Money Online in the Philippines. Isn’t that kind of — You Know, Sleazy.? That might seem a sort of strange question for me to start an article with, since many people know I make a little money online, and everyone who reads here ought to know that I live in the Philippines … I’ve bene here more than five years now, as a matter of fact
Money Online in the Philippines — Have You Read What I Already Wrote?
I get questions frequently along these lines which tell me that many people haven’t read my feature article on this subject that I published a month or so back … Online Business Philippines — No English Teaching Allowed … which outlined three very real and totally “un-sleazy” businesses that anyone reading here could adapt to make money, online, working in the Philippines.
And because many of my Filipino readers seem to operate with kind of a mindset that only foreigners can earn an honest living online, I purposely covered three different combinations of foreigner-only, mixed foreigner/Filipino and Filipino-only business ventures. If you haven’t read that yet, I’d suggest you do, as well as some of the “Related Articles” that are listed at the bottom of each article.
Money Online in the Philippines — What about These Folks?
How "Sleazy" is does this couple look?
So now that you’re back with me here, who are these folks in the picture on the left? Anybody recognize them right off?
Well, I’ll give you a clue. They are likely one of the most throughly investigated … by government and media sources couples … in the past few years.
(Certainly a hell of a lot better investigated than Bernie Madoff and his wife, who were allowed to steal billions from individuals while being a close personal friend of the Secretary of the Treasury. Funny thing is, I don’t think he lost money, and the guy who was running the Treasury while Madoff was riding high not only didn’t lose a dime, but he left government service to take over (mis)management of yet another government sanctioned Wall Street legalized rip off … no folks, in my book, THAT is sleazy … but I digress)
I’m pretty sure that if there was anything “Sleazy” about them it would surely have been splashed all over the tabloids. Can’t quite place them yet?
Well, here’s another clue. Their daughter just got married and a pretty high-profile wedding it was. To help you figure it out, if you still haven’t “got” it, here’s a picture of their new son-in-law’s grandmother:
Does this woman think her grandson's new in-laws are "Sleazy"?
Yes, that’s right. The couple in the first photo are Carole and Michael Middleton, parents of Kate Middleton who recently left a job to be filled in the British e-Commerce realm … in exchange for the future position of sitting with her husband on the Throne of the Realm.
…. on the recruitment website RetailChoice, a new opening was advertised at a mail-order firm near Reading. At first glance the job, for an “assistant buyer” to “develop the personality of the Party Pieces brand… through product selection, photography and catalogue design,” seemed as ordinary as all the others listed with it – a contracts manager in Hungerford, an accounts assistant in Newbury…..
But for the current postholder, a woman named Kate Middleton, this job has proved a spectacular career springboard. The vacancy occurs because she has just been promoted from retail buying assistant to future Queen of England. Full article on the Middleton’s online business here…
Money Online in the Philippines — Only Sleazy if you Choose to Be
So, here’s a little example of the Middleton’s front page. Gives you a little flavor of the site.
Kate worked here for some time. Would you consider driving traffic to a site like this and otherwise promoting it and performing management tasks “Sleazy”.
I wouldn’t, but then again, I’m not the Queen of England, so perhaps her standards are different from mine.
… What we know of Party Pieces suggests a fairly small business. It operates from a converted barn and its website says it has “up to eight” staff taking orders, plus pickers in its warehouse. Carl Taylor, sales director at one of the major party goods wholesalers, Pam’s, says: “They’re big enough for me to know the account, but I would say they were quite small.” …
Money Online in the Philippines — Free Bonus
The main thrust of this article as, as I am sure most of you “got”, to point out that not only can online e-commerce be quite fashionable and totally above-board. But, especially for those of you who live in the Philippines (foreigner or Filipino), and those of you who visit here often enough to observe what’s really going on in commerce here, this writeup on Party Pieces is a huge Philippine Pony idea so far as I can see.
Any time you go into a Jolibee, a McDonald’s, a Goldilocks or similar establishment popular with kids, what will you see on a weekend?
Huge sections of the store blocked off for kid’s parties. Some venues even have separate, dedicated party rooms. These kids parties are big, big business here in the Philippines. Even lower-income people who often won’t be found in a fast food emporium for months at a time will find the money for children’s birthday parties.
If you ever book a Philippine kiddie birthday party , as I have, you’ll likely been shocked at the amount of money these families are spending on these parties, too.
And what do they get for their significant hard-earned Peso expenditure? Well, in my view, not very darn much.
Aside from a ‘set meal’ of chicken and spaghetti or burger and fries or something similar …. which can always be bought separately over the counter, for the same or less than the “by the person” “party price”, the kiddies get a visit from the company mascot in a costume and an embarrassingly sleazy and “cheap” little plastic bag of “party favors”.
Any parent could do better for a few Pesos except for one thing … There is no decent source of party favors, decorations and the other trappings for a party that we in America think of as commonplace.
The few stores that handle such items have horribly small collections, out-of-line prices and are not of much use except for people who live close by. Take a close look at what the Middleton’s do to earn an impressive, honest living helping make people happy.
The Philippines has wonderfully cheap delivery services (easy to sell across the whole country off of one website/stocking facility) and they have a continuous, crying need for better kid’s party supplies. Hmmm Remember what I have always said the one single, most important rule for how to make money is:
Find something people want to buy and sell it to them.
So what are your thoughts about Money Online in the Philippines?
Dave:
Funny you should mention party stores. I’ll relate a bit of a long story here, and a party store success in the unlikeliest of places.
Abulug is pretty remote… The largest “big” town is Ballesteros, around 10 km away. Since we’ve lived here, we became acquainted with the head of the local FX drivers’ association up there (The guy who deals with the LTO for the FX drivers). His family owns one of the few “big” grocery stores in town (NOT as big as a supermarket, but much bigger than the average Sari Sari). As a family, they invested earnings from the store into FX, and they now own a fleet of over 20 of them. The FX profits were used to expand into other areas. A cousin noticed that there were no party supply stores, or planners, in the area, but kids still had birthdays, people still got married or dropped dead and had wakes (The nearest Jollibee is in Aparri, nearly an hour away, at minimum, or Tuguegarao, 2 1/2 hours).
They started small, with a little countertop display in the store. The FX drivers would stock up on supplies in Tuguegarao or Baguio, and bring them to town on empty return runs (They are employees, so they still drive, only carrying cargo). They added the following: Favors of all kinds (They have hundreds of types now), decorations, cakes (brought up from Tuguegarao with passengers… on the day needed), food (from lechon to burgers to pizza (some things brought, again, from Tuguegarao), balloons of hundreds of types, clowns or costumed guys, Karaoke rental, bands, DJ’s, photographers, chaffing dishes, BBQ grills, and even those inflatable bouncy house things… Anything you could possibly need.
Aside from some of the audio equipment, food serving equipment, and basic decorations, everything is ordered when they receive an order (minimal inventory). Their catalogs are all in PDF on a computer in the store (Internet is spotty up there still).
The business boomed. Big time. They bought the shop next to the store as “Party Central”… All in a tiny, poor, very rural, farming town. A party store is about the last thing you would expect to see there, yet they receive huge word of mouth, and receive quite a lot of business. They developed relationships with venues, florists, caterers, etc. All on minimal capital.
As usual, a comment worthy of its own article. I will answer this in the main blog, it makes a couple very important points. Thanks, John.