Its a very good question and one I think about a lot. When you first arrive in the Philippines your thrown back by the greenery and blue waters as the plane dropped below clouds. You rush to meet your partner and quickly find chaos as you enter the Philippines bustle and turmoil of the streets. It gives you a funny feeling of adventure and newness of things you have never seen before. Shanty towns and street vendors, the multi-cabs and Jeepneys, the “hey joe`s” and the smiling faces. On top of that hit on by beautiful women nearly every day are you in paradise? You have experienced the Philippines from the tourist perspective what happens when the shine comes off…

I was recently having a discussion with a friend of mine over school fees as a school in Talisay tried to double charge him on fees purely because he was a foreigner. It resulted in a dispute where he withdrew his kids and is teaching them at home. If your forced to do such things with the most important things in life to give your kids a head start I can see why I would up and leave. At the same time illness had taken hold and had taken several doctors for him to get the correct diagnosis. Two major factors in life here in the Philippines when they go wrong.

Then there is the racism aspect with overcharging which is “expected” and when you refuse its laughed off as if its fine by the people trying to do it. Could be something as simple as bananas from a market or trying to get you to pay double on buying a car because you are a “foreigner you can afford it”.

Truth of the matter is you have to adapt but some people I have spoken to recently are starting to look at other countries that are willing to give them a better break on medical care and visas as well as home ownership.

There are tips on getting the most out of the Philippines and a lot of it may seem a bit extreme but its the only way to keep your costs down. Firstly is when doing business you need someone local as switched on as you as this makes a big difference in getting things done and cheaply. You sit in the background and let things get done around you just keeping financial controls in place that can keep you in the know and the ability to adapt to changing markets. Construction work can be difficult for many but the best way to do it is do it yourself. Hiring staff isn’t a problem and the structures are pretty simple infact you could get a design thrown together for your house construction by a local architect for not a lot of money. But personally I think its important to monitor your own projects same as the UK as simply there are too many rogues in the building trade worldwide also means you get it done the way you want.

Buying and selling is another problem. Buying a house in the Philippines with your partner you just don’t need the realtors as they hike up the price and not by a small amount they generally work on percentages so doubling the cost of a house gives them double the interest doesn’t matter you paid P2m for a P1m house right? your the foreigner you can afford it! Its that last line I use a lot in my head as it tells you to tell them to get lost. Filipinos don’t like being called stupid and I don’t like people assuming I’m a dumb foreigner who its fine to steal from.

So how do you find your property? Personally the easiest way I found is wander around or ask an expat like myself to look for you. I have found apartments for people before as rentals because generally I would advise nobody to buy for at least 6 months due to location issues and the fact you may not like it in the Philippines. Its easy to buy a house but hard to sell unless you want to take a loss. I have friends who have had houses on the market for a couple of years. The reason its better asking me to find an apartment btw is purely because if I ever did charge commission I would tell you up front but so far I have done it to help out friends I have here needing tenants for free. But as my pocket gets a little thinner it maybe time to start looking at it as an alternative venture. Difference is though you will no doubt save on the monthly rental as I will try to get it at “local” prices rather than the fees being charged to foreigners.

Buying your daily produce gets easier over time what you need to do is find the local prices which takes time but once you have it you will find market vendors will give you a local rate because your there regular on top of that if they do try to overcharge just say “Mahal” (expensive) with a disgruntled face and walk away or try bartering as often bartering is expected. The supermarkets are labelled etc. so no worries there just avoid places like Gaisano for electrical products as they breakdown very quickly and your just burning money. Better to head into Makro or the main malls for appliances. You will pay more but the difference is years not weeks on product life.

So why move to the Philippines? for me its personal reasons my wife and daughter are here as well as Aprils parents. I’m very interested in developing business and although Asia is full of fast growing economies I find the Philippines isn’t jumping in to get a slice of the pie. Is there money to be made? definitely but can you imagine a furniture maker turning you down because “they don’t want anymore business?” that is exactly happened with a business I approached in Cebu for Export. So if you are looking for running an export business you are better to approach companies in Taiwan and China as they are prepared to do most of the leg work for you.

