Takuri Cafe opened in Iloilo City on September 8, 2014. The café serves a wide array of Asian fusion dishes, particularly Malaysian cuisine. Today, chef and owner Daisy Catague-Cababasay shares the café’s story and how Facebook played a vital role in its business success.

Before becoming a chef and a restaurant owner, Daisy Catague-Cababasay worked at the Bureau of Local Government Finance, Region VI, Western Visayas. When her husband Leo, an aquaculturist, started working abroad, she was able to travel and live in Indonesia, Saudi Arabia, and Malaysia where she finally got the inspiration to prepare Malaysian dishes.

On September 8, 2014, Daisy opened Takuri Café in Iloilo City, Iloilo, Philippines. At first, the idea was to serve unique dishes to small groups of friends, like meet-ups, but Daisy ended up creating a full-scale restaurant because those who have tasted the Asian fusion dishes kept coming back and bringing their friends to experience the great dining experience at Takuri Café. The small restaurant started serving customers home cooked Malaysian dishes—simple but exciting and delicious with distinct flavors.

Daisy knew that she needed to understand how to market her restaurant business in social media. So when she heard that Connected Women was coming to Zamboanga for the #SheMeansBusiness event on March 23, 2018, she knew she had to attend.

And she did. In fact, she had to take three different boat rides and one bus ride just to attend! She rode a boat from Iloilo to Cebu, and another boat from Cebu to Dumaguete, and then another boat from Dumaguete to Dapitan [near Dipolog], and finally, a bus to Zamboanga.

During the #SheMeansBusiness workshop, she learned how to make the most out of Facebook, including the way to post and how to interact with customers. Daisy said she never really thought about that before the workshop. The things she learned helped the business grow much more than she expected. She garnered thousands of likes with zero marketing spend. She did it through the help of everyone who came and dined at Takuri Café and left good reviews online. The people who visited her restaurant also posted pictures of the food they ate. In fact, Daisy never realized she was already doing some of the best practices that were mentioned during the workshop.

Daisy encourages entrepreneurs to have a Facebook page to connect with clients. “Most of them view our Facebook page first, read the reviews, and view the photos of foods, events and everyday happenings,” Daisy said in a former interview with Connected Women. She added that it’s not necessary to hire professionals to handle the posts.

“I take photos by myself in raw form. As a photographer, I do all the photo shoots for my freshly baked cakes and pastries which I later post to our FB page.” Word of mouth has helped in the increase Facebook page likes, as well as customers.

With the help of social media, particularly Facebook, Takuri Cafe has become a go-to foodie destination in Iloilo for people who want to try Malaysian cuisine. Daisy hopes to continuously provide good quality comfort food to as many people as possible while achieving her financial growth target in the future in preparation for a possible expansion.

This is her success story.

Who would you attribute your success as an entrepreneur to?
I would like to attribute the success of Takuri Cafe and myself as an entrepreneur to husband Leo, who gave his all-out support financially to build the business. And also, for giving me all the chance to travel to different countries where he worked and taking me to live and stay with him abroad thereby giving me the opportunity to try new things and taste different kinds of food in cities we visited.

Moreover, I attribute these successes to my children who are always there to support everything that I do. Lastly, to my family and my employees who never fail to back me up.

What do you think are the biggest challenges that women face in starting a business?
Normally, men would always make it big when they start a business. And, most likely, when women build a business venture, it is always the biggest challenge for us women. In my case, I just follow and focus on what I thought would be a good idea in running this kind of business—building my confidence and believing that I can achieve something that would make a difference. I started a little late at 54. I’m also a person with disability (PWD). I had undergone a total hip replacement surgery five years ago. A year after that experience, I built Takuri Cafe and the rest is history.”

How do you think Facebook and/or Instagram can help you achieve your business goals?
Facebook played a vital role in how Takuri Cafe has made this far because it was on Facebook when we started to create a page. Since then, it has become a well-known restaurant in social media. Every time guests come to dine, they would immediately check-in on Facebook, take pictures, and post them on their walls. Their friends and their extended network (friends of friends) would excitedly inquire about us.

We owe everything we have now to Facebook and we are very grateful for what it has done for us. People who love to dine and like to try new dishes would visit our page first and then look at the reviews made by those who visited us. Oftentimes, we get positive reviews. Facebook and Instagram have helped us a lot in achieving our goals, building our brand, increasing our sales, and attracting more new customers.

What are you focused on for the business?
We have plans to expand our market in a new location. We’ve also decided to add more dishes to the menu when final negotiations in acquiring the property are ready. With the help and support of Facebook and Instagram, I know everything will fall to its proper place.

Tell us what you’d say to other aspiring entrepreneurs.
To aspiring entrepreneurs, if a 54-year-old PWD like me was brave enough to stand up and make it, I know you can too. But always remember to keep your feet on the ground, have the courage to face the everyday challenge, and be confident that you can make it. Always ask guidance from the Almighty God. Be honest and be good in everything that you do. And just believe in the power of women. Believe that we can.

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