"Becoming an Entrepeneur"
"Magkano po (How much?)" inquired the young lady to the little boy who
looked much younger than he already is. The boy was barely 8 years old
and could pass up as 6. " 20 pesos po (20 pesos)" , the boy eagerly
replied. It was his first sale after all. The young lady handed him 20
pesos for the little box of erasers for which the young boy was selling.
He was elated; it's his first earning ever in his life, aside from the
allowance he gets from his parents. He thought to himself, "I can do
this, I can sell everything and finally earn my own money to buy the
comic book I've always wanted". He had only a few things to sell and it
was a collection of the most trivial things; different colored pencils,
sharpeners, erasers of all shapes and sizes, a few puzzled and the most
expensive things he has to sell were children's pocket books. It was the
school "swap meet" and every student was allowed to sell stuff from his
or her collection. It was like a mini trade hall for students.
After the swap meet, the young boy thought of an idea. He used the
earnings he got to buy new materials to sell for a profit. He
continuously asked himself what would people in school buy nowadays? He
then though of the beads and bracelets sweeping the school. It was the
latest fad, those little do-it-yourself bracelets. He then went to the
local market and soon started creating beadworks to sell to his
classmates and teachers. Of course he did not know then that the elders
who bought his stuff either found him cute or did that to boost his
confidence. In either way he earned money and was able to buy the latest
comic book he always wanted.
Needless to say, that little boy
was me. What does being an entrepreneur mean then? An entrepreneur is
defined by Merriam-Webster's dictionary as "one who organizes, manages
and assumes the risks of a business or enterprise." It neither specified
a gender nor an age, hence an entrepreneur could be anybody from a
young boy of 8 to an elderly woman of 99. The boy did organize and
manage what he would sell, he assumed the risk by not being able to
determine whether what he would sell actually sell, but it did , no
matter the circumstances or the reasons for his profits. Could the young
boy then be called an entrepreneur.
Fast forward to 15 years
into the future. The boy has now turned into a young man and has
graduated from a respectable university in the Philippines. The
downside, he is still unsure of the path he will take in life, but one
thing is for certain, he wants to take a risk a build his own company
from the ground up. He is especially fond of theater and the arts, there
is nowhere he feels more alive than performing onstage. He was trying
to look for ways to reconcile the businessman and the performer in him.
That's how Upstagers Manila started. Upstagers Manila was founded by
four individuals who share the passion for the arts. What they do now is
to buy local theater shows and sell those tickets for a profit. They
block buy one whole show from a production house and sell them at SRP.
In the future they plan to produce their own shows and events. They even
started on that dream now with Ateneo Entablado. They are co-producing
the 30th Season Play/Musical of Ateneo Entablado based on the Filipino
epic "Labao Dongon". They knew nothing about showbuying, promoting or
producing yet they went ahead and made one-step forward in making their
dream into a reality.
What made these individuals go for such
risky business? What defines an entrepreneur for me is due to several
factors. The most important of which is the courage to take risks, as
the old saying goes "No Guts, No Glory". Unless you are willing to take a
risk nothing will ever happen to you. This courage to take the risk
gives you the push to take a step forward. Taking that first step is the
hardest but once you've made that first step, it becomes a little bit
easier, like a snowball rolling down a hill. You have to take that first
step if you want any inclination of your dreaming happening.
Next factor is creativity. You have to be creative enough if you want to
compete against those that have been in the industry who has been there
relatively longer than you, heck, even your competitors look for new
ways to give them an edge against others. So you have to find out what
your Unique selling proposition is. For Upstagers Manila, what makes us
different from our competitors is that we use a more diversified media
of selling tickets even using celebrities to help us sell. This is only
in the showbuying industry, but when we have delved into the world of
producing, we would have to find new ways of selling our product.
Plan ahead. Connected to the factor above, you have to plan ahead, you
can't just dive into things without a proper form of action, winging it
won't help you get there. For example, which market are you targeting,
what shows would you sell, which tickets would you consign with
TicketWorld and what new techniques would you do in selling those
tickets.
Be persistent. You can't always win as you can't
always lose. There will be shows where you'd incur losses, a show that
just wouldn't sell. But this must not stop you from continuing what you
do. If Steve Jobs stopped when he dropped out from college or ceased to
work when he was no longer the CEO for Apple (Yes, there was a time when
that happened. It was then he was able to create "Pixar") then we
wouldn't have the Apple products we now can't live without. (I am biased
to Apple products and I can't live without them).
Teamwork.
There is no "I" in team and you can't do it alone. You have to have your
support groups both inside and outside your work. You can't be a
specialist in all fields. In Upstagers Manila's case, I am the creative
one who steers the group in which shows we should buy, my colleague is
the one who is good in marketing, another colleague the one expert in
organizing. And then you have friends outside the company you may wish
to seek advice from.
Build networks. Connections have always
been a vital cog in any successful businesses. Sad fact: expertise won't
always win cases, connections will. Have you encountered the phrase "I
know someone who…" then suddenly your business woes seem bright and
optimistic. For example when producing a show, "I know… who can get us
cheaper lighting" or "I know someone who can get us (name of celebrity)
for a lower rate". Connections may equal success.
Get
motivated. Try to always have that chip on your shoulder, the thing that
would always want you to push more and work harder. That may be
Upstagers Manila's dream of producing their own shows. Once you have
that feeling, that dream that you always wanted, hold on to it, make it
your motivator. If you can dream it, you can be it.
Lastly,
luck. There's not much to say but sometimes you will get lucky. And
sometimes luck just plays a big role. Like how Marie Curie paved the way
for radioactive research! Be happy when luck is on your side, if not,
then don't get disheartened but go back to the previous factor and get
motivated even more. Say this to yourself "I will turn every crisis into
an opportunity"
With all these factors am I then an
entrepreneur? I would like to believe so. You may be an entrepreneur;
the person next to you might be an entrepreneur. Everyone may be an
entrepreneur if we wanted to. The choice is always ours and there will
always be a choice but what you decide is entirely up to you. Just
remember to take the risk, be creative, plan ahead, be persistent,
foster teamwork, build up your network and get motivated. As luck would
have it, you'll not just be an "entrepreneur" but a "successful
entrepreneur". 3
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