I may sound a bit harsh on the Philippines but it is a country that isn’t so welcoming to the Foreigner and I cant see it changing. Ideally the Philippines should build in a property ownership and visa combination where if you own a property you don’t need a visa. The “employment”  visa for foreigners that was brought in last year was a stepping stone but still doesn’t reach the same rights that Filipinos have or that foreigners seek. But its not just the Philippines generally Asia has a lot of laws that are anti-foreign for which we can only blame our home countries as they could just as easily enforce changes in the UK etc. that would force change. I wonder what India and China would do finding out its operations in the UK would be treated the same way as they treat UK Citizens and ventures in India and China? Will it ever happen I doubt it as the UK government has no spine and too much personal gain for those in power.

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Life in the Philippines can be complex and difficult like any other parts of the world and recently we can say we are going through one of those periods. Not because we are unhappy but simply a re-jigging of finances and things we are upto put a hole in the wallet and a delay on rebuilding the pocket.

The internet cafe is up and sort of in a middle of a stall due to the poor internet connection provided by Smart who lack any interest in customer service I suppose that comes from running pretty much a monopoly. Not only did we bin or Smart Bro Share it which aren’t worth the money but the next net café along from us did exactly the same on the same day. Am I bitter or annoyed? To be honest I just want a reliable service you seem to get a run around on the telephone comms industry here as nobody really cares if you get what you want or not or infact don’t even update on if it will be done or not. So that’s sort of burned a big hole until it starts rolling again which it no doubt will once someone decides to do a days work at Smart.

But above the cafe the first apartment is pretty much well underway and I’m pleased with the way its looking. The budget is pretty much on course and the problem is not can we let it but can we get the second one built asap. As currently we have two people wanting a long term rental. Things are starting to get a bit more organised but I can see an extra P250,000 being needed to get everything the way we want it. Although the whole P250,000 wont be needed in lump sum it will be needed in stages to get the next two projects finished. The first one being the Sari-Sari under the second apartment then the second apartment. So many people will tell you a Sari-Sari is a waste of time but its more about what your selling rather than who you are selling to. For a start most people don’t have freezers or refrigerators so there is an instant market for frozen produce. Add another factor of being able to buy live chickens from the main egg producers you have a second business opening up. That’s even before we start looking into the sausages and cured meats. We started selling ice-pops recently not the biggest thing in the world I know wont get rich overnight but we sell a pack a day which comes to P40 profit add that to everything else going on the venture is moving more from viable to lucrative. There are so many things you can do with limited space problem is we are just about out of it this year and will need to look for our next property lot to expand or buying into houses which has hit a stumbling block. For one April is looking after Zoei full-time at the moment so cant get a loan there and I have little to nothing declared in the Philippines so I cant gain finance either. The only viable way to do it is to pay cash which in the long run will be the better deal.

I can see the next three years being hard as we start to move forward as the foundations on the ideas are starting to take shape. From our other ventures we have a sustainable income. Getting the net café going will give Jovie a stable income and the two apartments and sari-sari will be the back bone of saving for the next property. If we can gain two houses in the P1m bracket each by December I will be more than happy. Currently its a hard amount of cash to find but I am hoping a few ideas I have will pay off to push us towards the goal needed to succeed.

Why do I push so hard with so many objectives? I looked at most things and you will find most people on forums will say “you cant make money in the Philippines” or “want to make a small fortune start with a large one”. In reality everything comes down to time management and its how we will get ahead of the game. Currently Aprils parents are busy full-time with one of our ventures and Jovie is busy with the net-cafe. But the net-cafe will eventually be setup with the Sari-Sari store  so that one person can operate both of them and with the apartments upstairs one person is literally running four incomes. I will progress with things online and hopefully start developing some websites. I currently have one client who is waiting for one to be done and its something I can easily build on. Some of you may be thinking but every man and his dog is online making money! but That’s only looking to make P40,000 a month from the venture as we are already sustainable. On top of that the P40,000 is for development of properties we all work as a group towards a goal that supports everyone. Why do so many people fail in the Philippines? I think a lot of it is down to the fact that many would fail regardless of country while others have bad luck and finally others don’t use what they do have available at theyre disposal. Most family members struggle to find work in the Philippines so it just makes sense to generate ideas as getting a Filipino average salary can be achieved more easily if people have money or products to start with. We hit a hurdle in December – January which hit us financially hard. But we are still here and will no doubt recoup and move forward from it we may have received a bloody nose in one of the ventures but its already starting to recover and no doubt 2010 is going to be more prosperous.

I didnt forget about the aquaponics by the way its simply that Smart has taken up so much of my time recently on top of getting the net cafe finished that we will hopefully begin the fish production in March all going well.

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