Bejeweled: Profitable and socially-responsible

BUSINESS BITS
Mari-An C. Santos

These fresh grads show that making profits and helping the poor can go hand-in-hand

In July 2008, then Ateneo de Manila students Lalaine Jertrude Hablado, Clarisse Anne Paras, Charlyn Rochel Yu, Anina Favis and Patricia Flores thought of selling embellished slippers, sandals, and wedges to their female classmates, as a requirement for their Social Entrepreneurship class.

With P50,000 in borrowed funds from their parents, the schoolmates sourced footwear from makers in Marikina City, the country’s so-called shoe capital, and beads and other embellishments from suppliers in Divisoria, Manila.

They turned to the women of the Gawad Kalinga Molave community in Payatas, an improverished area in Quezon City, to provide labor. Production and selling of the footwear, which they aptly called Bejeweled, started in mid- October the same year.

Gawad Kalinga (GK) is a community development organization that aims to provide decent housing and promote livelihood for the urban poor. The organization has built many so-called GK villages, with the help of corporate donations, among them GK Molave.

For his efforts, GK founder Tony Meloto has received different awards and citations, including the 2006 Ramon Magsaysay Award for Community Leadership.

As for the people behind Bejeweled, Hablado says: “We provide training and skills development to the women of GK Molave, while the business venture als serves as the livelihood program of the community,” says Lalaine. “Bejeweled is modeled in a way that the community earns a profit as well as shares in the business.”

After graduation, Hablado, Paras and Yu decided to develop the business into a sustainable social business enterprise, now called Beautiful Soles Enterprise. Through awards from business competitions and grants from institutions, they were able to increase capitalization, almost half of which they were able to recoup in July 2009.

"We expect to gain 100-percent return by the end of the year, as we reestablish our production and marketing strategies," says Hablado. "It's a way of trying to make a difference. Throughout the implementation of the project, we found ourselves happy with what we had done, and saw the business' growth potential. We were also inspired by stories coming from other successful social business enterprises."

From an initial five, now 16 mothers at GK Molave work for Bejeweled, but the community of 194 families also benefits from the projects conducted. They have formed strategic partnerships with different institutions such as the Ateneo School of Government and and local designers such as Amina Aranaz and Rosanna Ocampo. “This strategy draws more people to the cause behind the product, increases sales, well as build credibility for the whole business,” says Hablado.

Bejeweled joins monthly bazaars and sells online through their Multiply site. They have also consigned with an online shop, Code-Limited, which sells internationally, and a small boutique, Popstyle, located at Shoppes@Victoria on Timog Avenue in Quezon City.

They also sell at a beach resort in Bataan. Bejeweled has loyal customers from as far as Baguio, Laguna, and Davao. They have opened the business to bulk orders from interested individuals, companies, and hotels.

For the future, Beautiful Soles intends to involve all the mothers in GK Molave, and eventually, other urban poor communities in Manila. “Our efforts are not just geared towards marketing the products, but also providing training and opportunities for the mothers to play active key roles in the business,” says Hablado.