“Actually, I’m more of a like parang pinupush ko po talaga sila eh. Like since kasi nagworkout siya sakin ‘yung pagkakaroon ng sariling business.”
28-year-old artist Jamaica Verceles used to work in an animation company right after her graduation in 2015. After almost three years, she decided to resign from her regular job.
“Actually, ‘yung funny story ‘yung akin I was only like one-month old in my sticker shop when I decided to left my job kasi po, in the first place po kasi practically speaking hindi po talaga ganun ka-taas ‘yung sahod ko. Parang, yes I have a full-time job na meron akong monthly income pero it’s just not enough kasi slowly po naging breadwinner na nga po kami,” she recalled.
After resigning from her daily job, she focused on establishing her stationary shop in 2018.
“Parang nung nagstart po ako, luckily po I was fortunate nagka-sales agad ako kasi literal I was working for it for four months na ina-advertise po online like I joined stationery groups, Facebook groups,” she shared.
From a P20,000 salary from her previous job, Jamaica now earns six figures!
Jamaica’s brave move to resign from work and focus on her small business definitely influenced her two sisters.
“Ako po ‘yung nagpupush actually sa kanila. Since kasi marami lang doubts and all which I get naman syempre naman. I mean di rin naman mabilis bitawan talaga ‘yung day job na may sure salary ka,” she said.
“So, at least actually very fulfilling sakin ‘yung naging since ako ‘yung nauna saming tatlo. ‘Yung nagiging takbuhan para sa mga advice advice na “Paano ba ganyan, Ano gagawin” ‘yung mga simple ano. Syempre ako andito lang naman ako to guide them, like to share my experiences with them. Para, kasi same mindset lang naman kami tatlo actually sa pagdating sa business. So I think naisip ko kung na kaya kong gawin, kaya din nila. For sure,” she added.
Danice, the youngest among the three, also decided to focus on her pastry business after working for almost three years as an HR officer.
“I got interested at baking at the age 14. So I was very young. My sisters were there to support me. Nagbibigay sila ng mga baking materials na kahit na hindi naman mamahalin hindi naman I mean branded, pero they were there to really support ‘yung passion ko in baking. The passion was really there at a very young age. And then I stopped for a while,” Danice said.
After quite a while, Danice tried to bake for her officemates in 2020.
“Something ignited in me na, “Wait lang parang gusto ko mag bake ulit.” As in that was very random, February 13 no’n and I wanted to bake again for my friends nga and my workmates for February 14 event,” she said.
And then the COVID-19 pandemic happened. Danice’s company implemented a work from home set up. She tried juggling her time on her two jobs— as a baker and a full-time employee.
“Hindi ko pa po agad inisip na mag-resign… Kasi natatakot ako and then, common naman po na ganun ‘di ba? Na matatakot po ‘yung tao na mag-resign agad-agad without the assurance na, “Okay may bibili sa’kin.” Kasi at that time po, hindi din naman din po sikat ‘yung mga kung ano po ‘yung bine-bake ko. Wala rin naman pong bumibili pa masyado,” Danice shared.
“My sisters were there to encourage me and then they were there to tell me na it won’t be easy pero andun din ‘yung assurance na it will be fulfilling, it will be fun, makakasama mo kaming enjoyin ‘yung hardships, enjoyin din ‘yung mga success mo. So sabi ko, “Ah okay kung gano’n, ‘yung nangyari sa kanila and gano’n din yung excitement from the time that they [resigned from] their corporate job, baka sa’kin din. I had hope po na okay, this might be something [that] could work for a long time,” she added.
Danice earns around P20,000- 25,000 from her regular work, but now that she has her own business, she now has a six-figure salary!
Unlike her two other sisters, Jamaica’s twin, Janeeva, tried to juggle her work with her cosmetics shop business for a while before deciding to resign from her regular job.
“It was one of the hardest decisions of my life. And literally nung first na naisip ko na okay, “I need to resign na,” it took me more than a year bago ko siya ginawa.Ganun siya naging struggle sa akin. So, pero yes I still did it for the sake na hindi ako half-hearted on both,” Janeeva said.
“Na-inspire ako sa kanila kaya pinush ko na rin. and my mom also talked me out of it na parang sinabi niya sa akin na parang, “Kaya mo ‘yan. Nakita mo naman ang ginawa ng mga kapatid mo, so kaya mo. Kung kinaya nila, kaya mo rin.” Kaya I pushed for it,” Janeeva added.
