EntrePinoy 
By GoNegosyo Home Updated October 14, 2011 04:19 PM
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“We did not finish college and could never get white-
collar jobs, so we had to think of a good business.” |
He
was saddled with life’s many disadvantages, not least of which was
being a man with a woman’s name. However, Jennifer Alejo, 33, was not
one to give up easily, no matter the odds.
Jennifer was a security guard in Metro Manila in 1997. He quit that
job a year later to drive a tricycle. His wife, Vivian, was a lowly paid
contractual sales lady and a former house helper. Tired of careers that
were going nowhere, Jennifer and Vivian went back to their hometown in
Naguilian, Isabela, and decided to purchase a tricycle through a
financing scheme in 2000.
Jennifer drove the tricycle for two years, but his income was still
not enough for his family. He and his wife decided to buy and sell
kropek, puto seko, candies and other delicacies through a P5,000 micro
financing loan from Ficobank, a rural bank in their town.
“We used our tricycle to go to sarisari stores from one place to
another to sell kropek. It was tedious work, but our hardships paid off
after a couple of years,” Jennifer says. “We tried everything to be able
to attain a certain level of success.”
It wasn’t always smooth sailing. The couple spent nearly all their
savings to salvage their business after a kropek supplier in Bulacan
duped them of around P250,000. They filed a case against the agent, but
the man had by then disappeared.
“We were so hard up then because we borrowed most of the money from the bank,” recalls Vivian.
They survived this setback, and their venture eventually flourished.
They secured another P150,000 loan to put up their own facilities for
making chicharon out of carabao hide.
During a good week, the couple
make at least P20,000 to P25,000 in sales and as much as P600,000 from
wholesale trading during peak months.
The Alejos plowed their income back into the business. They improved
their chicharon production area, hired more workers, and bought a
second-hand truck and four more tricycles so they could move more goods.
Their business has given their townmates a fairly good source of
livelihood. “Repacking” workers usually earn P1,000 to P1,500 a week.
“It is a big help to our family, especially if we work overtime. This is
a better job than planting and harvesting palay,” says Marilou Estrada,
51, who has been working for the Alejos as a repacker for eight years.
Vivian says her successful business venture has also paved the way
for her to help other relatives and those of her husband in times of
need. Recognizing the value of good education, they are now supporting a
niece through college.
“It is high time that we also share our graces. For our relatives who
are in dire need, for our neighbors and villagers who need jobs, and to
God through church offerings,” says Jennifer
What pushed them to entrepreneurship? “The answer was clear,” says
Jennifer. “We did not finish college and could never get white-collar
jobs, so we had to think of a good business.”
Jennifer took up electrical technology for a year, then shifted to a
computer secretarial course before he quit school altogether. Vivian
took up accounting, but quit after a year. The two decided instead to
tie the knot. They now have three children: Kenneth James; 12, Kathleen
Joy; 10, and Christian, 3.
“An entrepreneur needs to have patience when handling people,
managing the business, controlling the quality of the products,” Vivian
says, citing her experience with delinquent or non-remitting vendors.
To his fellow traders, Jennifer has this to say: “Businessmen must be
straight. Do not mix vices like gambling and drinking with business.
Have discipline, industry and patience.”
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