Scouring for back-to-school business ideas this month of June?  Well, your hunches could be on pretty right tracks. Perhaps with prudent management practices plus a huge Philippine youth market to cater to, it’s not hard to see why several Pinoy companies which began from entrepreneurial business start-ups have churned out phenomenal success through the years.  There are the likes of a shoe store turned shopping mall giant, a burger fast food chain catapulted industry leader, and a book store school supplies retailer with national bragging rights, just to name a few. Just imagine 54% of the country’s 100M population in 2011 being comprised by people aged below 25 years old and you definitely have a strong market demand to back you up with. Smart would-be entrepreneurs wouldn’t miss spotting this obvious market opportunity.

Get into youth market with back-to-school business ideas.
Photo courtesy of Pixabay

Truly, Philippines’ predominantly young population has ushered in abundant business possibilities for various industries from food, fashion, leisure, and of course, to learning, among others.  Below are some business ideas in time with school opening season to bring you a steady demand for almost the whole year round.   

1.    Day care or Pre-school

If you love kids, setting up a day care or pre-school may just be the thing for you.  Although a pre-school has stricter regulations than day care, both ventures require you to spend time with children from toddlers to pre-school age.  When setting up location, you need to look out for communities of start-up families or friendly neighbourhood sites near business centers for the convenient drop-off and pick-up of kids usually done by working moms.     

2.    School Supplies Retailing

Sales of paper pads, pens, pencils, crayons, notebooks, and all other school supplies peak especially during school opening but enjoys a steady demand for the rest of the school year from students, school faculty and admin staff.  Putting up your school supplies store near the school would be best. Meanwhile selling additional products or locating beside complementary shops like food snacks, personal care, and gift accessories could help boost your sales further.   

3.    Uniform Sewing and Repair

Do you know how to sew?  Make a business out of your sewing skills by supplying student and teacher uniforms, physical education sports apparel, varsity team jackets, and other items of school clothing ensemble. Aside from custom-fit tailoring, you can also do sewing repair services. You can start by accepting single job orders as your village “modista” but if you’re able to prove your quality services, word-of-mouth advertising from happy customers can lead you to more client referrals or even allow you to bag orders from school and company clients later.

4.    Mobile Food Business

Selling food snacks is a sure-fire back-to-school business formula as kids undoubtedly love eating the most!  Why not get into the latest food craze via the mobile food cart or food truck?  Whether you’re a cooking enthusiast or seasoned chef, the mobile food business could serve well as launch pad and showcase vehicle of your well-loved home recipe or new specialty gourmet recipe.  While business and location permits could be tedious to secure, this let-down is offset by the flexibility that goes with mobile food business. You can easily move around parking locations depending on how well business is doing at allowed sites.    

5.    Academic Tutorial Services

Are you an expert in a particular subject?  Share your knowledge and earn from it at the same time by doing tutorial services.  You may start doing tutorials at homes of your student clients at first. But you can have this turned to a full-blown business with an office of your own once you have a bunch of customers already. What’s good about doing tutorials is you can do this at your spare time outside your regular job. Best of all, it only requires your brain power to start it up.   

6.    Musical Instrument Teacher

While some parents hire tutors to help their kids with the academe, some also pay for teaching lessons in music. If you’re gifted with a bard’s ear when playing the piano, guitar, violin, or other musical instruments, you could also turn this talent into a business. Like academic tutoring, you could teach home lessons to your clients if you don’t have your own instruments at first. Once you’ve saved enough capital, you can start building up your own music school with complete instruments and facilities.  

7.    Sports Mentoring

Even when summer ended, you can still continue with teaching and coaching kids in sports.  Try out as team coach of the varsity team or post at the internet your outstanding sports credentials so student athletes may notice and hire your services as personal trainer. Like academic and music tutoring, this one requires almost nil capital investment except your fitness and sports expertise.   

8.    Internet Shop

Internet shops are most helpful to students for their research needs. To keep up with competition from alternative yet affordable gadgets like smartphones and tablets, you can provide add-on benefits like lay-outing, scanning, typing, printing, and even photo I.D. services. You may even add selling candies to your list for a more enjoyable research work by your student clients.

9.    Books and Magazines Store

Books and magazines covering a wide variety of topics ranging from academic subjects, general reference, specialty fields, niche topics, arts and crafts, and hobbies can attract a large student market. You have the option of running your store the traditional brick and mortar way or online via e-commerce with provision on shipping costs though.  

