From banca boy to printing press owner
Ramil Regencia, founder and CEO of Regencia Printing Services
His small-to-medium-sized enterprise prints thousands of office forms, receipts and brochures for banks and financial institutions, among other companies. The quiet if massive compound in Mandaluyong is always busy, churning out one order after another–a testimony to the clients he has won and kept the past 15 years.
Still, Ramil Regencia, the thirtysomething founder of Regencia Printing Services, is the first to admit that he would be hard-pressed to give a presentation in English. With his disarming charm, he openly admits that he is just a high school graduate. And then, almost in the same breath, he enthuses that at least his five-year-old daughter, now studying in Montessori, would be enrolling in a private school once she reaches the right age.
“Sigurado po iyon,” he says with a laugh. “Bawi ko nasa anak ko.”
His proverbial rags-to-riches story is a very rare one, and Regencia points out that it was good old honest values that brought him out from the pits of poverty to middle-class prosperity. It first started with the school of hard knocks.
Regencia Printing Services operations
Regencia was only 13 years old when he left his barrio in Marinduque to work for his uncle who owned his own small printing press in Sta. Ana, Manila. For two years, he went to his classes in Emilio Aguinaldo High School and then dashed off to the printing press after lunch, running errands for his guardian and delivering boxes of receipts and standardized forms to the old man’s customers. At the age of 15, the young Regencia decided to live on his own, hinting that the relationship with the older relative had soured.
“I became a banca boy, ferrying passengers from the Sta. Ana terminal to other areas in the city,” Regencia says in Tagalog. “I also moved from house to house, bunking with my friends. I used the little money that I earned to finish my high school education.”
After graduating, college was not an option, and the printing press business was the only way he knew where he could make an honest living. A messengerial job in another small firm, this time in Sampaloc, turned out to be the break that he needed to advance further. His then boss asked him to help out in calculating all the costs that fueled his operations, and it was like a light bulb that lit up in Regencia’s mind. “It was the key that would help me put up my own press one day,” he reveals. “Doing costings is the hardest thing to do in this business. You can lose money by buying a lot of expensive but unnecessary materials. If you’re good in taking account of all your expenses, you will never lose money in printing.”
A few more years and a couple more stints in other companies taught him the other tasks of the trade, until he “knew the business in and out.” His transition from employment to a freelance printing agent happened when he decided to take on the printing requirements of a small clinic. He did not have the capital to fund his initial resources, but this first customer trusted him enough to pay him a huge downpayment that he used for his operating expenses. As the clinic grew into a health center, it maintained this arrangement, which also propelled Regencia’s growth as a freelance printing agent. The clinic, his first client, has remained with him for more than a decade.
Like with all starting entrepreneurs, he kept his costs low, and delivered on the job days before the deadline. For the first few years, the profit from his growing list of clients maintained his operations. As the demand for his business grew, Regencia finally launched the Regencia Printing Services as a single proprietorship. With a solid track record, he also had the confidence to take out loans from the banks to expand his operations and buy newer, cutting-edge equipment that would help diversify his services, including the recent addition of digitization.
The business forms and receipts had long since expanded to accommodate magazines, books, and corporate annual reports.
Regencia realizes that he might have traveled a long road to success, but he is not slowing down any time soon.
“You have to keep pace with technology, or risk being left behind. Before it would take four to five days to print 200 pieces of a brochure. Now, thanks to the technology, it can be done in just one day. There’s also an increasing demand for high-quality magazines and coffee table books – you have to deliver on time and in good quality.”
He starts and ends his day in prayer, saying that the Almighty does not just give guidance, but helps him weather the tough times. “Business has its ups and downs,” he muses. “I’ve had clients run out on me without paying me.
Because I couldn’t pay my suppliers at that moment, they stopped giving me business. One lesson I learned is that you don’t give up. You may not earn a lot all the time, but neither will you stay down all the time. If your heart is in your business, things will go back to normal.”
The integrity he practices in his professional life also extends to his personal. “Don’t fool around,” he cautions.
“Having a stable family is one reason why your business remains strong. Don’t indulge in vices of any kind.”
His wife, who handles the accounting side of the business, would certainly agree. Regencia first met her as one of his clients, before winning her heart with the same earnestness and diligence that he built his business. And along with his little girl, she may be the best blessing he has gained in his journey.
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