Philippines Books

A Simple Solution To An Often Asked Question.

If you are married to a Filipina then the odds are that you will have at least one brother in law, possibly several.  Some of them may be hard working and industrious, some may be loafers and lazier than a dead possum.  At some stage you may be approached to fund his latest business venture and there is merit in helping him develop a business rather than rely on handouts.

What I am about to outline is a simple business I feel has a good chance of success in the Philipines, in both rural and urban areas.  I suggested this business model some years ago on a Yahoo Group I no
longer belong to and it was canned by all the experts.  The majority of them telling me that the product just won’t be bought by Filipinos. Funny how the largest selling single item in supermarket meat freezers today in the Philippines is the very product I had in mind!

That product?  Hot Dogs.  The freezers are chock full of them, numerous brands and row upon row of hot dogs.  I have seen hot dog kiosks spring up in the malls and long lines of people queueing up to buy one of these items so many “ex-pat experts” assured me would never sell here.

Why do I like the Hot Dog business?  Firstly it is cheap and easy to get into.  You need a stand that you can carry around yourself, I envisage two boxes slung off a pole carried over the shoulder.  One box can have the supplies and the other the hot water to cook the dogs in. It can be a straw box, that is insulated with straw to keep the water hot, or it can have a small stove in the bottom for heating the water.

The other box carries the dogs, buns, cheese, sauces and tongs, knapkins etc.  It is a simple business to run.  You buy your hotdogs, buns, cheese and sauces and cost each one out, I figure on P5-7.  You then set a price, I like P10-P20 for plain and add P10 for cheese, sauce is free.  If your box holds 100 hot dogs, then selling out when they cost P5 to buy and sell for P10 means you should have P1000 turnover, or P500 net profit.  If Dong comes back with no more dogs or buns and less than that, he is ripping you off.

He will either be eating them himself, giving them away free to his friends or selling them and pocketing the cash.  Whatever is happening to the cash, this business model allows for early detection of fraud or poor operations and so you can minimise your shrinkage or losses.

A good pitch, as we call a place to stand and sell doggies, should see him sell the whole load of 100 and be heading back in for a resupply. If you clear P500and give him P250 for his efforts, that isn’t a bad days wages for a Filipino.  If your hot dog stand (mobile) cost you P5000 to build and stock, then you can see your investment returned within 20 operating days or so.  Time to make a stack more of them and hire more staff or give Dong his unit and let him keep the whole of the profit.

I would envisage him lasting a week without supervision, someone to ensure the ingredients are freshly bought and the unit kept clean and so on.  It would be far better to maintain the units yourself and hire them out to sellers for a daily rental, say P700 fully stocked with the seller able to earn P300 in just a few short hours if they find the right pitch.

Setting up outside a major school or college takes up a tiny amount of sidewalk and can easily see the load being sold out in an hour or two. If you were to ensure the cleanliness of the sellers and also perhaps fit them out in a simple but clean uniform of logoed t-shirt and cap, use plastic surgical gloves and so on, I am sure the consumer confidence would have them buying repeatedly. 

Of course you can make a more elaborate stand based on a trisikad or even a tricycle, but the object is to keep things simple and costs down. Even if you were clearing only P100-200 per day, yet had ten or more sellers out there, you could easily bring in P30-40,000 a month, a very nice little earner while still giving others a job.

Whenever you look at business opportunities in the Philippines, especially those designed to keep a relative in business, you need to keep certain criteria in mind.  Firstly it should be cheap to set up,
cheap to run and easily monitored to ensure honesty.  You need to be able to supervise yet not get too involved and of course, it needs to make money.  One of the secrets to making money in the Philippines I have found, is to make lots of little amounts from lots of little people, lots of times. 

If you try to make too much too soon and run the business by western standards or expectations, you will soon be pulled back down into the basket with the other crabs!  Give it a whirl, but not in Cebu, ok?  My guys are going to out on the streets in no time!

