Philippines Books

A Very Filipino Way Of Doing Business From The Bottom To The Top!

Whenever I go to the local market with the Asawa, I love to wander around the meat and fish section.  I love the squalor and the flies and the noise and total lack of any lip service being paid to basic hygiene regulations.  It is so Filipino!

I have my Suki for meat and another for chicken and one I go to for fish and seafood’s.  The Asawa has her own for vegetables, fruit and dry goods, spread around the market. A suki, for the uninitiated, is a regular provider of whatever it is you are buying.  I think to be  technically correct, you as the customer are actually the suki, but in typically Filipino fashion the word is used in either direction and you call the store you go to regularly your suki!

We have a suki for bottled water.  Our first suki would always deliver in the morning when we were out, despite having been told numerous times we wouldn’t be there to take the “gallons” (those large
bottles of water usually seen in the office back home but commonplace in every home here) until after noon.  Their insistence we change our routine to match theirs plus the fact it took six weeks to get them to sell us a table top stand for the bottles meant I spat the dummy one day and found a new suki!  They realized the error of their ways and tried to regain the business but the damage had been done!

Changing your suki is not something you undertake lightly.  The very fabric of commercial society here is built upon the relationship between buyer and seller.  When you look at any row of Filipino market stalls or shops, you may notice how everybody in a row is selling exactly the same thing.  The plastic bucket shops are all over there. The hardware stalls are all over there, the next row is all cloth and old clothes.  Not only are all the stalls for one line of merchandise in a row, they all look identical.  Every stall has the same goods displayed exactly the same way.  As if there is a pattern laid down by law as to how to display those goods!  Woe betide you if you do it any other way or set up amongst the wrong stalls.

The prevailing wisdom appears to be that you increase your chances of making some money if you are where people will go to look for the range of goods you offer.  If the hardware stores were to spread themselves around the town then maybe one of them would wither on the vine as few people might find them. By having all of the hardware stores in the one spot, then it is guaranteed that anyone who needs hardware MUST gothere.  Brilliant!

So why would they shop at this store instead of that one if they all offer the same goods in the same location?  The only answer I have ever received for that question has always been the same;  because you know the store owner, or are a friend or,…they are your SUKI!  Personal relationships are very  important to Filipinos and without them your business is pretty well doomed to fail.

Once you start buying regularly from one store and they take on Suki status then the suki will lose face if you are seen purchasing elsewhere in the same market.  Other store owners will know your suki is someone else and they will usually refrain from hassling you. Poaching customers has been known to lead to arguments, fights and even stabbings! 

You should be able to expect a discount (walay hang yoo) from  your suki.  Of course over time the actual discount might decrease as both parties become comfortable with the relationship and outright price is no longer as important as the trust displayed and enjoyed between parties.  This is a factor of Filipino business that many foreigners never grasp.  They expect a good deal right from the beginning, yet what have they done to deserve that favouritism? 

Anywhere in Asia there is a similar attitude to time.  Time being invested to really get to know each other and develop trust and a rapport that will span generations.  It is a long term view that we foreigners are coming up against way down the path the other parties involved have been traveling for perhaps centuries! The term interloper comes to mind and that is what we are in many ways.

Break that down to the local food market level of commerce and the relationship may take less time to build but the concept remains the same.  If you apply the same mindset to more expensive business
ventures here then it is easy to develop guidelines.  Firstly, don’t expect the best terms right off the bat, give the other guy time to get to know you and like you.  Secondly, never show your anger or emotion, it shames you and the other party and achieves nothing worthwhile. Thirdly, if you are being ripped off, don’t be in too much of a hurry to take your business elsewhere.

This goes for the meat suki too.  I had one who was putting the old thumb on the scales when weighing my beef tenderloin every Thursday.  I knew I was being short changed somehow, yet the challenge was how to turn this around to my advantage as I loved my beef and there was only one other stall that sold it.  My solution was to negotiate an extra piece thrown in after the kilo or two was weighed and agreed upon. This let the suki think they were doing me a favour and building rapport while I was actually getting what I was paying for.  The end result was they finally caught on and stopped thumbing the scales and I eventually stopped insisting on my extra chunk.  They got the message that I knew they were ripping me off, yet nobody lost face and business carried on as usual.

