More Filipinos are Earning from Home August 19, 2008
Posted by mona in : Business , 5commentsHeard it on the news the other day. As the rate of unemployment rises in the country, more and more Filipinos are getting into home-based businesses. Whether it is as simple as putting up a sari-sari store or going into multi-level marketing or direct selling or getting into high tech businesses like home-based call centers or internet based online tutorial businesses, Filipinos are slowly finding their way towards self-sufficiency.
However, it is still a question of “How long can they make the business last?”
Aside from financial illiteracy, there are other factors which contribute to the failure of a business venture.
According to www.home-based-business-opportunities.com:
“The number of people failing with these opportunities is significantly larger than those who succeed. The major reason contributing to the fact is that because of low entry costs and the huge claims made by these programs, many people join at impulse only to find that running the business, like any real business takes whole lot of work! Other factors that contribute to members failing with business opportunities can be:
1. Catering to a dying or over saturated market. Upon signing up, the members may find that they are competing with already settled big players in their neighborhood or their prospective customers might have already been approached with similar proposals earlier.”
(Mona says: It always pays to be “the early bird.” Sometimes, people hear of a good business idea but they tend to wait for a friend or a relative to try it out first before going into it himself. By that time, a lot of people have already entered the scene so they only get the “crumbs”. This is true not only for MLMs but also for any type of business. It is so common to see the same business like internet cafes standing side by side and competing neck-to-neck with each other. It is the early players who usually get the prime spots and who have the advantage of having a larger share of frequent customers. And having been there “first” also means they had the advantage of earning loads of money before any competition went into the picture. In cases like this, one has to try harder to STAND OUT from the rest by offering better service or other things the competition does not have.)
“2. High priced products/services. Customers may not be willing to part their money for high-priced products when they can find equivalent low-priced products in the market. Or the quality of the products may not justify its steep price.”
(Mona says: Know your target market well. Be sure you are where your market is. Simply put…A high-end boutique would not sit well in a low-class mall.)
“3. Limitations on marketing methods. The business opportunity may not flexible enough to allow their members to express their creativity by allowing them to employ their own approach to market the products.”
(Mona says: This is so true for food franchises as businesses like these come with a manual and a fixed set of rules. Inasmuch as one would like to make his franchise compete aggressively with those around him specially in terms of pricing, he is restricted by these rules. However, if he can defend his stand about the need to apply such changes not only for his outlet but also for the other franchisees I don’t see any reason why the mother company wouldn’t change the rules. Even giants like McDonald’s implement changes to their menu or to their company colors to suit a particular country’s culture and taste.)
“4. Lack of support. The members may find their mentors too busy to help them get started and may get overwhelmed due to lack of support and mentoring.”
(Mona says: If support won’t come to you, then you better get out there and look for it! There are ways ( and there will always be ways) to get your business going. One of them is to never stop learning. You can learn not only from mentors but also from books, from other people’s experiences, from your personal experiences, and heck, you can even learn from your own imagination!)
“5. Illegal operations. The business opportunity may not confine to state laws and local zoning regulations and may shut down after some period of operation.”
(Mona says: If you want something to turn out right, you’ve got to start it right. Make sure that all the legalities are in place - from paperwork to fire safety standards. There’s more harm in trying to go against the rules when it comes to this one.)
“6. Over exaggerated claims. The members may find that the claims were larger-than-life and the facts may be bitter to digest.”
(Mona says: Okay..okay…As a consumer, I have been a victim of overexagerrated claims one too many times. From diet pills all the way up to real estate and college education plans. If you think it’s too god to be true, then it probably is!)
“7. Other aspects from members side like lack of marketing know-how, lack of record keeping, lack of management competence and lack of financial management.”
(Mona says: In my opinion, no business can ever go on autopilot. In business, one has to move, make his lists and make things happen.)
“Doing proper investigation and research and restraining from joining on impulse will ensure your long term success with the home business opportunity you decide to join.”
