by Greg Deligero
Ronelyn Llanos, manager and co-owner of Miso Thai Massage Spa, literally struggled hard to survive since childhood.
At the young age of 12 years, she and her two siblings were orphaned by their father’s death. To ease the burden on their mother’s shoulders of making both ends meet for her family, Llanos—who traces her humble beginnings from Manay, Davao Oriental—took the initiative of seeking the support of her relatives in Davao City.
“I became fully aware that with my father’s death, our lives would become more difficult. On my own, I had to help my mother somehow for us to survive,” she recalled.
It was in 1995 when Llanos decided to move to Davao City where she stayed with her as a “working student”—actually as a household help.
She enrolled as a high school student at the Rizal Memorial Colleges (RMC) from which she graduated in 1998. She then enrolled at the Holy Cross of Davao College taking up her childhood dream: a degree in education.
Reality bites
However, with limited financial support from being a household help, her stay in college was—as expected—short-lived. She dropped out of college and worked as sales girl in one department store after another.
“I had no other choice then but to stop my studies,” she said.
It was then that she decided to leave her aunt’s house and live alone elsewhere. Not long after, she found herself falling in love with a man, lived with him under one roof and bore him a son.
Although far from being financially stable, she and her partner strived to raise their child as best as they could.
“We were living in a situation where we had to really make both ends meet. Even then, we were so happy and found real fulfillment with the coming of our child,” she said.
But, as the cliché goes, reality bites.
A year after the birth of their child, Llanos said the demands of daily life became more and more difficult to address.
“We realized that whatever and however we tried to make do with our meager income, virtually nothing was left. No savings, no investments for our future and that of our young son,” she said.
Surest way
Today, at age 32, Llanos narrates how she discussed with her partner their options to earn extra income, including starting a small business, finding second, third or fourth line jobs and working abroad.
Finally, they decided that working overseas would be the surest way to extricate themselves from their predicament.
“I think and believe that most of ordinary Filipinos agree that working as an overseas worker would mean a better life for them. Even you would agree, right?” she told this writer.
With her ‘qualification’ as a college-level student and experience as department store worker and ‘household help,’ Llanos said she only needed a bit of persuasion for the man in her life to accede to her decision that she was more suitable to work abroad than he was.
Llanos eventually landed a job as a domestic helper in Kuwait. The compensation was five times higher that that of a department store sales girl in Davao.
“Nothing was new actually with my job there because I am used to do household chores, anyway,” she said.
Back home, her partner was taking care of their child.
Orphaned
Yet, as fate has a way of interfering with one’s plans, their son suffered what Llanos had gone through as a young girl—orphaned by a father’s death.
Llanos returned home from Kuwait after her partner’s death. She had been in that foreign country for only a year and a half when tragedy struck. She had to take care of her son.
Though she had considerable savings from her salary abroad, she opted to save most of it while working as a masseuse in a Japanese-owned health spa. Meanwhile, she further equipped herself with new skills by attending special trainings in massage.
Fascinated by Thai massage, she went to Cebu City for six-month training in traditional Thai massage—a unique form of body work that incorporates yoga, acupressure and reflexology which had its origin some 2, 500 years ago.
Business partner
While she was still working in the Japanese-owned spa, Llanos befriended two Korean nationals who have long settled down in Davao City. With her own savings from work abroad, she was able to persuade the two Koreans to be her business partners.
Together, they put up the Miso Thai Massage Spa on March 8, 2008 on a capital of P3.5 million for equipment, space rental, personnel salary and operating expenses. Miso is a Korean word loosely translated as “always smile.”
With their mutual agreement that they would no longer infuse fresh funds in case the paid up capital failed to yield return on investment, Llanos, who holds the majority share, assumed the managerial position to handle firsthand the daily operations of their business.
Her job encompasses all aspects of their business, from conducting training of newly hired masseurs/masseuses and setting up a finance and accounting system to promoting their newly-opened business to prospective clients. She even continues to perform massage whenever her staff cannot accommodate the number of clients.
“I also personally lead in the distribution of fliers in subdivisions and elsewhere and conduct my own market research,” she said.
Third year
Now on its third year of operations, Llanos said their business continues to rake in income and they have almost recouped their original capital.
Aside from adequately compensating their employees and timely addressing the operating expenses, they have also diversified with the putting up of the Miso Skin Care within the same building where the spa is located along J.P. Laurel Avenue.
With her Korean business partners, Llanos said most of her clients are Koreans who come to Davao City as tourists, missionaries or students.
But for Llanos, the most fulfillment she has gotten has been in providing jobs to her townmates from Manay, Davao Oriental.
All the 24 attendants presently employed at the spa come from her hometown. She personally trained them for at least six months before allowing them to “touch” their clients.
“I prioritize the hiring of my town mates because I can empathize with their dreams to work in Davao City. I used to be one of them. Now, in my own little way, I can be part of whatever opportunity they will achieve here,” said Llanos.
