HALO-HALO: EVERY FILIPINO GUILTY PLEASURE DESSERT WHEN SUMMER HITS
Summer is not complete without the famous Halo-Halo of the Philippines. On March 16, 2022, Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration (PAGASA) officially announces start of dry season in the country. This only means that few Filipinos would start scrolling through their gadgets finding best summer destinations. Perhaps a number of entrepreneurs would think of a best cold desserts they could add to their menu since Filipinos are really into sweet, cold and refreshing desserts. The well-known dessert consisting of various ingredients involving sweetened saba banana, beans, jellies that comes in a different colors, sweet potato, ice cream, leche plan, ube, evaporated milk, and crashed ice is called Halo-Halo —the word is translated in English as “Mix-mix.”
When dry season hits and you walk upon the streets and every corner of the Philippines, you will see a lot of people selling Halo-Halo. You just can’t stop yourself from buying it as this dessert really is flavorsome. Furthermore, there are also restaurants that offer Halo-Halo like Chowking, Mang Inasal, Razon, and so forth. This Filipino dessert made foreigners curious about how the dessert taste like and why it is very popular in the country. The 2nd most-used search engine and social media platform Youtube is where these foreigners upload their impression in Halo-Halo. Some foreign vloggers eat it in a wrong way and few, surprisingly, eat it in a correct way.
People often ask, “How profitable selling seasonal product is?” Halo-Halo is just one of the seasonal product sell when summer hits except some restaurants which regularly sell Halo-Halo such firms mentioned earlier. An entrepreneur thinking of building his/her small seasonal business within his/her community to sell Halo-Halo can both an advantage and disadvantage. The advantages on operating this kind of business are the following: (A) the business being seasonal means the entrepreneur has a lot of time to think of a good strategy to gain profit and conceptualize appealing, trendy, and impactful product. (B) It is not energy-draining, you have more time to relax, rest, and hibernate. On the other hand, the disadvantages are the following: (A) this type of business is risky and stressful. The consumers’ purchasing behavior changes over time, the business you may trying to build could not possibly meet the preferences of the consumers. (B) Since the opening of the business is seasonal, the customer engagement is not that high. And this is connected to the third disadvantage which is (C) lower income. It is very unlikely to foster customers’ loyalty especially if the relationship between the entrepreneur and consumers is very weak and this results to low earnings of a firm.
Growing your small business is not just all about gaining profit but it is also about gaining experiences that will probably a good teacher you can have in enhancing and improving your business. Sweats, sunburns, and foul smell are usually the worst thing in summer but a cup of your favorite Halo-Halo changes everything—have one and refresh your mind with its sweetness.
