Taita’s business journey – courtesy of late dad

By LORRAINE KLUKI
WHEN young Manus businesswoman Taita Tapo received the SME Tourism Accommodation of the Year award during the PNG SME Awards night recently, she thought about how her late dad John had roped her into his business when she was grieving the loss of her two-day-old baby five years ago.
“I was (my father’s) baby. He couldn’t just let me go back to school. So I started working with Tapo’s Lodge and Tours he managed on Jan 16, 2018, doing bookkeeping and keeping records of everything.”
Taita, 27, is the youngest in a family of four born to John Tapo from Bulihan village in Manus, and Margaret Ovia from Central. She is married with a daughter.
After receiving her Grade 12 certificate in 2016, she went to upgrade her marks at the UPNG Open College in Port Moresby in 2017. But she had to return to Manus when she got pregnant.
In 2018, she lost her child two days after giving birth. Her dad, watching her in grief, told her to stay back with him in Manus.
Her three elder siblings had all graduated from universities with degrees, but her father chose Taita to manage the business.
“I was the only child in my family who has no college or university experience. I don’t argue with my father on business ideas like my elder siblings. I was interested in learning and enjoying my days working with him.
“I could go back to school anytime but the joy of spending seven months right beside him was satisfying.”

“ My father was a kind old man who would give cash and kind to friends and families. Luckily, he was under my mother’s financial discipline. My mother was his strongest back-up and support system.”

With little knowledge of business but eager to learn from her father, Taita registered with the IT Job Training for a six-month Certificate in Accounting course to help her improve her business knowledge.
She also found out later that some employees had been taking advantage of her dad’s lack of qualification and acumen in managing a business and were unscrupulously filling their own pockets. She gained her father’s trust and was allowed to do the bookkeeping in his absence.
“My father was a kind old man who would give cash and kind to friends and families. Luckily, he was under my mother’s financial discipline. My mother was his strongest back-up and support system.”
Her dad also employed Bridgette Pepi who had just graduated with a Diploma in Accounting from the Sonoma Adventist College for job experience, and “mostly to keep me company because I was still grieving the loss of my child”.
With the help of her mother, Taita had her name registered in the Investment Promotion Authority as the legal owner of the business.
Taita is gradually gaining the respect of the business community in Manus on how she has single-handedly managed the business after her dad passed away.
She follows his footsteps by sponsoring community activities, helping schools raise funds for new classrooms and financially assisting students as well.
She plans to elevate the business to a hotel standard, adding a restaurant and conference room for the convenience of clients.
Taita thanks her family especially her mother for her undivided support and her husband for always understanding her determination and drive to make the business a success. She owes that much to her late dad.