Here at UNO magazine, we basically get paid to enjoy ourselves. Make no mistake, it is a job, and not an easy one at that: what with all the setbacks, drawbacks, unforeseen reversals, late nights, last-minute disasters, and just typical day-to-day difficulties of putting out a worthwhile monthly print magazine, sometimes we work so hard at this that our pets don’t recognize us any more and our personal hygiene suffers (I won’t name names).

Our May-June2011 cover in the alternate universe would have been Congressman Manny Pacquiao

We won’t lie though: it’s fun to put together UNO, a magazine with features on beautiful and interesting women (among other beautiful and interesting things), as well as everything from self-improvement to creative workspaces to power cars to sports icons like Manny Pacquiao (titles we considered for this issue’s Pacquiao feature: “Mo’ Manny Mo’ Manny,” “Manny Changes Everything,” and “I’m Waiting for the Man(ny).”) And every anniversary issue, we get to look back at another year of awesome.

We are very happy indeed to feature the incredible Iya Villania on the cover of this, our eighth anniversary issue.

Putting together the cover is one of the most vital aspects of making UNO magazine. With so many factors to consider (the strength of the main image, the composition and placement of the coverlines, the logo, the newsstand eye-catching appeal), debates and seemingly endless revisions are not uncommon (special thanks to our very own Mark Garcia, who has managed to remain sane in the face of it all).

The most basic factor the choice of the cover subject is, naturally, not exempt from this dynamic process involving selections, negotiations, and revisions. We are always proud of the end result, but for this month, we thought it would be fun to show you one of the other options that we came up with: an alternate-universe version, if you will.

Thanks to all our contributors, without whom the magazine would be about six pages long. Thanks to the advertisers, without whom we would be stapling together UNO from a makeshift office made from a cardboard box. Thanks to Manny, and Iya, and everyone else who ensures that we will always have amazing people to feature. And most of all, thanks to you, yes you, reading this.

We’ve been doing this for eight years, and we’re just getting better at it.

Enjoy!

[Show as slideshow]

Click on any image to enlarge. Click on the image once again to return to regular browsing.

(Trivia: UNO editor-in-chief Erwin Romulo worked as a writer on the first season of “Project Runway Philippines” along with Editorial Consultant Mihk Vergara, who was the show’s head-writer. It was directed by Marie Jamora.)

Virtual J-pop idol Hatsune Miku performs live

“As you can see she is a 3D projection but that doesn’t keep keep her show from being sold out. This tech and execution of a music performance is pretty innovative. I wonder if we’ll be seeing more of this outside of the Virtual J-pop world. It would also be cool to incorporate into a live human music performance….This is less threatening than making robots. At least these 3D projections can’t hurt someone physically =P. It could possibly damage an industry though lol. More videos HERE“ (from Population GO)

I was very curious when I was asked to judge the Second International Pole Dancing Competition in Divino Men’s Club, especially since pole dancing is lobbying to be the next Olympic sport (and maybe yoga, cosplay, and competitive texting). Of course, curiosity killed the cat. To prevent any deaths, this cat made sure he went to the pole dancing competition with his wife.

I thought that the judging would be a relatively simple affair as it had similar regulations that you would find in most Olympic-level sports: no vulgar music, no nudity, no thongs, and no tassels. But right before the competition, Ania Przeplakso, the head judge and designer of a unique fitness program called “Sensual fitness” (a regimen well known to many teenage boys), pulled me aside to explain the criteria for judging, which seemed slightly more complicated than rocket science. The scoring sheet had a total of 22 categories that included horizontal maneuvers, fluidity of transitions, foot positioning, and the all-important poise. On top of that, you had to score from a scale of one to seven with one being “basic” and seven being “worship my throne.”

Since the judging seemed more difficult than most national licensing exams, I did the smartest thing that I could do: I had my wife judge on my behalf (also because she blinders installed in my eyeglasses that she could operate by remote control).

