Student business ventures honored
Two business ventures of Ateneo students were honored in the 2nd Ten Inspiring Entrepreneurial Students (TIES) Awards during an exposition held at Market! Market in The Fort, Makati last October 15 & 16, 2004.
New
products from old
Banana Temptations, a snack food business that specializes in innovating traditional products made of banana, was founded and is operated by Sherwin Hermogenes (IV – AB MIS), Miko Mallonga (AB Eco '03), and Andrew Mier (III – AB Psy). When asked about their products, Mier said, "People are already familiar with the turon [the ventures' most popular product]…we just recycled an 'old' product and turned it into Crazy Caramel, Chuckle Chocolate, Rockin' Road, Cinnamon Sugar and Pinoy Classic." Banana Temptations started selling its products through home and office deliveries, catering services, barangay basketball games and school fairs early this year. Word of mouth, a large network of friends and families, and a cheap but delicious snack innovation all contributed to the growing success of the business.
Banana
Temptations has been offered to franchise their business with an amount
the owners have never imagined possible. "We were tempted to take it,
but we had to turn it down because we haven't built our business
yet," Mallonga said. "We're only opening our first stall in
Megamall [this] month, and we know we still have a lot of work cut out for
us," he added.
Passion
in Fashion
Meanwhile,
poPO Homme/Femme, put up and managed by Paul Go (IV
– AB MEco), is a clothing design business that specializes in formal
wear. In over a year, the business has done five weddings and numerous
prom and debut gowns and suits. When asked about his plans, Go said that
he wants to make it a one-stop shop for formal parties, weddings and
debuts in the near future. He also hopes to include events management,
photography, flower arrangement, and catering in the venture's list of
services.
"The key factor in my business is my passion. My passion for clothes and fashion is what drives me to perform well, to always give my best and treat each of my work as a masterpiece," Go said, whose first gown was worn by his grandmother during the latter's 90th birthday party. Through word of mouth and referrals, his business eventually grew. Currently, poPO Homme/Femme makes an average of three to four gowns in a month, with an average cost of P5,000 per gown and at least P25,000 per wedding gown.
Recognizing
future business tycoons
During
the awarding ceremony, Senator Francis Pangilinan, guest of honor and a
staunch advocate of youth development, lauded the efforts of the awardees.
He further inspired them by saying, "Do not be worried. There will
come a time your P3, 000 now will become half a billion in the future.
There is no such thing as failure, only delay. You are the leaders, the
future employers of the country."
Each
of the top 10 student businesses were awarded P10,000 cash, access to a
loan as high as P200,000 from the Small Business Guarantee and Finance
Corporation (SB Corp.), mentoring from successful entrepreneurs, and
exposure for their products or services.
The
board of judges consisted of the following: Mr. Jay Bernardo, Professor -
Asian Institute of Management, Mr. Bambam Aquino, Chair - National Youth
Commission, Ms. Ma. Luna David, VP for Loans - SB Corp., Dr. Alberto Fenix,
Chairman - CHED Technical Panel for Business Education, and Ms. Gladys
Judan, VP for Incoming Exchange & Finance - AIESEC (Philippines).
More
on TIES
TIES
Awards aims to encourage youth entrepreneurship by recognizing innovative,
fearless and hardworking student entrepreneurs. Introduced in 2002 by two
social entrepreneurs-Vivienne Tan, president of Thames International
Business School and Joel Santos, director of Thames International, the
TIES Awards aims to serve as an inspiration to students to become job
makers instead of job seekers. With this year's theme, "When the
going gets tough, the TIES gets going," TIES wanted to challenge
students to find business opportunities despite the economic crisis.
(Note:
A different version of this article was written by Gidget Aranda and can
be accessed at www.asianewsnet.net.)