I felt a bit of disappointment for having missed this year's SME week which was capped last July 11-12, 2014 at the Philippine Trade Training Center in Pasay City. 

Small businesses' contribution recognized during DTI's SME week. 
Photo courtesy of StockSnap via Pixabay

I was late by just a day or two when I saw DTI's print ad from Philippine Star dated 07/08/2014 showcasing the full list of activities during the said 2-day celebration.  Each day was filled with various topics on business management and demo-skills training starting from around 8am and finishing to 4pm.  All these were provided for FREE but to make sure you can avail of seats, you have to make your way early to the venue as it was indicated the seminars were given on first come, first served basis. 

I listed here a rundown of my hot picks that caught my interest from among the topics included during the SME Week Celebration. These business ideas present bright earning opportunities due to current positive trends on  health and wellness, tourism growth and environmental concern in the Philippines.  For July 11: Herbal Soapmaking, Coffee Barista, Massage Oils,  Food Cart Business and Assorted Cupcakes.  For July 12:  Photography, Food Packaging, Scrap Recycling, No-Bake Cookies, Health Breads and Healthy Meat Products.

I thought what an excellent chance to add further to my entrepreneurship knowledge and learn more new possible business ideas if I could have made it to the event.  But then anyway, I can always look forward to the same event again in 2015. And so to all aspiring Entrepinays out there, make an early earmark for the timing of around mid- to end-June next year to learn about and catch up with the activities lined up for DTI's SME Week Celebration.  

Hope to meet you there!

To all Marikina-based businesses, I'm sure you will all be relieved to learn that BIR (www.bir.gov.ph) and SSS (www.sss.gov.ph) have recently set up new offices here.  This development definitely brings great convenience as these government agencies are now located near downtown Marikina.

The new SSS Marikina-Malanday branch has based itself at the 2nd floor of Graceland Mall along J.P. Rizal or Lamuan, as the place is more commonly known.  The building sprawls a wide frontage and runs across a Shell gas station so it's definitely hard to miss.  Many public vehicles like FXs, jeepneys and tricycles also ply along this route so it's no problem going there.  Daily passers-by at Graceland Mall are the Parang-Lamuan-Marikina or Montalban-Lamuan-Marikina PUJs with terminal stops stationed at Marikina Sports Center.  I chanced once at SSS Marikina-Malanday branch and they may be reached at the following contact numbers:  920-64-46 to 55 or 917-77-77.        

SSS Marikina-Malanday office in Graceland Mall, J.P. Rizal St., Lamuan
Photo courtesy of Go Entrepinay

Meanwhile, BIR Regional Development Office (RDO) 045 has transferred from the previous Marcos Highway site to its new office building at Antonio Luz Arcade located behind Amang Rodriguez Hospital from Sumulong Highway or also, at the back of Marikina Health Office near SM Savemore if one is coming from Shoe Avenue.  The new BIR office occupies two floors with the regular monthly tax filings housed at the 2nd level while other transactions processing are done at the Ground floor.   It also now has wider parking space for just almost adjacent to it is the Blue Wave Marquinton Mall.

New BIR RDO-45 Office at Marikina City
Photo courtesy of Go Entrepinay

BIR Marikina Branch at Antonio Luz Arcade Building
Photo courtesy of Go Entrepinay

This red, pocketbook-sized prayer book was given to me by my loving mother-in-law one afternoon in June last year.   The book "Straight From The Heart, A Prayer Companion" is a 360+-paged collection of prayers compiled and edited by Rev. Fr. Mario Jose C. Ladra and published by St. Paul's Philippines in 2007. 

A treasury of prayers from this little red book. 
Photo courtesy of Go Entrepinay

From the looks of it, with the book fully clad in rosy red and heart visuals slightly embossed in between its title phrases "Straight From The Heart" on front cover, it proved to me as a gift really special for it opens up a wealth of various prayers from which you could draw out peace, inspiration and strength during one's down moments.  

Found inside of course are our common prayers like The Lord's Prayer, among others, and prayers for various parts of the day. Other prayers included those directed to Jesus, Holy Spirit, Mama Mary and popular saints.  It also has inspirationals and Psalm Verse Prayers, foremost favorite of mine is Psalm 23: The Good Shepherd.

Straight From The Heart also comes handy and useful for church ceremonials like Holy Mass and Novenas, and during Holy Week's Stations of the Cross.  The book seems endless with prayers for one can also come across a prayer for almost every need --- for families, for healing, for depression, for protection, for generosity, for serenity, for peace, for strength, and so on.