A couple of minutes before my wife activated the blinders, I had a chance to speak with judges Ania and Lala Ilao-Dinglasan, pole dance teacher and choreographer, and their love affairs with polished stainless steel.

How do you qualify as a judge for the Second International Pole Dancing Competition? Aside from aesthetic considerations, is it desperation? The Dirty Old Men of the world want to know.
Anya: Experience (laughs).

Well, a lot of Dirty Old Men have had extensive experience with poles.
Anya: It’s not really desperation (laughs). It’s more of being stubborn and following your dreams. When I started pole dancing ten years ago, it still wasn’t acknowledged by anybody. It was a challenge, and I loved it!

Lala: Aside from that, your dance background is also important, And knowing the art itself is important: from how it started out as a show in a strip club to how it became an alternative exercise, and to how it is turning out to be a competitive sport.

That’s true. Men can be very competitive with their poles.
Anya: Most people think that pole dancing came from strip clubs. But it actually came from India.

They have strip clubs in India?
Anya: Pole dancing started in the twelfth century in Maharastra, India as the Indian sport of “Mallakhamb.” It was actually used to train wrestlers to gain more gymnastic skills. At the time, it was only performed by men.

I always thought wrestling with poles came intuitively to men.
Anya: In China, you have Chinese poles, which used a different type of material. I believe that is how pole dancing started progressing. Then, the women took over. They started to put on lipstick, high heels, and started dancing with the poles.

Women, they just take what is rightfully ours and make it more socially acceptable.
Anya: That’s because their male partners wouldn’t go and dance with them so the women found a partner that would never run away (laughs).

You would think that men would make better company than poles.
Anya: Women turned pole dancing into exercise. But of course, gentlemen’s clubs have made a big mark in the history of pole dancing. Why? For a majority of the girls who worked in the gentlemen’s clubs, pole dancing was only one form of exercise they could do at night.

I have a one-liner for this, but I am afraid to use it.
Anya: A lot of men and women noticed how these pole dancers were in such good shape and wanted to know what was their secret to keeping fit. I think this is how the popularity of pole dancing started to grow.

Lala: It’s a total body workout. Especially for people who are tired of going to the gym because of all the repetitive movements.

I for one have had enough of these repetitive movements
Lala: In pole dancing, you are focused on learning the skills, picking up the tricks, and having fun. The toning of the muscles and losing weight will just naturally follow.

Talking about having fun with your poles, you said that men can be good at pole dancing, and especially if they can’t find any partners?
Anya: What I love about pole dancing is the difference in performance between the men and the women. There is both a very feminine and a very masculine way to pole dance, just like regular dance. In last year’s pole dancing contest held in Tokyo, the women danced like water around the pole. They were spinning and flowing. But when you see the men perform, they attack the pole. While they are performing, you can see the muscles in their body fighting to keep their positions.

Lala: The good thing about men is that they are already innately strong. So it’s just a matter of how you are going to use your pole, how uniquely you plan to do your spins and tricks on your pole.

Some men have had more practice with their poles than others. Here is a more practical consideration: Won’t it be more difficult for men to work on the poles when their own, ehem, poles get in the way?
Anya: (Laughs) Well the techniques in pole dancing for a woman and for a man are different. For guys, they love grabbing the pole and then hanging.

Lala: The men don’t do as much squeezing and clamping as women on the pole.

I am glad to hear that our poles are safe from harm. Earlier this evening, we were treated to a special performance by a professional male pole dancer who performed to “Beautiful Girl.” I will not question his choice of music but rather his choice of clothes. Did he really need to wear those sequined armbands and speedos? That is an image that only copious amounts of alcohol can erase.
Lala: (Laughs) That’s really important in pole dancing: the less clothing, the better.

Anya: I have heard the same advice from many a DOM. But I’m not sure if this advice was meant to be unisex.

