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Business From End To Beginning

January 30, 2010 By Philly 5 Comments

I just came across this idea in my files.  Earning money in the Philippines seems to be a bit like the weather.  Everyone seems to want to talk about it, but nobody wants to do anything about it.  This is right up the alley of a great many readers here, US, Filipino or any other nationality.  Looking at the dateline I see I took a snippet from my good friend Yuga’s blog back in 2008, nearly two years ago … and I’ve heard very little myself, either personally on in comments to Yuga’s original post.

Yet virtually everyone out there reading this in the Philippines has a computer, a video cam (or access to one) and a way to get high-speed internet connectivity over most of the Philippines, either through a 3G cell phone or via a WiFi USB  ‘dongle’ for a laptop or netbook.

Instead of searching the want ads for a job that will match up with your skills … at a salary that will make it hardly worth your while, why not tap into a profit stream that will never go away and one that is “in demand” each and every day here in the Philippines.

The “gurus” of sales and marketing will tell you the secret to making money is simple … find a need that is very important to someone … even one that causes pain (no one argues much with their dentist when a tooth goes bad, you may bitch about the money later, but when that sucker is infected and swollen you get it treated and are more than glad when the pain stops).

They also recommend selling things that are consumable … something that people continue to need and need again and again …and things that, like toothache, people have little control over.

Can you think of anything like a sudden toothache, off-hand, right now?  Hint, one clue is in the title … “the End”.  The death of a loved one is every bit as painful as a toothache and a heck of a lot harder to get over.

Yup, the final end, death.  It causes pain to whole families, not just the ‘recipient’.  It’s not controllable … in case anyone out there isn’t sure, let me deliver the news to you … we are all dead …we just don’t know when.  There is a never ending supply of death, and even the Bill Gates among us can’t avoid it.

And it’s something that doesn’t lend itself much to cost control … when a loved one dies, there are certain rights and rituals we all go through, and some of those rituals demand spending … sometimes a lot.

Read Yuga’s original post and then I’ll add some updated ideas … and don’t worry I’ll throw in something upbeat about new beginnings too, near the end.

Last week, when a sibling of a friend died of colon cancer, I went to the wake at the Paco church to pay my respects. My friend told me one of their sister from the States can’t make it and wished there’s a way they can do to ease the disappointment.

I said I can bring my laptop and use the built-in webcam to do a YM video conference. I hooked up my phone to Smart 3G and connect it to my laptop via bluetooth and started.

So there we were, moving the laptop around to broadcast the video taken from the webcam while other relatives huddle around to talk to the other party in the US.

I thought this was cool and wondered why chapels haven’t thought of this yet. … {hat tip: tech soulja Read more about online burial services from Yuga here.

People die every day.  In the Philippines wakes and funerals tend to be ‘big deals’.  Even poorer people who can’t afford a formal funeral home service normally have a viewing in the deceased’s own home.

Henry Allinghams Funeral, Brighton 2009
Creative Commons License photo credit: stuff_and_nonsense

Due to the economic facts of life, a great many of the deceased’s family and friends are liable to be in far off parts of the Philippines or overseas.  It’s expensive and sometimes impossibly disruptive for many to visit the viewing or services … yet wanting to pay their respects and to chat with others in the family in their grief and sorrow is a very heartfelt need.  Thus: “>How to Use e-Burol (Click here to download the manual) … there’s opportunity here to anyone who wants to set up a service like this on their own.

You could attack the opportunity in any of several ways: Go into partnership with local funeral homes where they would pay you to provide service “just like” the name brand undertakers. or advertise and run the service independently for a fee, or put up a directory service and ‘how to do it’ site and make money from advertising and affiliation with flower vendors and other services in the trade … possibilities abound.

Let me also add a word about competition.  Many folks glance at an idea like this and say, “Oh it’s being done already, I’m too late.”

Nothing could be farther from the truth.  The fact that there are viable businesses already offering these services is proof that there is a demand and public interest …it’s actually a great business potential indication.

