Well, perhaps I am a bit over enthusiastic there.  I’m not yet sure I have the secret to individual fortunes.  But I do know how Philippine businesses could increase their bottom line profits tremendously … at absolutely no cost.  So if you know someone in business here or if you’re thinking of starting a business, here’s a couple free tips that truly could be worth a fortune.

Answer Your email: One rule of writing is to hold your reader’s interest by putting first things first.  This is the number one thing virtually any Philippine business can profit from.  For eight years now I have seen thousands of frustrated expats and even Filipinos eager to spend their money report time and time again that they have emailed Philippine businesses to get the information they need to buy something and received no response. 

Just recently I posted about a great promotion by Habitat for Humanity to help homeless folks in the Bicol region.  I really thought this was great opportunity to help and I immediately emailed the special address set up for this promo to offer some time and transportation.  Response from HfH ?  Nada.  Nothing. Zilch.  A couple months ago I saw an expensive display ad in a Manila paper for a business service I was interested in.  Following the instruction in the ad I emailed to their special sales information address.  Result?  A return email error message, “mail box full”. 

It doesn’t cost a single penny to answer an email.  And it also doesn’t cost a single penny to set up a yahoo or Google email account that is virtually unlimited.  Anyone actually in business to make money out there?

Now most of my readers aren’t in business in the Philippines.  How can you work around this problem from the other side of the picture … as a frustrated customer?

One good choice is to fax the business or agency you are trying to deal with.  Faxes then to get answered.  But I don’t have a fax machine you say?  Most people don’t have a fax machine at home but there are three ways to deal with that, some of them free:

1. Buy a fax machine.  if you’re in the US you can get great machines from discount office supply stores for as little as $30 or so … and if you look around you can get one that’s an answering machine, copier and even a substitute printer … and doesn’t require an extra phone line.  It costs only a minute or two long distance to send a fax trans-Pacific, much less than a stamp, and you are much more likely to get a response.
2. $30 or 40 still too much to spend?  Well if you’re reading this post on a computer with Windows XP (or Vista) you already own a fax machine.  You can write a message to the company you are trying to reach in email or even your word processor and then fax instead of email or print.  You only need a modem (built in to most computers these days, or your old one you used before you got broadband) and free services built into Windows.  (you don’t need to dink with your broadband service, the computer will be happy to use both the high speed service and the dial-up for faxing only).  This article will show you how.
3. Don’t use Windows or don’t have a phone line?  You can use www.efax.com to have a free fax “in box” 9a phone number to fax _to_ and you can send faxes from your computer through efax for a small fee or on a free trail.  there are also so many ad supported free faxing services out there I can’t take time to list them all.  Google is your friend.

So I can’t make you rich, perhaps, but perhaps I can remove a little frustration about living in, or trying to live in the Philippines.

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