Just ‘Frame It!’

Frame It! owner Ronald Magsakay is a precocious survivor. He ran his father’s factory at 17, tried direct selling at 20, went back to being his own boss at 25 and never looked back since.

The first-born son of an entrepreneurial couple, the 34-year-old Magsakay spent much of his boyhood hanging around their stuffed toy factory in Malolos, Bulacan. Then, tragedy stuck. Magsakay was 16 when a head-on vehicular collision killed his whole family–father, mother, and two siblings.

Unfazed, the adolescent orphan took over the helm of the family business a year later and did not relinquish it until he was 19.

"After graduation, I worked for a company to get the experience. At the back of my mind, I was preparing for my own business. It was a logical move. All throughout my stint as an employee, my former workers would, ever so often, urge me to reopen the factory," said Magsakay. "When the business opportunity came to me in 1995, I grabbed it."

Moving On

The opportunity came in the form of a handicraft exporter, who was looking for a sub-contractor to make stuffed toys. Three years later, Magsakay moved on, focusing on the production of picture frames.

"A year before I closed the stuffed toys business due to the China factor, I met a framing supplier, who imported polystyrene frames from Korea and Malaysia. The frames look like wood but are lightweight, are easier to carve, and more affordable," said Magsakay. "I thought then that framing was not too far from the handicraft business. In fact, there was not that much adjustment involved in terms of production. The only major difference was that I had a ready buyer in handicrafts then while I now have to look for customers in the local market."

Started with a capital of P200,000, Frame It! targets A-B-broad C markets, serving clients as diverse as crafters of cross stitch and paper tolé and mothers treasuring mementos such as their kids’ medals and diplomas as well as corporations giving awards of merits to employees and organizations which want to preserve and display important documents.

"We were in luck. When we started, the Bangko Sentral got into the Guinness Book of Records for its P100,000-bank note. We framed that as well as the Bangko Sentral’s first peso releases bearing the signature of President Macapagal-Arroyo, which we framed for the President," said Magsakay.

Partnership

As a success story, Frame It! is a husband-and-wife business partnership. Magsakay handles the marketing while wife, Cathy, takes care of the operations and the finances.

"Exposure is an important part of my strategy. You have to make your product known to as many customers as possible through cost-effective marketing tools such as flyers and brochures," said Magsakay.

The company currently hauls in some P400,000 in yearly sales from four sales and service outlets in Bulacan and Metro Manila. Orders are done by the company’s factory in Malolos, which assembles the piece-work assignments of home-based workers living nearby.

"In the near future, we plan to expand overseas, initially to Singapore. We also want to cover a wider market via e-commerce," said Magsakay, who intends to be a millionaire by the time he turns 40.