10. Research Writing Firm

The education industry involves much research work and some definitely seek assistance in this area.  Hence, there’s the great need not only for individuals but also for big companies to contract research services to external parties.  If you’re one who enjoys reading up, learning new things, and has great writing skills for conveying meaningful information, then putting up a research writing firm may be a worthwhile venture for you to earn money while doing that which interests you at the same time.   

11. Bookbinding Shop

Book reports, term papers, research projects, and other work submissions will never run out in the academe. As there’s always the need to collate paper works and so that’s why bookbinding stands as an old but prolific business found at university belts and shopping centers.  Couple with bookbinding the need for making several copies and adding a photocopying service will strengthen your business even more.

12. School Bus Service

If you’re someone who’s always on the go and enjoys your time on the road, driving your way to a school bus company may be your route to entrepreneurship.  With this business, you have to get used though to early morning work hours to get kids on time, vigilant following of weather advisories for typhoon class suspensions, and regulatory compliances under government transport agencies.  While business may be out during summer, you’ve gotten however an assured clientele which brings you cash liquidity for the entire school year. 

Most business startups have often been attracted to the essential food industry.  From fish ball food carts, Burger Machine trailers, and up to Makati jollijeeps several decades ago, the mobile food business truly has evolved much to what it is today. Though without much media hype, the street-food industry is one that has long taken centerstage in Pinoy food culture and lifestyle. But now, the mobile food business has worn a more dynamic face to adapt to consumers’ changing needs with time. While food kiosks and food carts have already been popular in malls and train stations since the ‘90s and early 2000s, today however sees an emerging craze towards food truck business startups which began to spring up two to three years ago in the country.  

Converging food trucks may now be found at fixed locations, and sometimes during specific hours in key commercial business centers like BGC, Cucina Andare in Glorietta Makati, Eat St. in Maginhawa Q.C., and Food Truck Park Ph in Capital Commons Ortigas. While the current set-up in the Philippines seemingly still leaves some room to fully embrace the mobile food truck concept in the US, present food truck players have definitely stirred the trend for more innovative food concepts in the mobile food business.

Meals on wheels from mobile food business
Photo courtesy of Coolhaus via Wikimedia Commons

If you’re one entrepreneuring mind, you’ll probably agree that the exciting mobile food business presents strong potential as the country progresses further with its growing economy. Meals-on-wheels will continue to be in demand as it tries to cater to a bigger populace of a busy, working class. But beyond easily accessible food, more smart consumers are on the search for unique food concepts that are reasonably priced and guaranteed safe.   Can food truck business startups answer to that?  Find out more about the mobile food industry and how it can keep up with the street-food lovers of today. 

·         Perks and Drawbacks

Doing mobile food business certainly brings unique advantages by operating small and mobile. First, you enjoy a much lower overhead due to minimal workspace within a food truck, trailer, cart or kiosk. You also get to reduce wage expenses since you’ll only require few helpers to prepare and sell the food. Unlike stand-alone restaurants, you also need not worry about searching for and getting fixated with your business location as you can park in and move from one location to another depending on how good business is at the site.  With all these cost reducing factors, you’re able to offer more affordable price, quick service, and accessibility to customers.  

Be prepared, however, for a much longer business day ahead of you.  Before your food cart or truck hits the road for actual selling, you need to be up three to four hours earlier to do morning shopping for ingredients and food preparation work like slicing, etc. prior to cooking. As the day ends with no more food to sell or the last customer, you also have to clean shop to put the food truck in tip-top shape again for the next day. Add to this in between days some time you have to spend for online marketing, housekeeping with financials, and other admin paper works.   

·         Food Vending Business Startup Options

If you’re keen about the mobile food industry, you need to decide on what vehicle type to use for food vending.  You may select from food kiosk, food cart/trailer, and food truck.

Food kiosks are your familiar food booths/stands that are found indoors at malls and theatre, selling anything from doughnuts to French fries. These are often detachable panels and can be assembled easily from one mall to the next when moving on locations.

Food carts and trailers are typically moved by car, van or truck, while the simplest type may be pushed by the vendor himself, such as the ice cream cart. Trailer types are usually with concessionaire arrangements and can be found commonly at carnivals, fun fairs, and open venues with spaces for unhitching and sitting for some time.

