Alicia Dematera

Alicia and her husband have been in their furniture shop business for a long time and it was the major source of their income. They have experienced problems due to lack of capital but through their initiative, they were able to surpass this.

Alicia Dematera, 60, of Brgy. Oloc, Laua-an Antique was just a high school graduate. She is married to Mr. Nicanor Dematera. They have two children namely; Salvacion and Romel. The eldest was a graduate of business administration and is currently managing her own business which is buying and selling goods while the youngest is working as a cashier in an establishment in Antique.

Alicia and her husband started their business in making different furniture made of wood. It was a difficult for them to start a business because they have no capital. Alicia borrowed a small capital from her relatives and through her initiative, they were able to open up their dreamed furniture shop. Alicia and her husband helped each other in their business. She bought an electric saw and other materials like woods and other materials. Her husband started to make chairs and tables and accepted order from their neighborhoods. He also learned how to make cabinets and souvenir items. Alicia was the one taking care of the expenses while her husband is doing his best to improve the quality of their products. Through their determination and perseverance, they were able to finance the studies of their children. Their finished products became also popular but due to limited capital, they have limited resources to produce the the demand.

Alicia believes that their products have big potential in the market if they only had capital. She wants to bring their products to the market, but they only produce limited number of furniture because of limited capital.

As of now, Alicia still needed an additional capital for her business expansion. She wanted to use this capital to purchase more lumbers and woods to make furniture and to meet the demand of their customers.

An additional capital will be a big help for her family and other people because if she has enough capital she would hire some people to work for them.