How much is enough for a new life?

Rule #1 on starting a business in the Philippines is not to trust anyone. You have to be there when it opens til it closes. Else stock cash, etc will all disappear fast.

Most people will recommend food stalls, carts, sari sari etc. Those you may clear $20 a day, which is enough for a local. Call centers, maybe if you have the expertise, but lot of people into it and will soon be too crowded. Internet cafes are everywhere. Gotta think what do they not have here that you can do. If a local can do it, you cannot compete. Only thing I hear that works is to work virtually, find customers in the US that you can work on from here, like markteting, technology related.

My friend finally has his bike parts shop running, but he has to sleep there many nights because of break ins.

P2mm will not last long, especially if you leave it to others to run your business.

dhnindc wrote:

Rule #1 on starting a business in the Philippines is not to trust anyone. You have to be there when it opens til it closes. Else stock cash, etc will all disappear fast.

Most people will recommend food stalls, carts, sari sari etc. Those you may clear $20 a day, which is enough for a local. Call centers, maybe if you have the expertise, but lot of people into it and will soon be too crowded. Internet cafes are everywhere. Gotta think what do they not have here that you can do. If a local can do it, you cannot compete. Only thing I hear that works is to work virtually, find customers in the US that you can work on from here, like markteting, technology related.

My friend finally has his bike parts shop running, but he has to sleep there many nights because of break ins.

P2mm will not last long, especially if you leave it to others to run your business.

Great advice thanks. Yeah well opening a call center and already having my first client, me, is a big plus. Was thinking of a couple marketing ideas that target the USA, or possibly other 1st world countries. Why go after lots of small fish and go through all that work when you can catch one big fish and feed yourself for a month. Little more planning = a lot more gain.

How come your friend doesn't hire a guard? I don't think I'll try to start any company that isn't going to generate enough revenue to cover basic overheads such as security. Especially with how inexpensive it is in the PI.

   Cheers.

If you have high value items, the guards will just run off with the goods, or arrange for someone to steal them. I told him to get a guard dog.

dhnindc wrote:

If you have high value items, the guards will just run off with the goods, or arrange for someone to steal them. I told him to get a guard dog.

Well that sounds aweful. Maybe need to make enough revenue to hire another guard to watch the first one lol. From what I understand isn't it recommended to do full background checks on all people we do business with in the PI?  Also how about hiring a guard from the province?  Less likely they'll screw you right away.

when your paying a guard p500 to 1000 per day, there is no incentive for them not to steal. Your a rich foreigner and can afford it. 

You can do a background check, but that's worthless. Anyone can go down to Chino Roces and buy a new set of IDs for cheap. Everytime a bus runs over someone, the driver jumps out and heads back to the provinces for a while and then back to work on a new ID. Its the Phils.

Since the subject has now gone to guards.What has really surprised me is to see so many guards here,some with shot guns like at SM Mall in Makati and thats at the car park.And i thought in RSA we had too many!!

ask anyone who has a business staff are the biggest problem,
we sell cleaning chemicals and have trouble getting bulk sales to
bigger business one reason they say much better buying small satchel and only leaving enough out for the day,that way only a little can be stolen
Pete

blueoakey wrote:

ask anyone who has a business staff are the biggest problem,
we sell cleaning chemicals and have trouble getting bulk sales to
bigger business one reason they say much better buying small satchel and only leaving enough out for the day,that way only a little can be stolen
Pete

So it's like the land of thieves? I think I know what your talking about. When I was there the in-laws were always coming over and grabbing our food LOL. If there is an opportunity they take it?

Basically they buy small quantities of things so that family members and friends don't come by and take it right? Or is it simply because they are trying to live day by day? Or both?

If security guards are so bad over there and steal everyone's things why do people bother employing them. I'm guessing we're missing something here.

