2009 is here! January 5, 2009
Posted by mona in : Uncategorized , 2commentsHappy New Year!!!
The holidays are over and it’s time to go back to reality. I hope everyone had a grand time despite the crisis.
As for us, well, it pretty much went just like an ordinary day. Business peaked up quite a bit (and quite late!) and peterred out before the new year. Well, I guess, I have to be thankful for whatever comes my way now because I know there’s not much going for everybody else.
Even the news this morning didn’t sound good to start 2009. The crisis is bound to be felt more now in the Philippines this year. A lot of overseas Filipino workers who’ve lost their jobs are expected to return to the country. How the government is expected to handle the unemployment issue is still a mystery.
I’ve hear though that they’ll be pushing for livelihood programs. Oh well, these programs have been here for ages. It’s just that some of them are just so screwed up in graft and corruption or some people are still hesistant to give up employment over entrepreneurship.
Oh well, I hope that this year, institutions would be more supportive of entrepreneurs and our endeavors. For years, small-time business folks have always taken a backseat to OFWs concerns. I think that the present administration latched on to the OFW remmitances way too much to solve the economic problems of the country and somehow neglected the contributions of those who have stayed behind to create jobs and do legal business in the country.
I hope 2009 passes as quickly as 2008 and I pray that each one of us find the golden opportunity out there in these times of crisis.
Dealing with Debt November 9, 2008
Posted by mona in : Uncategorized , 6commentsA long time ago, a good friend once told me that debt isn’t altogether bad. Rich people use the power to borrow in order to get ahead and to expand their businesses. But for the lesser mortals, getting stuck in a mountainpile of payables is not too uncommon. This, however, can be dealt with wisely if only one is willing to sacrifice or to put in an extra bit more effort to seriously payoff the debt.
1) Borrow from friends and family to pay off a debt (or at least part of it)
In the Philippine setting, this is more common than sand on the beach. Family and friends understand your situation better than any other institution. It doesn’t entail paperwork nor credit investigation. This, however, is more often than not a gravely abused solution to a problem because there are a lot (believe me, a LOT!) of people who do this and then suddenly act as if they’ve been struck with some sort of severe amnesia.
2) Examine (and re-examine and re-examine) and cut down on your expenses.
All too often debts remain unpaid all because people don’t want to sacrifice anything. They simply don’t want to face the truth that there are still some things left in their lives that they can still give up and live without.
Cable TV is one of them. I have yet to hear of a kid dying of boredom all because he can’t watch Cartoon Network or Nickelodeon. If you sum up the hours that you actually spend watching TV, maybe you’ll find out that you’re just actually paying more for your househelp to watch Cinema One all day while you’re out working yourself to the bone in the office.
Do you really need all that plastic in your wallet? I know it’s just not me receiving all these calls from credit card agents offering one more credit card. Think of how much you are spending for annual fees. Think of paying for annual fees for cards you don’t even use at all. Cut them off before they start charging you after the one-year waived fee is over.
There are a lot of ways to cut down your expenses. Times like these call for sticking to the basics. You simply have to think of essentials…nothing more till all debt has been paid off.
3) Speaking of credit cards, try to pay more attention to the interest rates. Going for a balance transfer with much lower interest rates could be the key to paying off that debt before it starts to balloon with interest, finance charges and late payment charges.
4) Hard as it is, you have to pay more than the minimum amount due. Paying the minimum will never make your load any lighter. It would only mean going by the rules set forth by the credit card company. Pay them the minimum and you would only make the loan stay a little longer making them earn more money as you suffer.
5) Lastly, this may not be totally in every book but sometimes it does pay if you contact your creditors AT ONCE at the first sign of you having problems in paying your debt. Showing the goodwill to find ways to settle the problem sometimes work far better than you hiding everytime the collectors come knocking on your door. The more you hide, the more inconsiderate these people will become all because you are giving them such a hard time. Remember, you are the one in debt. You owe them. And they are not and will never be in the position to understand your financial situation, however bad it may be.
10 Words to Close Any Sale October 22, 2008
Posted by mona in : Uncategorized , 1 comment so farby: Marc Charles
A simple 10-word question. That’s all you need to increase sales, close deals, and cement profitable relationships with clients and customers.
I’ve used this technique to generate millions of dollars in sales. And the best salesmen and entrepreneurs know this strategy, too. They use it every day. It’s the key to their success.