Lala: Because it has to be your skin to the pole. Or else you won’t be able to mount the pole to do some tricks.

Skin on the pole to mount some tricks, got it. And what are the other practical applications you can use pole dancing for aside from fire fighting?
Lala: Aside from private moments (laughs)?

You wouldn’t say?
Lala: Stamina and flexibility. (Laughs. Somewhere in the distance, her husband laughs.)

Anya: Well, after giving birth, many women have a hard time regaining their pre-pregnancy figure. Pole dancing is one of the most effective fitness routines that can shape the body in less than one month!

The three women reading UNO are having customized poles installed in their bedrooms as we speak. Speaking of stamina and flexibility, I hear that pole dancing might become an Olympic sport?
Anya: (Laughs) The media frenzy (over pole dancing as an Olympic sport) started during the Winter Olympics.

It must have been rather difficult to do pole dancing in the Winter Olympics what with body parts getting stuck to the pole and all.
Anya: Then we started the male categories for the pole dancing championships. After that, we put in an application for the pole dancing in the (2012) Olympics (as a test event). We are still working on it; we hope it will be acknowledged in Brazil (Olympics in 2016).

Then we must brace our wallets for the onslaught of new athletic products that will come about from this emerging sport, like fishnets from Speedo, 7-inch high heels from Adidas, and sport poles from Nike—so everybody can just do it.
Anya: And you may ask who the winner was of the Second Leg of the International Pole Dancing Competition? After watching thirteen candidates: nine from the Philippines and one each from Belarus, Japan, Malaysia, and Moldova, I can safely declare that the true winner for that evening was the pole.

First published in our August 2010 issue

We here at UNO would just like to thank all of you who bought our August issue and sent us so much great feedback and praises. Yup, we serve at your pleasure. And we can promise you more adventures in the coming issues. We hope you continue to fly with us.

(And, Phoemela is just so gorgeous, isn’t she? Book us for a return flight!)

Starring Phoemela Baranda

In this issue:

Award-winning writer Angelo “Sarge” Lacuesta gives us two stories about desire and flight, accompanied by an airport shoot starring the lovely Shawn Yao and Annicka Dolonius.

Kristine Lim Spoor writes about life in New Zealand, Denise Mallabo pays a visit to Ilocos Norte, and Yvette Tan writes about destinations unusual and foreboding.

Menchu Aquino Sarmiento tells us about the gender-transcending Transpinays. Sylvia Mayuga pays tribute to aviation pioneer Capt. Bobby Lim.

Marguerite Alcazaren de Leon lets us into the mind of a Japanese porn star. Andrea Go gives us the Divino experience from a girl’s POV. We count down hentai’s greatest hits. And Armi Millare of Up Dharma Down eats organic with us.

With a name like Atom Henares, you can’t expect anything less than explosive

By RJ Ledesma

After working as an SGV management consultant, our favorite unit of matter pursued his MBA at Harvard Business School. He has diverse business interests in the country that include: palm oil, power plants, a pulp and paper, a cable television and radio station, and real estate. He sits through three meetings a day, leaves work at around 7 p.m. to work out for about an hour, then heads out for dinner at half past ten. And then he (as the young ‘uns call it) makes “gimmick.” This building block of matter also scuba dives and races cars, and he does all this while employing his secret identity.

UNO caught up with the Man of the Atom before he donned his nighttime crusader outfit to save young damsels from a night of oppressive boredom.

So what keeps you going aside from Viagra?
May iba diyan, ‘di ba? (Laughs) Someone once said that: “It’s only worth (something) if you’d rather be doing something else.” The simple answer is: I find it interesting, and I like doing all this stuff! I work in these different industries at different levels. It s a lot of fun, but it can sometimes get confusing because you have to change gears (laughs). Sometimes within the same industry, I am working with indirect competitors because I have investments in two different companies. Sometimes, I find myself in meetings where I have to ask myself “Wait which costing is this? What company am I looking at?”

