Toiling on toilets earns clean profit

Small businesses continue to sprout after the pandemic as many have realized there are still a lot of post-crisis opportunities using a bit of creativity and a heavy stress on technology.

Entrepreneurship professor and industrial engineer Francisco "Jay" Bernardo III wanted more Filipinos to level up their products and services for them to achieve financial freedom and for them to create a meaningful impact on the society.

He is carrying out this mission through Netflix-inspired financial and entrepreneurship digital shows that are easily accessible and digestible.

Apart from this, he is also raising young entrepreneurs through his StartUp Village, along with the Bayan Academy while on the side hunting for dirty toilets to manage.

"We're doing a Netflix-like project where entrepreneurship education is democratized, providing business literacy at an affordable price," Bernardo, who teaches entrepreneurship at the Ateneo Graduate School of Business, told the Daily Tribune in a meeting by the Rotary Club of Makati where he was the guest speaker.

He said the public can gain financial and business knowledge from the digital programs with talks by highly trusted company leaders and business coaches, such as Bo Sanchez and Francis Kong.

"It's learning on demand," Bernardo, who is an awardee of the Ernst and Young's Entrepreneur of the Year Philippines and Ten Outstanding Young Men of the Philippines, said.

There are now around 450,000 members of the entrepreneurship literacy program, he added. "We hope we can reach millions," Bernardo said.

One common lesson from entrepreneurs, he said, is how to turn problems into opportunities for meaningful businesses or social enterprises.

This Bernardo masterfully did by looking at the backrooms that usually falls to neglect.

Original toilet king

"I realized that it's much more difficult to make an impact on millions of people than earn millions of pesos," Bernardo said.

"If you're going into business, just look at your personal crisis, other people's crisis. The endless crises or problems in society offer opportunities somewhere," he stressed.

To illustrate the power of being creative and keen, Bernardo shared he was able to help his driver earn more while providing convenience to others by going to a kubeta or banyo, which is a toilet or restroom in English, a pleasant experience.

"I'm the original Banyo King. I visited one of my students who was running a bus terminal in Manila and when I went there, I saw the restroom was very dirty," Bernardo recalled.

This prompted him to create a business out of managing clean and beautiful restrooms across the country.

"I will run the restrooms for the people, especially those coming from the provinces because they deserve a better option than the free toilet," Bernardo said.

"A restroom can earn P20,000 a day on fees alone and the person running it is my driver. He would often come back to me and say, Sir, I have another restroom to operate," he shared.

With this business, Bernardo won the Golden Kubeta Awards by Maynilad, formed the Restroom Association of the Philippines in 2002, and became a director of the World Toilet Association. "From a small irritant, you can actually create wonders," he said.

In a more serious matter, Bernardo suggested to the Armed Forces of the Philippines or AFP that it can train and educate the Filipino public on defense through such recreational activities as paintball shooting games within military camps.

"I sat down with the AFP generals at the camp and we were talking about the Russia-Ukraine war that might happen with China. Our group was saying that they could open their camps and let people in but in a fun way to get themselves physically fit, do paintball shooting, learn the values of discipline and love of country," he said.

"I said I'll have the people but they (the AFP) will have to provide the facilities. This will be fun and people will post about it and we can learn how to stand up when the situation calls," Bernardo continued.

Standing up for rights

He clarified that he is not directly forcing the public to fight but simply stressing how entrepreneurship can be used to solve a range of problems and provide alternative styles of livelihood.

"We want peace and also teach the military about entrepreneurship, especially those in the provinces who have no time to fight," Bernardo said.

The entrepreneurship guru and also awardee of Ten Outstanding Young Persons of the World and the Agora Awards for Outstanding Achievement in Entrepreneurship continues to spur profitable but meaningful businesses through StartUp Village.

This community links students, entrepreneurs, investors, companies, and customers through mentorship and training sessions and use of various facilities where they can brainstorm ideas. There are at least five StartUp Villages and 10 partner clients. 

Bernardo said his team has diversified the StartUp Village into thematic locations. One of them, he said, focuses discussions on finance, while the others on healthcare, performing arts and sports.

Bernardo said village members also visit different countries and global companies like Google to study innovative solutions.

Currently, he is also the chairman of JAD Group of Companies, or JADGC, a conglomerate of several strategically-aligned outsourcing businesses in manufacturing, logistics, distribution, research and development, information technology, and human resource. The company developed from manufacturing plastic sticks for cotton buds.