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

FRANCO MESINA is in an enviable position. At twenty-something, his problem is how to keep up with the success of Icylicious, his snow cone business, and how to sustain the seasonal business of FranzAvian Trading Co. Ltd., which supplies equipment to water refilling stations. Franco has been running his businesses with his girlfriend Abby Sarmiento, and they sat down with mentor Willy Arcilla for advice last March for their first mentoring session.

Because they had space in front of Fountain Cool, the water refilling station in Binondo he put up with his dad, Franco thought of selling something there. Lots of young people pass by on their way to school.

And so Franco and Abby started Icylicious just three months ago. They registered the business with DTI and SEC. They got an electric ice crusher and sourced ready-to-use syrups for the snow cones. To distinguish themselves from other snow cone vendors, Franco and Abby made sure the syrups are delicious and do not leave discoloration in the teeth and mouth. They would sell as much as 1,000 cups of 6-oz. styro cups a day for P15 a cup, so the profits are coming in swiftly. Franco foresees the return on investment to happen in five to six months’ time.

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I was craving for ice cream yesterday, so I excitedly approached a Nestle scoopery stand to buy two big sugarcones of ice cream for me and my friend.

To my surprise, the girl at the counter refused to sell us big sugarcones. She could only sell two small cones for P10 each because that was the standard promo of the day.

“Can’t you sell two big cones to us? Just charge us more?” we ask, with our tastebuds already complaining about the delay.

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(Very few people can resist something when it’s out of the ordinary. Photo from AFP)

Customers like nice surprises. Shopping at Iora one day, the lady at the counter packed my blouses in a nice cloth bag instead of the usual plastic or paper bag. It probably cost the store a few more pesos than the plastic or paper ones, but it certainly made me remember the brand and decide to come back again.

Of course, the nice packaging wouldn’t matter one bit if the products they sold were no good. But since I loved the blouses, it made Iora stand out from the crowd. This reminded of an article recently published in the Philippine Daily Inquirer that says “To keep customers loyal, offer more than what is expected.”

NOW that dollar-spending foreign tourists are rediscovering the Philippines, local retailers and mall operators are bound to experience a noticeable increase in sales as well as competition from one another.
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Great article today from SME Insight. Read the excerpt:

There’s a new food craze in town, and if you haven’t heard of it yet, you’re either out of touch or you’re getting too old. That’s because since 2006, many young kids, from grade school to college, have been saving up their baon for bowls of cereal they can buy in school. And a lot of yuppies troop to the nearest outlet for their cereal fix too.

So what’s with the bowl of cereal, you ask. At Cerealicious, a cereal bowl is not just a cereal bowl. True, cereals are drowned in milk here, but the toppings go from fruits to chocolates to puddings to coffee jelly and more. In fact, Cerealicious offers 40 cereals and 40 toppings and you can mix them any way you want to or go for any of the 20 certified “blockbuster” mixes cheerily named after blockbuster movies. Thus, you can munch on Charlie and the Chocnut Factory today, order Nutting Hill tomorrow, and snack on Oreo Afraid of the Dark the day after.

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Success takes team effort. We see this in nature all the time. Human beings, however, sometimes step on others to succeed, not knowing that doing so takes him far away from real success.

Not in Open For Business. We just announced today that marketing professional Willy E. Arcilla will mentor eight INQUIRER.net readers who need help in growing their businesses, for one year, for free.

Read our news article on the business mentoring activity:

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