“Before, people look[ed] down on juveniles as rags. They always thought we could not do anything productive. That’s why I changed the rags-toriches connotation. I made it tambay-to-riches. We may be idle, but we are definitely not rags.”

SINGER-RAPPER and actor-turned-businessman Pio Balbuena never hides the fact that he came from the slums of Bago Bantay in Quezon City. He grew up in a depressed community near Muñoz Market, where he has friends up to this day.

Back in the day, he and his gangmates earn a living by preying on commuters wherein they would snatch their baseball caps while they’re caught in traffic.

“That’s the easiest to get,” Balbuena shared. “You will just pull it from their head then we run away.”

It was not surprising therefore for Balbuena to turn their juvenile misadventure into a viable business venture. He decided to sell baseball caps two years ago at the height of the pandemic.

“Poverty became my motivation, as well as my daughter (Hailey),” Balbuena disclosed. “That’s why I want to improve my life. Not just in the cap business, but in all aspects including creating music, rap, acting, making short films, doing documentaries and other things which can bring us income.

“My wife (Aira) and I grew up in the school of hard knocks. We are both breadwinners, that’s why we work well together.

“Before, people look[ed] down on juveniles as rags. They always thought we could not do anything productive. That’s why I changed the rags-to-riches connotation. I made it tambay-to-riches. We may be idle, but we are definitely not rags.

“That became my advocacy. To elevate the status of tambays. Before, other people looked at tambays as good-for-nothing bums who will not achieve anything. Today, in my perspective, they give importance to tambays.”

Balbuena’s wife helps and assists him in running the business since he started with Tambay Traders Inc. She helped provide seed money to get it started.

“Ever since, my wife has been very supportive in everything I do,” Balbuena asserted. “She supports my dreams, my crafts. She is always the first one who encourages me to pursue my dreams.

“It’s very important that our partner supports us in what we want to do. We will not move forward easily, if we don’t get any support from the one who stays with you at night.

“So when you have a nice dream, you can tell someone about it who will smile with you. But if you have a nightmare, somebody can instantly wake you up.”

Balbuena didn’t finish college. He didn’t even set foot in a university. He was aspiring to become a lawyer or even a policeman.

“We didn’t have money then, that was why I didn’t get to college,” he honestly said. “Today, we already have money, but I have no time to go to school and study.

“So, I just study through the internet where I can learn whatever I want to learn. I didn’t get to college, but my learning never stops. I study every day.”

Balbuena expectedly managed to expand his Tambay cap business during this pandemic. He and his team have been selling as far as the United States and Europe.

“For me, tambay cap is a decentralized business,” he explained. “We adopted underworld slang in our business. We call our resellers ‘tulak’ (pushers) while our distributors are called ‘source.’ The buyers are called ‘scorers.’

“We all make money. We don’t force anyone into the business, and I never invited a source. Once someone comes in and we realized he could help others by joining our business as a distributor or reseller, often, they ask me if they can help. We only have but one goal — to make money using our strategy.”

From the start, the caps are instantly attractive to Tambay’s target market. “I think the caps readily appealed to them,” Balbuena said. “The designs are merely plus points. What appealed more to the buyers is the advocacy of our story, including our resellers.”

So far, the tambays have improved their respective lives after more than a year in the business. And Balbuena cannot be any

happier. “We get constant support from buyers, and our designs are always sold out,” he beamed.

Even if his Tambay caps have become popular, Balbuena insisted there’s nothing like “easy money” when doing his business. Rather than being stationed in malls or stand-alone stores, he and his team prefer to sell online.

“You work hard for everything,” he admitted. “If you compare our business to those in the malls, we get to help more as time goes by. I don’t make profit all by myself. I revolve the earnings and make noise with the brand.

“But we make good use of tambays who have their selling strategies. We are happy helping more people do business. We get to teach them to be hardworking and not to be lazy.”

This pandemic, Balbuena experienced not earning anything since he didn’t have any projects. No gigs, no shootings, no performances. “That was the hardest,” he lamented.

But being a business owner is fulfilling for the artist. “Maybe the responsibilities, that’s the hardest,” Balbuena said. “Even if you have good intentions, there are others who still would not understand you.

“There are also those who will think bad about you and will say bad thing[s] about you. But that pushes us forward even more. That makes our company grow bigger and stronger. The tambays are so used to that. We use that as fuel for our journey.”

Undoubtedly, Balbuena’s entertainment image largely helps in pushing the Tambay caps to the forefront of his business.

“It is a big help that I was able to build my image in the hip-hop industry, in the music world as a whole,” he asserted. “Even my becoming an actor. You build a name for yourself. Even before others help you, you help yourself first.”

His wife, Aira, who is also his business partner, supports Balbuena in every undertaking he does.

“She always tells me to excel in everything I do. She helps me with everything. My wife is very good at operations. She’s gifted when it comes to doing business. She’s really good.

“I remember my wife and I went to Beijing (China) for a business trip in 2020,” Balbuena shared. “When we returned, there was already a virus.”

Balbuena boasts he keeps a balanced life. He also keeps the right schedule. “I need to do my work fast to finish everything that I need to do,” he said. “My team is very helpful. They know that I always work alone. Slowly, but I can do the work.

When I became a father, I started to get the right people to help me in the business. I started teaching them the right thing to do and whatever that they don’t know yet.”

To unwind, Balbuena manages to still spend quality time with his wife and daughter. “My daughter loves the beach, so we often go out of town,” he said. “A normal day is work-home-studysleep-repeat for me. On weekends, we go to church and go around town.”

Balbuena’s role model in life is his mom who raised him by her lonesome. “She is also the reason I am who I am today,” he proudly said.