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.

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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.
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(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.
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(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.

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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.

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