This week I was inquired by my sister-in-law what business I have in mind that we might start this year. The truth is, I have my own plan of starting an online business (again!) but wasn’t sure if it will succeed because the items I like to sell are only focused on hobbyist and those interested on that hobby. The items are also expensive but I was really interested on it, in fact is also my passion. But I’ll set it aside for now and focus on a more realistic approach. My wife suggested that we should try a food card business and she choose a food cart that sells pizza. I was at first hesitant because the brand name is not popular. I saw another one, a nacho food cart that I think might be a good choice because I’ve seen it on malls like SM and Robinsons department store and the business has been running since 1995.
So the first thing I have in mind is where to place that food cart. Although I have been warned by a friend before that choosing a place like SM or Robinsons Dept store will not give you much profit because the cost of the rent or lease is impossible to produce just selling on food carts. He told me that the cost is roughly 20 to 25k a month in which you will only have an average profit or just break even. I tried to ask the SM administration about the cost of the rent but she said they can’t give it until I send a letter of intent or LOI and have evaluated my proposal which is also stated on SM Supermall website. If you are interested to rent a space there, you can visit SM Leasing Services page.
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Before I start this article, allow me to greet you Happy New Year this 2012 year of the black water dragon. This year will bring prosperity according to astrologers and specially those who believes in Chinese astrology. And those businesses that relates to water will have a good chance to succeed unlike those connected with fire. Anyway so much for that topic, what I want to emphasize now is the business trends regarding marketing and advertising. Since the internet popularity explodes, with it, online advertising was introduced and in no time it was accepted as one of the means to market and advertise a business. In my observation and also those who were knowledgeable on online advertising know very well that the ads network Google Adwords (when Google also introduced Adsense) revived the online advertising after the dotcom bubble burst in 2000 (March 2000 to October 2002). I’m not sure if I’m 100% correct but that is how I observed it. Google introduced Adsense on June 2003 that enables small publishers to participate and I think it is no coincidence that after launching Adsense the online advertising industry was standing on it’s feet again.
Compared to traditional advertising: print media and television commercials, online advertising was cheaper and more cost effective because you can track your advertising expenditures, ads behavior like banner clicks and impressions and other detailed information. Yes online advertising was a great invention and tool for businesses but since the dawn of the internet, computers was the only device capable of browsing websites. And only a few years ago that mobile phones can now be used to access the internet. Yes of course there is an internet device also invented a few years ago and that is the tablet like the Apple iPad, Samsung Galaxy and others I didn’t mentioned. So aside from traditional online advertising, are you also paying attention to mobile advertising? According to the survey of emarketer.com, the time spent on mobile increased to 30% from 2010 to 2011. More than the time spent on reading newspapers and magazines combined.
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This is a guest post of Jessica Francisco of lukeroxasinfo.com
“First Impressions Last” – Here is a famous tagline from a TV commercial in the 90’s that caught the attention of people. How did this commercial affect their business’ performance? It was brilliant! The tagline was able to produce a lot of sales and improve their profit during that year. Over the past years, taglines like these have been very much abundant as it attracts more prospect clients that boost the name and reputation of a particular business. It is a business standard that has been very effective, a strategy that falls under a wide variety of business concepts and ideas in running a company’s interaction with their customers and potential clients. Customer Relationship Management is one of the assets of known business tycoons throughout the world. They reached their accomplishments because they know how to take care of their customers.
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Well there are blog posts I read regarding the topic about how to find your true passion but if it is not connected to a business or something that will profit you, I think it is useless. Yes I agree it is hard to distinguish what your true passion is because of the many influences we absorb from our parents, relatives, friends or co-workers. Even the media like television or movies can also influence us and I think it might have more impact than the ones I mentioned before because we constantly watch and absorb those influences when we watch television, movies and surf the internet.
People do change and your passion for something in the past might not really be your true passion. Like for example you might get this information regarding finding your true passion: [click to continue...]
Most Filipinos does not celebrate Halloween because this custom originates in the Western society. What we are only aware of is All Saints Day where we remember our departed love ones. But since the celebration of Halloween is spreading throughout the world, specially to the middle and upper class of the society maybe we could also have a share in the market by having our own business ideas. The most common ideas we see in malls are those scary masks, costumes, toys, banners, candies, decorations like pumpkins for Halloween. There is a toy store in Tutuban, divisoria where you can purchase those items in a cheaper price and can also resell them if you are planning to add those items in your existing stores.
Also, I’ve found in About.Com a possible business opportunity you can try. [click to continue...]
There is a saying “There ain’t no such thing as free lunch” and “Cash, gas or ass no one rides for free”. Yes of course there are many things you can find in the internet for free. Free information and sometimes freebies given by companies who promote their products. But all of them have a catch (I mean a drawback). For example, there are websites that offer free ebooks but to get it, you have to give your email address or subscribe to their mailing list. So you think giving away your email address in exchange for the free ebook you downloaded is totally free. The truth is, it is a mailing list business strategy to send you an email later so that they can offer you more products to sell. And sometimes your email address is sold in bulk to internet marketers that sells products or services that is why there are so many unsolicited or spam emails in your inbox.
Just last week, someone from a company I’m not familiar with asked me to post their training schedules on my blog and their purpose is to promote their training services like what I’m doing for TRC and KSNS (Kabuhayang Swak na Swak). Then I asked them what will they give in exchange for posting their training schedule. But I was surprised because I never got an answer. So my conclusion is, they want to promote their business for free, get customers and leads for free. So what will I gain? you’re right! nothing.
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Finding a business opportunity is not like treasure hunting where if you find it, you are already rich. In business, finding an opportunity consists of three steps. It’s like a tripod stand of a camera where if one of the legs is missing, the tripod won’t stand up.
So these three steps are: [click to continue...]