The food truck can be the most sophisticated among all types, offering the greatest mobility and providing the most space for equipment, food storage, handling and cooking procedures. There can also be gourmet food trucks which take food servicing to a higher level with specialty- or themed-offerings conceptualized and prepared by young culinary chefs. A mobile food truck may somewhat overlap with a mobile food catering truck, which is essentially a food catering business on wheels, minus the dependence on an event venue or dining hall since food may be served from the food truck itself.  Versus a mobile food truck, mobile food catering truck doesn’t suffer from excess inventory and competition since you’re hired to serve exclusively for a party event with a given, definite headcount.   

·         Location Possibilities

Parking location is one critical success factor for mobile food business startups.  Consider parking laws, where and when to reach your target market, and competition. Be diligent in scouting for premiere parking locations and having back-up contingency plans even when you’ve settled at one prime spot already.  Remember that the flow of the crowd may be affected by changes in local parking ordinances and seasonality anytime.

Best parking locations for food truck business may be found at tourist attractions, recreational parks, fair grounds, sports centres, and special events venues.  Other places that also serve as crowd magnets include university belts, business districts, bus/train stations, and shopping hubs.   

·         How Much to Spend on Business Startup Costs?

Exact figures on start-up costs may be too difficult to determine as standardized operations in mobile food business is nearly impossible to achieve.  Definitely, one food truck selling gourmet dishes will have different requirements from another food truck offering pre-packaged pizza, burgers, and fries.  Hence, start-up costs will depend largely on the type and nature of mobile food business you plan to pursue. Whether you intend to sell your own cooked food or pre-packed food will determine the appropriate investment on vending vehicle, kitchen equipment, food serving utensils, licenses and permits, need for workers, fresh foods inventory, marketing, etc.  The food cart or truck getting the biggest amount is one thing for sure though.

It may also help if you ask yourself whether to launch your business startup from scratch or to go with franchising. You may look up for food cart or truck contractors and try building up from there your total investment requirement. Meanwhile, there are franchising plans that offer complete start-up packages that serve ready to roll-out your business. For instance, there are food cart franchise plans from Php30,000 to Php75,000 for variety of food business like Chinese dim sum, rice toppings, burgers, shawarma, etc. You should be open to drawing up options and weighing in the costs and benefits of each.

·         Your Kitchen Rules!

The street-food industry is like one big nut that is hard to crack.  There can be so many food ideas to ponder with but nothing can be so definite as to what will click to the public in the long term.  As always, it may be safe to follow that old business formula of doing what you’re good at. Try to bring to the crowd your own distinct kitchen flavour that you alone are good at so you may carve your niche out from competition.

When planning your menu in mobile food business, you may want to consider asking several questions. What foods do you know to cook well? Any specialty from your country or town? What foods are not yet carried by competition?  What foods and ingredients aren’t easy to spoil when travelling? What foods can match meals-on-the-go lifestyle? What can be offered at affordable price street-meal wise?   

·         Go Legit.

Street-food sellers were always criticized as dirty and unsafe especially in the past. Hence, it’s by complying with full licensing and regulatory requirements, aside from upgrading the physical look and functionality of food carts and trucks, that mobile food players can appeal and expand their business to higher-end consumers.  While business regulations may vary among cities, these may also differ between a food handler and non-handler.  Food handler, such as when simply scooping an ice cream, may face more rigid requirements, versus those selling pre-packed food items.

·         Master the Look for Your Mobile Food Business Startup.

Apart from unique food offering, equally critical is giving the right look to your food cart or truck.  Remember, your food cart or truck can serve as your single, most valuable piece of advertising to market your food brand concept or theme.  Hence, to capture mind share of new customers and existing market, your brand must be consistently communicated from your food truck down to the minute details like menu booklet, packaging, serving utensils, napkins, etc. Be creative and seamless with how you want your food truck to be remembered by the street-food loving public. 

Liked this article so far?  Read more of the blogs from Go Entrepinay now and explore how you could join the world of entrepreneurship. 

Who wouldn't want fresh flower arrangements as gifts?  Anyone’s affirmative answer if you ask around underscores the lucrative potential of a flower shop business.  In the Philippines, flower shops face an existent local demand with a growing sophistication which shaped the ornamental horticulture industry.  It was from one in the '80s that was characterized by few cut flower varieties limited to mums, daisies and roses, and with narrow focus on price instead of quality to one of the '90s’ growth markets which was geared towards better quality, wider variety, and enhanced flower arrangements with foliage and fillers.

