Everyone wants to have his or her own business. For some, having a business meant enabling ourselves to make money on our own time and pace. But for most Filipinos, having a small business meant having an alternative source of income that can be key in keeping up with monthly bills and other household expenses. Nowadays, it is smart to have alternative sources of income, especially when you have increasing financial responsibilities. More and more Filipinos are embracing microbusiness—online and offline—to make ends meet. However, profitable and successful businesses don’t just grow on trees. If you ask anyone who owns a successful business about how they built theirs, they would have told you a rather unexpected plot with many twists and turns. Business is a risk you must be willing to take. If you want to start your own business, you have to be ready to go out of your way to make sure your business can weather seasons. But how are you going to do that?

Surely, there are some things you can do to improve your chances of succeeding in business. One of those things is planning. Instead of getting risky and spontaneous, one has to take some time in planning before diving right into the world of business. To help you get started, here are the things that can place you on the right side of business:

#1 Scan Your Environment for Opportunities

Any business starts with an idea. Whether you already have an idea or are currently looking for one, you must make an honest audit of your immediate environment or, in business terms, conduct an environmental scan. Environmental scanning is an essential part of the inception of any business. It allows you to gather crucial facts and data about a prospective location, potential customers, and an entire community before entering any business. Many make the mistake of skipping this step. Still, you shouldn’t give in to the temptation as this step can validate the feasibility of your idea. The main idea in conducting an environmental scan is to draw inspiration and insights from your community’s needs. You have to be able to identify and understand the kind of people you will serve, including their buying behavior, their habits, and the common problems they encounter. As a response, you must find out how you and your business are going to fit into that picture. To do this properly, you must ask below relevant questions:

• What specific problems am I going to solve?
• Is there anyone else providing this?
• Who will be my customers?
• What makes my business unique and different from others?

These questions will lead you toward a purpose and give you a sense of focus.

#2 Understand the Market

Once you have identified and defined a problem within a community and have provided a solution through a business idea, it is crucial now to pay extra attention to the market where your business will participate. Market, traditionally, refers to a physical location where buyers and sellers meet to make a trade; however, in Business and Economics, market refers to “the groups of individuals or organizations that make up the pool of actual and potential customers for their goods and services.” In short, the market is the collective term for all your potential buyers. Now, you might want to ask, “Why is it important to study the market?” Conducting a market research, whether formal or informal, can help you optimize your business in many ways. It can help you understand what the consumers want and get the right information you need in order to build a winning plan and strategy. It can give you an idea of the customers’ buying habits and preferences to improve your products and services. For example, due to the recent lockdowns, most households were opting to get their supplies from stores that offer home delivery service. This finding should provide you with an insight and opportunity to cater to this specific market group by offering an added delivery service. Market research helps you identify pain points, so you can better position your business to consumers once you start.

#3 Create a Business Plan

A business shouldn’t just exist; it must engage and impact your customers so that it can survive changing seasons. To make sure it comes to that, you must make sure that all your business decisions will lead you on the right path. But how are you going to do that? A successful business starts with a plan. A business plan will serve as the foundation of your business to guide you where you’re supposed to be. A good business plan should be able to guide you through each stage of your business. When writing your business plan, make sure that it’s concise and actionable. You can start by making a breakdown of the capital you need to get your business started; you must be clear on how you intend to get a return on investment. You must also have a list of suppliers to make sure you can always keep your inventory stocked. It would be best if you also keep tabs on your finances by learning the basics of bookkeeping. In this way, you can make decisions aligned with your business and financial goals.

#4 Decide on a Business Structure

Your business idea and business plan won’t be a business until you make it official. You have to do the right paperwork and register your business to the proper governing body to make it legally operational. In this case, a business structure dictates how you are going to perform your business professionally, such as paying taxes, issuing receipts, and other necessary paper works. Your business structure will affect how much you pay in taxes, your ability to raise money, the paperwork you need to file, and your personal liability. It’s important that you seek expert advice from business professionals when considering the business structure for your business. You must review common business structures and study the processes so you don’t stumble into problems in the long run.

Building a business isn’t always an exact science. There isn’t a one size fits all formula in building businesses that can stand the test of time. Many factors that can affect a business can come into play, some entirely unexpected. However, you can plan ahead and prepare well against any obstacle that you and your business may stumble upon. Use these tips to get you ahead, and who knows? You might just be on your way. Starting your own business soon? Read our blogs for more refrigerator care and business tips.

Holiday season is just around the corner, and for businesses, it’s the most wonderful and busiest time of the year. The question is, is your business ready for it? With high demand and increased competition, it’s essential to build your own solid strategy not only to meet customer expectations but also to make your business stand out from the rest.

Now, if you’re on the verge of planning your preparations, you are at a good starting point, as we’re about to lay down the most significant details that you must know to make your business holiday-ready!

Filipinos love nothing more than festive decorations like parol lanterns, Christmas trees, and twinkling lights. If you ask us about the best way to catch their attention, it’s creating a warm, inviting atmosphere to give your store a cheerful makeover. Apart from the sparkling decorations, you can also get creative with how you display your products. After all, it’s what you want your customers to notice, so make it your store’s centerpiece.

Generally speaking, people are at their peak generosity during Christmas, that’s why during sales and promotions, you’ll notice long queues at every counter in the mall or restaurant. If you want customers lining up your store, you better come up with exclusive offers, bundle deals, or enticing freebies to encourage them to try your offerings.

To appeal to Filipino consumers, try your best to give them your most sincere smile. This way, you can capture their hearts and show your heartfelt intention to help. Sometimes, it’s not just about selling the product but about understanding their needs and communicating that you have the best solution. In addition, things can get quite chaotic during this season, so showing off your best smile might even brighten their day!

