How entrepreneurs can overcome business fears: Rissa Mananquil-Trillo, Cy Ynares share advice

MANILA, Philippines — Filipino entrepreneurs Rissa Mananquil-Trillo and Cy Ynares shared how they were able to shake off their jitters and anxieties about managing their business when they were starting out. 

Rissa, co-founder of skincare and makeup brand Happy Skin, said it’s a matter of making the most out of opportunities and addressing a gap in the industry that needed to be filled.

She created Happy Skin in 2013 when she realized there were no skin-caring makeup brands available in the country specifically made for the Philippine weather and the Filipino skin.

“Instead of waiting for someone to come up with a solution to a personal pain point, I thought, why not create it?” she said at the recent "Boz Sessions" for a banking company.

“Unlike most people who start a business, I wasn’t really driven by money, a way out of the corporate world, or the desire to have more free time. I was just really passionate and wanted to provide a solution to a problem Filipinas had been facing for years,” she added. 

Trillo left Happy Skin in October 2021, but she will always be proud of how the brand paved the way for other local brands to enter the beauty market. 

“I think that it will always be remembered as the homegrown brand that opened doors for both entrepreneurs and consumers to embrace loving local,” she said.

Meanwhile, Cy started his online bakeshop The Bald Baker in 2014 after his friends encouraged him to open a shop where they can buy his cookies. 

“At that time, there really weren’t a lot of people offering cooking and online Instagram shops weren’t even a thing yet back then,” he explained. 

Here are more tips Rissa and Cy offered during their sessions on how aspiring entrepreneurs can overcome their fears.

Starting entrepreneurs are bound to feel pressure as they iron out the issues of their new business. Trillo felt this, too. “There is this huge pressure for women to be great at both work and home—to combine professional success with commitment to family,” she explained.
 
“Being able to achieve more as a woman can be as simple as having the right support system,” Trillo shared. “It can come in the form of a partner who shares in the care work at home,