OFW ventures into biz to stay home for good

CEBU, Philippines – Mark Geniston was an overseas Filipino worker in Dubai for nine years until he came back home in 2005 for good.

But coming back home made him realize that the long period he was away with his family made his children hesitant to recognize him.

"I said 'This is not right.' So I said to myself I need to start a business here so I don't have to go back working abroad," said the 43-year-old Cebuano entrepreneur.

At first, he and his wife Willibeth wanted to put up a bar and name it Kevlo, after their children Kevin and Lovely.

However, things took a different turn.

During a conference that he attended in Manila, he accidentally met a chemical engineer who broached to him the business idea of making people beautiful in the most affordable way.

They soon became business partners in the production of skin care products, in what is now known as Kevlo Skinceuticals.

Proud Cebuano Brand

Mark started Kevlo, a proudly Cebuano skin care brand, in 2007.

His chemist business partner used to be connected with a big skin care manufacturer in the country.

Attending networking seminars also encouraged Mark to go into the beauty and wellness business.

"I went to networking seminars and I realized that most of their products are into health and wellness," the entrepreneur told The FREEMAN in an interview.

The skin care venture could really be for him in a way, indeed.

"We started making whitening soaps," he shared. "We had trial and error. Until we developed three kinds of soaps."

Introducing their products to the market was also challenging.

Mark started selling his skin care products to family relatives and friends.

"They believed in the products. Until we gradually expanded our market," he said.

Today, Kevlo, which maintains a 150,000-square-meter manufacturing facility in Liloan town, sells more than 1,000 facial sets in a month.

The beauty brand consists og facial care kits, whitening lotions, whitening soaps, toners, underarm whiteners and fragrances.

The skin care brand is also supplying the wellness products of some local spas in Cebu, Manila and Davao.

Kevlo has one major distributor in Cebu, Galen Aquino, who has an outlet store in Gen. Maxilom Ave. in Cebu City and is responsible to distributing the products to various parts in the country including Dumaguete, Cagayan de Oro, Davao and Manila.

The company started its distribution in Cebu through online and social media, and eventually spread to other parts of the country and overseas countries such as Singapore, Hong Kong, Canada, and the US.

At present, the business has no plans of putting up stores in malls because Mark wanted to help its distributors to still earn an income in the process.

Skin Clinic

Mark's entrepreneurial journey did not stop from just selling skin care products.

Just early this year, he opened two branches of Kevlo Skin Clinic, offering facial care and non-invasive slimming services.

The clinics, each employing nine people, are located in Panagdait and Talamban in Cebu City.

"I was encouraged to develop the clinics," he said, adding that this is one way to expand their market as well.

Desire To Learn

In whatever success his business has attained now, Mark's drive to learn was a very important factor.

He wasn't raised to become an entrepreneur.

He was a hotel and restaurant management graduate and was an employee for several years.

But his being a successful entrepreneur today was driven by thirst to learn when he started.

"I attended seminars to really learn because I wanted to evolve," he shared.

In fact, even before he entered the beauty business, he used to engage in lending and buy and sell businesses.

Mark was also one of the candidates of the Mentor Me, the entrepreneurial mentoring program by the Department of Trade and Industry and Cebu Chamber of Commerce and Industry.

From a simple online shop that distributed facial sets to customers through meet-ups, Kevlo has grown into a full-fledged skin care brand that offers a wide range of beauty products including body whitening set, facial starter set, facial maintenance set to underarm set, creams, and moisturizers. (FREEMAN)