49 Ways to Make a Living in the Philippines — Book Review
I’ve been a little busy in the past few weeks. Some of the things I have been busy with have nothing to do with blogging or making money online, but one thing that has taken up a lot of more of my time that I thought it would was doing a review of Bob Martin’s book, 49 Ways to Make a Living in the Philippines.
It isn’t because the book is long or hard to read … in fact one of my honest criticism is, the book is a bit thin in places … but a real rule of writing is any written product should be long enough to do the job it was designed to do, and no longer (I ought, perhaps, to apply that principle to some of my blog posts, perhaps).
Bob is and American who moved to the Philippines about eight years ago and has been making a living here, entirely from his own efforts and business acumen ever since.
This sets him apart from me and many of my expat acquaintances who have an income already from pensions or investments. The proof is i9n the pudding. If you can live here for 8 years, live in a nice house, raise a family and live a life that has a balance between work and pleasure, then you may certainly say you have expertise in that niche. In addition to knowing Bob online for some time, I have visited him at his home, met his family and some of his employees and it is my considered opinion that Bob is doing those things I mentioned, and more.
So when Bob announced his plan to release this book I waited anxiously. It does not disappoint.
There are a number of ideas in the book that I already knew about as well as quite a few that I had never heard of. In all cases the ideas, in my opinion, are all viable and should provide a long-term income for anyone who chooses to actually set out and make a success of any one of them. In fact I really wonder that Bob didn’t aim it at a broader audience, because a majority of the methods here will work for folks still living in the US, for example.
Most do not even require an investment of any consequence. A few do, but even those are investments earmarked for buy real property or to invest in a proven business system with guidance and managerial assistance provided.
I was able to detect no scams or questionable ventures here. For those that do not know,the Philippines is rife with many ‘make money’ scams … many of them revolving around an endless assortment of the "Amway-style" Multilevel-marketing models where you basically begin your business by pissing off all your friends and family members trying to get them switch to your brand of shampoo an soap and eventually end up with a flat bank account and a garage full of patent fertilizer products.
These are real-world products and designed as ideas which an honest man could use to start another business that appealed to other honest men.
As I mentioned at the beginning, the only real criticism I could offer is that some of the ideas are short … but, in fairness, think about this:
In the 8 years or so I have been intimately involved with helping people who want to move to the Philippines as well as making my own, successful plan to do so, a number one issue from people of all ages and al walks of life have been how to make a living … or how to find a viable business idea to help family members make a living. In most cases, they (we) have no clue.
That’s what this book provides. Well thought out and intelligently selected ideas for making yourself independent of that monster that people think provides security, a regular J*O*B. It is not a textbook .. in order to fully develop some of these ideas one would need a sizeable book for each one I think.
It is exactly as required by truth in labeling, 49 ways and I can assure you, it will only take one of these 49 ways to ‘click’ for you to make the book more than worthwhile.
The book is available in paper or eBook (instant download) format and it comes with a no-hassle, no risk guarantee … I recommend it.
Disclosure: I am a sales affiliate for this product. That means I am compensated if you buy it. I would not advertise it here if I did not honestly feel you would not be receiving true value, but if that fact bothers you, fear not, I understand.
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- Making Money In The Philippines With A Phone
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- Philippine Living One Day At A Time
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July 1st, 2008 at 7:44 am
A timely review Philly.
I have purchased this book from Bob Martin and although it is no 900 page discourse of everything and all, I fully agree and support the points you have brought out in your review.
I am not agreeable and supportive because I am “validating” my decision to purchase this book. I am affirming the value of Bob’s work because it has and will continue to “fertilize” my thinking on ways to provide income for myself and my Filipino family/community. (Perhaps I should come up with another way to phrase that so others will not think I am full of it - hehe)
Bottomline is I do not have “buyer’s remorse” and I am more than satisified with my purchase of Bob’s book. I will be recommending it to anyone who is interested in the subject should they inquire (seems like that is just about everyone who is contemplating making the move to the Philippines).
Just a last comment to mention I have purchased Bob Martin’s other book “Retire Like A King”. I haven’t broke the seal on that one yet but I am looking forward to doing so very soon.
marshall
July 1st, 2008 at 8:21 am
@marshallmellow: Hello Marshall, thanks for the feedback and I’m glad you liked the book. The real value in that book is if someone actully will grab one of the ideas by the horns and ride it … everything there is workable, but so many, sadly, will read about it, convince themselves as to all the reasons nothing will work for them, and put it on the shelf (I’m telling a big part of my own life story there as well, not casting stones at anyone).
I got a laugh out the fertilizer analogy too. Years ago a guy who now lives in Mindanao, a good freind, got himself deep into the ‘Amway’ craze. In particular he was heavily pushing some sort of plant food product they sold which was going to revolutionize life in the Philippines as we know it … or so some people’s sales pitch seemed to suggest. I tried to make a humorous reference to the similarity between that product and the one that comes out of the south end of a northbound carabao, but I guess I was too blunt and he never got the humor. Too bad. He was/is a nice fellow and I still consider him a friend, but he hasn’t had a word to say to me in years
July 1st, 2008 at 10:30 am
ahhhh now I get the reference to the patent fertilizer…sounds like your humor got lost in the translation, so to speak. Life is too short not to laugh when you get the chance eh…
It is so easy to get caught up in the excitment and such when working in the Amway type ventures. Unfortunately too many on the lower end of the payout spectrum do not reap the rewards.
I have to admit I have missed some opportunities in past years when I didn’t have the confidence to go forward…shoulda woulda coulda comes to mind.
but now it is ONWARD and UPWARDS!
Cheers!
marshall
July 1st, 2008 at 11:49 am
@marshallmellow: Opportunities we didn’t tackle in the past are just best looked at as tuition paid to learn the game … it’s better to look forward, with that I would heartily agree.