IT started with a dream and P150 cash.
Twenty-three years later, Marilyn M. Pajal and her husband Edwin of Barangay Alang-Alang in Mandaue City now have two stores and were able to send their three children to college.
“We just got married then and that P150 cash was all we have left from the P1,000 cash that we used for our civil wedding,” said Pajal.
Then only 22 years old, Pajal said that she always wanted to run her own business so she used the remaining P150 to start a small store in a kariton or improvised pushcart.
Her husband used to work in a poultry farm earning P25 every month which was barely enough to sustain them.
Soon she asked him to quit his job and just help her out in the business.
“We managed the pushcart store together reaching many places in Mandaue City selling food products and other commodities that people usually buy,” said Pajal.
With hard work, their store slowly grew and through the sales, Pajal was even able to finish a degree in Bachelor of Arts in Secondary Education which would have helped her land a job as a teacher.
Her love for business however made her decide to stick to their pushcart store venture.
The decision paid off in seven years where they managed to buy a stall and set up as their second store beside the Mandaue City Central School.
“We bought that stall and converted it into a canteen for students since we are located beside the school. We started that in 1997.”
Pajal named their store as Marcelyn which is a combination of the names of her three children – Ermalyn, Edwin and Edmar.
With two stores, Pajal managed the canteen while her husband continued their pushkart store.
The earnings of their two businesses helped them raise their three children and provided for their basic needs including education.
Their eldest daughter Ermalyn is now a teacher while their second child Edwin took a two year course in Information Technology. The youngest child Edmar is a third year Business Administration student of the University of San Carlos.
Pajal said having sent their children to school was the best prize they got from all their hard work.
She said that they would continue to grow their business so that they could leave them with their children.
In January, this year, the couple finally abandoned their pushcart store and moved to a stall within the public market in Mandaue City.
The couple also had a passenger jeepney but it was destroyed in a fire last July.
“We had a jeepney but it burned down in July so we are planning to buy a new one which we can use as a passenger jeepney at the same time for our family use,” said Pajal.
Pajal was among the top 20 women entrepreneurs in Mandaue City who joined the Search for WINNERS or Women In Need Now Entrepreneurs and Rolemodels Season 2 organized by the Mandaue Chamber of Commerce and Industry for their annual Mandaue Business Month celebration every August.
Pajal got the First Runner Up award and went home with P30,000 cash and other gift items from the sponsors.
Pajal said that she learned a lot from the experience in joining the search and she hoped that more women would be able to learn what she learn and also grow their own business.
Pajal said she planned to use the cash prize to buy a new jeepney, which would be useful to grow their business.