While sipping barako coffee today at Figaro on Congressional Avenue in Quezon City, I thought about how the area has changed in the past 10 years or so. You see, I live in the area, and have seen how this extension of Congressional Avenue has changed from a grassland occupied by squatters to a busy concrete road connecting to Mindanao and Visayas Avenues.

In the early 90s, Congressional Avenue ended just after the road leading to the Our Lady of Perpetual Help Parish and Congressional Subdivision in Project 8. Now, you need to take a jeep or drive a car to reach the end of it at Visayas Avenue in Project 6. Where before, there was cogon everywhere, now there are gas stations, banks, schools, salons, spas, supermarkets, a bookstore, strip malls, fast-food outlets and restaurants. In fact, when I need to take a quick break from working at home, I head off to this area for a quick meal or just to browse at the bookstore. It’s just ten minutes away from our house.

When Cherry Foodarama put up a supermarket here in the mid-90s, people at first wondered if it will survive. Most people did their grocery shopping at SM City North EDSA. But now Cherry Foodarama has won a steady clientele, and the traffic is terrible around it on Christmas Eve and New Year’s Eve, when everyone it seems is shopping for Noche Buena here.

A few years ago, I thought to myself that the area lacked only one thing: a decent coffee shop. A place where one can talk with friends over coffee or tea, or where one can work quietly on a laptop or read a book. I remembered thinking how it would be good to get a franchise of a coffee shop and put up one here.

But since I’m really more a journalist than an entrepreneur, I didn’t give it much thought. Well well, Starbucks and Figaro have since established a presence, and people just love hanging out in these two coffee shops.

So, my point is, if you spot a business opportunity, explore it, and if you feel there’s a future, take that opportunity. Just a decade ago, Congressional Avenue was not a “happening” place. Now it is.