The challenge of many entrepreneurs today is to have a balanced life. Busy negosyantes have to make sure to divide their time between work, family, spirituality, health, and social affairs. This “balancing act” comes to play especially today at Valentine’s day, when every wife expects that we husbands send them a reminder of our love by giving them flowers or taking them out for dinner. Most wives, including mine, complain that we do not give them that extra attention during this occasion. In my defense, I would always tell her that “everyday is a Valentines’ day”, which is a line most men use. But this time, I guess I have to make it different, considering that we are soon to spend our 30th year anniversary. Time management is indeed the key in maintaining a balanced life.

Speaking of living a balanced life, some families decided to spend their Sunday with their loved ones by joining the Condura Skyway Marathon 2013 last Feb. 3 which is annually organized by my cousin Ton Concepcion. This year, they hosted the biggest number of runners ever, with over 14,000 individuals taking part in the activity. Runners chose from five categories depending on their skill, with the finishers taking home cash prizes and tokens.

Ton started this event back in 2007 as a short-distance race, and over the years it has evolved into being the premier marathon in the country. This has attracted not only the running enthusiasts from the Philippines, but also from other Asian countries, as well as participants from America, Europe, and Africa, which in a way boosts our country’s tourism. Celebrities and famous personalities in politics and business such as Skyway president Ramon Borromeo, Sen. Pia Cayetano, and Miriam Quiambao participated in this year’s race. But the more important reason in holding this marathon is to make people aware of the need to preserve the marine environment. Through the marathon, Condura was able to help build parts of the Tubbataha reefs, help the whale sharks of Donsol and the dolphins of Bohol, and for two years now, to plant more mangroves in Zamboanga Sibugay.

Three days after the marathon, Ton got an email from Ana Castro, a participant who said that this year’s marathon became the perfect bonding activity that got her whole family together. She had been running for a couple of years now as a hobby, but this year she was challenged by her sister, who is now based in Montreal, that she would fly home to race if Ana signs up for the 21km category. This dare also inspired her other sisters, who were supposed to wait for them at the finish line, to join as well. They were even able to convince Ana’s sister-in-law and a niece to sign up for the marathon. The family’s 76-year-old patriarch Jose caught the excitement, and soon after getting a clearance from his doctor he signed up for the 3.8km category, with his two sons as his running buddies during the race. Later, they found out that he seemed to be the only participant under his age category! It was a very meaningful Sunday for the Castro family because through the Condura Skyway Marathon, not only did they get to run in a marathon together, but they were also able to bond with each other after a long time. Ana and her siblings were really happy with the experience, but the happiest of them must be Jose, because despite living separate lives now, his children were brought together to finish an activity as a family once more.

When he is not busy organizing this marathon, Ton is running Condura’s affairs as its president and COO. He and our cousin Renna Hechanova grew the Condura Negosyo ref brand to market leadership brand basically started at the same time when Go Negosyo was born. Somehow, Go Negosyo inspired him to use the term “negosyo” as a brand for his ref units. This year, our family company plans to go public. Again, congrats to Ton and the Condura Skyway Marathon organizers for the success of this year’s race.

Last week I watched the news on TV when Meralco spokespersons Joe Zaldarriaga and Larry Fernandez made an announcement on how they had leveraged their large customer base to negotiate for lower generation charges in their new Power Supply Agreement (PSA) they signed with suppliers. That is great news! A typical customer consuming about 200 kilowatts per hour will see that their electric bill is reduced by 55 centavos per kWh. That is significant since that rate represents the lowest it’s ever been since September 2011. Significant, too, since lower rates mean lower prices for a typical SME.

This Meralco announcement definitely comes as a welcome surprise to all that we at Go Negosyo embody since our advocacy is to promote entrepreneurship in the Philippines, and lower electricity charges present incredible prospects for businesses. With lower rates come lower operating expenses, and to smart entrepreneurs who see when opportunity comes knocking, those savings can redound to reinvestment and increased production. What Meralco has just announced provides further fuel to the fire of what I’ve been harping on repeatedly: “Now Is Our Time”.

And now, with lower operating costs rearing on the horizon, this is definitely the time for all entrepreneurs to ratchet up their operations, especially those located within the Meralco franchise area, or for those outside the franchise area to seek business relationships with those within it. Energy, or the efficient use of it, is a fundamental consideration in operating and conducting business. It is a business “enabler.” When rates go down, the bottom line goes up. These businesses now have reason to be optimistic about their competitiveness.

Apart from the reduced generation charges that they have negotiated, Meralco also announced scaled down rates and other pricing schemes as well; such as the POP (Peak Off-Peak). These programs generally benefit the heftier consumers of energy. With the Philippine economy on the verge of being recognized as the newest Darling in Asia, efforts such as this need to be lauded. Let us hope that the other utilities also take notice and follow suit.