Get Started

No matter how much capital you have, there’s a business to be had. Is one hundred thousand pesos enough to start a car-wash business? Yes. Is P200,000 good for your own clothing and accessories shop? Check. How about a bakery for 250 grand? Yup. Your own restaurant for P400,000? Uh-huh. Will P450,000 be enough to open a grocery store? Oh yes.

“If you have money but no time, you use that money to hire people. Contractors and employees use their time to get things done for your business in exchange for cash,” observes blogger and Internet entrepreneur Yaro Starak (the writer behind www.entrepreneurs-journey.com). “If you have time and no money, then you go to work to build cash flow off the sweat of your back. Nothing happens without cash flow, so your primary concern at the beginning is to generate money using your labor.”

Starak adds that if you are considering starting a business, you must have either time or money. “If you don’t, you have to create or free up one or both resources,” he says. “Get a casual job, do contract work, borrow money or find a partner with money it you need cash. If none of these are options, then sit down, think about what you need to make your business generate cash, and start putting it all together using your spare time.”

If you’re a young person looking to skip the corporate ladder; a homebody who has received an inheritance or a windfall but have no clue how to put it to use; or even a career employee who has saved enough to continue earning even after retirement, then take a hint from our featured entrepreneur below and carve your own path to riches.

Carwash
As bad as 2009’s Typhoon Ondoy was to the country in terms of flooding and damage to property, it also did some good. Just ask Akira Caisip, whose love for cars dovetailed with an opportunity to clean them in the wake of the terrible storm.

The business was officially launched in January 2010, but as part of his requirements toward his Bachelor of Science in Entrepreneurial Management degree from the University of Asia and the Pacific, “Aki” conducted a soft opening in August 2009, a month before Ondoy would submerge most of Metro Manila—and the cars in nearby Pasig City and other towns of Rizal province, among the worst-hit areas of the typhoon.

“Maganda ‘yung opportunity, and I had a strategic location that was just beside the family business,” says Caisip, who credits his mom—a single parent who also owns an entertainment club in Makati—for inspiring him to go into business.

With his starting capital, Caisip bought a “generic” set of carwash machines—a compressor, a foam machine, a pressure washer, and a vacuum cleaner—from Binondo in Manila for P22,000. He also bought P5,000 worth of cleaning supplies, paid about P10,000 in permits to register his business and have official receipts printed, and earmarked P40,000 for working capital. The rest he set aside in the bank.

Business was fine until his compressor broke down after just two months, forcing Caisip to shell out P40,000 to swap out all his machines for a “branded” Kawasaki set, while adding a blower and buying branded car waxes to move into the car detailing business. However, it meant he also had to raise Wash n’ Roll’s prices.

Fortunately, the move worked; while the business could barely break P7,000 in net income in its first month of operations, when Caisip offered detailing services “doon na nag-boom” as customers started rolling in. Since then, he and his five regular employees (plus two part-time workers on weekends) have been flooded with work—which is not a bad thing at all.

Other Businesses from P50K to P100K
Events Management
An office isn’t even necessary when in an events management business since all your projects are outside and the management side can be home-based. Invest in a good communication system and marketing initiatives. The rest is just all about time and effort. 

Travel Agency Kiosk
Book flights, organize domestic and international tour packages, and facilitate passport and other certificate applications in your own travel agency. All you need is a telephone line and a computer with Internet access.

Food Cart
Requiring little space and capital, cart businesses are a logical choice for would-be entrepreneurs who wish to get their feet wet in the entrepreneurial pool, but not too deep so as to risk a lot. Food carts are the most popular

Begin a business on a budget (Part 2)

• A design showroom that extols social entrepreneurship
• How to make peanut brittle
• Got attitude? Watch out for habits that kill success
• How to open a coffee shop
• 3 tips for the creative entrepreneur

• How to start a backyard piggery
• How to make balloon arrangements
• How to start a Multiply store
• How to make biodegradable detergent soap
• How to start a bakery business