I love it when a plan comes together.
After business school, the First National Bank of Chicago hired me. The bank sent me back to Manila to run their local office and to also to put up a subsidiary for them.

While I was working with them [the bank], their first investment was in a palm oil company, where we put up a refinery. The palm oil business grew to a point that we backward-integrated and bought out both the plantation and the mill that used to supply us. At that time, I was still a silent partner [in the palm oil company] because I was still employed by the bank.

My next company was my radio station. I got into the radio station business because my family [The Henareses] was an entertainment family, and I always wanted to get into media. My siblings, Ronnie and Juno, are in entertainment, and I even used to manage my brother Ronnie when I was younger. To make my access to the radio station more convenient, I put it in the same building as my bank office (laughs). However, the radio station didn’t require my full attention.

Those side jobs weren’t too taxing yet, so I could still keep my bank job (laughs). However, my other partner tried to interest me in getting into the pulp and paper business. I said, “Wow, if I get into that, then there’s too much going on here already ad I might have to leave my bank job.” The timing for this new business was quite serendipitous as my bank job wanted to send me back to the US. So, I decided to stay (and manage all the businesses that I had put up).

One of the later additions to our business portfolio was real estate.

Playing with the big boys
We’re the biggest guy on the block when it comes to palm oil. We started with an 8000-hectare plantation when you need at least 2000 hectares to be a player in the industry. We employ more than 800 people, and this does not yet include the farmers who supply us from our outgrowers of about five to 6000 hectares. Our plant is located in Mindanao so we are also helping an economically disadvantaged area. Pretty soon we will be bringing in another plantation in Sultan Kudarat.

When we got into the radio station business, we wanted to be a niche rock station. I wanted to do rock music because I always thought that rock was cool, always evolving and always new. That’s how we got the name of the station, NU 107. As we were running that station, we realized that there were a lot of great local talents that we could actually promote. So we decided to give airtime to a lot of these local bands. In fact, many of these big name brands were once garage brands that started out getting airtime on NU. That when the local music industry started to grow, and we eventually came up with the rock awards. NU 107 has given me a lot of good feelings.

Our pulp and paper company is specialty pulping—also a niche business. We make pulp—the raw material for paper—from abaca. Abaca is a specialty pulp, and it is the longest fiber pulp in the world. Because it’s long fiber, the pulp is used for specialty applications like the Japanese yen. I don’t know why we’ve never forward-integrated into making the Japanese yen. That would be profitable (laughs). They also use it for teabags because teabags are strong when they’re wet [Writer's note: Insert your joke here].

The power industry is composed of three industries: generation, transmission, and distribution. By law, you cannot be in all three. And (unexpectedly taps on the prehistoric tape recorder) “Hello! Hello! Philippines, I love you! (Laughs) RJ say hello to everyone!” Having said that, we are both in power generation and power distribution. In power generation, we have 650 megawatts. The last plant we did cost US$451 million. We aren’t the biggest kid on the block, but we aren’t the small boy either. We also have a water utility. We run the water distribution in Mactan, Cebu, and Tagbilaran, Bohol.

In our real estate business, our original strategy was to land bank with the long-term objective of constructing buildings for Business Process Outsourcing (BPOs) offices. Along the way, we found strategic partners who were involved in Serendra in Bonfacio Global City, which is a condominium development. In hindsight, I believe we made the right decisions in picking the right real estate investments at a time when people were not investing. Just as importantly, we found the right partners to do business with because frankly, I don’t think we have the time to put up the buildings ourselves (laughs).

You win some; you lose some.
I have always wanted to own a television station (laughs). So even while I had the radio station, I was also working on the television station. Similar to NU, I also wanted the TV station to be an alternative station. Since the radio station was called NU, we named the TV station the opposite of NU, which is UN. We got organized, got all the equipment, and developed great alternative programming. Unfortunately, it was on UHF so people weren’t really able to watch the channel, and we didn’t get a good cable TV spot, as we were channel 99.

