In 2017, Ms. Hazel Christine Salmasan began making her world colorful in the world of baking. Incorporating vibrant colors such as red, orange, yellow, green, pink, violet and blue to her products, Salmasan has created a world not only colorful but also beautiful and tasteful.
Her passion for baking started when she was an Overseas Filipino Worker (OFW) in Thailand where she started making bread as her pastime. When she got back to the Philippines, she expanded her knowledge by enrolling at the Technology Resource Center in Guadalupe and studied Home Baking Donut Course and Fundamentals of Cake and Cookies Class. She incorporated the new skills and techniques she learned in establishing her own business. Her business was across an elementary school in Pangil, Laguna, so she decided to have a food cart. The food cart consists of cookies for the students. She then expanded her products to different types of bread and eventually progresses to baking cakes as one of her specialties.
With the opening of her store, she wanted to get some advice on how to strengthen her business. She consulted a Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) Negosyo Center Business Counselor and learned more about the business. She was also invited to attend different seminars provided by DTI. By attending these seminars, she was able to learn to make her presence known in the baking industry online.
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, her business was greatly affected, with the closing of classes and limited persons allowed outside. She lost her primary customers which then resulted for her to close her food cart. However, the pandemic did not become a reason for her to stop doing her business and her passion for baking. The knowledge and skills she acquired from the seminars she attended with the help of DTI became her greatest weapon in surviving and overcoming the challenges of the pandemic. She focused on using online marketing strategies through the use of social media and took care of the needs of her customers with customized cakes. She also expanded her business in selling party needs and reselling of baked goods and pastries from other shops.
Salmasan’s future plan for her business is to continue on making customized cakes and selling party needs. She is also considering reselling more baked goodies and pastries from other stores and improving her physical shop. She also shared some lessons she learned from the pandemic through this statement: “Never give up, tuloy parin ang buhay, tuloy parin at least yung skills mo hindi namamatay”. Just like the colors which varies from bright to dark, doing business may be in its darkest situations but what’s more important is to always look at the bright side and never stop moving forward.♦
Date of Release: 3 August 2022