BUSINESS is booming for this young entrepreneur, as Jigs Arquiza discovers.
“I like cars, and I like joining car shows,” 25-year old Paul Yu comments, as we were driving around in his white Mercedes Benz CLK320 coupe, and then adds, “I have a couple more cars coming in next month.”
According to him, he’s not a collector, although he has owned quite a few nice cars, among them a Porsche and a modified Toyota Altezza. Because of his fondness for cars, he opened a car repair and modification shop called Project Cars, near the pier area. Paul explains, “I like setting up (fixing up and modifying) cars, it’s really fun.)
Paul doesn’t walk and talk cars all day and all of the night though. He took up Hotel and Restaurant Management in the University of Cebu, paving the way for his first venture in the club scene, the now-defunct Eyes, in Banilad. However, Eyes’ closure didn’t deter him from pursuing more ventures in both the restaurant and clubbing industry. Paul now runs Casanova Super Club, a bar-slash-club catering to the student crowd, as well as Sizzling Haven, a restaurant, both in One Mango Avenue arcade. Aside from the two establishments, he also has a water-refilling station called Pi Water, selling organic water.
When asked why he had so many business interests, Paul answered, “I guess I kinda wanted to be independent of my family’s companies, referring to both his family’s furniture-making business and the Camiguin Highland Resort. And yet Paul’s drive doesn’t seem to stop: plans are in the works for a bigger, more cutting-edge club somewhere in the heart of Cebu City. “I’ve got another club owner as a partner, and we’re hoping to bring something really new to Cebu’s nightlife. We’re looking into a lot of stuff,” Paul declares.
Even with all his establishments to run, together with the future ones, Paul isn’t fazed. “I’m having fun, and I don’t feel pressured at all,” he says, adding “I’m kinda doing this to prepare for the future, especially when I get married.
And I want to leave something for my children.” Definitely planning ahead, as Paul is still single, and has no children yet.
As an employer, he certainly has a few people and families dependent on him, and he has a few rules for himself when it comes to his employees. “You have to treat your employees nicely,” Paul advises, “You can’t be strict all the time. But you should be strict when you need to.”
Life is too short, he says, and prescribes living life to the fullest, and working hard, as the means to success. Paul declares, “We should learn from everything we do. Everyday, I wake up and think of the mistakes I made, and promise myself not to make them again.”