By Negros Women for Tomorrow Foundation
Emma Morales’ business instinct is something even Warren Buffet would admire. As the 2002 Citi Microentrepreneur of the Year winner at the regional level, Emma embodies what it means to be a business woman.
With only a high school diploma and the work experience of harvesting in rice paddies in Manapla, Negros Occidental, Emma started her growing portfolio of business with a sundries store near her home. Seeing opportunity to expand in the food business, she started a karinderia (eatery), then another, employing six workers in total. Through this venture she learned many skills: planning, management, finance, marketing, simple bookkeeping, negotiations and supplier/customer relations.
Success notwithstanding, Emma has always made it a point to share her blessings, be it by employing her neighbors to raise pigs in her farm or by supporting local infrastructure projects, from the construction of street lights in her neighborhood or the repair of bridges and construction of canals near the public market. She even lets the community use her multi-cab to bring patients to the nearby Provincial Hospital for free in the case of emergencies!
