“FAMILIARITY breeds contempt,” so goes the well-known proverb. To some married couples, this holds true so they make sure they’re out of each other’s hair during the day — the husband off to work, and the wife off to her own job or home duties.

But then there are those couples who somehow make their relationship work even in the workplace.

Take marketing guru and popular author Josiah Go, chairman and chief marketing strategist of Mansmith and Fielders Inc., and his wife Chiqui Escareal-Go, president and chief sales strategist of the same organization. At Thursday’s Women to Women Mentoring Conference organized by the Women’s Business Council at the Philippine Trade Training Center, the couple revealed that not only do they have a good marriage; they have a good working relationship as well.

How do they do it? The Gos tell us their secrets:

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UPDATE: Editor’s note: Added video taken by INQUIRER.net business editor Ma. Salve Duplito.

Attention to detail, ability to multi-task, tendency to think hard – many times – before taking a big leap, and that thing called women’s intuition. These things have allowed Filipinas for many decades to excel in entrepreneurship.

With the changes of the times, women have become more outspoken, assertive and confident. They are more vocal and visible, proving all the more that in the coming years more and more women will be entering the world of business.

The Good News Kapihan yesterday in Makati City was bustling with women power. The speakers themselves were the statement.

In this video, Elizabeth Lee (left), executive vice president of Universal Motors Corp. and president of the Chamber of Automotive Manufacturers of the Philippines, and Ma. Aurora Geotina-Garcia, chairman and president of CibaCapital, explain why more women are going into and becoming successful in entrepreneurship.

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(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.
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