ALLOW me to share to you readers my speech delivered during the opening day of the Philippine SME and Franchise Expo held last week.
When my wife Lyndah and I started GMB Franchise Developers in 1993, we were armed with nothing else but a firm belief that franchising was a better way to grow and expand a business, as well as a recommended option for those who want to be in business. We saw a bright horizon for businesses but frankly we did not know all steps. Thus with a lot of faith and our constancy to our belief in franchising, we are here right now.
Never did we dream that one day we would witness the sale of Mang Inasal to the tune of billions of pesos. I clearly remember Injap attending one of my seminars in Iloilo in walking shorts and who insisted to just stand at the back of the room, he had two outlets then seven years ago.
It never crossed our minds then that one day we will see the joy in the eyes of the owners of Potato Corner when they saw their first branch in Santa Anita Mall, Pasadena, California, with long queue of Americans and other nationalities waiting in line to get their orders. Now, Potato Corner under the leadership of Jose Magsaysay Jr. has eight branches after a year and a half of franchising in the US. This is the first Filipino concept in mainstream malls and not in the Filipino communities. Potato Corner started with one cart and they set up the business 19 years ago because the partners wanted to buy the very first cell- phone model.
When a company talked to us about selling unbranded medicines, at the back of our minds was the question, “How will you compete with Mercury Drug?” Ted Ferrer and his partner Julienne pursued their dream to offer alternative unbranded medicines and from 16 branches, Generika now has 212 branches.
We could not believe it when Richie Cuna decided to give up his vice presidency in a major bank to become an entrepreneur. He also started with one branch and now he has over 50 branches of Fiorgelato.
When Fiona Hilario, together with her family, started talking to us about hair removal, it was a little difficult to understand how the business will be sustained, but Laybare now has 42 branches from two. She, too, gave up her career as human resource officer in the US Embassy, Manila.
Mark Gorriceta, together with his culinary sister Pauline Banusing, dared to introduce Ilonggo dishes by putting up five branches and now has 15 Freska branches.
How about Dolly Salcedo who began renting Betamax tapes and shifted to one store in Congressional Avenue in Project 8. Today together with her daughter Sarah, Baliwag has grown to 240 branches and as I speak opening its first international franchise branch in Singapore.
It may be an ordinary recipe but Richard Sanz perfected from two branches to 200 Bibingkinitan.
A daughter of a meat shop pursued her father’s dream of Chicharon. Bards Lapid of Chicharrific has expanded 37 branches.
Abe Rojas of Chicco Di Caffe of Davao specializing in durian coffee with four branches and now opening in Metro Manila.
Paulo Tibig found a niche through his Vcargo Logistics and now expanding in key cities.
A nephew of the late well-known hair stylist Jun Encarnacion, Warren of CUT Encarnacion Group of Salons is growing.
Lance Servida loves to sing and performed abroad with his band. Yet he has a burning passion for the not so usual traditional sizes of pizzas. Known for 36-inch diameter—the latest a 100-inch—El Buono is franchising.
An outdoor advertising man Emil Azucena is in the process of perfecting Mr. Moo.
Of course, you have the legendary woman named Julie Gandionco with now 500 Julie’s Bakeshops.
These people are ordinary folks with a humble beginning and even started with minimum capital. They are living examples of entrepreneurs with a tremendous fire under the belly. Growing and expanding can and is possible, especially via the franchising route.
This expo is with a vision: to encourage our SMEs to grow and expand. It will be a challenge indeed to do that but if at the end of this expo we can encourage some of our SMEs to even just dream of growth and expansion, then we have achieved something in this expo. Growing a business starts with a dream. It is free and available to everyone. We want our entrepreneurs to dream and dream big as the country and the world is out there for the conquering. Dreaming and seeing a bright horizon at the end is the very first step to expansion.
Why the vision for the SMEs? Allow me to borrow some facts from our Department of Trade and Industry, we have 780,437 business enterprises and 99.9 percent are SMEs, or 777,357. However, of this total number of SMEs, only 35.7 percent contribute to the gross national product (GNP). SMEs generate 63.2 percent of total employment in the country.
There is much room for improvement within the SME sector. With Mang Inasal alone, when Injap operated two stores, he had 40 employees; now Mang Inasal is a franchiser with 420 branches. This translates direct employment from 40 employees to 12,000, an additional of 11,960 employees! While Mang Inasal’s stellar rise to success can be exceptional, it is still a reality.
Generika initially had 160 employees, and now with 212 branches, it now employs 1500. Laybare had four to 300 employees. Fiorgelato with an initial five now has 60 employees. Baliwag has 2,000, while Julie’s has 4,000. This push in the number of employees of a company that franchises is one of the main reasons we adopted this vision of encouraging our SME to grow and expand through franchising.
Welcome to this expansion and growth expo. Allow me to extend my heartfelt appreciation to Mildred Caballero, managing director, and Jenny Velasco, marketing director of Tradecon, Jennylei Caberte of Media Blitz, Mary Jean Bernardo, product manager business solutions of Sun Cellular, my fellow Go Negosyo angelpreneurs Ardy Roberto and Ruel Virtucio, franchisers and service providers.
Together as one solid team, we were able to surmount various challenges in coming up with this event. This is because we have one common denominator, which is commitment.
A special mention to the 500 entrepreneurial students from Philippine Women University of Calamba and their president, Arianne Laman, and dean, Liza Mastrili, for giving an opportunity to your students to learn firsthand experience. I know that it is your semester break but nevertheless you all came leaving early morning. For the next three days we will be like a broken record as we keep harping on business growth. But let it be if only to push our SME to join us in our advocacy to keep generating employment in our beloved country.
Pilipinas nating mahal! Mabuhay ang Filipino entrepreneurs!