It doesn’t make any difference if you’re selling in person, on the radio or TV, in an e-mail newsletter, or via direct mail. When it’s time to close the sale, ask:
“WHAT CAN I DO TO MAKE THIS WORK FOR YOU?”
I know… it sounds like a used-car pitch. But if you think about it, you’ll understand the wisdom behind this technique.
When most people try to close a sale, they’re thinking about themselves and what they want. But the best sales gurus think about what the prospect wants or needs. Then, when they really understand what it’s going to take to “make this work” for the prospect, they craft an appropriate proposal and close around it.
Simply ask your prospects what you can do to make the deal work for them, and - 98 percent of the time - they’ll tell you!
Law of Supply and Demand October 20, 2008
Posted by mona in : Uncategorized , add a commentThis is a simplified explanation of the Law of Supply and Demand which I got from a cousin. It explains in trhe simplest of terms how we as consumers really have the power to effect changes in the way things are going with the meltdown and all.
A man eats two eggs each morning for breakfast. When he goes to the Grocery store he pays P50 a dozen. Since a dozen eggs won’t last a week he normally buys two dozens at a time. One day while buying eggs he notices that the price has risen to P60. Then, the next time he buys groceries, eggs are P65 a dozen.
When asked to explain the price of eggs the store owner says, “The price has gone up and I have to raise my price accordingly”. This store buys 100 dozen eggs a day. He checked around for a better price and all the distributors have raised their prices.
The distributors have begun to buy from the huge egg farms. The small egg farms have been driven out of business. The huge egg farms sell 100,000 dozen eggs a day to distributors. With no competition, they can set the price as they see fit. The distributors then have to raise their prices to the grocery stores. And on and on and on.
As the man kept buying eggs the price kept going up. He saw the big egg trucks delivering 100 dozen eggs each day. Nothing changed there. He checked out the huge egg farms and found they were selling 100,000 dozen eggs to the distributors daily. Nothing had changed but the price of eggs.
Then week before X’mas the price of eggs shot up to P75 a dozen. Again he asked the grocery owner why and was told, “Cakes and baking for the holiday”. The huge egg farmers know there will be a lot of baking going on and more eggs will be used. Hence, the price of eggs goes up. Expect the same thing at Christmas and other times when family cooking, baking, etc. happen. This pattern continues until the price of eggs is P80 a dozen. The man says, ” There must be something we can do about the price of eggs.”
He starts talking to all the people in his town and they decide to stop buying eggs. This didn’t work because everyone needed eggs. Finally, the man suggested only buying what you need. He ate 2 eggs a day. On the way home from work he would stop at the grocery and buy two eggs. Everyone in town started buying 2 or 3 eggs a day.
The grocery store owner began complaining that he had too many eggs in his cooler. He told the distributor that he didn’t need any eggs. Maybe wouldn’t need any all week.
The distributor had eggs piling up at his warehouse. He told the huge egg farms that he didn’t have any room for eggs would not need any for at least two weeks.
At the egg farm, the chickens just kept on laying eggs. To relieve the pressure, the huge egg farm told the distributor that they could buy the eggs at a lower price.
The distributor said, ” I don’t have the room for the F%$&^*&% eggs even if they were free”. The distributor told the grocery store owner that he would lower the price of the eggs if the store would start buying again.
The grocery store owner said, “I don’t have room for more eggs. The customers are only buying 2 or 3 eggs at a time. Now if you were to drop the price of eggs back down to the original price, the customers would start buying by the dozen again”.
The distributors sent that proposal to the huge egg farmers but the egg farmers liked the price they were getting for their eggs but, those chickens just kept on laying. Finally, the egg farmers lowered the price of their eggs. But only a few pesos.
The customers still bought 2 or 3 eggs at a time. They said, “when the price of eggs gets down to where it was before, we will start buying by the dozen.”
Slowly the price of eggs started dropping. The distributors had to slash their prices to make room for the eggs coming from the egg farmers.
The egg farmers cut their prices because the distributors wouldn’t buy at a higher price than they were selling eggs for. Anyway, they had full warehouses and wouldn’t need eggs for quite a while. And those chickens kept on laying. Eventually, the egg farmers cut their prices because they were throwing away eggs they couldn’t sell.
