Some General Discussion About Business

I really believe you can make a good living in the Philippines. Like anywhere you must not be under capitalized, you must be in it for the long haul until the business builds and you need a sound plan, a good location and the right product/service at the right time. I produced a 55 minute video called “Street Boxing” in the early ‘90’s.  It was a boxing workout exactly as the real boxers do it and it was a well made video with a top notch boxer demonstrating the finer skills, good camera work, sound and lighting was professional and packaging pretty fair.  I sold quite a few, even sold copies to the Australian Institute of Sport and the Defence Department as well as to almost every  boxing gym in the country.  The problem was it was a real boxing workout when the market either didn’t recognise the value of boxing for fitness as it does today or they wanted jazz-boxing-aerobics-wave your hands around rubbish.

In other words, a little ahead of my time and if I released it today it would be the right tape in a market ready for the product, but a saturated market.  Apart from that my partner ran off with the master tape so another lesson was learnt the hard way!  Timing can be vital! Be careful who you trust!

A large number of businesses bloom and flourish then whither on the vine and die a natural death, like the ‘pearl shakes’ carts.  These were a milk shake type product with some kind of candy floating around in them, the “pearl”.  All the rage for six to nine months then the market was soaked with these carts and the original franchisers had made their money back an smartly exited the market.  All the C and even a few B class “investors” who had soaked their OFW savings into the carts were left with a diminishing return as the next fad hit the country and the malls.

As this site develops we will examine a few of the more tried and tested small business ideas. I go into detail in my book, ‘Making A Living In The Philippines’ but we will still let a few secrets out of the bag on these pages, so keep checking back.

So You Want To Start A Small Business In The Philippines!

This is the plan of many westerners that come to the Philippines and decide they want to live here. There are many that have been able to achieve this goal and, there are many more that have gone home after a few years having lost all of their life savings. Their dream of living in the Philippines and making a living is often shattered forever. So what are the mistakes those that do not succeed make? There are many but basically people come here with ideas on how they think a successful business should be run based on their experience at home.

They may have conducted what they believe to be the required research and developed a business plan with figures that are so conservative that there is no way it could fail. But what they often fail to do is understand the local environment and take into account cultural factors. Even when someone has been visiting the Philippines for a long time they won’t really understand doing business here until they actually start living here. There is a huge difference between being a tourist and living here day to day.

Anyone who is a successful businessperson knows the high cost and value of experience. The smart businessperson will try to gain the knowledge and experience of others so that they can avoid making bad decisions. If you are serious about starting a small business in the Philippines then you also need to learn from others and avoid many of the common mistakes. Perry Gamsby has lived in the Philippines for a number of years and operated a number of successful businesses, along with some that have failed. He has committed this knowledge and experience to a book entitled Making A Living In The Philippines.

The book explores the options for supporting oneself while living in the Philippines and a major part of the book is dedicated to how to go about starting and operating a small business. This is a must read for anyone planning to do business in the Philippines. Regardless of what scale of business you plan on building, the information contained in this book is going to be helpful. Find out more about Perry’s books by clicking the links on the right

Looking for Shipping Containers For Sale In The Philippines

A business opportunity

Right now there seems to be some demand for empty shipping containers in various ports in Asia, the Philippines included. In a month or two there might be a glut of containers for sale in Manila or Cebu and of course the prices will adjust accordingly.

There are companies worldwide that make their money knowing where the market currently needs containers and where there are some for sale and delivery. Many container owners use these companies to help them with the logistics of moving their inventory around the world efficiently.

If you run a freight service between the USA and China and have ten containers in San Francisco and only two in Shanghai you need to make sure you organize more exports from the USA to China than the other way around simply because you don’t have enough containers to handle the business. However this situation is indicative of there being more goods going from China to the USA and the probability is this will continue and you need those ten containers back on the dock in Shanghai A.S.A.P.

Shipping empty boxes around the world isn’t good business and in the current economic climate it might take a while to find enough cargo to get those containers to China. Meanwhile you are losing business the other way. This is where a broker can help. They can source spare containers in Shanghai for you while seeking out cargo you can put in the containers you have in San Francisco. Those ten may never make it back to either San Francisco or Shanghai but you will always be able to call on twelve containers from anywhere to anywhere whenever you need to without having to invest in more containers.

If you are in the Philippines and in the market for a container, you can contact one of these container management companies and enlist their assistance. Or you can call the shipping companies or visit the custom’s agents and make a few contacts. They will always know when there are shipping containers for sale or lease. If you only want a container to use as a housing or office unit, especially if it doesn’t have to meet exacting EU or ISO standards then you can always find one that has been retired from sea duty and they usually require little in the way of repair to make them fit for purpose.  Check Shipping Containers for more information on find and modifying shipping containers.

Business Opportunity in the Philippines

There is a business to be had for anyone looking to either manufacture or refurbish containers in either Manila, Cebu or Davao or anywhere in the Philippines with good road access to these major ports.