Hapinoy: A store is born

MANILA, Philippines - There must be one or two of these little sari-sari stores in your friendly neighborhood, selling a huge assortment of items — from pad paper to toilet paper to sanitary pads, from soap to soup, from Nestlé cream and ice cream to eye cream, etc. You probably know the storeowner who’s most likely to be a mother — an enterprising, hardworking nanay.

“The nanays are the most amazing women,” gushes Georgette Tan, group head of communications, MasterCard Worldwide Asia/Pacific, Middle East & Africa. “It’s so easy to say there are great women heads of state who run countries and women who run big companies. I think it starts with the women who look after, first and foremost, their children, family, and immediate community; these are the real power women of Asia.”

Happy to be back in Manila and “come home to family,” Georgette flew in from Singapore to pay tribute to our nanays and hand over an additional US$25,000 grant to past grand prize winner of MasterCard’s Project Inspire, Hapinoy.

Inspiring people to empower women

FYI: Project Inspire is a digital and social media-driven program that inspires young people around the world to empower disadvantaged women and girls in Asia/Pacific, the Middle East or Africa (APMEA). It was launched in 2011, just in time for the 100th anniversary of International Women’s Day and the 25th anniversary of MasterCard in APMEA. 

Georgette traces Project Inspire’s beginnings: “It started over breakfast; we asked ourselves how do we mark such a great occasion as International Women’s Day? We wanted something that would grow and continue to give back. If we were going to invest resources, it would not be just the money, but also the time and the passion. So we decided we would cast the net very wide, we would call in the young people because we want the young people to get involved.”

The program is open to 18- to 35-year-olds, who are given a five-minute platform to pitch transformative, sustainable ideas. At stake is a US$25,000 women’s empowerment grant for the winner to implement the program’s initiatives, which range from education and skills training to financial inclusion or social entrepreneurship projects.

It’s inspiring to note that in the first year of Project Inspire, it was our own micro-entrepreneurship program Hapinoy that won the grand prize, besting nine other finalists from six other countries. Hapinoy helps empower women by giving them the tools, knowledge, and resources to run sari-sari stores — those ubiquitous neighborhood convenience stores or retail-based outlets that provide a robust source of livelihood for a lot of underprivileged Pinoys.

At the helm of this happy, proudly Pinoy enterprise are young social entrepreneurs Mark Ruiz and Bam Aquino, who have transformed Hapinoy into a full-service micro-entrepreneur enhancement program.  Starting with only 100 beneficiaries, it now has 1,300 with 7,000 stores — and counting — under its network spread all over the South Luzon area.

Happy with hapinoy

MasterCard must be extremely happy with Hapinoy because it has decided to give Hapinoy an additional grant to help them put up 500 more stores and expand operations in Bicol, one of the country’s poorest-of-the-poor regions, as well as the far-flung areas of the Visayas and Mindanao.

“We as Filipinos should be very happy that in the first year of Project Inspire, the winner, among so many aspirants to receive the donation, was Hapinoy and we’re happy about the progress they’re making,” shares Judith Marie Dayrit, MasterCard VP for marketing and client relations.

Doubly happy were we when another Philippine entry by NGO Ecumenical Institute for Labor Education and Research, dubbed Project Stitch, won Project Inspire’s People’s Choice Award last year. As the name suggests, Project Stitch provides livelihood to displaced women in poor communities in Manila through sewing cooperatives.

Small business, big dreams

“They have very humble beginnings but big dreams,” notes Mark Ruiz, Hapinoy co-founder and president. “When we were looking for opportunities to help, we saw no farther than the most humble of businesses, which was the sari-sari store. What’s interesting is this is owned and run by women micro-entrepreneurs who have so much power yet are unaware of it. So our job is to tap into that and help them realize their potential.”

“Much like the opening of the Panama Canal, the grant gave us a lot of shortcuts,” enthuses TJ Agulto, Hapinoy executive director.  “We realize there should be business habits of success. So last year, we began teaching mothers record-keeping every day in their stores — not just of people who owe them money but also of how much they sell, did they buy anything from their suppliers, etc.” TJ is happy to report, “After four months, 20 percent of the storeowners increased their sales by 24 percent because of the record-keeping. Take note that we did not give them loans or extra money. These nanays were just running their businesses better and making better decisions.”

Hapinoy also monitored the stores’ pautang (credit extended to customers) and found out that it substantially decreased over a four-month period. “Because of the record-keeping, they now have better business data to make better business decisions,” TJ explains. “For instance, if someone goes to them and asks for more loans, they can just say, ‘I haven’t sold anything today. Can you just pay up first and I’ll sell you something tomorrow?’”

Also closely monitored was the kupit (pilferage). As you probably know, this is usually done by members of the family. “Like the kids who think that the store is their extended kitchen so they will just get candy without paying,” TJ points out. “Or the husbands who will just get cigarettes. Over a period of time, the kupit decreased. Because now, there’s a growing consciousness among the children and the husband about the business of the mother. Now, even the husband, who wouldn’t even step into the store before, is aware that his wife is running a respectable business.”

He adds, “Because of this, the mothers got a 70-percent increase in their credit ceiling, attesting to their credit worthiness.”

Of course, Hapinoy nanays Maribel Tolentino, Joy Salian, and Marina Reyes, who had their share of financial troubles and domestic spats before Hapinoy, couldn’t be happier.

The ‘nanay’ as teacher

A visibly happy TJ reveals, “Our dream is to have our nanays be the teachers of other sari-sari storeowners. Imagine our nanays giving a talk before college business students! We’re creating a community of nanays. Before, during their meetings, they would usually talk about their neighbors, who got pregnant, etc. On their third meeting, they started talking about business.”

“We want to grow it as a family business, not just a sari-sari store,” muses Mark. “Especially for places affected by the typhoons, we’re bringing in OTC  (over-the-counter) medicines and solar lamps as well as products made by the nanays.”

A beaming Erika Tatad, Hapinoy managing director, declares, “We’d like to bring in all these goods with social impact at cost-effective prices. And we’d like to partner with people like MasterCard so we can do more on the community level. This will trickle all the way down.”

Georgette declares, “We believe that when we empower a woman, we not only empower her but also her immediate family, the village, the community, and it goes way beyond that — the installation of the values in the children and their children’s children, who will carry these values forward. It’s not just the handouts, they want the hand-ups.”

Indeed, the hand that rocks the cradle rules the (business) world.