“The Equation of Success”
By Phoebe Marquez
Even as a young girl, Merle Alferez knew her life would revolve around Math.
“Numbers are always moving. They have life. Even in serial numbers on money, I can easily see relationships,” Merle says.
After teaching Math for 18 years, Merle decided to quit so she can attend to the needs of her first — and would be the only — son Gerard. The need to share her knowledge, however, never left. With P240 start-up capital, she placed a 2x6-foot signboard in front of a rented house on Chico Street in Quezon City, which advertised tutorial services.
Her first enrollee was an Ateneo student who had a 63 grade in Math. Merle did her “magic,” and in the next grading semester, that student’s grade went up to 87. By word of mouth, Merle quickly found herself in the center of a bustling company. Thus, in 1988, MSA Academic Advancement Institute was born, the name of which is derived from her initials.
“I don’t know what fate has installed for me, but I am a dreamer. And I am ready to work hard for these dreams,” she says. Being the eldest of 12 siblings, she helped augment the family’s income selling ginataan and vegetables. At 14, she worked as a tricycle driver, plying the Industrial Valley route in Quezon City. “A female tricycle driver was uncommon then. But I paid no attention to discrimination. It’s a clean job, I earned good money out of it,” she defends her choice. “And I had my pride, I don’t like to ask for money, I’ll work for it,” she adds.
So when Merle started MSA, the fear to fail wasn’t there. What she feared was that she might not keep up with the demand. “But the determination to go big was firing me up,” she says. “I only had P240 for the signboard. My real capital was my knowledge and skills.”
Back then, Merle had a hard time figuring out how to run such an enterprise. With no one to neither mentor her nor a company to pattern policies from, she worked as the president, the advertiser and the employee. “I would print flyers then insert them in newspapers, just so people would take note of us,” she says.
During MSA’s initial stages, Merle had difficulty also in finding good teachers because it was hard to convince them that they had a future in MSA. Yet, Merle never backed down. Twenty years later, she is pleased to say MSA has institutionalized tutorial services. Today, she’s able to send her teachers to trainings and seminars, in and out of the country. Asked now how they hire competent teachers, she grins, “We don’t look anymore, they come to us.”
To date, MSA has eight branches and a pre-school. With a citation from the National Consumers Affairs Foundation for Best Academic Tutorial Center, and an ISO Certification — the first and so far the only tutorial center to acquire such — Merle considers MSA’s achievements as its high point. Integrity, she says, is never to be overlooked. “If there is something fishy, I’d rather not go for it. If you don’t like what MSA is offering, we’ll never go underground for you,” she strongly says.
Merle, who was a 2002 Teodora Alonso Awardee for education, applies integrity not only to their academics but to paying their taxes as well. “Companies should not be scared of taxes because you are not giving BIR the part of your sales; You’re just sharing some of your profits. When you’re cheating, you have fear in your head. You then cannot concentrate on more pressing matters.”
And though many smaller tutorial centers have followed, Merle is all too grateful for the competition. “The more players coming in, the better to bombard the public with the need for tutorial services.”
At 55, Merle is not yet considering retirement, but is open to the idea. After all, she’s convinced that she is training her staff well. “I let my staff have business units because I want them to be financially able. I don’t like poor staff,” says Merle. “They’ll just keep getting company loans, and that’s not good for both the business and the employee,” she says.
Frugality is another value she is adept with. “That’s part of being an entrepreneur,” says Merle, “appreciating every peso you make and using it well.” MSA, in all its years, has never taken a loan. Asked why she gives so much value on her staff’s well-being, Merle points her being a mother. “That’s an advantage of being a woman. What you want to give to your child, you give to your staff. You know they have families to support and who better to understand that than a mother,” she says.
She also makes sure that she maintains a simple lifestyle. She dresses as simply as her staff does and doesn’t possess an air of superiority. “My only hobby is talking to my husband,” Merle cheerfully adds. “I did not start this business to make money; I only wanted to contribute to the education system. I know I cannot handle all; there are millions of students out there. But by going to public schools and sharing what we know, I know it’s a good start.” Just recently, MSA donated P888,000-worth of books to the Manila Science high school.
“Also, back in 1988, my motivation was to have enough money so that my husband will not need to work abroad. I wanted our family to be together,” Merle says. Wives, she adds, should not be dependent on their husbands’ salary. It’s a plus also for women entrepreneurs that their partners are not insecure. “My husband deals with the publishing part of MSA now, but he doesn’t mind that I’m the boss because he has proven himself in his field, and that is being an engineer.”
If you would ask Merle how a female tricycle driver became the owner of a giant tutorial center, she’ll advise you to do the math — add passion to your work, subtract unwanted luxuries, multiply your advantages and then divide and share your blessings.
And that is one equation easy to remember.
