I once had a business that I didn’t enjoy. I went through the motions of wooing customers, impressing suppliers, but I was miserable. I eventually sold the business and started a new one. My current business involves children. I not only sell toys but my company organizes activities, shows, and parties for kids. I enjoy what I do. Nothing beats the pure joy that I see in my customers faces when they receive one of our products or attend one of our events. In other words, I have fun!

How many of us want a business that is fun? I think all of us do. But the reality is that we do not believe that business is fun.

When we think about fun, we are really talking about enjoyment. Did you know that majority of successful entrepreneurs enjoy what they are doing. They enjoy it so much that they are truly passionate about it.

Melanie Ng, the face behind the Premium Concepts lifestyle boutiques as well as the newly launched Sandee, is the embodiment of somebody who enjoys what she does. In her own words, “I love to shop, so instead of just shopping for myself, I might as well shop to sell!” She adds, “When you have a business and you feel very passionately about it, you will do everything in your power to make it work. You will use all means to make sure that it will be a success. If you love what you are doing, naturally success will follow and with it the profit needed to sustain a business.”

Melanie opened her first Premium Concepts lifestyle boutique at the Ayala Center 13 years ago. Today it has grown to a chain of 9 stores. The idea for the business literally came as a Christmas surprise. She shares with her mother a passion for collecting. Her mother had the most extensive collection of Christmas Village houses that she would set up every yuletide season. One time, Melanie chanced upon a supplier of Charles Dickens Christmas houses. She made a deal and ended up with a whole second floor full of of houses. As word got out, people began to drop by to buy. Her husband Wilson, suggested adding Christmas trees as it was difficult to find in Cebu then. One thing led to another, soon, Wilson convinced her, that since she enjoyed it so much, why not make it a full pledged business by opening a store.

“Today”, Melanie adds, “ we make sure we have an interesting variety of novelty products, unique items that compliment each other. Each product is carefully chosen. With a well-selected variety of items, we offer our customers nothing but the best in terms of quality, design and uniqueness from all over Asia. Items like Vietnamese silk lamps to Indonesian wood carvings to Thai knick-knacks, to sparkling semi precious stones in all shapes and sizes, to beautiful hand crafted items, to oriental knick knacks.”

Successful entrepreneurs enjoy their work to a fault. They enjoy it so much that it literally consumes their lives. They become passionate about what they do. Lee Iacocca once said very bluntly, “What is it that you like doing? If you don’t like it, get out of it, because you’ll be lousy at it. You don’t have to stay with a job for the rest of your life, because if you don’t like it you’ll never be successful in it. “ Melanie turned something that she enjoys into a passion that fuels a successful business.

Albert Einstein declares ,” I have no special talents. I am only passionately curious.” Aren’t you curious if you too can turn something that you passionately enjoy into a premium concept? Let’s follow the examples of these ordinary individuals as they strive to make a difference. Each week, let’s all get together and share knowledge, stories, experiences, information, all for the sole purpose of getting One Step Up.

For comments, suggestions or stories that you want to share, email me at stirspecialist@gmail.com

One of the biggest obstacles in becoming an entrepreneur is understanding the concept of risk. The human nature has a natural tendency to avoid risk. But reality dictates that it is not risk that we try to avoid but FAILURE. Failure is an integral but unspoken component of successful entrepreneurship. Let me explain.

Henry Ford, one of the all time biggest icons of business and the man who jumpstarted a whole billion dollar automotive business says it best, “failure is the opportunity to begin again, more intelligently.” But, human nature does not like to fail. Correction, we do not like to risk. But many of us do not realize that failure is often times the greatest of all teachers. Robert F. Kennedy once said, “Only those who dare to fail miserably can achieve greatly.”

Michelle Yu is a risk taker. She is acknowledged to be the Philippines first lady driver in the sport of drifting. For those who do not know, drifting is the art of taking a car and asking it to do a mad ballet. Wikipedia defines it as a motor sport involving a technique, wherein a car is said to be drifting when the rear slip angle is greater than the front slip angle, and the front wheels are pointing in the opposite direction to the turn. Imagine an elephant ice skating, and you will see the picture.

