PhilFAQS

Name dropping.  A fine old tradition, especially in the Philippines where it has been developed into an art form.  Read the front section of any newspaper and a huge percentage of the articles seem to be focused on who knows whom, who is related to who, etc.  So I live here … why not grab some cheap ‘reads’ for the blog by dropping such a well known name, eh?

Of course virtually all of you are intimately familiar with Mr. Konigsberg, aren’t you?  Or perhaps you know him better as Woody Allen?  Doesn’t matter … the reason I mentioned him is that he’s credited with a quotation that goes like this:  "80% of success in life is just showing up."

I believe that idea is pretty much true anywhere, but it certainly is no more true anywhere than in the Philippines.  I’m bringing up the point because I have been looking through my search traffic here, that is looking at the words and phrases that non-subscribers dropped into search engines to find their way to PhilFAQS, and one that has popped up often is a question … "businesses to start in the Philippines".  Often there’s a little qualifier attached, like "for 15,000 pesos", or "small investment", etc.

Well you came here for answers, so I’ll be happy to furnish one … don’t.  that’s right, do not think about stating a business in the Philippines.  Wipe the idea out of your mind.  And if that query is made with the idea of furnishing someone else money to start a business here, lose the idea even faster.  decide what’s smartest for you .. forget the idea or convert the 15,000 pesos into cash and light the money up with a match?  Which idea will be better for your future wealth and happiness?

Small, undercapitalized businesses are hard to start and hard to run here.  And I find the majority of these queries come from folks who currently have no business experience, even in their home country … that alone will be a kiss of death.  If you are not actively engaged in and making money with a business in a country and economy like the US, where there are a thousand and one support system sin place for small, start-up businesses, then what makes you think you … or worse yet your inexperienced brother-in-law is going to make ago of it in a foreign country which in many ways is absolutely business-hostile?  This is the great American pipe dream … using real opium.

If a Filipino actually wants to start a business he or she can and will.  I’ve lost count a dozen times making the short,2 km trip to the mall from my house, trying to count the number of small businesses I pass … not to mention the dozens of kiosks and push cart vendors who come and go every week or so in the mall itself.  But there is a major difference in those neighborhood business … the ones that have been open long enough for their signs to show weathering … they have dedicated people who show up, hour after hour, day after day, week after week, month after month …. something the average non-working, non-business operator has absolutely no concept of.

I have a good friend a few doors up the street.  His dad died about two years ago, leaving him as the ‘man of the house’ where he lives with his wife and his aging mom.  The house has a big carport area that’s been closed in and holds a quite expensive pool table (the father was known for years as a skilled amateur player who was often advised to ‘go pro’.  The house also has a large addition to the kitchen in the back with a pass through into the ‘pool room’, almost like a restaurant kitchen.  the mother and the wife are both excellent cooks.  There are no commercial pool rooms for many blocks around here, and no place to buy hot food closer than perhaps 1 km away.

Does this give you any business ideas?  It certainly gave me some ideas at first.  After I got to know this fellow pretty well I asked him why he kept the pool table around.  he mentioned that his dad always told him he should operate a little neighborhood pool room (in fact, the father did this for years in his retirement).  I know personally there’s a demand.  So why isn’t it being done?  "Oh, Sir Dave", he told me.  "I’d have to put in such long hours."  I asked him about his wife’s cooking, also.  the answer?  "Oh so many people ask here to cook at night, but someone would have to be there, in the kitchen, the whole time."  In other words, from the assessment of a man "on the ground", someone would have to show up.

When asked what he’s living on, he makes no bones about explaining how his brother was able to go to Canada as a nursing home worker and sends money home to his mother, and the brother … so that they don’t have to work so hard, because life is hard here in the Philippines.  he did mention, though, that he was waiting for his brother to send him 15 or 20 thousand Pesos so he could hire a helper to do the work and then perhaps he’d open the pool room back up.  Interesting viewpoint, to say the least.

I didn’t write this to embarrass my friend, although I know that the truth casts him in a poor light.  I wrote it as just one of thousands of examples I can show you, first hand, of how the mind set runs here and how your ideas about business investments are going to be treated.

Friends, I could run that pool room and make money, were I so inclined … but I sure as the dickens wouldn’t invest 10 cents in someone else running it … unless I could show up every day or knew that they would show up everyday … trying to make investments, long-distance, in small business here is a genuine minefield.  And if 15,000 P is the budget you have to start something for your own income … perhaps on a future move here?  Tune in tomorrow and I’ll give you some much safer and much more profitable suggestions on things you can do for yourself that can bring in money, 100% legally and consistently, and avoid the quicksands of the small business world here in the Philippines.

Related posts:

1. Proof That My Philippine Business Advice is Sound
2. Philippine Business You Can Understand — Four
3. Philippine Business You Can Understand
4. Philippine Business Must Be Doing Very Well
5. Philippine Business You Can Understand — Two

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