Risk-taking pays off for young couple
MANILA, Philippines - If you ask husband-and-wife business partners Epifanio and Jenifer delos Santos what their secret for success is, one of the first things they would say is “the courage to take risks.”
And you have to believe them. After all, despite the fact that Edsa and Jenny are just in their early thirties, their trade and printing businesses have been going strong for more than 15 years. They run two companies: a trading company that imports and exports printing equipment, and a company that actually uses such equipment to print all sorts of materials for corporate clients: calling cards, brochures, books, magazines, paper labels, paper bags, and carton boxes.
Their 17-year-old trade company is EDSA Printhaus, while their printing company, conceived in 1995, is Agree Printhouse, Inc. According to Jenny, one of the first things they did was to go after big clients — definitely a risk that not all startups would dare to take. “We also took in small jobs, of course” said Jenny, “but we figured, if we were going to dream, we should dream big. So while we were doing small print jobs, we also immediately offered our printing services directly to the big-name businesses we wanted to work with.”
So the couple started calling large multinational companies, including some of the country’s leading fast-food chains. All in all, their prospect list included 50 companies that were household names in the country. Naturally, they got rejected many, many times. After all, they were a new company run by people who were then in their early 20s, fresh out of college. But they kept calling.
“We called each company at least five times, asking for appointments to present our services,” Jenny said. Finally, some companies took the time to listen to their offers, and the rest was history.
Today, you can list the names of the 10 best-known companies in the country and it’s likely that most or all of them have been clients of either EDSA Printhaus (for printing machines) or Agree Printhouse, Inc. (for printing services).
In addition to taking risks, the couple offers another secret for success: early training and hard work. Certainly, this couple was working hard long before their companies were even formed. Edsa helped in his dad’s business, the Jun Delos Santos Trading company, when he was still a kid.
“From our elementary days, my dad trained me and my siblings to work at his company during vacations and weekends. Before I was even done with college, my dad already encouraged me to start my own company. He passed to me the trading of some of the big machines he had in his lineup.”
And since most of that equipment was printing machines, Edsa eventually ended up doing printing as well, in addition to trading the printing equipment to local and foreign markets. Jenny, too, who is now in charge of Agree’s marketing, began her own marketing stint as early as elementary school. “When I was in sixth grade, I helped my sister sell her Mondragon and Avon products by bringing them to school and offering them to my classmates. I even offered them to the teachers and the principal!” she laughs. In college, she worked part-time at Benetton and McDonald’s, doing local store marketing.
When they graduated from college, Edsa invited Jenny to join him at EDSA Printhaus. Their business chemistry turned out great. Soon, EDSA Printhaus found itself with such a huge amount of printing jobs that Edsa and Jenny decided to separate the trading business from the printing services, and Agree Printhouse, Inc. was born.
Under the couple’s management, EDSA and Agree flourished. In time, the couple decided it would be wise to stop renting warehouses and buy their own. To get the loan they needed to purchase their current warehouse and office in Sucat, Parañaque, they approached Plantersbank. “They’re very supportive,” Jenny said. “Even today, they would visit us periodically and listen to our plans — and you can tell that they are really listening — and they give us professional advice on how to make things work and how the bank can help us.”
Jenny said, “In the past, our clients chose us for many reasons: We give personalized service. We provide quality products and fast delivery. We are very hands-on with the business … Edsa even knows how to assemble and repair the machines himself. We commit to meeting urgent deadlines, even if it means working all night and on holidays. And yes, our prices have also been good, but of course, it will benefit everyone more if we could make our prices even lower, so this is our most current goal.”
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EDSA Printhaus and Agree Printhouse have offices and warehouses in Taguig City and Sucat, Parañaque. To learn more about their printing services and equipment, call 822-9371 to 72 for EDSA Printhaus, or 821-0838 or 821-2730 for Agree Printhouse, Inc.