Aside from death, there are a lot of other “high demand” opportunities. How many overseas relatives who have paid for a student’s education here would want to “virtually participate” in a graduation or even a wedding?  My guess is, plenty.

And don’t forget new babies. From personal observation, these little bundles of joy just seem to keep on coming … the Philippines has an endless supply.   I’ve personally observed when a new baby comes along it is a much bigger event than it sometimes seems in the US … especially if it is the first grandchild of a couple, as just one example.  Whole families will scape the last peso out of the piggy bank and set off for distant locations to see the newborn.  It’s one of those things that people do, it’s something that’s iportant to them, and it’s something that’s going to keep on happening, recession or no recession.

Put a simple web conferencing hookup and cheap web cam and mic in the new mother’s room and tie it to a “one time use” website (free on Blogger a number of other free web hosts) so that relatives all over the world can “tune in’ and chat with the new mom as she feeds and shows of the new child. (don’t forget to record the sessions and sell copies on DVD for those who missed all the joyful occasions live.)

What do you think? Ever given a thought to making a business out of the business of ife itself?   I smell potential here.

And as a final thought, even though it’s essential that you make some money out of all this, if you want your business to survive, it’s also a case of providing a necessary, very rewarding service to people who otherwise would regret “not being there” the rest of their lives … much more rewarding than selling laundry soap or condominium units or some other material thing.

Done right you can make a lot of people happy this way, or at least help them assuage their grief in some small way … and as my friend Martha would say, that is a “Good Thing”.

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You Don’t Need a "Job” to Work For Other People in the Philippines

September 3, 2009 By Philly Leave a Comment

An astounding number of searches here at PhilFAQS, the site about really living in the Philippines, revolve around jobs … especially jobs for foreigners.

In general, these are hard to find.  There are some available all the time through multi-national corporations and the US government (strange how many people say they want a job but have never taken the first step of registering and finding out the requirements) … kind of a “which came first, the chicken or the egg?” routine.

But in fairness a lot of these jobs are held in reserve as “plums” in particular companies and the average Joe or Jane isn’t ever getting one.

One thing I have noted often in speaking with those seeking jobs in the Philippines for foreigners is, people aren’t typically looking for very high level, high pay work.  They just want something that will bring in a few hundred to a few thousand a month, perhaps to make up the difference between a small pension and what they feel happy living with … or something along those lines.

Typically I try to steer them to making money online by a number of relatively simple methods that all can deliver that kind of monthly performance … but the words ‘on line’ seem to drive people away.  “I’m not an entrepreneur” is one rejoined I’ve heard more than once.

Well maybe what some folks want to look into is something that is a bridge between a seemingly big, stand alone enterprise and something that distinctly resembles a ‘real’ job … performing services for people that they certainly could do for themselves, but chose not to.

Today I had a guy with a blog email me with a pitch for this service:

mobile scribe logo

Mobile Scribe - Wherever You Go

With unlimited dictations per user for a low, monthly flat-fee, Mobile Scribe encourages you to document more often and in more detail. With a 97% retention rate, we don’t need to require any long-term contracts; you can cancel at any time. For more specific benefits for your field, check out our Industries.

Easy as 1, 2, 3:

1. Dial Copytalk from any phone and dictate.
2. Copytalk transforms voice into text and delivers it back to you within a few hours.
3. Text can be easily copied into any database or be printed for your files.
* $79.95 per month
* Up to 4 minutes per topic
* Unlimited number of dictations per user
* Same day turnaround
* Transcriptions automatically emailed to you and/or four other specified addresses, or available through secure download* Privacy friendly: no client-identifying information is seen by transcriptionists
* Risk Free – Cancel Any Time
 

Now my colleague claims he is using this service to get more blog posts written in a month.  I’m not so sure of that, at four minutes per topic … he’d have to talk faster than I do ;-) . 

 
But he is using the service (and making money from peddling it too … note, I am not, I haven’t signed up as an affiliate with these folks because the chance of making a sale is just way too remote for me to mess around with.
 
