Comments on: Real World Business — Running An Internet Cafe — Part 5

By: Philly

Philly — Sun, 28 Feb 2010 21:50:39 +0000

Also, something I have seen often in Internet cafes/Computer shops. The owners seem to take delight in hiring very shy, ‘cold fish’ sorts of people to man the shops. Even Filipinos often feel like ‘outsiders’ going in to many establishments. Business, from large deals to tiny deals is conducted only between individual people … treat your clients as people .. even friends … and watch your sales increase … IMO.

By: Dave D

Dave D — Sun, 28 Feb 2010 02:59:21 +0000

Wealth of wonderful information,congrats on a great job,one thing not mentioned but know it is realized is maietenance,everything breaks sooner or later and needs repair or replaced.I worked for a major computer company for years,and have owned my own computer business now for a number of years.Being in a internet cafe business it would be very helpful to be able to do your own repairs as it is your profit we are talking here.
Also day one of operation is essential nothing travels like word of mouth so you need to be ready to accomadate your customers needs,with as little problems as possible.I totally agree your connection speed is of most importance along with cleanliness.Offer what your competion dont, and if you cant then give a nice and clean enviroment.
Thanks again for a great article.
Dave

By: Philly

Philly — Sat, 27 Feb 2010 09:38:34 +0000

Thanks again, John. Your advice is good for almost any business. Start small and grow, as much as possible, without loans or other investors.

By: john

john — Sat, 27 Feb 2010 03:45:35 +0000

something i failed to say before if you do decide you want an internet cafe then if you decide on a nice area expect to pay much higher set up costs. We started with the store and told customers we want to do internet also and the response was good and we kept getting asked when will you open so we just started with 6 computers plus mine from Australia so 7 in all and i built the tables myself. I met a man who started with 4 in his house and now has a shop with approx 50 so anythng is possible. Remember do not over commit and if the correct place no need to start with lots maybe small is better for many then if not so good then not much lost and expand if it seems good. I hope this helps any one interested.
All the best
John

By: Philly

Philly — Fri, 26 Feb 2010 21:45:36 +0000

Hey John,

Thank you so much for your valued comment … as well as for the information that a foreigner/Phil couple _can_ make ago of an Internet cafe operation … obviously I get lot’s of questions along those lines and this is good information for those seeking answers.

No website/email address/street address for those who might want to gte in touch? If you would like, I’d be happy to do a feature on your operation, or perhaps publish a few guest posts on ‘how to do it’? The Internet wants to know …

By: john

john — Fri, 26 Feb 2010 07:57:44 +0000

I am an aussie and live in Coolocan i have an internet cafe and store combined at our house. My wife and i find it to be a good buisiness for us as we do not pay rent for a shop we built the shop at our house i should say my wife did most of the work while i was back in Aust at the moment we need more computers as we have customers waiting and need to make the shop bigger. I would love to say i am the brains behind all this but truth be told it is my wife who does most if not all the running and organising. She is very good with the customers and all seem to respect her there. Myself i at times find it hard to put up with noisy cheeky young men so i have to walk away and come back a bit later after i have talked to my wife and she explains what i consider very rude is normal for them so i am very much still at a learning stage after 2yrs. For those considering any buisness ask some questions of yourself could you do the buisiness by yourself or would most of the effort need to be from your wife to communicate and understand customers needs and wants. Sure many do understand enlish but some do not and they will try to get more time for nothing if they can. My wife can be somewhat quick to anger if she thinks customers are trying to get one over on her now most of the customers know her attitude so they behave and those that are rude to other customers or to her she tells to leave and not come back and so far that is only helping our buisiness as others know they are safe there and now more and more girls and kids come to the shop before it was mainly boys for games. Now we have girls and mothers with young kids come also.
Our store sells food like chips and drinks to tinned food and rice and everything in between and is very busy mainly due to my wife and her prices she keeps the prices as low as she can and sells lots many pass other stores to come to ours she buys many things in bulk and re bags them items like sugar and oil and uling. Due to the demand for our store and internet she is open 24hrs a day. Yes we make money and save money but please remember that our elec bill currently works out approx 1100 p per month/computer if that helps and approx 215p per comuter for the internet. We did not buy new computers and have no problems or i should say very few problems with computers imported from china the cost for each is approx 6 to 8 thou p for one so that is not to bad at all. If you insist on new ones then expect to pay much more for no gain.
We did own a jeepney for about 18 months but for us it was not a good buisiness to many troubles with drivers trying to take advantage of us. We think it would be a good buisiness if you drive and own not just collect the boundry every day from drivers.
all the best to you all
John