Mangoes- The Money Tree

The Philippines currently ranks as the fifth largest producer of Mangoes in the world, and the fourth largest in Asia. India, where mangoes probably originated over 4,000 years ago is by far the largest, but domestic consumption takes most of their crop. Hong Kong and Japan are the biggest buyers of Philippine grown mangoes. The mango tree, a relative of the cashew, pistachio and marula trees, is a
hardy plant that prefers hot and humid conditions and lowland areas. Trees will fruit in 4 to 5 years and continue to do so for decades to come. As a rule of thumb, you can expect to make about P40,000-60,000 a year from each tree according to a mango grower I spoke to last year.  He claimed that each tree, when mature and properly harvested and maintained, can yield up to 2 metric tonnes of fruit, at around P20-30 a kilo.  I would think that these figures can be improved upon and offer them only as a guide. 

Each tree requires at least 100 sqm of space, they have a 6m deep tap root and many other roots growing off of that so on my 2000 sqm lot I could plant 20 trees.  Planting from seedlings requires patience and a lot of care. Far better to plant more mature trees. Seedlings go for around P50-100
each, and grafted saplings about P500. There are two main varieties, the Pico and the Carabao.  The Carabao variety is the more popular and by far the one to plant.  

The trees need to be sprayed to help flowering and to prevent fungicides and pests from ruining your crop. Cebu pioneered the bagging of fruit in the late 1980’s and today most commercial orchards follow this practise.  Some use newspaper, while others prefer brown paper bags, the baggers being paid a few centavo’s per fruit bagged.

Harvesting usually happens in spring, but of course your final market will have a bearing on when you harvest and how you keep the fruit until it ripens.  If  you are exporting then you will probably harvest earlier and keep the fruit cool (10-13 degrees celsius) to prevent black spots and early ripening.  There are about half a dozen major exporters in the country and the smart money is to sell your crop to them, rather than endure the drama of developing an export market yourself.  Once you are ready to harvest, local buyers will appear magically so don’t sweat that part of the process. What is most important is that you hire at least one experienced local who knows mangos.  On top of that, you can also attend courses held by MIN, the Mango Information Network, http://www.min.pcarrd.dost.gov.ph  and the Department of Agriculture http://www.da.gov.ph to learn more about this crop.  I would also suggest a “Google” search using “growing mangoes” or similar
and the wealth of information that is produced will keep you reading for days!

Be wary of sites that detail mango information applicable to Australia, South Africa or anywhere other than the Philippines.  There is more than enough local info available to use as a guide, although some of the other countries may well be further ahead in the application of technology.  However, you are
growing in the Philippines and it will pay not to be too radical at first.  Keep the overseas methods for the years ahead, when you are already making a decent living doing it the same way the locals do, tried and tested.

Other tips to consider are that you should keep the dead branch material around the base of the trees under control.  The same can be said for pruning to assist spraying and also sunlight penetration.  Most pests prefer to eat your trees in the dark, well pruned trees will make life harder for them.
So too will planting bamboo nearby as there is a beetle that lives in bamboo that loves the pest that eats mango trees!  Nature at work, chemical free! Man farmers also cross plant other crops between the trees to help with fertilization of the soil and to increase the yield from their land.

Mangoes are a great cash crop and safer than many other choices, but they do take time to mature and produce a harvest.  They take work, care and effort, like any other crop but they can give you a nice little earner as the years go by.

We Live In Nature, It’s Not A Theme Park.

If we were truthful with ourselves then I am sure we would acknowledge that we live a pretty safe life compared to many others in the world and even more so when compared to our forefathers and ancestors.  Thereisn’t a war raging at the moment that really threatens our lives, despite what some vested interests may try and convince us of to the contrary.  Unless you are living in Iraq or on Basilan Island, the odds of you falling afoul of a war on terrorism related atrocity are pretty low.

However, we do live in a world where nature still rules supreme. Especially here in the Philippines.  In Cebu we are pretty lucky to be sheltered by the surrounding Visayan islands of Leyte, Samar, Negros
and Bohol.  Their protection means the typhoons that do strike this far south usually just produce a lot of rain and some wind and nothing like the maelstrom those up in Luzon often face.

The Philippines is a collection of islands, volcanic islands and we lie on the Pacific Rim Ring of Fire, according to the National Geograp documentary I saw last year.  Very dramatic but also very apt as anyone who witnessed Mt Pinatubo erupt can attest.  There are several active and numerous dormant (or allegedly dormant) volcanoes making up the very land upon which we stand.  The perfect cone of the Mayon Volcano in Bicol has been making noises for some time or late, and Mt Pinatubo is also giving hints she is restless.

