by Ryan Edward Chua  

QUEZON CITY, Philippines—When he was a freshman, Ricardo Lim III asked his father to buy him a car. The response, as usual, was a no.

“Instead of giving you a car, I will give you this money, these equipment,” Ricardo recalls his father saying. “Start your own business.”

What was given to him instead of a car was the capital and equipment that would pave the way for Matcha Green Tea, one of the biggest and probably most popular stalls at the Ateneo de Manila University’s John Gokongwei Student Enterprise Center (JSEC) or the SOM Mall.

A computer enthusiast, Ricardo never imagined himself becoming a businessman. Today, however, this Management junior who has just turned 18 already earns an average of P30,000 weekly, and has ten employees working for him.

Having no car, it now seems to him, wasn’t so bad after all.

Green tea and frappe

The store sells pure green tea from Japanese-grown matcha leaves topped with frappe made of different fruit flavors. Among their customers’ favorites, Ricardo says, is the mango frappe, the baseline flavor he himself developed before starting the business.

The idea came from a matcha expo in Japan which he and his father attended. The add-ons like frappe, however, were all Ricardo’s ideas.

“I decided, maybe this one will work on tea,” he says. “You don’t need to really switch in between a hot cup of tea and a cold frappuccino.”

Now on its second year, Matcha, which has another branch at Pearl Drive, Pasig City attracts many customers, from health buffs to those who are simply curious to try green tea without the bitter taste.

Pulling them in

Ricardo says that one of his biggest challenges is to attract more people to patronize green tea, especially in a culture which he observes is so tied to coffee.

But, like a true entrepreneur, he faces the challenge through innovation. For instance, the store now sells cafe matcha—coffee and tea in one. Matcha, he says, has also been promoting a healthy image through promotional ads that his sister made.

His sister, a Management Economics major, now owns the business with him.

“It’s the curiosity that pulled [our customers] in, but I don’t want to pull them in just because of curiosity. I want them to stay because this is healthy,” he says.

Not easy

The experience has thus far taught Ricardo not just the nitty-gritty of running a business, but the value of being one’s own boss.

“I’ve been taught, because I come from a Chinese background, that family is the most important thing,” he says. “If you’re your own boss just like my father, you dictate your own time and you have time for your family as well.”

Thus, Ricardo plans to continue the business and expand it even after graduating from college. A third branch, he says, is coming soon.

For what he has accomplished so far, this Atenean entrepreneur must be really proud.

“If I was not blue,” he says, chuckling, “there would be no green.”

by Ryan Edward Chua 

QUEZON CITY, Philippines—He entered college not knowing what course to take. He took up Management at the Ateneo de Manila University, but still did not know what to do. To Kirk Damasco—and perhaps to many people his age—the future used to look vague and shapeless.

Not until he took the plunge and started his own business.

Back in grade school, Kirk, who hails from Iloilo, sold fruits like santol and other things to his classmates at the orders of his dad.

Today, he owns a food business along with three others at the John Gokongwei Student Enterprise Center (JSEC) or SOM Mall called “Kaon Ta,” a Hiligaynon sentence meaning, “Let’s eat.” He also prints and sells t-shirts.

Since then, Kirk says that he has started to discover business as his calling.

Entrepreneurial challenge

It all started when he joined the Entrepreneurial Challenge of the Ateneo Management Association, the home organization of Management majors, during his junior year. This yearlong competition had him and his teammates sell foods, t-shirts, a fashion line, and promote a band.

After the contest, he and a friend thought of pushing through with a t-shirt business, seeing how profitable it was.

His experience in the competition taught him a lot of things, like looking for and contacting suppliers. During the contest, their t-shirt supplier and printer was in Tarlac, until they decided to find a better one by scouring the busy streets of Divisoria more than 10 times.

“What we had from the experience was the experience itself,” he says.

Their first venture into real business was when they opened a stall at the Eagles of Hope Bazaar, a fundraising activity of the Ateneo Alumni Association, in November 2006. They earned P26,000 in four days, half of which they kept as profit.

They soon used their earnings in the bazaar to finance Kaon Ta at JSEC, and to print shirts for organizations on campus.

Easy and hard

Owning and maintaining a business is actually easy, says Kirk. “If you really want it, everything will follow.”

