Entrepreneur.com.ph

Only 24, actress and host Chynna Ortaleza has already spent more than half her life in show business. She first appeared on television screens in 1995 as a junior reporter for the children's magazine show 5 & Up, rose to fame as the wholesome girl-next-door Mikaela in the teen drama Click, then shed her teenybopper image by playing the villainess Vera in the TV fantasy show Atlantika.

Clearly a celebrity with many talents, Ortaleza has added still another major credit to her name, but this time outside show business. In November 2006, she launched her own jewelry line, Stellar, personally designing and handcrafting each piece herself. "The business is all about accessories," she says. "I sell an assortment of bracelets, bangles, earrings, necklaces, and rings —jewelry that can really compliment the person who wears them. I make pieces that can jazz up the client's clothes and make her really shine."

The young actress says that she has always loved accessories, dreaming of designing them herself ever since she started her acting career. "I think accessories are very important because they can make a boring outfit come to life," she says. "They are a way of expressing one's individuality and taste, and they can reveal a lot about who you are."

Because of this fondness for accessories, Ortaleza decided to invest into her jewelry venture P60,000 from her own savings, doing so although she remains quite busy in the entertainment industry. "I wanted to put my money into something else that would challenge and satisfy my creative juices," she explains. "To get me started, I purchased various types of beads and pendants. I talked to different suppliers about my needs and they helped me source the items abroad. Then I purchased the raw materials, a good set of tools, and hardware."

The first few months saw Ortaleza doing all the marketing and handcrafting herself. "I had no problems with the public reaction to what I was doing," she recalls. "Most people in my target market—females aged 15 and up—were pleased that I had a business and they liked the design and product quality. In addition, Stellar is different from most jewelry lines because the items are mostly unique pieces, so my clients can get great quality pieces for a fraction of the cost of buying imported ones."

The Stellar selection has featured a variety of up-to-date motif and designs, among them "Hello Kitty" charm bracelets and a "Pirates of the Caribbean" rhinestone-encrusted skull bracelet. Other frequent sources of design inspiration for Ortaleza are the fabulously expensive jewelry donned by foreign female celebrities. She enjoys the challenge of coming up with less expensive equivalents of those pieces. For instance, she has customized a Paris Hilton look-alike necklace for a client, actress Maui Taylor, and a Hillary Duff cameo necklace for another client, singer Aryana.

Ortaleza has also designed such distinctive pieces as a skyscraper tie, a silver necklace that resembles a necktie, and a set of colorful plastic musical note pendants. Most pieces range in price from P180 to P800 for single pieces and about P1,000 for jewelry sets.

She has greatly bolstered her sales by creating an online store on the free networking site, Multiply. She accepts payments through Globe's G-Cash and MetroBank deposits, and exclusively ships all of her products through Xend Express for Metro Manila deliveries and through Air21 for shipments to the provinces. "Shipping takes anywhere from one to four days, depending on where the client lives, and it costs me less than P100 for an order," she says. "The Internet is helping me get a lot of new clients because a lot of people are now learning how to shop online."

On the flip side, though, Ortaleza has had her share of encounters with customers who are wary of the Internet. She says: "Some of my customers get so worried when they receive their packages a little late due to shipping problems. Online shopping is based on trust, but because of the incidence of scams, some people get scared by such minor delays and would rather do their shopping the traditional way."

To help prospective customers who are not Internet-savvy, Ortaleza always makes it a point to include a post on her site that clearly explains the process of how they can purchase Stellar products.

Her jewelry business began to pick up during the first months of this year, prompting her to get staff and enlist her family's help so she could cope with the increasing demand. "My Mom helps me train our staff at home and manages everything when I'm not around," she says. "I feel good that we are able to do this business together—it has become our little home industry."

Under its current staffing, Stellar's monthly expenses settled at about P35,000, with monthly profits varying between P35,000 and P60,000.

"It's really surprising how fast the business and the brand awareness for Stellar have grown," she says. "From just being just a small made-to-order business catering to showbiz friends, I'm now able to reach a wider market. I'm proud to say that I'm the first celebrity in my batch that has successfully launched her own accessory line. Now, others in my batch are thinking of putting up their own businesses, too."

Ortaleza plans to get the Stellar jewelry line into the major malls and boutiques by the end of 2007. In the meantime, she recently added to her creations a line of cotton tee shirts for both men and women under the Icon brand.

"I hope to eventually put up a Stellar fashion store that carries my own accessories, bags, clothes, and shoes, but I'll try selling my items in retail stores on consignment first," she says.


CONTACT DETAILS:

STELLAR
Mobile: (0916) 2622101
E-mail: shine_in_stellar@yahoo.com, chynna_ortaleza@yahoo.com
Website: http://stellar01.multiply.com