The Success Story of Elaine's Highland Products

The Humble Beginning

Entrepreneurship has already entered to the senses of Mrs. Roselyn D. Salazar during her early days as she had started buying and selling dry goods with her mother—one of the pioneering entrepreneurs in Masiag, Bagumbayan, Sultan Kudarat.

In 1996, she undertook financing business for farm inputs with an initial capital of 300,000 from her own equity. This project lasted for twelve years before she engaged herself into mini grocery store in 2008 with an initial capital of P1,000,000. In 2008, she merged the grocery store to her newly opened bakeshop and registered it in the name Elaine’s Bakeshop and General Merchandise.

On April 2016, she started venturing into processing and selling of organic food products with an initial capital of P100,000 that was used to invest for additional cooking equipment and pre-operating expenses such as licenses, packing supplies, and inbound logistics of raw materials. Her supplies of raw materials come from her farm at Masiag, Bagumbayan, Sultan Kudarat.

Issues and Challenges

She now concentrated on her organic products. On the early stage after the opening of her new venture, she began contracting sari-sari stores around the neighborhood. She planned to enter malls, eateries, and restaurants within Isulan and Tacurong. She also saw the need for expansion after a certain period of processing when she already could not cover some orders as she also aimed more and more sales.

Negosyo Center Intervention

Mrs. Salazar has attended a couple of seminars conducted at the Negosyo Center of Isulan. One of which was the Seminar on Costing and Pricing where she learned how to derive the cost of her products and how to use these costs to formulate a mark up enough to cover all costs and expenses. The other seminar was on Packaging and Labeling where after such, she introduced to the market her new labeled products. After the her labels were presented, she penetrated Isulan Central Plaza, Bidz Inasal, Carlitos’ Chicken, and Fitmart Tacurong.

On November of 2016, she reached out to the Negosyo Center of Isulan to make her products be included in the mounting of trade fairs in Kalimudan Festival. Fortunately, with Negosyo Center of Isulan, in partnership with the Local Government Unit of Isulan, the request was approved and it paved way for her products to be displayed at the said event. She earned more than P90,000 in this trade fair.

Aspirations

Elaine’s Bakeshop and General Merchandise will expand production plant in Isulan, Sultan Kudarat. The proposed location of the plant will be inside the idle space of the owner’s house. Mrs. Roselyn D. Salazar started to participate in the “Kapatid Mentor Me” Program by the Department of Trade and Industry last October 2016 up till December 2016 and this program has helped her formulate business improvement plan with the active assistance of the Business Counselors of Isulan assign for her.

She also plans to change the name of her entity into Elaine’s Highland Products in conformance to her newly introduced organic goods such as peanut derivatives, banana chips, turmeric, salabat, and MorTurCo (Moringa-Turmeric-Coco Sugar).

Rest assured that the Business Counselors of the Negosyo Center of Isulan will monitor her success in the coming periods.