Spa chain plans to introduce “crowd-funding” nationwide

CEBU, Philippines - Body & Sole Franchise Corporation aims to introduce the crowd-funding scheme across the Philippines to give more Filipinos the chance to manage and operate their own spa business.

"If our first venture will succeed, we will do it in other parts of the country," said Body & Sole Franchise Corporation president and chief executive officer Johnie Lim.

"We just opened our first crowd-funded branch with 20 partners as investors in Mandaue. They put in a minimal of P30 thousand each. Within a few months we will open more branches using this scheme to make it affordable to small entrepreneurs. The newly opened branches will operate as franchised branches of Body and Sole," added Lim in an interview with The Freeman yesterday.

Crowd-funding is the practice of funding a project or venture by raising monetary contributions from a large number of people, typically via the internet. With crowd-funding, members of the public can pool resources together to hit the amount target.

 This new business concept would allow to spark the entrepreneurial spirit of Filipinos, especially that the lack of capital is the top constraint of Filipinos to get into business.

 Each investor will be issued a certificate of investment and will have to agree to be mentioned in all social media.

 According to Lim all activities of the new business will also be an “open secret” in Facebook.

 Lim said the prospect for spa and wellness business in Cebu and the Philippines, in general is promising, and letting an ordinary person (with not enough financial resources) to partake of this opportunity is a way for his company to contribute to the inclusive growth thrust of the country, as well developing more local entrepreneurs.

Lim sees the potential of the "crowd funding" system in the Philippines, as more people have expressed interest to join the new investment concept.

Lim commissioned a Belgian crowd-funding expert Jean Luc Kebers to help him, and the interested investors understand this fresh system in doing business, which promotes entrepreneurship for mainstream market, at the same time helping small and medium businesses source capitalization requirement from non-traditional channels.

With an investment of P25 thousand, one can already co-own a spa and wellness outlet. Ownership share may increase depending on the performance of the business. (FREEMAN)