From corporate to micro enterprise
THEIRS are stories of women who let go of the corporate world to venture into micro businesses.
Rovelyn Villareal and Ma. Mae Colina bagged the top prize of the recently concluded search for Women in Need Now Entrepreneurs and Rolemodels Search (WINNERS), a pageant for women entrepreneurs organized by the Mandaue Chamber of Commerce and Industry.
Both used to hold supervisory and managerial positions until they decided to start on their own.
On Tuesday afternoon, Villareal was hailed as the grand winner while Colina was proclaimed the first runner-up.
Villareal, 33, spent 14 years of her life in the corporate world. She was a supervisor of six company outlets whose business is into candy-selling.
While working for this company, Villareal with the help of her husband, started a small general merchandise store in the new Mandaue Public Market. But as the business grew, the couple thought that it would be better for both of them to focus on this new venture.
That decision prompted Villareal to let go of her supervisory job.
“It was not very difficult for me to adjust from being the employee to becoming a businesswoman. I was very fortunate that my previous job as a supervisor allowed me to learn all the things required when it came to starting and operating a business,” the grand winner, who represented Barangay Cambaro, told Sun.Star Cebu in an interview Wednesday.
However, things started to get difficult for Villareal when the 7.2 magnitude earthquake jolted Cental Visayas in October 2013, followed by super typhoon Yolanda a month after. Those were the days when the local government of Mandaue forbade them from going back to the public market for safety purposes. This rendered her store immobile for three months.
But this mother of two toddlers was wise enough to find a way. She made use of her education, having graduated from a vocational school specializing in food and beverage. This gave her the essential knowledge that guided her in the business that she never thought she would take on.
Villareal started selling buko pie.
Now, she said it is attracting a growing number of customers, not just Cebuanos, but also tourists who buy them as pasalubong. Aside from buko, she also introduced new flavors like mango, strawberry, blueberry, pineapple and peach-mango.
In addition, Villareal also has her Sunday market called Native Street at J Centre Mall in Mandaue City, where she sells Filipino delicacies like suman, turon, cassava cake, steamed peanut, steamed banana and the like.
“So far, so good,” Villareal said, referring to her buko pie, native delicacies, and the restored general merchandise business.
Villareal has six employees. Four of them work for the general merchandise store while the two assist her in making the delicacies.
With these businesses running together, she finally got back on her feet.
Colina, for her part, graduated with a bachelor’s degree in accountancy at the University of Mindanao in Davao. After graduation, she was ab- sorbed by the company where she used to work for while studying. She was later on promoted to a managerial position.
Leaving work was a tough decision for her. However, this paved the way for Colina to start a business that was close to her heart.
In the first few years of joblessness, Colina chose to become a housewife, while her husband was working in a government office. With their children growing up and their daily needs increasing, she felt the need to contribute financially to the family.
It wasn’t long after when a school looked for a canteen concessionaire. With her passion for cooking, having grown up in a family that ran a catering business, Colina took the opportunity and started with just P1,500 for capital. She put up a small table in one corner where she displayed food and other items.
Eager to grow the business, she approached CocaCola Bottlers Philippines Inc. and requested for a stall. Using her negotiation skills in sales, Coca–Cola agreed and gave her a stall and a refrigerator.
From 2004 to 2015, Colina renovated her canteen three times, saying this was one of her strategies to attract more students to buy from her canteen.
Now, she has two employees to assist her in the business.
Villareal and Colina ‘ s stories were only two out of the 20 candidates who made it to the finals. There were 43 women micro entrepreneurs screened in the initial phase in August.
The 20 women microentrepreneurs made it through the interview of the judges and were judged based on their life story, personality and self-confidence, quality of interview responses, and resourcefulness and creativity.
Others who made it to the top 20 were fish vendors, food vendors, and ready-to-wear (RTW) makers, among others.
“The search for WINNERS is MCCI’s quest for model women micro entrepreneurs who are supporting their families and working to rise from poverty through their business ventures. MCCI hopes that their stories of perseverance and success will inspire other women to be empowered,” the chamber said. This year the WINNERS’ fifth year.
Villareal said she is very thankful to be part of the competition, with the encouragement of Barangay Cambaro officials and her family. Colina, from Barangay Banilad feels the same.
The former won P50,000 cash prize among other awards and Colina received P30,000.
Both want to venture into the catering business soon, but they said they need to save up, since catering requires a large capital.
When asked what made them win in the competition and in life, both recalled the virtues of hard work, sacrifice, commitment, passion, and the implementation of proper planning in their business. More importantly, they said prayers and family allowed them to survive the hardships and enjoy the triumphs of life.