Episode 063 – Reaching FI in South East Asia | Genecia from Soul Rich Woman
Hello everyone! Today our guest is Genecia, a former beauty queen turned entrepreneur from Singapore. She is the founder of Soul Rich Woman, a community that helps women build businesses in south east Asia and improve their financial independence, career and personal life. We talk about doing business in south-east Asia, how women can succeed in starting a business there and if it can be an attractive place for people from outside to move to or start a business there. Enjoy!
We also talk about:
- Online networking
- Price wars
- The evolution of Asia’s online landscape
- Mixing online and offline business elements
- Financial independence strategies
- The importance of financial education
Don’t forget to subscribe our podcast on Itunes, Android or Spotify. Direct download here.
From beauty queen to entrepreneur, never taking no as an answer
Genecia’s network Soul Rich Woman helps women to build a presence online, reach potential customers and ultimately take their online business to the next level. Before starting Soul Rich Woman she was the owner of a cafe retail, and before that she went through a wide range of roles, from beauty queen to radio and tv roles. She went through harsh moments, and found that one of the biggest obstacles was the resistance of others to a change in life trajectory: for example her shifting from a media personality to entrepreneurship led many to have negative reactions based on what actually was her past. How she faced all that resistance was to “never take a no as an answer”.
Building a presence online to reach FI
Genecia stresses the importance of empowering women – something she identifies with the “F word: being Fabulous, having Freedom and Financial Independence”. The goal of her network is definitely familiar to us! Building an online presence is key to unleash the possibility to start an effective passive income strategy based on online-based side hustles: she gives examples of how a correct approach that gives a positive image on the internet can turn starving businesses into steady income streams.
South-east Asia: business opportunities and pitfalls to avoid
The key factor in being successful doing business in south east Asia lies, in the words of Genecia, in understanding the culture of each country and finding a voice and a message that can work within each framework. She finds that there are strong differences between each country, something that her network always take very carefully into account: again, she makes examples of how a strategy that works in Singapore can prove wrong in Vietnam or Philippines, and very often it all comes down to cultural factors that people coming from abroad have to know.
Let us know what you think about the Interview in the comments or our Facebook Group!