Two executives from the Las Vegas, Nevada-based fluid absorbent company SpillVak joined leadership from the Academy for Creating Enterprise (ACE) in Angeles, Pampanga, Philippines at the Enterprises Academy Awards to teach business principles to the ACE graduates in attendance.
Kyle Bybee, CEO, taught “Count the Cost,” which covered basic accounting principles that can help necessity entrepreneurs run their businesses as lean as possible.
Trent Whatcott, director of Marketing, presented on “Be Nice Later,” focusing on the importance of building a business that generates income first, supporting self and immediate family and then giving to others once the business and personal needs are secure. He emphasized that giving to others can also mean providing someone with the opportunity to earn money as opposed to receiving a handout.
Bybee and Whatcott were also joined by Johann Buck, PhD., CCA, director of Sales and Product Development for sister company RainSoil, who delivered a presentation entitled “Make a Profit Every Day,” where he touched on the importance of each small step that leads to making a sale every day. Buck derived much of his presentation from “The Greatest Salesman in the World” by Og Mandino, and the team presented each attendee with a copy of the book at the end of the meeting. Buck challenged the attendees to follow the principles taught in the book and take the 10 months required to appropriately consume the material.
The following day, Bybee, Whatcott and Buck led a panel discussion on integrity, leading the panel discussion within their areas of expertise.
Along with presenting, Bybee, Whatcott and Buck, along with team member Tomo Ishida, judged the business plans of entrepreneurs in various markets and were able to announce the winners at the Academy Awards gala held the final evening.
“We were able to listen to some incredible entrepreneurs share the success of their businesses thus far and hear their goals and dreams for the future of their businesses,” Bybee said. “It was humbling to hear the great things they have developed out of necessity. We heard business plans from agribusiness, food and beverage, laundry services, graphic design, prosthetics, technology services, catering, childcare and more. The Philippines has some serious untapped human capabilities that we will be seeing implemented throughout the world in the future.”
“Your teaching moments with both the ACE alumni graduates were not only informational, but they were also motivational,” James Fantone, executive director of the ACE-Philippines, told SpillVak. “Thank you for making your presentations as basic as you could because the audience grasped the lessons more fully. Many who received your book tokens are now motivated to get a hand on other great books — you have started them on the road to a great reading journey. From the bottom of our hearts, the staff of the ACE-Philippines would like to thanks Trent, Kyle, Johann and Tomo for celebrating and being with us during one of the milestones of the Academy’s mission.”
The ACE was opened in Cebu City, Mactan, Philippines 17 years ago by Stephen and Bette Gibson, former successful business owners from Littleton, Colorado. While touring the Philippines, Steve and Bette saw the need to teach necessity entrepreneurship to individuals who were at the height of poverty and unable to find unemployment. Today, ACE has had 11,000 graduates complete their program in the Philippines, Mexico, Peru and Colombia, with more than half form the Philippines.
