The Filipino Entrepreneur

Normally we understand the word “Landscaping” as developing a part of a house like the front yard or the backyard to make it more like a nature-like surroundings. For example , planting trees, shrubs and covering the land with Bermuda grass. But when I visit Wikipedia, it has a broader meaning and it includes “human elements such as structures, buildings, fences or other material objects created and/or installed by humans;” Anyway, I think it doesn’t matter so much because what is important is what it does to us. There are many benefits of landscaping besides beautifying people’s home (I didn’t include myself because as of now I can’t afford such). Health is the number one reason in my opinion because it prolongs life of an individual and it makes him or her close to nature. With trees and plants around, you will have a chance to breathe fresh air even though you live in an suburban area.

It also reduces stress because you will be likely to engage in gardening which is known to be a stress reliever. It will make you more relaxed and calm. You know the saying “Health is Wealth”. There is more to that, it will also increase the property value of your real state. By adding a beautiful landscape, it will definitely attract buyers and will make it stand among the rest. This idea is really good to those who buy and sell houses or in a real estate business. Having a landscape will add value to the property also because it saves energy. Imagine, electricity consumption is less because you don’t have to turn an air conditioner for a long time because trees and plants make a surrounding cooler in summer. And in winter, to those living outside the tropical zone, using a heater will be less because it keeps the surrounding warmer. If you are interested in landscaping, you can visit TruGreen where you can get more info or if you are interested in putting a landscape in your backyard if you live in the U.S. because the company if based in the U.S.

There are many kinds of insurance policy and the two most common are: life insurance and car insurance. I heard and read about the two kinds but never heard of the home warranty insurance. Maybe it’s already available here in the Philippines but maybe there was no Filipino corporation who have that kind of insurance company. So what is Home Warranty Insurance? it’s an insurance policy for home owners to protect them from unforeseen breakdown of their major appliances due to wear and tear provided that it is working in normal condition. For example, you and your family went on a vacation and left your refrigerator running. We don’t normally shut down our refrigerator when we leave our house but sometimes we do if we are going out on a long vacation. But a refrigerator works 24/7 because it was designed to do so unlike an air conditioner which you have to turn off once in a while.

Then in your journey suddenly your refrigerator malfunctions and the compressor motor is burning out. All the stuffs in there melted. Your ice cream cake is melting along with the thawing frozen beef and fish dripping all over your stuffs in the freezer. After a few days everything in the fridge is rotting and you went home after your trip and opened the fridge. Then you smell the horrible stench. What will you do then? I hope you won’t get a sledge hammer to fix your fridge (Just kidding). Now you know that somehow a Home Warranty insurance is a necessity specially if you have plenty of appliances at home not to mention top brand appliances to protect your investments. Upon searching the internet I can’t find a local provider of home warranty insurance , I just came across American Home Shield that provide that kind of service in the U.S. Maybe someday local insurance companies will integrate that service or maybe some multinational insurance company will provide that service here.

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I guess in this kind of business, many will be disgusted because you are actually dealing with pests like rodents, termites, cockroaches, and other insects that annoy us, it can also be a health risk and sometimes destroy our property. Like for example, a termite. Although termites are very small, they are destructive to our homes if not properly eliminated. A whole house can be torn apart by those tiny insects not because of their size, but because of their enormous numbers that eat the structures of our house. Most houses are built with wooden structures and even modern housing today use wooden structures on the roof and ceiling even though the walls are made of concrete. There is a time while I was working in an office building with all of the structures made of concrete, I saw traces of termites on the floor near the wall. My workstation and our department’s cubicle was parallel to the wall. That time I was having an allergic rhinitis often and sometimes there are patches on my skin due to allergy. I notice there was a wooden molding for the electrical wire on the wall which is near my work place. One day the technician removed that molding and there I saw were lots of termites and the wooden molding has already been devoured by those little pests. Now I know why I always sneeze inside an air conditioned office.
Even if your house is termite proof (I mean everything is made from steel and concrete), having termites around can also be a health risk. Normally in our dwelling, most of the things are made of wood like furnitures and also there are things made from paper like books and boxes, which termites loves. So starting a pest control business can be a lucrative one. There are many types of pest control business: for example Terminix, which only deal with insects. Other pest control services deals only with rodents, and others specializes on both insects and rodents. These are all home pest control but there are other categories like garden pest control or lawn pest control. There are also various ways of controlling pest like chemical-based sprays and organic-based sprays (organic pest control) so its up to you which type you will consider on your planned pest control business.

There are some DIY (Do-It-Yourself) methods on eliminating termites but that is mostly termite prevention. For example, avoiding moisture accumulation from the foundation which the termites need survive. Diverting all the possible water source away from foundations which is the best way to prevent soaking the wooden parts of your house specially the foundations. Avoiding contact of soil to wooden parts of the house is another preventive method. But most of the time people won’t think or bother on how to prevent termites until it’s too late so the best option for them is to call a professional. Even if they did so, there are methods that will not work on the kind of treatment they did. Some treatment will not work on the kind of termite they are dealing with so then this business opportunity comes in, which is in the form of pest control services.

Thinking of making your website or blog WAP compliant? It looks like it is easier said than done. Imagine, how will you fit the PC monitor screen to a cell phone screen? Those tiny LCD cellphone screen can’t possibly fit in it, that is, if you will put everything in it. If you are using your cell phone to browse non WAP blogs and websites, you can still view the whole page but you have to zoom-in and zoom-out in order for you to read the contents. It’s not possible to load the whole page in a cell phone’s browser because the letters are too tiny and will not show properly. A WAP compliant or mobile website have slim lined(eliminated the non necessary contents) the webpage and just put the important contents in a small mobile website.

If you own a website (a non blog site) with thousands of pages, for example: static html pages, it will take a long time for you to convert all those pages. But if you own a hosted blog, then lucky for you because it will only take you a few minutes just installing a plug-in. This will only work in a hosted Wordpress blog. I don’t know if the free wordpress blog can use plugins because I haven’t tried it. If you like to make your blog WAP compliant, you can download the plugin here. The plugin is created by Alex King and if you are willing to donate, it’s better so we can help our fellow entrepreneur create more wonderful plugins.

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Below are courses available to be given by TRC ( Technology Resource Center). I noticed that they have changed the name of their organization from TLRC to TRC. I don’t know when. Anyway just take note that participant less than 5 will be canceled as per their notice to the public.

Available Courses March 2008

Aromatic and Decorative Candle Making
Lecture: types of waxes, formulation, art of blending of essential oils and uses, melting method, proper wick fixing, techniques in forming/moulding candles, design techniques and cost and return analysis. Hands-on: hurricane candle, floating candle, hand-formed candle, and candles in glass containers with application of aromatherapy oil.

Date: Mar. 1-2

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