Business Opportunities - Wish All Days were Like This

Today, I had a meeting at Shakey's Manila with a long-time friend and fellow Logistics colleague and I expressed my desire to look for possible avenues for small business. The meeting, though short, was filled with Business Opportunities, to wit:

1. Contract manufacturing of Food Products as House Brands for supermarkets
2. Contract manufacture of a New Food Product Line for an established Meat Processing Company in Manila
3. A possible supplier of High-volume T-Shirts for a Uniform order that I am currently negotiating
4. Source of warehouse storage space in Davao and Cagayan De Oro Cities in Mindanao Island (south of Manila)
5. Freelance agent for Construction Materials (Roofing and Tiles)

Because I serve as conduit for the demand to meet the supply, it fits exactly my role as a small business entrepreneur.

Wow! Days like today could only come from Him above. Thank you so much.

On Hiring Relatives

When you are just starting out a small business, the entrepreneur faced with the dilemna of whom to hire, a relative or an outside-the-family person:
1. With a relative, I, as the blood-related small business owner can surely trust them (debatable?)
2. It's cheaper to hire relatives (especially when one is just starting the business & budget is tight. Besides, save on wages & use the cash to purchase inventory to sell)
3. The small business owner can always pile on the tasks to a relative (multi-tasking is the bussword) but an outside hire will only do what you told him/her to do at the time of hiring
4. My In-Laws expect me to hire their chosen relatives as I, the small business owner, has the power to make it happen
5. But isn't it easier to fire an outside hire than a relative??????

Have we not heard the saying " You can choose your friends BUT YOU CANNOT CHOOSE YOUR RELATIVES?"

To Partner or Not to Partner?

At the start of a business or when a business opportunity presents itself, a small business owner would have pondered over this question.
What if you did your homework and found the business opportunity to be sound but you are short of cash, would this be the best time to seek a partner?
Take for example this situation and tell me what you think?
1. Partner A has close ties with the Purchasing or Procurement dept manager as well as the department end use of a product that you intend to supply and advised Partner B of the business opportunity
2. Partner A is well-versed in the prospect's Bid Process
3. Partner B does most of the grunt work like
a. Search for suppliers & negotiate the best price
b. Handles costs of communication between the suppliers,
company end-user, purchasing dept as well as keeping
Partner A updated in the transaction
c. Transportation and meal expenses are borne by Partner B
as he is the one with his own personal car (though Partner
A agreed to offset the costs against the project's income
d. Prepare the quotations, emails and other Back Office work
4. Profit will be shared equally minus receipted and agreed expenses

Would you consider this a fair and equitable partnership?

My take is that if I need to increase my business income, I would consider this to be FAIR considering that if Partner A did not advice me of the opportunity, I would be earning ZERO PESOS.

Is Skill better than Trust?

Being in a small business that requires my staff to handle cash, I would go for Trust over Skill (or work experience).

I firmly BELIEVE THAT SKILL CAN BE LEARNED BUT TRUST CANNOT. It is either I trust the person or I don't!

Many will shudder at the long learning curve (and its attendant cost of mistakes) as compared to hiring an adept employee but whose Trust Factor is not yet proven. They would say ' we will just put the necessary safeguards to ensure nothing is lost". But isn't prevention better than correction especially in a small business enterprise that is surviving on a slim margin and tight budget?

What do you think?

It's Lonely at the Top

How many times have we heard this? Do we really know what it means?

On one hand when business is good, you as the owner, top honcho or The Boss, gets to keep all the profits and it certainly is a nice feeling. But when things go negatively the other way and you need to make painful decisions like firing your best staff, cutting back on the airconditioning and the free meals or some such other unpopular moves, you wish you had somebody supporting you or at the least, understanding why you have to do it but alas, there is no one there guarding your back.

Such is the lot of the small business entrepreneur and the sooner he realizes he has to do it, the better for the small business, In the end, it is hoped that the small business entrepreneur made a good call and the company will come out stronger and ultimately, the people, at least those remaining, will understand.

It's My Birthday!!!

Am getting old and really older and hopefully wiser. Here's a List of the Great Gifts I received-----
1. Today, May 18, my birthday, a new client asked me to source for their company 3 units of Dental Air compressors (What a headstart to start a new business relationship!!!)
2. Submitted samples of T-Shirt to be used by my client's field personnel and reassuringly, my contact chose the Class A sample to present to her boss
3. a set of Bench boxer shorts & Dickie's socks aside from a card with a smattering of english written here and there from my operator (she had to use an english-tagalog dictionary and its probably the first time she gave a birthday card and gift-wrapped the gift in HER WHOLE LIFE)
4. Was able to talk to my daughter who is now abroad twice in a week and to me those minutes were worth more than gold
5. She did send me an expensive Sony digicam and have been using it every day since it arrive a couple of days ago
6. I received a nice molecule shirt (that fits!) from my friend who I know is so hard up that she needs to go out every day in search of a way to earn but she still went out to get me that shirt
7.I got also a Bench Shirt from my supervisor who is also very sick and very hard up financially too but spent her precious few pesos to get me something for my birthday
8. Last Sunday, i treated everybody (mom. 2 sis, my sis' husband & son) at the Jolibee Burger chain. It is very rare for us to be complete.
9. My sis did not get me a physical gift but instead a) did not go home to Tarlac, a province north of Manila) and b) had her husband and son take the early morning bus to Manila just so we can all be together on my birthday (or 3 days earlier)
10. My other sis got me also a Bench shirt and fantastic, it fitted ( I always teased her about her ability to size people up)
11. I attended the 6am church service and a lady gave me a rose to offer to Mother Mary
12. The above business in Nos. 1 & 2 would not be possible if my Lotto customer who became my friend did not offer to take me in and share her business with me. Another blessing is that her contact for the TShirts happened to be the mother of my dentist. What a small world we live in.
13. 13 is supposed to be an Unlucky Number but to me it is not as Gift Nos. 1 to 12 would not be possible without God whom I cannot thank enough for making it happen.

What it means to Own a House

I remembered 25 years ago on the relief that I got when I finally moved in to my one-storey 3BR house---- it was simply heaven.

No more dreading every end of the month when the landlady/lord would come to collect the month's rent. No more having to move out every so many years to another dreary apartment and watch all your sentimental stuff accumulated over the years get lost or damaged after each house transfer.

My house sits on a 192-sqm lot which during the 80s was considered tiny. Now, you can see Row Houses (aka Barracks) sitting on 30sqm, house and lot on 40sqm and so on. I mean, house and lot packages going for a couple of million pesos where really really tiny. But never mind, so long as one can now have roof over his head that he call his own, nothing else mattered.