March 2008 Archives

Drum rolls please. Here is the final list of Batch 2008. They will be mentored by Willy Arcilla from March 2008 to February 2009. Wilson Sy No More Slipping Inc. Melani and Marvin Natores Konsepto Edwina Leyran Sigel Inc. Delilah Galang Cancer Council of the Philippines John Bayarong Comteq Jay and Gina Domingo III Pat’s Floral Supplies Franco and Abby Mesina Fountain Cool Rose Anne Tomagan-Cruz Jyouhou(joho) See you tomorrow at the first one-on-sessions. The slots are: 8:00 to 9:00 -- first slot 9:15 to 10:15 -- second slot Melani and Marvin Natores snack break 10:30 to 11:30 -- third slot John Bayarong 11: 45 to 12:45 -- fourth slot Eugene Leyran (for Edwina Leyran) lunch break 1:30 to 2:30 –- Delilah Galang 2:45 to 3:45 – Jay and Gina Domingo snack break 4:00 to 5:00 -- seventh slot 5:15 to 6:15 -- eight slot Abby and Franco Mesina Please send me an email or text message on which slot you’re taking. First text, first served. CONGRATULATIONS and thank you to all those who voted. Disclaimer. The business mentoring activity will showcase ordinary businesses' struggles and successes for one year as they are mentored by INQUIRER.net's consultant Willy Arcilla. This will help us focus on their continuing stories, a conscious step away from reportage of spot events with no follow-ups which is the norm in mainstream media. I guess you can say we are trying to prove that media can be cured of short-term and long-term memory loss! :-) However, results of this business mentoring activity will still depend on the owners' ability to use their learnings and market developments that we cannot control.

At the age of 29 in a small shared apartment and a garage in Malate, I began to dream... made it a reality and kept it going. 17 years after, I am lost. I hope you can help me.

Edwina “Weena” Leyran’s call for help made us fish her out of the applications we received for business mentoring. Like many exporters, Weena is hurting from the steep appreciation of the peso against the dollar and the onslaught of a virulent price war with China, which in recent years has become the world’s factory. It hasn’t always been this hard. Weena recalls enjoying plump demand from American importers and department store retailers and confectionary manufacturers who use her boxes as premium packaging for their goods. Her decorative boxes made their way to Spain, France and the Middle East. She believes that the quality of her products, timely deliveries and a good sense of creativity and professionalism allowed the company to breach the $1-million mark in sales in 1999. “The years that followed, however, saw a steady decline in the orders that were coming in. A major cause was the stiff competition with China where our designs and concepts were being copied and sold at as much as 70 percent of our selling price. I believe in our designs and our capabilities but what good will it do if we cannot sell at the right price?” Weena says. She responded to the challenge by trimming down her workforce by more than half and trying to find new niche markets, even locally. Some of her local clients include a wine company which orders wine canisters from her every year, a big pharmaceutical company and a telecoms firm. Weena hopes that the business mentoring activity will help her figure out which road to take through an honest and professional assessment of where it stands. She is hoping that it will inspire the company with fresh marketing direction and revive the glory days of brisk sales.

“I once dreamed. Now, that dream has been passed on to people who've worked for and with me for so long. Some sixteen years. Most of them, ten to twelve years. I cannot fail them nor wane in hope that there is a way to be back on track,” Weena says.

Is there hope for companies like Sigel and for dreamers like Weena who is pained with the possibility of hanging the towel? If she gets into the business mentoring session, we will all find out *** You may vote for Weena by commenting on this blog and letting your thoughts be heard. Unfortunately, we will only be choosing eight candidates who will be receiving expert advice from our consultant Willy E. Arcilla for one year. Our panel of judges will be choosing the final eight based on their business propositions, overall personalities and commitment to the business and your votes. We will give one last day for voting today and Thursda, we announce the final eight. If you want to review the other candidates, follow the links below. Rica Pawnshop and Jewelry Store Cancer Council of the Philippines QMA Outsource Corp. Konsepto Pat’s Floral Supplies Comteq Computer & Business College Mandilu Jyouhou(joho) Technology Inc. Fountain Cool No More Slipping, Inc. (Business Mentoring is a one-year project by Open For Business of INQUIRER.net. The eight businesses that will be chosen from those who applied by email will be mentored by Willy Arcilla, regional director of ZMG Signium Ward Howell and president of Business Mentors Inc. Willy is an industrial economist from the UA&P-CRC with a 25 year career in corporate planning, marketing, sales and general management across Asia-Pacific, and is a recipient of the Agora Award for Marketing Excellence.)