Flower arrangement with foliage and fillers
Photo courtesy of Pixabay

Ever Present Demand

The steady demand for flower arrangements come from all-year round occasions such as Philippine weddings, birthdays, parties, funerals, and also from regular purchases of consumer and institutional buyers, such as churches, hotels, and restaurants.  But apart from stable demand, flower shop business in the Philippines also enjoys seasonal demand upticks during Valentine’s day, Mothers’ day, graduation season (March-April), wedding months (December & June) and All Saints’ Day (November).  As flowers remain virtually a luxury product, flower shops can expect a strong demand with an equally buoyant economy.

Three-tiered Supply Chain

Unsurprisingly, entrepreneurs don’t stop on their tracks to meet the ever present demand for flowers.  Supply chain of the cut flower industry offers several options for business owners to cash in. You may decide to become a wholesaler supplier/grower that delivers cut flowers and ornamental plants in bulk to flower shops and markets, a retailer florist catering to flower arrangement needs of end-consumers, or a florist supplier providing the flower arrangement tools, accessories, and materials. 

In Metro Manila, the best buys for flowers are found at big flower markets such as Dangwa in Sampaloc and Farmers Market in Cubao, where customers can buy in bulk, in cheap price, and 24/7.  Aside from downtown flower markets and standard flower shops, consumers may also opt to purchase now from online flower shops via the internet. Online flower shops offer outmost shopping convenience without worrying about time and traffic involved when going to physical flower markets. With just a click of the preferred item and completion of online payment, orders for flower arrangements can be delivered by online flower shops.

Get Set Before Rosy Fields

While strong domestic demand comes as an attractive lure to any enterprising business enthusiast or experienced florist ready to venture on his own, the floral arrangement industry requires a keener look beyond the sweet icing on the cake.   Below are some factors you may want to look into to get yourself more prepared before making your way to the rosy fields of the flower shop business.

1.  Where to Set Shop?

Location is one of the most critical decisions you have to make in any business, and this applies as well to a flower shop.  Firstly, your location must have easy accessibility and high visibility to your target market.  Hence, proximity to churches, hospitals, funeral parlors, and commercial centers with higher purchasing behavior can offer assured demand. Secondly, the presence of competition can determine your share of the overall business in the area.  If there are several competitors around, you need to think further how you may differentiate your product offering from the rest.  Also, your consideration of location choice should factor in the rental costs if you decide to hold business away from home.

2.  Store Planning

Since your flower shop should ideally consist of several sections like the work area, sales counter, clients’ area, and display area, store planning must consider appropriate design elements and efficient space utilization at the same time. 

Providing for a display window through which your customers can view anytime from the outside can definitely save on store space.  Also, make sure to offset a minimal store space with highly creative displays of your other services or gift inclusions like balloons, stuffed toys, and goodies. 

Glass display window can save on showroom space.
Photo courtesy of Pixabay

3.  Flower Arrangement Training
It's necessary that you learn the art and craft of flower arranging whether you plan to do the floral arrangements yourself or get employees later for additional help. Even if you may have a natural flair for visual arts, the knowledge and understanding of the principles, techniques, styles, and materials that you'll acquire from formal training can be handy when you decide to go free styling in the future. Your formal training must be supplemented with practice and may be enhanced further with DIY instructional videos from the internet and other readily available reading materials.

4. Big Item Investments

There are several big-ticket items which you must invest on. At the outset, you need pieces of furniture to sit and work on, and to accommodate your clients and suppliers with.  Additional inclusions in the purchase list also include office equipment for carrying out daily paper works, such as computer, printer, and scanner.  A hardworking camera is most necessary to produce your portfolio of flower arrangements.  Essential also to flower shop operations are refrigeration containers to keep freshness of flowers for several few days. And later, multiple deliveries may also require you to invest in a delivery vehicle.

5. Inventory for Fresh Flowers and Flower Arranging Materials

Flower shop operations will eventually entail you to keep inventory for several items.  Aside from office stationery and supplies, you also need to stock on materials for flower arranging such as floral foam, vases, pots, baskets, wire, floral tape, wrapping papers, gift tags, ribbons, balloons, toys, etc. 

