By:
Ltelatk Fritz
Director/Business
Advisor
(Palau
SBDC)
Vameline Singeo and her mom, Laverne
Merep, came up with an idea to upgrade the fashion options in Palau. In August
of 2013, Miliani’s was opened on main street Koror to provide name brand
apparel and accessories focused primarily for women. For the past three years, Miliani’s has been
doing really well with clothing and accessories retail, especially on special
seasons and occasions.
In 2015, the mother & daughter
entrepreneurs realized an emerging niche created by the boom in Palau’s tourism
industry. The lodging and accommodations grew exponentially with the influx of
tourists visiting Palau. They wanted to
introduce a new line of products to its portfolio—hotel amenities. For this new business venture, Miliani’s
turned to Palau SBDC to help with its expansion in projecting revenue streams
for their new product line and its refinancing loan package.
Over a period of six months, Palau
SBDC worked with Ms. Merep providing financial training in building Miliani’s
historical financial statements for its current line of products, as well as
projections for its new line of hotel amenities. QuickBooks was used in the financial training
for the client and used in reproducing the historical financial statements,
because the client had used QuickBooks during their start-up year.
Miliani’s was able to get the loan
from National Development Bank of Palau to expand its product mix to include
hotel amenities, with the assistance provided by Palau SBDC. The products are now available for purchase
at Miliani’s retail shop located along Koror’s main road in Idid hamlet. Tourists and locals can purchase the products
in-store or make arrangements for delivery of bulk purchases. Miliani’s are open daily from 10 am to 10 pm.
For more information on how the Palau
SBDC can assist you, call 680-587-6004 or visit www.pacificsbdc.com.
