It was also among the few stores in Pangasinan at that time that offered repair and maintenance services for common office equipment, such as typewriters and calculators.

Today, Chimes is housed in its own three-story building, right in the heart of this city. It has also opened branches in San Fernando City in La Union and in Baguio City, making it the leading dealer and distributor of office automation machines and furnishings and computers in Ilocos and Cordillera.

“It was all because of STD – sikap [diligence], tiyaga [patience] at dasal [and prayers],” says its owner and chief executive officer, Salvador Poserio.

“But I do not claim that it’s my own effort alone. I know I was blessed by the Lord. So, it’s a product of my faith in our Great Provider. Anything you do, as long as He is with you, will be successful,” he says.

Dare to dream

But Chimes is what it is today because Poserio first dared to dream and worked very hard to make this dream come true.

“As I child, I had always wanted to be a businessman. I was 11-years-old when I earned my first peso by selling vegetables that I grew in our school garden,” Poserio says.

He would later venture into backyard animal-raising when he was in high school and sold ready-to-wear clothes, sunglasses and other apparels to his classmates when he was studying at the Far Eastern University in Manila, where he earned a degree in economics.

“I also had to work as a student aide at FEU at that time to augment my income and be able to finish college,” Poserio says.

When he was in his second year in college, Poserio’s father met an accident and died. His mother, a public school teacher, had asked him to transfer to Dagupan to cut on cost.

“But I told my mother to give me what she could afford and I would take care of the rest,” he says.

Poserio’s first job after graduating from college in 1983 was teaching at the Catholic Church-owned St. Charles Academy in San Carlos City.

At the same time, he handled evening classes as part-time instructor at the Virgen Milagrosa University Foundation.

But even as a teacher, Poserio sold cupcakes and supplied every school canteen in the city that accepted the product that he asked his neighbor to bake. He also offered life insurance and housekeeping products to friends and acquaintances.

“I was virtually a walking store, an ambulant vendor,” Poserio says. “But I was enjoying it. Every time I met somebody I knew, I offered this and that product. And it was then that my salesmanship was developed.”

At that time, Poserio was already earning more than enough for himself and he had been able to help his mother send his younger siblings to college.

In 1987, barely four years after finishing college, Poserio put up Chimes Enterprises from his savings. The following year, he moved his store to a wider, more conspicuous site in front of the Dagupan City cathedral.

“I had only P16,000 then as capital, my savings from selling backyard animals and from my commission in selling life insurance and housekeeping products,” he says.

Running his business at the start was not a walk in the park, Poserio says. He had to visit various government offices then and talk with government officials in Pangasinan to sell his products.

Big break

His big break came in 1989 when his company was appointed regional dealer of Acer Computers, which was still being introduced in the Philippines at that time. A few months later, he became a dealer of Sharp copiers.

“These were the big names, famous brands in office automation that also helped us become big,” Poserio says.

But it was his work ethic, superb management skills and good relationship with his staff that made his company bigger.

“A prosperous business is a partnership with your people, with your staff. I consider them a prized asset and you have to treat them well,” he says.

As a result, he says, he introduced a gain-saving mechanism and profit-sharing scheme to motivate them to work harder and become more productive.

He also formulated Chimes Green Book, an employee manual that stipulated employees’ conduct while doing business.

“I also help them develop by giving them proper training. And I’m treating them well, as if they are my immediate relatives,” he says.

His relationship with his staff would later help him recover after his store was burglarized in 1998.

“When our store was ransacked, I lost around P600,000 and that was too big for me at that time. I thought I could no longer recover from the losses,” Poserio says.

It was then that he asked the cooperation of his employees by sharing the burden of keeping the company operational. He told his staff that salary increases would have to be frozen. But he promised that they would have them back as soon as he recovered his losses.

In no time, Poserio was back into business. He would begin reaping different awards in 2001 from labor industry groups and other award-giving bodies in the country for his best practices in business.

Among these were: Best in People Development from the Department of Labor and Employment (2008), Outstanding Alumnus in Entrepreneurial Leadership from FEU (2003), Outstanding Achievement in Industrial Peace and Harmony from the Employers’ Confederation of the Philippines (2003) and Best Practice in Leadership from the National Wages and Productivity Commission (2001).

But for Poserio, his most memorable ‘award’ was when he was invited by then United Nations Secretary General Kofi Anan as one of two Philippine representatives to the Global Compact Summit at the UN headquarters in New York in 2004.

“I was really surprised by the invitation. I told myself, ‘Who is Chimes, compared to McDonald’s, Nokia, Starbucks and other big names?’ In our group discussions, there were CEOs, directors and presidents of big corporations. I’m just a small retail store owner,” he says.

Today, Poserio is no longer thinking of opening new branches. “In retail, maybe, I have reached its apex. I’ll just have to maintain it,” he says.

Chimes remain one of the most liquid companies in Pangasinan because Poserio never borrowed money to keep his business afloat.

He says he is now thinking of diversifying into other businesses, like real estate and opening a technical-vocational school in this city.