“But being a student,” he says, “makes it a struggle because you have to juggle and balance everything: academics, orgs, business.”

Running a food business is particularly challenging, Kirk adds, because one has to constantly ensure food safety, cleanliness, and a good image for the business.

Motivation

The future used to be so uncertain for him, but discovering entrepreneurship as a call is beginning to bring things to shape, he says.

Kirk attributes his newfound passion to the John Gokongwei School of Management (JGSOM), which he kids has “brainwashed” students like him to engage in entrepreneurship.

“Why don’t you create work, since you’re Atenean and you have the capabilities and the chance to do it?” he quotes JGSOM officials as telling them. “You’ll not only help yourself, you’ll also help society as a whole.”

Kirk wants to continue the business even after graduating, but recognizes the challenges that await outside the university.

By Michael Simmons, New York University

According to a 1997 Gallup study, 7 out of 10 high school students say they want to start their own business. And why not? Starting and running your own business while still in school is a great opportunity to grow, learn, network, and accumulate wealth. However, only a tiny proportion of students actually start a business.

Because of a lack of direct experience with entrepreneurship, students develop unfounded beliefs about it that can stop them from starting a company. In this article, I will address the “The 7 Myths of Student Entrepreneurship”:

1. I don’t have enough money - Many of America’s largest corporations started on a shoestring budget out of somebody’s garage. A successful Web development company a friend and I started in high school cost only $80 to set up. To compensate for a low budget, you have to be creative, resourceful and make realistic plans. To get in the right frame of mind, you may want to read Seth Godin’s e-booklet, The Bootstrapper’s Bible, available on Amazon.com.

2. I don’t have enough time - Many of America’s largest corporations were started in people’s spare time. Perfect examples are Hewlett-Packard, Microsoft, and Dell, all of which were started on part-time schedules. All of us have 24 hours in a day. If the business is important to you, you will prioritize it over less important activities and create a business model that fits your schedule. For example, one student at California State University started a business teaching financial skills to high school students during summers. With the money he earned from starting the business, he is putting himself and his brother through school in addition to paying off all of his other expenses.

3. I’m not smart enough - Says who? SATs and grades have very little correlation to people’s potential to be successful entrepreneurs. In fact, “50% of millionaire entrepreneurs never graduated college and 75% of U.S. presidents were in the lower-half club in high school,” according to Mathew Lesko in his book, Free Money to Change Your Life. Some examples of businesses started by individuals while still in school are Microsoft, Dell, Napster, Netscape, Fedex, Apple, Tripod, and TheGlobe.com.

4. I’m not creative so I can’t come up with good ideas - There are many books in the library or book store with low-cost business ideas. One specific book of ideas for student entrepreneurs is Generation Inc.: The 100 Best Businesses for Young Entrepreneurs. Or you can find young entrepreneurs at your school or in the media and ask them how they came up with their business idea. Networking with other youth entrepreneurs will also adjust your own mindset to be open to ideas for a business. Also, there are a lot of business ideas already out there that work, that you could replicate or modify slightly.

5. I can’t because the economy is bad - Many of the most successful corporations were started during recessions. During recessions talent is easier and cheaper to find, rent is lower, and there is less competition. All of this adds up to recessions being one of the most opportune times to start a business.

6. I don’t have enough experience - Microsoft, Dell, Kinkos, and Yahoo are just a few of the many successful companies started by people with no business experience. Your experience can certainly affect the success of your company, but you have to start somewhere. If your first business fails financially, then youstill will have gained the unique experience, learning, network and growth from running the business that will give you an edge over your peers. I’ve heard many people say they’d rather employ somebody with a failed business than somebody with no experience at all. Companies would rather you fail and learn on your dime than on their dime.

7. I can’t because I’m afraid of failing – According to most statistics, the majority of businesses fail financially after the first few years. In fact, the most successful people in the long-term often have the most failures in their life. So, it is OK to fail. The key is whether you fall forward. You can fall forward in front of your other classmates with the network, experience, and personal growth you got from starting your business. According to Napoleon Hill, a bestselling author who researched the habits of extremely succesful people such as Andrew Carnegie, Thomas Edison, and Henry Ford, “Every failure has within it the seeds for equal or greater success.” It is your decision whether you plant these seeds.