My favorite part is the list of prayers rolled out for students, religious and people from different professions.  I was amazed to find a couple of prayers exactly fitted for my current pursuit of entrepreneurship, and so I decided to share them as well to all Entrepinays out there. May the prayers below help articulate all hopes and aspirations for our businesses' success.

A Businessman's Prayer (from page 311)

Almighty Father, thank you for the business you have enabled me to begin and sustain.
Enlighten my way in leading and inspiring people engaged in the business organizations,  industry, and communities that I serve.
Allow us the mastery of your will for the role you would want this business to play in your divine plan.
Provide us all the resources, human and material for this enterprise.
Sustain us financially for growth and development, and keep us humble with our successes and innovative and creative in our endeavors.
Help us in our crises, and guide us in every step we take as we run and manage our business.
Let our business involvements be models of inspired integrity  and allow it to bring good health, wealth, and prosperity among your people.
Bless our business partners, clients, and suppliers.
Give us the faith and confidence that we can accomplish even what seems to be impossible.
Move us to dispense all our actions to be full of love for you and the rest of mankind.
In Jesus' name.
Amen.

A Consecration Prayer for an Enterprise (from Page 342)

Heavenly Father, you tell us in the sacred scriptures that any house that is not built on firm rock cannot withstand dangerous storms and tempests.
You are our rock and salvation.
Without you, our efforts at building up our enterprise will come to naught.
Without your grace, everything we touch can easily crumble into nothingness.

We humbly come before you to acknowledge all the many blessings we have received---                   all these come from you,
for in you do we live and move and have our being, and that without you, we can do nothing.
All our success comes from you.
Thank you for the countless favors you have showered on  (Name of company).

Loving Father, in gratitude, allow us to consecrate (Name of company) to your loving heart.
We consecrate to you our stockholders and business partners that they may be guided by Your will in their decisions.
We consecrate to you our officers - may they continue to faithfully serve you as they carry out our company's mission, vision, and goals.
We consecrate to you all our employees as well as their families.

May we all continue to do our best as we go about our work and commit ourselves to the betterment of our company, our community, and our country.
We consecrate to you our clients and customers.
May they continue to patronize our products and services.

Bless and protect all of us in our dealing with one another.
With the help of our Blessed Mother, we make our consecration to you.
In the name of your Son, Jesus and by the power of the Holy Spirit.
Amen.

It had been almost a month since schools opened and news from PAG-ASA ended summer officially. But I can't help look back at the summer that just passed with special regard and soft spot in my heart.  It was my best summer ever.  It was the summer of 2014. 

Create your best summer ever. 
Photo courtesy of Unsplash via Pixabay

Admit it, it isn't always that we find strength to push ourselves from our comfort zones.  It just feels so convenient and secured to do that which we are most familiar with--- no questions, no doubts and most of all, no worries. But just last summer, I once again found myself stepping up to try something new and taking action to actualize it. And finally, making a turnaround into something real from a mere aspiration, just a dream. 

The last time I did the same was back in 2012 when I formally registered my biz.  But this time around, I knew and felt it was much different. Getting into the internet as a publisher for the first time was like venturing into an unknown space. It also ushers in a totally different experience as your actions do not affect only yourself, but a wider public audience as well.

I've long been wanting to bring my business online with its own website and to level up promo efforts via social media marketing with the highly visited facebook site. But the downside is, I'm neither the hard-core techie who understands all those HTML computer programming languages, nor the computer savvy Gen Z-er who is much hooked with the web that navigating through facebook, tweeter, google+, pinterest, linkedin, and other social media sites seems just so much like a simple task as malling or strolling by the park perhaps.  At the least, I consider myself a computer literate person with quick learning abilities and above average mental aptitude.  If these assets alone would suffice to compensate,  then I thought I can also do internet marketing just like others.  From the overall view of things, it appeared to me the world wide web was the ultimate frontier to conquer.

And so I tried and carried on.  It was the mere thought of seeing my future blog entries and business website that pushed, pushed and pushed me.  I had no choice then but to do lots of googling, reading and learning from relevant websites to help me put pieces of the big puzzle together.  Sometimes, it was also a frustrating hit and miss thing....trying out a new site and finishing on a dead-end, then try again.  It was totally a self-learned endeavor. But amazingly, one click just led to another, and another, until all my questions were answered and my thoughts were cleared on how to go about with things.  Then finally, the full picture came into view. 

