THE business world is pretty tough. Because of stiff competition, only the brave, unconventional and, sometimes, crazy ones survive—the real entrepreneurs. This was how 25-year-old Alexangela “Gila” Salvador managed to enter, play and stay in the tough world of enterprising people.
At the age of 17, while on her sophomore year taking up BS Management at the Ateneo de Manila University, she opted to drop out because of pecuniary problems. According to her, this is the result of her decision not to rely on her parents for financial support. She just wanted to do things on her own.
Even without any experience, Gila was passionate to start her first business enterprise in 2013 when she put up Paperplanes Manila, a small online shop selling notebooks and phone cases. Thanks to her initial investment of P4,000 that she received from her godparents as Christmas aginaldo, plus her creativity, the small business grew into a brand for customized gifts. Her growing reputation earned her thousands of clients and, of course, enabled her to earn her first seven-digit income at the age of 18.
Her immediate success inspired her to dream big. She then rolled out her earnings to establish a tarpaulin business called the Graphic Factory.
Using the experience and skills she gained from these ventures, she later on put up an interior design and construction company named Madhouse Design Studio at the age of 19; a restaurant chain business, Mad Cafe Inc., at 24; and just last year a property firm that builds a hotel and resort, Mad Hostel Siargao, and Mad Dev Realty that develops lots into commercial and residential spaces—all under holdings company Maddev.
“Everything [in my business], is about branding,” Gila said, explaining why the word “Mad” is always included in the corporate names of her enterprises. “It has something to do with my mindset and creativity. I noticed [that my] ideas [are always] out-of-the-box, unique. So [I made them to sound like] madness, crazy.”
Looking back from where she started, the undergraduate-turned-entrepreneur conceded that she did not expect at all that her online store and graphic design business would diversify into interior design and construction, restaurant, hotel and real estate.
“I really believe that everything I’ve gone through was for a purpose. It’s like everything culminated to what it is today,” she said. “That’s the beauty of starting small and dreaming big—anything that you want to do, you’re just enjoying along the way, and then, it grows gradually.”
Inspired by her father, who is also a businessman, Gila is hands-on insofar as managing her own business is concerned. Whether at the cafe, client’s house or construction site, she’s always ready to get her hands dirty doing manual work if needed. No wonder, she’s an inspiration for her hundreds of employees.
With the ongoing construction of Mad Hostel in General Luna, Siargao, she has been going there almost weekly to oversee its development, in time for its projected completion and opening in 2021. This accommodation facility will also have a Mad Cafe. The company, she bared, plans to grow its three coffee outlets to five by the end of this year.
Being immersed in these entities taught her so many things, which helped mold her into the kind of a woman she is today—modern and empowered, who knows what she wants and goes after it.
“The beauty of being enterprising lies in the power it brings—you can be anything you want to be. With employment, you follow a specific path. In entrepreneurship and enterprise, you can create any product, any business and choose how it will grow, and how it will be marketed. It’s your own personality that’s becoming a product. Like everything that I’ve created [like the] Mad Cafe, that’s me. So that’s the beauty of everything that you build,” she said.
Driven, as ever, Gila does not rest on her laurels despite the success in her chosen career. Given her beautiful physique, apart from her intelligence, she has given her shot in pageantry for the first time when she decided to join in the Binibining Pilipinas 2020 pageant, which culminates on April 26 at the Smart Araneta Coliseum.
With her advocacy on self-reliance and independence, she represents her parents’ native town of Nueva Ecija to vie for the crown against 38 candidates. She said: “The [usual] advocacy is to alleviate poverty. I wanna get away from the poverty mindset. If someone’s poor, you donate. I really believe that in self-reliance and independence, you find power within yourself. You solve your own problems. You empower yourself instead of asking for help.”
Although she has no specific target titles to win in the beauty contest, she said that she’s just doing her best and having fun. If there were important values in entrepreneurship that she can apply in this competition, these would be self-discipline and the resilience to bounce back.
“In the world of business, somehow I’m not a beginner anymore. But in this pageant, I’m such a neophyte. It makes me humble in a way that when they’re saying I don’t know how to walk or pose, I take it as a challenge to become better. The entrepreneur in me wants to show that I may start off weak, but I want to finish strong,” Gila said.
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The core objective of any business is to provide value to users be it in a shape of beauty or some other rich value.