Agriculture Business Week

The man behind the famous Tahong Chips, ATBP-talks about his humble beginnings and how business mistakes helped him survive the tough market competition.

The tahong is one of the native delicacies of the Philippines. Filipinos love to eat it-either served baked or as tahong soup. Who  would have thought that someone could make a business out of such a unique and often overlooked shellfish? There are now many goods made from tahong and other aquamarine products that are being made popular in the Philippine market. Among those products, is the Tahong Chips. Let’s take a glimpse on how this distinct product turned around the life of one of the rising micro-entrepreneurs today.

Thirty-eight year old Ricnel Evangelista, president of RPE Organic Plus Enterprise and the name behind Tahong Chips Atbp., wasn’t always an entrepreneur. He started as an employee in an automotive services company. “After I’ve been employed for almost 12 years in the automotive services I decided to resign because it seems like nothing was happening to my life. As time passed by, I was always short financially. So, I resigned”, Evangelista said in Filipino.

During those times he and his wife scouted at trade fairs for the right business to put up. Evangelista said that he felt that the food business will be a hit, so they first thought of what seemed to be the easier and more affordable way to start it – food carts or so they thought. “We saw the foodcarts, we thought that would be great because it seemed like there is minimal initial investment required. Turned out it was also expensive because of the franchise fee and other fees” So they disregarded the thought of franchising a food cart. “We thought it was too expensive)”, Evangelista said.

Because they have little capital to begin with, they decided to start small. They ventured into a networking business (which sell juices), not with the goal of having more downlines but to avail of discounts for the juices they sell. “Juices kase madali i-sell kasi normally ginagamit ng tao (It’s easy to sell juices because it’s a staple in a person’s lifestyle)”, Evangelista said. He also said that he and his wife joined the Eco Trade Fair Bazaar in East Avenue wherein he also incorporated the coconut oil his brother-in-law was developing to add something more to the products they were selling.

“My wife and I were really hands-on”, Evangelista said. But then he felt the difficulties of owning and managing a business. This made him think of stopping the whole business venture. “Life in business was difficult. I think I want to stop. But no, it’s just a trial”.

Just as he was about to give up, he was given a ray of hope. Evangelista met a tahong chips maker from whom he got distributorship here in Manila. And that’s where their business started. They joined a lot of bazaars. Evangelista said that though they don’t own the product, their aggressiveness won over the market aside from the fact that tahong chips was already in the market for two years around that time.

Having no formal training in management of business, the RPE Organic Plus Enterprise’s success was based on trial and error. They learned everything through experience. ‘ What happened to our business was it was filled with trial and error. Whatever it was that we saw as unique, we get it,” Evangelista said. And this is where their concept of selling aquamarine products was developed.

In 2003, Evangelista thought of putting up their Tahong Chips Atbp business inside the mall. Since the prices were overwhelming, he was about to shelve that idea. But then he saw a mall wherein the rent for a stall is only Php600 a day. But since none of their target market was in the area, their initial business salvo failed. “Our fault is that we did not hit the right market. Our target should be class A and class B but we went to a mall catering to the C and D market. So we failed. Even with Php600 pesos a day, rental we were not able to recoup our investments. We still failed”, he said.

With the little money he had left, he scouted for exhibitors until such time he found quite a few who were willing to consign or at least give them terms. “At least we were able to get more products”, Evangelista said. During the middle of 2003 they opened their first foodcart in Market!Market! carrying Aquamarine products under the brand name ‘Tahong Chips ATBP”. After a year, they were given an opportunity to set up a stall in Greenhills. They were a bit hesitant at first. “With a dimension of 1 sqm, me and my wife thought if it was feasible.

And then we said, why not give it a try? You’ll never know. That what where it started. The market was nice. That was the point where our business grew, next year, we’re turning four,” he said.

After that, Evangelista and his wife joined the SM weekend bazaars. Tahong Chips ATBP now has branches in Market! Market! and Greenhills. They also joined the weekend bazaars at the following SM Branches: Makati, Mall of Asia, Megamall and Pasig – wherein their gross income per month equals to approximately Php250,000.

Evangelista has learned a lot in his almost five years of experience in having his own business. “.We learned a lot from our mistakes. We really gained a lot of experiences. And one lesson we really learned the hard way is to identify the market. Identify your customers. In product packaging for example, you don’t just follow what pleases you. You have to know what your customers want. That’s why we came up with the small ones because you know, we have this retail mentality or the tingi-tingi system. We haven’t stopped at looking for other products. In fact, we have already tapped the crispy shrimps of Kalibo. That’s our bestselling product now.

The hardworking entrepreneur has the following tips for aspiring entrepreneurs: Choose a business that you are passionate about. Find and study your target market. After that, you have to find where you will get your product. For example, – his resources include Samar, Iloilo, Kalibo, General Santos and Cavite. He also advises people to choose a strategic location. Lastly, Evangelista says you must find capital for your business. Evangelista started with a capital of only PhP3,500- Php5,000. He also gives credit to his wife, who gave him moral and financial support in the ups and downs of his business.

When asked how he overcame all the obstacles and difficulties he experienced as an entrepreneur, the amiable Evangelista has one answer – patience. He said that being patient helped him a lot in the success of his business. Also, through time he was able to build trust among his suppliers. This is probably the reason why even with lack of money for advertising, his products under the Tahong Chips, ATBP brand name are getting more and more popular. This just proves that even an average person – as long as he or she has the guts and determination-can be a successful entrepreneur.