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A post shared by Maggie Wilson (@wilsonmaggie) on Feb 1, 2019 at 5:46pm PST

MANILA -- Maggie Wilson doesn’t want to be known as a beauty queen anymore.

“I’m trying to shake that title off of me,” she explained during the workshop-inspired conference EntrepHERneur, which she hosted with tech company GoDaddy. “I was 17 years old then and I’m 30 now. I would like to think I have done more to grow as a person in those years since winning (the Binibining Pilipinas World title).”

Indeed, she has. Casa Consunji, a specialty home store and café, is a business she started with her best friend, model Parul Shah. In their seven months of operations, they have sold out collections of one-of-a kind furniture they sourced themselves.

Shah recalled: “Maggie invited me to a girls’ trip in Bali and that started it all. She was toying with the idea of opening her own business because of her fascination with interior design. She has great taste in selecting pieces that would be a hit. I happen to have a knack for negotiating prices down.”

The pair have closely worked on their business venture themselves — from concept to operations to marketing efforts — that their overhead cost for getting the word out is zero.

“We do have a website,” volunteered Wilson, “and we’re focusing on updating the catalog online because we have had inquiries and orders from Bacolod, Cebu, Davao and even abroad.”

“A website legitimizes your business,” noted Tina Shieh, GoDaddy marketing director for Asia. “We offer online tools that will help jumpstart your creative idea and turn it into a business opportunity.”

GoDaddy helps budding entrepreneurs build their professional websites, secure their business domain, and even manage part of their work such as integrating payment systems or in Casa Consunji’s case, helping keep better track of the orders coming in.

Shieh added: “We value the customer experience and have a dedicated customer service that will not only assist in your technical problems but will gladly give input on your website and share tips, because you’re talking to an actual person and not a machine.”

“With the Website Builder, people can create a beautiful, professional looking website in under an hour, even with a mobile phone, without having a lot of technical knowledge,” she explained.

Wilson and Shah, who both admit that they are not “tech-saavy,” find the tool most helpful. “Since we do everything ourselves from finding the right fabric, to jumping on beds to secure its stability, to updating our website, we had to learn new things along the way,” Shah said.

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A post shared by Maggie Wilson (@wilsonmaggie) on Dec 4, 2018 at 3:16am PST

The pair’s business chemistry is undeniable, in huge part because their years of friendship have allowed them to figure out the best way of working together. “Maggie and I are yin and yang,” Shah said, “we balance each other out.”

The phone rings in-between interviews and Wilson apologized, “We’re supposed to be closed today.” But Shah dashed to the phone, shouting, “I got it!”