Welcome to the fifth installment of RachFeed’s interview series, “Top Business Ideas for OFWs”. We invited Mufti Lahaba of Your Driveway to Financial Freedom to share his ideas.
As one who never graduated from college because of financial reasons, Mufti is an excellent example of a person who turned his life around despite the odds being against him. He now enjoys financial freedom and shares his knowledge from financial learning on forums, seminars, books and personal experience through his blog.
Although he wanted to pursue a degree in Psychology, Computer Science or Business Management back in his youth, this undergrad computer engineer is now taking up B.S. Islamic Finance Business and Economics while also currently as a bilingual HR advisor (in Human Resources). Before that, he had also worked as a shop attendant, computer technician, IT instructor, technical support agent, and Spanish analyst.
Robert Kyosaki, Jim Rohn and Tony Robbins are his favorite authors on finance while Fitz Villafuerte and Christopher Cervantes are among the mentors who helped him become a financial literacy advocate.
Check out Mufti’s response to the standard question we asked all the financial bloggers and experts in this blog series:
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?
There are several options that an OFW can choose from, depending on his financial capability. But I think the best one to manage is a franchise business. A franchise business has already a proven business system that a franchisee can follow. However I should caution that managing a franchise business is not as easy as everyone thinks; it requires skills, training and passion.
An OFW who thinks of managing a franchise business must look for someone who is capable enough to handle the business while he is abroad. The franchise will provide free management training and business operation which is much better than trying to put up your own business where you have to start from scratch.
With a proven business system, the risk of failing is less as compared to a traditional business that you have to start from the roots. Statistics shows that franchise business has a success rate of 80 to 90%.
You can find some related article in here: 10 Franchise Business Choices if You Want To Open a Business Today
One other option is to buy a condo or for closure properties that can be rented out. While the OFW is away he can have his relative collect the rent from these properties and add to his income. In the beginning it might not be enough for an OFW to quit his job abroad and go home but if he can acquire more properties and have them all rented out until he reach his monthly target income, he can go home and manage this business.
Like most of the bloggers in this series, Mufti also recommends franchise business and real estate. It appears that these are the best choices for OFWs, especially because they are not physically available at all times to personally run the business.