Re-published with permission of InCharge Education Foundation, Inc., Oct/Nov 2003 issue of YOUNG MONEY, www.youngmoney.com.

by Ryan Edward Chua 

QUEZON CITY, Philippines—When the Chinese meet a few years after graduating from college, they would often ask each other, “What business are you into?” Filipinos, on the other hand, would ask, “Where do you work?” if not “Do you have work?”

More than being a racial issue, this classic anecdote points to something many Filipinos are said to lack: an entrepreneurial spirit. In a country where the economy is unstable and many are unemployed, this may be unfortunate.

“Pretty soon,” said the tycoon John Gokongwei in his commencement speech before the Ateneo de Manila University’s class of 2004, “we will become a nation that buys everything and produces practically nothing.”

To this grim vision, Gokongwei’s solution, and that of others as well, is that the country should have more entrepreneurs, people bold enough to take risks in setting up businesses that will create jobs—people brave enough to be their own boss.

Starting young

“We need more entrepreneurs and more positive mindset, because that is what will bring hope to many people,” says Philippine Center for Entrepreneurship (PCE) Executive Director Ramon Lopez.

And the best place to foster entrepreneurship, Lopez says, is nowhere else but school. Students should be encouraged to be entrepreneurs early on.

“It pays to start young,” Lopez says. “You’ve got nothing to lose, [just] everything to gain.”

Lopez, who holds a top position at RFM Corporation, a food and beverage company, defines entrepreneurship as a mindset or attitude of finding opportunities in all things. This does not necessarily mean setting up a business, although doing so is the commonest and most concrete expression of what Lopez calls the “entrepreneurial spirit.”

“Setting up new businesses can create more jobs for our country,” says Michael Tan, director of the Ateneo’s Management program, in an e-mail interview. “With more jobs available, the supply of money and our economy will improve.”

Ervin Jader, a Management senior at the Ateneo, plans to work for a multinational company when he graduates. But this will just be his stepping stone “to learn the tricks of the trade,” as he still aims to build his own business after three to five years.

This is what Gokongwei emphasized in his speech. “If you dream of creating something great, do not let a 9-to-5 job—even a high-paying one—lull you into a complacent, comfortable life. Let that high-paying job propel you toward entrepreneurship instead,” he said.

As president of the Ateneo Management Association (AMA), the Ateneo’s home organization for Management majors, Jader observes that many students have the entrepreneurial spirit and are able to come up with brilliant business ideas. Rarely do these ideas get implemented, however.

“There are really many good proposals and ideas, but the sad thing is, they remain in the library, they get stacked in a shelf,” he says. “A few people have the courage to really go into it.”

At the Ateneo

Various efforts to encourage entrepreneurship among students—from creating business proposals to actually implementing them—have been in place at the Ateneo de Manila.

Jader says that AMA, for its part, has adopted entrepreneurship as a new vision two years ago. One of their projects, in fact, is the AMA Entrepreneurial Challenge, a yearlong competition among aspiring student entrepreneurs.

The John Gokongwei School of Management (JGSOM) also has the SOM Business Accelerator, a business incubation facility that gives students the chance to design and implement their own businesses guided by business educators and practitioners.

Perhaps the biggest testament to the University’s efforts in promoting student entrepreneurship, Ateneans say, is the so-called “entrepreneurial laboratory”—the John Gokongwei Student Enterprise Center, popularly known as the SOM Mall.

Formally opened in February 2007, this student mall, the first of its kind, has 12 stalls exclusively for student-owned businesses. Students are allowed to lease a stall from one semester to a school year, and may renew their contract depending on different conditions.

This proves that the University is serious in promoting and supporting student entrepreneurship, says Tan. And doing so is not that hard, he adds, because “[students] have the entrepreneurial spirit within themselves.”

Improving trends

This spirit may just be within many Filipinos today, if a worldwide survey is to be believed.

Lopez cites the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor, whose initial results show that Filipinos rank third among 40 nationalities when it comes to having the desire to start a business.

“Filipinos are not anymore contented with just a secure job with benefits,” Tan says. “Filipinos now understand and believe in the power of entrepreneurship.”

It might not take too long, after all, before Filipinos, a few years after college graduation, would start asking each other, “How’s your business, big boss?”