The distributors started buying again because the eggs were priced to where the stores could afford to sell them at the lower price. And the customers starting buying by the dozen again.
Now, transpose this analogy to the Oil industry. What if everyone only bought P400.00 worth of gasoline each time they pulled to the pump? The dealer’s tanks would stay semi full all the time. The dealers wouldn’t have room for the gas coming from the huge tanks. The tank farms wouldn’t have room for the petrol coming from the refining plants. And the refining plants wouldn’t have room for the oil being off loaded from the huge tankers coming from the oil fiends.
Just P400.00 each time you buy gas. Don’t fill up the tank of your car. You may have to stop for gas thrice a week, but the price should come down.
Think about it.
Also, don’t buy anything else at the fuel station; don’t give them any more of your hard earned money than what you spend on gas, until the prices come down…”
CONSUMERS MUST LEARN AND UNDERSTAND THE POWER THEY HAVE OVER THINGS. IT IS IN THEIR NUMBERS WHEN UNITED THAT THEY CAN SHOW THAT THEY SIMPLY JUST DON’T GO WITH THE FLOW AND FOLLOW THE DICTATES OF THOSE @#@#$%#%@ FEW WHO WANT TO CONTROL THE WORLD.
…just think of this concept for a while…
Be A Tycoon October 16, 2008
Posted by mona in : Uncategorized , 2commentsLately I’ve become more and more hooked to Facebook because of this game that I’m starting to get addicted to. It’s called Be A Tycoon. There, I get to play my dream role of being the megaultrasuperdooper rich bitch who can go around shopping for luxury hotels, health club chain, gold mines, designer clothes line, race horses and stuff. There’s one catch though. I’ve got to protect my empire and I’ve got to make it grow in order to reach Titan status — and that would mean having gazzillions of money enough to buy the moon, the sun and the stars above.
Rule of thumb is buy low and sell high. So, I’ve got to really watch the trend – how the prices go up and down during the day (…and night and day and night!). I need to be familiar with “how low is low” for a particular commodity for it to be considered a good buy. PLUS of couse I also need to be familiar with “how high is high” so I can more or less know when I can start selling the commodity for a handsome profit. A race horse can go as low as $1M and high at $2M.
So far, I’ve moved up one notch - from millionaire to centurian. Along the way, there are things I that I regret buying and selling for such small profit. My gold mine (haha!) cost me $25M to acquire. BUT I didn’t trust the upward trend too much so I sold it off with just a $5M profit. Now, that damn mine costs $50M and it is still moving up! GRRRRRRRRR!!!! So I gambled and bought one now at twice the price just to see if I can still catch the proverbial gold rush.
And there’s this bank that I bought for $42M. It was doing good for a while so I just kept it in my portfolio. And then it suddently crashed to a $-6M loss for me. Thinking it might do me good if the winds started changing, I bought another bank at the current price of $36M. Oh well, a meltdown is a meltdown and I stand to lose so much more. So I better think and act fast.
Oh man, the game is eating me up alive! I’ve so much that I need to learn about taking calculated risks and being sensitive to the trends and all the fancy financial stuff in order to make it up there to the Titans league. As I’m typing, I feel the urge to smash the monitor. My gold mine just went pffffffft….It crashed to $38M!!!! I’m losing money fast!!! GRRRRRRRR! WAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHH!!! I guess, I have to learn this the hard way.
There goes another Filipino… October 13, 2008
Posted by mona in : Uncategorized , add a commentAnother friend is leaving next month. Oh well, I guess there’s really not much I can do to convince him not to go and leave his wife and his 3-month old son here in the Philippines.
I’ve nothing against Filipinos leaving the country to find what they call “the greener pastures.” To each his own. We all have our own reasons for doing the things that we do. I guess it really depends on what profession one is in. Admittedly, nurses abroad have far greater chances abroad than here.
However, sometimes I just don’t get why people so talented waste their God-given gifts to work abroad. Take my friend for instance. He’s a graphic designer here who is so talented web design, computer animation and all the other high-techy stuff like that. And he’s bound for God-knows where to work as some sort of a cut-and-paste artist. Well, I guess, his paycheck sucks here and the offer there to do something that sounds sooo easy and get paid in $$$$$$$$ might have made him decide to go for it. I guess, he’s thought it over and weighed things before he made up his mind. I don’t know. But all I can say is…WHAT A WASTE!