(Photo courtesy of Gerson Institute). Who ever said retirees should slow down and enjoy the roses does not know Delilah Galang. A 56-year-old retiree from Valdefuente, Cabanatuan City, Delilah has worked for the Australian Bureau of Statistics for many years until her early retirement in July 2007. She decided not to end the productive days of her life the day she left her job. She worked on being an approved Gerson Therapy Specialist and trained in San Diego, USA and in Tijuana, Mexico. A Gerson Therapy Specialist provides care, rehabilitation, education, support and training to people who are afflicted with cancer, as well as their families. Delilah explains that Gerson Therapy is a state of the art, contemporary, wholistic and natural dietary treatment that uses the body’s own healing mechanism in the treatment and cure of chronic illnesses. It was pioneered by Dr. Max Gerson in 1920 and has become the basis of many natural and alternative cancer treatments today. On January 24, 2000, Delilah set up Cancer Council Philippines, Inc. and began serving as its President and founder. Cancer Council is a charitable organization that aims to be an umbrella coalition for combined services and activities of cancer foundations, associations, advocacy and support groups, individuals, and interested health professionals. For the past eight years, the founders of Cancer Council have been financially supporting indigent victims of cancer in the Philippines. Delilah knows that with more and more Filipinos getting sick with cancer, the council needs to do more to reach especially those who are less fortunate.

“We have lots of fund raising ideas but we can not start: firstly, we do not know how, secondly, the small amounts of money we gather together from founders are spent on medications we provide to cancer sufferers, thirdly, we are put off by discouragement of friends that it is difficult to ask money from fellow Filipinos,” Delilah writes.

Delilah hopes that through the business mentoring activity of INQUIRER.net, her organization can find ways to raise funds and provide quality health care to more Filipinos. If you want to vote for Cancer Council, vote through this blog. The other candidates for the activity are: Rica Pawnshop and Jewelry Store QMA Outsource Corp. Konsepto Pat’s Floral Supplies Comteq Computer & Business College Mandilu Jyouhou(joho) Technology Inc. Fountain Cool No More Slipping, Inc. (Business Mentoring is a one-year project by Open For Business of INQUIRER.net. We are choosing eight businesses from the ones that applied by email, who will be mentored by Willy Arcilla, regional director of ZMG Signium Ward Howell and president of Business Mentors Inc. Willy is an industrial economist from the UA&P-CRC with a 25 year career in corporate planning, marketing, sales and general management across Asia-Pacific, and is a recipient of the Agora Award for Marketing Excellence.)

