By Mr. Ramon M. Lopez, Mr. Victor Tan and Ms. Diana Limjoco

Mr. Ramon M. Lopez, the Executive Director of Philippine Center for Entrepreneurship (PCE) - Go Negosyo gave the seminar overview. He briefly discussed what is the Go Negosyo and its advocacy.
After which, he invited on stage the President and CEO of Bobson, Mr. Victor Tan and Ms. Diana Limjoco, the President and CEO of Web Division of Digital Web Group.
They conducted a small talk show discussing the journey of the two successful entrepreneurs with Mr. Lopez acting as the moderator.
Mr. Lopez: What made you put up this kind of business?
Ms. Limjoco: It was actually an accident. I was helping a friend on a business he planned to put up. He wanted to advertise it thru the internet. I made a website for him, helped him send the press releases to the media. In the end, we ended up business partners me having the 51% share.
Mr. Lopez: Where do you learn your skill?
Ms. Limjoco: I also seek help from other entrepreneurs, don´t be afraid to ask help from them.
Mr. Lopez: How about you Mr. Tan, how did you start your business?
Mr. Tan: Bobson started 22 years ago. My passion for fashion is my inspiration. We just started having small stores in the department stores, now became a boutique.
Mr. Lopez: How do you address or deal competition?
Mr. Tan: We instill creativity, branding, money, and hard work. We see to it that we make good quality clothes with affordable prices.
Mr. Lopez: Ms. Limjoco, how do you deal competition on internet?
Ms. Limjoco: By optimizing the webpage. We get a webmaster who knows the search engine optimizer, so that every time the consumer searches our products thru the internet, our products will come first in the list.
Mr. Lopez: On challenges, what is the secret to overcome it?
Mr. Tan: All entrepreneurs encounter this and they almost diminish as they were almost eaten by the big ones. Just have faith in God, strength and the knowledge. Nothing is fast. Value the marketing, quality of product and the pricing. Never give up, ask help.
Ms. Limjoco: Not familiar with e-commerce? Then ask someone who is familiar. The contact information should always be available to all products.
Mr. Lopez: Lastly, kindly share an advice to aspiring entrepreneurs.
Ms. Limjoco: Perseverance is the key, don´t be afraid, don´t give up. Have faith in yourself, most especially to God.
Mr. Tan: Education is also important, finish school. Be a wise spender and you should be passionate to your business. The business doesn´t stop on earning money, manage your money well and be financial literate.
Mr. Lopez: Have passion, learn as much as you could. Learn the knowledge even though you didn´t finish a degree.
Ms. Tan: Engage with your people, build business relationship and share your knowledge to others.
Ms. Limjoco: Train your people to be friendly, build rapport to your customers, and always make them feel welcome.

By Mr. Efren "Ping" Sotto

"Why do we need to be more successful?" This is the question Mr. Sotto said as he challenged the participants at the start of his talk.
"Why are we here today? We are here to learn how to start and manage a business, to learn how to succeed, to learn how to get rich and live a meaningful life.
We should transform our dreams to reality. But how? Win the lotto? Rob a bank? (not advisable) Marry somebody rich? Do well in school? Get a good job? Get promoted on the higher position? Or own a successful business? Yes!"
It is said that the illiterate of the year 2000 will not be the individual who cannot read and write, but the one who cannot learn, unlearn & relearn. When the student is ready.. the teacher appears!
So the formula Mr. Sotto gave: Dream + Believe + Achieve. And he gave some step in achieving this.
First Step. Rekindling your Dreams. Economics, culture and upbringing and quality of advice at the time you need it most; these could prevent us from achieving our dreams. Challenge: "How then do I start believing?" By surrounding yourself with positive and believing people, by flooding your mind with positive affirmation and by thinking and acting as if your dreams were already realities that you are enjoying today.
Different factors determine the personality of an individual, it could be through genes or environment, nature or nurture. With the clips showed about inspiring stories of successful people who don´t have arms and legs, there´s no reason for us to be otherwise. The life you live is the result of the choices you make.
Second Step. Fulfilling your Dreams. Dreams can be borne by crisis, by chance and by CHOICE. Which path are we going to choose? Entrepreneurship or Employee? It must be both! The benefits would be:

1. Earn and save more capital
2. Establish client/customer base
3. Acquire sophisticated financial knowledge

Capitalism is the system that overpays you for the first two years and underpays you for the rest of your life. So we have to believe in MAGIC and trust ourselves.
Important Reminders:

1. Dreams and ambitions are not time bound, but it should be realistic and discover our real talent.
2. Find the real interest behind the dream.
3. Know and be agile to shift and make adjustments along the way.
4. Traditional education and traditional measures of intelligence are not the keys to success.
5. Your decisions and not your conditions determine your destiny.
6. To live a life in fear, is a life half lived.
7. Be a martial artist, hit it with your heart, with your soul and the hands will follow.

OPEN FORUM
Q: My husband is an entrepreneur, and I (wife) am an employee, will that be alright?
A: That´s perfect, you both have the luxury of time and have a financial security.
Q: How much is the book on "21 Steps on How to Start Your Own Business"?
A: The book is only P150.00.
Suggestion: The presentation should be made into instructional video.

By Mr. Francisco "Dean Pax" Lapid

One of the most important factors for success (whether in business or in any personal endeavor) is to understand clearly your reasons for doing what you are doing. If a person has a very strong reason to achieve a certain dream/goal, then that person will find the resources/time to achieve that goal. Before opportunities, we must have compelling reasons for starting a business.
Can the business be learned? Every Filipino can, young or old, out-of-school youths or educated, professional or housewife, just starting or retiree. We don´t have to be smart, we have to be maabilidad - entrepreneurial.
If the business can be learned, what will keep you away from the business? Two reasons: TAMAD (laziness in mind/action) and TAKOT (fear of failure). How do we overcome it? Through TALKING - talking with your mind towards a business idea and through TEXTING - testing, trying out the idea in the market.
How do we know the best opportunity? Luck is the service to recognize an opportunity and the ability to take advantage of it. It is also the offspring of preparedness and opportunity. The more money you have, the more foolish you became!
Important Reminders:

1. Having a Big Dream is good. Hence, big dream is not enough, we should have positive attitude and big effort as well.
2. Having a compelling reason to go into business to improve the standard of living - FALSE. Instead we should have income of sustenance, income for augmentation, save for capital formation, self-capital preservation and self actualization.
3. Business is triggered by crisis, chance, choice - FALSE.
4. Bright idea leads to success - FALSE. It will happen when your IDEA is anchored on a product or service that adds value to the customer (market) where demand (sales) is big and sustainable so that you may earn profit.
5. Drivers of business opportunity. Perspiration (competence) is internal since it can come from your talents, skills or hobbies. Inspiration (chance) is our observation of something, someone, somewhere and the ´idea bulb´ (AHA!) crops up to inspire you to do, develop or innovate an ´it´ and Irritation (crisis) becomes an opportunity as you look for those irritants in the environment and take that leap to convert ´inis´ to business.

By Mr. Gaston "Titos" Ortigas, Jr.

In product service development, Mr.Ortigas advised the participants to be innovative and to think out of the box.
But how do we form the idea of product development? One is we could write or draw the ideas, we can also get it through drama or comics & scripts. This can now result to prototyping.
CRISIS + GAPS = Danger (negative) or Chance (positive). How do we resolve this? Through the following:
How do we know the best opportunity? Luck is the service to recognize an opportunity and the ability to take advantage of it. It is also the offspring of preparedness and opportunity. The more money you have, the more foolish you became!

• Explore, survey, investigation, research
• Create, invent, reinvent, innovate
• Select, appraise
• Implement, execute, develop

If you think product development into daily cycle, you should start from the concept of the product, followed by the level of service it can give to your target consumers, and lastly the delivery system. Mr. Ortigas also gave the dimensions of business innovation as follows:

• Offerings
• Platform
• Solutions
• Customers
• Customer experiences
• Value Capture
• Brand
• Processes
• Organization
• Supply Chain
• Presence

Important Reminders:

1. In opportunity seizing on product development, you should have the idea, positioning, concept, product/service design, prototype, test & feedback, implement, organize, and fund.

