(Video) Maria Acbaș: “If someone could succeed at something, you also can!”

She started her career as a school teacher. But, because of low wages in that field, Maria Acbaș from Comrat, a town in the South of Moldova, decided to make a change and ventured into an activity where everyone looked at her with skepticism. Even though, at the beginning, many didn’t take her seriously, Maria Acbaș is now the founder of a dairy factory and of one of the largest cow farms in the South of the country. Here is the eighth story of the “You know you can!” campaign.

“I am the director of the «Oloi Pak» company, which currently produces natural and tasty dairy. The factory is located in the South of Moldova, in Găgăuzia.

After launching the business, I realized that the raw material available at the time didn’t comply with the quality level that I wanted to reach for our products. This was the reason why we decided to start a cow farm. People thought this was shocking.

I obtained the inclusion of the farm in the preferential taxation program for 5 years. When I went to the Parliament to present my request, they were looking at me as if I was this young girl who wasn’t even 30 years old yet. They were probably thinking: “Ok, so she decided to have a little cow farm, she is interested in this activity – let her play”. Everybody was skeptical about me.

When I started the business, I only had 7-8 employees, today there are over 100 employees working at our enterprise.

Today I can talk about the past difficulties with a smile on, as if there weren’t any. I had many difficulties related to obtaining credits from the bank, managing the personnel, lacking quality raw material – all these things cannot truly be considered as difficulties, they were just the steps any business must go through.

When I was 21 years old, I lost my husband and I was left alone with a 2-year-old child. I was working as a school teacher and even from the start I knew that I will become a principal or deputy principal. When my husband died and I had to take care of my child by myself, I realized that I couldn’t manage on a low teacher’s salary. I knew that if I were to work at a commercial institution I would earn twice as much. This is why I left my job as a teacher and started working in the commercial field.

If I didn’t know something, I would study it. If I didn’t understand something, I would ask a million questions. I was never embarrassed to ask or to even look a little ignorant.

As long as I will have the desire to grow, I will do so, not only related to sales, but also promoting the business, so that consumers search for our products on the shelves of the stores.“