The Filipino Entrepreneur

WHAT ARE ABALONES?

Abalones are gastropod molluscs belonging to the Family Haliotidae. The genus Haliotis means “sea ear.” There are about 70 species of abalone distributed worldwide. Abalones are slow-growing one-shelled gastropods which live in rocky and shallow waters near stands of algae. The abalone shell is characterized by having a row of respiratory pores called “tremata” located along its left margin. There are three species of abalone that naturally occur in Philippine marine waters:

the donkey’s ear abalone Haliotis asinina (local name – “lapas” or “sobra-sobra” in Ilonggo), H. varia (local name – “kapinan”), and H. ovina. H. asinina grow to a maximum size of 10-11 cm in shell length while H. varia and H. ovina are relatively smaller with maximum shell length of 6-8 cm. There are existing commercial abalone fisheries in the provinces of Iloilo, Guimaras, Negros, Samar, Surigao, Zamboanga, Palawan and Tawi-Tawi.

GENERAL BIOLOGY

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The Career and Entrepreneurship Fair is the perfect venue where top companies from different industries can converge with thousands of qualified, motivated and proactive individuals who are searching for the right job.

This year, the CEF series will extend its reach to other parts of the country namely Cebu and Davao. As a kick-off to this year’s series, The Career and Entrepreneurship Fair will open its doors on May 21 and 22 t the World Trade Center, Pasay City. The Career and Entrepreneurship Fair will continue to utilize the latest technology, the JobsDB Career Card, a more efficient, cost-effective way to streamline the recruitment process.

CEF SEMINARS 2008 Read the rest of this entry »

One of the most effective and convenient way to handle cash is in the Philippines nowadays is through Globe G-Cash. It’s the closest thing to paypal, credit cards and EPS of BPI express. If you have an online business that caters local customers, I think this is the best option. Compared to all credit card processing companies, paypal is the easiest way and cheapest way to set up your payment processing but if your customers are mostly local, it will eat away a lot of your overhead cost.

Because if you are using paypal, it will charge 3.4%+US$0.30 (this is the highest rate) of the amount transferred to your paypal account using credit cards. But even if the transaction is paypal to paypal and if you will transfer your paypal fund to your local bank account, paypal will charge php50 and the local bank will charge php150 for every transaction. This will not be a problem if the amount of your transactions are tens of thousands of pesos because it will compensate the cost. The only problem here is if your customer is using other network like Smart or Sun for example but buying an extra Globe sim won’t hurt your pocket if you are not a Globe user.

If the money involved is very modest, lets say hundreds or a few thousand pesos then the transaction charges is too much. G-Cash can be considered as an electronic wallet and a poor man’s payment processor to accept payments. For example, if you are selling stuffs on ebay, you can accept payment by G-Cash and you can deposit it to your BPI savings or current account using your cellphone. You can also convert GCash to cash or vice versa by going to Globe Business Center or to an accredited GCASH Partner.

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Making bath soap as a home business can also be profitable. The procedure I got has two versions, the opaque and the transparent. See procedure below:

A. PREPARATION OF TOILET SOAP/BATH SOAP (OPAQUE)

Materials/Ingredients (for 14 bars, 135 g/bar)

Refined coconut oil - 4.5 kg
Caustic soda solution (32oBe) - 3.25 kg
EDTA (Ethylene diaminetetracetate) - 70 g
Citric acid - 70 g
Sodium chloride - 4.5 g
CDEA (Coco diethanolamide) - 50 g
Light mineral oil - 70 g
Scent to suit
Color (optional)

Equipment/Tools

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Partnering with Greenwich Even prior to its acquisition by Jollibee Foods Corporation, Greenwich was already a viable and sought-after franchise for aggressive businessmen and entrepreneurs. With its core value of quality food and service consumers have enjoyed through the years, it has allowed Greenwich to grow to be the market leader and establish its position as a stable and profitable franchise.

