The Filipino Entrepreneur

Online selling communities can prove to be a great boon for retailers. It allows you to reach customers nationwide (or even worldwide) without having to spend on a physical store, on expensive marketing campaigns, on additional staff, or even on site design. With some ingenuity and a good working knowledge of the ins and outs of the site you’ve chosen, you can put up a profitable home-based business that virtually runs itself

What To Sell?

Keep in mind that buyers go online to look for bargains or for hard-to-find Items, so used items, collectables, antiques, gadgets and imported goods are very popular on these sites. It’s a good idea to spend a few hours browsing the site to see which items move fairly fast in that particular community. You can look at the site’s ”Hot Auctions” link, or look at the items offered by well established sellers with a long selling history or high feedback scores.
Importantly, some of these sites allow you to sell internationally- eBay Philippines, for example offers it as an option while on Amazon.com international exposure is automatic.

To get started, most sites require nothing more than for you to undergo a fairly sample registration. Some sites may require a credit card, to which fees may later be charged In any case, registration is usually pretty straightforward, even fort he most inexperienced new users. The simplest and fastest way to learn the ropes is to register and participate in the process first as a buyer. This way, you get to learn the entire process and forestall any potential problems.

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Profit sharing in a business among the investors is really common sense. It is obviously the percentage of your investment versus the total amount of the capital. But even though we can go through with it without going to the standards, it is better to have it in order for us to deal in harmony with our business partners. According to the standards, if for example the total capital of a business is Php100,000 and your contribution is Php25,000, you will get the percentage of your share by dividing 25,000 to 100,000. In this case you will get 25% of the profit.

It is really common sense if you look at the standards. In case the total capital increased because other investors contributed an addiitonal capital, then your share will decrease. For example another Php50,000 was added to the initial capital, then it will become php150,000 which you have to divide 25,000 to 150,000. Your percentage of profit share will be 16.7%.

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In life there are many obstacles that we encounter. I guess it’s not new to you that many entrepreneurs became successful after having so many trials and obstacles in life before they achieve what we call now as “success”. Although I believe in the saying that “Success is Journey, Not a Destination” still they have surpassed there once not so good experience in their life. Many times I always ask the Lord that somehow He should grant my wish to have a debt free and very comfortable life for me and my family and success in my endevours, but when I reflect on all the things that happened to me in the past, I realized that my situation now is not that bad after all.

I always forgot to count my blessings. Human nature are like that anyway. We are never contented. Specially entrepreneurs, that is why some entrepreneurs become rich because they are never contented on what they already have. But we should always remember that, as written in the scripture: “But Godliness with contentment is great gain, for we brought nothing into this world, and it is certain we can carry nothing out” I Timothy 6:6-7

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Media have it’s magic, it will make something awful really nice because of good publicity. It’s really hard to become popular in the internet but in television you can attract a lot of visitors. Maybe that is a quick way for a blogger to become famous by exposing themselves thru those kinds of media and also by using magazines telling all those things that they are so and so famous about their craft.

I didn’t mean all of them are fake but there are some who are really famous like for example Abe Olandes of Yugatech. But there are some who like to show themselves as a hot shot or something which makes people curios and creates some kind of doubt to other bloggers in the blog sphere if those really are famous and if their websites receives lots of traffic and earns a lot of money.

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A Trade Fair is an organized exposition of products and services of a particular industry; an event where innovative people and ideas convene. Entrepreneurs would do well to join one.

A trade fair can be an entrepreneur’s dream or nightmare: there are a myriad of business opportunities as well as dozens of competitors, all under one roof. While joining a trade fair may be costly, there are several advantages. What benefits do I get from joining trade fairs? Trade fairs are venues to put your products and services on view for would- be customers. These are professionally planned events and are well-advertised not only through the tri-media, but also through the internet, thereby reaching a wider audience. Because the fairs are specialized, you are ensured of interested attendees. Allowing them to sample or try out your goods will give you instant feedback. You can further assess your market position and gather information on business refinements that have to be done. Finally, joining will allow you to connect with possible investors.

How will this help my business? Exhibitors and attendees alike have one thing in mind, and that is to do business. With your wares showcased in a hall full of business people, you have a great chance to promote your products and increase your network. Attendees in trade fairs are more likely to listen to your business pitch because knowing more about your business is exactly why they came to visit. Use this to your advantage.

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I think this newsletter I got would definitely add something to your coconut shell. This is not something new, in fact it’s an age old belief about how we should treat our customers but in this digital age, there are tools necessary for us to help us boost our business. Even if you are a small brick and mortar (real physical store, not an online store) retail seller, a tool like autoresponder (Aweber) is a big help to enhance your business. It helps us keep customers coming back by making follow-ups. But first you have to get their email address so you will know where to send those follow-up.

