Seasoned entrepreneurs Nene Tamayo-Plamio of Nene Prime Foods, Iloisa Romaraog-Diga of Session Groceries, and Mark Del Rosario of Let’s Eat Pare Community shared some of the mistakes they’ve made when they were first starting out during the recent Practical Series webinar of UnionBank GlobalLinker.

We asked them about their experience in running a business and their biggest mistakes to help you learn from them. Here’s what they said:

Failing to plan

At 24, Nene Tamayo had enough capital to start a business. With her excitement, she immediately opened several businesses from different locations. She thought having enough capital would lead her to savour the sweet taste of success; however, she was wrong.

After a few months, she ended up shutting down her businesses after suffering from big losses. “I was not able to plan it well because of my excitement. Failing to plan in business is a big mistake. It was a big learning for me,” she shares.

Also read: 5 problems of new business owners and how to solve them

Because of failing to plan, she lost more than P1 million which hit her the hard way. “It made me slow down. I realized I still have a lot of to learn when it comes to entrepreneurship.”

Nene’s Golden Advice: If it’s your first venture, you should start small and focus. If you have a lot of businesses, your time will be divided.

Failing to understand business process

While browsing her newsfeed on Facebook, Iloisa came across the news about Benguet farmers who were forced to throw away unsold carrots due to oversupply.  She then had the urge to help the community of farmers.

Iloisa stepped in and used her platform, Session Groceries, to sell the unsold vegetables. But it wasn’t as easy as it seemed.

Because of limited knowledge in selling vegetables, Iloisa had to face a lot of challenges from repacking, logistics, to quality assessment.

After receiving positive response, they had to fulfill a lot of orders mostly coming from Metro Manila. They started working with some bus companies to deliver the vegetables, but they would later on discover that there were missing products. 

“We had big losses because we were not able to study the business process,” she reveals.

Learning from mistakes, Iloisa and her team decided to have a break from accepting orders to study the process and understand what works best for the business. Closing the business for about three weeks gave them the opportunity to review their internal process and recalibrate their strategies to serve their customers better.  

Iloisa’s Golden Advice: There will always be challenges. But you should see challenges as your joys because when you solve it, it will surely make you happy and it will help your business go to the next level.

Failing to maximize digital platforms

In the new normal, it’s essential that you are utilizing digital platforms to your business advantage.

“What platforms are you using to market your products?” Mark Del Rosario asks. With limited capacity and other strict protocols, the Founder of Let’s Eat Pare advises entrepreneurs to market their products online especially that most people are active online.

This is true to Nene’s pandemic story. Going online had helped her to continue selling her products amidst the lockdown.

She was able to open her own online store for free with the help of Department of Trade and Industry, and UnionBank GlobalLinker.

Also read: Create your own online store on UnionBank GlobalLinker for free

“I’m so thankful that they helped us. We were able to put up our own online store. It’s now easier for our clients to order online. And even the lockdown, we were able to sell our products,” she exclaims.

These are some of the mistakes of these seasoned entrepreneurs that you can learn from. Mistakes are inevitable in business. But learning from the mistakes of others is the wisest way you can further grow your business.

Watch the full session below:

Image source: Freepik