TV was particularly bloody for me. In the angel financing business, there is what is called “burn rate,” which is basically burning money. In television and radio, you are literally throwing money into the air (laughs). You’re burning money every single minute in production costs. After roughly four years in television, I said that I would have to drop everything else just to do the station really well, and then it still might not do well (laughs). I knew that as long as we had a good signal and good equipment, we would have a fall back: either to lease or sell the station. Eventually, our fall back was to “block time” [Writer's note: A local practice where television stations sell air-time to independently produced television shows]. As a result, we kept some of the airtime but then we “block timed” the rest. The station is mostly block timed now.

Except for your dad’s show, I guess. (Writer’s note: Atom’s dad is commentator Larry Henares who became popular in his daily “Make My Day” columns for the Philippine Daily Inquirer, which he wrote after the EDSA 1 revolt up to the year 2000. Larry Henares has a television program of the same name on UNTV)
Of course! I’m the producer (laughs). My dad told me “Atom, you better do this for me. You owe me your life!” I said, “How can you say I owe you my life? That was a moment of pleasure. I’m sure you weren’t thinking of me when you were creating me (laughs).”

How do you handle all them spinning electrons?
To be honest, it can be hard to keep my hand in everything. Sometimes it can even be frustrating (when you manage several jobs). I see other people doing the single functional job or single business, and they are highly successful, but they’re just doing one thing.

However, the trouble with just doing one thing—especially for large capital-intensive businesses—it goes through booms and busts. There was a time when the real estate market went to hell because of its cyclical business nature. That is why it is essential to get good business partners to smoothen out the boom and bust cycle. But even the best of them have their moments. So it helps to be in businesses that are somewhat unrelated—like my businesses. So you get a lower beta (laughs)!

Nuclear-powered advice
(To succeed in business) You have to do what you are passionate about, but after that, you have to focus. You have to pick on that one thing and totally drive it. Don’t give up until you think you’ve reached your limit with it. I have encountered a lot of young people who are very talented and who look at interesting business opportunities, but they do not take it far enough. You have got to be rigorous. You can’t just say, “You like this business.” You’ve got to look at every detail of the business—you have to look long, look short, look broad, look deep, and then you’ve got to do it. And you don’t do a little of it and then party after. You need to be focused and tutok [watch things very closely]. You have to pay your dues.

And sometimes, you do fail. At least you can say, “What the hell, I did my best!” I looked into the business. I worked on it. I couldn’t handle it. I tried my best, and that’s all I could give. But you have to get to this point.

Then, don’t just stop where you are. There is always someone at your back who is looking at what you are doing, figuring out where you are going, and trying to emulate you. So you can’t stop; you just have to keep on going.

And lastly, always, always have an exit strategy.

Photos by Carina Altomonte

Jean Henri Lhuillier, president and CEO of the Cebuana Lhuillier Pawnshop companies, the largest pawn brokering chain with 4000 employees, serving 30,000 customers daily in over 1200 branches around the country

He is also president and CEO of Cintree Management Services, Cebuana Lhuillier Insurance Solutions, Netword Capital Ventures, Inc., Le Soleil de Boracay Resort, Inc., P& EL Realty Corporation, Just Jewels Diamond Boutique Corporation.

Add to that lengthy list: director of Enderun Colleges, DFNN.com, Hatchasia.com, Intelligent Wave Philippines, director and chairman of Global Restaurant Concepts (Philippine Franchiser of California Pizza Kitchen), and Exteriur Resources Worldwide, Inc.

It doesn’t end there. He is also former manager of the Philippine men’s national basketball team that won a gold medal in the 2003 Southeast Asian Games; team manager of the RP Davis Cup since 2004, and current president of the Amateur Softball Association of the Philippines.

