WHEN PAYING THE RIGHT TAXES PAYS OFF
Business owner Philip Tan has some advice for entrepreneurs: Pay the right taxes so you can demand help from government agencies.
This is what he did when he ventured into the metalworking industry.
Philip grew up in a family with limited resources.
Although his parents are Chinese and are business-inclined, the past president of the Mandaue Chamber of Commerce and Industry (MCCI) experienced difficulty, which he treated as stepping stones instead of stumbling blocks to achieve success in business.
Philip is the founder of Wellmade Motors Development Corp., a company he built in 1988 that started as a trading company selling automotive and truck spare parts. Two years after, it expanded into the remanufacturing and overhauling of automotive and truck engines. In 1995, he remodeled the business and ventured into the metalworking industry. Two years later, the company faced the biggest challenge in business—the Asian financial crisis.
“I survived college by juggling both work and school. I took a parttime job in my uncle’s gasoline station. I worked as a gas pump boy, cashier. I was all around,” said Philip, the eldest among four siblings.
He made use of his earnings to augment his needs in school. He recalled he had to be a working student because his father Tan Tiong Han couldn’t afford to send them all to school.
Philip admitted he was not the apple of his father’s eye, likening himself to a black sheep in the family. “I wasn’t the top in class. My father just saw me as the type who was having fun in class, no direction,” he shared. One of Philip’s siblings is a top scientist residing in the United States.
Philip finished business administration with a major in marketing at the University of San Carlos. After graduating, he worked full-time in his uncle’s business. He left at the age of 25 years.
Fast forward today, Wellmade Motors now employs 150 workers, five percent of whom are persons with disabilities (PWD). He owns six branches of Wellmade Motors in the Visayas and Mindanao, including a joint venture project in Malaysia.
Philip’s influence in business made him MCCI’s president in 2012. He is also a member of the Regional Tripartite Wages and Productivity Board, representing the business sector. He is also the vice chairman of the Philippine Busi- ness for Social Progress and is the incoming district governor in the Rotary Club.
What was your first job?
I worked in my uncle’s business after graduation. I became a general manager in his gasoline station business. In fact, I was the one who brought the first Goodyear service technology outside of Metro Manila to Cebu in 1980. At the age of 25 years, I decided to leave the job with a promise to myself that “once an employee, never an employee again.” It was one of the boldest decisions I made, but I understood the move I was taking. I was eager to be on my own. I learned the pain of having no money and living with a meager income.
Who inspired you to get into business?
I did everything to make a living after I resigned from the corporate job. Fortunately, I came from a family that is inclined to business. My father was running a trading business called Hans Marketing Corp. since 1963, so transition wasn’t that difficult. It was my journey as an employee that motivated me to become my own boss. But, I learned it the hard way. For three years in 1985, I ventured into the buy-and-sell business until I founded Wellmade Motors in 1988. It was registered as a single proprietorship until the business became stable in 1993 and I had it registered as a corporation. Then, I started counting the profits.
With a growing family to feed and the vision to make the company become sustainable, I took the risk of switching the business from trading into engineering. Everyone in the family opposed, knowing that I am not an engineering graduate. They wondered how on earth I would run it. But I challenged myself. I self-studied engineering. I read books. I also went to the United States to learn and meet people who are into the same venture. Unfortunately, I needed P10 million in capital to start the new venture.
I asked my father to help me secure a loan from banks, which he initially hesitated to do because it was big money. It was my mother, Ngai Kam Chu, who eventually persuaded my father, using our house as the collateral. My siblings helped out, too.
But one courageous thing I did was I knocked on the government agencies’ doors and demanded they help me out in my business. I knew some people in DTI (Department of Trade and Industry), Tesda (Technical Education and Skills Development Authority), DOST (Department of Science and Technology), and Dole (Department of Labor and Employment) and they all helped me. I told them I pay the right taxes and that they must help me. These four agencies helped through various training and assistance programs related to technology and human resource development.
When did you realize this was what you were meant to do?
I am passionate, not for the product, but for the people. When I saw the business growing, I saw how it helped the community I was in. I was able to help generate jobs, not only in Mandaue City, but also in areas where I expanded. I realized that when you just pay your workers the right wage and show them that you care for their welfare, they will become productive and the company will grow. They will treat the business as their own, too. Transparency and good governance are essential in growing a business.
From a micro-small company with 12 people in 1995, the company has grown into 150 employees with six branches in Visayas and Mindanao.
How many times did you fail before you succeeded?
The deepness of your pain will also be equal to the height of your success, because it (pain) will be your root. When I shifted into machine fabrication in 1995, two years later, the Asian financial crisis happened, where 80 percent of the businesses in Asia went bankrupt. I went through a four-year period of pain where every profit in the business was used to pay off the bank. We almost went bankrupt, but God saved us. He helped us weather the crisis. I then saw the business turnaround.
In the early 2000s, we embarked on an expansion. As a way of giving back, we started hiring PWDs five years ago. It was such a delight to see them become empowered individuals. Then I became active in other organizations that help particular sectors in the community.
With my vast experience in business, I learned that life is about giving. Sometimes, entrepreneurs forget about kindness and all they think about is money. I tell you, it’s never just about the money. Money should only be a tool to make life meaningful and use that back to society. This is what I live by: “Profit is just one of our means in attaining our aims in life.”