And now from the time I started trying around March this year, I finally went live with my own Facebook business page last May 17, posted my first own blog entry at Go Entrepinay dated May 29,  and published my events marketing website last June 28.  Best of all, I did all these without spending a cent!  Quite trivial they may seem, but these outputs give so much sense of accomplishment to a humble and regular netizen like me without any high-flung computer expertise at all.  Couldn't believe it?  Well, I really DID!

Thinking back, what a co-incidence that all these nice developments happened during last summer.  And as we know, most people look forward to summer for good things to come their way as all the time and the world are theirs during this sunniest season of the year.  Summer means breaking away from homeworks, fun late-night hanging out with friends, finding new love, travelling to far places, finding new discoveries, and still a whole lot of possibilities one can think of!
 

But for me, I remember most the summer of 2014 as the time I rose above myself and totally evolved into another new, different, but definitely, better person in the end.  And this came about starting just from a dream, a try, a struggle, a learning, and finally, a reality. I guess that translates into an excellent analogy for the making of an entrepreneur.

So how about you?  When was your best summer ever? 

Starting and opening up a business requires answering first the basic and more so, most crucial question, "What business do I get into?" Fortunately, entrepreneur wannabes don't need to do much soul searching and asking around as sources of business ideas abound nowadays. 

Sources of business ideas abound nowadays.
Photo courtesy of PublicDomainPictures via Pixabay

Below is my list of information resources which I've gathered from my past efforts of building the right business for me back then. These information resources can help you discover, explore and learn more about the perfect business likewise right for you.  Anyone won't end up helpless for numerous options on how to get business ideas are now at hand.

1. Private Training Seminars  

The quickest way to get instant knowledge and training on a particular business you're interested in is to enroll yourself in training seminars offered by companies which do this as their business itself.  A minimal fee is usually charged for the seminar, snacks and instructional materials. You can also attend at your most convenient time depending on the schedule set per topic.  These training companies offer a wide range of topics to choose from so you can explore tirelessly what business interests you the most. Others, meanwhile, specialize in specific trainings like cooking/food processing, baking, printing, fragrances, crafts, etc. 

• Negoskwela - http://www.negoskwela.ph/
• Business Coach - http://www.businesscoachphil.com/
• Business Maker Academy-  http://www.businessmaker-academy.com/
• Ultima Entrepinoy Forum Center or Spices and Food Mix House - http://businessdiary.com.ph/2399/ultima-entrepinoy-center-livelihood-training-schedule/ or http://www.spicesandfoodmix.com
• Technology Source/Techsource - http://members.olx.ph/TECHSOURCE
• Chocolate Lover, Inc. - https://www.chocolateloverph.com/
• Swiss Fragrances, Inc. - https://www.facebook.com/swissfragrancesinc
• Polymer Products (Phil) Inc.- http://www.polymerprod.com/

2.  Government Agencies

Aside from private companies, another valuable source for business ideas is through government agencies.  Not only do they bring with them distinguished industry trainers and proper support network on inter-related agencies for future inquiries, but best of all, most of these public agencies offer livelihood trainings for FREE.  Only downside however, sometimes you have to wait awhile for you to be scheduled since the seminars are good for a minimum number of attendees before they can proceed and comes with a set time period for course completion.

• Department of Trade & Industry, DTI (http://www.dti.gov.ph/)                           The DTI Head Office at Buendia, Makati houses a separate  unit for Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises.  When you go there, some brochures on popular businesses like flower arrangements, candle/holiday décor making, etc. are readily available or also downloadable from their website. Otherwise, you may also be referred to their arm-agencies like the Philippine Trade & Training Center, PTTC (http://www.pttc.gov.ph) and Cottage Industry Technology Center for more specific trainings that you may need.

• Technology Resource Center, attached agency of Dept. of Science and Technology - http://www.trc.dost.gov.ph/

• Technical Education and Skills Development Authority, TESDA - Aside from its regular vocational and technical programs, notable about the agency is its TESDA WOMEN'S CENTER in Taguig which offers several open courses exclusive for female trainees. (http://www.tesda.gov.ph)

• Local City Hall- For mothers, homemakers, out-of-school youth and home-based individuals who have minimal access to travel and external resources, some local municipalities have their in-house livelihood training units.  For instance, Marikina City Hall has the Marikina Livelihood and Training Center which offers FREE a number of  in-demand and practical training courses for interested youth and adult participants ranging from Hotel and Restaurant Services, Cosmetology, Photography, Shoemaking, etc.  You may want to check out your local municipal office for FREE livelihood seminars available and just waiting for you.

