#technovengers

“Business is a legacy that you can passed down to the next generation and you need to preserve it” said Kathy Waga as I interviewed her about their small business which was founded by her mother the Waga’s Delight Peanut Butter.

Waga’s Delight Peanut Butter. A taste you will surely love! Waga’s Delight Peanut Butter was founded by Visia K. Waga in February 1976. It was recipe passed down from her mother who also loves to cook and make peanut butter. A mother of four, Visia K. Waga is a nursery teacher at Carmen Cagayan de Oro . She started making peanut butter for her family from the recipe of her mother. She decided to sell her peanut butter and put it in a plastic container to have other source of income to sustain her family’s needs since, her salary and his husband’s salary is not enough for them. She started a taste tester and sell her products to her colleagues at work. Her colleagues love it so much that they had repeat orders. When she know that her product was favored by many , she try to expand her market and sell it to the vendors and stall owners at Carmen Public Market. Through the word of mouth of friends,relatives and colleagues her peanut butter was favored. Through her peanut butter she made her son and daughters graduate in College. She tried to consign her product at a known grocery store at Carmen Cagayan de Oro but pulled out after her products because she only received small sales because of lots of competitions for there were lots of well known brand of peanut butters in the shelf of that grocery store.

When, the pandemic hits our country. Unfortunately Visia K. Waga caught the disease and died from it last April 2020. The business now is continued by her children. Karen, Jonhnsun, Kathy and Jeffsey the son and daughters of Visia now take over their mother’s small business. They take orders and continued selling it to the vendors at Carmen Market.They take advantage of the use of social media and created a page to create awareness about their creamy peanut butter.

Managing business can sometimes be hard, but after reading through this interview, it might make it a little easier. This interview contains strategies to help you in the way you run your business, and a lot of information to help you stay organized while still working hard in your day-to-day tasks.

We all heard about the famous line, “Basta LPG, Prycegas” right? But have you ever wondered how do they keep things up amidst the competition from other LPG brands? The Pryce Gases Incorporation, is a leading LPG supplier in Visayas and Mindanao. It is a publicly-listed company that attained P9.2 billion in sales from 210,000 metric tons and P1.25 billion net profit in the year 2017. By 2018, it projected a total of P12 billion revenues and P1.5 billion net profit. Salvador Escaño, the Chairman and CEO of Pryce Gases Inc., fondly shares about his adaptability and grit during challenging times and how he kept winning despite facing a lot of challenges.

Pryce gas was once a small player in the LPG business but now it has dominated the VISMIN market and it expanded its reach to Luzon. What strategy worked for you as you venture through this business?

There were only 2 strategies that worked for us. First, we made sure that we have the proper infrastructure and logistics system to support our sales initiatives and drives. And second, we concentrated our efforts on the retail component of LPG because the retail market has been generating higher margins than the wholesale and commercial markets. The higher margins from the retail market allowed our company to expand its infrastructure and logistics network.

In this kind of business where a lot of people are involved, what mindset is better, being single-minded or having a diversified view?

To support our strategies, we made sure to develop the single-mindedness mindset rather than the diversification strategy because I believe that single-mindedness allows one to have focus and concentration, hence having a better mindset than a diversified one. If we focus on one thing, we get to see and understand things because we cannot do much if we have a lot on our table. It would really be easier to plan out and implement strategies to achieve goals and targets because if we diversify, our attention gets divided and the probability of overlooking some important things is higher.

Considering that you are handling a big company and now that you have expanded your market nationwide because of your dealers, how do you manage to make them satisfied and happy? Considering that you have a lot of competitors that might attract their interest.

We have over a thousand dealers nationwide which helps us in making our products close to the market. And ofcourse, aside from being strategic, wise, and disciplined, it is important to ensure the happiness and satisfaction of our dealers. It is really important that you know how to manage your people well. We treat our dealers like partners in business. We give them incentives and support in whatever way they can. Actually, one of the incentive schemes that we have developed was to help our dealers in managing their working capital so that they can sustain operations and continue providing good service to their customers.

Have you ever wondered why some businesses succeed and others fail? Probably. I have certainly been pondering this in recent years. What exactly makes a company go from good to great? Or a business owner go from okay to really profitable?

why some businesses succeed and others fail?

Failing is not fun, but it happens. If you’re in business for any length of time, you will probably experience failure at some point.

I have learned from experience that you don’t have to be born with a silver spoon in your mouth in order to be successful. You can still become a millionaire if you work hard and smart, and are willing to take a few risks along the way. In fact, the harder you work, the more money you stand to make!

That’s right – admitting your failures can pay dividends sometimes! It’s not what you say or how you say it; just that you are honest and forthright with your audiences.

what about common mistakes in learning to grow your business and career?

Getting on the road to success as an entrepreneur can be challenging. It's easy to get burned out if you do not have the right mindset and support system in place. It's also easy to fail without understanding why you failed. There are many reasons for failure, which can be boiled down into four main categories:

1. Lack of knowledge - Not knowing what works and what doesn't work.

2. Lack of planning - Not having a plan or a realistic action plan. 3. Lack of support - Not having the right support that will help you sustain growth and lead to success.

4. Lack of capital - Having too little resources to sustain growth or even get your business off the ground.

advice:

How did you come up with the idea of starting a business?

The idea of starting a business was sparked by the major demand for my skills in my previous job. I realized that if I were to start a business, I would make much more money and have a better work-life balance. The most challenging part of being an entrepreneur is the financial risk. Since we are self-funded, there is no safety net if we fail. However, it is this risk that makes us work harder to succeed in our endeavor.

What’s your reason for choosing a coffee shop business?

