{"id":267261,"date":"2017-12-29T06:06:52","date_gmt":"2017-12-28T20:06:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/?p=267261"},"modified":"2017-12-29T06:06:52","modified_gmt":"2017-12-28T20:06:52","slug":"maganda-utang","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/maganda-utang\/","title":{"rendered":"Maganda \u2018Utang\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id='gallery-1' class='gallery galleryid-267261 gallery-columns-3 gallery-size-thumbnail'><figure class='gallery-item'>\n\t\t\t<div class='gallery-icon '>\n\t\t\t\t<a href='https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/maganda-utang\/maganda-utang-pix\/'>Maganda-Utang-pix<\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<figcaption class='wp-caption-text gallery-caption' id='gallery-1-267266'>\n\t\t\t\tMoon Haeng Lee, popularly known as \u201cPapasang,\u201d poses outside of his 25-year-old bedding shop called Maganda \u201cUtang.\u201d\n(Kimberly A. Bautista)\n\t\t\t\t<\/figcaption><\/figure><figure class='gallery-item'>\n\t\t\t<div class='gallery-icon '>\n\t\t\t\t<a href='https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/maganda-utang\/maganda-utang-pix1\/'>Maganda-Utang-pix1<\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<figcaption class='wp-caption-text gallery-caption' id='gallery-1-267267'>\n\t\t\t\tMoon Haeng Lee display the assortment of beddings sold at the Maganda \u201cUtang\u201d shop in central Garapan.\n(Kimberly A. Bautista)\n\t\t\t\t<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\n<p>Only a handful of pioneer businesses that assisted in the development of the islands has lasted for years and one of that is the Maganda \u201cUtang\u201d shop, earning for itself the honor as this year\u2019s Saipan Tribune Small Business of the Year.<\/p>\n<p>The Maganda \u201cUtang\u201d shop in central Garapan was first established back in 1992 and has survived the vicissitudes of the CNMI economy for over two decades.<\/p>\n<p>The small shop offers bedsheets, curtains, pillows, blankets, comforters, and futons that are both affordable and durable.<\/p>\n<p>Moon Haeng Lee, 76, has spent over 26 years of his life on Saipan. His arrival back in 1991 brought the first authentic Korean beddings to the island of Saipan.<\/p>\n<p>Lee takes pride in the quality of the materials used for his bedding products. He said those who buy from his shop have testified that the materials that they bought have lasted over 10 years.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI bring products that are very good material. If they [customers] buy, they say \u2018oh Papasang (the honorific for a person of Asian descent) I buy from you 10 years ago and I\u2019m still using it,\u2019\u201d said Lee.<\/p>\n<p>According to Lee, he had no entrepreneurial background upon arriving on Saipan. He came here solely as a referee and coach for the hotel basketball leagues.<\/p>\n<p>During his stay in the Philippines as a referee, one of the most popular descriptive words he would hear was maganda or beautiful and it just stuck with him.<\/p>\n<p>Maganda \u201cUtang\u201d got started when Lee saw that there wasn\u2019t any store on Saipan that specifically sold beddings.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI was thinking about what I could make my business. I was looking and there was nothing doing like this business,\u201d said Lee.<\/p>\n<p>Because Lee was also providing Korean-made uniforms for the basketball teams he coached, he decided to bring in beddings and that was the start of Maganda \u201cUtang.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Maganda \u201cUtang\u201d has been in business for 25 years now and, according to Lee, the reason his business has stood for so long is because of the friendship he created with both his customers and employees.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThat\u2019s why most of Saipan\u2019s people know me; they know Maganda \u2018Utang,\u2019\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>Lee\u2019s strategy is to allow his customers to buy items from his shop on loan (hence the term \u201cutang,\u201d the Tagalog word for loan) and then set up a payment plan. This creates a relationship between Lee and his customers, and, most importantly, they always come back. \u201cThey [customers] have very good credit with me; they always pay,\u201d said Lee.<\/p>\n<p>Today, Lee said that business isn\u2019t as it used to be; business has slowed down significantly for Maganda \u201cUtang.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cNow it\u2019s slow, not like before. Business went down about 20 percent or almost 30 percent,\u201d said Lee.<\/p>\n<p>Another secret to the longevity of Maganda \u201cUtang\u201d is that the shop isn\u2019t limited to just one ethnic group. Lee said he ensures that he establishes the same customer relationships with Filipino customers, Chamorro customers, Carolinian customers, Japanese customers, Chinese customers, etc.<\/p>\n<p>Lee\u2019s advice to all aspiring entrepreneurs is to make sure that the products they are selling are of good quality, be as kind as they possibly can, and be patient while thoroughly explaining why their products are worth buying.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYou must have good quality, you must be very kind, and explain well,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>Lee said Maganda \u201cUtang\u201d is only exclusive to Saipan because he wanted only to establish a business that could provide him with a comfortable life and he is most comfortable on the island.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI continue to do this to make enough only for a life I can enjoy and on Saipan, I really enjoy,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Only a handful of pioneer businesses that assisted in the development of the islands has&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":267266,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[900],"tags":[310,56,21,19603],"class_list":["post-267261","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","tag-basketball","tag-business-3","tag-life","tag-maganda-utang"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/267261","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=267261"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/267261\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/267266"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=267261"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=267261"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=267261"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}