Monday, December 22, 2008

Mom in the Philippines Trying to Make a Living!

As a Mom who is eternally trying to juggle work and career for the past twenty years, I had always been open for any business opportunity or what we call here in the Philippines as "sideline" or "raket".

The pressure to earn additional income usually sets in when one gets married. It is not that we wanted to live beyond our means but rather, we want to prepare for the coming of our children by saving more. Sounds familiar? This is my story.......

After graduating from a prestigious university, I landed a low-paying but challenging job in Quezon City. There I met a handsome young man with a lot of potential and eventually married him in 1984. We lived in a small apartment and started to live our dreams. We worked and performed well and eventually got promoted in our respective areas of expertise -- he in credit appraisal/operations and me in treasury operations.

After the EDSA Revolution in 1986, the stock market boomed and I was able to join in the bandwagon. With recommendations from friends from the financial community, I was able to cash in on some stocks although I also lost in some. From the gains earned and our previous bank savings, my husband and I were able to raise enough equity to buy a lot and eventually build our own home in Antipolo City.

In March 1988, we moved to our new house with our son who had his first birthday on that same year. Years after, we were blessed with three lovely daughters.

Along the way, my husband studied and finished his MBA and transferred to a bank for a better career. I stayed put in the same company and worked my way up the corporate ladder.

Things started to get more challenging each year, now with already four kids to raise. As the children started going to school, the positive cashflow began to decline as expenses increased more than our income. Additional income from selling food items, RTW, jewelry and insurance helped but just enough for the basic family needs.

I then started a small lending operation initially for officemates which eventually grew with the booming demand for credit by "tiangge" business owners buying goods from Hongkong and Bangkok. Many investors joined in the business to accomodate the long list of borrowers.

The business went on for almost five years when past due loans started to pile up in 2002. My biggest trials came during that year as legal cases sprouted between the investors and myself and me against the borrowers who failed to make good their commitments.

My corporate career was compromised and I had to resign from my job. I then ventured into several businesses with family members and friends in 2006. I also joined some online and offline investments and earned good income in dollars but also got scammed along the way. Overall, things went well in the first two years enabling me to settle some of my obligations but another trial set in last year when a robbery took place in our internet cafe, putting a stop in its operations as well as the Data Entry operations we had, thereby resulting to huge losses.

This year, I started a Marketing, Entrepreneurship and Training Consultancy for several companies and starting to recover and gain ground again.

Now what did I learned from my experiences?

The most important lessons I learned are the following:

1. GOD has a plan for all of us and HE does not give us trials that we cannot overcome.
2. We are given talents that we just have to use properly to achieve our dreams.
3. Treasure family and true friends for they will be the ones left to lean on when we hit rock bottom.
4. Praise and thank GOD for all the blessings HE showers upon us amidst life's difficulties.

There are opportunities that come our way and we just have to learn to discern what is best for us and which of these opportunities can also be shared with others to be able to help the less privileged members of our society.

Money is not always the answer to our problems and we should not think of it as evil because we can always make it an instrument to make lives better in our society.

Let us be agents of CHANGE and live life the way GOD wants it to be!

If you are looking for business opportunities, email me at: epriss.phils@gmail.com

Starting a Business From Home

Business opportunities are a wonderful way to be able to work at home. With most home business opportunities, you will get all the materials, tools and help provided to you, as opposed to you needing to create your own business plan, finding and buying your own inventory etc. Getting involved with a business opportunity is a low cost way to be able to have a business from home. The investment is much less than if you were to start your own business from scratch. We highlyrecommended that each person looking into a business opportunity should scrutinize and research before making a final decision.

We also suggest looking into as many companies as possible that sound of interest to you. It is better to have more options for work at home than trying to make a quick decision by only looking at a few companies. Information is one of the best tools you can have when trying to make a decision on what business you want to get involved in.

Also be sure to check with the Better Business Bureau (BBB) or check online to see if there are any complaints or claims against them.

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