Business Opportunities Weblog

June 29, 2008 by Nicholas | 1 Comment

GlobalNation:

WHEN SHE WAS STILL IN elementary school, Evelyn Wagstaff pushed a small kariton from Divisoria, filled with fruits and vegetables for sale. This Tondo native still sells vegetables today but as a successful entrepreneur, with business and properties in Hong Kong, London and Manila. Besides looking after her Little Divisoria sari-sari store in the middle of Hong Kong’s business district, Wagstaff also owns a door-to-door delivery service and a remittance shop.

Growing up in Jose Abad Santos, Tondo, she was already working at age seven in a factory owned by a relative. Her parents were separated; her mother had cancer so she and her siblings had to work. “My employer bought old houses and then fully renovated these before selling them. So after two years in Hong Kong, I was sent to New Zealand to oversee the renovation of four mansions he had just bought,” she says. “New Zealand is beautiful but I eventually got lonely there. I told my employer that I wanted to join my boyfriend in London,” she added. She had met her future husband, John WAgstaff, in Hong Kong and they planned to eventually settle in England. Hearing this, her employer told her she could also oversee the renovation of a flat in London.

Wagstaff started making friends with the Filipino domestics in Hong Kong, meeting with them in parks and initially selling them lumpia (spring rolls). “Ang sabi nila ‘Ang sosyal-sosyal mo naman.’ (They said, you’re so classy and stylish).’ I was selling lumpia carried in a Harrod’s bag and I was wearing Doc Martens shoes. “So I went rugged. They also told me to sell them cooked food and so I did. From then on, my business just boomed,” she added. That was 1990. She was making four deliveries every day to Filipinas in the central business district.

Image via workmancycles

In Entrepreneurs, Success | 1 Comment