I shouldn’t neglect to mention that he is also Honorary Consul of San Marino to the Philippines.

Finally, most importantly, husband to the former Bea Lucero (former Olympian, commercial model, and insanely popular host of a late ‘90s show called Teen Talk), and father to four impossibly adorable kids.

Here’s the question: What does Jean Henri Lhuillier not do?

We pried away the Pearl Business Awardee of the 3rd Aurelio Periquet, Jr. Business Leadership Awards from his multiple desk jobs to share with UNO readers the state of the local pawnshop industry, his passion for sports development, and the safest place to park your money in an increasingly uncertain global economy.

Pawning around
The pawnshop business is “the poor man’s bank.” Pawnshops exist to assist people with limited access to cash, especially in a developing country like ours. Because—aside from rural banks and microfinance businesses—what other cash access options do the poor have? There may be the five-six and other informal networks, but these networks aren’t regulated like the pawnshop industry.

In the local industry, there are a few big players and a lot of small players. Although the pawnshop business is profitable, it is extremely risky and competitive, which is why local pawnshop interest rates are slightly higher than those of other institutions. Over the past several years, we have a seen a growth spurt in pawnshops, but we have also seen many close down. It is a tricky business: you can charge high interest rates—anywhere from three to five percent. But, again, the risk factor is extremely high.

As for our business, we have maximized our network base to offer other services. Outside of the core business, our focus is on money remittances, which have helped us achieve double-digit growth and helped our network as well. On top of that, we also offer e-load cards, bills payment facilities, and non-life insurance. We have gone into related businesses because as the pawnshop industry grows and become more competitive, there is a need to offer more products to make each of your branches more “revenue-generating.”

Over the next several years, we are looking to focus on a few core products and financial-related services that cater to our client base. We will continue to focus and improve on our business so that, down the road, we can offer our clients even better interest rates and quicker service.

Customer service is not lip service
We have built ourselves as a “nationwide brand” but given the highly competitive nature of the business, being that comes with its own set of challenges. For example, there are “mom and pop” pawnshops that can appraise high, and offer lower interest rates. However, like I mentioned earlier, the risk factor is very high. Since we are a nationwide brand, we maintain the same interest rates across all our branches.

But our key strategy in keeping and growing our client base is customer service. We have been a big player in the industry for some time, and I firmly believe that our success is hinged on great customer service. Customer service is practically a mantra in our company—we practice good customer service with both our internal and external clients. Among our internal clients, we have numerous customer service campaigns between departments to maintain high levels of speed and communication. With our external clients, the company holds regular customer service days wherein we invite longtime clients. When I can, I even personally return their gold and jewelry back to them.

The gold mine
In running our business, I am fortunate that my father gave me the opportunity to run things the way I saw fit. On top of that, success in business has also been about luck. I’ve been very lucky to have selected the right people, that I grew the business the right way, and that I was able to invest in businesses that have done well.

Stemming from that luck, this success of the business has been a lot of hard work. We have been able to grow the business from a mom and pop operation into a professionally managed company with outlets nationwide. We have increased the network to a size that has made it more attractive for related enterprises to do business with us.

I count among my biggest business achievements the ability to change the mindsets of our employees in terms of how they see themselves in the company. I believe that our employees are proud to be Cebuano Lhuillier employees not only because of what we’ve done as a business, but also with what we’ve done in terms of socio-civic activities and sports. Our people haven’t only grown as employees and managers, but also as citizens.

A multiplication lesson
In terms of adding new businesses to my portfolio, I see it as something that I have to do. If I don’t aspire to do other businesses, I feel as if time is wasted. At the same time, these businesses allow me to have a grasp of many things. I may not be there full-time for all of the businesses, but I feel as if a part of me is everywhere. That’s the way I am.

Some of the other businesses that I am involved with have come as an investment play. I see the market niche. I see the business opportunity. That being said, you have to make sure that the right people run those businesses. At any case, I sit on the board on most of these other businesses and offer my inputs.

