Ronnel Domingo’s article on SME financing urged small to medium-scale enterprises to tap a P280-million export fund.

Here’s an excerpt from the article:

The Department of Trade and Industry is urging small and medium enterprises (SMEs) to tap a P280-million export promotion fund, or EPF, and advising them to follow the strict requirements. Interested exporters organizations and associations are being encouraged to submit their project proposals to the Export Development Council for evaluation, Trade and Industry Undersecretary Thomas Aquino said in a statement.

Made available through the council, the EPF was put up jointly by the Department of Trade and Industry with a contribution of P100 million, the Department of Budget and Management with P100 million, the National Economic and Development Authority with P20 million, and the Philippine Exporters Confederation with P10 million.

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I’m beginning to think most good ideas come from high school buddies who want to change the world for good and coffee shop talks late into the night.

An exaggeration, of course, but that’s exactly how it started for Paolo Benigno A. Aquino IV and Mark Joaquin Ruiz. These two thirty-somethings have come up with an idea to alleviate Philippine poverty one sari-sari store at a time through a business model that aims to create the first Filipino branded sari-sari store chain.

They both gave up their leadership positions in their regular jobs – Aquino as chairman of the National Youth Commission and Ruiz as senior customer marketing manager in Unilever – to set up Microventures Inc. last year and begin the Hapinoy Store chain.

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Firm aims to make a splash in the stock market

By Karen Lema
Reuters
Last updated 06:24pm (Mla time) 09/13/2007

MANILA, Philippines — A Philippine company that took off selling hair spray in the 1980s and is named after that decade’s romantic comedy “Splash” aims to take its fortunes a step further by listing on the stock market next year.

Splash Corporation, the country’s largest Filipino-owned personal care and cosmetics company, began as a P12,000-backyard business over two decades ago before growing into a multi-billion peso firm competing with the likes of Unilever and Procter & Gamble Co.

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Here’s a question that readers always throw at us:

I am a teacher/OFW/work at home mom/accountant etc. etc. and I’m planning to set up my own business. What business should I get into?

People are all the time looking for that great, perfect, amazing business idea that will turn them into a successful entrepreneur. An entrepreneur myself, I understand the question perfectly and the burning need behind it.

They may not know it, but people who ask this question aren’t really looking for a hot product or service to sell. They are looking for something that will inspire them to turn their backs on a boring 8-to-5 job that brings them all the security they need. Or an idea that will move them to turn the world upside down so they can shell out the money needed as capital. They are looking for an idea that will push them to take the big leap Sliders-style into a parallel universe they know nothing about.

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As Francis Kong climbed up the second floor of Dôme in Podium, I knew immediately I was face to face with a dyed-in-the-wool entrepreneur. First, he was comfortable in jeans on a weekday at three o’clock in the afternoon. Second, he spoke no jargon. These two things, and his Chinese surname immediately gave me a sense of what I was going to hear for the next hour or so. Or so I thought.

The first revelation was that he was not born a wealthy Chinese. “I started from scratch,” Francis says. But he tells of how his father drilled into his mind not to become an employee, even as a kid.

“Kahit manager ka diyan, di ka yayaman. Kahit konti kita mo, basta sariling negosyo okay,” he recalls his father telling him.

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