In some ways, dealing with your suki is good training for dealing with so much that you will confront in this country.  Going head to head will only have you losing time after time.  You may think you won, you made your point, you showed them but the reality is Filipino’s, like most Asians, take the long term view in many things.  There is the short term immediate gratification often exploited by the lesser educated and those who figure they will never have to deal with you again but on the whole the opposite is more often the case. Choose your suki wisely, and then stick with them.  Work out your differences in ways other than the typical western yelling and posturing and you are sure to come out a winner in the long term.

THAT’S THE BUSINESS FOR ME!

I will soon be releasing my StreetWise Business In The Philippines Guide and looking at the FIVE most successful businesses for Expats to engage in after relocation or retirement here.  Each one of these
businesses are proven performers with success stories and anecdotes given for each of the five.

My personal favourite, once you move away from the province and piggies, is the Bed Spacer!  I love this business opportunity and I know several expats who will be miffed for me bringing it to the attention of the world at large but that’s what happens when you make your living providing information on viable businesses rather than working them!

Actually, as we go to press I am in the throes of creating a Bed Spacer business exactly as I suggest in the Guide.  This is the proven formula for success here in the Philippines and while I don’t want to kill sales of the Guide, I will pass on some of the formula here, for FREE!

Firstly, what is a Bed Spacer?  Good question.  A bed spacer is a person who rents a bed space.  Originally it was simply a space, a place to lay a mat down and sleep upon it.  Over time it has evolved to mean more than just that, although there are still many places that offer little more than a roof over your head and a guranteed piece of floor big enough to spread the bamboo mat upon!

Some bed spaces are shared rooms or cubicles, others are single, private spaces that offer a modicum of privacy and the illusion of security.  Many include electricity and water, which usually means a tap from which you can obtain water for you hand laundry and also a light, perhaps a power point for a fan.  More upmarket places may also offer a fan, aircon (very rare) and TV, usually shared in a common area.

Luckily Filipinos like to be in groups and so communal living of this sort is preferred over the western style of single people living by themselves in single apartments and rooms.  Depending where you are and what social strata you are supplying, bed spaces can be basic or quite
comfortable.

The business end of providing bed spaces to bed spacers is simple.  If you have a bed room you can often partition it and put in bunks and provide accommodation for, say four people.  Each pays P1000 a month and you make P4000 for hiring out a room.  If you were to rent the entire house you might make that much, maybe less in some places.

If you have several rooms you can partition and rent out, then you multiply the income.  But wait, there is another secret which lets you make three times as much per person from the same space!  I’ll keep that one for the StreetWise Business In The Philippines Guide, but it is a genuine proposition that is neither illegal nor immoral!

The ideal bed space business would have a small apartment block type building holding at least 20 bed spacers.  Each pay P1000-P1500 per month for their room and light and water.  There is a laundry area for them to use and a small kitchen facility shared among the tenants.  You also add value and incerease returns by offering them food from your small carenderia and bbq stand. As well, there is a sari-sari store that sells them their toiletries and other consumables.

The smart thing is to set up near a college, hospital or major factory so that there is a need for accommodation in your area. Position, position, position!  A vital factor to any business and no surprise to anyone who has given the subject even a passing thought.  Find the right location, not the right building.  You can always knock it down and rebuild for a fraction of what it would cost to entice a major factory to set up next door to your perfect apartment complex!

You should also look at providing a jeepney with a regular schedule to take them to and from the college or factory.  Not only does this increase income, but it increases their dependance upon you.  No matter who takes their peso, they will have to spend money each month on room, food, personal things and transportation.  If you can package them up and offer them at a competitive rate, then why not get every peso they have to spend?  You don’t have to rip them off, just provide a  quality, competitive option. 

Here’s a tip straight from the Guide.  If competition gets tough, you can maintain your rental rates while others engage in price wars, slashing the accommodation to ribbons and putting themselves out of business.  How?  Through increasing value!  You throw in the jeepney ride to and from work, saving them however many peso a month!  You write off any losses against what the jeepney makes the rest of the day plying its regular route.

