BUSINESS BITS

Serving tacos,burritos
by Millet M. Enriquez

Liza Oclan went to Japan as a singer in 1998, but she ended up serving drinks at a club in Yokohama. She lived on a 2, 000 Yen weekly allowance and customer tips, saying as much money as she could to support the family back home. Six years later, Olan and her Japanese husband – she’d met him at a club – are serving Mexican snacks as a franchisee of Tacomio, a quick-service food outlet selling burritos, tacos, quesadillas and pizzas at the kiosk they opened in July at the Festival Supermall in Alabang. They’re set to open another food franchise within the year.

“Hindi ko akalain na magkakaroon ako ng business na ganito,” says Mrs. Iijima, 32, who worked as a supermarket checker in Lipa, Batanchas, for three years before deciding toe ship out. The fifth of eight children, she’d been forced to help the family earn a living when their mother had a stroke and needed expensive medicine. “Tulong-tulong kami pero ‘di rin sapat,” she says, so she decided to apply for an “artist’s book,” took an exam and passed it, secured her travel documents, and was soon off to Japan, where she met 20 other entertainers at the club.

She sent her allowances and tips home and didn’t touch her $600 monthly pay. When her contract expired, she went back to the Philippine and then rejoined her spouse in 2001, but the high cost of living in Japan prompted them to consider settling in the Philippines and starting a business. “Gusto ko talagang mag-franchise pero ‘di ko alam kung sino’ng lalapitan,” she says. Nagtanong kami pero masyadong mahal.”

She then heard about a franchise seminar organized by the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration in March for workers and other Filipino migrants in Tokyo. Though they failed to attend the seminars, Iijima and her husband got help from the Philippine Embassy, and in May signed up for a Tacomio franchise and paid P375,000 for the franchise fee, equipment, training and processing fee.

Within a month, Iijima’s sister-in-law Tess – she now manages the business when Iijima is in Japan – started training in basic accounting, inventory, food preparation, sanitation and hygiene. Come July, Liza’s Tacomio kiosk opened at the second level of Festival Supermall in Alabang, where people lined up for their tacos and burritos as early as 11 a.m. “Nagulat ako. May benta na agad,” says Tess, who runs the kiosk with two assistants. “Magsasara na kami pero meron pa ring bumibili.”

Iijima plans to open another Tacomio kiosk in Lipa, Batangas, Right now she’s setting up a Goto King outlet at the Tutuban Mall in Divisoria, Manila, and hopes to open it before the end of the year. She never got to sing in Japan as planned, but her stint in that country didn’t go to waste: she gained a husband and the capital to put up her own business.