Though perishable, keeping inventory for fresh flowers is also needed to legitimize your flower shop display area. Hence, determining the right inventory level is the key by knowing what’s in demand and in season. It's  advisable to keep a reasonable low inventory at first so no much wastage is incurred.  You can adjust this later once you get more familiar with the demand behavior.    

Fresh flowers inventory for flower shop
Photo courtesy of Pixabay

6. Suppliers’ Pool

Sustainable life of your flower shop business rests, among others, upon the reliability of your suppliers for fresh flowers. At best, it's advisable to transact directly with wholesaler flower farm growers or flower markets to get the best prices. Try to search for a wholesaler supplier that can accommodate small quantities even for the first few orders, which you can increase later to conserve delivery charges.  Strive to team up with reputable suppliers with established track record in quality and servicing. Finally, never tie yourself at the mercy of a single supplier but back up with two to three more.   

7. Employees

Flower arranging is one which needs much care and attention.   Other than the main task of assembling the elements together to compose a beautiful flower arrangement, the cut flowers and other ornamental plants call for trimming, cleaning, preserving, protecting from pests, and display maintenance.  Definitely, you can’t do all those by yourself as the business grows.  Thus, consider as well the costs of hiring employees to lend additional hands for all tasks.

8. Marketing

You can explore and come up with a full list of marketing activities to promote your flower shop business depending on how far you can unleash your creativity and budget. There are the traditional promotions ranging from flyer distribution, wedding fair attendance, specialized magazines print advertising, inclusion in trade directories, etc. You can also transform to become a full-blown online flower shop and do e-commerce and internet marketing.  Truly, your imagination can be the only limit!  But with all these, always keep focused on your target market to take on the most effective marketing strategies.

Summer in the Philippines can be pretty tough with heat index reaching anywhere from 35 to 40+ degrees Celsius range, a rather usual scenario for Pinoy residents, but quite extraordinary for those coming from abroad. The high temperature can easily switch you on to idle mode as you try to avoid further exhaustion and sweating from summer's scorching heat. Surely, a beach getaway to nearby Batangas or a road trip northward up to Baguio spells a whole lot of fun.  But while everyone devises ways to cool up, budding entrepreneurs or business-minded people also see the school break as a great time to engage in summer business ideas. 

Jump to your summer business adventure.
Photo courtesy of Pixabay

Whether done on a part-time seasonal basis or something that can jumpstart a long-term enterprise, exploring summer business ideas that are easy sell-outs during this sunny time of the year definitely provides one productive escape. If you're one among the enterprising crowd, read more below on hot business ideas for summer that you could cash in, too. Take that jump now to your summer business adventure!

• Tame the appetite

A sure-fire formula to bring fun amidst the summer heat is to eat!  And with that goes the hungry appetite of everyone for anything cold or munchable, which are enjoyable to take with the cooler breeze found outdoors. 

1. Thirst quenchers or "Palamig"

Thirst quenchers are very popular in the Philippines during summer time.  Unsurprisingly, it's only during summer that these so called "heat-busters" get heavy advertising exposure due to surge in demand; otherwise, you'll find these as just regular fast-food menu staples on ordinary days. 

Pinoy Halo-Halo
Photo courtesy of dbgg1979 via Flickr Creative Commons

Top-of-mind thirst-quenchers include halo-halo, sago-gulaman, mais con yelo, buko-pandan, and even fresh fruit shakes. All these may be blended in different style and taste concoctions, consisting of fruits and other flavoured ingredients, but one thing present always is the crushed or full-load ice. Easy to prepare and easy on the pocket, this home business can be found virtually almost in every village or community in the country during summer. Try levelling up if you choose this business by perhaps adding a cherry or strawberry on top to perk up your own halo-halo brand!

2. Mobile barbecue grille food cart 

Mobile barbecue food cart
Photo courtesy of Besophia via Wikimedia Commons

Another sure hit during summer are parties! Whether a live concert marathon, night bazaar sale, or even outdoor movie viewing, the crowd will definitely love some food treat after the event.  In these venues, nothing can be more appetizing than barbecues cooked smoking hot from the grille. Barbecues are another Pinoy favorite and are loved for being a versatile meal, which can be eaten either as quick snack or with rice.  Serving and selling barbecues from a mobile cart on wheels definitely appears exciting with the "on-the-go camping" feel it comes with. 

• Go with travel-bound services

With the Philippines being an island country, there are just so many places to travel to especially during summer.  If you're one local resident in a tourist destination, why not base your next business initiative with tourism-based services from which you have the most advantage in terms of proximity, familiarity and knowledge.   