On top of all that, there are earthquakes to consider and their oceanographic cousins, Tsunamis, or tidal waves.  Most of us live fairly close to the sea and so this is something to consider.  Can you
imagine a major earthquake hitting your barangay? The mind boggles how our local, antiquated and amateur fire department would cope.

Besides nature and her extremes, there are also the results of average weather events to think about.  Storms can lead to losing your roof, or land slides or flooding, even on a relatively minor scale.  Nothing lethal or life threatening most of the time, but at the very least disconcerting and annoying.  If you had to evacuate your home due to a flood, would you expect your possessions to be there when you return, albeit a little soggy?  I wouldn’t.

I will look at events involving human antagonists another time, like riots and so on.  This time, lets just focus on natural catastrophes and what we can do to prepare for them and live through them.  First of all, don’t get paranoid but don’t ignore the fact that nature does bite some times.  A simple storm could leave you without power for several hours or even several days, how will you cope?

Firstly there will be no light, no internet and no refrigeration. There may be no water if the local supply relies on being pumped andthe pump is on the same grid that is affected by the storm. Two years ago in Bogo we had a “brownout” that lasted for nearly three days. The local water supply was reliant on the electricity grid to power the pump to get it to our taps.  No power meant no water.  Nothing to drink, wash, launder or cook with.  After the first day in the heat and humidity the novelty wore off and bottled water supplies were already stretched as people bought up “gallons” wherever they could for drinking water.

The power and water came back on at one stage and I rushed around filling every container I could with water.  Others thought I was being silly, the power was back on, the water was flowing again, why fill all those containers? Well the power went out again after just forty minutes and didn’t come back for another two days.  Two more days of no fans, no aircon, no television, no karaoke (always a silver lining in any dark cloud) no cold drinks, no fresh food, no ice etc.

Most brownouts last only a few hours, often less.  This one was a three day mongrel.  I was fortunate in that I could afford to put my family in the Red Terror and drive them to Cebu, where we stayed at the Kiwi Lodge for a couple of days until friends rang to say the power was back on.  We could have survived the two more days with no power or water because we were prepared but with the Asawa pregnant there really was no reason not to find a solution such as staying at an hotel.  Of course, that solution may not always be available.

We keep at least three days water supply on hand at all times and regularly cycle through it. Our bottled water supplier brings three “gallons” every week but we use only two, so there is always one
there in case of an emergency.  I just line them up and go through them so the water is never more than a week “old” when drank. I also have another “gallon” kept in a cupboard out of direct sunlight which I swap with a fresh bottle every month or so as I remember to do so.

We have a battery back up and surge protector for the computer, it will give you about 15-20 minutes once the power goes out to save your work and switch off.  Then if it is dark a standing lamp also plugged in will carry on for about the same amount of time giving us light to see by as we get the candles and torches (flashlights) out.

My wife now realizes why I insist on keeping the torches in the same places around the house, along with spare batteries and strict instructions the kids are not allowed to play with any torch except the
one specifically designated as the “one the kids will play with and use up the batteries so it won’t work when you need it” torch.  Keeping them in the same places means they are easy to find in the sudden darkness of a brownout.  Keeping the spare batteries with them and insisting on a little discipline regarding their use pays off when the torch is needed in an emergency and is worth the extra effort required to instil on the average Fil-Am family. (Or Fil-Aus in our case).

We don’t store a lot of food for emergencies, although we do have a cupboard with tinned goods that I make an effort to rotate through every couple of months.  Since we live in the city now we don’t worry
quite as much as what was prudent when we were way up in the province.

My first aid kit, or kits as I have one in the car, one with my dive gear and two around the house, are checked every year or so specifically and given a cursory going over whenever they are used.  I always check these things just around my birthday.  It is an annual event I never forget and reminds me to check the things that may have lain dormant for most of the year and can do with a little attention.