But think this through … these folks are making money, making a business out of receiving voice dictation from clients, converting the words to text and emailing the words back to the client.  US-based, they have all the associated costs of running a business there, and they apparently are still “making their nut” every month.  I likely would have been a subscriber when I was running my ‘dirt-based’ sales and service business in Colorado.  I constantly needed an organization/helper to take notes for me as I rushed from one client call to another … I could have made a complete log of my sales calls and customer get acquainted visits contemporaneously with just a few quick calls per day from my cell phone as I drove to the next meeting … just one more sale per month would have way more than covered the modest $80 a month subscription.
 
Here in the Philippines you could operate a business like that even more cheaply … have the client calls come in to a US based number … just see the Vonage ad over on the sidebar, that I am peddling, because it is way, way worth it for keeping in touch. 

You don’t have to limit this idea to strictly dictation … think about any task that uses a phone and/or dictation that businessmen don’t want to to, but virtually have to do in order to survive, and do it for them.  Here’s a free hint … what do you hate to do, especially involving a phone or writing?  If you hate doing it, chances are thousands and thousands of other folks hate it too …make their pain your profit.

Basically I’m saying, instead of fruitlessly searching and searching for that one precious “job” that may not even be there in the first place, just make your own job and live in the Philippines happily ever after.

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Philippine Business Resources

June 23, 2009 By Philly Leave a Comment

As many know, I often get queries from readers about starting a business in the Philippines for themselves, or helping a family member put together a business and get it off the ground here.

In general, this is a difficult task for a foreigner.  Starting a business anywhere is a significant challenge.  In the Philippines (rated one of the most difficult countries on earth for startups) it is even more daunting.  If the parties involved are not already experienced in starting and running a business the task is even more difficult.

franchise Yet businesses in the Philippines absolutely can succeed.  Some do very well.  And running one’s own business is orders of magnitude better than  trying to find a J.O.B. (Just Over Broke) here in the Philippines for a foreigner.

Many are also interested in the aspect that a business that succeeds and has employees can provide for many members of a family who need work and income.  or even folks in a local community.  Not long ago I read a nice article about a lady who had started a successful restaurant in Manila and was branching out into other locations,  her wait staff and other service employees were almost all ‘imported’ from her tiny town back in her home province.

In addition to the obvious fact she was helping folks with little opportunity find honest work, she found this was a tremendous business asset.  The single employees lived together in company sponsored dormitories and she had the opportunity to train the staff from day one exactly to the methods and standards she wanted  followed.  And as you might imagine, employee loyalty and morale was very high.

So, if you do decide you want to start a business … or, if you already have a business and want to expand it, like the lady I mentioned above … one of the strategies you should look into is franchising.

Like all business strategies, franchising has its own set of pros and cons, but while I have seen many a foreigner owned/managed independent restaurant struggling or even shuttered after 6 months of floundering, have you ever visited the Philippines and seen, for example, a Jollibee without a line at the counter?

I just recently became aware of a good source for franchising information here in the Philippines.  I have good reason to believe the owner and his staff are highly reputable, but as with all things, caveat emptor.  I thought I would pass it along as a useful Philippines business resource … is there interest in more pointers like this one?

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12 Little Things — Rule 9

June 9, 2009 By Philly Leave a Comment

This is the tenth in this ongoing series for practical people, both Filipino and foreign who care about the country of the Philippines and would like to do something, within their own means and power, to make it a better place.

Today’s excerpt is one that ought to get a lot of attention (and maybe comments, hint hint) from both Expat and Filipino readers.  Especially from the US side of the house where jobs, job security, retirement benefits and other work-related issues are in the forefront of many people’s minds these days.  I haven’t discussed it with the book’s author, Attorney imageAlexander Lacson, but I’d be surprised if it isn’t one of his most contentious suggestions.  The conventional wisdom on both sides of the Pacific is that higher wages and higher benefit costs are a prime reason for high unemployment figures.  This may or may not be true … I’ll discuss a couple examples which may make a few people re-think the total validity of this commonly held truism, but even if “cheaper help” is not always the best path to full employment, in today’s day of tight economy, isn’t it everyone’s duty to tighten the belt and make do with less?  Isn’t it every Filipino (and American’s) duty to suck it up, work for less and every patriotic employer to make sure she or he pays the absolute minimum to workers?  After all, it’s nothing personal, you understand, it’s only business….

