How do you share your blessings after achieving success in business and after being given a new lease on life?
For Delia Inoc, her answer was to hire her neighbors so they would have extra income.
Being in the business for 25 years already, Inoc is one of the leading suppliers of shellcraft chandeliers to more than five export companies in Cebu. And she shared the success of her business with her neighbors in Olango Island, Lapu-Lapu City, Cebu.
In an island where fishing and farming are the main sources of livelihood, she employed her neighbors, specifically mothers, so they would have additional income to support their families’ needs.
“I can see myself in the mothers I am helping. I also started from scratch. God has given me more than enough blessings to feed and educate my children. I’m sharing these blessings with them, too,” said the 51-year-old mother of six.
Reaching the peak of her business was not easy. Her father died when she was just five due to liver cancer. Being the eldest in a brood of five, she helped her mother make ends meet by working as a sales lady in a mall after she graduated from high school.
“At an early age, I already knew that my mother has put on my shoulders a portion of the family’s responsibility. My mother knew nothing about life in the island. I was the one who took charge of finding means to help my siblings, and I found it in seashells,” Inoc said.
In the 1990s, a teacher from barangay Mactan introduced her to their shellcraft business and she became their supplier of shell necklaces.
Their partnership, however, did not last.
“There were problems in the business. So, I decided to venture into the same business on my own. I started from buying a few kilos of shells until I met several suppliers who could provide more shells,” she said.
Fate, though, was kind to her, Inoc said.
Her chandelier business flourished as it attracted export companies.
“From a very small capital, the business grew more than what I prayed for. Many companies inquired and eventually asked us to be one of their suppliers. Everyone now knows our business,” she said.
Then in 1998, she was diagnosed with cancer. She underwent chemotherapy and was hospitalized for more than two months.
“I was so down because I wasn’t able to manage the business well. The medicine was expensive. The bills piled up,” she said.
“(But) it was really a test of faith. I thought that God has given (me) more years because I have a special mission in life. (I realized that) He would never put me in that kind of battle if it had no purpose,” Inoc said.
After her recovery, her business started to be on track again.
In 2004, she applied for a loan from the Micro-finance program of the Ramon Aboitiz Foundation Inc. to add to her capital.
With the steady growth of her business, she now has 16 neighbors helping her.
“I train them (neighbors) to become self-reliant. Some are willing to learn how to run the business. If they need something, I am always there for them. They are now part of the family. It’s not just about employing them but also on empowering them,” she said.
“You have to be passionate, not just to earn but also to help. You would see that when you help others, God showers you with more blessings,” she said. She is a witness to this. She is still alive, after all.
“I am so blessed. If before I prayed for a successful business and a happy family, I now pray that God will lengthen my life for me to employ and help more and more mothers in this small island of Olango,” Inoc said. /Chrisley Ann Hinayas
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