Why can’t some people realize that they CAN cash in on their talents here by engaging in business. Why can’t he just strike while the iron is still hot…while there are people wanting him to do their websites for them? Oh sure, I am sounding way too idealistic for some who are reading this post. My point is fairly simple. If I were in his shoes, I would start thinking farther up ahead.
The two years I’ll be spending there wouldn’t really be much of a learning experience that I could use to improve my craft as I’d be tasked to do just the cut-and-paste stuff. After two years, what sort of personal knowledge and advantage have I earned abroad to make the employers here jump up and down with joy waiting to hire me? And after two years, I’d practically be a nobody…again. Each year there’ll be graduates and more fresh hotshot artists and my name will be lost in the sea of other names. After two years, nobody will hire me here if I asked them to give me what I was getting as a cut-and-paste artist abroad. And I’ll just be going back abroad for another 2 years…for the rest of my life.
Oh well, I hope he’s really thought it over. I just hope he’s just gonna take that chance and make it as some sort of a stepping stone. I hope he doesn’t tire out there until he reaches the same stature he’s enjoying here professionally. I wish him all the luck. 
Insurance - Response to Butterfly 2 October 4, 2008
Posted by mona in : Uncategorized , add a commentWow, thanks Mona for the great advice. I have another question. I have invested in Sunlife’s VUL since last year. Do you think it was a bad decision after all? - Butterfly
Hi again!
I believe getting a premium life insurance such as a VUL is never a bad decision. If you’re from the Philippines (are you?), SunLife Phils has repeatedly declared that it is a stable company with no exposure to Lehman Brothers. So, I guess there’s really no need to worry about it. Shaky as the pre-need and insurance industry is here, somehow we just need to place our trust in the people behind it to really know what to do and how to handle the hard-earned money we place with them.
I must admit that I have always been critical of pre-need and insurance products. I have often gotten into discussions with agents whenever I pose the question - HOW CAN YOU GUARANTEE THAT WHAT MY FAMILY WILL GET WOULD BE ENOUGH TO ENSURE THAT THEY WOULD BE ABLE TO MAINTAIN THEIR STANDARD OF LIVING? This was even made worse when we fell victims to Pacific Plans’ “disastrous” traditional education plans. All of my daughter’s education plans from elementary all the way through college 
have been compromised by a company that had claimed to be stable and guaranteed that they would pay for my kid’s full tuition fees no matter when and where she studies.
But whatever it is that has happened to us with Pacific Plans didn’t stop my husband and me from getting our life insurances from another company. Death is inevitable and we simply needed that feeling of “security” that our kids will not be left empty-handed when we die. Our insurances won’t probably amount to much with the way the economy is going. It won’t make our kids multimillionaires when we die but we think it would help them somehow. And besides, we don’t really like to leave our kids with too much money which we think would inevitably rob them of the ability to strive and dream. (which I have blogged about already in http://theheadquarters.168center.com/2008/08/12/kids-and-business-a-mothers-point-of-view/)
Going back…It’s really an issue of trust. In this life, we’re really left without much choice but to place it in institutions like the government (however much we hate the system), the banks, and yes even insurance companies included.
I know I am beginning to sound pessimistic but I just believe that there is no such thing as “enough” or a “100% guarantee”. No one can really say what’s gonna happen next. I guess the key here is to NOT put “everything” into one basket and learn to peg a “safe” limit to your exposures.
I hope I was able to answer your question.
Investing - Response to Butterfly 1 October 4, 2008
Posted by mona in : Uncategorized , add a commentHi,
What do you think is the best instrument for investment. If I have some savings today, where should I put it? (considering that owning a business is not an option). Thank you. - Butterfly
With the recent shakes in the stock market and other related industries like banking and insurance, it’s tough to look for really secure instruments. But if you’d ask me, what’s safe is what’s best.
Over investing in stocks or placing it in “prosperity plans” like that of Sunlife’s, I’m still more comfortable with banks. You could check out your bank for offers of high yield placements.
Here are a few things you need to consider though:
- Check out the bank’s reputation. Savings and rural banks offer higher interest rates than commercial banks BUT they’re more prone to bank-runs.
- Deposits are insured only up to a certain limit. Try not to put everything in one basket. With the way things are going right now and all the unexpected turn of events, it’s safer not to go beyond that limit.
