GAYtrepreneurship
Businesses Where GLBTQIs Thrive
By M.D. dela Cruz Tan

When Zandrex dela Cruz, who used to work as a hairstylist in Vienna, Austria, opened salon cum spa Azgenda Salon in 2004, when, upon his return for a visit home, “the chance to open up my own business came up, and I grabbed that chance,” he became one of the still few openly self-identified members of the gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, queer, and intersex (GLBTQI) community, who decided to go into entrepreneurship.

With an initial investment of approximately P400,000 (co-raised by a former business partner), initially running the salon was no walk in the park.  “We only had three people working for us then, so I had to do most of everything – not just haircutting, as the job description (entailed), but buying the stocks to be used in the salon, bookkeeping, et cetera,” Dela Cruz says.  But it was something he was keen to go into because it was “where my expertise lies – not to mention that (it was a viable business to enter) since beautifying is a ‘need,’ more than just a ‘want’.  Guys, for example, need to get a haircut at least once a month.  That’s a market that will always be there.  If you know how to tap that market, as I believe Azgenda does, then you’re sure to succeed.”

Interestingly, even in an industry permeated by GLBTQIs, Dela Cruz wasn’t spared by discrimination brought about by his self-identification, especially when related – unnecessarily or not – to his becoming a businessman.

“Especially when it (comes to inviting investors to take interest in the business), it’s hard because they judge you (solely based on the stereotypes associated with your gender),” he says.  “You already have to put up with the usual challenges of starting up a business, and then you still have to put up with this (discrimination).”

However, waxing optimism, Dela Cruz says that “it’s all part of the territory.  It hasn’t been easy, especially in the beginning, but I realized that, in life, nothing really is ever easy.  You have to work hard to succeed, and my early experiences taught me exactly that.”

A year later, things started paying off, so that Dela Cruz did not only get back the return on his investments, he actually started growing Azgenda Salon by branching out, as well as selling franchises.  “Hard work still proves your real worth,” he says.

Dela Cruz is actually one of the still few out Filipino GLBTQIs finding success in business, with the actual number hard to peg mainly because no study has been done on them.   While GLBTQI businesses have been around for some time now – e.g. think of fashion designers Jose Pitoy Moreno and Ernest Taray Santiago, and beauticians Jun Encarnacion and Ricky Reyes – their real presence then, as it remains now, is largely anecdotal.  Thus, even if over 40% of the 99.6% registered businesses in the country are women-owned and/or run micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs), the remaining figure is generally assumed as men-owned and/or run – no breakdown is deemed needed for self-identifying non-heterosexuals, so that GLBTQIs remain an invisible force in business.

This development (or lack, thereof) is noteworthy especially in discussions of the power of the pink currency (in the Philippines, the pink peso), i.e. influence of the GLBTQI community because of their financial affluence.  For without the acknowledgement of their very existence, services (needed or not) for them are deemed irrelevant, too, and are thus not offered.

But, for now at least, that they’re there at all, thereby serving as good examples for other GLBTQIs intending to do the same, is, by now, a point that’s definitely hard to miss.

FOCUS ON THE CURRENCY

Current GLBTQI-owned businesses respond to two major markets.

On the one hand, there are the businesses servicing non-GLBTQIs (i.e. self-identified heterosexuals), with the GLBTQIs only incidentally sharing that market, as in the case of Dela Cruz’s Azgenda Salon, and other beauticians Encarnacion and Reyes, and fashion designers Moreno and Santiago.  Yet another is Chris Cera – owner of Cree, which is into custom jewelry making – who, had he chosen only serve GLBTQIs, would have limited the scope of his clients, especially as he is now servicing, among others, TV personality Karen Davila and Senator Chiz Escudero’s media relations officer Judee Aguilar.

Even from the start, Cree “made waves.”  “When I already had enough samples, things just picked up from there,” Cera recalls, citing how his friends in call centers, for example, brought his samples to their work places, “and their friends ordered from them.”  Just a few months later, Cera was already consigning Cree to fashion boutique Tango, a “big and welcome development.”  Yet, obviously, had he chosen not to go mainstream, Cera would have “limited (Cree’s) possibilities.”

On the other hand, and fast emerging now, is the intent of businesses, no matter the gender identification of who owns them, to service GLBTQIs, this time with non-GLBTQIs as the incidental market.  This is an understandable move for businesses, as an attempt to attract the pink currencies – e.g. gay Oxford Street, home to the annual Syney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras, in Australian city Sydney, for example, was worth an estimated $46 million to the Australian economy in 2007 alone; and annual gay Nation party, held to coincide with Singapore's National Day, pulled in about 2,500 foreign visitors in 2004 alone, earning the city state an estimated S$6 million.

Studies after studies show why it is beneficial to tap the GLBTQI community, including – one of the more recent studies – the Harris Interactive, which, in Why Target the Market?, states that nearly half (48%) of gay and lesbian adults (surveyed online) report “they like to keep up with the latest styles and trends, compared to only 38% of heterosexual adults.  This also seems to accelerate behaviors tracked by a similar survey in January 2007, when 38% of gay and lesbian adults reported they like to keep up with the latest styles and trends (compared to 32% of heterosexual adults).”

Harris Interactive adds: “Taking a look only at gay men in the sample, more than half (53%) report they like to keep up with the latest styles and trends, compared to fewer than one-third (30%) of heterosexual men.  In January 2007, when the same question was posed, 39% of gay men reported that they keep up with the latest styles and trends, compared to 32% of heterosexual males…  Gay and lesbian adults are also more likely to upgrade to the latest model compared to their heterosexual counterparts. The latest survey shows 45% of gay and lesbian adults say they tend to upgrade to the latest model or version of a product, compared to one-third (33%) of heterosexual adults.  Just looking at gay men, nearly half (49%) report they tend to upgrade to the latest model or version of a product, compared to 35% of heterosexual men.”

Obviously, the latest survey “continues to confirm a key demographic distinction between gay/lesbian consumers and their heterosexual counterparts.  The GLBTQI community has long been known not just for trend spotting but also trend setting.  They are very savvy consumers and often motivated to spend a little extra on new products and upgrades,” Harris Interactive states.

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