Jonathan Ilagan Ruiz is the general manager of the CAFÉ Martinez chain in Dubai, owner and CEO of the PAM Academy, an online learning platform about Philippine Stock Market and is a financial blogger with the moniker “Newbie Mentor.”
He also has investment in condo rental properties and wrote a book for OFWs with the title “Ang Biyahe ni Juan” which earned him a nomination for Influential Author in 2014 by Angat Pilipinas 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 enterprise not to mention his master’s degree in International Business in Hult International Business School in London.
Despite his glowing business career and recent education, Ruiz was from a humble past, working as an OFW for more than 12 years, first in Italy as a dishwasher before moving to UK and Norway.
Ruiz says that you need to capture trust and confidence of potential customers because even your friends will not believe in your business idea. Fear of failure is normal but you have to believe in yourself. If you believe in yourself and your products there is no room for failure.
The need for financial education among OFWs who want to keep their hard-earned money growing inspired Ruiz’s business idea. Ruiz believes that God planned for everyone to be prosperous and business is one way to achieve it.
In order to help fellow OFWs and spend more time with friends and family, Ruiz ventured into online business. He also says he did it because it is in the now trend. In the meantime he also has his full time job that allows him food and beverage trainings and opportunities. Ruiz says he dreams of owning his own coffee shop business someday.
Ruiz also expressed happiness at the moments when he sees the number of enrollees increasing every month and the positive feedback of the students with the online lessons and support from PAM community as well as requests for more applications that they can use in their real life. Ruiz developed two applications, the iProsper for budgeting and PAM PSE Tracker for stock market monitoring, both free for downloads.
Ruiz is a nominee to The Filipino Times Entrepreneur of the Year 2015 Awards.
He says the experience taught him patience and to wait for the right turn. Don’t compete with anybody because somebody will always be better than you but compete with yourself.