Michelle has been featured on TV, magazines and newspapers for being very good at this sport. But beyond that, she is also a successful entrepreneur. She started a small business selling auto and character based shirts from a small kiosk located at the Maze in the Ayala Center Cebu. Today she is the proud owner of several businesses among which are the Off Price Store located at the Paseo Mall in Mabolo as well as distributing various automotive products such as Motul Oils, Mothers car detailing products, microtex and CK tint from Korea.

I asked Michelle her secret. “Success is not a measure of what you accomplish in life and how great you fared. But on how we stand up every time we fall and do better the next time.” I was surprised to hear that from her considering she is only 24. She started her own business at the age of 20. After successfully opening a small kiosk with PhP400,000.00, she automatically threw caution to the wind and started expanding, opening two additional stores in quick succession. Little did she realize that she was not ready for the additional pressure. She quickly found out that she lacked the management as well as the financial expertise to handle the 3 stores simultaneously. Worse was that, she discovered that she had a hard time managing her staff. It was a painful lesson. But it challenged her to do it right and to do it better the next time.

Young people can learn a lot from this young lady’s attitude. If you have never met her, seek her out. You will discover that she is no different from you or me. In fact, she is very ordinary, with no airs or frills. But what makes her extraordinary is that she is willing to take risks.

T.S. Eliot said “ Only those who risk going too far can possibly find out how far they can go.” Let’s follow the examples of these ordinary individuals as they strive to make a difference. Each week, lets all get together and share knowledge, stories, experiences, information, all for the sole purpose of getting One Step Up.

For comments, suggestions or stories that you want to share, email me at
stirspecialist@gmail.com

I decided to get back into writing. I used to write a sports and lifestyle column for this paper in the mid nineties, so this is a reunion of sorts for me. But this time I wanted to write a column on something totally different, a new advocacy of mine, encouraging entrepreneurship. I wanted to write about what makes entrepreneurs tick, what convinces them to make the leap of faith. The difference is that I didn’t want to write about the giants of the industry or the icons of the field. I wanted to share with you stories of ordinary people that plunge into it and how they made it successful. What were their struggles, worries and concerns? How did they conceive their plans? What do they share in common with others? Most of all, I want to discuss the continuing quest, and struggle to make it. In other words, I want to share how we can all take one step up.

I started my first business selling hotdogs. Yes hotdogs. I was 21, in school, and I wanted to do something to earn a little extra money. I approached a good friend, and between us , we scraped together ten thousand pesos. We used five thousand pesos to design a stand, two thousand for utensils , and the balance for purchasing the ingredients, etc.. We named it “TechnoDog”. It was my first real foray into entrepreneurship. (Not counting my tendency to sell my toys or my brother’s toys at the age of seven, at least that’s what my mom tells me. )

I always take great interest when I listen to entrepreneurs tell their story. I remember Steve Benitez when he only has one kiosk beside Rustan’s at the Ayala Center. It was named the Coffee Club then. Who knew that it would mushroom to what it is now, the largest homegrown coffee chain in the Philippines. But everybody knows Steve’s story. If you don’t, I recommend you seek him out and listen. But do we know the story of people like Jon Ramos, who learned business as a young trader in Carbon Market. Today, he is one of the most successful financial planners in Cebu. Or Michelle Yu, who transformed a simple kiosk selling shirts into the value boutique that is The Off Price Store. Or one of the best stories is of Tess Albulario of Levi’s fame and Melanie Ng, who turned a hobby into business, the famous Premium Concepts. These two women are a inspiration to many out there about following your dreams.

A old Chinese proverb says “The man who removes a mountain begins by carrying away small stones”. Join me as I debut this weekly column on starting entrepreneurship. Let’s follow the examples of these ordinary individuals as they strive to make a difference. Each week, Lets all get together and share knowledge, stories, experiences, information, all for the sole purpose of getting One Step Up.

For comments, suggestions or stories that you want to share, email me at
stirspecialist@gmail.com