Hard work helps mom grow her fish-vending business

A decision to try her luck in business has opened not just a window for Glonivie Pano but a also door to a new opportunity that she and her family are helping to grow.

Pano, 32, from barangay Casili in Mandaue City, used to work in a rattan factory, but her income was not enough to raise her growing family of six children.

“My partner also doesn’t have a regular job and doesn’t earn any stable income. It hurts to see my children sacrifice and not have what they need because we can’t afford it,” said Pano.

That was before 2006 when she finally gave business a try.

Pano borrowed P1,000 from a friend to buy fresh fish and started selling them from house to house on foot in Consolacion town.

From that one-day selling experience, Pano earned a P500 profit, which was more than what she earned daily from her job at the rattan factory.

This encouraged her to continue the business of selling fish. And with the help of her husband, she eventually paid her P1,000 loan.

Every day at 4 a.m., Pano and her husband would go to the wet market to buy fresh fish then sell them to her suki for the day.

The children helped by managing their home while she and her husband are out selling fish.

“I’m very happy that we raised them well and they’re very responsible. We always make them understand that what we are doing is for their sake,” said Pano.

Sometimes, she and her husband would take turns selling their fish on foot especially during times when she had to do some household chores that her children couldn’t do such as doing the laundry.

With diligence, their hard work paid off and they were able to buy a motorcycle, which would use as their transportation to buy fish and to bring these to the different subdivisions and neighborhoods in Consolacion town.

She said the secret to her trade was hard work and making friends with fish dealers, who would give them discounts.

“We also develop good relationship with our customers by making sure that we sell them fresh fish at reasonable prices,” she said.

Pano said she didn’t go for high profits so that they could have a good number of customers.

Over the years, they established regular buyers who would already request specific types of fish for them to buy.

“We always listen to what they want and we always tell them the truth especially with prices of the fish,” said Pano.

There are also times when business is slow, especially when prices of fish from the wet market is high, Pano would then sell other products such as ice candy and buko pandan.

She said her income was enough to sustain the family’s needs, send her children to school and pay their debts.

She said she was glad that she decided to put up her own business because her hard work would always be compensated.

“If you work for a company, no matter how hard you work, your income will always be the same. With a business, if you work harder you earn more,” said Pano.

Pano said her dream would be to sustain the business and send all her children to school

“My husband and I really made a promise to work hard and really grow the business so that we can provide for them. They are also helping us out so we are very happy,” said Pano.

Pano was among the top 23 contestants for last year’s Search for WINNERS or Women In Need Now Entrepreneurs and Role Models organized by the Mandaue Chamber of Commerce and Industry for their annual Mandaue Business Month celebration.

Having been part of the search, Pano said that she learned so much from successful businessmen who taught them on strategies on how to establish and grow their business.

“My learnings during the search is very useful especially with the financial management side because that is very important. If you can’t manage the finances, your business will not be sustained,” said Pano.

This year MCCI will once again run Search for WINNERS to help and inspire women entrepreneurs in Mandaue City like Pano.