Congratulations to Mrs. Lita Urbina who garnered the Ernst and Young Entrepreneur of the Year for Small Business on March 20,2007 at the Shangrila Makati Hotel. Mrs. Urbina was able to build a business enterprise by providing great food at very good prices. She started the Café Laguna Chain, and her children has since continued to expand it through other great food places like the Lemon Grass Restaurant in Ayala Food Center.
The Ernst and Young Entrepreneur of the Year honors people who have build and manage enterprises which are now considered the drivers of the economy. It is also noteworthy that for the last three years running, the Small Business Category have always been won by Cebu businessmen – I got it in 2005, Jonathan Jay Aldeguer of Islands Souvenirs got it in 2006. It shows that while our business may not be as big as those in Manila, it does show that we are considered to manage businesses that are innovative and dynamic. One other Entrepreneur finalist was also from Cebu – William Liu of Primary Structures who have built many of the buildings and landmarks that we see around Cebu and in the IT zone / Export Processing zone. It is great to have Cebu continue the winning streak it has had in terms of entrepreneurship in the country.
Talking about entrepreneurship, I would like to recommend a great web site called Small Business Trends. This website ( www.smallbiztrends.com) is maintained by Mrs. Anita Campbell, and is one of the most popular sites for getting the latest on small business, having have more than 20,000 regular readers. One of the trends, she says, is the go anywhere entrepreneur.
This term describes a business owner who conducts business from anyplace he or she happens to be. Whether out and about visiting customers, on a sales call, buying supplies, evaluating outsourcing partners, or trying to carve out some thinking time in a coffeehouse — business doesn’t stop. Just because the person is out of the office, doesn’t mean business is shut off.
Another term that struck a chord is the on-again, off-again entrepreneur. This is someone who moves back and forth between being employed and owning his or her own business — multiple times. The reason of course, is that it is not a question whether you are an employee or an entrepreneur. More frequently, these days, people are doing both. They get a job because they need the income, but they move in and out of entrepreneurship trying various things hoping to succeed. Sometimes, it does takes multiple times before a person will succeed, so for the meantime, he moves in and out of corporations.
Another term which you will be hearing a lot of is the micro-multinational. Of course, we all know about multi-nationals, those large behemoth corporations that spans continents and countries. However, technology is making available that the small entrepreneur ( even making it necessary!) also operates in various countries.
Look at some of the ICT firms for instance, that invested in Cebu. One of our partners for instance, has 25 employees in the United States, 12 employees in China, and 28 employees in Cebu. Another of our partner has an operation in Japan, but also keeps some employees in Thailand and in Cebu. So, now more than ever, it is not only the big corporations now that is spanning countries, but the entrepreneurs as well.
Wilson Ng keeps a log of his articles in www.ngkhai.net/bizdrivenlife