(How do you survive when everyone else is giving up? File photo from Agence France Presse) Entrepreneurs are survivors, more than anything else. Some people survive more when they are alone, with their inner wolf coming out in the face of adversity. This is why some businesses set up by friends and relatives sometimes end up in grief. For Rica and Donnel San Antonio, however, beating the odds is easier when together. Although Donnel is currently working as a professional in a construction company in Dubai and is physically absent, the high school sweethearts cum husband and wife team is in perfect sync with the management of their pawnshop in Roxas City. Though still young at 31, both have seen their share of bad times. Donnel shares that his first stab at the food business selling Tender Juicy Hotdogs in a school in Roxas City was hard to sustain because sales were seasonal. Schools were open only five days a week and holidays meant no sales. They bounced back from that experience, and are trying their hand at growing their pawnshop into a full-blown financial services company. Last year, they decided to widen their services from jewelry and cellular phone loans into remittance, with the addition of a Western Union service. The competition, however, is pretty stiff. “For now, pawnshops compete on interest rates. They now offer up to 1.0 percent monthly,” Rica explains. To differentiate the pawnshop from its competitors, Rica says she offers flexible interest rates depending on the maturity of the loans. For a 3-day loan, she offers 2.0 percent interest, for a 7-day loan 3.0 percent, for a 14-day loan, 4.0 percent and for a 30-day loan 5.0 percent. Rica worriedly says a lot of pawnshops are going to close shop soon. It’s crunch time once again because businesses are facing rough sailing in Roxas City, she says. People are pressed for money, for jobs and for security. Survive they must, if they want to be hard-core entrepreneurs. Besides, the success of the business will allow Donnel to finally come home to his family. If you want Donnel and Rica to get a shot at getting professional mentoring from Willy Arcilla under INQUIRER.net’s one-year project, vote for them by commenting on this blog. The other candidates for the activity are: QMA Outsource Corp. Konsepto Pat’s Floral Supplies Comteq Computer & Business College Mandilu Jyouhou(joho) Technology Inc. Fountain Cool No More Slipping, Inc. (Business Mentoring is a one-year project by Open For Business of INQUIRER.net. We are choosing eight businesses from the ones that applied by email, who will be mentored by Willy Arcilla, regional director of ZMG Signium Ward Howell and president of Business Mentors Inc. Willy is an industrial economist from the UA&P-CRC with a 25 year career in corporate planning, marketing, sales and general management across Asia-Pacific, and is a recipient of the Agora Award for Marketing Excellence.)

To advertise, or not to advertise -- a tough question for many businesses. For one, it’s very expensive. Second, how do you quantify whether you are reaching the right people and whether your ad budget is bringing in sales? In this light, it would really seem like small and medium-scale enterprises don’t stand a chance against big companies who have humongous moolah to throw away on ads. Carl Quema, the 25-year-old president of QMA Outsource Corp., believes he has the answer. His proposition is to find a way to reach the customer during one of his most vulnerable moments, and that is while hungry waiting for his order, and he can do nothing else than fiddle with his phone. Placemats is an example of those little things in life that we hardly notice. But printed with entertaining, informative and practical stuff, like discounts and freebies, Carl believes placemats can be the advertising medium of choice especially for small businesses with niche markets. “The concept really is very innovative because it gives a chance for SME's to be present in front of their target audience in a manner that they can't tune out, and the exposure time is for the whole dining experience,” Carl says. (Watch a video of Tet Feliciano, Carl’s representative, who attended the plenary session. She explained the business and showed samples.) But just like Konsepto, Carl is fighting copycats. Although the ad placemat concept has been patented, he says there are already three firms using the same concept. And then there’s the saddest irony for someone who is in the advertising company -- having to struggle with poor market reaction. “I don't know why we are not yet getting the market reaction we are expecting, which is totally the opposite in Cebu, where Rabbit Advertising started,” he says. Aside from ad placemats, QMA Outsource also does other kinds of “below-the-line” marketing projects like websites, graphic design, corporate giveaways, printing solutions and other things. Carl says he is very much a willing student, eager to earn from Willy Arcilla how he can turn around the business this year, which is his “make or break” year. If you believe Carl should be included in our Batch 2008 class, vote for him by commenting on this blog. You may also want to read the profiles of the first seven candidates. Konsepto Pat’s Floral Supplies Comteq Computer & Business College Mandilu Jyouhou(joho) Technology Inc. Fountain Cool No More Slipping, Inc. (Business Mentoring is a one-year project by Open For Business of INQUIRER.net. We are choosing eight businesses from the ones who applied by email, who will be mentored by Willy Arcilla, regional director of ZMG Signium Ward Howell and president of Business Mentors Inc. Willy is an industrial economist from the UA&P-CRC with a 25 year career in corporate planning, marketing, sales and general management across Asia-Pacific, and is a recipient of the Agora Award for Marketing Excellence.)