OPEN FORUM
Q: We all know that trash can be a product, what are other products can be made out of biodegradable trash?
A: You should think of a product that can eliminate waste, don´t recycle something that will also result trash. We should always think of zero waste -- don´t just recycle, eliminate.

By Ms. Mylene Abiva

Ms. Abiva started her talk by giving the following definitions of successful marketing:

• Knowing your customers and communicating them in the most effective way. It is about anticipating what they want.
• Having a business that is flexible enough to respond quickly to changing demands and a workforce willing to cooperate with your customers.
• Means putting the customer at the heart of your business.

She also gave the keys for successful marketing,
First. Know your customer. You should think like your customer.
Second. Know what your customers are buying. The customers should buy the benefits of a product or service not the features.
Third. Developing a competitive edge. This pertains to the branding, image, price, product or service, differentiation, building & maintaining an excellent reputation.
Fourth. Pricing. The pricing for goods or services will be depending on: your market, your product or service, your competitors and product cycle.
Fifth. The marketplace and market plan. Part of marketing involves you taking a look at your business and analyzing its strength and weaknesses.
Sixth. The marketing action plan. People can´t buy from you unless they know you exist.
Seventh. Maximize promotional tools. Your advertise must be seen, read, remembered, believed, and acted upon.
Important Reminders:(golden rules for using promotional materials)

1. Grab the attention.
2. Use white space and it will help your ad to be easily noticed.
3. Stimulate interest. Remember, always ask "What is in it for me?". Address this question in your advertisements and mailers.
4. Inspire, Desire!
5. A.I.D.A. - Attention -Interest - Desire - Action. Through marketing plan - put all this golden rules together.

OPEN FORUM
Q: What is the basic motivation for a marketing plan?
A: Motivation is a necessity. You should be passionate.
Q: Cashew is seasonal, how can we sustain the cashew?
A: You have to use it as a by- product, like wine or wart remover.
Q: Our business is Lodging & Resort, with this kind of business, customers are always demanding. How do we deal with this? Is the saying "customer is always right" applicable at all time?
A: You should show the customer that you are doing your best. Always document things. And yes, customer is always right.
Q: What is the standard pricing of products?
A: You should always consider the value and benefit of your product. It will determine its value and quality, without suffering your profit. Also, think at what price the customers can buy.
Q: I´m from NGO-Quezon, how can we market our VCOs?
A: You should coordinate with DTI.
Q: Can the PCE - Go Negosyo influence the speed up of processing of business name registration?
A: We can help by writing a position letter, but we are not the only one who can make it happen. Again, you can seek help to DTI.

By Mr. Randell Tiongson

Mr. Tiongson gave the three ways to get rich in supporting your business. First is to inherit it, second to marry it and third and the most ideal is to spend less that what you earn and invest the difference.
One should have a financial objective. And to set this objective, he gave four easy steps:

1. Knowing where you are financially.
2. Deciding where you want to go.
3. Formulating budget
4. Keeping tab of your progress

Aside for having a financial objective, you should also be disciplined, you must have a healthy flow.
There are also ways on smart formulation of budget. First, based it on recurring expenses. Second, keeping official receipts. Third, establish sinking funds. Lastly, record sources of each cash.
But how do we manage our money better?

• Set a budget
• Stick to it
• If you exceed, repair
• Record and know where it went
• Eliminate debt
• Establish a savings to keep

To get out of debt, he advised to minimize loans, eradicate credit card debt and maintain only home amortization. Never invest in something you don’t understand, we should learn and investigate.
Prescription
x Beg           / Invest Early
x Steal          / Invest Wisely
x Borrow      / Invest Regularly
Next Step

1. Talk to your wife/spouse. Discuss your budget.
2. Establish your goals, be specific.
3. Set your budget, be practical.
4. Formulate a plan & execute it.
5. Talk to a professional.
6. Dedicate yourself to learn.

By Mr. Marcelino Dile

Small Business Corporation (SBCORP) is a government corporation. They are mandated to lend money to MSMEs. On July 1992, they were first commercialized. SBCORP is an attached agency to DTI and the national government partner of PCE - Go Negosyo.
Mr. Dile discussed briefly their financing programs which are in line with all MSMEs. They also presented their loan programs and how MSMEs could avail of additional capital and investments.