NINER REVIEW CENTER

by Francis Gregory Mandi and Alvin Patrick Valentin

In recent years, it is undoubtedly a known fact that moving out of the country has been the
top most choice of each and every Filipino in pursuit of a better life. Thus, most Filipinos have been
in search of any country which can offer a better job opportunity. However, nowadays these foreign
countries have been a lot stricter with more and more requirements meant to assess the applicant’s
capability. And one of the many requirements Filipino applicants need to pass is the International
English Language Testing System (IELTS) which tests English language proficiency on four key areas
of comprehension: reading, writing, listening and speaking. This is most fundamental particularly on
predominantly English speaking countries and institutions as it helps select candidates that are ready
to train in the medium of English primarily for countries like the Philippines wherein English is not
the first language.

Given the challenge, most Filipinos who need to take the IELTS are all out to ensure that they
will meet the passing score and in the end get close to achieving their dream. As a result, there has
been a strong need and demand for an institution which can help these Filipinos to prepare and
have a higher chance of passing. Thus, the boom of various IELTS review center. The industry even
became bigger as in 2007 not only Filipinos are enrolling but there has also been a huge number of
nearby Asian nationalities who go to the country to avail these services like Koreans, Chinese,
Japanese and many more.

From this boom, one of the many review centers who benefited a lot is the first ever
company of Mr. Ervin Temporal, the Niner 9.0 IELTS Review and Tutorial Center which shall also be
the focus of this paper’s critical analysis.

The Informal Business Phase

The Beginning of Niner

The success of Niner all started during Mr. Temporal’s tender age of 17. During that time, he
felt an urge to look for a job in order for him to finance his daily needs while he was studying in
college. Unfortunately, it is constitutionally illegal for any person below 18 years old to work. As
such, he waited until next year to try again. Right when he turned 18, he started looking for jobs
again. He tried to apply as a call center agent apparently he was denied by five call centers. After
trying for call center, he then considered applying as a private tutor for kids like Brains Tutorial or
MSA but then again he was still not quite lucky. So after several applications and rejections, he then
was finally hired as an IELTS reviewer. It started in April of 2006 when he started teaching. Due to
the huge demand, he even accepted home tutorials where his students will go to his place. From
there marked the beginning of what Niner Review Center is now.

In just a year, Mr. Temporal has already been handling more than 400 clients. As a result, he has
become worried on how to squeeze in such a number of students in that very small apartment space
he is renting with his friend in Krus na Ligas, Quezon City. Moreover, his number one dilemma at that
time is the fact that he does not have a background on establishing a business whatsoever because
his course then was Communication Research which totally has nothing to do with business. This
even pressed on harder for him when his students became anxious on the informal set-up of his
tutorial service.
Although making his part-time job then legal and formal by making it a registered business a sound
and the easiest solution to his dilemma as well as his students, this could not be at all easy and rosy
since in those years he was still in school and was still a full-time student. As a result, there is then a
bigger dilemma he has to face whether to grab this business opportunity but sacrifice his studies for
the meantime or let go at once of this business opportunity and finish his schooling. And so he opted
to seek the advice of his close friend who told him to do both instead since opportunities such as
that does not come all the time. Hence, he decided to continue by establishing Niner as a formal
IELTS Review Center in April of 2007.

Triggers to Formalize the Business

Mr. Temporal’s primary trigger which gave him enough courage and push is his utmost
dream and goal to be fully accepted by his parents. It is his utmost desire to be able to prove
something to his parents who did not recognize him for the person he was, a homosexual and a
cross dresser. Since his parents do not approve of this, he was basically on his own trying to support
his education. In effect, he believed that if he becomes so successful enough, his parents will already
start accepting him and not solely look at his sexual preference.

Undeniably, he has seen such a huge opportunity to succeed at that time. There was such a strong
demand all over the country and he felt that he has to tap these growing markets. Given the fact
that he is not yet a legal entity in the industry yet he was already being patronized by many
students, he just imagined how much more if he has gone full blown and serious about the business.
So it was really evident to him that he can take this an even higher level.

