Traders share business tips with students

CEBU, Philippines - The Filipino-Cebuano Business Club Incorporated and over 400 students from the University of Cebu undergoing business-related courses met last Friday for their student and entrepreneurs encounter.

The conference was an effort of FCBCI to help students who would want to enter the industry after they graduate or even while they are still studying.

Rey Calooy, FCBCI Chairman, said that the encounter is just a pilot-activity and they wish to do more to other schools offering business courses since they saw how the activity was positively welcomed by the students.

Calooy shared that they planned the activity as their way of meeting the theories of the students and their own practices as businessmen.

He said that they know that not all the possible experiences encountered in the business practice would be discussed in class so they would want to share and prepare the students for any circumstance.

“It was successful because we saw how the students were very interested in what we shared and they too in return shared what they learned in school and also their expectations,” he added.

According to Calooy, most of the questions raised by the students were on how to start up their small businesses and the financial aspect like how to start their business even without enough capital and also expand and gain back their investments.

However, Calooy said that as their belief, they shared that the students could start their businesses even without financial capital. He said that even before they have been sharing it with people seeking their advice that “you can convert your expertise, experience, hard work and determination in to your capital.”

He said that over the conference, they stressed out to the students how all businesses start small and the problems that could come along the way.

Aside from this, Calooy said that they also discussed other factors which may not be discussed in the students’ classes like rejection from clients and how to face these problems.

Concerns on how to register the business and securing the future of the business were also tackled.

Some of the students also asked advice for the businesses they could venture in despite the financial crisis and Calooy said that they discussed first that there are seasonal and non-seasonal businesses but still the food and beverage business is still the best to invest in since it is non-seasonal.

Calooy said that as of now, 47.2 percent of their members are in to the food and beverage business and the other half is divided into other sectors.— AJ De La Torre