Still back to the same question I guess. Maybe I should make it a poll to make it more anonymous. With the question asking more along the lines of how much did you come to the PI with to start your new life.

hi, starting a business in the philippines is not all that bad - infact the prospects for growth are excellent if like any business, you give it your full attention.  If you can give a little more ideas in terms of what your business interests are, maybe we can offer a better perspective.

just try to avoid business where you need to extend a credit line to your clients - atleast in the initial stages.

2m Php is a reasonably good enough amount to make the move with, again depending on what business you're looking into, would depend on what returns you can expect - consider though investing 25% of that and saving the rest.

favorably comfortable living can run you approx 50k per month (rent, food, travel, utilities) for a couple.  again (repeating), the business you can generate easily can manage a 20 to 40% roi.

regards
sanjay

im sure if u smart with a business and do it right im sure anyone can make a profit and have a great future in the philippines but to me im happy to have a business enough to live there comfortable as i have everything already here in australia and i would take it on the ship to cebu city philippines or in anywhere i live there but as long u have a roof over u head water gas electric phone payed for thats enough and hey at least u can own u home outright not like australia keep paying water rates on top of usage and land rates each year here like now $1100 a year when in philippines australian can buy a condo outright for 1 million peso only $25000 thats cheap here in australia house prices are starting now $300,000 thats 12 million peso this crap and if u married to a filipina u smart u buy a nice home put it in u wife name and lets say u got a pension there well u live like a king as the money here would pay wala but the wages here are bigger like a year wage here in workers in filipinas get that in 15 years of work but least there happy and its a smile of life for each other there to australia and when u go the sa supermarket its hello mam or sir good evening sit or mam wat here wala sometimes not even hello,australia very beautiful yes its my country and clean and safe most places and feel freedom and u have medicare drs are free and u have a pension its even better there medicine is like 200 peso each gamot  but there u can buy 1 at a time and here u can where anything u want rings jewerley if u like that but philippines u cannot as many snatchers,i feel safer here my country but in philippines many guards why keep forigners safer when they go there and keep business people safer also,hey rich get richer poor get poorer this is true anywhere the world,me i like simple but comfort level,hey a car in philippines mahal true here in australia very cheap hey philippines u go shopping u cannot take u shopping trolley around but here u can take it anywhere the mall and even the carpark,some are free some u pay get money after back,so we have many different ways living ,if u have a business here u can claim the tax but hey u also pay high taxes in philippines u cannot claim tax and broken items but still,philippines u have a great life more i feel as u can buy wat u want anytime as our money bigger and enjoy u life there if u comfort have a small business i have 3 cousins asawa filipinas and they love cebu city of course but a move myself to philippines i could do it but not my age im to young still plus my asawa wants work here and live more comfort but she go there if i wanted to live in cebu,im shocked there also the cost of living i love it as australia haha very expensive to live good luck

That's gotta be the longest run-on sentence on this forum.

yes i tell my whole story so wat reason is if u live in philippines  u not have money u have to stay there and cannot live here as now u need a skilled certify and money to pay upfront and a sponsor me i can go there or stay my country not been bastos just different rules for us forigners to you there as ask any forigners how much the living there country im sure they tell you but living well its good ask chinesse also as here wow to many most business minded me i have a business here now employed 3 people but still still have to pay 4 weeks holiday pay each year if they want a break or it add up each year and 10 days sick pay and annuall leave and now pregnant guardian for the fathers have time off there asawa 10 days leave with pay and otime i dont do that as costly unless i have to work i do myself,business here fantastic but here many say there hurt them self to get compsesation money cost me 75% money each week but i dont have this problem because i pay my workers ok money and here we claim there pay each year and loses for everything thats enough

well sunny I read ur blog but still don't know what ur thinking
I'm Aussie living with my wife in Naga City Bicol
to be truthful I could not afford to live in Aust, every time I go home cost of living has increased dramaticly, $5 or 200p for a scooner beer, I get 5litresfor 200p here, we live very well here on $1500 60000p per mth u would need that per week in Aus
and still look for specials, where we live is very peaceful and has every convenience one could need
Pete

sanjayh wrote:

hi, starting a business in the philippines is not all that bad - infact the prospects for growth are excellent if like any business, you give it your full attention.  If you can give a little more ideas in terms of what your business interests are, maybe we can offer a better perspective.

just try to avoid business where you need to extend a credit line to your clients - atleast in the initial stages.