Pay Your Employees Well.

I mean how far from reality can this suggestion be?  Isn’t it just wishful thinking or some sort of “do gooder” impractical thought that suggests a business can even consider paying decent or even (shudder) generous wages?  It’s survival of the fittest out there … if a worker won’t work for the wages offered, s/he should take a hike and let someone else who will work for less step in, right?

And as I mentioned above, “Everyone” knows that employee costs, principally salaries, are a businesses’ biggest stumbling block on the road to make a profit, aren’t they?  So if a business owner or executive pays decent salaries then she or he is headed for business disaster, or at the very least disregarding their duty to the stick holders who really own the business, right?

Well, perhaps, but I have a couple thoughts to add which may spark a different view … let’s see.

First of all, are employees really the largest expenditure a business faces?  The answer to that is yes, no or maybe.  It depends upon the business.  If your business is something like a professional practice, say law office as an example, then it’s true that salaried workers likely make up the largest expenditure.  In general, sound business dictates an employee needs to generate three times or more his/her salary to justify the position.  So if you were a solo practice lawyer and you decided to hire another attorney as a salaried individual, you’d have to take the gamble that whatever you paid the new employee they would generate three times or more their salary within the first year, or your firm would be heading toward the rocks.  And professionals like attorneys typically get a relatively high salary … suppose you paid the new hire $100,000 USD per anum to start .. you have no way of being sure they would generate fees of over $300,000 per year, would you.

So let’s apply the readily accepted “cheap” principle and see how low we could go.  I’m not really sure what the minimum rate you could pay an attorney in salary would be, but in these troubled times let’s assume you find a lawyer who will work for $25,000 a year.  “Can’t be done” you say?  Well I don’t know, but let’s just play along with the example, shall we, to illustrate the point.

This new hire will only have to generate fees of say $75,000 now for the firm to break even .. easy decision, right?

Probably not.  Even though very few lawyers are likely reading here, even Juan dela Cruz or Joe the Plumber knows that in all likelihood, a third-rate, last in his class barely bar qualified $25,000 lawyer likely will have trouble tying his own shoes, much less winning tough, high profile, high pay cases.  If you were a smart attorney you would likely never even consider trying to find an employee at ridiculously low rates .. you’d much sooner do without until you practice justified hiring a top notch practitioner.  Not many can argue with that logic, I feel.

“But Dave,” i hear you saying, “that’s a ridiculous example.  lawyers, doctors, college professors, senior engineers, these are the cream of the crop and relatively few in number compared with the rest of us rank and file folks.  Come back to reality, please.”

OK, I understand.  You want reality?  How about retail sales?  That’s about the lowest common denominator type job, and very common in many respects in the US and the Philippines.  Sadly I don’t have a good source for Philippine examples, but I have a wealth of business data on two nation-wide businesses most readers here are familiar with, Wal-Mart and Costco.  Now overall these aren’t directly compatible because Wal-Mart has many smaller retail “small item” stores, but a division of Wal-Mart competes directly with Costco … Sam’s Club.  In many ways they are almost carbon copies of each other.

One place the surely don’t copy each other is in wages and benefits.  An average Sam’s Club employee (10 years on the job) makes around $40,000 a year.  In Sam’s Club the same level job pays about $20,000 or less after 10 years.  Costco also has a much more generous pension and benefits package.

Thus it’s easy to see Costco is on their way out, any business textbook will tell you they are committing financial suicide.  How have the two fared in the past 6 months of tough sledding for business?

costco and walmart comparison

I don’t know for sure, I’m not a qualified financial analyst, but I’d say they;re running pretty much neck and neck, wouldn’t you?

