"I started Mynimo because I couldn’t find marketing jobs in Cebu at the time, so I decided to use the knowledge that I learned from school to come up with a business plan for my own job," so said its founder Wesley Chiongbian, who never thought he would be building one of the country’s successful tech startups today.
And since the year 2007 when it was first launched, Mynimo.com has now become the most recognized Cebuano jobs site and acknowledged as one of the leading tech startups in the country by Forbes Philippines.
Wesley saw then the untapped jobs market in Cebu, and having the goal to attract more people to live and work in Cebu, he, together with his siblings, started Mynimo in their parents’ backyard.
Since then, the start-up has grown to have thousands of new job postings every month from all over the country.
"Once I started working on it (business plan), I literally couldn’t sleep for almost a week because the thought of it wouldn’t leave my head anymore. I felt like someone was forcing me to take Mynimo.com out of my head and into the real world," the Cebuano entrepreneur shared to The FREEMAN in an interview.
Eventually Wesley finally decided to turn his idea into reality.
"I finally gathered the courage to actually launch the company when I attended a talk about entrepreneurship during the Cebu Business Month. Hearing stories about how Cebu’s famous businesses got started, told by the entrepreneurs themselves, inspired me to start executing my idea," the self-made entrepreneur said.
Mynimo grew way beyond the projections in Wesley’s initial plans.
"I’m still amazed at what our team was able to accomplished with our limited resources. After more than 10 years in business we are still experiencing double digit growth every year," Wesley asserted.
At the start, he thought making decisions for the business by himself alone was the right thing to do until he realized he needed good people to help him run the business.
"I assumed that running a company was all about my personal knowledge, skills and ability. I did a lot of things and made all the business decisions myself. There was a lot of ego involved. After a while, I found out that doing things this way wasn’t sustainable. I’ve since learned that, to build great companies, you need to have the best people around you and help them produce their best work," Wesley pointed out.
As a successful entrepreneur today, one of the business books that partly made him what he is today is Robert Kiyosaki's ‘Rich Dad Poor Dad’, which he got as a gift from his father.
"That book opened my eyes to the world of business. It made me realize that business books can actually be fun to read," he said.
Looking into the future, Wesley sees only positive prospects for Cebu’s jobs market.
"If the current trend continues, Cebu’s labor market and economy is set to do very well. There are so many high quality job vacancies with high salaries in Cebu right now. All the people need to do is to put in the effort to level up their skills and take advantage of these new opportunities," he said.
Determination
Wesley deems that continuous innovation is important for businesses.
He believes that companies should be in tune with what the customers need.
With his determination for Mynimo’s success, it now features job listings from companies based in Cebu, Metro Manila, Davao and other key cities of the Philippines.
For pioneering a job-searching website, Wesley's efforts finally paid off when he was awarded as Cebu Chamber of Commerce and Industry's Emerging Entrepreneur in 2010 and has similarly been recognized by Go Negosyo for his contributions to the internet industry in the Philippines.
His company has also been recognized multiple times as the “Best Website in the Jobs/Employment Category” at the DigitalFilipino.com Web Awards. (FREEMAN)