Where to start a small business? Try bazaars
Dear Nanay,
I am from Calamba City, Laguna. Please give me some advice on how to sell the excellent ganchillo crafts made by my mother.
Anne
Dear Anne,
I think a good place to start might be in the many tiangges and bazaars you find all over the country. This is especially true these days because it is Christmas season. Alam mo naman kapag Pasko, usong-uso iyang mga bazaar na iyan. (I don’t have to tell you that during Christmas, these bazaars are really popular.)
You can either get your own stall or if you want to start more conservatively, then just consign your products with a friend who already has a stall. If you do not know anyone who sells at these bazaars, you can actually go to existing bazaars and talk to the stall owners if they are willing to take your products. You can also talk to the organizers of these bazaars, who may be able to point you in the right direction because those people know all the owners and operators of the different stalls.
If you do find your way into these tiangges and bazaars, make sure you always have your calling card available so that if potential customers are interested in your products, they will know where to find you.
On a more permanent or longer-term basis, you can offer your products to department stores or other home and lifestyle stores. If they like your products then they might just order it in large quantities. That’s the good news! Ang kailangan mo lang bantayan ay kapag nakakuha ka ng isang malaking account, baka yung production mo na ang mahihirapan. (What you have to watch out for is that if you get a big account, your production might suffer.) It can sometimes get difficult for small operations to keep up with the potentially large orders of big chain stores.
You should also think about having a website. It is a very cheap way of being able to reach out to potential customers – both here in the Philippines and even abroad.
Don’t forget that people – customers and retailers – are always looking for new, unique and good-quality items. If you really think you have a good product, with some luck and a lot of hard work you will be able to find the proper outlet that will help you grow your business.
Sincerely,
Nanay
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Their New Resto Is Losing Money
Dear Nanay,
We started a restaurant. As expected, in the first few months it is losing money. But it is taking more capital than we had anticipated. How long do we wait? How do we know when we should just throw in the towel and cut our losses? We still feel like there is good potential so we want to keep trying, but we don’t know how long we can afford to continuously finance the operations.
CF&H
Dear CF&H,
It is very difficult to say at which point you should just quit and whether or not you should go on. It depends on how much capital you have, how much more can you afford to invest, what is the potential return of the restaurant and a lot of other factors.
The payback period or the break-even point of a business can vary greatly depending on what the business is. It can be anywhere from a few months to years depending on how the business flows.
One option you might want to think about if you can no longer afford to inject more capital is to consider getting another investor to raise capital. You can sell some of your shares. You will lose some of your ownership, but you will have the funds to go on with your operations.
Look at your financials after a few months. Pag-aralan ninyo ng mabuti. (Study it well.) If you cannot see the light at the end of the tunnel, then something is really wrong somewhere. Check your costs. Check your overhead. Check your purchasing. Check your pricing. You have to find the problem with what you are doing and try to solve it.
Sincerely,
Nanay
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