Still not keeping the spaces filled? Offer free meals from the carenderia.  Two for one, all you can eat on Fridays, Tuesday Two Peso Time, use your imagination and offer more value and so keep your customers happier than if they went elsewhere! The other no brainer is to offer clean, safe accomodation.  Don’t  rent to men.  Just Filipina’s!  Far kinder on the eye and you don’t have  to break up fights induced by too much Tuba on paynight.  Filipinas are more reliable and more likely to pay on time and less likely to steal or damage the premises.  Of course there is always the exception and I
am not saying all Filipino’s are bad tenants, but it is simpler and much less risk of giving yourself brain damage if you simply rent to Filipinas only.

Setting up your bed spacer is fairly simple.  If you aren’t handy  with tools then you can always negotiate the local carpenter to fix up some partition walls, maybe build in some bunks and storage and generally make maximum use of space.  Think cruise ship cabin to get those ideas happening about sensible storage and maximum use of space and remember the renters are a lot smaller than you!

I think the minimum space per person is 2sqm, providing there is a common area they can lounge in, watch tv, chismis etc.  2sqm is 2m long by 1m wide, not much space but it can be comfortable and remember it is only sleeping space really.  So long as they have some room to stand and change in and somewhere to spread out and relax, the actual personal sleeping space doesn’t have to be too much bigger.

I like to work on having one CR between four to six.  Anymore and you really need a second toilet and separate to the other and the shower/washing facility.  Kitchen space really only needs to be a bench
with a two burner gas cooker on it, perhaps a water boiler for hot water for noodles and some shelf space.  I would discourage cooking in the rooms to prevent vermin and other infestations, not to mention you would rather they eat at the carenderia!

How much will it cost to get this business off the ground?  It all depends on the building and location.  You may have an existing venue or you may want to locate a promising position and buy or build there. I have several people interested in buying Lease Holdings on suitable properties near a major hospital which will see their US$5000 come back to them with up to 50% profit in just five years, all secured against the best guarantee of the lot, Real Property!  My estimations so far show a potential 12% per annum return, which is about the average for the stock market or real estate back home, the kicker being they can get in for as little as $5000.  If they change their minds they can always pull out and their initial investment is backed by the value of the property.  So long as they can wait until the premises are sold or someone else buys out their share, they are not going to lose a penny.

Other readers may have their own ideas and already know of a property that would be just right for conversion to bed spaces. Day to day management of the business is minimal, very similar to renting the entire house out.  You collect the rents on pay day, keep an eye out for possible repairs needing to be done and make sure nobody runs off with the fittings.  Part of my personal plan will be to offer reduced rentals to “Den Mothers” who will act as my managers and keep the  rest in line, or at least give me early warning of trouble.

All in all, bed spaces for bed spacers is the best business opportunity for many retirees and those relocating to the Philippines to be with their Asawa.  Unless you enter into a Lease Arrangement such as the one I am offering to some of my readers, you will need to have the deed to the property in the name of a Filipino.  If this isn’t an issue, then it is a great way to give the asawa, or her family, an income source. You can buy properties in fairly suitable locations from as little as US$10,000, maybe even less.  ROI is usually three years but it can be sooner depending on the way the business is operated.

If you are looking at options, give Bed Spacers some thought.  Feel free to order my ‘Making A Living In The Philippines’ Guide!  If you want more information about my Bed Space Lease Holding, email me
personally at perrygamsby@yahoo.com

RENTING IN THE  PHILIPPINES 

Finding a place to rent here in the Philippines can be a challenge in some areas.  While in Manila, Cebu, Davao and other big cities there are rentals advertised in the newspapers, in the provinces it is often a case of word of mouth.  Luckily there are lots of mouths to pass the word around and you will probably be inundated with properties once the word is out.

We found our last two rentals by driving around the area we were interested in living in and looking for signs posted on telegraph poles.  The down side of this is that very often the signs are well out of date.  Like political posters, they are quick to post and slow to remove them.  If you have a Filipina
wife, have her make the call, at least until the price is established.  Hearing a foreigner on the other end might tempt the landlord to offer the American Discount, usually four times the local price!