Aside from his personal motivation and vision for more success, Mr. Temporal has also seen that in
order for him to go on, he has to settle this brewing concern of his students due to the legality of its
operations. For one, he is not paying any taxes, he is not even registered with the DTI and at the very
least he does not have a barangay clearance which could easily land him to jail.

As if his legal considerations are not enough, he is also being haunted by his horrible operational set-
up. This is primarily due to the very nature of its one man operations which is expected since he has
not yet formalized his business. Thus, he was doing everything literally. He was the teacher; he was
also the one cleaning the apartment, up to the task of going to the photocopying center and tasked
to do the photocopying himself. Then from there he will also be the one bringing those materials
home and then start checking the writings of his students plus the collection of payments. This has
been his life aside from going to school full-time.

Formal Business Phase

The Transition

Now that everything has been clear for Mr. Temporal. He is now ready to take the necessary steps to
pave the way for what Niner is now, a formal and legal review center.

In terms of financing the business, Mr. Temporal did not encounter any difficulty. The capital he
used in putting up the first Niner which is amounting to 500,000 pesos all came from his earnings in
the previous year from April 2006 to March of 2007. This just illustrates how huge the profit margins
are in that specific line of business. So literally he did not apply for any loan nor ask for any financial
help from anyone.

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At the on-set, since he really do not have an idea on how to go through all of that he has to take
things one step at a time. He has been all alone in formalizing things literally doing it all by himself.
So he first went to secure all the necessary legal permits and documentation from going to the
Department of Trade and Industry, to the Bureau of Internal Revenue, to Quezon City Hall and
Barangay Hall.

After which, he already started hiring employees. He first hired one messenger and one secretary. In
the new set-up, he still opted to carry out the major administrative function as well as the lecturing
function. And as for the messenger, he is now assigned to take charge on transmitting documents to
the various organizations and agencies Niner is in partnership with like IDP, the British Council and
the like. Since, Mr. Temporal cannot answer the phone while lecturing it is now where the role of the
secretary who assists him on that comes in. The secretary is also in-charge of filing, organizing and
preparing of all office documents and lecturing materials. In essence, there were just three people
fulfilling all the crucial functions of the company. It should be noted though that aside from the mere
support on administrative tasks, Mr. Temporal still technically kept to himself all the major decision
making functions such as the marketing, sales, finance and operations of the company. Thus, this
does not still live up to a true formal business set-up but rather just a legal business set-up.
Nonetheless, this is a huge improvement as Mr. Temporal was able to delegate some burdening
tasks but really relatively few which could now give him more time to concentrate on delivering
further the growth of his business.

But despite his efforts to get things straight, he has still encountered several challenges. Upon
registering, he did not know that there are major implicationsfor his business which took at least one
year before registering at SSS, Pag-ibig and PhilHealth. As a result of this ignorance, which for him is
not an excuse; he paid a total of 150,000 pesos as penalty. Such is the case primarily because
according to these agencies such registrations should be in place even before the start of operations.
Whereas, Mr. Temporal merely thought that it would need to have 5-10 employees for a business to
be registered with all of these. Such instances vividly show that Mr. Temporal indeed lacks the
knowledge, the experience and the expertise at the time to carry on such a huge step for the
business.

However, when he opened the first branch it seems that this does not matter at all or just yet. He
ecstatically recalled how God has been good to him as he was able to yield the return of investment
in just 3 weeks and further earned his first million by May of 2007. So from the bottom in the
industry, in just a span of two months Niner easily became number 5 in the entire Philippines. Luck
has truly been on his side as barely 3 more months after claiming the 5th spot; Niner then became
the number 1 review center in the entire Philippines.

From there Mr. Temporal further utilized his luck as in October of 2007 he immediately opened his
second branch located in Edsa Taft and his third branch in Dagupan. Right the following year, Mr.
Temporal did not waste any time on delaying his expansion that by September of 2008, he opened
his fourth branch in Morayta. All these took place a month before he even graduated in October of
2008. And to date, July of 2013, Niner is now operating in 30 cities nationwide. And apart from Niner
he has also successfully acquired/formed other companies but basically in the same industry namely
CIS, CVE, AMS, and EVT.