When selecting a business that you aren’t running, you need to make sure that: you thoroughly understand the business, and you are confident that the people behind the business can make that business grow. Every time I chose I a new business, I made sure I selected the right businesses, and those that have the opportunity to grow.

I spend close to seventy percent of my time with the core businesses, and the rest of my time with the rest. Admittedly, there are times I feel that I might have spread myself too thin. Fortunately, I’ve built a strong management team around me that I can rely on and whom I am in constant communication with.

A good sport
Sport has always been a passion of mine. I played Division 1 tennis in college for two years in the US and have been very active in the Davis Cup team since 2005. I competed together with the National Slo-Pitch team and am the president of the Amateur Softball Association.

I also have a passion for our number one sport: basketball. Aside from enjoying the game, basketball is a great advertising medium for a business like ours. I was the national manager of the SEA Games Basketball team that won the 2003 gold medal in Vietnam. When it was still active, I was one of the directors of the Metropolitan Basketball Association (MBA), and the owner of the Cebu Gems team. And, up until a year and a half ago, we had a team in the Philippine Basketball League (PBL)—the Cebuana Lhuillier-Pera Padala Moneymen—that competed for two seasons.

However, from a national perspective, there has been a lack of support for overall sports development. Fortunately, there are a lot of people already supporting basketball in the country. Even without the support of our group, basketball will still receive support. So I decided to focus on other sports that were not receiving much financial support. I wanted to help, because my thinking is “If you don’t help, who is going to help these guys?” There are so many other sports that I try to help, but again there is the issue of limited resources. So at this point, I am focused on softball and tennis.

Even when you lose, you win
I lived in the US for a good twelve years of my life, so I wanted to start a business over there. With my dad’s help, I started a marble fabrication business. I ran that business remotely for over a year, flying back and forth from the Philippines, until the business folded.

My failure in the marble fabrication business was probably the best thing that ever happened to me. I learned to fail. Learning how to fail made more cautious about doing business—I had to make sure that I was surrounded by good people instead of people who wanted you to think they were “good people,” and it takes time to build that confidence. When I first took over our business, I slowly but surely built a management team whom I could eventually trust with the strategic and operational mind-set of the company. I also learned that you cannot run a business remotely (laughs). And that if you want to succeed, you cannot do things sparingly. You need to put in 110 percent behind your effort. That’s when I decided to stay here permanently and never looked back

In the know
First things first: understand the business that you want to get into. Understand the detail. Understand the up- and downside of the business. Understand the competitive landscape of the business. From a strategic standpoint, ask yourself: is this business scalable? Can I bring it regional? Can I bring it national? You have to understand where you want to be in terms of the business. And lastly, from an emotional standpoint: Is this a business that you can be with 24/7? Is this a business that you can love?

If you are looking for good businesses in the country, then look no further than our population: we are ninety million plus people and growing. By 2013, we will be the eleventh most populous country in the world. Find a business that will cater to our numbers. I often encounter people who are looking for businesses that they can sell at the mall. But if you look at the entrepreneurs who have been successful in this country, these were people who are looking at what they sell to ninety million people.

There is a host of growing business opportunities out there. There are still niches in the Business Process Outsourcing, such as accounting and engineering that are largely untapped. As a country with a growing population, there are a lot of opportunities in the educational sector. You can develop niche educational businesses for certificate programs, training programs, associates, or even full-blown colleges. Lastly, there are opportunities in the food and beverage industry. There are businesses that have grown exponentially over the past ten years, like chicken inasal. I believe that food, if done right and for the right price, has the chance to grow just as exponentially.

As a pawnbroker, I would tell you to invest in gold. If you take a look at the price of gold today, it has risen a lot over the past year and a half. It is about a thousand dollars an ounce now. With all the uncertainty going on in the global economy, gold has always been a good hedge.