The third blogger RachFeed tapped to share his knowledge about the top business ideas for OFWs is one half of the blogging pair jointly known as “The Cristobal”. Tristan Ian F. Cristobal is married to Carmi Irene R. Cristobal. Both of them are experts in the financial field.
Tristan has a passion for business, especially in sharing financial information and knowledge with OFWs. The duo even has this Vision for their blog: “We envision that every Filipino household especially OFWs and their dependents will be stronger in financial matters and family relationships.”
Aside from being a Financial Consultant of Pru Life UK, he is also a Certified Public Accountant. He also knows the ins and outs of the financial world, thanks to his early exposure to their family business.
As with the other business bloggers we are featuring in this series, we have faith that Tristan is an expert in what he is doing and could share his knowledge to our OFW readers.
Question:
What do you think is the best business an OFW can open in the Philippines even if he/she is still abroad? Do you think this business could be successful enough for the OFW to quit his/her job abroad and return home to simply manage the start-up company?
Answer:
Do you know the most common question of an OFW about business?
An OFW always asks what’s the best business he/she can start with while working abroad. This question is always answered by a common phrase “that would depend on your passion or business that you know you have capabilities of…”
Truth to be told…
All kinds of businesses are best for an OFW because a business is established for financial purpose which is to earn profit and every business has the potential to earn profit. Aside from this, here are two advantages of a business for an OFW:
- Key – An OFW can still earn passively while working abroad. Then, once the business becomes successful, it can be used as a key for an OFW to go back home to the Philippines.
- Availability of capital requirements – An OFW who is working in Middle East can immediately and easily avail a bank loan because banks requirements and processes are easy to follow compared with the Philippine banks’ requirements. This is in addition to an OFW receiving a higher salary compared with someone working in the Philippines. Thus, an OFW can easily open a business based on his/her financial capacity while abroad.
These two advantages should be understood by an OFW so that a business can be planned and properly executed.
Now here’s the sad reality…
An OFW can never really know the best business for him/her unless he/she tried to establish a certain business.
One should understand that nobody can really tell which business is best because, at the end of the day, an OFW should decide, invest in that business, and make an effort for it to become successful.
It is a very difficult question to answer because nobody can’t give the perfect or best advice to an OFW unless the one giving advice has a clear understanding of the current situation of the OFW.
To determine what’s the best business, an OFW should consider these three things.
- Investing in yourself – An OFW should invest first in himself or herself by attending trainings or seminars. An OFW should look for 3–5 business options and not stick with only one option on the table.
- Improving your own skills – This is very basic but very important to consider because the problem is that most OFWs don’t know what they really want. Thus, they should start from within and list down the basic skills that can be improved and eventually sold/shared to the market. Such basic skills include cooking, baking, coffee making etc…
- Creating Realistic Business Goal – The business should be realistic based on the current capacity of an OFW. The business should be actionable which is based on the current situation of an OFW– this is in consideration of who should manage the business, the location of the business, and capital requirements of the business.
The first two considerations are very important but are being overlooked, though not by all, but majority of OFWs especially on attending seminars and trainings. OFWs should not be afraid to invest in learning fees – if an OFW is afraid and have this kind of mentality, then he/she can never help himself/herself achieve the best business that is suitable.
Here are our recommended businesses that an OFW can consider.
- Food
- Medicine
- Shelter/Real Estate
- Finances
- Transportation
An OFW should focus on those businesses that people are already buying. These businesses could become successful if an OFW got the right formula.
You can’t really tell if the business is for you unless you’ve tried it.
Regards,
The Cristobal
P.S. Please visit www.thecristobal.info for more information about life, relationship, business, investments, and personal finances. The website is a family-oriented site. The founders’ story is a typical story of one Filipino who decided to go abroad while his/her partner should stay in Philippines.
The founders authored two e-books entitled:
- “How to Understand OFWs and Help Them Go Back Home” – which is being given for free. One just needs to sign up to grab the copy.
- “Discover the Five Year Plan of an OFW” – The main objective of the couple is for them to share their secret formula on how to go back in Philippines and to answer the question “Hanggang kailan ka magiging OFW?” – this is through this e-book.