It’s not hard to imagine that from the OFW perspective, financial dreams are not made of candy clouds and somnambulant wanderings between bright business ideas. They are built by wide-eyed hard work and sacrifice. Unfortunately, financial security at home – the dream of almost every OFW I know – gets trumped by many things, not least of all the inability to start a small business.
Nielsen Media Research simply described this inability as a tendency to depend on monthly remittances for daily expenses. Jay Mendoza, NMR says most families of OFWs prefer to have no other sources of income.
I’m not an expert on the OFW community, but I think there’s more to the story than that, just as there is more to a business than capital. There must be more to the figures than just languid dependence and zero creativity.
To thrive, OFW families cannot just rush into any “business opportunity.” Too much money from overseas workers have disappeared inside Internet café businesses, parlors, miracle virgin coconut oil and network marketing schemes.
So, the question often asked is: what is a good business to get into? Now, here’s the irony of the moment: it is the OFW that gains the global perspective and skill to build and nurture an enduring business, but he or she has to depend on the family member, who may or may not have what it takes to make good and quick business decisions.
Assuming the tough part is over. The niche has been created, the product designed finished and the business has survived its first month. The OFW-financed business still has to contend with supply chain problems, pilferage, fraud, marketing – issues that even a sari-sari store should adequately address if it is to grow beyond a sari-sari store. Now, What Cat has an interesting series all on how OFW businesses fail.
If it’s hard to begin, it’s even harder to know when to end a fledgling business. When things don’t go exactly as planned, how do you know when to cut losses or when to persevere? Capital is no longer the issue here. The things that make a real entrepreneur – pure gut feel – come into play. Most OFW families just say ‘I don’t want to get burned any more. This is a lotta work.”
So, what happens? Back to just waiting for remittances. Wala pang lugi.
This is one of the stories behind the figures, another way of looking at the survey results that may give us reason to poke at possibilities for change. OFW families, heck Filipinos in general, need help to set up their businesses successfully. Who will give assistance?
Should it be the government? Should it be private companies wishing to do good in their communities? I have found many government entities and corporate foundations with “entrepreneurship” as their gilded missions. If you belong to these groups, don’t just do good in your little corner. Broadcast your message and reach out to more OFWs, to more communities, to more Filipinos who have the dreams and the tenacity to hold on to them. This country needs more than just slogans and missions. Our entrepreneurs are waiting to blossom and they need your help.
October 15th, 2007 at 5:30 pm
I think majority of OFW’s are not business oriented, being business minded i think we should live in a simple life, huwag masyadong maluwag sa paggastos ng pera. also dapat ituro sa school from elementary to high school ang halaga ng business.
October 15th, 2007 at 4:50 pm
We should stop blaming the common tao for being afraid to venture into business (I’m sure many have tried and failed). We should instead pressure government to come up with policies that are conducive to small businesses. The President for instance (where in the world did she get her economics degree) had no reason to brag that the peso is so strong. This is not a measure of a growing economy: job generation is, and
hopefully in the near future, there will be no need for our country’s mothers to leave their young children to clean toilets
in other parts of the world! A high peso only entices market-seekers who come to sell, but penalizes our own exporters who
have to compete in the open market. And anyway the peso is only high relative to the US dollar which is really low (and kept low because of the housing crisis). Government should be made to come up with a programme to keep people at home, instead of relying on remittances to keep the country afloat and bragging about it! If we let our government just sit around and wait for remittances, we should not blam OFW families for doing the same. Let us get rid of this culture once and for all.
October 15th, 2007 at 4:43 pm
Thanks for the link.
That was only part 3
In case they’re interested, here’s parts 1 and 2.
http://cathcath.com/?p=2987
http://cathcath.com/?p=2995
October 15th, 2007 at 4:32 pm
Myrna,
That’s sad. My wife and I have tried opening a business ourselves, likewise funded by a loan from an OFW relative, and it really helped that nowadays there’s the BMBE law. I could say that after a year the operations have somewhat stabilized, not enough to support a family but it definitely earns much more money than my wife’s previous job.
I continued working, and hopefully I can leave my job too and set up my own business if the earnings of our business get high enough.
October 15th, 2007 at 11:41 am
i guess it’s really hard to open up a business in the Philippines, generally, not only for those OFWs. my husband and i tried several businesses, thinking of focusing on it and leaving our regular jobs. but sad to say, the return on investment is not as rewarding as we expected. the business is earning but not enough to support a family.