Go travel-bound.
Photo courtesy of Pixabay

3. Tour guide/coordinator

If you have so much to tell about a tourist spot due to familiarity with the place, or just for the simple love of it developed elsewhere, you can use your knowledge to assist and guide local and foreign guests when they come and visit the locality.  Not only the ways and directions to the place, but knowledge about history, culture, and language will also be most helpful.  

4. Van-for-hire 

Van-for-hire transport services for ferrying travellers are also in-demand during summer. As every household wouldn't want to miss going out on at least one summer trip, marketing your van-for-hire business may start and come easy with word-of-mouth or simple little flyers distributed into mailboxes of every house in your village.  You just have to make sure that you don't only have a reliable and comfortable vehicle, but reasonable rates, too.  Also, be ready with a flexible schedule to accommodate overnights and out-of-town trips that require more than a day's travel time. 

5. Destination weddings/events management

Holding private occasions, whether indoor or outdoor, during summer is also one common sight due to long holidays and school vacation. If you love celebrations, providing destination weddings or events management services can also be a fun and lucrative business.  For summer, get ready with more use of sunblock for beach or pool-side events aside from the usual and intensive coordination work that goes with the work.
    

• For the love of kids

School is out and so are the kids.  With the little folks at home, every smart parent would want to keep them busy and productive.  Indeed, summer offers the best time for kids to learn more beyond the lessons taught in formal school. 

Summer learning for kids
Photo courtesy of Pixabay

6. Swimming/sports clinic

If you happen to be a well-trained or awarded athlete in swimming or other sports, why not share your formal sports knowledge with the kids?  Gather the interested kids from your village and rent out the clubhouse pool for the entire summer. Aside from basic swimming lessons, you can also enrich your summer sports clinic to make a strong niche by teaching water survival skills such as rescuing and first aid resuscitation.  

7. Kids workshop

There could be a wide range of offerings for kids' summer workshop.  These may include singing, dancing, and playing musical instruments for performing arts; baking & cooking for home skills; and origami, decoupage, sketching, painting, etc. for arts and crafts. A whole lot of other interesting summer training camps for kids may be initiated.  You just have to assess your skills and draw from your self-inventory which one you'll enjoy the most teaching to young customer learners.    

Oooh summer! Nothing can sizzle as hot as the soaring temperature but beauties on parade. Yes, the country's most prestigious beauty pageant, the 2016 Bb. Pilipinas, was just concluded the other night, last April 17, with Maxine Medina winning the top Bb. Pilipinas-Universe title.  Once again, Pinoy beauty pageant fanatics huddled together while glued to the black tube to watch the show, even how late it took to announce the winners.  But behind all the beauty and glamour, beauty pageants have managed to bring out today one vibrant industry of enduring business players, perhaps ranging from independent freelancers to enterprising business owners. They are those who are responsible for putting up long-time running beauty pageants which have kept loyal Pinoy viewers mystified and entertained through all these years. If you're one with a penchant for beauty, it's worth taking note of some business hacks that thrive with the prolific and undying beauty pageant industry in the country.  

Philippine beauty pageant.
Photo courtesy of Wikipedia Commons

• Pinoys' love for beauty pageants

Admittedly, the search for beauty is universal and dates as ancient as Greek mythology. In the country, there's just an air of charm and magic brought, not only by Bb. Pilipinas, but by beauty pageants in general, to Pinoy audiences. For one, the Bb. Pilipinas beauty pageant has been consistently wrapped up with so much excitement and anticipation every year, which helped sustain its existence for more than fifty years now since 1964, long enough to be reminiscent of anyone's childhood days. 

Beauty pageants are also held left and right everywhere in the country down even to the far-flung barrios while being made as local attractions during fiesta time.  Whereas before beauty contests were popularly timed with summer only, you can hear trickles of them held the whole-year round now. Manila Bulletin report showed that as of October 2014, the Philippines has a total of 43 beauty and modelling competitions.  Included here are the 4 major contests -- Ms. World Philippines, Ms. Philippines Earth, Mutya ng Pilipinas, and Bb. Pilipinas.  

• Early hits and misses 

But Pinoys' love affair with beauty pageants started even much earlier than today's much coveted Bb. Pilipinas seat.  A history of beauty pageants in the Philippines showed that as early as 1908, the country was crowning already its first Manila Carnival Queens.  Back then, untrained pageant contenders landed a title because of renowned beauty or descent from a well-bred family.  