Melani and Marvin Natores have a very nice problem – demand for the product and services they have been selling for the past two years is TMTH. That’s American Idolish for “too much to handle” in case you haven’t heard. :-D An accountant and a chemist by profession in their early thirties, the couple set up an event-souvenir business that provide onsite creations as take-home gifts like photo magnets, bag tags, key chains. The way Filipinos have gone crazy over the digital revolution, it’s not that hard to understand why their company, Konsepto, is very much in demand. Divisoria giveaways for weddings are uber-tacky, chocolates are nice but you can buy them anywhere. Now, instant photographs of the event itself…that’s kewl! Even for corporate events and big seminars or symposia, these digital lootbags meet the craving for personalization and customization so widespread these days. People are always looking for something that is uniquely theirs. I tell you it’s a rebellion from mass production, China-style. So Melani and Marvin are applying for business mentoring to learn from Willy Arcilla how to make sure their unique ideas are protected, and yet be able to expand their business to Visayas and Mindanao. It’s a bittersweet place to be – they want to keep the technology safe but know they have to let more and more people see the technology so they can expand. Their new product, Fotoloco, for example, is a Fotome-ish type of contraption that many yuppies are now getting familiar with. It’s the product itself that they can’t hide in the backroom, and yet putting the booth itself out in the public eye raises the chance of getting whammed by a serious copycat. Watch a video of Melani and Marvin on their young business. If you think Melani and Marvin have what it takes to be part of the business mentoring project of INQUIRER.net, vote for them by commenting on this blog. You may also want to check the previous articles for my blog posts on the first six contestants. Pat’s Floral Supplies Comteq Computer & Business College Mandilu Jyouhou(joho) Technology Inc. Fountain Cool No More Slipping, Inc. (Business Mentoring is a one-year project by Open For Business of INQUIRER.net. We are choosing eight businesses from the ones that applied by email, who will be mentored by Willy Arcilla, regional director of ZMG Signium Ward Howell and president of Business Mentors Inc. Willy is an industrial economist from the UA&P-CRC with a 25 year career in corporate planning, marketing, sales and general management across Asia-Pacific, and is a recipient of the Agora Award for Marketing Excellence.)

These days in the flower business, the scenario is hardly rosy. There’s cutthroat competition for diminishing clients and in Dangwa market, where rows and rows of beautiful fresh flowers can be seen every day, the hunger for buyers can be felt in every corner. I love the luxury of shopping around for the best prices in Dangwa and making ruthless demands to stall owners to drop their price tags. But during the plenary session of business mentoring recently, I learned that the other side of the fence could be thorny. How does one business differentiate itself from the next one? Do values still matter in this kind of environment? Jay and Pat Gina (so sorry! my fault) Domingo, owners of Pat’s Floral Supplies, have downsized with much thought and care when others would have forced growth by sheer size. And they have kept their values intact, deciding not to directly compete with the small storeowners who buy flower supplies from them. But downsizing doesn’t mean sitting back on their butts waiting for manna to fall, Jay says. Jay and Pat Gina, trained in business management and investing, knew that a well-crafted strategy will eventually bring them to where the grass will be greener and the flowers are all a-bloom. They are hoping that being mentored by Open For Business consultant Willy Arcilla will improve their sales and marketing strategies. Pat Gina remembers what it was like when her grandmother, Pat, was the only one selling flowers in Quiapo back in the 70s. The flower business is deeply woven in her family’s history. No wonder that for the couple, failure is not an option. Watch the video, and see how Jay and Pat Gina are so passionate about their business. (Click here to watch the video.) These days when marital relationships are stretched in all directions by conflicting goals and clashing values, it was refreshing to see a couple dedicating their life’s work to their four children. Pardon the cliche but if you watch them, you'll get the sense they are really in this together, through good and bad. (This is the most emotionally charged video in the bunch.) Vote for Jay and Pat Gina by commenting in this blog post. This week, we will decide who makes it to our Batch 2008 business mentoring activity. Good luck! (Business Mentoring is a one-year project by Open For Business of INQUIRER.net. We are choosing eight businesses from the ones that applied by email, who will be mentored by Willy Arcilla, regional director of ZMG Signium Ward Howell and president of Business Mentors Inc. Willy is an industrial economist from the UA&P-CRC with a 25 year career in corporate planning, marketing, sales and general management across Asia-Pacific, and is a recipient of the Agora Award for Marketing Excellence. Click here for more information on our business mentoring project.)