By: Philly

Philly — Mon, 18 May 2009 09:38:03 +0000

Tim,

Sorry, your comment was held up in the queue and I didn’t check frequently enough. better late than never.

foreigner can open a business and be self employed.

Well the answer tothat is a definite yes, no or maybe.

In general a foreigner can not own a business which does business in the Philippines. In most (but not all) cases the business must be at least 60% Filipino-owned.

Of course the foreigner’s Filipino spouse may own a business, so if you have one of those, you can be part of thebusiness with no problem (note to the eagl-minded) unlike in the US where husband and wife can own property separately, onder the Philippine Family Code, what one spuse owns the other spuse owns too, so you usuallycan’t do tricky things like lease from the spouse, etc. Theer may be exceptions here too.

But the thrust of what I am talking about is, why do you need to earn a living ‘in’ the Philippines just becuase you want to live in the Philippines. Where you live does not have to be the same place as here you earn.

Easiest example is a US citizen regsters a small business in the US. “WeTeach LLC”. Then the company recruits people (of any citizenship in any country who want to teach English … on line … and clients, in any country who wnat to learn on line. The clients pay the US corp via PayPal, the instructors teach via services like Skype and they get paid by the LLC via their own PayPal accounts. The owner is living in the Philippines, but he’s not operating a business 8n the Philippines … his business is in the US, or in Australia or in the UK or wherever it makes sense. I’ve written a number of articles on this theme in just the past few months, suggest you dig a few of them out.

Also if you don’t want to be an entrepreneur, how many conventional jobs being done today could be done by telecommuting? The answer is a lot.

By: Tim

Tim — Tue, 12 May 2009 03:52:55 +0000

I keep hearing that foreigners cannot work in PI. I have always assumed that means you can’t get a job in PI, but a foreigner can open a business and be self employed.

Am I correct?

Thanks in advance, Tim, Kent WA

By: Tom N

Tom N — Mon, 19 Jan 2009 05:21:12 +0000

You certainly have written many articles on the topic. I was giving a little push in your direction! I think you have hit on an important point: It takes more than money to be in business. There is skill involved. Now, this skill does not have to be yours, but it does have to be present. If a Kano married a Filipina who had the skills, then it might work out just fine. Or not. Business is weird.

It doesn’t make much sense for someone like me to try to sell fish in the Philippines. Beyond the fact that I know nothing about fish, I couldn’t hope to live on the profit from selling fish. As you, I am not much of a pioneer! Better for me to sell a book to an American. That’s what I know.

By: Philly

Philly — Sun, 18 Jan 2009 23:49:19 +0000

Hi Tom, Hmmm ciould have sworn I’d written dozens of articles on that subject. Two pertinent observations. About 90% of the people who ask that question don’t run a business now and have no clue what it means to be inb buisness for themselevs. If you aren’t already in business, successfully in the benign environment of the US, you have little chnace starting one here.

The others, like yourself, already _do_ have abusienss and know ‘how to drive’, so my answer back to them is, why wouyld you change. In, say, the wring/publishing business … what works inb the USD works here … your ausience/customers will be the same ones you currently attract, or if you change your target you’ll have your old marklet as well as a new one.

The key thing to remebe ris, with the internet where you live need not have anyhting to do with where you earn your living.