If you are serious about starting a coffee shop, you need to have a good purpose for doing so. It’s not easy to start a business and even harder to maintain it. You have to be passionate about what you do if you are determined to make it work. You love coffee— Most people love coffee and who wouldn’t want to sell something that everyone needs? You will enjoy every minute of it and your work would never be monotonous.

You like people, but don’t like working for companies— Starting a small business is the best way for an individual to have an independent lifestyle without having to work for someone else. Here, you will be your own boss and make all the important decisions in the business process, which makes it more gratifying compared to working for someone else.

You want to spend more time with your family— Being an entrepreneur means that you can run your business from home or anywhere else as long as there is always internet access. With this freedom, you can also spend more time with your family since there is no need to go out into the office and leave them behind.

Who is your competition?

The owner: Jose Ferdinand Mendaros Mauricio

As the owner: Jose Ferdinand Mendaros Mauricio growing up he is already exposed in to the area of business as his family and friends always talked about it, and now that he is earning enough and eventually saved money for the plan of starting a business with the help of his friends and his idea of making something that can be simple yet people will find it addictive he started what he have now that is called MAUCHA a business that would satisfy the craving of cold and with the different flavour can be chosen.

The business currently as he stated is doing great as they adjust on the situation brought by the pandemic, seeing the factors and preventing something bad to happen to everyone is one of the top priorities. But from the time he started the business he said managing the business takes too much courage as he experiences a lot of downs than the ups and having the feeling of giving up but then he perseveres because he is not alone thanks to his friends giving him the support in time of very difficult time. Visit us at Mau Cha Cafe Divisoria (just across the old location), and grab a bite while enjoying your favorite milk tea .

As the owner Mrs lilibeth Sabejon, stated that by just a simple curiosity she was then engaged in the area of business, she started on selling anything that can be profitable to her then trying asking herself what could it be that people want for a cheap but delicious product and then what urge her to persevere is the idea of being mom wanting to provide the needs of her son and helping her spouse for the bills and payments and everyday consumptions.

But then, as she is now living alone without her husband putting up too much effort to gain an income for the child she is taking care of and proving that she can live alone and sustain the needs of her child. She also brought up that she is living in Quezon City without relatives or family members to help her in times of getting into a problem or anything that will prevent her to be not able to do her daily small business.

The struggle is that when the product is over-saturated,then finding another idea to add up to her business is the main struggle and putting in the responsibility of being a mother, cooking, cleaning, taking care of the family and anything else that will count as a parent responsibility. Everything went well as he said before but when this pandemic came, the lockdown/ quarantine caused the sales to be lesser and lesser. But still she perseveres for her own reasons, finding a way out to her daily problems as we all experience day by day.

“When you enter the world of business, everything is unpredictable” this is what Mrs. Zarina Bernas, answered when asked the question how it was when she started her business.

As a mother of 3, her main inspiration for starting a business is her children, as she wants to provide them with everything that they need and for them to have a beautiful future. She started her first business in her husband’s hometown in Pasay City, Manila. There, they started a little sari-sari store and because she and her husband love to cook, they then started a little burger shack in their garage to be able to sustain the needs of their newly born daughter. The business was booming as it was supported by their friends and friends of friends, until they even started delivering their burgers to other parts of Manila.

Years later, Mrs. Bernas got pregnant for their 3rd child and from there her husband decided that they will be moving to another place to start their business, because the earnings that they get from their business in Pasay will not be enough to sustain the needs of their 2 daughters. The couple decided to transfer to Roxas City, where Mrs. Bernas grew up and where she gave birth to their youngest child. Like their business in Pasay City, they started their burger shack and a small sari-sari store business. As they start off their business, the sales are increasing, and they have gained a lot of new customers per day. Their street was always busy. Sales were good but they cannot manage to do it all alone because they do not have employees to help them manage their business and by that, they cannot give attention to their growing daughters.

Finally, they have decided to transfer to Cagayan de Oro City to try their luck here. That maybe this new place will give them new experiences. When they arrived here, her husband decided to work abroad so that they will have enough money to send their children to school and enough money to spend for their everyday life. Mrs. Bernas agreed and let her husband work abroad because she found a helper that will look after her child and will help her take care of her business.

From having a water refilling station to roasted chicken, internet café, they have decided to settle with her sari-sari store business. Aside from that, her husband went home because the uncle of her husband has entrusted them in managing a car rental business and an apartment.

Business is unpredictable because you will never know whether it will succeed or not because it will merely depend on the needs and demands of the people. The main challenge that was faced by her and her husband is managing their time well for their business and for their daughters. Aside from that, the perceptions and wants of the consumers changes over time that is why their burger shack did not end up well.

week 1 blog by: Glenn Johnson Alcantara, Joshua Rey Mar, Darren Platan, Michael Angelo Sabejon, Christian DaveTungolh

Mrs. Hannah John N. Oracoy, store owner of Keefe’s Snack House and Food Hub. Her store is located at Barra Opol, Misamis Oriental. Keefe’s Snack House and Food Hub is a snack house selling shakes, cakes and also engaged in catering services.

She opened the business on January 28, 2017. She started to survey her neighbors and friends about what is a good business to start with. She self-studied what type of business to engage in. She also relates it to her passion which is cooking. She plans and does the trial and error for her products and makes a taste test before she starts to establish it formally. She pushed herself and through passion, hard work, and perseverance she made it. She started it because she believed that she can learn more in business not just about money. She learned to gain more patience. She learned how to interact with other people and she improved her skills.

The challenges that she faces in doing her business are the competitors nearby, finances, and the pandemic. The pandemic mostly affected her business. But through perseverance and passion, she continued her business despite the challenges. Because of the pandemic, she considered using the internet to create awareness about her products and contact information to order online.

She now had 3 stores located at Barra Opol, Misamis Oriental, Initao, and El Salvador City.