Picture this: Subic Bay and Clark Field as the business process outsourcing center in Asia. These places are very accessible with cheap flights, a huge airport that’s only a two-to-three-hour drive from Metro Manila’s business centers in case meetings are set in the city, and on very good road, I must add. Add to these tax benefits and you’re all set! Sounds like a nifty proposition, and John Bayarong, dean of Comteq Computer and Business College, is raring to supply companies with the brainpower they need to make this happen. You could say John is dreaming big but experts say that is the mark of an entrepreneur. Right now, Comteq has 300 enrollees; John’s long-term goal is to have 500 and cap it at that level. “That will be the maximum. After that, we will just concentrate on quality,” he said at the plenary session of Open For Business’ Business Mentoring activity. ‘Lean and mean’ -- that’s his strategy. John said he won’t be training young Filipinos to answer the phone and talk to an irate consumer thousands of miles away. He wants to grow animation and graphics experts, payroll and accounting consultants in his brainy garden. It’s a small garden as of now. John says it feels like a “mom and pop” school at the moment. But the dream is to grow and establish the system so that in 12 or 16 months, the school would have grown at a level fit for franchising – with the help of business mentoring under master mentor Willy Arcilla. If you want John to be included among the Top Eight, vote for him by commenting on this blog entry. Watch John talk about the business of education here. (Business Mentoring is a one-year project by Open For Business of INQUIRER.net. We are choosing eight businesses from the ones that applied by email, who will be mentored by Willy Arcilla, regional director of ZMG Signium Ward Howell and president of Business Mentors Inc. Willy is an industrial economist from the UA&P-CRC with a 25 year career in corporate planning, marketing, sales and general management across Asia-Pacific, and is a recipient of the Agora Award for Marketing Excellence. Read about the first four candidates here, here, here and here. Click here for more background on business mentoring.)

Social entrepreneurship [soh-shuhl ahn-truh-pruh-nur-ship]. 1. Making money while doing good. For Chi Burgos and friend Aldrin, their vision for social entrepreneurship will make money while doing good – while smelling good! (Watch a video of Chi and Aldrin talking about their business.) You see, Chi and Aldrin’s start-up business called “Mandilu,” which is Kapampangan for “take a bath”, sells fragrant, handmade, organic soap bars made by an indigent community in Antipolo, Rizal. The makers of these soap were trained by Catholic missionaries and they used to sell their soap bars to the United States. After the 9/11 attacks on New York City, however, they lost that market and have found it very difficult to get back on their feet. Enter Chi and Aldrin who, last year, were looking for ways to enrich their lives with meaning. They were both thinking of setting up a business and doing something in the health and wellness sector. Aldrin said this was his way of going beyond the books and changing the Filipino mindset of studying just to get a desk job. Chi found a study at the Department of Trade and Industry that confirmed the good prospects in aromatherapy. Their little village could now make around 15,000 bars of soap a month, with scents that would make mornings refreshing and the evenings cool and calming. David Bornstein, author of How to Change the World: Social Entrepreneurs and the Power of New Ideas, said:

“Social entrepreneurs identify resources where people only see problems. They view the villagers as the solution, not the passive beneficiary. They begin with the assumption of competence and unleash resources in the communities they are serving.”

The two young social entrepreneurs are now working on their packaging, sales and marketing strategies, all the time funneling profit into the community school and health center. Their long-term goal: establish Mandilu as a global brand. Coffee-scented soap in the morning and camomile in the evening, anyone? Willy Arcilla thought it was a pioneering concept, but we would like to hear about what YOU think. If you want to vote for these social entrepreneurs to be included in Open for Business’ top eight, just comment on this blog. (Business Mentoring is a one-year project by Open For Business of INQUIRER.net. We are choosing eight businesses from the ones that applied by email, who will be mentored for one year by Willy Arcilla, regional director of ZMG Signium Ward Howell and president of Business Mentors Inc. Willy is an industrial economist from the UA&P-CRC with a 25 year career in corporate planning, marketing, sales and general management across Asia-Pacific, and is a recipient of the Agora Award for Marketing Excellence. Read about the first three candidates here, here and here. Click here for more background on business mentoring. Watch a video of the first plenary session here.)

