Giving the economy a kick start

As we get back into action in this new year, one thing emerges as a source of hope for better times. And that will have to be how we will take responsibility for ourselves in the face of an uncertain economy. Ces Drilon’s evening talk show on ANC tackled two alternatives in two separate episodes recently. One is to take the OFW route and bid the country goodbye, albeit temporarily. The second is to become an entrepreneur.

Hoping for employment in one of the big corporations isn’t going to hack it for most of us. For one thing, even the big corporations are in trouble and many are downsizing themselves. That means, they are not hiring as much as they are firing and retiring. New rules in doing business are being formulated with the bursting of the e-bubble and the aftermath of Enron. The big guys are trying to cut their fat to be more nimble in responding to the new environment.

Mina Gabor, the former tourism chief who is now head of an NGO that nurtures small entrepreneurs, pointed out in Ces Drilon’s show that there are now many opportunities to get started with your own business. She said that for as little as P30,000, you could get started with a franchise business, maybe a cart selling anything in a mall or on a busy corner. Being an entrepreneur is scary, but it is something anyone can reasonably hope to do well.

Of course this means taking out a loan, not the easiest thing to do without a track record. Microfinance has become more readily available. It has so far, proven to be a unique way of helping people at the grassroots take care of themselves. But what about the middle class? Where do we go for small business capital?

I guess, I could say I am able to empathize with struggling entrepreneurs. A little over a year ago, I joined my sister and her family and a few other people in putting up a small restaurant in Morato. The concept was simple: Good, clean, mouthwatering food and affordable prices. The menu features such things as my Lola’s recipe for the best callos in town, fresh green salads made from hydrophonic-grown vegetables from the garden of one of my cousins and sugar free desserts among others.

We found a place for it at the basement of Alfredo’s Steak House and called it Café Mischka. The interiors simulate a nice little European café and it has since been written up as a place to have good meals. My sister is happy to spend her day there, taking personal care of her customers and finally making use of her college degree from the UP College of Home Economics.

On the other hand, my brother-in-law, pediatrician Dr. Art Ludan had been going back and forth to Seattle trying to strike a deal with a group called Fidalgo Bay, said to be better in coffee than the more popular coffee groups from rainy Seattle. Last I heard, Art had been able to swing a deal. Local coffee would be exported to Seattle and blended with some of the world’s best. This would do Seattle’s Best and Starbucks one better by giving the coffee in Café Mischka world-class quality but with a Filipino character.

As we enter our second year in the business, however, we have yet to see profits pour in. The restaurant business is a good indicator of how well the economy is doing. You immediately feel the hard times with a drop in patronage. Even the Sunday lunch crowd is no longer as it was before. This is probably why restaurants open and go out of business rather quickly. That we are still around is something positive.

Still, we are right now at the stage where we just make money for our landlord. A large part of the profits, when they are available, go to paying the rent. We can’t move to one of the malls because the rents there are worse and the mall owners charge a commission on gross revenues. These non productive rent seekers are stifling the growth of small business. But the business is exciting and we see future prospects if we persevere.

But that’s precisely what I mean. Giving the economy a kick start is not going to be easy. The big guys don’t have the energy for it. The small guys are all enthusiasm but no power. Government is all talk. And as Mina Gabor pointed out in that show of Ces, money intended for re-lending to small business is not getting there. Puro press release lang.

With the world economy hostaged by the weakening American economy, the threat of war in Iraq and rising oil prices, we have to depend on our own local resources to survive and even move on. In the meantime, I am still trying to see if my knowledge of the macro economy has any bearing in the management of this micro enterprise. So far, I feel like Ate Glo’s economic managers who pompously see themselves as big picture people but totally useless on the ground where the battles are fought. That’s where my Ate Yaki and Kuya Arthur do their heroics each day.

Ray Orosa

Got an e-mail from Grupong Huwebes convenor Ray Orosa commenting on the Ate Glo stunner. Here is the first part of that e-mail.

Hi Boo, Belated Christmas and New Year’s greetings from Vancouver where I spent the holidays with my sister that I hadn’t seen for five years. I just read your column on Ate Glo and I must echo the sentiments you expressed to her.

When she first took over the reins, I recall having written also that Ate Glo had to decide if she would be the reformist president the country needed or be concerned with her political career. If she could be the reformist president she should forget about 2004.

I ventured that a truly reformist president would probably alienate so many "leaders" and sectors that there would be no one left to support her in 2004. But if she succeeded in making enough changes that mattered to the ordinary Pilipino, the masa would make sure that she would be elected in 2004.

I feel her first serious miscalculation was to feel she had a debt of gratitude to pay to so many people and then proceeded to do so. Many of her appointments were obviously of that nature. I held the view that she owed nobody anything as she was the only game in town. The presidency was hers almost by destiny but it required steely nerves to see it through without overcommitting herself to anyone. Of course, easier said than done.

You are so right, however, that Ate Glo lost the propaganda war very, very badly. She was terribly mishandled by advisers who were totally out of sync with masa thinking. If there is one imperative that advisers of Ate Glo failed to understand, it was that not being a "masa" person herself, in spite of Kong Dadong’s poor boy Lubao beginnings, it was imperative that Ate Glo connect with the masses and there was little time to do it.

Almost all of the efforts to make that connection were so poorly executed such that these efforts were seen by the masa as simply political posturing. The sad part, and I have mentioned this to some of those supposedly close to her or the First Gentleman, is that her essential thrusts were alright.

Her goals and her objectives were fundamentally sound even if some would disagree here and there. But the execution of many of these goals left her high and dry. Her disavowal of 2004 is eloquent proof that Ate Glo is fundamentally a good person and clearly one who does not put political ambition above nation or other national consideration. But it is tragic that the timing seems a little bit too late. Nevertheless, she has set an example that I hope will shame some of those in political office who are unbridled in their greed for power or money or both.

Stub

Marilyn Mana-ay Robles sent in this one.

A flight attendant was stationed at the departure gate to check tickets. A man approached, she extended her hand for the ticket, he opened his trench coat and flashed her.

Without missing a beat she said, "Sir, I need to see your ticket, not your stub."

(Boo Chanco’s e-mail address is [email protected])