Business Advisor
(Guam SBDC)
Robert & Filipina “Pina”
Rabago are the husband and wife team that own Sari Sari Outlet. Sari Sari in Tagalog basically means
everything, but right now they’ve been focusing on cell phone covers and
accessories. Robert and Pina have been married
for 10 years with two children (girl and boy) ages 9 and 7, respectively. Robert is from Guam and Pina is from the Philippines.
Their business is truly a
family run operation with Pina and Robert handling the day to day operations after
work hours while their oldest daughter, Hazel Aulerio, runs the morning shift. Even the children are there to help out after
school – cleaning up, and putting the products in the packages. Pina and Robert still have a full time job and
consider this venture as their part time job after work and on the weekends.
Pina is the driving force
behind Sari Sari Outlet. She had been planning and dreaming that one day she
would own her own business. She had been working part-time at different retail
positions and gained some knowledge on product placement, promotion and
distribution.
Her last position was working
part time for a small business at the Market Place in Agana Shopping Center that
sold retail electronic accessories. She
liked and understood the various products and felt strongly that she could start
up the same type of business but achieve a better market penetration and establish
herself in this business. Having never owned a small
business before, Pina had enough retail experience, customer service and
product knowledge that she was convinced she could open her own business. Robert was not so convinced that it could work.
Although Pina was confident
that the business could work because of her knowledge of the other shop at that
time, they realized further assistance was needed in developing their financial
projections for the business. Robert knew Fred Granillo, Business Advisor and
asked for assistance in developing their projections. The Business Advisor
helped in clarifying how to develop and determine their total startup costs,
operating expenses and projected sales. Robert noted he wanted to see what the
numbers looked like but after working with the Small Business Development
certainly opened his eyes to the real potential for his business financial
operations.
Pina was now more focused on
establishing the business and she never looked back. She worked with her husband and had many discussions
on planning, opening the business and committing to the daily operations. This
business would be a meaningful part of their livelihood so she was going to see
it through and give it her full attention.
With a husband and wife team,
the stress level was at an all-time high during the initial set up of the
business. But the start-up process was
very interesting and a real business education. For instance, the areas that they
encountered were working with the suppliers to bring in the product and build
their inventory, understanding the shipping process and costing, establishing
the leasehold location including the leasehold improvements, and the business
license process. Other items they had to learn were the setup of the credit card
to enhance their sales and the recordkeeping function that they would handle on
their own.
The business was started with
their personal funds and a personal loan that they took advantage of to pay off
another current loan and the difference used to start the business. They are
conservative people so they wanted to limit the amount of debt used in the
business that in turn to have a low monthly payment. Some of the biggest challenges
were understanding the ordering part process as there are many product items
offered by the supplier and each with a particular code. Any error in the
coding process could produce the wrong product received. Further, trying to
build up their inventory in a short time so they can have a sufficient
opportunity to capture sales during the holiday season. Pina was and is the only one with the retail eye
for items that customers will want to purchase in the shop.
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| Owners of Sari Sari Outlet, Pina and Robert Rabago |
Their opening day and having to
experience the first customer sale was the ultimate experience in establishing
the business. That feeling was the best confirmation of all their efforts had
come to fruition. Plus Pina noted there is a sense of freedom of operating your
own business and she is happy that she took the step.
Pina and Robert’s short term
plan is to refine the product mix within the store to identify the products
most in demand form their target market. Further, they desire to enhance their
marketing budget and increase an advertising strategy to attract more
customers. So sales is the key focus. In the long term they want to eventually
expand in to a second location so as to leverage their knowledge from the first
store and further increase sales and potentially net profits. They want this
business to be a long term sustainable business.
Pina and Robert’s advice for
other small business startups is once you commit don’t look back. Stay positive and get started on that
business license. Everyone will give you
advice, but it’s really on you to make it happen. Plus take advantage of free resources like
the Small Business Development office that offers sound business advice to make
sure you’re on the right track.
