Mr. Paulo Mendoza, a former bank appraiser, entered the colorful and tasteful world of baking before the COVID-19 Pandemic. He got the idea for his current business from his wife’s hair salon since its customers often look for something to eat while getting their hair done, especially hair services that take a long time to process. With the help of his niece, Chef Shai, who is a Pastry Chef, they thought of making bread that they could sell. They started by making pandesal and basic bread.
Despite the pandemic, they continued to develop and improve their products, such as making other kinds of bread that they could offer. Their bread is freshly baked with all-natural ingredients, which sets them apart from most bakeshops. Afterwards, the time came and their products quickly became popular through word of mouth until Paulo thought of setting up his bakeshop in Pangil, Laguna. They also started having clients that they supply with pizza dough and burger buns.
Like other businesses, Paulo struggled to promote and handle the business operations all by himself because, at that time, he had no further assistant and his niece, Chef Shai, who taught him all the recipes and baking skills, was also busy due to her work. He had difficulty taking orders and delivering to customers simultaneously until he could not accommodate all the orders, often resulting in late deliveries. However, the problems did not let his spirit down, and he thought of ways to handle every aspect of business operation. Then he thought of asking his family for help.
Apart from the help he got from his family, Paulo later became a beneficiary of one of the programs of the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI), which is the Pangkabuhayan sa Pagbangon at Ginhawa (PPG) that aims to help microenterprises recover from disasters and pandemics. Besides being a beneficiary of the PPG Program, he registered his business name, based on his niece’s name as a sign of gratitude for helping him with business ideas and baking secrets. He also had the opportunity to attend webinars hosted by DTI Negosyo Centers, which greatly helped him to increase his knowledge and skills. One of the trainings he attended was the Webinar on Social Media Marketing from which he is determined to apply the learning he obtained to his business to boost its social media presence.
Paulo expressed his gratitude to DTI because the agency continues to provide any kind of extension services that not only could help him but also could help his bakeshop. This is on top of providing him with livelihood assistance (from the PPG Program) that greatly helped him sustain his business production and cater to more clients’ orders. His plan for his business is to continue to provide good quality bread and pastries and to build his café from where he can sell both bread and drinks to satisfy the customers fully. He is also eyeing to add more products, such as gelato.
“Dapat matiyaga ka talaga at committed sa negosyo. Importante din na masaya, nag-eenjoy at mahal mo ang ginagawa mo dahil ito ang magiging bread and butter mo. Kasama mo ang mga iyan sa pag-unlad” – Mr. Paulo Mendoza. ♦
Date of Release: 14 April 2023
