SUCCESS STORY SAMPLES:

SGE VARIETY STORE (FORMERLY HEAD TO TOE)

It is a journey from childhood dream to reality. Childhood dreams never fail to inspire us
to fulfill what we always want to be when we grow up. Most of us dream about having
our dream job. Some of us want to be a successful businessman someday. As long as
one believes, and put all your efforts in it, it will come true.

SGE Variety Store is located at the Façade portion, Royal Duty Free, Subic Bay
Freeport Zone. It is currently producing handcrafted fashion accessories (e.g. bracelets,
earrings, necklaces, and anklets), bamboo products, and wood products, (e.g. wood
frame, wood pencil holder, coconut husk lamp).

Many years ago, Gladys Sharon Estes held a high position at a foreign company. The
job required her to wear presentable attire from head to toe. Then an idea struck her –
“why not make my own accessories?” From then on, she started making her own
fashion accessories. Her interest grew as she envisioned her business to be recognized
as a premier Philippines producer of simple elegant handcrafted fashion jewelry, fashion
accessories and custom design souvenir items.

Together with her husband, Gerald Estes, she started to sell her handmade accessories
at a beach resort near their residence, as people started to check on her products. Her
husband also started to make woodcraft products and sell them along with her other
accessories. As tourists pass by her stall, she chats with them. Word spread, her
collection grew, and she added freshwater pearls, mother pearl shapes, chip stone
turquoise, jade and gemstones. She wanted the name of her business as “Head 2 Toe”.
However, during her registration of her Business Name Certificate “Head to Toe” is was
verified as having been already registered under SEC. She gave numerous names, and
fortunately, SGE Variety Store was approved.

She joined the Livelihood Program of Olongapo City - Gawang Gapo - a program to
promote the homemade products of the local residents of Olongapo City. This program
opened a new door for her business, as the Department of Trade and Industry and the
Department of Tourism approached her to assist her on trade fairs. As time went on,
many opportunities followed.

Because of the good quality and service given to their customers and the continuous
assistance of Department of Trade and Industry and its Negosyo Center, its sales
continue to grow. With its starting capital of P 5,000 pesos, they are now earning 20,000
pesos to 30,000 pesos per month, excluding income from trade fair events.
Her business is growing gradually. The responsibility increases too. Like many
businesses, there are ups and downs. Yet, she welcomes them with open arms
because she knows that she will learn from those experiences.

Banaue, Ifugao’s Mary Ann’s Souvenir and Gift Shop was registered and established in
1992 with an initial capitalization of PhP100,000 and employment of four. Specializing in
souvenirs and novelty items, the shop located at Poblacion, Banaue, Ifugao produces
and a manufactures various woodcarvings and other handicraft products which are sold
to tourists. These items are also sold to bigger buyers in Manila, Tagaytay and Cebu
and exporters.

Owned and managed by Mary Ann Tacio, who is a residence of Banaue, Ifugao, the gift
shop engaged in the production and manufacturing of woodcarving products primarily
souvenirs, Wearable & Homestyle and novelty items.

As part of the Trade Facilitation and Marketing Assistance of DTI-Ifugao, Mary Ann’s
Souvenir and Gift Shop was regularly invited for trade fairs participation. Tacio was able
to attend various provincial trade fairs that made her qualified to participate in the
regional trade fairs and eventually qualified her to participate in various national trade
fairs like CITEM’s Manila Fame, National Art Crafts, and other National Trade Fairs
being conducted all year round.

After qualifying to participate in the 2nd phase Manila Fame Exhibits and selling fair at
the World Trade Center and the Sikat Pinoy National Arts and Craft Trade Fair at the
Megamall, Mandaluyong City, Ann’s Souvenir Shop was also endorsed to participate in
the Regional Trade Fair at Fiesta Mall, Alabang.

The enterprise was able to participate in various trainings like Negotiation Techniques
and Skills training, Productivity Enhancement, Business Management and other
entrepreneurial trainings.

Also, Ms. Tacio availed of productivity improvement and enhancement having been
consistently endorsed to designers from Manila for product designs. Her shop was
entered and included in the Export Pathways Program in 2008 with level 3 as the entry
stage. As a growing business, the shop was endorsed to PLGU for the Ifugao Certified
Products.

With DTI’s Trade Facilitation and Marketing Assistance Ms. Tacio’s enterprise was able
to maintain three big buyers in Manila who are into domestic and export markets, the
Christian Ventures, Balikbayan Handicrafts and Grandma’s Handicraft.

