By Maneth Chan del Rosario MoneySense Magazine May 5 2008

WHEN my husband Jimmy and I were still going steady, we were already into so many businesses. I often thought of us as business partners rather than just sweethearts. By the time we got married in a civil ceremony in 1997 and a church ceremony in 1999, we had already delved into selling pagers, clothing, and appliances.

I remember the obstacles that we went through – borrowing money from my mother to use as capital, or even walking around Baclaran at 2 a.m. to find suppliers. There were a lot of Korean, ready-to-wear clothing businesses in Baclaran that supply major boutiques. We were told that branded clothing stores simply change the tags, and that was good enough for us. We bought items from them and sold them at our shop in a little mall in Taguig.

When the cell phone industry started to take off, we decided to go into cell phone repairs and accessories. We partnered with a businessman who sold cell phone units at his Cellway and Phonestyle shops, and by 2005, we had six branches fully operational. We also had a beautiful little girl, Jan Ysabel, to make our family complete.

Then I got the worst possible news that a wife could ever receive: a six-seater Cessna plane carrying a skydiving expedition crashed in Tanauan, Batangas. One of the four charred bodies they found belonged to my husband, Jimmy del Rosario II. Pilot error, I was told. On May 8, 2005, I felt that the world closed in all around me. I could not bring myself to go to the morgue to identify his body.

During the first year, I cried everyday. But I also knew that I had a little girl and her future to look after. It was a good thing that we had gotten her an educational plan. One of the provisions of her plan with Philam was a waiver of all the fees if the payor dies. My daughter automatically received the full coverage of the plan. I also received something from Philam, as well as an amount from the insurance coverage of the aircraft company.

But I found out that I still had a lot to learn. Jimmy had very good social skills. He was very outgoing, while I was the quiet type who prefers to stay in the background. He was the salesman and I was the accountant. That was our teamwork. He handled employees who were getting out of line. The biggest part of our income came from Jimmy’s bulk sales of accessories, because he was the one who had a lot of contacts.

I took on all the challenges. I started talking more to people, especially our employees. I let them feel that they can come to me with their problems and that they were part of my family. This is an integral part of our business, because building a relationship with them helps us to trust each other.

We carry the latest accessories, such as LCDs and housings for the newest models. My technicians are constantly surfing the Internet to find out what is new. In this business, you always have to know what is popular or what the customers will ask for next. Filipinos, by nature, want their gadgets to be flashy and up to date. Our peak months are the “-ber” months when people have more money to spend.

Since my shops are scattered in malls across Metro Manila and outlying provinces such as Bulacan and Cavite, I run things from a central office, and a runner goes to the shops for me. I am very hands on; I work late if I have to, monitoring inventories and checking if everything is in order. I feel that I have to set an example for my employees. I cannot show them that I feel lazy or they will start to get lazy themselves. Running a business full-time can get stressful sometimes – to the point that my employees tease me and request that I comb my hair once in a while.

There are times that I want to pinch myself. I cannot believe that I was able to handle this male-dominated business by myself. I cannot believe that slowly but surely, there has been growth and progress in my life.

Before Jimmy died, we bought a Honda CRV through financing. Today, that car, which I had to pay P20,000 a month for, is I already fully paid. I also have a few more payments on a lot that I have invested in. An inventory of all our high-tech equipment, they are already will amount to a sizeable amount.

I have heard of so many shops with the same line of business that have folded up. One businessman bought a condo unit and three cars. His business failed and he had to give up everything. When I hear of sad stories like these, I am challenged to work even harder to keep my business healthy.

What is the disadvantage of being a widow with her own business? I get attention from the wrong kind of people. Some are eager to take advantage of my presumed weakness.

I did the same for my employees: I got them insurance plans from Cocolife, and made sure that they were covered by Philhealth. It is important to be prepared for anything that comes along.

The next thing for me is to branch out into other kinds of businesses. I am meeting with some of my former classmates who are interested in putting up a cell phone shop with me. I am also looking into the food business, such as a café. I have long forgotten any plans of leaving the country to work abroad. For me, being an entrepreneur is very fulfilling, and to make a business successful simply needs hard work and hands-on dedication.

(This article is from MoneySense, the country’s first personal finance magazine)