Award Winning Microentrepreneur
Name: Cecilia D. Salarda
Branch: Kabankalan City
Project Group: Project Dungganon (February 1999)
Businesses: Wholesale and Retail of Balut and Salted Eggs, Ambulant Peanuts Carts and Shake Stands
Microcredit program was designed for would-be entrepreneurs among the poor. The credit given to them allows them to create their own business against all competitors, big or small. Each person draws up plans on the kind of system they want, using a methodology that is custom fit for them. The success rate of the system will depend on many factors but more importantly from the passion of the person building the business. From there, he or she is able to create a lifestyle and eventually build a business that will contribute to the environment of their home that is stable and filled with love.
Thirty-seven year old Ma. Cecilia David Salarda reached heights that she never dreamed of in 2007. She is married to Jesus “Judy” Salarda and with their three sons aged 12, 9 and 8 are residing in Kabankalan City.
That year, she rode an airplane and visited Manila for the first time, stayed in a nice hotel, met President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo at the Malacañang Palace, and was awarded the 2007 Micro Entrepreneur of the Year Award (Inspiring Story Category) by Citibank. She achieved all these because she worked hard, made wise business decisions, saved her hard-earned money and lived a Dungganon life.
Back in 1993, when she and her husband started life together, if someone had told her that 15 years later she would have a thriving business and would be congratulated by the President of the Philippines at Malacañang Palace because of her success in business, she probably would not have believed them.
Because of Kabankalan’s charm and promising future, Cecilia and Judy favored to reside there. The familiarity of the place made it possible for them to venture into setting up a balut stand at the corner of Bonifacio and Garcia Streets during the Sinulog Festival in January of 1993. Whether it is a stroke of luck or fortune, the Salardas have never left the city since then.
Getting balut from a Bacolod wholesaler, they earned a meager income from selling Balut eggs. At first they could only afford to buy about two trays which is about 60 eggs, then they gradually increased their volume to 150 and later bought up to 1,000 eggs from their Bacolod supplier.
In 1998, while Cecilia was pregnant with her second son, a neighbor invited her to attend one of the Project Dungganon training seminars. With an initial release of P3,000, she bought two boxes of balut. With the easy payment scheme, she was able to pay off her loan and renew continuously. The amount of her loans was allowed to gradually increase in the succeeding loan cycle because of her good payment record.
With her business growing steadily, life was starting to be comfortable for Cecilia if not for a crisis that would totally shake her faith in herself, in her marriage and in the future of her family. The problem shook her so hard, Cecilia admits it almost knocked her down, and this resulted in the downturn of her business. Things turned so desperate she had to sell some of her appliances and even her clothes just to pay off her loan obligations, but she never abandoned her membership with Project Dungganon.
An almost tragic event opened the eyes of her husband and moved him to resolve their problem and move forward. By the time their third son was born, her husband had reformed and was helping her rehabilitate their flagging balut business. With her business hanging by a thread, Cecilia marshaled all her strength to save her business and with the help of her husband Judy, she bought 5 boxes of Balut out of the P8,000 loan released to her by Project Dungganon. With their faith in God, Cecilia and Judy have found ways to expand and achieve stability once more.
Her experience with near disaster taught her also the virtue of saving money which she did daily, setting aside some amount in a jar. When she opened the jar three years later, to her surprise, it had already amounted to twenty thousand pesos to purchase an incubator for her balut business and the rest of the money was used to buy pigs for breeding. From the income generated by her piggery, she bought another incubator for her balut business.
In her 7th cycle, with a loam amount of twelve thousand, she chose to discontinue her pig raising and invested most of the money in her balut business and started selling salted eggs, salted peanuts and coated peanuts. In her 9th cycle loan of nineteen thousand, Cecilia invested all the money to startup her own shake business.