Entrepreneurs by passion, friends Rayka and Ingrid set up a collaborative store to help small entrepreneurs to promote their businesses and have income own.
Ingrid Barbosa de Mendonça, 25, is one of the owners of the collaborative store Maurício Brasil/Rede Amazônica Acre. Thus, the passion for entrepreneurship and helping others led friends and businesswomen Raryka Souza Lima, 26, and Ingrid Barbosa de Mendonça, 25, to set up the first collaborative virtual and physical store in Acre, “Universo 68”.
Entrepreneurs
In this type of store, several people come together and display their products in the same place. The entrepreneurs, who already own two stores, Raryka, which sells unique and modern clothing, and Ingrid, which sells ornamental plants. Although with exclusive brands and their own production, they say that the purpose of the project was to join forces and help women and men to run their businesses. In this way, they can enter the job market and consolidate their brands.
Raryka, who has a degree in public management, is studying journalism and fashion design, says that it all started when she participated in a junior company project and fell in love with the collaborative segment.
From then on, in 2016, she and another friend decided to take a chance and set up an online clothing store with their own exclusive production.
The business was successful and, then, she says she realized that she could help other people consolidate their brands and decided to hold an event and bring together all the virtual stores of entrepreneurs from Rio Branco who did not have physical stores for a chat.
The idea was to show other women that everyone had the power to sell and be successful by creating and displaying their own products. “We created an event in 2018 called “Universo 68”, which brought together collaborative stores.
The event was a great success, we brought together several entrepreneurs, 16 in total, and, since 2018, we have held nine editions, with a larger number of participants.
In the last one, 35 people participated
In total, the group has 65 collaborators, because it is rotating and sometimes not everyone can attend the meetings.” Terrariums. Plants in general and even macramé works can be found in the Arquivo pessoal store.
Thus, the partner, Ingrid, who is a civil engineering student, says that her passion for ornamental plants has been with her since she was a child and that, even while she was in college, the dream of having an ornamental plant store was always a reality.
“I only made them as a hobby, to order, but over time I saw the need to receive my customers and have a space to have several pieces available. Although not only me but also the other participants in the group, however, not everyone has the financial means to open a store.
Over time, from the first fair onwards, I began to see that this was what I wanted and I started saving money, I already knew what I wanted to do with a space”, he says.
That's when she and Raryka got together and realized they had a common dream, which was to set up a store and help other small local entrepreneurs.
We saw that we had the same ideals, she said she also wanted a space and we got together and started researching on the internet and we saw models of collaborative stores. Since there were some out there, we decided to set a goal of opening this store.
Local professional brands
In the store, you can find plants, clothes, decorative items, among others Maurício Brasil/Rede Amazônica Acre Help. While undertaking and connecting.
That's when the idea came to set up a store with several brands from local professionals. Most of them would have their own production to enhance the local market. "That's really cool, that's our focus, helping people have a larger audience and a space to welcome customers and friends.
The young entrepreneur also says that from the beginning the event started with the aim of connecting people and encouraging local entrepreneurship.
“Our focus is not just on selling, it is on helping others to establish themselves not just by selling a product, but by building brand loyalty, making dreams come true.