(This post marks the first entry of Karen Galarpe, the new blogger for Open For Business. Karen is the editor of SME Insight, the Inquirer group’s magazine for entrepreneurs, and has been a journalist for almost two decades now. She has written extensively on entrepreneurship in many different magazines and books like The Ultimate Guide To Starting Your Own Business and has been a consulting editor of Entrepreneur. Karen is bringing in her extensive experience on writing about entrepreneurship and is a great addition to the INQUIRER.net team. Welcome, Karen! — Ma. Salve Duplito)
SOME years ago, in an interview with Good Housekeeping magazine, Sharon Cuneta advised the GH reader what to do if she had P50,000: Put half of it in a high-yielding account in the bank, place about 10 to 15 percent in a savings or checking account for emergency, then start a small-scale business selling cakes (if the reader loves to bake) with a startup capital of P5,000.
Many entrepreneurs started out this way, putting up a business they love with a small capital. And they have found out that the rewards are good — money will flow in most cases, and they’ll get to do what they love to do.
Take my high school batchmate Analyn, for instance. She’s good at cooking and so she started selling chicken pastel and baked macaroni from her home on a small capital. Soon she got a small space in Greenhills Theater Mall and the Peach Box business was born. Analyn tells me that among her regular customers are showbiz people, with whom she’s now on first name basis. Her business, which she runs with her sister-in-law, Joan, is growing, and now she has other products as well, like kesong puti made from pure carabao milk from the family business, Arce Dairy.
My other friend Jun is so high-tech (and I’m so low-tech) that I had to ask him more than once to explain to me what business he got into with his friends. It turns out that they do IT stuff such as making billing software, among other business solutions they provide through their company, Seer Technologies Inc. And time and again he has told me how happy he is to be doing what he loves and doing it for himself — no more employment in other companies for this fellow.
So why be an entrepreneur? It’s to do what you love to do. And I found out, through years of covering interesting people in my work as a journalist, that such passion is the one that will spell success in business. Indeed, when you do what you love to do, you excel in it, and in the process, you help enrich other people’s lives. The money will just follow.
In this blog, Open for Business, we’ll be featuring passionate business people and find out how they run their businesses. We’ll follow the travails of the winners in our mentoring contest and see what will happen when they implement mentor Willy Arcilla’s tips. We’ll talk about entrepreneurs’ concerns and what must be done to address them. We’ll talk business — plain and simple.
Thanks to Salve for giving me the opportunity to blog here. She has done a wonderful job — I’m sure you’ll agree. Now let’s take Open for Business to the next level. Jump in on the discussions!
13 Feedbacks on "Why be an entrepreneur?"
@play » INQUIRER.net welcomes new Open for Business blogger
[...] here’s an excerpt from Karen’s first post: So why be an entrepreneur? It’s to do what you love to do. And I found out, through years of [...]
chat
Can I just say kudos to Megastar Sharon Cuneta for recommending some sort of diversification and safety net to her fans in addition to the entrepreneurial support! Some budding entrepreneurs forget that they have to set up a safety net for themselves first and not put 100% of their money on entrepreneurial ventures which typically have some level of risk involved
Mitzi
I agree with Ms. Karen about doing business, even if one has to start it small. I myself, started my own tutorial business a year ago, and I must say, I am enjoying it more than any other job I had in the past. It is hard to learn the process, especially of sole proprietorship; but then, one must be willing to exert effort and be resourceful enough to achieve set goals in being self-employed.
Karen Galarpe
That’s true, Chat. The fact is, not all businesses make it, so it’s necessary to have some funds tucked away as safety net.
Mitzi, just call me Karen.
I’m glad you have pursued your passion. 
AZ
I hope that this blog would encourage more entrepreneurs to share their experiences (joys and pains of setting up your own biz). In the Philippines, establishing network is probably one of the most important ways to survive. Without “friends” within and outside of your industry, it would be very difficult to manage. Hearing inspiring stories from different people would really help. Hope to read more blogs…
mandilu
It would be so nice to read stories about people doing their work/business passionately. I,for one, love to read success stories, because in a way, it guides me that trials and challenges are part of every business. It somehow helps me to keep going. I’ll look forward to reading your blogs!
Paul
this is great. i know this is a cliche but as they say, if you are actually doing something you like, it’s as if something you are not working at all. yun ang pangarap ko.
i think it is also right to start small — at least for those like me who can’t just rosk everything. start small, but think or plan globally. (what i like about cliches is that they are cliches because they are tru — tried and tested.)
montoy
I think the general advice is to really start small. When I was convinced by a retailing supervisor of a magnolia fresh chicken distributor to open a meat shop I only started with one freezer and zero working capital. I did not get into the expensive franchising business of top meat and frozen products suppliers. just trial and error. Now three years after, and having lost thousands of pesos to an absconding employee, I already have seven freezers storing variety of frozen products. Sales and bottom line have improved. But it is still a long way to go.
Karen Galarpe
Thanks for your comments, AZ, Mandilu, Paul and Montoy. I wish you well in all that you do.
Jamie
I saw your website at http://blogs.inquirer.net/openforbusiness/2008/04/01/why-be-an-entrepreneur/ and wanted to recommend adding http://www.wikipatents.com to the page. WikiPatents has an extensive database of patents open for public comment on the internet, free patent translation into multiple languages, and allows PDF downloading of patents in addition to other free resources. It is a helpful site for anyone with patent related interests.
Have a great day,
Jamie
businessman
Reading success stories from successful entrepreneurs truly inspires one to start their own business.
Some Thoughts and Blogs on Entrepreneurship by Kelvin Legal « Entrepreneur The Arts Blog
[...] Open for Business – a new blog by the editor of SME Insight which is published by the Inquirer. New but very [...]
dennis croay
Very nice information and well laid out site. Thanks for this.
But whatever it is! I am grateful for the info on your site!
There are still a few things that i don’t fully understand but i’ll try my best to understand
Please Leave a Comment!