Maybe you've read about the recent news that Warner Bros., who holds the Harry Potter movie franchise, has filed a lawsuit against an India-based movie producer/distributor. The suit centers on a movie scheduled to be released in September by Mirchi Movies. The title:  "Hari Puttar -- A Comedy of Terrors." (Incidentally, the next Harry Potter installment, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, is scheduled for release next year).

 

In an ideal world, people honor their obligations. A simple handshake would be enough and there's no need for a written contract. Pinoy Entrepreneurs would not be too concerned with seemingly trivial matters, perhaps like a distinction between a contract of sale and a contract to sell. Unfortunately, this is a world full of flaws and imperfections.

 

There's still much space for expansion in the pawnshop business in the Philippines. Jean Henri D. Lhuillier, of Cebuana Lhuillier Pawnshop Companies, recently mentioned that "there is still room for expansion in the Philippines and the company is in fact growing by an average of 3% to 5% a year." This room for expansion is on top of the enormous growth in this industry. Pawnshops have multiplied in number in recent years and have been posting fast-paced growth in terms of operations and revenues, which gave rise to a proposal to enact a new law regulating pawnshops (the existing law is PD 114). 

 

We’ve previously noted this tagline – “negosyo, ang sagot sa kahirapan.” Business is the answer to poverty (or maybe there's another translation). At first glance, the logic behind this tagline appears to be simple. Successful entrepreneurs generate employment, reducing unemployment rate (although we are still to define who are Pinoy Entrepreneurs). Work for more people is a good sign of progress – although this may be too simplistic considering that economic gains may not necessarily trickle down to the poor.

 

There’s an estimated 700,000 sari-sari stores throughout the Philippines. That’s roughly 1 sari-sari store for every 130 Filipinos. Along a 50-meter stretch of road in a squatter area somewhere in Malabon, there are around 45 sari-sari stores. I’m interested to know if there’s a study correlating the number of sari-sari stores with the economic condition of the surrounding area – the more sari-sari stores in an area, the poorer the population.

 

The entrepreneur who starts a small business is almost always an owner-employee, performing the tasks of that business in addition to managing the business itself. A webpage creator or a software programmer who starts out his own business does the programming and, in addition, does the marketing and management of the business.

 

There are problems with this title. First, it might be interpreted to refer to a particular person. While we have a category on (and some lists of) successful and inspiring Pinoy Entrepreneurs, the thrust of this article is not to identify any particular Pinoy Entrepreneur, but to characterize an entrepreneur. Having a characterization would make it much easier to identify specific Pinoy Entrepreneurs.