In photo: Ms. Rubyan Flores, owner of V-Anne Flores Sari-Sari Store

Being a wife of an overseas Filipino worker who wants to help her husband in providing the needs of their family, Ate V-Anne grabbed the opportunity in 2012 to open up a business offered by the Local Government Unit of Cavinti — the Botika ng Barangay project. The said project has helped her to do business at home while raising her first child alone away from her husband.

The Botika ng Barangay continuously became popular and has catered to an increased number of clients due to its presence in Brgy. Mahipon, Cavinti, Laguna. It was convenient and necessary in their town, wherein there were no nearby drug and grocery stores and there were seldom public utility jeepneys or public utility vehicles passing by at that time. This paved way for the Botika ng Barangay to continuously grow that allowed Ate V-Anne to expand her business into a sari-sari store in 2018.

Ms. Rubyan Flores or Ate V-Anne as what people call her, owner of V-ANNE FLORES SARI-SARI STORE, managed to fulfill her duties being a housewife of an overseas Filipino worker and a mother of two all at the same time. Her business was smooth sailing but it was still not enough to sustain their needs. The business started to slow down when the pandemic struck where restrictions have caused her to limit the operation of the business. This was also on top of her worry to protect her two children with pneumonia from the Covid-19 virus.

Last October 2020, Ate V-Anne was one of the chosen beneficiaries of the Pangkabuhayan sa Pagbangon at Ginhawa Program of the Department of Trade and Industry – Laguna Provincial Office (DTI Laguna). Through this program, she received livelihood kits including grocery items for her sari-sari store. In addition to this, the Department through Negosyo Center Cavinti assisted Ate V-Anne in her Barangay Micro Business Enterprise (BMBE) Application. She also attended webinars tackling business entrepreneurship hosted by the Negosyo Center Cavinti.

Aside from her sari-sari store business, she expanded and added payment services in their barangay that offer gCash, Pay Maya, and EC-Pay payment transactions. She then registered her business in the Bureau of Internal Revenue after DTI Laguna emphasized to her the benefits of having a BMBE Certificate. Later on, her sari-sari store business has been approved as the supplier of grocery items and other supplies of their Barangay office.

With these number of assistances, Ate V-Anne is grateful to DTI Laguna and Negosyo Center Cavinti specially during the pandemic which allowed her business to prosper and expand. The support and intervention from DTI Laguna have helped her to add more variety of items in her sari-sari store.

Ate V-Anne said, “great things in business are never done by one person. The Lord will use people to help you succeed in your business if you ask and have faith on Him. I thank God for using DTI as an answer to my prayer to maintain the momentum of my growing business.” ♦

Date of Release: 18 May 2023

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