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Since she got married in 2003, Claudine Allen S. Tan spent most of her time as a full-time homemaker for husband, Samuel and children, Liand and Jilian.
While she enjoyed her newfound “career” of being wife and mother, Tan was also ready to accept another responsibility—that of being an entrepreneur.
Tan surfed the Internet for ideas to start her own business. She researched on what kind of enterprise business students and working professionals in Cebu would like to venture in as a sideline.
“They said they wanted a business with minimal investment and was easy to sell,” said Tan, 30, a Mass Communications graduate from Bacolod City.
Her Cebuano husband, Samuel, previously worked for the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI).
During one of her on line sessions, Tan saw a video of Buy The Liter Enterprises, a Manila-based company which sells fragrances and other personal care products through a wholesale and retail system.
“It was featured in Kabuhayang Swak na Swak (of ABS-CBN). It was up for franchise. I got interested,” she said.
Under the system, anybody can start his or her own fragrance business by buying a start-up kit which costs between P450 to P1,200.
The complete start-up kit worth P1,200 includes 200 ml of perfume, ten 10 ml bottles, ten 30 ml bottles, four 10 ml cologne testers and a syringe used in transferring perfume to the bottles.
Microentrepreneurs can start selling the scents at various prices.
They can sell 30 ml of perfume at P100 to P150 per bottle, and a 10 ml perfume bottle at P50 to P80 per bottle.
Profit can range from P300 to P1,100.
Because of the business’ “micro concept,” Tan said she was inspired to finally try her first independent business.
“The fragrance business has been here for years but none with this kind of concept. It is also nice because you get to help other people start a business of their own,” she told .
In May 2008, after calling the owner, Michael Yao, the Tan couple bought a franchise of Buy The Liter at P150,000. This includes an initial inventory worth P50,000.
Her husband's previous post at the DTI's industry development division, where he served as consultant to small companies on how to make pre-investment studies, helped her business decision.
While the business is helpful in nature and easy to sell, they also needed to find a place to set up a a store with high visibility.
They found a 51-sqm vacant space on Queen's Road (near Redemptorist Parish Church), just across a fast food chain.
They renovated the store to give the layout a personal touch and maintain the micro-entrepreneur-friendly atmosphere.
The fragrances are imported from Switzerland carrying the smell of world-renowned brands.
Tan said the products are also approved by the Bureau of Food and Drugs so they are confident that it is safet to use.
Barely a month after they opened on Sept. 7, , Tan said they have been getting positive feedback from those who decided to venture into a small-scale fragrance business.
“It's a business that easy to sell because everybody wants to smell good. Even helpers and production workers wants (to smell good),” said Tan.
A unique feature of the business is the personalized label, where an entrepreneur can create his or her fragrance brand.
Entrepreneurs can also choose the kindn of bottles to hold the fragrances.
“We have templates which they can choose from. They can have their names on the template. We repack the perfume in different bottles. We're not creating new scents,” said Samuel.
Current clients are students and working professionals.
Samuel said the business has good potential in Cebu which is home to several universities and colleges as well as export processing zones that employ thousands of people.
Hard work and patience are two of the values the couple holds important at this early stage of the business.
“We're still in the adjustment period although we already noticed increases in freight costs but we're moving. We want good business here. When we say this is it, mao gyud na sya,” said Samuel.
With their advocacy of helping others improve their lives, the Tan couple will most probably grow their business as sweetly as they started.
