National Book Store Success Story

Posted On Friday, 27 Feb 2009 By Tyrone Solee. Under Ra s to Ric!es "ntre#reneur Ta s$ entre#reneur story

National Book Store, the Philippines largest chain of bookstores is the featured success story for today as we witness the life story of the woman behind it, Socorro Ramos or more commonly know to her staffs as Nanay Coring. er story is truly an inspiring one as she built the business National Book Store from scratch with a lot of challenges and hurdles as she and her husband !ose Ramos literally built and rebuilt the business three times from scratch. "hats the true entrepreneurial spirit with enough courage and determination.

Nanay Coring or #aria Socorro Cancio in her early years was born in Sta. Cru$, %aguna on September &', ()&'. *+er she was young, she grew up in an entrepreneurial en+ironment as one of the si, children born to entrepreneur parents and grandmother. er parents used to ran a store selling a lot of stuffs from slippers to clothes and a lot more while her grandmother had a market stall where the young Socorro got used to seeing customers withdraw items on credit. -nfortunately, her grandmother did not manage the business carefully not maintaining a list of those items a+ailed on credit and their business fell. .fter that e+ent, they went to #anila. er mother struggled hard to feed si, children and the young er elder sisters helped the

Socorro considered herself as lucky if she got money from her mother.

family by working in a candy and bubble gum factory and she spent her summer doing summer /obs too. 0n one instance, young Socorro was hired to peel off the paper used in old cigarettes so that it can be reuse to make new fresh cigarette sticks. She recei+ed 1 centa+os per pack of cigarettes. But the young Socorro started her entrepreneurial skills and hired kids and their neighborhood paying them 1 centa+os for e+ery two pack of cigarettes le+eraging her efforts. Since then, the young Socorro was on her way to become an entrepreneur as early as (2 years old3 0mmediately after graduating from .rellano igh School, she worked as a salesgirl at 4oodwill Book

Store owned by the family of her present husband !ose Ramos. Socorros brother #anuel married one of the Ramos children and in ()52, they needed someone to look after the branch they set up along *scolta Street, on the ground floor of Panciteria National. !ose Ramos took o+er it and asked Socorro to work on him in that branch. "hey renamed it as National Book Store.

"heir lo+e story began but her parents were against with it as Socorro was /ust (6 years old back then. She was told to stay in the pro+ince to keep away from marrying !ose Ramos. But as they say, true lo+e ne+er dies, the young Socorro with /ust (( pesos in her pocket, struggled to went back to #anila to marry !ose. Because of this act, her family was so furious and angry that they considered her dead already. 0t was short7li+ed though lasting only until Socorro ga+e birth to her twins named .lfredo, who is now the President of National Book Store and Ben/amin, now the 8ice President. .s mentioned abo+e, the business National Book Store faced a lot of challenges as it was built and rebuilt three times from scratch3

9irst, Socorro admitted that it was not easy to start the business from scratch. She recalled that during the !apanese occupation, they would look on each and e+ery book title on sale. 0f they found :uestionable books, they would /ust tear the pages off lea+ing them useless. So instead of selling books, Socorro and !ose decided to fill their bookshel+es with stuffs from candies, soap, slippers, papers, and cigarettes. ;uring the war, she would transfer goods to her smaller stores. Second, when the !apanese were dri+en away, it was now the time for the .mericans. "heir National Book Store stall in *scolta was damaged in the war. "hey reco+ered a bit by selling unused greeting cards and uncensored books, which they had hidden in their home. "hird, in ()51, they relocated their National Book Store pre+iously located at *scolta to .+enida. "he business is doing :uite well during first few post7war school years but unfortunately, three years after, a typhoon blew the roof of their store and they were left with soaked books and stuffs that were worthless. .gain, for the third time, they ha+e to start from $ero. "hey struggled hard to rebuilt National Book Store for the third time. But since then, e+ery centa+o that they earned were used to buy the lot where the Ri$al .+enue Branch of National Book Store stands to this day. "oday, National Book Store is considered as the largest chain of bookstores in the country. "hey ha+e +entured into se+eral businesses already such as a con+enience7type store named NBS Book *,press, publishing companies named Cacho7 ermanos printing press, .n+il Books and Capitol7

.tlas Publishing, another book store named Powerbooks, music store named "ower Records and #usic <ne, 4ift 4ate, the home of ello =itty and Swatch, and a department store named Crossings department store. Socorros children and relati+es ran all these. Socorro Ramos life and success story and the challenges that she faced with her business National Book Store business was another inspiring story. 0n fact, it was recogni$ed when she was chosen as the *rnst and >oungs Philippine *ntrepreneur of the >ear in &221. "oday, at the age of 61, Socorro Ramos or Nanay Coring acts as the 4eneral #anager of National Book Store. .nd she told that the core +alues in her success are to keep learning, being acti+ely in+ol+ed in the business, being able to read changes and act on them immediately, and most of all, ne+er gi+e up3