Greenwich believes that franchisees are not solely isolated investors; but rather, valuable business partners who are integral to the Greenwich family. Thus, a franchisee’s gain is the gain of the whole Greenwich system.

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Preparation Of Potato-Dextrose-Agar (Pda)

Raw Materials

Fresh good quality potatoes 200 g
Dextrose powder 20 g
Agar bar (gulaman) 20 g
Distilled water 1 L

Procedure

1. Wash, peel and dice the potatoes. Place 200 g in a casserole where water has started to boil and allow to boil until potatoes are soft enough for the pallate.
2. Strain the broth (decoction) through cheesecloth. Restore the volume of decoction to 1 L and put back into the casserole.
3. Add the agar (chipped) and the dextrose powder. Heat while stirring occasionally until the agar dissolves.
4. Dispense 30 mL in each flat rhum bottle and plug the mouth with the bottle cotton.
5. Sterilize the medium in a pressure cooker at 121°C or 15-lb. pressure for 15 minutes. Immediately after sterilization, slant the test tubes at an angle of 20 to 25 degrees, making sure that the agar does not touch the cotton plug.
6. Lay the bottles flat on the table until the agar congeals.

Preparation Of Substrates (Fruiting Bags) Read the rest of this entry »

Are you a knower when selling?

When selling to a prospect do you assume that your products and services will solve their problem? Then, as soon as you can, you jump in and tell your prospect all about your products and services and what they will do for them. You feel that if you tell them enough, they will see how great your products and services are and that they will solve their problem.

Also when your prospect asks you any question, do you always give some sort of answer, even if you have to guess? You don’t want them to think you don’t know everything about your products and services because you feel you should know everything. You are afraid your image, in the eyes of your prospect, will be negatively impacted if you don’t know the answers to their questions.

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The freshwater catfish Clarias macrocephalus is native to the Philippines but is fast becoming scarce in many natural habitats. It is a favorite food fish due to its tender and delicious meat. Recently, farming of C. macrocephalus has gained interest among catfish growers. Like other catfish species, it is resistant to diseases, can be stocked at high densities, and tolerates low water quality. The catfishes C. macrocephalus and C. batrachus are almost similar in size and appearance, but differ by the shape of the occipital process in the head portion. The occipital process is blunt or rounded in C. macrocephalus and pointed in C. batrachus. C. macrocephalus also has small white spots along the sides of the body.

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Soy sauce is one of the most popular seasonings and it is well adapted here in our country. it is one of the world’s oldest condiments and has been used in China for more than 2,500 years. It is made from fermenting a mixture of mashed soybeans, salt, and enzymes. It is also made artificially through a chemical process known as acid hydrolysis.

Although this product is widespread, seen in almost any supermarket, sari sari store or wet market making your own soy sauce at home can also be a sideline income specially if you can make a better one. But for starters, you can start a simple procedure like the one I got below before you can experiment on your own. Just remember, even a simple product like these and having so many competition can be overcome by creativity. Again remember the saying ” A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step”.

Procedure on How to Make Soy Sauce:

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I’m writing this post not because I totally disagree that blogging is the easiest way to have an online presence. Yes it’s true that it’s the easiest way because there are blog site that will host your blog for free like Blogger.com and Wordpress.com. And if you want to be serious on blogging, you can register a domain name and install a wordpress software to build your blog site. Just beware from folks out there that will tell you that it’s “Blogs are officially the easiest, fastest and most pain-less way to start your online business…”

Building business online needs traffic or visitors. But if someone on the net will tell you if you will just buy their book or register on their online classes and promises something like “I will teach you to have tons of traffic on your website or blog site in 3 days etc. etc.” then you should think twice. You know, in my experience, having traffic on your website is the hardest part of building an online presence. Some were very lucky because they chose a niche that they really love to do and many people have interest in that niche. But some did the opposite, they chose a niche which they are not sure they like and thought many people will like that niche, so in turn very few people visit their blog site.

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