Outsourcing is the name of the game for many new entrepreneurs these days and for Rose Ann “Bing” Tomagan-Cruz, it’s an exciting time to be smack in the middle of the growing sector. It all began with a “need” – the best way to start a business. Bing’s former schoolmate and friend who works in Japan saw that the company she worked for needed a good payroll system. Surprisingly for a very IT-savvy country, Bing said many Japanese companies still use MS-DOS programs for their payroll system. Since she has computer programming background, Bing agreed to set up the business here in the Philippines. That was only a little more than a year ago. It would have been cool to say ‘everything went well after that’, but that would be like hoping that the ZTE investigation will solve the country’s ills tomorrow. Entrepreneurship requires patience to travel the growth and learning curve with grace and humor. Bing told Willy and the business mentoring group that she needed help with pooling manpower, improving product quality, overall management of the business and sales and marketing. If chosen for the one-year business mentoring exercise for INQUIRER.net, Bing said she wanted to share her experience as well as learn from the travails of the entire group. If you want Bing to be part of Batch 2008, just type away a comment in this blog. You may want to read about the two other contestants here and here. My previous entries for the business mentoring activity can be read here. Watch out for the voice file on Bing to be uploaded soon!

There’s something about listening to a 20-something dream about becoming a CEO by age 30 that brings out extremes in people. Franco Mesina is a classic example, and he is probably used to getting the full range of reactions from admiration to rejection. The far right side of the spectrum -- pessimism from other people or even outright rejection of his dreams -- don’t seem to have any effect on him. Even before he graduated from college, Franco has already set up a water-refilling station business with his dad. But while the business flourished, he had no plans of stopping there. With his girlfriend Abby, he stumbled on a business opportunity when they met an importer/exporter of equipment for water refilling stations. They convinced the businessman to take a chance on them, thus the birth of a new company with a business to business (B2B) strategy, aiming to be a major supplier of good-quality equipment for water stations and institutional clients all over the country. The way Franco declared his goals of becoming a CEO of a nationwide water company by age 30 – that’s less than 10 years from now – makes one think that meeting the big businessman who gave him and his girlfriend a break was not a happy coincidence. He looked like someone who make things happen with sheer determination. Franco and Abby are now busy with three fledgling companies – a supplier of water refilling station equipment, Icylicious (snow cones from clean water) and a packaging company. If you want to vote for Franco and Abby to be one of eight groups of business owners who will get advice from Willy Arcilla for one year, just comment on this article ☺ Read about contender number one, No Slipping Inc.'s Wilson Sy, here. Read about the first plenary session in my two blog previous posts here and here. Click here to watch a video of Franco and Abby.

Wilson Sy is in love with entrepreneurship. He loves to work with ideas and he loves putting these ideas to the test. But he is also smart enough to see a business mentoring activity as an opportunity to “see what’s out there” that can help him up the ante a little bit more. Currently, he is nurturing two companies: the master franchisor for Swisher, which offers professional deep cleaning of toilet fixtures, toilet bowls, urinals and sinks. He says his company's goal is to elevate the standards of restroom hygiene in the country. You've probably seen some of his products in malls around Metro Manila. To add more value to the company’s services, the company also provides soap dispensers, and air fresheners. (No, he is not related to the former Philippine Stock Exchange chairman who goes by the same name). His new company, No More Slipping Inc., sells safety chemicals for floors, toilets, kitchen, malls or any slippery surface to prevent accidents. The company name presents an amusing challenge: people think it’s “No More Sleeping, Inc.” Umm, "anti-sleeping" will be quite a challenge to sell! But Wilson is not about to give up, believing deeply that Filipinos will benefit from putting safety first.

“Here in the Philippines, the mentality is that (safety) is not a big thing. That’s what I am trying to take away. I’m pushing for being more safety conscious,” Wilson explains.

In his introductory video, he avoided revealing his age but says he wants to retire hopefully by age 60 from actively managing his businesses, but still continuing to work. “Hopefully, I can do what we have been planning to do, which is to set up a foundation for premature babies,” he says. (Video posted below.) In true “Reality TV” style, come and vote on whether you think Wilson Sy and his company should make it to the eight businesses that will benefit from a one-year mentoring activity here in Open For Business! You might want to see my previous posts that announced who will mentor the shortlisted INQUIRER.net readers and see the photos and video of the plenary session two weeks ago.