Marilyn M. Centeno has been a TSPI client since 2007. She has 4 children. Her husband and children are also partners in her businesses. At the age of 59, she is still very open to new income opportunities, including those related to technology and digitalization.
Nanay Marilyn joined TSPI with an initial P5,000.00 loan which she used to further operate her direct selling business offering products from Avon, Natasha, and Personal Collection, and alongside that, she also ventured into buying and selling a variety of items. She then, had agents reselling her on-hand products, limited only to her close friends and anyone willing to sell.
In 2016, Nanay Marilyn became a TSPI Client-Agent, offering TAAS collection service to their centers.TSPI Agent Account Sysytem (TAAS) is an in-house program developed by TSPI’s Information Technology (IT) Department. This system will record and monitor the agent’s transactions such as credit in and client’s payments. Also in this period, she started business services through GCash transactions such as cash in and cash out, Telco loading and bills payment.
She also posts homecare products on her social media accounts, which helps her promote her products easily and sell them faster since they are online. Nanay Marilyn also posts home-made, customized cakes by her children, pre-ordered for any occasion.
Businesswoman with a Good Heart Overcoming Challenges
In her direct selling and buy and sell businesses, Nanay Marilyn accepted agents to resell around their community. With the intention of helping others have an extra means of earning money, she entrusted her on-hand products to these agents. Unfortunately, days passed by, the agents did not return the profit and some did not return unsold items. What’s even worse is that the agents were her close friends. It was such a sad moment for Nanay Marilyn to lose income and lose friends. From then on, she limited her direct business and even transactions with resellers.
In years past, in the surge of pandemics, as restrictions heightened, TAAS collections decreased—this made Nanay Marilyn seize the opportunity to re-invest in her GCash business. This lessened the effort of going to actual payment centers and paying for transportation since people had bills and other money-related transactions.
After a year, when restraints were slowly lifted and everything was turning back normally, she restarted to bring back her direct selling and buy and sell businesses and regain willing and committed resellers as well. She handed over her online selling business to her sister-in-law and had an agreement to have 50% of its profit. She also gave her nephew a job opportunity as a delivery courier around their community.
Nanay Marilyn is very happy because she is able to help her relatives provide for their families.
Take-aways!
Nanay Marilyn proved that age can never hinder a learner who is willing to grow in knowledge and expand her territory. She is very much willing to learn more about the digitization of businesses and online transactions, knowing how fast the advancement of technology is.
She is also an example of servanthood and leadership by involving her family in their businesses and by giving opportunities to others as a way of reaching out to their community and contributing to others’ financial growth and stability. Nanay Marilyn was never a failure when she trusted the wrong people, because from there, she won hearts as she opened job opportunities to others and had a share in her growing businesses.
Nanay Marilyn is an exemplary client of TSPI. Her resilience created possibilities. Possibilities that become hope for people around her and their community.
