We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Erika Rosas. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Erika below.

Hi Erika, thanks for joining us today. I’m sure there have been days where the challenges of being a business owner force you to think about what it would be like to just have a regular job. When’s the last time you felt that way? Did you have any insights from the experience?

I Think about what it would be like to just have a regular job every day! I feel a big pressure because everything I do affects not only my future but my team’s future and my family’s. Most people have an 8am to 5pm job and that’s it, they can go home and “disconnect”. As a business owner you cannot disconnect, you are invested for life. I grew up watching my mother be invested in the business and now I am living it with her, it’s crazy!

My first “Normal” job was at Pepsico Mexico Foods. I was hired as a Supply Chain Master Planner for Maquiladora projects in 2016. To be honest, I was also very invested in that job and I absolutely loved it but after 1 year in a half, I decided to return to San Diego CA to my family business and that’s where it all started. I remember my first week back I was barely getting the hang of everything and we were in the middle of a very important negotiation with our most important client. We were reviewing a business contract that was at risk. The thought of losing the business meant we would no longer have the resources to keep our whole team. That terrified me! I remember thinking that day I wasn’t made for that, I wasn’t meant to lead and have people depend on me for their future. In a regular job I would not feel scared, I would just follow orders and if I did my job correctly, I would be safe.

It was when I watched my mother so fiercely stand up for her business and our team that I thought to myself, This is what I am meant to do and even though at times it might not all be so pretty, somebody has to do it and I am ready to be that person. At the end of the day, I didn’t get this far just to get this far, so turning back is not an option.

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?

My name is Erika Rosas and I am an Import Specialist and Trade Consultant for International Inbond Logistics. I hold a Bachelor’s degree in International Business and I co-lead the 30 year old family business with my mother. I was first introduced to the business at around 3 years old (that’s my earliest memory of it!) when I was running around the truck yard where my mother had her office. Every day was “take your daughter to work day”. The word Inbond in our company name is mainly because we specialize in In-bond Shipments. An in-bond shipment is defined as cargo that is being brought into the USA from another Port but has not yet been cleared by Customs (it is in-transit).

For example, there are several Maquiladoras in Mexico that import raw material from Asia (or other Countries) that arrive to the Port of Long Beach and then are transported through the San Diego – Tijuana border to their final destination in Mexico. In order to do that, those companies need Bonded Carrier to provide Customs Clearance at the Port of Long Beach and certified Bonded Transportation services, that’s where we come in. I know a lot of companies that are in the same industry than me and offer many similar services as mine because now a days Logistics has become more and more popular and specially during the Pandemic where Logistics was one of the industries that never stopped. I got to clear PPE shipments arriving by sea in the middle of the pandemic where everyone was understaffed and the Port of Long Beach had traffic in the SEA! There were shipments being delayed for months and importers ended up paying thousands of dollars due to delays.

Of course there are companies that offer the same service as me, and some of them are even bigger than my company. As. Matter of fact, I work with many of them for projects that were negotiated as a team, and I can proudly say that I have learned a lot from most of them.

But the thing that I believe makes me stand out is that I design Taylor made processes for every single client depending on their needs. I am very engaged with my system and when I take on a job for my clients, I become one of their people. I am not International Inbond Logistics, I am one of them and I take care of them like if they were my family because that’s why they hired me. A lot of clients trust me even though most of them don’t understand a thing of Logistics or International Trade Regulations. They trust me because they know that I care and this is more than a job for me, this is my life. When I receive messages from my clients thanking me for my service, that’s when I am most proud!

Any stories or insights that might help us understand how you’ve built such a strong reputation?

Honesty and Transparency. As I said before, whatever I suggest to my clients is because I have studied it before and I know for a fact that my suggestion works. The logistics industry is very competitive and there are a lot of people involved in the Supply Chain so there are a lot of opinions and tricks. I’ve had clients explore other options before, where they don’t fully trust that my way is the best way because it might not be the cheapest. Fortunately, most of them come back when they realize on their own that I have their best interest at heart. I have learned that I will never fail if I trust my instinct and maintain my honesty in anything that I do.

Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?

That being too engaged is not always good. People sometimes take it for granted, they get accustomed to it and expect the “extras” to be must and later forget to thank you.

Last year I was in charge of a big project for one of my clients that included being their representative for everything Logistics related. I had never done something like this because normally I was hired for a specific job. This was particularly a challenge for me because I found myself building their import department from scratch and I had been working on processes and manuals for so long for my company that I finally got to use with them.

They were new importers so I helped them get setup and became their voice with the Port of Long Beach, Steamship lines, CBP and even FDA. I got so involved I started dedicating all my time in that project, day and night as I had to communicate with people in Asia and we had to look for hours that worked for both of us. I started dedicating my 100% on only this client and left my other sporadic clients aside. It was very exciting and seemed like the right thing to do at first because their operation demanded so much attention. Everything seemed to be perfect until my time was not appreciated and our business relationship had an interruption. You have to remember that you own your time and no one is indispensable. Nobody forced me to dedicate all this time to this project, I decided it myself and I learned the lesson, sometimes it does not go both ways! The lesson is to always find the balance and not throw all your eggs in one basket. I will always be passionate but I am learning to find the balance.

Image Credits
Cecilia Mdc Photography