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“It was a blessing in disguise.”
This was how Gemma Amodia, a 43-year-old mother of four, described being terminated from her 13-year-old job at a Mactan export processing zone firm.
“If I had not lost my job at Fairchild (Semiconductors), I would not have this.”
Amodia operates a Aqua Ghem water refilling station at M.H. Del Pilar Street, barangay Gun-ob, Lapu-Lapu City.
The outlet earns at least P2,000 daily. A hired helper and her husband, Reynaldo, deliver 5-gallon containers of mineral water to clients as far as Mandaue City and Marigondon in Lapu-Lapu City.
Although her business is doing well it was not always that way.
Amodia remembered feeling helpless after losing her Mepz job and how prayer, perseverance and trust in God brought her to where she is now.
She was terminated in March 2000 as a production operator and worried about her family's future.
“I was out of a job and my husband Reynaldo and I have four children to raise. I cried almost daily for three months,” said Amodia.
She was terminated six months after giving birth to their youngest child by a Ceasarian section.
“We had a lot of debts. These took a big chunk from my termination pay,” she said.
Reynaldo worked as a security guard and drove the family-owned tricycle during his free time.
To make ends meet, they transferred their two children from private school to a public school.
Amodia worried that the money would run out it they didn’t invest in a business that would earn income.
Amid all these problems, she said she never stopped praying.
In June that year, her prayers were answered. A friend brought her to a kumare in barangay Pusok, Lapu-Lapu City, where she was introduced to direct selling.
“I distributed Natasha (ready to wear) products then,” said Amodia. “I invested P40,000 and hired dealers, who would sell the products to their clients at a term.”
The start of her business was timely because her husband's contract with the security agency ended in November that year.
Out of a job, Reynaldo focused on driving a tricycle to augment the family income.
In 2002, her Natasha business boomed until 2005.
She said the business slowed down in 2005 because there were too many dealers and distributors.
“I didn't wait for the business to fail. I decided to carry other products – Avon and Triumph products,” she said.
Her earnings improved, but these were still not enough with two of her children now in college.
In September 2005, she was invited to a franchising seminar on how to put up a water refilling station in the Aquasoft office in Mandaue City.
She attended out of curiousity. She was interested, but was aghast at the P600,000 franchising cost of putting up a station.
“I was interested but it was so expensive,” she said in Cebuano.
“And so I prayed to God to give me a sign if this would be the business that I should go into.”
A few days later, she met a water refilling station dealer of Revi Refilling Station in barangay Guizo, Mandaue City.
The dealer, Carding, advised her to start with just the finishing process of the business. Carding offered to deliver the polished water (water that had gone through reverse osmosis). She would only buy the equipment for the final filtering, bottling, and sealing.
He advised her to learn the ropes first then decide whether this would be a business worth getting into.
She first invested more than P80,000 of her own money and borrowed more than P100,000 from relatives for the project.
She paid off the loan in about six months.
In November 2005, Aqua Ghem Refilling Station was born.
She said it was difficult at first.
“Hatod hatod sa mga paryente lang sa og tubig ang sugod (Our clients were our relatives at first),” said Amodia.
“We could only sell P200 worth of 5-gallon bottles of water a day when we started. Now we earn more than P2,000 a day,” she said.
“We also have more clients now. I even have a client in Cebu and another in Marigondon.”
Family members help in the business. Her husband and son help refill and deliver water to clients.
With the business, Amodia was able to send her children to school. Three are enrolled in college while the youngest is in high school.
“Salig lang gyod sa Ginoo og trabaho og maayo (Trust in God and work hard),” Amodia said when asked about the secret of her success. /Dennis Singson