It was in 1952 when the country was first represented in the Ms. Universe pageant in Long Beach, California.  However, it was only in 1964 when Gemma Cruz bagged the country's first major international title as Ms. International. Then other major awards ensued with winnings of Ms. Universe by Gloria Diaz in 1969 and Margie Moran in 1973, and again, Ms. International by Aurora Pijuan in 1970. 

Melanie Marquez capped the early period of winning streak for the Philippines when she won as Ms. International in 1979. Thereafter in the 1980s and 1990s, the country's triumph for a major beauty crown remained elusive. Incidentally during this dry spell on victories, pageant contestants usually didn't go through formal training. Most were fresh graduates or plain students who just relied merely on pageant tips from fashion designers who also acted as mentors. 

• The hard road to the crown

In 2005, Precious Lara Quigaman managed to put back the country in the forefront again by scoring with the Ms. International title.  Then in 2013, Megan Young finished off a remarkable win as the first ever Ms. World for the Philippines. 

Pia Wurtzbach
Photo courtesy of Marktanoja78 - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0

For the Ms. Universe title, it was only again starting 2010 when the country began closing in to the crown with a winning streak that started from Venus Raj, Shamcey Supsup, Janine Tugonan and up to Ariella Arida, who all landed Top 5 positions in the prestigious pageant. And then finally, Pia Wurtzbach got the crown as Ms. Universe 2015, after being relinquished from 1st-place runner up. To date, this now brings a total of 3 Ms. Universe wins for the Philippines. 

With the latest pageant track record put up by the country's local beauty queens, competition has turned stiffer, which in turn also required more stringent preparations. Gone are the days when candidates were fielded into the pageant fresh and raw; getting formal training usually for at least half a year is more of the scheme now to stand out and win a pageant. Hence, there’s the emergence of beauty training camps nowadays, which summon skilled resource persons to teach make-up application, personal styling, fitness training, etc. 

• Now a flourishing industry 

With the Philippines now recognized as a major beauty power force in international contests, the country is also being tagged with new titles such as the Beauty Queen Training Capital of the World and even, The Venezuela of the Orient Seas.  But it’s most amazing how Pinoys’ love for beauty pageants has likewise spawned an intricate industry joined in by several players, who each have a hand in molding and training the next beauty titlist locally or internationally. 

Below are the possible businesses you may consider if you want to take part in the dynamic beauty pageant industry.  These are great for freelancers as a start, especially if you’re one pageant aficionado wanting a more active experience of the event. But nevertheless, these may also be turned into actual businesses with workers and staff of your own to cater to private customers later on.

1. Fashion designers.  From swimsuits, national costumes, and to long gowns, the skills and expertise of fashion designers are greatly called for in beauty pageants.  At the just concluded 2016 Bb. Pilipinas, local Pinoy fashion designers finally took center stage for wardrobe requirements of the candidates. 

2. Make-up artists. Beauty queen aspirants also need to learn from make-up artists application techniques for cosmetics and proper skin care and maintenance for a healthy glow. All these they have to master by themselves as they can't rely on assistance of others during actual pageant competition. 

3. Personal stylists. It's also necessary for beauty candidates to properly package themselves with the right individual look.  Here, personal stylists can guide them how to build a wardrobe ensemble which can be mixed and matched to convey a candidate's unique personality through her own fashion choice. 

4. Fitness gurus. Doing various exercises is essential for beauty contenders to stay fit and maintain their shapely figures. Candidates can consult with fitness trainers who can devise complete and tailor-fit exercise activities to trim one's physique from the head down to toes while considering one's health condition.

5. Public speaking experts. For proper self-projection, candidates can learn much from public speaking trainers, such as Dale Carnegie, which help provide training on areas of personality development, verbal expression, confidence boosting, global thinking, and human relations. Communication tools can also be taught to aid candidates articulate quicker and more intelligent answers.     

Undoubtedly while the beauty pageant industry prepares perennial feasts for the eyes, it also serves as a rewarding and fulfilling catch-basin for freelancers-turned-serious entrepreneurs who have the discerning eye for beauty and arts. 

Now that it's summer time, everyone just can't have enough of the outdoors to have fun and escape the sun's scorching heat.  But aside from heading to the beach and getting out on a road trip, the dry weather also offers the perfect time to hold outdoor events, especially scenic destination weddings. 

