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Teenagers nowadays have taken the business industry into a different level since these new young entrepreneurs have shown that everyone takes risks. In a fast-paced world, teenagers have become competitive enough that they learned to include themselves in the business world.

“We came up lang na basin we can make our own brand, so we came up with a brand Rhipstop.” Shared by Kaz Alexei Martinez Onozawa, 19, with his friend Martin Sitoy, they started the venture together.

 “It’s really hard to find good shirts. What we did was, we started making shirts on our own, then, people liked it”, said Kaz. This is how this 19-year-old guy got into the business industry.

Rip stop originally means a nylon fabric that is woven so that a tear will not spread; it is usually used in a military uniform. Then, Kaz and Martin decided to add H in the spelling to give the brand name an attitude, that’s where the brand Rhipstop came to be.

“I took up a short course on screen printing just to have an added idea. After that, since I already know how to print and my friend Martin is good in making designs,” said Kaz. This encouraged them to push through with their undertaking.

“We started with 2,000 pesos,” he added. With the capital, they printed out 10 shirts with one design. For a start, they tried selling it in school. Fortunately, the shirts they made sold like hotcakes, and it was a good sign for them to start marketing it out.

“The money we earned from the sales was used to buy more materials”, he shared. They circulated the profit they have to generate more products for them to sell not in school but in the stores.

“In 2006, Martin decided to concentrate on his studies, he was sent to Manila. I took over everything and so I decided to hit the A market as of the moment,” Kaz said. He started distributing their product to different shops here in Cebu. Now their commodities have reached Bacolod and Manila, he is also planning to expand in Mindanao particularly in Cagayan de Oro.

“To gain popularity from sponsoring bands and music video, we also make our way into every events, we gave away free shirts and prizes,” Kaz said. This was a good start for him to introduce the product to people, his marketing strategy.

His business has officially been going on for a year now. “ As long as the person feels connected to the product, the product sells,” he said.

They have designs that suit everyone, classic, sporty, simple even colorful name it and they have it.

“It was fun, we really didn’t think of the money, we just want for us to have something to do,” he shared. “We design something and it becomes real and people liked it,” he added.

From all the success, he didn’t think of making profit, he just enjoy what he has and what he makes, this got him far in the business they established.

“At least I know that I have already profited with the capital I invested, the risk I took was a good gamble,” Kaz said. Young as he is, he was never worried of the risk that he took upon establishing this business enterprise.

“As long as the brand is there, I’m happy and it’s more of self-fulfillment.” This is all that matters to him, he assured.

“I think people should really believe in risks, they have to believe an end in mind. Why are you doing it? Are you planning to stay long with it? Or what’s your goal. If you don’t have a goal at the end, there’s actually no point.”

He shared especially to the people his age. “You don’t run in a track, if you don’t know where the finish line is,” he added.

Even though there was only a small amount of capital, but the all out effort and time invested in the business was big time.