At least fifteen new product designs were recently introduced and a systematic
production schedules were likewise introduced. For the CY 2016, Tacio’s firm recorded
a total of 2.2M as of August 31, 2016. The increase in sales each year was attributed to
the increase of buyers, joining trade fairs and improved designs from enhance
prototypes. From the initial investment of Php 100,000.00.
The firm has reached an investment size of 5M from an initial employment of 4. Today,
Tacio’s enterprise already employs and maintains at least 12 regular workers and 10
contracted workers. From level 3 as an entry stage of the EPP, the firm is now marked
at stage 5 and soon to graduate from the EPP classifications.

HACIENDA CRAFTS FROM FARMING TO CRAFTING

inShare

What was supposed to be a livelihood program intended to simply provide additional

income to the community of farm workers turned out to be a global business venture for
Christina Gaston’s Hacienda Crafts Company in Manapla, Negros Occidental.

“We know we could not employ everyone [in the hacienda]. We looked for something
they could do at home or on a per piece work basis, something they can work at their
own pace,” she recalled.

Established in 1991, the business pioneered in the production of table top items such as
candle holders, trays, placemats and table runners using locally sourced materials such
as coconut twigs, buri midrib, capiz shells, handwoven fabrics, abaca, raffia fibers and
bamboo, among others.

Gaston said that the farm workers are all capable of making beautiful things.

With their crafts, the company participated in trade fairs supported by the DTI.

“Market access is the most important thing,” she emphasized.

Gaston said that her company availed of any DTI trainings that were available.

“It is very important to learn from the expert, and learn from other companies. We
developed our product and took advantage of the BMBE (Barangay Micro Business
Enterprise) to become a community-based manufacturer,” she said.

She said that it is important to be sustainable to the environment the reason why her
company uses locally sourced materials mostly abundant here and in other
communities that they were able to connect to.

“We accessed the grassroots communities for materials because they are the one
needing market access the most. They don’t have as much opportunity to reach the
market, we make that our strength,” she said.

The company started with five and has now 300 weavers/ families in different
communities.
“You have to be aware of who you are going to sell it... what the clients want to buy,”
she said.

Dee Gelisanga, 36, who does weaving works in the company for the past four years,
said the additional income she gets from the company augments her profits by selling
rice cakes.

“If there are bulk orders, we also have bigger income,” she said.

Josefina Portillano, 56, said that the income she gets has helped her send her two
daughters to school. Portillano is one of the pioneer workers in the business and had
been with the company for 23 years.

From the initial table top items, Hacienda Crafts Company has expanded its crafts to
furniture (including small accent furniture such as side tables, side chairs and tools) and
furnishings. It also started using scraps of fabric in its product line.

The company now exports 30 percent of its products, with 70 percent being sold
domestically.

NEGOSYO CENTER ILOILO HELPS OFW COUPLE

BAKE THEIR WAY TO SUCCESS
inShare

Meet Myrna and Melvin Rojo. A husband and wife team who only wanted to provide for
their family’s needs. Both teachers by profession, they lived a simple life in Iloilo City,
making sure that their three children are safe and sound. Melvin left his family in 2002 to
work in an International School in Brunei Darussalam. It was not an easy choice but he
had to do it. After five years, Myrna followed her husband and stayed in Brunei as well.
Having finished a degree in Home Economics, Myrna has her baking skills intact. While
she stayed at home, she baked goodies and cakes for Melvin’s co-workers at school.
Shortly after, she made customized cakes for fellow Filipinos and foreigners in Brunei.
Her cakes sold very well during weddings, birthdays and anniversaries. It was, then,
that the couple saw a good opportunity in baking. They thought of doing the same thing
-- only now, it will be done back home. And so, Myrna and Melvin went back to the
Philippines in 2014 to start their own cake business.

They formalized their operations, and Myrnz Creation Cakes and Pastries was
registered in DTI in July 2014. Their baking activities were done in their home in
Mandurriao, Iloilo City with some help from their children.

Being former OFWs, they were encouraged by the Overseas Workers Welfare
Administration (OWWA) to pursue the OFW Reintegration Program, a special loan
program in partnership with government banks such as the Development Bank of the
Philippines (DBP) and the Land Bank of the Philippines (LandBank) to support
enterprise development among OFWs and their families.

For this reason, they attended the Entrepreneurship Seminar at Negosyo Center Iloilo
City in February 2015, which as required by OWWA and LBP. It introduced the couple
to the basics of putting up a business and the groundwork needed by start-up
entrepreneurs like them.

