FEATURED STORY: Pampanga's Best owner on how to balance life and work during these challenging times

The new normal posed even more challenges to people we rely on: parents and bosses. Denise Alelis, third-generation owner of Pampanga’s Best can relate.

Helping mommies balance life and work during challenging times

Denise Alelis helps run a family business that’s a half-century old: Pampanga’s Best, arguably the most recognized brand when it comes to tocino (salty-sweet cured meat), a favorite Filipino dish. While running and sustaining a business has become quite difficult during the pandemic with all the community quarantines, times are especially challenging for mom-entrepreneurs like Denise.

According to her, months of living in the so-called new normal have been stressful because of multiple challenges and concerns that she has to face daily.

Her greatest challenge during the pandemic is the community quarantine. For 53 years, their business depended on transacting with various dealers in cities and provinces all over the Philippines and nearly all of these transactions were done face-to-face, with payments made in cash.  Their customers would also go to supermarkets to buy their favorite tocino. 

The lockdowns and quarantines, however, made it very difficult for their sales agents to travel to dealers. Even customers were unable to go to the supermarket to buy Pampanga’s Best products. Dealers had difficulty making payments in cash because of travel restrictions.

The obvious solution was to shift as many transactions as possible to online but it was not that easy. “There were dealers who did not welcome this shift right away, like our dealers in the palengke.  They were saying that they didn’t have any mobile banking or that they didn’t know how to use it. We were able to solve that by giving them training. There was a learning curve that we had to hurdle.”

Online selling meant that payments would have to be made online as well.  This meant shifting more of these transactions to mobile banking.

“We had an incident during the start of the ECQ where one of our sales agents was unable to trace a cash payment made by one of our dealers. Hindi namin mahanap yung deposit slip ng payment. So, after that we decided to shift all payments online through mobile banking because they can be monitored and tracked more easily,” she said.

Shifting transactions online began as a response to pandemic restrictions but it turned into an opportunity, eventually.

“It was actually during ECQ that we posted our highest sales. By going through these online channels and transactions, we were able to sell more products,” she said.

According to Denise, she and her team have become more dependent on the mobile banking services by BDO.  For their employees, they now get their salaries through cash debit cards.

“Before the pandemic, I had to go to the office to release our employees’ salaries. Now everything is released through their cash debit cards. Going cashless limits face-to-face contact so that helps prevent transmission of disease: we’re not holding on to cash that could be contaminated and we’re preventing close-in physical contact as well.”

Denise has been with her branch for years. She opened her first savings account when she worked at her first job (before she joined the family business). She appreciates how her bank is helping her cope with the challenges of the pandemic because it spares her from a lot of stress and anxiety. 

“Even though we’re in the middle of a public health crisis, my bank has always been there for me; very reliable and dependable during these challenging times,” she said.

BDO continues to provide products and services that help mompreneurs like Denise get the relief, ease, and convenience they deserve so that they more easily attain work-life balance. For more information on how BDO can help keep your business running in good or bad times, visit www.bdo.com.ph/keepbusinessmoving

You may check the different BDO products and services that have helped mompreneurs like Denise.

BDO Cash Card – https://www.bdo.com.ph/accounts/cash-card BDO Credit Cards – https://www.bdo.com.ph/personal/credit-cards BDO SME Loan – https://www.bdo.com.ph/loans/sme-loan BDO Digital Banking - https://www.bdo.com.ph/mobile/personal/ebanking BDO Savings or Checking Accounts - https://www.bdo.com.ph/personal/accounts Cash Management Services - https://www.bdo.com.ph/business/cash-management-services

Do you have your own story to share on how you were able to find ways in these challenging times? Click here to share your own story. 

We can now do bank transactions on a weekend as BDO Mall-based branches open on Saturdays

Given that not all bank transactions can be done online, banking on weekends has been very important for us since this is the only time we can actually visit our branch. This also a common predicament of those who have an 8-5 job Mondays to Fridays since most banks are all already closed by the time they get off from work. 

I remember that there were some instances where I had to skip lunch just to go to my old bank. Thus, we are happy to share that the mall-based branches of BDO are now open on Saturdays. 

This is in line with the bank's move to open all branches nationwide to aid in the gradual economic recovery. BDO Unibank Inc. has re-opened its mall-based branches for Saturday banking until 4:00pm, since December 5. 

In the photo is the BDO branch inside SM Mall of Asia A. 

About BDO Unibank, Inc.

BDO is a full-service universal bank, which provides a wide range of corporate and retail banking services.  These services include traditional loan and deposit products, as well as treasury, trust banking, investment banking, private banking, rural banking, cash management, leasing and finance, remittance, insurance, retail cash cards and credit card services.  

BDO has the country’s largest distribution network, with over 1,400 consolidated operating branches and more than 4,400 ATMs nationwide.  It also has full-service branches in Hong Kong and Singapore as well as 15 overseas remittance and representative offices in Asia, Europe, North America, and the Middle East.

BDO ranked as the largest bank in terms of total assets, loans, deposits, and trust funds under management based on published statements of condition as of March 31, 2020. For more information, please visit www.bdo.com.ph.