Pinoy Business Coach

One of the major learnings that I have gained after 10 years of being a neophyte in business is thinking through the KIND of business that you would like to venture into.  It is my opinion that not including this item or description in your business plan causes 9 out of 10 start-ups to fail in their first year of doing business.  Consider this as one of the crucial elements before you start of business:

 Understand the NATURE or Kind of business you are going into.  Some of the most common kinds of businesses that are in existence include:

1. Service - you get paid on a "per service" basis.  Flat rates are associated with this but the consistency of income is present and is perhaps the best attribute of this kind of enterprise.  Examples include: Appliance repair, Automotive shops etc..

2. Retail- this is selling goods to one customer at a time. Best examples include : Sari-sari stores, Groceries.  The trick here is to get as much inventory that people would need and to get as much people into your stores that need them.  Thus the proliferation of giant grocery stores operated by SM ,Robinsons and Gaisanos.

3. Wholesale- this is where you sell featured items in BULK and carve a niche by being an exclusive carrier of goods in a certain geographical area.  You supply the retailers with the much needed items in their stores.  At minimal margins you are able to have staying power because of the quantity and quick turn-over.

4. Network marketing- this involves multi-level marketing or binary systems in people recruitment to sell the products or services of a company.

Man, by nature is emotional.  You have to think through each kind of business and what suits your personality best.  Are you able to cope with the rigorous retail style where you need to deal with 1 customer after another without getting burnt out?  Are you ready to have consistent yet limited income that comes with doing the service business and doing business on a per project business?  Are you talented enough to find suppliers, defend exclusivity and manage sales people in the wholesale business? Are you able to go after recruits and trains them on the systems of you company in a multi-level setting?

Couple your evaluation with the following criteria- What area would I like focus on in starting this business? Leverage, Control, Creativity or Replicability.  If it isn't obvious to you, I have placed this in order of my priorities.  Your priorities may be different, so take the time to think this through.