You can enlist “professional” help in finding a place to live. There are some people who could be loosely termed “real estate agents”.  Different to a broker, who is licensed, many agents are merely people with a desire to make a buck on the side by introducing you to a home owner looking for a
tenant. This doesn’t mean they won’t find you a home, just that they will show you everything they can that makes them the most commission first, before actually finding you something that might be closer to what you want and specified.

Once you find some properties to inspect, take your time to study the local area.  Are there KTV machines going at full distortion all hours of the day and night?  The houses either side, are they permanent or squatter shanties? What about vehicular access? Many places here are off the road and
accessible only on foot down an alleyway.  This is due to the original Lot being divided among many siblings and without regard to how you are going to get your furniture in there, let alone park a car off the street every day.

Water supply in many places, even more upmarket areas and sub-divisions, can be erratic at best.  Water pressure may be very weak and delivery limited to only a few hours a day.  This is inconvenient and having to remember to fill buckets every day at 11am or whenever will get old very quickly.  Ask
about the water pressure and if it is available 24 hours.  Then turn on a tap and check!

Power supplies may be billed to you, or to the landlord, who will give you the bill to go and pay, or you pay him.  You could be in for a surprise and end up paying for his aircon and lighting without knowing it.  You might also have an illegal connection that can bring you grief and aggravation when the power company charges you with being responsible!  If the house is inside the family compound, then make sure you get the bill in your name if you can. Check the meter and cabling yourself to see where it goes from the power pole on  the street to your house.

Our power is in the name of the landlord’s son.  The water is in his daughter’s name.  We get the bills the day they are due or just after, on average. We have had to pay for his slow attendance to reported leaks when it took him weeks to fix a leaking tap and overflowing septic tank.  Our electricity was almost cut off because he forgot to hand us our bill.  Be aware of these things and ask lots of questions when you inspect.  This is a business arrangement after all, so be polite, but get the answers you need to make a sensible decision.

A friend of mine was living in an apartment attached to the landladies’ house. She was murdered and now the heir to the estate wants him out, despite his having a lease and having paid two months rent in advance.  Unforeseen  things do happen and it’s important not to let yourself get pushed around.  If you have a lease then make sure you read it!  Don’t be afraid to stand up for your rights, you do have some, despite the common belief to the contrary here.

Don’t be in a hurry to rent.  The seller needs the buyer here more than the other way around.  There is no shortage of properties for rent, just not enough proper advertising to help you find what is on offer.  The situation is improving as more people adopt the ways we are used to in the west, but so much here is done through third parties, relatives and intermediaries, that changing the old habits is taking time. I have had some landlords, particularly Chinese Filipino’s, demand six months rent up front as a bond, plus the first month in advance! Then they want a twelve month lease with post dated checks to cover the rent, exclusive of the six months already paid as a bond!  The lease said if we moved out before the 12 months were up, we lost the six months bond!  The general practise is to
pay one month in advance and one or two months up front as a bond. Most landlords prefer a twelve month lease but you can negotiate shorter periods.

Rental properties may be offered either furnished or unfurnished, or both but don’t expect much with furnished.  Sometimes they really are fully furnished but often it means just a bed, dining table and chairs and a sofa of sorts. On average, renting furnished will add about P2000 a month to the average
place going for P5000-P15000.  There are some terrific places available at very low rates and with wonderful landlords, you just have to be lucky or look long and hard. Off street parking is important but often what is advertised as “with garage” is just a car port or even nothing more than a space behind the front gate.  We think of a garage as a fully enclosed building in which you park your car and no-one can see in.  Here, if it is outside the house and has a roof of sorts then it is a garage!  Renting in a guarded sub-division may incur extra costs for admin fees, the guard and so on.  Make sure you negotiate that the rent is all inclusive and that any other expenses are carried by the landlord. Like anything in business, it is all open to negotiation and it is up to you to negotiate BEFORE you sign the contract and pay your money!  Double check claims that the phone is already in place and just needs connection.  Connection here could mean running a cable in from miles away!  Double check everything, not just because there is a chance you might be getting duped, it happens, but mainly because even if your potential landlord speaks excellent English, same words can mean very different things.  This is, after all, the Philippines! 

Visiting The Quack Doctor.

