In our journey in life, we aim for a stable and rewarding job. A career that will define who we are, what we want our generation and our children will remember of us. We study, we search, we travel, we’ve learned and we nurture our God given talent(s). Later on, we seek for what really give us the outmost happiness, one that even without that huge financial rewards, we enjoy doing and we assume that doing so fulfill our hunger for success.
In my own experiences, I’ve been through all hardship and trying times any one could imagine. I’ve been trying all the businesses beyond my limits and beyond the opportunities in front of me. Technology related, cellphone, computer, and electronics. I love arts and have been an artist since teenager, studied advertising as well and applying it so many times before the computer age dominates people’s mind and daily activities. In what ever endeavors I’ve been through, I see to it that I reached a certain point that, I’ve gave my best and create a name out of it.
I tried network marketing (simply a top earner and investor performer lang naman), online selling, web developing, gambling business, restaurateur (marunong akong mag-ihaw ng isaw, maghugas ng plato, etc.) and selling imaginary stories of medicinal benefits of some reptiles (remembering those days when all I see in the eyes of people were peso signs). I love speaking to people, I’m inspired and thrilled of how I can help them in my own influence and experiences. Sharing thoughts that will start the burning desire for them to discover basic knowledge base on our daily routine but to them as new opportunity to earn and later on perfecting the art of bread making.
Nonetheless, I woke up one morning that my life partner started to bake and want to make a business out of it. It started with a simple idea, but the problems are, how to start it the correct way and right away. Youtube videos, baking books, baking television programs and some by-words sharings on how to make and bake breads are only inputs but can’t be generalized to be very useful for us. “Wow! hindi ko pinangarap maging panadero at hindi ko linya yan!” I’ll give at least a year of commitment, after that I’m done! But that only started our humble business, Naks! akalain mo 3 years na pala kami, at abah! ngayon nagtuturo pa?
In few months time, to this date we already taught baking lessons/ workshop to aspiring bakers, but mostly like us were all business-minded people. Last July 2015, I recall saying to My master baker, My boss, My mentor and My inspiration sino pa ba? Eh’di si… “My (Myra) gusto kong magturo, magturo mag-bake! Naku! baka pumalpak ka, baka mapahiya ka pag hindi umalsa!” she replied. Ako bahala kayang-kaya ko yan! Wala kang gagawin, kundi alalayan mo lang ako! the exact words I said to her as far as I remember. Now, with almost 50+ (and counting pa yan ha!) individuals, professionals, doctor, engineers, barber, teachers, housewife, government employees, OFWs, student taking up master degree, foreigners and even fellow bakers (na mas magagaling pa sa amin). From different status in life, from different places and with different outlook on bread baking. My frequent question is, why do you want to enter bakery business? Bakit n’yo gustong pumasok sa pagawa at pagbebenta ng tinapay? The answers varies from a simple, just an added skills, want to put up a small pandesalan bakery, want to be hired in a specific job overseas and so on. It’s quite amusing to know their inner purposes, despite their previous backgrounds, they want an old-fashioned business? Who would ever think of it, a zero-knowledge guy, who even for the first time in their life never touch a dough or bake, then later on they informed us that branches of bakeries opened in different places, by who? Well by our former students of course!
It’s not as simple as ABC, several factors are needed and should be considered before indulging into this kind of business. It is not for the lazy (tamad) people out there, not even for the soft-hearted (mapagbigay) and not for the helter-skelter (padalos dalos). Compare to other business, it requires so much patience, perfection, consistency and continuing research (pag-aaral).
One of our student told me, and I quote, “everyone can learn to bake bread, but it’s a rare talent to teach on how to bake bread with clarity and accuracy!” At least, I can proudly say, that in this business, we opened the eyes of newbies to be experts!
Well, its a matter of choice, and choosing the right path lead us to fulfillment of our dreams. We deserve to be happy, and all hardship are simple, time fly so fast and in what ever we do, put God first.