2m Php is a reasonably good enough amount to make the move with, again depending on what business you're looking into, would depend on what returns you can expect - consider though investing 25% of that and saving the rest.

favorably comfortable living can run you approx 50k per month (rent, food, travel, utilities) for a couple.  again (repeating), the business you can generate easily can manage a 20 to 40% roi.

regards
sanjay

Thanks Sanjay!!!! Appreciate the input. I'm hoping to come with double but honestly I can't leave this place soon enough. I'm brainstorming many different ideas at the moment. Time will tell if I'm able to make one of them work or not.

     A giant plus for me too is my friend will take over my company here in the states and be depositing money into my account each month. So I have a nice solid leg to stand on until the US falls into complete disarray.

     Cheers

Hi Sunnyday,

   Thank you for your posting. Honestly I'm still in my 30's so I doubt your still to young to retire in the PI. We all only get one shot at life.....(well unless you are the Dali Llama).
So I figure lets make the best of it. Once I decided to leave the states and move to the PI, I looked over my shoulder as much as possible, looked over the pros and cons of leaving and possibly being happier over there, or staying in my own country and being taxed to death until I'm to old to work, retirement age now is 70, and they just keep raising it. When I was a kid it was 55-62 WOW, Jesus I'm only in my 30's what's it's gonna be when I'm 50 or 70.

Ok I did some research before posting this and currently it's actually 67 y/o to retire with full benefits, which keep in mind my generation has none of. LOL. However I'm still semi-correct.

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-505146_162- … age-to-70/

Who the hell decides how long we gotta be slaves for. I'm done being a pawn for the government, feeding them with my tax money. In this country if you own a house they tax the crap out of you. I was just talking with a restaurant owner I met earlier a couple weeks ago and here's his story.

He has owned his own house for 17 years now. Well since housing if so expensive here unless you have about $500,000 in your bank account or in cash your going to have to finance your house. Guess what the only way the bank is going to finance your new house is if you put I believe it's 20% down might be up to 30% now, and get full insurance coverage to protect their investment on your house. Anyways so here's this typical American living the American dream paying for his house and paying on top of that all the finance charges from the bank, plus property taxes, plus paying his expensive property insurance every month as well. Don't forget paying all those upkeep expenses on the house, as well as food, clothing, gas, house repairs, car payments,and mowing the stupid useless grass to make his house look pretty. Anyways a storm came and blew his fence down in the backyard. My new friend being a pretty savvy person decided to file a claim after he got a couple quotes from fence repairmen to the insurance company. Insurance company sends an adjuster out to his house and proceeds to give him I believe a check for $6,000 to fix his fence. Again my new friend decided that he can make the repair himself and pocket some extra cash for his troubles, smart man. Here's where the criminal parts comes in. The next month the insurance company sends him his bill expect now his premium has doubled......NICE!!!!! He calls them to inform them they must have made a mistake, oh no sir it's no mistake it says here you filed a claim last month so now your premium has gone up. Excuse me, insurance company I have been paying you for the past 17 years and never filled a claim however I file one claim and you double my premium???? My friend gets irritated to say the least and cancels his policy with just reason in my opinion. He gets a call the next day from the bank and they tell him if he doesn't get insurance on the house they will force him to get insurance by finding the most expensive insurance they can find and rolling it into his loan for his house. Sounds fair right? Wait it gets better. Since he filed a claim and all the insurance companies CEO's play golf with each other no other insurance company will insure his house. So after many phone calls and getting the same answer over and over he gets bullied into paying the same insurance company who is now ripping him off obviously. Well it's that or lose your house. Welcome to America. I hope Australia has a better policy regarding these matters.


