When I was still employed, I was very very much eager to know what will be my life if I will leave my job. Since my interest is entrepreneurship I read many articles about being an entrepreneur and one of those I always remember is not to trade time for money. The way I understand that phase is selling my time to an employer. Obviously that is the most important thing in a man’s life that he can exchange money with. Having been there as an employee myself, I can say that no matter what you do to a company, that is the only thing that counts whether you have done a marvelous thing. Even if you care a lot and wanted the company you are working with to be on the cutting edge against it’s competitor. The only thing that the company sees is that you are being paid by the hour by means of punching your time card from the time you enter the workplace and time you leave the office. It will be assessed and computed in the accounting department and then on the payday you will get your payslip. A life cycle of an employee indeed.
But what about an entrepreneur? has he already escaped that kind of life? Maybe one good example I wish to share is my practical day to day living. (Sorry if I misinterpreted this blog to my subscribers thinking that I was one of the big time entrepreneurs who owns chains of businesses.) Beside my online ventures, I was forced to deal with PC repair because my wife have friends who owns computers so who else will do the job for them? OMG! it’s me again to the rescue! I’m doing it for free because I’m so generous and kind ( he he he, no I’m just kidding). I’m doing it for free because of friendship and for word of mouth promotion of course. So one day one of my wife’s friend referred someone who is having trouble on her PC. At first I’m having second thought because I know even if I’m getting paid doing it, it will divide my time doing my online ventures. Guess what? I’m right all along because I spend half a day fixing that computer (and revisit again fixing minor problems for free). So I traded my time for money instead of devoting my time so I can generate passive income.
On starting out a business or a venture the hardest past to analyze is “luck”. I can assume that no successful business man will deny that one of the contributing factors on their success is luck. Even though you earn a degree in business or an experienced businessman, if luck is not on your side then I can assume that those hard work and expertise that you devoted on your businesses will fail. If that is not the case then all business ventures will succeed because there are a lot of information you can get to handle your businesses. There are trainings available for entrepreneurship, accounting and business management to help a starting entrepreneur or a seasoned one. There are also lots of livelihood programs available like what I am posting monthly from TRC and PTTC. You can take all these courses specially if you can afford the training costs but the question is will you succeed? is it really for you? is it enough to have passion on the kind of business you want to start?
You can also persevere until you succeed. There is a saying “try and try until you succeed” but until when? why is it some who ventures are successful and why some are not? does the unsuccessful one needs more hardwork? money? passion? education? dedication? charisma? or LUCK? I just remembered the cable program “BIO” and the episode was about Bill Gates. I don’t know much about him, the only thing I knew is he was the founder of Microsoft and the richest man in the world. I read articles years ago about his success that he was “born in the right place at the right time”. But when I watched his biography in BIO, I came to the conclusion that he really is brilliant and put much work and dedication to his company. So will I consider him lucky? in my opinion, yes because he born at the right time when computers are in their early stage that needs a “for the rest of us” software. Not everybody can be geeks. Being in the right place is where his interests are, computers. If he was a banker or a mechanic, I think he wouldn’t be the founder of Microsoft.
Jollibee is the leading fastfood chain in the country and that is only my opinion but nevertheless I when it comes to fast food, Filipino’s have only one thing in mind when they want to eat out. I sometimes hear this joke “halika mag-Jollibee tayo sa mac Do” or “Mag-Jollibee tayo sa Chowking”. ( “come let’s Jollibee in Mc Donalds” or “Let’s Jollibee in Chowking”). Thinking that Jollibee is now synonymous with the word “let’s eat out”. That is how Mr. Tony Tan Caktiong put his effort to preserve and promote the brand name “Jollibee”.
On a video below from WIPO (World Intellectual Property Organization), (actually I got it in Youtube) he has some interesting explanation about preserving his brand name and how dangerous it is for a business or company for letting copy cats imitate their brand name. If companies are not strict on enforcing their trademark, over time it will become diluted and consumers will be confused and will not get the quality they want. Mr. Caktiong stressed that both the company and the consumers will be harmed in the process (probably because the company’s reputation will be tarnished and the consumers will not get the genuine products). So without much ado just watch the video after this jump…….
Profit is the most important for a business to survive because with it, there is no reason for setting up a business. But likewise, profit alone with out determining how big or how small cannot be a measure of financial performance. For example, a net profit of Php 200,000 is not good if your investment is Php 5 million. The return of investment (ROI) will only be 4%. But if the investment is Php 1 million for a net profit of 200k, then that is remarkable with a ROI of 20%.
So with those facts you need a strategy to help you achieve the highest possible ROI. There are three indicators for determining the ROI and those are: Profit Margin, Productivity and Financial Leverage. Multiplying those three indicators and multiplying it again by 100 you will get the percentage of ROI.
There is a new site which is useful for promoting local brick and mortar Small and Medium Scale Business. Usually, brick and mortar businesses, I mean those businesses established physically are very hesitant on having an online presence. The primary reason is additional cost because you need to hire someone who is technically knowledgeable on creating, maintaining and promoting websites. But now, it is not hard for a small business owner to have an online presence. You just have to register on a site called Bizster.
Bizster was launched by Planters Development Bank and you will find it by going to this URL address: http://www.bizter.com.ph. It was designed as an online social networking site for Pinoy SME. Any SME can sign up for a Bizster account for free., thus making itself more widely visible to other people or businesses that might need its products or services. With Bizster’s user-friendly tools, one can also create a business website easily even without being web savvy or not having technical background of making websites. But still, this is not a substitute for a fully functional website having your own domain name (e.g. www.pepsi.com). It’s only a social networking website like Friendster or Facebook.
When I was still employed, I was very very much eager to know what will be my life if I will leave my job. Since my interest is entrepreneurship I read many articles about being an entrepreneur and one of those I always remember is not to trade time for money. The way I understand that phase is selling my time to an employer. Obviously that is the most important thing in a man’s life that he can exchange money with. Having been there as an employee myself, I can say that no matter what you do to a company, that is the only thing that counts whether you have done a marvelous thing. Even if you care a lot and wanted the company you are working with to be on the cutting edge against it’s competitor. The only thing that the company sees is that you are being paid by the hour by means of punching your time card from the time you enter the workplace and time you leave the office. It will be assessed and computed in the accounting department and then on the payday you will get your payslip. A life cycle of an employee indeed.
On starting out a business or a venture the hardest past to analyze is “luck”. I can assume that no successful business man will deny that one of the contributing factors on their success is luck. Even though you earn a degree in business or an experienced businessman, if luck is not on your side then I can assume that those hard work and expertise that you devoted on your businesses will fail. If that is not the case then all business ventures will succeed because there are a lot of information you can get to handle your businesses. There are trainings available for entrepreneurship, accounting and business management to help a starting 
There is a new site which is useful for promoting local brick and mortar Small and Medium Scale Business. Usually, brick and mortar businesses, I mean those businesses established physically are very hesitant on having an online presence. The primary reason is additional cost because you need to hire someone who is technically knowledgeable on creating, maintaining and promoting websites. But now, it is not hard for a small business owner to have an online presence. You just have to register on a site called Bizster.