Perhaps persistence is one of the traits of a
successful entrepreneur. The lady in the story, Mrs. Teresa Enano Cleak, turned her remarkable persistence into success and provides opportunity for our product to be known worldwide.
While Natural Treasures is now one of the top exporters of capiz products, with perhaps the largest selection of traditional and modern items and designs, Natural Treasures was, in its early years, the proverbial phoenix, rising out of the ashes of a crumbling startup business, on the fragile wings of perseverance and possibility and against, many will say, the worst kinds of odds. Natural Treasures had originated as far back as 1986, then under a different name, when Teresa’s British spouse and his business partner had gone into exporting capiz sun catchers. At the time, Teresa, determined to make her own money, had ventured into having a small canteen business and refused to be a part of the export company.
However, when the initial sun catcher business fell into crisis, Teresa was finally brought in on a commission basis to help out with the company. When she started, the old company was millions into debt and was ridden with labor strikes. So in order to keep business going, they ceased operations in the main factory to deal with labor concerns, while at the same time opening up five new small factories and hiring new employees to work on pending purchase orders. With an iron fist, Teresa helped make several improvements in the company,such as requiring down payments on orders so that they could bankroll the business. The company also started expanding its product range, since Sun
catchers eventually waned in popularity. For this, Teresa concentrated on obtaining input from customers she met in bazaars, which eventually led her to the idea of creating functional capiz designs-namely, lampshades, small tea light candle holders, larger candle holders, and even photo frames.
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Ramon “Monching” Romano, the owner of Divisoria.Com didn’t deny the fact that his motive on setting up his business was primarily for profit. It’s only natural that the reason for setting up a business is to earn, otherwise we will just set up a charity or a non-profit organization.He has a background as a marketeer and experience as brand manager and sales and marketing manager in different companies which I think have helped him on establishing his business. Truly, his online store is helping Filipinos and OFW in other countries who wish to buy Philippine products which are not available on their location.
Divisoria.Com is one of the many online stores in the internet which the process of buying is through online transactions and using your credit card to purchase items. Then after you completed the process and payment, the items will be shipped to you where ever you are. But unlike other online stores, Divisoria.Com is created for Filipinos abroad especially to those who miss Philippine products. Most of it’s customers are those who wanted to buy products for themselves or for their love ones here in the Philippines. Aside from Filipinos, there are Foreigners who patronize Pinoy products in the online store.
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I’m sure many Filipinos know the bake shop “French Baker”. Although all the baked goodies are foreign, yet we used to patronize the products . I ‘m not sure why but I myself was attracted the first time I see that in SM Megamall. I use to shun away from expensive or to those gourmet type of food store because I was afraid of the cost. Just looking at the bakeshop, my first impression was “it might be expensive” but when I tried to enter the shop and see the prices, well it was not that expensive after all. Yes they price higher than the average bakeshops but when you see the quality of the bread and other baked goodies, you won’t think of the price anymore. Other bakeshop with the same quality are priced higher. I guess there is something the way they organize the shop, how they priced the items, improve the quality or the design of their company logo have something to do why they can attract so many customers.
Although I’ve seen the owner of French Baker in TV interview in the past years, I never thought that he was a former business professor in UP which I came to know from a blog I read. I always thought that since his name Johnlu Koa, obviously a Chinese or half-Chinese have started a business like most Chinese businessmen which didn’t did go to other kind of livelihood like employment. Maybe I’m just being narrow minded because if you will read many success stories of entrepreneurs, there are various ways how they reach their way before they become entrepreneurs. So maybe his secret, it seems, is a combination of good education, marketing know-how and a good nose for opportunities and ideas. Below is the article I got which I think might be interesting to you. So read on….
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While I was reading the Entrepreneur magazine, two Filipino Chinese entrepreneurs caught my attention. One is Mr. Cecilio Kwok Pedro the toothpaste magnate and the other Mr. Alfredo M. Yao the self made fruit drink magnate. The reason is because of their decisions that turned disappointments into an opportunity. The first one I want to discuss is Mr. Cecilio Kwok Pedro. He is the President and CEO of Lamoiyan Corp. which is the first Filipino company who penetrated the Philippine Toothpaste market.
That market was dominated by big foreign companies ( those that produce Colgate and Close-up). Now Happee toothpaste ranks no 3 in the toothpaste brand. Because of that success he was able to diversify his products into dish washing soaps, liquid detergents, fabric enhancers and other gum formula tooth paste.
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I’m sure every Filipino know the brand name Mama Sita. If I’m not mistaken they are the pioneer of ready-made sauces and mixes of Filipino dishes like kare-kare mix, sinigang mix, kaldereta mix, barbecue marinades, palabok mix and many others. It started when Mrs. Teresita “Mama Sita” Reyes’ desire to give her grandchildren living in the United States to eat Filipino dishes because all her grandchildren wants to eat are hamburgers and hotdogs. Maybe she wanted also to cultivate some Filipino culture on her grandchildren because there are many kinds of food for them to choose in the U.S. besides hamburgers and hotdogs. Anyway that desire motivates her and her children which gave them an idea to make ingredients which they can easily bring outside the country so those Filipinos living there can have a chance to eat Pinoy dishes with convenience. They then setup a company named “Mama Sita” and the first product they made is the “Biglang Sinigang”. For those who were not familiar with sinigang, its a Filipino dish of boiled pork in sour broth using tamarind juice as the main ingredient for it’s unique taste and added with spices and vegetables. There are also variation aside from pork which is beef, prawns, milk fish or bangus and other marine fishes.
The “Biglang Siningang” is made from tamarind and formed into a paste. It’s not easy to find tamarind in the states back then so those who wish to make ‘sinigang’ used lemon to make it sour. Maybe today you will find tamarind coming from other parts of Asia like for example in Thailand. Even in our local supermarkets you can see tamarind from Thailand and is more expensive than the local ones. So with the help of Mama Sita’s son-in-law which she called by the name “Henyo”(‘genius’ in english) they created the formula to make the ‘Biglang Sinigang’ which started the long and tasty success story of Mama Sita.
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I guess every Filipino knows this bakeshop. Now it has become a common bakeshop with more than 500 stores serving every Filipinos. The owner, Julie Gandionco and her sons as far as I remember was already featured on some TV shows. But little that we know how it started from a humble beginning.
The Julie’s Bakeshop story is the kind that hits close to home, particularly because it was born out of the needs of a family which something most people can relate to. When she reached the age of 47, Julie Gandioco’s duties as a mother were becoming less and less demanding. Her children – Bobby, Rico and Opep were already in college, and the rest Oding, Neil and Patty were in high school. Her kid’s educational expenses were going up and her husband’s sugar farm was not doing well. So she thought that there were something that she must do to help her husband.
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I wanted to share with you this newsletter from Mike Litman about a Billionaire’s success story. I’m sure very few know the name Deitrich Mateschitz. I even have a hard time pronouncing it. But if I say Red Bull, the energy drink then maybe this sounds familiar to you. This is a popular energy drink here in the Philippines. I once thought that this came from a Filipino manufacturer but since I read Mr Litman’s story, now I know that this came from the U.S.A. So without much ado here is the story:
Hey Lito!
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