3 Tips for How to Keep Customers

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I might say that I was thankful that I had a chance to work in a company that is ISO Certified. Things like these are taken for granted by employees and I’m one of them. I always think that those things are only for big companies because big companies that are certified by ISO have a advantage of bringing quality goods because they have procedures and are “in order”. That is the main objective of ISO. And since those big companies are ISO certified, they require their suppliers to be ISO certified so my previous employer was forced to have his company ISO certified because the company was their supplier of semiconductor bonding tools . I also have a feeling that he (my previous employer), also take that for granted and thinks that it was just an additional cost. But if you just think of the benefits you will have later on having procedures or processes documented, in the long run, maybe you will change your mind. I agree that doing documentations on your procedures can be tedious and costly. For example, if you have a business with many staffs, you will have to pay for their time making procedures instead of doing other productive work. And if you have a very small business and you are the only worker around, you will have to spend time doing them.

The main benefit of having documented procedures is making you prepared for any unexpected circumstances. If you have a documented procedure, you will have no problem of getting back to the process and remember everything if you need to delegate or to outsource. Imagine, how will you explain everything if you needed to expand your business and make additional workforce? or if you need to outsource, you cannot possibly give the detail of what you really wanted for your business in a short period of time. Not only that, if you have workers that have specialized jobs, if one of them left or just having a vacation, who will replace the job if no one else know what to do on that specific job?

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Do you know the saying “Find something you love and you’ll never have to work another day in you life?”? it’s all about discovering your passion and make a living with it. Because if you love what you are doing, you feel that you are not working at all and everything, in your perspective will be a pleasure. Although this is one of the requirements to make you successful on what you do, it is easier said than done. Sometimes your passion isn’t really profitable or you can’t make a living on something what you like most so we end up doing on what we don’t really like.

Below are some tips I got from a newsletter which I find interesting although this is nothing new, reading this might refresh your memory in case you already forgotten.

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Have you heard the phrase “The Customer Is Always Right”? I guess this is not new to you or maybe you have heard this a long time ago if you are in my age bracket or if you are in the age bracket of my nephews twenties below, somehow you have read it or heard it somewhere. I remember when I was a ten year old kid when I was playing inside my uncle’s hardware store. I saw a plastic bag hanging in the ceiling with a print that says “The Customer is Always Right”. Back then there were only few plastic bags and more expensive than paper bags. Then I ask my uncle what is the meaning of that? why is the customer have to be always right? what if the customer steal your items? is it right? I don’t know why ask those stupid questions but maybe because of innocence I wonder what those words means.

Then he told me that it’s because through customers we made our living. It is obvious that without customers, we don’t have a business. Period. But it still made me wonder how will the customer be right because sometimes we encounter unreasonable customers and those who waste our time just wandering around and pretend that they are customers. Sometimes they are just asking for a price or asking information about the product but in the end, will not but your product. Maybe the right phase would be “The Right Customer is Always Right”. I thinks thats a better saying by just adding the word “right” . Why I say that? It’s because if you got the right customer, then any demand he or she makes, complains, feedbacks are all reasonable and will be helpful to your business. Having the wrong kinds of customers will just waste your time and energy to figure out how you will improve your business.

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Being your own boss have been a dream of many people specially those who can’t get along well to their bosses or those who aren’t satisfied with their 9 to 5 routine. There are many advantages of being your own boss as well as disadvantages but it all depends on what we really value in life. We read many opinions about this topic either it’s more secure being employed because of all the employee benefits they enjoy, like for example, fixed renumeration or earnings compared to being self-employed. Unlike being self employed, monthly earnings vary from month to month depending on your strategies or sometimes luck. An employee enjoys other benefits too like health care, bonus or performance bonus and recreations. But on the entrepreneurs side, being your own boss is sky is the limit for your earning potential because unlike being employed, an employee will just have to wait yearly to have a salary increase (it will also depends how generous or stingy your employer is) . If you are lucky enough you can be a millionaire in just a few years of even a few months. And aside from monetary potential, you have the freedom not possible to an employee because being an employee, your time is being paid by your employer. You are actually selling your time whether you do something for the company or just wander around the office and pretend doing something.

But on the contrary, freedom has it’s disadvantages on our productivity as an entrepreneur. Being your own boss is a lot harder than we think, in my opinion. Why did I say that? It’s because we are prone to being complacent and procrastinate more often thinking that since we are our own boss we can do everything we want. Have you hear the saying “Man’s greatest enemy is himself?”. It’s so easy for us to fight something we can see, but since we can’t see ourself, what we do or plan to do, we always assume that we are right. So what is the solution? my solution is out of the box and purely an opinion but it somehow relates to other personal development articles you encounter. Since we are our own boss, we should always think that there are two person inside of us. One is an employee and the other is the boss. You should have a mind set that you should always have a deadline to meet and to present your work to your boss (which is yourself). That discipline will help us motivate and minimize procrastination. Very simple and it works for me. Maybe you should also give it a try.