Power Up: Awakening the Young Business Minds

The Society of Business Managerial Accountants (SBMA) recently conducted a seminar

with the theme “Power Up: Awakening the Young Business Minds” last January 29, 2017 at the
AMV Multipurpose Hall.
Accounting and management accounting students, who are interested and dreamt on
having their own business, attended the said seminar. The event was divided into morning and
afternoon session with different sets of speakers who have their own businesses at a very
young age.
The afternoon program was led by the masters of ceremonies, Mr. Gabriel Salud and
Ms. Czarina Alberto.
The first speaker is Ms. Nicole Guanio who is the owner of the Harry Potter inspired
book café, The Nook Café. She started her speech by telling the students why she chose a
Harry Potter inspired book café and how did she came up with that idea. She mentioned that
loves Harry Potter and she underwent depression which changed her life. Moreover, she
enumerated the things that a person must have when opening up a business. First is empathy
that you should “always treat others with respect,” she said because they don’t know who that
the person they are talking to is the owner of the business that they’re angered with. Second is
sense of responsibility that “it’s not just about you, it’s about your employees,” she said because
the employees depend on the compensation you’ll give to them and if they’ll not receive a
monthly salary they don’t know how they’re going to feed their families. Last is coping
mechanism that there will always be problems if they have a business. It is up to them on how
they are going to face it. She gave a quotation before ending her speech saying, “Entrepreneurs
must be ready to always learn new things.”
On the other hand, Mr. Elmerei Cuevas, the second speaker, is the CEO and founder of
the productivity café called Diligence Café. He started his talk by correcting the perspective of
the students that Diligence Café is not a coffee shop but a productivity café and let them say an
oath about being a dreamer. After which he also enumerated 3 things dreams, diligence, and
destiny which can be a formula, dreams plus diligence is equal to destiny. He told the students
that someone will define their dream if they will not define theirs and be proactive because
“nothing happens to a spectator.” He stressed that if they are having problems don’t go to other
persons for help but ask directly to the Maker. He also gave an inspiring quotation by the end of
his speech saying, “Diligence is not about being the best at it, it is about keeping at it no matter
what happens, until it comes it pass.”
The third speaker is Ms. Mahalia Joy Anne Agapito, a Thomasian Bachelor of Science in
Management Accounting graduate and the co-founder of Al Jograts, Perisan Grill. She
enumerated steps on how she had a business based on her experiences which are failure,
giving yourself second chance, acceptance, know yourself, gain experience, happiness, and
focus. She stressed about making decisions and sticking with it and ended her speech by
reminding the students, “whatever you do find happiness,” she said
Certificates and tokens of appreciation were given to the speakers for entrusting with the
students their knowledge and experiences in the business world. To end the program, Ms.
Charlaine Mallari, Executive Secretary of SBMA, delivered her closing remarks while Mr. Ed
Russel Tayag, Vice President of Accountancy Student Council, led the closing prayer.