The Filipino Entrepreneur

Seems a little sarcastic asking the question “How Much is Enough?”. I’ve once read of this when someone is telling a story about a rich man asked with that question. The rich man answered “Just a little bit more”. The story was pointing to man’s greed but our topic is about how much will an entrepreneur set a price to his products or services. Basically there are two methods of setting a price for his products or services. The most common type is a fixed percentage added to a product called the cost oriented method. The other one is adjusted on what the market is willing to pay for the merchandise which is the demand-oriented method.

In addition to this, let me emphasize the meaning of mark up. I myself was confused with this term and assume that mark up is equivalent to profit. But mark up means “the amount added to the cost price of goods to cover overheads and profit.” (from Oxford Dictionary). For example, if you are selling shoes that cost 150 pesos and added 200 pesos which you sell for 350 pesos, you still have to deduct your overhead expenses to the 200 pesos you’ve added then you will know the profit.

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A manager is a representative of the entrepreneur himself and does what he should be doing. Because the entrepreneur can’t do everything as his business grows, he hires managers to manage people and resources. Sad to say there are many managers today that don’t know the basic functions of being a manager. And the worst type I’ve encountered and became my immediate superior is a Filipino bully manager when I was still working in a swiss semiconductor bonding tools manufacturer here in the Philippines. You can view this chart to see a comparison of a true manager and a bully manager.

There are four basic management functions that every manager-at every level of management-performs.

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Raising earthworms for business can be lucrative if you know how to do it and sell it. We look at earthworms as despicable creatures but they are helpful to the environment because they turn decomposing materials into organic fertilizers. The breeding of worms and converting organic materials into compost is called vermiculture. African Night crawlers are the most common type of earthworms raised by breeders here in the Philippines.

If you are planning to start breeding earthworms, it is critical to have a steady supply of substrate (a substance that is acted upon, especially by an enzyme) in a biochemical reaction, if you want to try vermicomposting. Animal manure is an excellent source of substrate, but African Night crawlers eat their own weight in substrates dally and thrive in soil with 80 percent moisture. A kilogram of worms-roughly 1,000 crawlers-need a kilogram of substrates a day, so that in a month’s time your kilogram of worms will have consumed 30 kilograms of substrate. As they multiply they will require more food-each worm will produce three to five capsules of young each week that will mature in 30 days-and the quality of your substrates will determine the quality of your worms and the compost they’ll produce. In the Philippines, vermi casting can be a good source of income.

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The study of management has been approached from both scientific and behavioral points of view. Taylor, for example, was concerned with the scientific implications of task management; Mayo was concerned with the behavioral aspect of human resource management. A definition of management will help you focus more clearly on the objectives of good management.

“Management is getting things done through people.”

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I’m not sure if this topic will benefit us Filipinos, but just for information purposes that is why I include this. The economic growth in Europe is faster than the U.S. nowadays, it’s because the reform minded government is eliminating the red tape that burdens small businesses. And the internet is knocking down barriers that speed up globalization.

Many very young entrepreneurs in Europe are now starting out on their own and encouraging others to do the same. Maybe the reasons are companies there are focused on outsourcing and jobs are brought to other places. If you want to read the details, the full story is in Business Week. The article also mentions the nominees such as Artemi Krymski, 23, who is developing a search engine that he said will rival Google and focused on digging real estate web sites. Ireland’s Aodhan Cullen, 25, the CEO of the well known StatCounter, and other 16 nominees.

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Planning to start a business by selling rice? You too can start a rice dealership by registering with the Department of Trade and Industry(DTI) for a single proprietorship, the Securities and Exchange Commissions(SEC) for a partnership or a corporation, or to the Cooperative Union of the Philippines if you are a member of a cooperative. You must also secure a license from the National Food Authority(NFA), the government agency that makes sure you have calibrated weighing scales, a storage area, rice boxes, and price tags indicating the variety of rice you’re selling. You also have to produce a green signboard bearing the name of your business and the NFA control number that’s at least 450 mm in width, 750 mm in length, and containing the NFA seal and your license is renewed annually.

You need a minimum investment of php30,000 to start retailing or wholesaling rice. And since this is a staple diet of us Filipinos, buyers are already there. If you are eager to start then here are some rice dealership business tips:

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Last Sunday, Kabuhayang Swak na Swak featured the process of making herbal candy and it was demonstrated by Mr. Ronald Barangan. The candies were made from natural ingredients like coconut sap, coconut sugar, palm syrup and your choice of tropical fruits. You can use many varieties of tropical fruits like bignay berries, guava, pineapple, papaya or bananas. This is a good home based business making healthy candies. Healthy because many fruits aids in preventing or recovering from illnesses . So without much ado here are the things needed and procedure to make the candies. In the sample below, they use bignay berries to make the candy. Here it goes:

Bignay Herbal Candies

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I guess this topic is not new and you have heard some articles about how an entrepreneur should think to run his business. It is a common thought that when you already chose the world of entrepreneurship, and choose not to be employed, then that is the start of of being an entrepreneur. But old habits are not easily forgotten specially if you have been an employee for a long time. So changing your mindset is one of the most important prerequisite in running a business. There are many differences between an entrepreneur and employee and I have read many articles that compare their thinking. But the recent article I read have the best, in my opinion, of what they really differ.

Entrepreneurs focus on opportunity, while employees focus on resources such as money, people and time. For example, a person who thinks like an employee will say “I can’t do it, because I don’t have the money.” On the contrary, a person who thinks like an entrepreneur will say “Let’s tie up the deal and find the money later.”. A way of thinking that separates them worlds apart.

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Customer satisfaction is what a business is all about. Obviously if there are no customers, there is no business. This is why it is very important that we know what our customer’s wants or needs for them to be returning customers and build loyalty. Some companies ask feedback from their customers stated on their catalogs, brochures or websites in order to serve them better. Without this it’s hard to please them, but if you can read their minds through mental telepathy there is no need to ask feedbacks. I don’t know if I have to mention the company I worked with some time ago. Imagine, they don’t have any procedures on how to get customer feedback. They have this “I-Have-The-Best-Product-Mentality”. So the result, they are being beaten by competitors and there is no stopping on their downsizing.

To define it with simplicity, “Customer convenience means doing business the way customers want to do business with you.” Makes sense doesn’t it? customers don’t care even if your product is made from a space age material from the center of the earth, was manufactured in Jupiter, made it’s quality inspection in Mars, packaged in Pluto and then delivered via space shuttle, if they don’t want your product. Simple.

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News all over the world have included the new acquisition of Google, the company called POSTINI. Many, I think including me don’t know about this company until the news exploded about this. I’ve read the news in the Webmaster’s World forum. Many have posted this news on their blogs that announces this and I also wanted to jump in the bandwagon but not just to announce it but to say something about their success story. Visiting the Postini forum, there was a letter from the founder Mr. Scot Petry regarding this great news titled Google to Acquire Postini

They started the company in 1999 which is during the dot com bubble and said that during that time the kind of service they were offering was not really promising. But despite of that they pursue their vision and wanted to become known as SaaS (Software as a Service). And with this long term view they are now reaping the fruits of success. There are some points that made them fortunate because they have this in their organization: (quoting from the letter)

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