The Global Dishwasher is Now an Entrepreneur
The Filipino Times Entrepreneur of the Year 2015 nominee shares insights on how to prosper
DUBAI: Jonathan Ilagan Ruiz has been an OFW for more than 12 years, working first in Italy as a dishwasher, then later moved to the UK and Norway.
But in the UAE, his new home, his humble past is just but a shadow of his new promising business career after earning a master’s degree in International Business in Hult International Business School in London.
Ruiz is currently the general manager of the CAFE Martinez chain in Dubai. On the sidelines, he is the owner and CEO of PAM Academy, an online learning platform about Philippine Stock Market and a financial blogger with the moniker “Newbie Mentor”.
A nominee to The Filipino Times Entrepreneur of the Year 2015 Awards, Ruiz believes that God planned for everyone to be prosperous and that one possible way to achieve it is through opening up a business.
He said his business idea began when he saw the need for financial education among OFWs who want to keep their hard-earned money growing.
“One of the main challenges (for an entrepreneur) is to capture the trust and confidence of potential customers because even your friends will not believe in your business idea. The fear of failure that it will not work out (is normal) but if you believe in yourself and in your products there is no room for failure,” he said.
This native of Lian, Batangas said he chose to put up an online business so he can manage his time between his job and family, at the same time, help OFWs.
“Online business is now the trend and this gives me more time to spend with my family and friends. My full time job is at the same time, giving me an opportunity to be trained in food and beverage industry that one day. I dream of running my own coffee shop business someday,” he added.
To help his students online, Jonathan also developed applications iProsper – https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.ps.iprosperapp, for budgeting and PAM PSE Tracker- https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.athanruiz.pam for stock market monitoring that could be downloaded for free.
“The most victorious moments I have are when I see the number of enrollees keep increasing every month and reading through the amazing feedback of the students with our online lesson and support of PAM community and the continuous request coming from the students to develop more applications that they can use in their everyday journey to financial freedom,” beamed the online entrepreneur.
Although Jonathan did not make it in this year’s TFT Awards, he is content with his life.
He said, “I’m not disappointed for not winning. Being nominated in this prestigious award alone was already a recognition of my contribution to the community. The experience taught me to be patient and wait for the right turn. There will always be someone better than you. Don’t compete with others but compete with yourself.”
Having invested in condo rental properties, finished his master’s degree, developed applications for stock market hitting more than 10,000 downloads, running a blog that is giving him a monthly passive income, having travelled to 25 different countries, and being able to write a book for OFWs aptly titled, “AngBiyaheni Juan” that made him a nominee for Influential Author in 2014 by AngatPilipinas Coalition for Financial Literacy, Inc. (APCFLi), a non-profit organization composed of leaders with vision and passion for serving the nation through their core expertise in various professions and enterprises, Ruiz has indeed all the rights to feel like a big winner in life.