Within a month after the seminar, the couple worked closely with an NC business
counsellor to package their business plan and submit all other documents to LBP. While
waiting for the result, the couple underwent trainings at Negosyo Center such as Food
Safety and Financing Forum. They also enrolled in the Labelling Consultancy for the
Processed Food Sector under DTI’s SME Roving Academy. Label designs for their cake
boxes and packaging were provided.

Their hard work paid off when LBP approved their business loan for Php 500,000.00 on
September 2015. They further honed their entrepreneurial competencies by attending
more trainings at Negosyo Center such as Effective Selling and Negotiation Skills,
Marketing Fundamentals, Tax Education, Introduction to the Internet, and
Manufacturing Management.

Now, Myrna and Melvin have opened their store where they could expand their market.
From home-based baking to putting in place their production facilities in their new store,
the Negosyo Center journeyed with them every step of the way.

It is interesting how their network of customers and partners widened because of the
trainings, events and programs they have joined. They have met “special” people and
accommodated learning visits from different agencies and companies fascinated by
their story. They have also shared their story in a huge crowd during the 1st Negosyo
Center Convention in Manila last December 2015. Melvin shared that the best thing that
the Negosyo Center gave them is the chance to be back home with the family and be
able to provide food for the table and send the children to school. Myrnz Creation Cakes
and Pastries and Negosyo Center made it possible for them.

MENTOR ME GRADUATE AIMS TO DUPLICATE

THIRSTY’S SUCCESS
A LOCAL entrepreneur is aiming to duplicate what Cebuano businessman Bunny
Pages’ fruit shake business, Thirsty, has attained.

Terence Neil Padrique, 38, is the owner of The Lemon Co., a one-year-old business
venture he started in May 2015. He now has six stalls in three different malls in Cebu
and Mandaue cities, producing and selling fresh, manually-pressed lemonades.

Padrique said he aims to expand his business further by penetrating big universities and
business centers in Cebu where his business is sure to thrive.

Padrique was one of the 26 owners of micro, small, and medium-scale enterprises
(MSMEs) who successfully completed the first Cebu leg of the Kapatid Mentor Me
program spearheaded by the Department of Trade and Industry in Central Visayas
(DTI-7), Cebu Chamber of Commerce and Industry (CCCI) and Go Negosyo last
December 9.

He said he had greatly benefited from the mentoring program, having had the
opportunity to be mentored by Cebuano businessman Pages.
He said having been mentored by Pages himself who is also into the same business
venture as him and is successfully operating the fruit shake business, Thirsty, is one of
the privileges that the mentorship program had offered him.

“He (Pages) jested about me being his competitor, but I believe his brand is too big to
be our competition. I look at Thirsty as our big brother and Pages as my mentor,”
Padrique said.

Mentorship Training

Padrique and the other 25 entrepreneurs underwent a 12-week mentorship program

under established and successful business owners from Cebu and Manila since
October 7.

Majority of the participants are into the food and beverage businesses, with products
ranging from processed foods, baked products to healthy drinks and condiments. Most
of them are operating in Metro Cebu.

“They started with fear. They lacked the confidence in running their businesses. Others
thought they were already equipped with the right knowledge (but while going through
the program), they realized they still lacked more,” said CCCI vice president for
business development Virgilio Espeleta at the sidelines of the Kapatid Mentor Me
program graduation ceremony at the Grand Convention Center of Cebu on Dec. 9,
2016.

Meeting every week during Fridays, the participants had also gone through 13 different
learning modules and business interventions aimed at equipping them with the sound
mindset and best practices to scale up their businesses.

They were also taught about business taxation and laws, two essential aspects of
running a business which most of the participants held little to no knowledge about prior
to undergoing the mentorship program, said DTI provincial director Maria Elena Arbon.

“Most of them ran their businesses without knowing all the laws and legal environment
that operate around their businesses. Now they are more aware of all these,” Arbon
said.

To gather expert advises from the mentors, each participant were given the opportunity
to present their business models to a panel of mentors composed of the big
businessmen themselves.

DTI-7 also intended the Kapatid Mentor Me program to be an avenue for MSMEs to
network with their fellow participants and forge possible business partnerships to help
up the revenues and brand health of one another.
DTI-7 also encouraged the big businessmen to tap the fledgling enterprises into their
value chains by trading supplies and resources with them.

“We wanted the big ones (established businessmen) to consider the small ones
(MSMEs) in their value chains so that the small ones can move from survival to
sustainability,” Arbon said.

DTI-7 has long planned to conduct the program regularly to help more MSMEs in the
province ramp up their businesses. The second installment of the Kapatid Mentor Me
program will begin on February 3. Currently, 14 participants had committed to undergo
the program.