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Challenges after Formalization

Although it can be attested that the formalization of Mr. Temporal’s Niner brought in a lot of
advantages, he also has to hurdle with several challenges simultaneously after its formalization.

Contrary to a lot of starting businesses with a one man operations, Mr. Temporal find himself
extremely lucky to be able to cancel out right away financial challenges. He is very lucky to have such
a huge capital which he obtained from his earnings during the company’s informal set-up to finance
putting up his first branch.

Instead, Mr. Temporal considered his detractors to be the top most challenge for Niner then. This is
due to the fact that he has not yet taken the IELTS and here he is opening an IELTS Review Center.
He fondly recalled what his competitors were saying then, “So they were saying, how come
someone is trying to compete with us, someone who is not a native speaker of English and someone
who have not taken the IELTS examination”. So to stop his competitors from nay saying, he
eventually took his IELTS examination in July of 2008 which is only after a year he opened Niner.
Well, the results proved his competitors wrong because he got a 9.0 in speaking and an 8.5 overall
score.

Another formidable challenge for Niner is the huge number of established review centers already
present in the market. One of which is the California English Language Center (CELC) who used to be
number one for 5 years from 2001 to 2006. Thus, in terms of brand equity CELC is dominant across
other review centers. Also, there is Speak Well which had a total of 7 branches in Metro Manila
which is quite difficult to compete with because Speak Well is also established and is much
accessible to the reviewers in contrast to Niner which has only one branch located in Quezon City.To
exemplify how crucial this advantage of Speak Well is he shared one of his experiences before with
several clients, “so if someone is asking me, "Do you have a branch here in Pasay, Don't you have a
branch here in Manila…”.

On the overall, these challenges which I have observed from Niner’s experience I believe are simply
common among all new entrants in any industry. It is really a challenge on how one will be able to
gain credibility among customers, how one can gain market share from competitors and how one
can fully and effectively reach all targeted customers to end up successfully. Therefore, it is now
essential to break down and analyze critically the strategies Niner employed for it to reach the
market leader status it is currently enjoying.

Strategies Implemented to Become Number 1

It is truly not a surprise to hear from Mr. Temporal to say that one of his successful strategy in
cannibalizing the market shares of his competitors and at the same time reclaiming the top spot in
the industry is through a price strategy. However, I would say it is not your simple price strategy as it
also came as a ploy for me. Not only did Niner offered the cheapest in the industry but he also
accompanied it with a very magnificent privilege among its customers which other review centers
could not offer or I would say imagined possible. Aside from the cheapest fee, Niner is also the first
to offer unlimited program. Indeed, it is really crazy and bazaar. I can only imagine how Niner’s
competitors could have gone so shocked about Niner’s strategy. But who in the world could say that
this strategy will not work especially in our country who loves the word unlimited accompanied to
anything from drinks to rice and even Wi-Fi. So Mr. Temporal has truly touched effectively on the

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emotional side of its customers who gave utmost premium on this security blanket that they can
attend these classes whenever they want until they pass the IELTS. Moreover, customers find it
super convenient as they no longer have to force themselves to attend classes in a month to 3
months just to get what they paid for satisfactorily.

Given this successful strategy, Mr. Temporal has also ensured in all his other businesses not to
overcharge to its customers and always be the cheapest in the industry. This is the case since Mr.
Temporal believes strongly on profit by volume. And I say this even made its pricing strategy more
powerful as it tries to make it as the company’s image and customer perception which will surely
draw massive following particularly to those who are price sensitive. And I am pretty sure the profile
of these targeted reviewers is mostly price and quality sensitive. In fact, most often than not a
significant number of which could even trade off guaranteed quality for price. Thus it is apparent
then that since other businesses of Mr. Temporal also revolves in the same industry as Niner then
the satisfied customers of Niner would also most likely just choose these sister companies due to its
affordability.

