How a Tech-Driven Entrepreneur Turned to Fashion to Fuel Her Passion

After spending years behind a computer, successfully supporting tech businesses and startups, Alicia Chong decided that she needed a change.

As a single mother, she desired to spend more time with her son and escape the stress of dealing with hundreds of employees and wrangling IT departments.

As she spent more time working from home, she discovered that home office supplies and stationary were restricted to plain black, strictly functional fixtures, that rendered a workspace bland and sterile.

Due to this void in the market, she saw her opportunity to use her business knowledge and fashion sense to create Blu Monaco, a supplier of trendy and inspiring desk wares. Before anyone criticizes the importance of aesthetics, color psychology has a very real-world influence.

Chong started her company in 2005 and has expanded it to move over 150,000 units a year, earning Blu Monaco a spot on the INC. 5000 List for 2022. Her success can be attributed to the unique appeal of her products and the stability of her scaling.

“You Can Have Any Color You Want, as Long as It’s Black.” -Henry Ford

When Chong left the hustle and bustle of the corporate world to spend time with her son, she set out to create a comfortable, attractive home office. After scouring the typical supply stores, like Staples and Target, she was disappointed to find that there was no variety or inspired designs.

Everything was devoid of color, with basic, boring architecture. Chong mentioned that as late as 2016, there was still a significant lack of supply in the market that would directly compete with her business.

As the pandemic forced people to work from home, the demand for outfitting personal workspaces skyrocketed. Chong saw a need that was not being properly addressed, and she knew she could fill the gap.

Her theory was proven true, as her clients were eager to add tasteful, fashionable wares to their offices. Despite offering products that fall on the higher end of the cost scale, many customers were willing to pay the premium for something striking and unique.

One surprise clientele was schools and office managers, who would purchase large quantities to outfit their numerous teachers and administrators. Chong’s inventory allowed them to color coordinate entire departments or assign specific color sets to individuals.

The ability to customize the aesthetics of her products made her products both practical and fashionable.

“Slow and Steady Wins the Race” -Aesop

In regards to scaling, Chong stated that she was hesitant to depend upon social media as a means of generating sales. Although many people have used these platforms to create viral sensations and explode in popularity, it often fades.

It can sometimes become a pitfall, where people throw good money after bad, in an effort to recreate that lighting in a bottle. As the sole provider for her son, her priority was on stability. Amazon was an excellent means to execute her business model.

Utilizing her technical expertise to approach the site as a search engine and catering her products to make the most out of the algorithms. As she sold more units, her visibility to potential clients directly grew. Just as tastes change in clothing and music, the same is true for office wares.

Chong has been able to keep both her inventory and approach fresh, keeping existing customers returning while reaching new ones. She said that her next advertising step could include investing in a social media presence, but only if there is a reasonable return on her costs.

“If You Don’t Appreciate Your Customers, Someone Else Will.” -Jason Langella

Chong was able to create a successful business by viewing herself as a dissatisfied customer. Her search for materials to make an inviting and inspiring space, from which she could provide for her son, ended in failure.

She was confident that she was not the only one to feel disappointment at what the market had to offer. Establishing Blu Monaco was the logical step to providing something vivid and trendy at a fair price for the high quality and diverse options available.

In her final words of wisdom, she said, “Focus on the one thing you want in life, and search for opportunities that best align with that goal.” In Chong’s case, the one thing was to provide a good life for her son.

This led her to leaving her corporate career, so she could focus more time and energy on her home and family.

Establishing a business that directly supported this effort, while helping others do the same is a prime example of how someone can funnel their decisions and passion toward a single objective.