There are a lot of reasons this might be so, but one prominent one is that Costco workers are substantially more productive than Sam’s Club employees.

The measure of our fictional lawyer’s productivity I started this discourse with was his or her ability to bring in high paying cases.

The overall measure of retail productivity is not much different.  How much money does each employee account for in the profit column, or how much of the overhead that males the difference between profit and loss is chargeable to employee wages?

Each Costco work brings in 20% m,ore per work hour than a Sam’s employee and, surprisingly, Costco’s labor costs as a percentage of sales are only a little more than half of Wal-Mart’s percentage of labor costs.  Hmmm, pay about twice as much, yet save 40% or 50% on actual labor costs per employee … it’s actually quite amazing, worth checking out if you employ people or are thinking of employing them.  It appears that a lot of “Conventional Wisdom’ is just plain wrong.

A comic (tragic?) T-shirt that’s often seen here in the Philippines has this trite phrase printed on it “I Pretend To Work, They Pretend To Pay Me”.  I’ve seen quite a few people wearing them.  If you are running a business and trying to bu8ild up your country, is that a shirt you’d want your employees wearing?  Food for thought.

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12 Little Things — Rule 2

April 20, 2009 By Philly Leave a Comment

imageThis is the third installment on my series highlighting this truly valuable little book.  Like the old saying, “Good Things Come In Small Packages”, this book impressed me as a great value for not only the intended Filipino audience but also for foreigners like me who live the Philippines, or are “married into” the Philippines, or both.

Whenever you buy or pay for anything, always ask for an official receipt.

There are so many “things wrong” one sees on a daily basis that at first glance this seems almost like an empty “do the right thing because you should” sort of commandment

I mean we all know about things we “should” do, but being human we don’t always do them, so why should this “Little Thing” be important?

The cynical among us also will likely think, “Yeah, sure, demanding a receipt will just result in more taxes being collected, and we all know how crooked certain arms of the government are believed to be …ATBP”.

Well I’m no Pollyanna … there is corruption in the Philippines (and other countries too … as an American I always get a   laugh out of how many of my fellow Americans think the US is “Lily White” in that area … it’s not and I’ve paid the bribes to prove it, sadly) , but that aside, the reason that there may be some percentage of “bad guys” at one end of the government chain doesn’t excuse you being a “bad apple” at the start of the business chain.

Many citizens of all countries I am aware of are highly “anti tax”.     It seems as if it is not a matter of law or of conscience, but more of a game.  Let’s see how little I can scheme and even cheat to make the final tax bill as small us possible.  Well I don’t get my jollies paying taxes either.

But these same folk, especially when I have conversations with them about the Philippines are always lightning quick with the “suggestions or even blatant demands the “The government really, really needs to do something, tight now, about this issue or that problem”.

Fine, well and good.  It is the job of government to take action in many areas.  But there is one essential element to government taking action.  On item that virtually any solution or advancement scheme needs.  Yep, m-o-n-e-y.

Where can the government’s money to fix things come from if not for the people who can afford to spend something go ahead and kick in their fair share?   I mean if you are able to buy something, you ought to be able to pay the tax, correct?  if you don’t care to, why not keep the money in your pocket and save both the tax and the cost of the item.

There’s an old saying that was popular when I spent my years in the military.  “freedom isn’t free”.    Well, neither is progress my friends.  It’s kind of like buying a lottery ticket.  You had over you 20 pesos or whatever with the hopes you might win a big prize.  But like as not you never win a thing and your 20 pesos just goes into the “wasteland” of broken dreams.

It’s no different than when you buy your box of KFC or your new computer monitor from the supply shop.  Will you ever see your few pesos of tax again, personally?  Odds are very much against it.

But if you don’t get an OR, the vendor is likely keeping your tax money for himself anyway … so not only do you “lose” the money you have paid against the tax, the government loses to … not even a lottery ticket chance of your hard earned Pesos helping out.

Makes good sense to me … what do you think?

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