The secret is to get into a routine and stick to it, take a few precautions and not get too carried away.  If I was in the province or felt the threat justified the action I would look at safe rooms in the house, firearms and communications with the outside world etc.  Living in Talisay we have a fire evacuation plan (this is important as many houses here have bars on the windows and doors) and two cell phones to supplement the landline.  Emergency phone numbers are stored in the phone memories and also handy to the landline on a card.

As far as firearms are concerned, my proactive approach to getting on with my neighbours should erase any need to keep a gun around for protection.  Besides which, enough of my friendly neighbours have their own guns so there’ll always be someone around to make noise if needed!

Don’t get paranoid, but don’t get lethargic.  I took the same precautions when I lived in metropolitan Sydney as I take here in Cebu, nature can come calling with an attitude anywhere, anytime.  Keep that
in mind and then get on with living the dream!

With over 20 years hands-on experience in the Philippines, Perry Gamsby is considered an authority on the facts of expatriate life in this fascinating archipelago.  As well as having a Filipina wife, four children and the requisite extended Filipino family, Perry is a teacher of Filipino Martial Arts and a former travel editor of the country’s leading map and travel atlas publisher. Five years ago he created Streetwise Philippines Inc. publishing eBook guides to the Philippines for expat readers.

His first book and to date, still the best seller, is “Philippine Dreams” (also sold in some markets as “StreetWise Philippines”). This comprehensive examination of the phenomenon of Filipinas, the Philippines and his own decision to move to the Philippines and pursue his dream of living in a tropical paradise strikes a chord with all who read it.  Written in an entertaining yet informative style, the eBook explores life and living in the Philippines in a special way: “This is what happens, this is why it happens, this is what you as an expat can do to understand what happens.” You can read more about Philippines Dreams at http://www.philippine-dreams.com/ 

“Philippine Dreams” created a demand for more information, especially about the four most important topics of the matrix:  meeting a Filipina, marrying and migrating a Filipina, putting a roof over your head if you decided to live in the Philippines and finding ways to pay for all of this!  The results were “Filipina 101-How To Meet The Filipina of Your Dreams” (co-written with his Filipina wife, Amelita) and “Filipina 202 – How To Marry And Migrate Your Dream Filipina”. These valuable guides dismiss the misinformation and stereotyping of the Filipina on the many online dating/matchmaking sites and provide a balanced and informative guide to men looking for Filipina wives.   You can read more about these guides at  http://www.filipina101.com and http://www.filipina202.com  

Perry then released “The Philippines Property Primer – The StreetWise Guide to Buying, Renting or Leasing Property”.  This is a ‘first read’ real estate guide for anyone contemplating buying, renting or leasing property in the Philippines.  Over the years, as well as buying, leasing and renting several properties himself in the Philippines, Perry has observed many people lose large amounts of money in property here; most of the time because they are not dealing with legitimate sellers or they have not protected their investment by taking the simple precautions listed in the eBook.  The Philippines Property Primer has all of the basic information you need to assist you in making a more informed decision.  You can read more about The Philippines Property Primer at http://www.philippinespropertyprimer.com/   

THE LATEST RELEASE FROM STREETWISE PHILIPPINES

Although the topic of how to make a living in the Philippines was covered in brief in “Philippine Dreams”, the response from readers was so insistent that a new, updated and more in depth guide on how to support yourself and your family in the Philippines has been released.  “MAKING A LIVING IN THE PHILIPPINES – The StreetWise Guide To Business, Employment and Investing”, will tell you what you need to know to operate a small business, get a job or invest in a tightly regulated, highly competitive and immensely volatile marketplace.  It has been written with the average guy in mind; the everyday guy without the big retirement income set-up or pre-arranged ‘fatcat’ expat job contract who wants to escape to the Philippines and live every day with the Filipina of his dreams but still needs to make a living! 

You can read more about “Making A Living In The Philippines” at http://www.makingalivinginthephilippines.com/  or check out all the Streetwise Philippines publications at http://www.streetwisephilippines.com/  The eBook, contains a wealth of information otherwise impossible to glean without having been there, done that.  In the safety of your own home you can learn first hand what is required to survive in a third world economy and be better equipped to decide if you should risk selling up and making that life changing move!

This E-Book will explain to you everything you need to know to start up a small business, get a job or invest in the Philippines!