Aside from Niner’s pricing strategy, Mr. Temporal then focused on Niner’s accessibility. He has
strategically located almost all Niner branches near train stations specifically Edsa-Taft, Edsa-
Guadalupe, Edsa-Quezon Ave, Edsa-Monumento, LRT-Pedro Gil, LRT-Santolan, and LRT-Sta. Mesa.
He strongly believes that it is by making Niner the easiest review center to go to will also
automatically make Niner the most preferred review center from its competitors. I, myself, could
even attest to the effectiveness of this strategy in appealing and reaching effectively to its targeted
customers. Moreover, I say that this is totally in-sync and coherent with Niner’s pricing strategy such
that these two makes it a powerful combination.

Of course, given the pricing strategy of Niner it could easily be said that the quality might be
sacrificed to offer such sustainably. Thus in response to this, Mr. Temporal has also ensured that
Niner will offer the most exclusive perks an IELTS reviewer could possibly get. According to Mr.
Temporal, Niner is the only review center in the country which has an official IELTS examiner as a
lecturer. In addition, Niner has also centralized on investing heavily on acquiring the best lecturers
with no less than 8.5 IELTS score.Thus, addressing whatever credibility and quality issue its pricing
strategy may incur. Further, Niner has also made it possible to offer exclusive examinations to its
reviewers. So say for example a reviewer lives in Tarlac, the reviewer’s option is just either to go to
Baguio or to Manila to be able to take the exam. But since Niner has a branch in Tarlac, now people
from Tarlac need not go to Manila or to Baguio since they can just take it in Tarlac due to the
exclusive examination rights of Niner. Again, given this offer one can easily just let go of whatever
quality issues the reviewer might have for Niner.

Lastly, Niner has just relied heavily on Online Promotions. Mr. Temporal is proud to say that despite
Niner’s massive success in the industry he never spent not even a single cent on above the line
advertisements. This is also due to the fact that he does not believe in newspapers, in TV, and in
radio so instead he just opted to carry out text blasts as well as promoting online by joining all
Internet fora and then posting Niner’s service offerings in each of these. Inevitably though, there are
the detractors on this medium but Niner, as proudly said by Mr. Temporal,“was able to withstand all
of these problems or detractors so to speak”.

To gauge how successful these strategies were, aside from successfully becoming the number 1
review center in the country in just a year up to the present I guess could have been enough. But the
most interesting of them all is the mere fact that after Niner introduced its unlimited package, all

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other review centers offered it as well. And for Mr. Temporal, it was indeed both remarkable and
unforgettable.

The main reason as per Mr. Temporal why he opened his other companies is because currently Niner
has no growth anymore. It is to the point wherein Niner already holds 50% of the market share. To
be specific, out of the 12,000 test takers in Luzon alone last year Niner has 6,000 of these test takers.
Thus, for Mr. Temporal the main competitor of Niner now is not review centers anymore rather it is
self-review. So for Mr. Temporal, most test takers nowadays would simply be left with a dilemma
whether to do it by themselves or to enroll at Niner. Clearly, he believes that other review centers
are no longer part of the picture. He even admitted that his main motivation for putting up CIS is
basically to compete with his detractor. And same thing is true for his other companies wherein his
number 1 motivation is to win. From there he even shared to me his motto in life which is “to go, to
fight and to win”. He firmly followed saying “I'm not born to be second best, I am not born to lose, I
am born to win. And I will never stop unitl I win”.

