Ideas & Opportunities

There are entrepreneurs who change the way people live, and there are entrepreneurs who change people’s lives. For Joji Ilagan-Bian, the vocational schools she started have changed more lives than she could have ever imagined.

Then fresh out of college, Ilagan-Bian decided to put up a vocational school that would give holistic training and was capable of meeting the demand of the job market at that time. Starting with four classrooms along Anda Street in Davao City, Ilagan-Bian opened her Joji Ilagan-Bian (JIB) Career Center in 1982. “What set us apart immediately from all other vocational schools at that time was that we made sure that we had the best facilities, our classrooms were air-conditioned, and our students wore nice uniforms,” says Ilagan-Bian, who finished Hotel and Restaurant Management at the University of the Philippines in Diliman. “We showed them that even if it is a vocational school, we could still look good, even better.”

One of the things aspiring school owners must understand is that schools—preschools, high schools, colleges, tutorial centers, vocational schools, and even review centers—are not the same as any other product that you can just sell.  “In our case, the products are different. The products are our graduates,” says Ilagan-Bian.

She is now working on her recently opened culinary school in General Santos City, the second campus of her culinary schools, and the seventh in the total number of schools that she owns and manages. “It’s still the same drill as if we were still starting with our very first school 20 years ago. Although we are more familiar with the process, it is still the same feeling every time we open a new school,” says Ilagan-Bian, who personally scrutinizes each school’s location, classrooms, equipment, and curriculum.

Making the name
Starting the school was the easy part of the business, it was making people believe in the school, in its name, and in what it has to offer that took some time. “The credibility of a school is something that does not happen overnight. Not even in the span of the year.  People will look at the graduates of the school. The graduates are the finished product that will tell the public of the quality of education that your school offers,” she says.

“It took about 10 years before I could say that we have already established our name,” adds Ilagan-Bian.
Nearly 30 years since it started, the Joji Ilagan Bian Career Center now has seven schools under its brand: the JIB College of Business and Tourism, JIB e-Academy and Solutions, two franchises of Tumble Tots preschool, JIB Welding Academy, Institute of International Culinary and Hospitality Entrepreneurship, and the Joji Ilagan International School in General Santos City.

While all of her schools are in Mindanao, Ilagan-Bian has made sure the schools she put up are competitive with what the top schools in their categories in the country have to offer. “Quality education should be made available to whoever aspires to learn or improve his chances for employment and upward mobility. Our commitment is to provide curricula and learning programs designed with the development of the whole person in mind—an individual who is skilled, confident and self-assured,” says Ilagan-Bian.

• Twitter your way to marketing success
• Freelancers united
• Free entrepreneurship classes for May
• Startup event offers opportunities to Visayas-based entrepreneurs
• 7 most common challenges of Pinoy biz

• Hot home-based business ideas
• 10 Most Inspiring Entrepreneurial Stories of 2010
• Making money while staying at home
• 10 businesses you can start today
• 10 business ideas for Christmas