While other children were then spending time in school, Rhea Marolina, now 32, was then out helping her mother sell puto around their neighborhood in Mandaue City.
Despite missing out on a formal education, Marolina’s experience helping her mother sell puto(rice cake)had made her well equipped to start her vegetable and fruits store in barangay Cambaro, Mandaue City, today.
The store has been her main source of income to raise her four children.
“I always look back in the past and try to apply what my mother always told me. She would often say that what I earn is always dependent on how I would work. So I always see to it that I work hard to sell more and put some decent food into the table,” Maroliña said.
Marolina, who is a single mother, has made facing life alone without a partner a challenge and a motivation to work harder.
She started three years ago her fruit and vegetables business using only a P500 capital to buy her first stocks.
She learned to do multitasking—watching over her growing brood and making a living.
“Sometimes there’s not much sales if you just wait for people to come to your store. And so I had to make a way to sell all my products for the day especially that all my products are perishable,” she said.
She would then go door-to-door selling her vegetables and fruits in the neighborhood.
She said she would always see to it that she would sell everything right away as fresh as when she bought them from the market. She also wouldn’t charge much so that her customers wouldn’t hesitate to buy them.
Her hard work and diligence paid off. And now she earns P2,000 daily, which she uses to buy more stocks and for the family’s daily needs.
Marolina has also sent her children to school so that they can have a shot at a better life.
“Of course, I want them to learn from me just like how I learned from my mother. But I also want them to finish a degree. Education is the best legacy I can leave them with which they can use to have a better life for their family in the future,” she said.
Her two children are now in high school and soon they will be entering college.
“I have always been thinking how I can send them to college. Sometimes I’m afraid that I can’t afford it but I trust that God will help us. I will just have to work harder so that I can earn more and be able to afford their college education,” she said.
She said seeing her children finish college would make her investment of sweat and tears, labor and love all worth it.
She said she wanted her children to look back at their life with pride that they were able to finish because of her and their hard work.
“They also help me in the business, and I’m proud of them for they are also doing good in their grades. I always tell them to work hard to achieve their goals in life so that they, too, can provide an inspiration to their children,” she said.
She plans to grow the business and add more stocks and products.
Today, Maroliña’s store named “Rhea’s Store” is one of the most visited stores in their neighborhood.
Her hard work also paid off when she was chosen by the Mandaue Chamber of Commerce and Industry as one of the Top 23 women entrepreneurs in Mandaue City.
They were selected during the Search for WINNERS or Women In Need Now Entrepreneurs and Role Models organized by the Mandaue Chamber for its annual Mandaue Business Month celebration.
The winners all got a free seminar on growing the business facilitated by the University of San Carlos Department of Commerce under their Kapamilya Negosyo Na program.
According to Search for WINNERS chairperson Carmel de Pio Salvador, they will be continuing the search next year and will have another group of inspiring entrepreneurs like Maroliña to train and empower.
“We have always wanted to promote entrepreneurship, which is one best way to solve unemployment and alleviate poverty in the community,” Salvador said.