Organizational Structure

From the one man operations which automatically follow a one man management structure, Mr.
Temporal finds the new structure a lot better. Since in the previous set-up, he does the management
all by himself which is the most common problem with a one man show. However, when he started
hiring his first employees he still finds it not enough since a lot is still left on his plate in fact he even
attributed it as the real reason why one of his employees was able to take advantage of the
situationand manage to steal a total of 1.2 million pesossimply because of trust. This incident made
his father extremely mad so his father decided to retire and join now in managing the company. Mr.
Temporal’s mother also decided to retire as Senior Manager of BDO Southern and Central Mindanao
Imports and Exports Division to help him in running the business. Both his parents took charge on
the Finance aspect of the business especially since his father is also a retired Assistant Vice President
of BDO for Mindanao Operations. And this perhaps is the biggest improvement in my opinion with
regard to the formalization of Niner as it is now running in accordance to corporate finance and
accounting principles similar to that in big corporations.But apart from Finance where he is
admittedly ignorant, Mr. Temporal still assumes the Marketing, Sales, Operations and even Human
Resources functions of the company.

Therefore from a one man operation, Mr. Ervin Temporal simply acquired the services of his parents
which just make it as a family run business so to speak. However, Mr. Temporal is clear to point out
that only those decisions in relation to Finance can his parents overrule whatever decision he might
think of or do. As for him, although, he may have acquired the assistance of his parents in running
the business it is still a must for Mr. Temporal to still have the upper hand and authority in the
overall decision making for the company. And he seems happy with the turnout of involving his
parents in the business. He is quick to share his parents’ success in handling his money by
saying,“ever since in the past, I cannot even hold the money it is just in the bank. But I am happy
because my parents are able to maximize our earning potential such that even if I will not work
anymore until the day that I die I can retire and still survive up to the age of 65”.

Apart from his satisfaction with the involvement of his parents, on the overall set-up, Mr. Temporal
seemed to be extremely satisfied as well already as he says,

“Before, I am not happy with my life. I wake up at 6:00am replying to all text messages and then I
teach at 9:00am and then during my break time I check the salary and then during lunch time I check
PhilHealth, SSS, Pag-ibig then come 3:00pm I check BIR. I finish my class at 9:00pm and then reply to

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all text messages. That is how I leave before. And now I do not have to worry about the financial side
of it. I am happy now because now I can go on a date whenever I want. I can play volleyball
whenever I want it is because there are people who are now taking charge of matters that I handle
myself before”.

Moreover, when I asked Mr. Temporal which of the many function he holds now is the one function
he will never give up it would definitely be his teaching function. In fact, it is what he loves doing the
most to the point that he hates it when heis not teaching. He even shared that for him teaching is
truly beyond his wildest dream since he has never envisioned himself to be a teacher insteadhe
envisioned himself to become a star. This is also the exact reason why according to him there is no
audience participation whenever he teaches. It is strictly prohibited to talk as he has to do all the
talking. Despite this atmosphere in his classes, he derives fulfillment the most when his students
smile, listen attentively and most especially when his students clap.
This extremely strong personality of Mr. Temporal then manifested on his growth strategy has paved
the way for the establishment of his other companies aside from Niner which I will discuss in the
next section.

Growth Strategy

The growth of Mr. Temporal’s empire started out when he successfully acquired Canadian
Immigration Specialists (CIS). This company, simply put, specializes on processing Immigrant Visas to
Canada. Since most of his reviewers are aspirants to live and work to Canada, several companies
have sought for a partnership with him so that these visa processing companies could easily gain
customers. So when CIS, perhaps the most sought after in the industry, started presenting during
several classes of Mr. Temporal he instantaneously felt a strong degree of jealousy toward CIS
asthey are getting 50,000 to 60,000 pesos from his students. And later on, he thought of the idea
that what if that amount is going to him instead to CIS. So in the end, he put a lot of pressure to the
owner, “Sir Viktor”,and successfully acquired and gained full control over CIS. Sir Viktor is still part of
CIS but just assumed the position of a consultant after Niner acquired CIS.

