Cousins (from left) Hardon Garth Facturan, Clare Medillo and Marian Christie Codilla recognize the value of being hands-on entrepreneurs. (CONTRIBUTED)
IN just three months, startup Puff and Pasta has developed loyal customers and received franchise inquiries.
Revenues have exceeded the expectations of cousins Marian Christie Codilla, Hardon Garth Facturan and Clare Medillo, who plan to offer catering services and expand to malls while maintaining a booth at weekend market Sugbo Mercado in Cebu IT Park.
“When some customers started asking us whether this is being offered for franchising, we realized that this has a big potential,” Medillo said.
The cousins were having one of their regular bonding sessions in December last year when they thought of going into business. By the time dinner ended, they had decided on Puff and Pasta.
Facturan, who completed a culinary course but currently works for a business process outsourcing (BPO) company, came up with the menu and prepared the recipes.
As soon as he gets off work at 6 a.m., he shops for the ingredients and prepares the dishes with the help of Codilla, a journalist who now provides consultancy services to some environmental groups, and Medillo, a mother of two boys and a home-based virtual assistant.
Everybody dipped into their own pockets and contributed their personal stuff for use in the business. For their commissary, they sought an aunt’s permission to use an idle house in Nivel Hills.
All three also took turns manning their Sugbo Mercado booth.
“We’ve made a lot of sacrifices for this. Sometimes, we had to skip work,” Codilla said.
“It’s a good thing that we have friends who help us. Nindot sad diay ni ang daghan og friends. Sila gyud ang nakatabang namo (It’s nice to have a lot of friends. They really helped us),” she added.
The cousins hired two helpers in January, although some friends continued to help.
How much they’ve shelled out for the business since December, neither Codilla nor Medillo knows.
“We didn’t keep track of who shelled out how much. We just dipped into our pockets every time we needed to buy something and kept the receipts (for accounting and auditing later),” Codilla said.
In the last two weeks, however, Medillo said Puff and Pasta has been self-sustaining. All their revenues have been ploughed back into the business. Out of their earnings, the first equipment they purchased was a triple slow cooker.
“The nice thing about this is that there’s no animosity among the three of us. That’s the secret,” Codilla said.
Puff and Pasta offers comfort food such as Mac & Cheese, Pasta Alfredo with Pigs in a Blanket, Choco Puff and Bacon and Chicks in Spinach Cream and
Mozzarella in Sugbo Mercado, which is open from 5 p.m. to 1 a.m. from Thursday to Saturday at the Garden Bloc of Cebu IT Park.