All your efforts will go to waste if you do not have enough stocks in your inventory. As demand surges, it’s crucial to guarantee an ample supply to meet customer needs. But of course, be cautious about overstocking too, as it can lead to food spoilage and/or financial losses.

The best way to do all this is to have dependable negosyo appliances like the Upright Chest Freezer from Condura. With its deeper shelves, you can stock more food items. Not to mention, it’s also an inverter, allowing you to save more in the long run.

To sum it all up, the holidays might keep you preoccupied, but all your labors will bear fruit once your plans are set in motion.

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In every start-up business, raising money is vital to get off the ground and to cover expenses. It’s crucial and challenging especially if you don’t have an amount in mind, and you don’t know where to get help in financing your business. The way you choose to fund your business could affect how you structure and run your business. So, before taking a risk in putting all your money into starting your business, you should be able to know the ways on how you can get the money you need. Below are the funding ideas that you can do to finance your business. Estimate start-up cost First and foremost, you should determine how much funding you’ll need to launch your business. Every business has different needs, so you need to check your financial situation and know your vision for your business to give you an idea about the financial future of your company. Calculating your start-up cost will help you request for funding and attract investors. It can help you to estimate your profit, secure loans, even save money with a deduction on your taxes (such as medical expenses, transportation expenses, and miscellaneous). Having a list of expenses can also give you a financial picture. The following are the basic and possible materials and services that needed financing:

• Equipment and supplies
• Licenses and permits
• Utilities (e.g. electricity, water, and rental fees).
• Employees’ salaries

It is also a good idea if you can talk to businesspersons, vendors, and service providers to give you an honest estimation for expenses. Prepare your financial statements Having a financial statement can help you attract potential investors or creditors. Usually, accountants are the ones who prepare for financial statements, but you may also use some software for you to be able to do it on your own. For small businesses, it comprises the balance sheet and an income statement. The former provides information about the business such as its assets, liabilities, and equity account while the latter is a report that shows the income the business earned over a specific period. It also shows the cost and expenses of the company. But you may just list down all the income, expenses, and the loss you have for the period for easy calculations. You are actually preparing this statement for you to know your total earnings and how much you’ll pay to your investors if you have any. But again, you may still consider asking a professional accountant to help you prepare your financial statements.

Develop cash flow

Cash flow is the movement of cash into and out of a business, meaning, the money that you received in the business transaction (ex. Sales of goods and services) and the capital leaving the business (ex. Money for loans, purchases, and expenditures). Cash flow has three sections. These sections designate the different ways cash can enter and leave your business. It could be cash from operating activities, cash from investing activities, and cash from financing activities. Know more about these three sections.

• Operating activities are cash used to run the everyday project of your business.
• Investing activities are cash used for investing in assets like equipment and securities.
• Financing activities are cash from loans and payments made to lessen loan balances.

By creating a statement of cash flow, you can identify the actual income your company received. Managing the flow of your money will lessen the possible surprises that you can encounter that will result in a cash shortage. Moreover, seek out advice from an accountant or your trusted business advisor to help you with the calculations. Calculate break-even point The Break-even point is where the business’ total costs or expenses and the total revenues are equal. It is important to know your fixed costs (ex. rent, utilities, wages), the revenue or selling price, as well as the variable costs like the materials and labor of production to help your company understand when one of your products or services start to be profitable or not. According to Freshbooks.com, you can use the below formula to calculate the break-even points: Break-Even point (units) = Fixed Costs ÷ (Price per unit – Variable costs per unit) Here’s an example based on the source’s own example: Your company produces soft drinks, and you are planning to launch a new flavor of a soft drink in the market. You want to know if this new soft drink is worth it on your finances. Using the above formula here’s the result of your computation. P100,000 / (P25 – P21) = 25,000

Fixed Cost P100,000 (total for the month)
Variable Costs P21 (produced per bottle)
Sales Price P25 (per bottle)

This shows that you need to have 25,000 new soft drinks in a month to get to the break-even point. An important usage of this is it will help you with your decisions such as for improving advertising strategies, re-pricing your product or service to increase demand, and setting up your budget. By calculating the break-even point, it will support you in establishing a sales price to gain profit that will ensure a successful business. Identify banks that would finance business Banks are a very popular source of business finance. So, you must render your time to know which banks will help you provide funding for your business. You should be able to carefully consider the type of bank finance that you want as it will affect your cash flow. By loaning in banks, you need to repay the borrowed money at the agreed schedule. The repay amount will depend on the rate of interest and the size and duration of the loan. But sometimes, bank loans tend to be more available to businesses that are well-established or growing. Identify banks that would finance business Banks are a very popular source of business finance. So, you must render your time to know which banks will help you provide funding for your business. You should be able to carefully consider the type of bank finance that you want as it will affect your cash flow. By loaning in banks, you need to repay the borrowed money at the agreed schedule. The repay amount will depend on the rate of interest and the size and duration of the loan. But sometimes, bank loans tend to be more available to businesses that are well-established or growing.

In any case that you acquire a bank loan, you may enjoy these following advantages.

• You will guarantee money for a certain period.
• The loan can be short term or long term.
• You don’t need to provide the bank with a share in the business, or simply, the bank will not take any shares from your business.
• It will help you estimate the interest payments because of their fixed rates.

Thinking over money can be stressful, but it will help you a lot to start your business if you prepare, list-down, and estimate all the things that are needed to be funded to give you an amount that will help your business grow. Just give yourself time and do not rush to anything that might affect your business’ finances in the future. Remember to consult your trusted business advisor or acquaintance, as well as your professional accountant to guide you with the finances. Check out our blog section for more negosyo tips.