Beach-front destination wedding
Photo courtesy of Riviera Maya, Flickr Creative Commons

• Not your regular wedding type

Destination weddings are made clearly for the adventurous type of bride and groom who aren't saddled with issues on wedding budget.  It becomes an option when the couple chooses to hold their wedding in a place somewhere else from where they or their families live.  The site chosen by the couple is expected to be appealing to the both, which may be inside or outside of the country.  As this non-traditional type of wedding may take several days, the location ideally should be set off somewhere in an exotic place with several leisure items for the guests to enjoy so that the trip will be especially worthwhile, such as sight-seeing, water-fun activities, or even golf. For this reason, favourite wedding destination sites for American couples include California and Florida in the US, or Europe and the Caribbean Islands if abroad. And since destination weddings are expected to be more expensive than your regular weddings, invited guests are commonly only a chosen few who are extremely special to the couple.  The guests are also usually treated free in everything except for the transportation fare.
  

• An emergent wedding planning business trend 

In the last ten years, destination weddings have increasingly grown popular as alternative wedding celebrations not only in other countries, but also in the Philippines. If you haven't experienced one yet yourself, chances are high you'll be attending one in the near future for a family, relative, or friend who's bound to tie the knot soon.  In a deeply family-oriented country such as the Philippines where weddings are regarded as extra special family milestones, weddings are poured in with meticulous efforts and extensive resources during preparation time. But with the onset of destination weddings as an emergent trend, these weddings have become more complex to organize and manage since they also serve to showcase the wedding couple’s personal style and expression.

If you're a current wedding planner or a soon-to-be entrepreneur, you might consider offering this service, too, in your wedding planning packages menu. You’ll also have greater profit avenues due to additional fees on top of your regular wedding packages. Competition in destination wedding planning business hasn't also gone cut-throat heavy yet.  Not every player in the wedding planning industry has seemed to take seriously out-of-town events as regular staple in their services list. Best of all, you'll have the bonus of getting to see and travel to different beautiful places in the Philippines while attending to your business commitments.

• Philippines poised for destination weddings business

With exotic locations favoured for destination weddings, the Philippines is not far off from becoming one.  Several reasons stand to pack the country with great potential as one of the strong sites for destination weddings. 

1. Highly-Cooperative Spirit. The love for family prevalent in every Filipino's heart translates to a highly-cooperative working spirit for wedding celebrations.  Ultimately, this is manifested via impeccable service and hospitality that make destination wedding preparations easy to manage and pull-off.  

2. Wealth of Wedding Suppliers. There is undoubtedly a rich list of artistic and crafty suppliers who offer their goods and services at obviously lower costs versus those sourced from abroad.  From wedding gown designers and sewers, churches, reception venues, photographers, floral designers, event stylists, stationery printers, etc., you name it, you can find one here in the Philippines. 

3. Easy Access.  Available infrastructure like ports, bridges, and facilities, both from public and private initiatives, have also been put in place with the country's stress on tourism as one prime mover of economic growth.  These have greatly eased mobility and communication. 

4. Island Tourism.  Most of all, the country's island tourism efforts virtually turn every place in the country into one noteworthy tourist haven with numerous beautiful spots to hold the perfect destination wedding.  In the country's three major islands, you can find beaches, gardens, historical sites, etc. to cater to any of your client's choice for achieving their personalized wedding statement. Ideal sites for destination weddings in the country may include Boracay, Palawan, Cebu, Camiguin, Tagaytay, Batangas, Bohol, Intramuros, Benguet, and Baguio. 

5. Captive Market. Destination weddings won't also be too hard to market when searching out for clients. Aside from local couples, wedding couples from overseas such as the OFWs and their foreign friends stand as the best potential customers.  The two latter won't be too hard to convince with their wanting to experience the rich Pinoy wedding heritage and practices.  Based on Migrante International's article last July 2015, DOLE placed OFWs abroad at about 12M already.  Aside from their significant number, OFWs’ presence throughout the world ranging mainly from Europe, Middle East, Americas, and Asia, offers the ready availability of valuable word-of-mouth to serve as your best advertising tool. 

With all the above factors working together to make the Philippines an increasingly favoured location for destination weddings, destination weddings as a business isn't only a short-term trend, but is positively here to stay in the country for the long run.