If you are living on a Filipino budget, i.e.; a frayed shoestring, then getting sick is one of the ever present fears that can spell out and out financial ruin.  A visit to a private hospital might set you back
several thousand pesos for just a few days stay, and that is providing the hospital admits you at the same level of treatment and accommodation as they would a Filipino.  Foreigners are well known to
complain about the primitive conditions and lack of adequate medical facilities and no self respecting hospital administrator would want to open that packet of buwad voluntarily.

Even if you are not turned away from the local government hospital, the conditions and treatment available may very well be hardly worth the few pesos it will cost you.  If you don’t have medical insurance (covered in a future issue) then you may have to look at less costly, but also less conventional alternatives.

The Quack Doctors, as they are legitimately called, are practitioners of the native healing art of Hilot.  When I trained in the Filipino martial art of Arnis, I was also taught some Hilot techniques.  Mostly
bone setting and muscular ailment treatments using herbs and liniments as these were the main injuries caused by training.

The Hilot I was taught was all very valid and extremely effective naturopathic style medicine.  What is offered as Hilot from the local Quack doctor is not all so legitimate in my opinion.  From the half a
dozen Quack Doctors I have seen I would say that 70% of what they do is very good and effective medicine.  The other 30% is pure mumbo jumbo! Lots of spiritual healing and waving of charms, mumbling and palming goats entrails and chicken blood to make it appear as if they operate without anaesthetic. 

Having said all of that, I have personally observed an operation where I swear I saw the doctors’ hand go into the patients’ abdomen.  I can’t explain it but if it was a trick then it was a very clever one.  I also know of several rip off artists practising around Cebu, but they  won’t see a foreigner as a patient.

Your genuine barangay quack doctor will see foreigners and they will treat you just as they would a local and most expect the same fee, “up to you!”.  I usually leave P40 or P50, but my wife will leave P20.

I have been treated for skin rashes, ear aches, tooth aches, pulled muscles and G.I. tract problems, all very successfully.  My wife has been misdiagnosed by one so called famous quack operating in Cebu down near Colon, but thankfully no harm was done.  When she was pregnant it was the quack doctor who was successful in turning the baby so she was no longer a breach.  Our western trained obstetrician was too worried to risk it!  Of course the wizened old hag we went to has been bringing
Filipino’s into this world since WW2!

I think there has to be a lot of value in local healers.  These people have been practising their medicine for generations, centuries in fact and long before the arrival of the Spaniards.  They must have a better than 50% success rate or else by now the people would be wise to them and few would attend their “practise” for treatment.

If it is something serious that requires micro surgery, or a major illness or disease then I would still seek western medical help. For many everyday ailments however, I truly believe the local Hilot practitioner, the Quack Doctor can offer very affordable relief and treatment.  Over the many years the same ailments and maladies would have presented themselves time and time again.  These quacks were for many years the only form of medicine available, they can’t all be charlatans and not all of their treatment mere trickery.  Logic would dictate sufficient veracity in their methods to have kept them in business down through the ages, especially in a society where not so long ago you would not be just tarred and feathered for being a snake oil salesman, you would be executed.

Many Quacks are also the village witch doctor, so you can see them if the Onggu’s are giving your pigs a hard time.  We lost eight in a row (along with most of the piggeries in the area) and it was only after the quack did his thing that we were Onggu free and since then, no more losses.   Of course this was about the same time we put up flyscreens around the styes to keep the birds out.  The birds spread disease from one farm to another, but we know it was really the Onggu’s!

If you have a problem you think the Quack might fix, then have your Asawa take you to them.  She will know where to find one and what’s even better, they will charge so little you will feel guilty feeling the relief from their treatment!  Some of their treatment may seem a little bizarre, but it usually works very quickly.  I have had a long standing heat rash cleared up after just one spitting!  The quack
chewed on some herb, then spat on my rash and it was clear within 24 hours!  Another time I spent an hour with a bit of grass sticking out of my ear to cure chronic ear ache brought on by too much scuba diving. I looked a little strange with a green weed in one ear but the pain relief was almost instantaneous.  Keep an open mind and give them a go, if pain persists, see a doctor etc!