Do you think credit cards are evil?

18Oct08

Have you sworn off all your credit cards, thinking that they’re only luring you to spend more than you can afford? Here’s a quick guide on how to use credit cards to your benefit:

http://thestylishtycoon.com/how-to-reverse-credit-card-fees.html


Filed under: How To, Personal Finance   |  1 Comment
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thestylishtycoon.com

17Oct08

I’m moving to my own domain to maximize the flexibility of the WordPress platform. I’m still learning my way on how to optimize my blog. Wish me good luck! 

Visit me in my new home: http://thestylishtycoon.com/


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Going Into Retail

07Oct08

After 11 months of operating online with Pink Boutique, my partner and I have always been on the lookout for a good retail space for our boutique. Yesterday, we visited a new mall here in the city to look for a possible location. We’re pretty excited to take our business closer to our shoppers. I know I’ve blogged before the advantages of having a business online, but going into retail has its advantages too.

If location is good, you get steady traffic for your store and there would always be an opportunity for a sale. In an online retail shop, good traffic is highly dependent on how you market your site. For a boutique like us, it’s also challenging to get shoppers to buy if they’re particular about the fabric, cut and dimensions of a particular piece.

Going into retail would give us a chance to further establish our brand here with our market. When a brand is marketed well and is highly visible, there’s an opportunity to attract more loyal customers. What’s even more important is that we would get to interact with our shoppers more, and get to know what their needs are. This, I believe, is one of the key essentials in growing a business. 

There’s one thing to look out for in going into retail though. We have to make sure that our sales could cover the overhead expenses we would be incurring like rent, manpower, utilities, taxes and so on. We’re already crafting our business plan so we would know our capital requirements, financial projections and sales forecasts among others. I personally think that given the right numbers, the retail component of our business would complement our online presence well. It would allow us to attract a wider customer base, and moreover there’s nothing compared to a full product experience which can never be offered online. 

Wish us good luck. We’ll be opening soon.


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Corporate Mondays

06Oct08

It’s Monday, and there’s a gazillion things to do at work. Maybe it’s just me, or maybe it’s because I chose a very demanding job at a big multinational company. Yet this is one of those days that inspire me to establish my own business someday. Here’s a short list of my pros and cons of corporate life vs. entrepreneurship:

CORPORATE LIFE

Pros

  • Access to learning about business trends and best industry practices
  • Get to have a coach to help develop you to become a better professional
  • Good colleagues who become friends that you learn a lot of things from
  • Benefits like medical allowances, car, phone, and housing
  • Steady income, sometimes independent of one’s performance
Cons
  • No complete ownership of your time
  • Corporate politics
  • Competition with colleagues
  • Your extra efforts don’t directly go to your own pocket
  • Career growth depended on other people’s opinion of you
  • Everyone is easily replaceable – No matter how good you are, someone would always take your place.
ENTREPRENEURSHIP

Pros

  • You take charge of your time
  • Flexibility in decisions - You are your own BOSS!
  • Your efforts go directly to your own pocket
  • Unlimited growth potential
  • You get recognized by your own efforts 
Cons
  • Higher financial risk – Income depends on how well you handle your business
  • Highly dependent on market stability
  • Big capital requirement
  • You are on your own
I’ve always lived by the principle that One size does not fit all. Each one of us has different needs and goals in life. As for me, I really want to go into entrepreneurship and this blog documents my journey. I know a lot of people who are happy with their corporate lives, and could see themselves growing in the corporate world until they grow old. Choose the path that works for you.

Filed under: Business, Corporate Life, Personal   |  3 Comments
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Top 5 Reasons to Start a Business Online

29Sep08

If you’re a corporate employee eager to start a business like me, I suggest you try to take the online route first if you can. If you’ve played Robert Kiyosaki’s Cashflow 101 game, you’d discover that you’d first have to live in the rat race for a time and save as much as you can before you could go out and be an investor. Being in the rat race/corporate world isn’t easy. You’re not entirely in charge of your time, so it’s quite a feat to be able to have a business and corporate life at the same time. Thanks to technology, you could first try to start a business online while in the rat race so you could test your entrepreneurial skills before taking the leap. Here are my top 5 reasons why it’s best to start a business online:

1) Low overhead cost. If you’re selling a tangible product, it’s best to do it over the Internet. All you need is a good Internet connection, and 24/7 access. You don’t have to pay extra costs like rent, electricity and other overhead expenses. You could sell your products right from your home. I maintain an online boutique with a friend. We just keep our stocks at home and we get to manage our business anywhere. All we need to do is make sure that our clients could reach us anytime. 