- Choose a term that you’re comfortable with. Of course, the longer the holding period, the bigger the returns. But what if you need the money? Of course there’s always the option to preterminate but it is not advisable because you might just end up losing after all the fees have been deducted.
There some people I know who are investing in real estate, especially now that a lot of properties are being foreclosed by banks and lending institutions. This, however, is for the more “gifted” not only in terms of cash but also in the skill of “predicting” which property would appreciate faster. You can opt to do this if you want to, but remember, a piece of land is just that - a piece of land till it starts earning money for you. Also, real estate is also something that’s very hard to dispose when you need the money right away.
Business Basics September 25, 2008
Posted by mona in : Uncategorized , 5comments“If money is your hope for independence, you will never have it. The only real security that a man will have in this world is a reserve of knowledge, experience, and ability.”
- Henry Ford
Everyone wants to be rich. I have yet to meet one person who doesn’t dream of being debt-free and enjoying life with all the perks. To achieve this so-called financial freedom, many choose to climb up the corporate ladder, while others like me opt to take the proverbial road less travelled by going into business.
Way before business mentoring became the way it is now, I guess we were fortunate to have been surrounded by people who have showered us with lots of advice, both solicited and unsolicited.
Here’s a quick rundown of the “basics” that we learned over the years. They’re cliches that may sound so simple but they’re the ones that really work.
1. When in doubt, don’t.
In business, you’ve got to learn to trust your instincts. If you ever come across a big deal from someone you won’t even trust your dog’s life with, better think twice. If they always flash the money in front of your eyes to lure you into agreeing…if it sounds fishy…If something just doesn’t
“feel right”…If something sounds too good to be true…chances are it isn’t.
2. If everyone else is looking this way, try looking the other way.
Try to avoid getting into a business that everyone else is getting into. Some people may try to convince you to join in the bandwagon by bombarding you with testimonials about how A made tons of money or how B raked in a fortune. If there are just too many people on the boat, chances are it’s gonna sink sooner or later.
3. Never burn bridges.
No matter how difficult the situation, try not to part ways with a client, a business partner, an employee in bad terms. Believe me, the world is getting smaller by the minute.
4. Where there is crisis, there is opportunity.
Business people are a “gifted” lot. When everybody else is giving up and letting the crisis eat them up alive, the true businessman sees the wealth of opportunity all around him.
5. Start small but dream big.
I’ve seen a lot of people start their businesses with a BANG! They have this mentality that if they have the grandest of grand openings, the customers will come lining up at their doorstep - continuously. Well, some were lucky. Most were not. Once the novelty of the business fades, so will all else. You don’t have to pour it all out in one go. Add according to demand. Believe me, consumers like it better to see you upgrading rather than downgrading your services because you have to keep up with the times.
Business is a test of patience. It’s like a mind game. You have to have the foresight to see beyond what others see, to plan the next move and stay ahead.
Lessons from My Dad 3 - Don’t milk the cow dry. September 23, 2008
Posted by mona in : Uncategorized , add a commentWhy do some businesses succeed while others go pffffffffft?
Oftentimes, we put the blame on the the location, the government, the lack of funds or the nature of the business itself. While some of these may prove to be true to a certain point, we sometimes leave out the most crucial ingredient of the business - THE BUSINESS OWNER.
A lot of business go pffffffffft because the owner lacks the knowledge, the passion, the drive, the resources to make it work, etc. But the real business-killer is really the attitude more than anything else.
I’ve come across people who used to have thriving and promising businesses that ended up bankrupt after a couple of years. Their common mistake: the misconception that a business is a milking cow. A business must never be treated as such. We cannot give the cow a teaspoon of water and expect to get a bucketful of milk. It needs much more than that. If one continues to squeeze the cow dry, you are not only milking the cow…you are murdering it.
Instant gratification is the culprit behind the failure of most small businesses. While those of us who venture into business do this primarily for the money, we must in no way be such in a hurry to reward ourselves with a new car, a house, a cruise or that new fancy gadget. Never burden a start-up business with expenses that wil never contribute to its earnings.
My dad says a business must be treated like an artform. And just like a masterpiece, you give life to it by investing not only money but a part of yourself, your time, your talent, your skills your passion and your creativity.
