When I was studying in De La Salle Lipa, I was selling our cheeserolls during break time to my classmates. At first I had to peddle my pastry to the class and to some of the teachers. I brought a box of 10 with me. Then, he next thing I knew, I was getting orders from other classes from other courses. Some of these people, I don't even know. They just know me as Mr. Cheese Roll. I would sell at least 50 pieces a day for 5 pesos. I got it from the bakery for 3 pesos. That leaves me with a margin of 2 pesos. Back then I'd make at least 100 pesos a day; enough to fund my weekly allowance. After several months, I had a savings of P10,000 which I used to buy my very first cell phone. I was happy about it and wanted to sell even more. I talked to the school canteen and asked if they would give Panaderia Pantoja a spot. We were given a place where we sold our goods. It now sells an average of P5,000 a day. The rest, as they say, is history.
Courage
I started selling when I was in college. I made money. I enjoyed it. I think one of the factors of being an entrepreneur is courage. Courage to sell. The goal of every profit organization is to be able to sell. Everybody sells something. It is the very reason for the business. Courage to talk to people is also a factor. Selling requires talking and interacting with customers. If you don't talk to them, they will not go up to you and buy your product. You need to tell them what your product is, its benefits, and the price. Courage to be rejected is another factor. Let's face it. Everyone who tried to sell something got rejected in some way or another. I also had my fair share of rejections, i.e., when I asked people if they wanted to buy cheese rolls, they said no. Some of them would be nice enough to say that they already bought their snack from the canteen. I would also receive comments on my products (too dry, too messy, to difficult to open, not enough cheese). I had to literally swallow my pride and say that I will do something about it, which I did. I improved the recipe, and the frosting. Actually, these comments are the drivers of research and development. Customers say what they want in your product because they want to see improvements. They are implicitly saying that if you improve your products, we will buy them from you.
Resilience
I've come to believe that all my past failure and frustration were actually laying the foundation for the understandings that have created the new level of living I now enjoy.
Another trait of an entrepreneur is resilience. Resilience is picking yourself up and trying again when you fall. It is a result of courage.
It does not matter how many times you get knocked down, but how many times you get up
– Vince Lombardi
Creativity and Imagination
Another important trait of an entrepreneur is being creative and imaginative. Thinking outside the box. It is important that entrepreneurs constantly think of new ways to improve their product or in my case, the way of doing business. Of course, still following the different precepts of business' functional areas such as finance, marketing, production, human resource. It is the ability of a person to create something out of nothing that sets him apart from the rest of the flock.
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