2) Get to test your market. Millions of people have caught on to online shopping nowadays, and getting a small chunk of that market would be able to give you healthy profits. What’s good about the online market is that you could try to see which of your products click and what type of customers you should be catering to at very minimal cost (see reason #1). When you decide to open a retail store someday, you’d know more or less what your customers want. It would be a lesser gamble since you could already gauge what their preferences are.

3) No geographical limits. When you have an online business, you’re not limited to a market bound by geography. You could reach a client 5 countries away, as long as you know you could deliver your product/service to that customer efficiently. For our business, we’ve catered to clients as far as Dubai and neighboring countries like Singapore and Indonesia. The world has gotten smaller through the Internet.

4) You’re not time-bound. A physical store would need opening and closing hours. With an online bueiness, you’re open 24/7. As long as you get to cater to your customers within a span of 24 hours, then you’re okay. I manage my business after my work hours, usually after dinner or before I go to sleep. Who wouldn’t like business hours like this?

5) Unlimited potential. The fastest growing market in the world today is probably the online market. With this platform, you could take your business to greater heights easily. There’s no other way to reach the world at your fingertips at the least possible time. 

If you’ve enjoyed this short article, please feel free to drop a comment and share your ideas on the benefits of an online business as well. :)


Filed under: Business, Corporate Life, entrepreneurship   |  2 Comments
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Check your Financial Quotient

22Sep08

Have you ever wondered if you’re on the right track with your personal finance? Citibank has a Financial Quotient (Fin-Q) survey to gauge your financial intelligence through a quick online survey. Get to compare your score with other people in the region as well. Click the image below to take the test.


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Jollibee Philippines Success Story

18Sep08

If you don’t know what Jollibee is, then you must not be Filipino. 

Jollibee is simply the biggest Filipino fastfood chain fast expanding globally. From a humble ice cream parlor beginning in Cubao in 1975, it has since mushroomed to more than a thousand branches in the Philippines and even opened stores in various international locations. 

It’s mission is straightforward: To serve great tasting food and bring the joy of eating to everyone. Indeed, what a joy it is to eat at Jollibee. With its bright orange and yellow interior, a Jollibee outlet is always inviting and fun. Filipinos are happy to find comfort food in Jollibee’s product portfolio: regular yum burgers that have a special sauce perfect to Filipino taste, the famous Jollibee Spaghetti with its sweet style spaghetti sauce, and of course the Jollilbee Chicken Joy known for its crispy-licious and juicy-licious taste.

What made Jollibee rise to success? In its website, Jollibee provides details on the FSC standards that they live by. As quoted from Jollibee’s site, Food (F) served to its customers must pass the company’s excellence standards or not be served at all. Service (S) must be fast and courteous, and Cleanliness (C) should be practiced from kitchen down to utensils. More than this, I especially like their value of properly rewarding their employees for their efforts through attractive compensation and benefits packages. I’ve always believed that happy employees will always lead to a great company. Maybe this is why Jollibee always exudes happiness in its brand and store outlets since they also work hard on keeping their company work force happy.

Now what makes Jollibee click with Filipinos? I think that Jollibee has effectively cracked the formula of capturing the unique Filipino taste. Even when it’s offering Western dishes like burgers, fries and spaghetti, Filipinos flock to its branches because Jollibee offers the special flavour they look for. This is probably also why the international market has openly embraced Jollibee’s expansion because only Jollibee can truly bring a taste of home. 

Jollibee is a great Filipino company, and this is the exactly the kind of company that our country needs to have more of.