   Cheers

Expat fever,

Couldn't read thru your whole post but sounds like a rant against the US.

Remember that the Philippines is not the land of milk and honey. yes they have friendly people, but thats about it. There are few opportunities for people, thats why many with any luck will leave the country. So unless you have a real skill in demand like mining, gas, commercial construction, which require significant capital, you will be hard pressed to excel.

You can survive but you would do better off in the US. The others who do well make a living off IT development of websites, doing ecommerce with people in the states. 

Remember there are more typhoons, floods, earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, riots, etc that occur in the Philippines than in the US. You dont have the option of insurance on many things here. And no safety net for foreigners.

dhnindc wrote:

Expat fever,

Couldn't read thru your whole post but sounds like a rant against the US.

Firstly I would recommend that you read someone's entire posting before you go making comments about them making a rant against the US. Half knowledge is far more dangerous then the truth, that's how many conflicts are started, the assumption of knowing what the other person is thinking when you don't have all the facts.

When I said "I looked over my shoulder as much as possible" I was referring to the fact I was questions my decisions. In case that came across as some kinda paranoid statement.

There are few opportunities for people, thats why many with any luck will leave the country

I'm sure I'm in the same boat as them. As far as leaving the country I know, grew up in, and know the social system better then any other country as most would growing up in their home country. I'm sure that many foreigners come to the USA and see it as a land of opportunity. So I see your point. However saying that there are few opportunities in the PI is true in one way if you look at it that way. I noticed when I was there that most of the Pinoys I met from my wives family don't work. In fact their old servant who my wife doesn't care for very much, was giving me the oh help me Mr.Moneybags, I need a new fridge, and roof, and bigger place to live. She's 48 and doesn't work lives with my wives grandfather, and come to take all the food she can from their house 3-4 times a day. I like to empower and uplift people, maybe it's because I'm the kind of guy who doesn't give money to homeless people. I truly want to help them, and to keep it short believe in the whole give a man a fish feed him for a day, teach a man to fish, and feed him for life. I see endless opportunities for marketing to the PI or from the PI.

So unless you have a real skill in demand like mining, gas, commercial construction, which require significant capital, you will be hard pressed to excel.

I'm not sure what you mean here? Are you saying to move to the PI and become a miner? Gas service tech? Commercial contractor? I'm guessing that your saying to start a company and get into those fields which would require quite a lot of capital. I would much rather take that capital, and start a small banking firm or invest it into that kind of market, Pharmaceuticals, or insurance firms. If I had that kind of capital I would probably just through it into a Chinese bank and live off my 10% interest, but that's just what I would do.

Remember there are more typhoons, floods, earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, riots, etc that occur in the Philippines than in the US. You dont have the option of insurance on many things here. And no safety net for foreigners.

I appreciate the information on what to watch out for. Honestly as crazy as it might sound I honestly at this point can't wait for my first typhoon, hurricane, flood, etc (riots sounds scarey since I hope the riot isn't against foreigners LOL)When you say no safety nets for foreigners, would you mind explaining that to me? I'm aware that if crap goes down I could be asked to leave the country and abandon my new life there. I've heard many stories of people coming there, marrying a woman there, cheating on her, sometimes they don't even cheat, and get stripped of all their possessions, then kicked out of the country. Here's a question my wife told me there isn't divorce there just annulment so can you re-marry a woman there as an American citizen?

