing brand called Shop.TripleP. The brand focuses on providing women with chic, timeless, and versatile pieces that can truly fit into every part of their lives.

When I graduated from undergrad in 2018 and landed my first job, I struggled to put together office-appropriate outfits with the pieces I had in my closet from college. I shopped for new items to add to my wardrobe, but some pieces I found were too professional to wear outside of work, while others were too casual for me to wear to work. I needed to find a way to incorporate pieces into my wardrobe that could be interchangeable depending on where I was going and what I was doing. I felt like I had to shop at 40 different stores to find what I was looking for, and I couldn’t find a shop I was obsessed with. After chatting with some of my friends, they felt the same, so I took it upon myself to create a brand we could all be obsessed with!

I spent the end of 2019 and most of 2020 working on branding, building my website, doing market research, and testing out clothing samples until we officially launched in September 2020. Creating collections has been my favorite part of owning a business! It allows me to add my flair to the brand while staying up with the trends and focusing on which styles will last longer than one season—the timeless aspect of Shop.TripleP is incredibly important to every piece that we release. We want women to see our pieces as investments and be able to wear them over and over again for seasons to come.

Shop.TripleP’s collections are filled with sophisticated silhouettes, timeless styles, and comfortable looks that women can be excited to put on every day, no matter where the day may take them.

How did you put together the initial capital you needed to start your business?

The initial capital for Shop.TripleP came from the full-time and part-time jobs that I had at the time. When I was serious about starting this brand, I began saving some money from each paycheck that I could use for any start-up costs that I may have encountered. I was personally funding my business for about a year and a half, and after that, the business was self-sustaining thanks to budgeting!

What’s a lesson you had to unlearn and what’s the backstory?

As a solo entrepreneur, I had to unlearn that I needed to do everything alone. Being an entrepreneur can be overwhelming, and having help can take a bit of stress off your shoulders and allow you to run your business with a clearer mind. Additionally, I’m not an expert at everything, which is okay. I can seek help from someone who knows more about a specific topic, whether it is email marketing, social media marketing, accounting, or website design. That doesn’t mean I am failing as a business owner; it is quite the opposite! I allow specific jobs within my business to be better handled by someone else, which gives me more time to focus on the things that I am good at and enjoy.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.shoptriplep.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/shop.triplep/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/triplepwomen
• Other: Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/shoptriplep/

Image Credits
Aaron Coss