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Tips on How To Save Fuel

09Sep08

A couple of weeks ago, our company subjected its employees to a behavioral-based safety driving workshop. They wanted to ensure that we are all good boys and girls on the road. The workshop was okay. They shared to us practical tips on how to maintain our cars, including a module on how to save fuel. Here are some tips:

  • Control acceleration. Did you know that above 80 kph, fuel economy decreases? Supposedly when one uses overdrive gearing, the engine speed decreases and optimal fuel consumption is reduced. They also say that “jack rabbiting” or having sudden stops and accelerations wastes fuel. Tailgating, unnecessary braking and acceleration decreases fuel economy by 5 to 10 percent and increases wear on one’s tire and brakes.
  • Check your tires. Low tire pressure reduces gas mileage and increases tread wear. There’s 6% reduction in fuel efficiency for every psi below the manufacturer’s recommendation for your tires. Have the tires aligned and balanced to get the best gas mileage.
  • Change gears optimally. To conserve fuel, you should avoid over-revving in lower gears. Shift to high gear as soon as you can and stay there as long as you can. When you stop for more than 30 seconds, turn off your engine since restarting the car takes less fuel than maintaining its idle state.
  • Remove unused luggage. Every 200 pounds of unnecessary weight reduces mileage by one mile per gallon.
  • One click when loading fuel. Here in the Philippines, gasoline station employees usually add more fuel after they hear the first click. Avoid this, and make sure to tell them to stop on the first click. The gas tank should not be filled to the brim. It’s best to allow for expansion to avoid wastage.
  • Replace air and fuel filters regularly. A new air filter alone can improve gas mileage by as much as 10%.
  • Control car temperature. Before you go, warm up the engine and don’t have too much car A/C. The A/C causes extra work for the engine, and this lowers fuel efficiency by 5 to 10%.

Filed under: How To, Saving Money   |  1 Comment
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Google Chrome

09Sep08

Everyone’s been talking about Google Chrome since it was launched recently. I’m sure you’ve probably downloaded the beta already. It’s being advertised all over the web these days. I first downloaded the Filipino version, and I found it hard to read. Sorry, I love Tagalog but I’m really just not used to seeing words like “Ikansela” for Cancel and “Limasin ang pag-browse data” for Clear browsing data in my computer programs. I really appreciate Google’s effort for including Filipino in the list, but I have to get used to reading Tagalog in my screen so I switched to English for now. Believe me, reading Filipino on a browser wasn’t easy. I even had a hard time finding the options on the Filipino version that I had to re-install the Google Chrome in English.

So far, Google Chrome has delighted me with its features. For one thing, I think the pages load fast and I really like their tabbed browsing. The drag and drop features were nice too. You could drag a link outside a current window to open it in a new window, or redrag it into a group to make it part of the tabs. Amazing right? Simple and easy. I also like the frequently visited sites feature. They keep track of the sites you recently visited so that when you open Google Chrome next time, they’ll all be ready for your use. One thing that everyone’s been raving about is the incognito window feature, wherein one could browse anonymously. Hmmm. I wonder why they like that feature so much? ;)

All in all, Google Chrome really has a lot of potential to become a leader in the browser market. Let’s wait and see how this develops.


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It’s Always Best to Compare — PAL vs Cebu Pacific

09Sep08

Sometimes, people get stuck with the perception that just because Cebu Pacific is always offering promo fares and does not extra perks on its flights, it must be CHEAPER. Lo and behold, that case doesn’t hold true anymore. Philippine Airlines has bounced back to its glory by defending their turf and pitting themselves against Cebu Pacific’s price point in airfares.

On my flight back to Cebu last week, I asked for a morning flight around 9am and for my colleague the last flight on the next day. Here are the options that our travel agency gave us:

05 SEPT 2008
Cebu Pacific MLA-CEB 0830 Php2,209
Philippine Airlines PR853 MLA-CEB 0900  Php2,170

06 SEPT 2008
Cebu Pacific MLA-CEB 1905 Php1,640
Philippine Airlines PR855 MLA-CEB 1930 Php1,587

Yes, you actually read that right. Philippine Airlines won in the price war this time, plus we got a free snack on flight! It really pays to compare these days. With the shrinking wallet of the consumers and the companies battling to get a share of that, they’re willing to shrink margins to stay afloat.


Filed under: Business, How To, Reviews, Travel   |  1 Comment
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