Retirement Budget and Business Plan, advice please!

Dimplez14,

For coffee shop and bakery, 100k is not enough.

The best investment so far are in food and technology. Or you may entertain services too depending on location like parlours or spa. But this depends on your location. By far, Batangas and Davao are places with an advantage..

Thank you for this info. Do you think 200k would be good enough for small cafe/bakery? I thought of spa and salon too! In fact beauty and wellness are few of my specialties.

As far as feasibility is concern, for bakeshop on all equipments you will need close to 200k(depends on quality), rental down payment advances estimated to be up to three months plus renovations.. All in all 250-300k would be sufficient. And for cafe, I think the coffee machine will cost 250k -500k, plus you need the location very strategic and renovation and furniture's.. Ideally for coffee shop, you have unique concept of ambiance and other built in services like short meal orders, plus trainee of employee.. You'll need more or less 800-1M..

I suggest you identify what is your market here. Otherwise, it will be safer to go on franchise. Note: first three years is crucial.. It will be better to have back up extra money.. (Be noted too that in a business, it is not ideal to put all your eggs in one basket) think of business that is salesable everyday and is one of the basic needs and not only during seasons.

Thanx

Oh my! What was I thinking? Thank you! I did't realize that it could cost that much. Perhaps franchise might be a good idea or I may end up doing home based catering instead.

Thanks again!

I hope you are talking dollars and not Pesos..if Pesos you are not going to get off the ground. I'm not being pessimistic I'm being realistic.

The coffee they drink here is 3 in 1 that is 15 Pesos a cup 5 Pesos for the package 10 for the cup of hot water... you mix it yourself. Half the Sari stores sell pastries at 2 to 5 Pesos each piece. The average person making 200 Pesos a day... How much do you think they are going to be willing to give you?

If you are talking dollars.... Well I'd have to say that a fool and his money shall soon part. That's 5 million Pesos.  Even if you are living high on the hog you couldn't spend that in ten years living here. They live very good off of 200 k a year here...so I'm going to pretend you are talking Pesos and suggest you find a higher traffic area and open a mom and pop. Do not hire anyone else other than yourself because whoever you hire is going to pocket your till...

Thank you for this info, it helped me understand how much money I really need to shell out to start a decent business. I am talking pesos and not dollars btw. I wonder if it'll be cheaper if I buy baking/cooking/coffee machines/equipments here in the states. I'm pretty sure it will help. I just want to open a small coffee/merienda/bakery store good for 20 in the corner of my house ( a little better than carinderia)  no rent to pay and I'm not aiming to make a lot of money I love to cook and entertain so I thought food business might be best for me.

I willl bump up my budget to 300K (pesos) also there won't be employees, it will be run by me, hubby and my kids.

Again, thanks for your comment, it helped.

Walmart has very nice quizenart coffee machines under $200, I just had one shipped to me.   It grinds a

and brews 12 cups. It makes cappuccino and has a steamer.

i will suggest u to set up a clothing shop. that 100 k is more thna enough to sell branded clothing items let me know if u need any help

Try also to weigh the advantage of franchise business since they already have names and market identified, if I may suggest it will be better that you go on medicine like "the Generics Pharmacy" or "generika". These are all basic needs and you are very sure that payback of your investment is within the time expected especially if you are located to the most traffic area by foot. On the other hand with 300k that is enough bond if you are going to enter into lotto outlet in ph, as you know, they are so fond of gambling legally and illegally...lol... This type of business has already built in safe internal control so you can audit and go on checking regularly to minimize any misused of your resources.

Home based business is good, you can save on the cost but it requires you a lot of time and effort to market and go on social contacts to advertise and promote your products.

Good luck!

Thank you for your smart suggestions and advice!

Before I forget madam, you may also try to learn money to exchange business in Ph, try tapping local banks etc,.. I think that is also within your budget..

That's not a bad idea either.

Thank you!

Sorry maybe I am reading this wrong 'Do mean you lend money to exchange businesses ??' What is the rate of return on that is it based on the forex for the day or something else.

For money exchange business, they usually do not used the spot rate of the day. They play more fixed than the bank. Either you can used historical average rate or higher than spot rate.   And either hold the dollars until the rate is favourable on you.. Or sell it to others who need dollars when going outside the country..

wow id love to see these coffee machines that cost 1/2 million peso especially when one guy plans to build a house for a little more

How 'bout having a franchised food cart business and place it in Malls or in a commercial building?

I think the best advice I can give you is this. And I'm  assuming both you and your husband are returning Filipinos. Correct?

If that's the case you first decide where you want to live - once you have the area move there and keep your eyes and ears open as to what is needed in that area.

What is the area short of? What do people want? How much do the locals like to spend? On what do they like to spend. If you are at all smart then a plan will begin to develop.

Remember....

Due diligence is the spice of life.

I agree with @gonta - sensible advice. 100K PHP is not much to start a business and in general - the best advice - do NOTHING until you have (1) decided where to live and (2) you have done lots and lots of business research and a feasibility study - otherwise your money will soon have gone in licensing, permits and local bureaucracy.

I do not wish to be too negative, but please remember that 95% of businesses fail in the first 2 years (typically after only one year), so do not invest more than you can afford to lose.

gonta wrote:

I think the best advice I can give you is this. And I'm  assuming both you and your husband are returning Filipinos. Correct?

If that's the case you first decide where you want to live - once you have the area move there and keep your eyes and ears open as to what is needed in that area.

What is the area short of? What do people want? How much do the locals like to spend? On what do they like to spend. If you are at all smart then a plan will begin to develop.

Remember....

Due diligence is the spice of life.

I agree with gonta. You will never really know what type of business to set up near your place until you've experienced the market first hand.

All the business ideas posted here may be profitable in certain instances, and bad investments in some. And sometimes, a currently profitable company might lose clients later on depending on competition.

For example, when we first moved here, we got our drinking water from a water refilling station. They had many clients, but soon a few others noticed their popularity and profitability, and opened their own stations. As more opened, each became less and less profitable. Now, some of them have closed.

Pick wisely, and have an exit plan in case things don't work out here as you hoped.

Are you talking about pesos or US dollars, or ?

Online gold jewelry business on Facebook. I'm doing very well.

A lot of good advice here. I see you are talking pesos, so I would suggest an online business.