   Well I hope you can take the time to read everything this time, and await your responses. Just to clarify about the previous posting, I apologize if it sounds like a rant against the US, it was meant to be just factual information about what's going on here, and what just happened to a friend of mine. I don't see how anyone can accept working until they are 70 and then retiring. Many typical Americans worked their entire lives and had everything taken from them when the market crashed here. Retirement funds, 401K plans, stock investments, their houses were repossessed, the banks get to keep all their money they had been paying for all those years plus their deposits, plus the house. I grew up here and went to school here. We are taught that America is for the people by the people......yeah for the rich people. LOL


    Cheers

Since you are married to a Filipina, I would suggest control of property. Buy some land, build apartments, and rent them out. Buy as much land as possible and begin building slowly and safely. It is definitely the safest investment that I know of in the Philippines. I do not know about starting a business in Manila. Manila is definitely the rat race region and land there comes at a premium price. Always be on alert and do not take anyone's word for anything. STAY ABREAST of all info regarding your business. Verify and re-verify...find the black and white on all legal matters. I say again: Keep yourself abreast of all laws as it pertains to foreigners and filipinos in your field of business. If your wife is business savvy that would be a bonus, but even then you cannot casually let her handle all operations. Someone may try to take advantage of her. It is really a dog-eat-dog scenario, when it comes to doing business here. But if you are planning to sit on your laurels, renting and controlling land is your best option. Otherwise, you will need a staff and the laws of employment practice favors your workers. They can be hired and fired, but dot the 'i's and cross the 't's. I cannot stress staying knowledgeable (in the know)...you do not have much legal recourse so make true friends, Pinoy and whomever, and enjoy life.

Hello, for info some off topic posts have been removed.

Harmonie

alltojah wrote:

Since you are married to a Filipina, I would suggest control of property. Buy some land, build apartments, and rent them out. Buy as much land as possible and begin building slowly and safely. It is definitely the safest investment that I know of in the Philippines. I do not know about starting a business in Manila. Manila is definitely the rat race region and land there comes at a premium price. Always be on alert and do not take anyone's word for anything. STAY ABREAST of all info regarding your business. Verify and re-verify...find the black and white on all legal matters. I say again: Keep yourself abreast of all laws as it pertains to foreigners and filipinos in your field of business. If your wife is business savvy that would be a bonus, but even then you cannot casually let her handle all operations. Someone may try to take advantage of her. It is really a dog-eat-dog scenario, when it comes to doing business here. But if you are planning to sit on your laurels, renting and controlling land is your best option. Otherwise, you will need a staff and the laws of employment practice favors your workers. They can be hired and fired, but dot the 'i's and cross the 't's. I cannot stress staying knowledgeable (in the know)...you do not have much legal recourse so make true friends, Pinoy and whomever, and enjoy life.

Thank you so much alltojah for your posting. As far as buying land and not trusting people I will try to abide by those rules as much as possible. I'm hoping to make some high office friends and go to functions, to have trump cards in my pocket at a later time. I wasn't aware that they had actual labor laws in the PI. Are they the same as the states regarding giving a person enough chances to mess up.....warnings, suspensions, then firing them? Do employees try to file lawsuits against their employers a lot? Looking forward to your response.

    Cheers

Have you ever lived with your wife for an extended period of time in the Philippines?  I am not talking about a vacation with her but actually living here with her.
       Some people act quite differently in their own country especially toward a spouse who is a foreigner.  Hope your marriage is rock solid.
        Spouses retain 60 percent ownership in any house or land you buy.  Her relatives are waiting to cash in when you are not in the picture.  Indeed if you are renting houses, your wife's relatives may be your first tenants and these poor souls are hard to get rid of or maybe out of your rentals. 
        Beware!  With all due respect you sound like a pigeon waiting and practically begging to be plucked.
       Philippines is no paradise and if you think the US is bad try living here for a few years.  You will be running to catch a plane home hopefully with a little bit of your miney left.
       Yeah, I know, you are too smart for that to happen to.   But many have come, some maybe even smarter than you, and they have set speed records in being bilked of their money.  Sad truth: to most Filipinos you are just another foreigner searching for something that does not really exist....trying to exploit their country because you have a little bit of capital and thus are fair game to be swindled.  And the courts will not save you....the courts are for the natives not expats.
        I do not mean to sound harsh but your situation and ambition has become anotger old old story with an ending already known.   My advice...cut your ambitions by about 90 percent and be half-way satistied with the few things this country can truly offer you.

you have been warned  !