BUSINESS BITS

Tired of running
NANCY LOCSIN

Nida Jatulan, along with her husband Arthur, used to be a vendor of ready-to-wear clothes (RTW) in public markets, bazaars, and along highways. But she eventually got tired of business. As she recalls, “Minsan pinapayagan kaming magtinda, minsan hindi. Malaking abala pag hinahabol kami ng pulis (Sometimes they would allow us to sell, sometimes they wouldn’t. it was such a big bother to be chased by police.)” Thus in 2000, Jatulan and her husband decided to shift to a new enterprise.

Her husband’s cousin happened to be a manufacturer of misua (a thin variety of noodles) in Cavite. With this in mind and banking on her market vending experience, Jatulan decided to manufacture misua herself and supply market vendors with the product.

She used her profits from selling RTWs to buy containers and bilao (flat native baskets) as well as sotanghon from Divisoria, distributing the latter to various wet markets to augment her family’s savings. Meanwhile, Arthur was learning the ropes of misua-making from his cousin. In two months, whey were able to save P4,000. They then used it to buy six sacks of flour to start their misua-making venture.

The misua-making process turned out to be more complex than the Jatulans anticipated. Her husband’s first attempt to make the product was unsuccessful, resulting in loss of one sack of flour. For this season, they decided to hire an experienced worker to do the job.

This way, they were able to process two sacks of flour per day into misua, and they started to distribute finished products to the Pasig City wet market. After two weeks, they expanded their clientele by also distributing to wet markets in Marikina City, Antipolo City and Balintawak in Caloocan City. They were able to sell all of their initial produce, with some of the demand for their products still unmet. They made a net profit of P3,000 from this first effort.

Heartened by this outcome, Jatulan wanted to produce more of the product but did not have enough capital. She therefore had to make do by just rolling her capital. She managed to grow the business little by little, and over the years, it gave her family enough income to cover expenses, including the schooling of the couple’s two children (they are now both in college).

In 2004, Jatulan became one of the first four members of the CCT Credit Cooperative in her place in Antipolo. Her membership enabled her to obtain loans that she used to put more capital into her misua business and to make necessary improvements in her house. As of today, she has already completed five loan cycles. Her first loan availment was P4,000, but her most recent one was P100,000.

As a measure of the success of her misua business, her house that used to be made of plywood is now made of concrete, and she has been able to furnish it with a refrigerator and a TV set. And the benefits have not only been material but spiritual as well. She says that as a result of attending the Bible studies conducted by CCT, she has gained a brighter perspective in dealing with her business and with her family concerns.

Currently, Jatulan employs four workers, who can process a total of eight sacks of flour into misua per day. She pays them by the number of sacks they are able to process and gives them free lodging in addition. After the workers made the misua, the Jatulan couple themselves handle its drying and packaging as well as the deliveries.

The ingredients needed to make misua are flour, starch, salt, and water. A sack of flour weighing 25 kilos yields of misua when processed. Back in 2000, when one sack of flour cost P340 and misua sold at P27 per kilo wholesale, a net profit of P150-P180 could be realized from each sack of flour. Today, however, with the prices of flour soared to P665 kilo and with misua is now selling at P40 per kilo, this net profit has gone down to P50 per sack.

Many small-scale misua makers, in fact, have folded up as a result of the higher prices of flour. But not Jatulan, thanks to her good customer relations, proper management style. “You have to keep an eye on the process to ensure that employees are working efficiently and no raw material is waster,” she says. “With our lower profit margins nowadays, every bit of wasted flour reduces our earnings.”

In the future, Jatulan hopes to put aside enough capital to increase her misua production and be able to manufacture “pancit canton” noodles as well.