By Vincent Mariel P. Galang
Reporter
AN alternative source of income is now made easy for overseas Filipino workers (OFW).
“When I flew to Dubai, we saw that there were so many OFWs there who wanted to be able to invest in the Philippines. They are OFWs, white collar workers. They are earning a lot of money, but they don’t know where to put them. They don’t know where to invest their money over here. They need a retirement plan when they come back here,” Rene A. Ledesma, Jr., co-founder of Easy Franchise said during its launch on March 5.
Easy Franchise is a platform developed by Mr. Ledesma together with two other well-known names in the field of franchising and technology. It provides a connection for franchisors and franchisees, making it easy for franchisees to look for the right business for them, and for franchisors to tap potential partners and even advertise their business.
Through the technology implemented by Anton Ojeda for ZomatoPH and BeepbeepPH, Filipinos, especially the OFWs, who would want to invest in something that will make the most out of their money, will be matched with the franchise and the location of their choice.
“Everything we want to do is to help businesses and to help people invest their money correctly. What would technology do to fix this? Make everything transparent. Put all the information there as it is. Put it all in a level playing field. Nobody has an advantage there. All the information is there,”Mr. Ojeda said.
“We can have specific focus areas where they need people to support and the OFW franchise investors can bring in those franchises which are good for specific areas to grow the economy in an area and to put up services which are required to grow that area,” Mr. Ledesma said.
The platform will not only provide the necessary information needed by interested franchisees like the requirements and the amount needed to franchise, they will also be able to rate the franchisor and let others know of their experience with that specific partner.
“At the end of the day they have more information, they have more power, they can make better decisions … they run a business better, everybody benefits from that. You don’t waste your money,” Mr. Ojeda said.
Since the company mainly targets OFWs, it can provide them with other services like accounting and management, given that they cannot really oversee their business while they are overseas.
By end of 2019, the company is targeting to list 2,000 businesses from across different industries and be able to match 1,000 franchisees. Also, it is aiming to aid the local industry achieve its target of hitting the P1.3-trillion revenue mark by 2020.
“There is a huge opportunity for technology to be used to grow the franchise industry. Several other sectors such as transport and energy have seen huge growth and development by introducing disruption through technology. Through Easy Franchise, we hope to support the whole industry in reaching its goal of moving past the P1.3-trillion mark in 2020,” Jose P. Magsaysay, Jr., co-founder of Easy Franchise said in a statement. He is also the president and chief executive officer of the well-known French fries franchisor Potato Corner.