3. Trade Fairs and Market Bazaars   

If you're still fishing out for the big business idea, you may also opt to visit trade fairs which boast of numerous options.   They guarantee a more immediate, face-to-face discussion with and information gathering from potential business suppliers or partners that tickle your interest.  Among these, the more popular and grand trade fairs are those staged by  http://www.gonegosyo.net/ and Philippine Franchising Association. Some localized weekend bazaars held in Quezon City Circle and Makati's exclusive villages promise a more varied and refreshing ideas on organic staples and foreign, exotic delicacies.

4. Print, TV, Radio and Internet   

For busy working individuals who only have weekends to spare for rest, media gives the easiest, fastest and most reliable access through print, television, radio and the web.

• Entrepreneur Magazine
• My Puhunan, Ch. 2 
• Kabuhayang Swak na Swak, Ch. 2
• Negosyo Atbp., Ch. 4
• Carl Balita 's Radyo Negosyo
• Youtube

5. You! 

Last of all, the best resource for business ideas is none other than yourself.  You may not realize but you hold within yourself a huge amount of clues to what you're good doing at as a product of your experiences, environment and genes.

• Previous work. You may have accumulated valuable business know-how and techniques after years of experience from the corporate world.   If you feel highly competent and knowledgable in your field, why not use it for your advantage and let it earn for you?  Experienced professionals like accountants, architects/engineers and marketing, advertising/PR, events executives commonly opt to put up their consultancy firms after having gained considerable exposure to the office set-up. 
• Family enterprise.  Some are fortunate and need not wander far when they've been borne into a family business.  Oftentimes, it may just require market expansion/niching, improving on products and services, or branching out to a related industry.
• Hobby/Skill/Talent.  Finally, when you've rummaged through all the suggestions above and still end up clueless, why not dig in deep within yourself and ask what are you most passionate about? It could be a hobby that you are fond of doing, a talent innate within you just waiting to be shared to the world, or a skill which you have learned and developed from school or thru others. 

In the end whichever it may be, the big idea should be something that will allow you to get up from bed every morning and prod you with renewed vigor and interest to go through your business for each day that comes. 

      

I've always loved to write since I was young. But eventually, I ended up pursuing a business course in college. No much hurt feelings though. The love for writing remained just there and came handy whenever writing tasks strolled by or it's needed.  I imagined my flair for writing like a tool or weapon that I could draw out help from during my own personal challenges and it served me well.  More often that not, I got results that I wanted from writing for family and friends, at school, and later, even at work. There was silent gladness whenever I heard praises from people who got to read my stuff. They gave confirmation somehow that my inner wanting to write deserved some place. At least even just inside me...for the moment.  Oh well, that WAS me during my life's journey BACK then.

And so I went on with the years working on a challenging yet fulfilling career in FMCG marketing for local and multinational firms.  But even then, my feeling for writing never left and it stuck with me like a best friend.  Writing was like an empowerment to me, a gush of adrenalin that lighted me up whenever I'm engaged at it.  It assisted me well in churning out successful campaigns and promos. Sometimes, it just helped me get through those hell days ravaging at marketing plans, or just finishing little crazy tasks in marketing's fast- paced world.  While at it, I have evolved to become my own person, at least to that which I think I am, hahaha!....a strong-willed, independent-thinking and business-minded person.  Oh well, that WAS me during my life's journey BACK then.

So strong has my business inclination become that I found myself embracing later the call for entrepreneurship.  Currently, I face the demands of my own business alongside marriage and family.  Before I just saw my mom's juggling of all those tasks for managing the home as one easy task. But now, I say it's NOT!  Being an Eve's descendant myself,  I realize the many roles that we females have to play at home, at work, and at community.  Once again, I succumb to my writing so I can rise above another goal and manage to be best at it. But finally this time, my writing has founded a brilliant place--the internet.

Internet blogging as one brilliant venue for writing buffs.
Photo courtesy of StartupStockPhotos via Pixabay

And so I created this blog, Go Entrepinay.  May it be a venue for sharing my business, economics, and marketing knowledge, plus practical work experiences as an entrepreneur.  May it also be a venue for finding ways that would help fill in a woman's many other roles while entrepreneuring!  Lastly, may it be a venue for women, especially Pinays, to find and become the best of themselves. 

To all enterprising Pinays, I send out one big cheer to you... Kaya mo 'yan, sis!

Oh well, this IS me during my life's journey NOW. 

Join me!