And this kind of strategy went on especially since a new trend came into the picture whereina
significant number of his students would no longer want to go to Canada but would rather want to
go to New Zealand, Australia, and United Kingdom. This new trend paved the way for him to acquire
his next company after CIS, the Commonwealth Visa Experts (CVE). However, this time the proposal
did not come from Mr. Temporal. The proposal came from “Ms. Abi”. Ms. Abi, according to Mr.
Temporal used to review at Ninerand was successful in owning a consultancy firm which also
processes Immigrant Visa but not exclusive to Canada in 2009. But when Ms. Abi heard that CIS is
making good money after being acquired by Niner she decided to offer her services to Mr.
Temporaland promised to close her own consultancy firm. And since Mr. Temporal has this attitude
of never saying NO to any business opportunity which could further grow his empire, he willingly
agreed provided that he would have the upper hand in the company.

It did not stop from there. Mr. Temporal further acquired a new business by partnering with AMS
which has been in existence since 2007.Mr. Temporal was so into AMS primarily due to its advantage
against other consulting firms in the industry for it charges 0 pesos to the processing of VISA. What
happens with AMS is that the partner schools in Australia will be in-charge of payingAMS with 1,000
Aussie dollars for every one successful person AMS will send there. And based on his experience
with Niner, people would definitely like to live abroad with no extra cost which makes AMS for him
another huge potential for success. Currently, he is extremely happy since the AMS and NINER

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partnership have just been around for about 8 months but now according to Mr. Temporal their
earnings in those 8 monthscould already match the earnings of AMS for the past six years.

To further maximize the strong following of his group of companies, he has also decided to put up
his own financing business which lends money for show money purposes only in the application
process for VISA. But aside from the show money problem of most of his students, he also figured
that most of his students are also having problems with flight bookings. As such he partnered with
his auntwho happened to have a travel agency based in Davao which as a resultalso enabled them to
handle and process flight itinerary in just a phone call.By incorporating these two services, he was
now able to put up his most recent company under his initials, the ENT. ENT is now Mr. Temporal’s
one stop shop which offers services starting from the review up to the actual migration of his
customer to his/her desired country.

Needless to say, Niner’s strong brand equity and its market leadership status have truly allowed Mr.
Temporal to use in combination with his unstoppable competitive spirit to dominate the entire
industry successfully and at ease. As a result, whenever someone would plan to live and work
abroad the top of mind answer now would be Niner and/or his other companies.

Vision Then and Now

According to Mr. Temporal, he is a very future oriented and very optimistic person. But he is not
your ordinary visionary and dreamer, for he accompanies this with a battle cry of, “I will not stop
until I bleed”. And to explain what he meant by this, he is quip to share saying,
“So just to give you an idea that time I was telling myself I am happy if I will be able to operate with 7
branches in Metro Manila which just happened in 2 years and then I told myslef that there will come
a time when I will put up my own group of companies. I'm not just sure when but it will come. And
now that it is here I even have more visions for the company”.

As of today, he is just focused on how he can reach 1 billion pesosat the age of 35. He has also
revealed that he knew and felt that Niner has already reached its plateau in terms of growth. In fact,
according to him, what he is simply focusing now is preparing for the time when there is no longer a
sustainable demand for Filipinos in these English speaking countries.But he also shared that for as
long as there is a sustainable demand for Niner as well as in his other group of companies he will
never cease to ensure having the top spot in the industry.

When asked, on the other hand, how he intends to achieve the 1 billion mark before he reaches the
age of 35 he said he will achieve this by killing his self some more. He is very much challenged with
how the former owner of Mang Inasal earned his first 1 billion at the age of 35. So, he intends to do
the same. And in that moment I can earnestly feel and see in him the confidence he have for himself
that he will achieve it as he also reminded me of the time when he earned his first 1 million at a
tender age of 19. Although, he is first to admit as well that he is still far from his goal and he knows
there is no certainty if he will truly get there. But one thing is sure he said, he is not happy with the
thought of being far from his vision but that is his goal. So in the years to come, according to him, I
can expect that he will just continue on saying yes to any business opportunity even to the point that
when someone offers him to open up a piggery, he will go; or if someone will ask him to venture on
putting up a poultry, he will still go. As he really would like to live up to his philosophy of never
saying no to any business opportunity which what exactly happened when he simply just said “go” in
establishing Niner.