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.

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Every entrepreneur knows about the futility of moving with herds. You see a herd, get worked up by how profitable they look as they come down the highway stampeding all the way and you move quickly to join only to realize that you jumped in too late at too high a cost.

There’s not a hotter business idea these days that will compare with call centers. But can 10-seaters slug it out with the big boys? If you’re a Johnny-come-lately, do you still stand a chance?

Joji Ilagan Bian, a businesswoman from Davao says “Smites” or small and medium-scale IT enterprises are sprouting up and they are banding together to compete with big companies.

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The student with a clever idea for a business, the office worker who has been dreaming of starting a unique pastry shop, the OFW  who has been living poor so he can save enough money to start a business — all labor under the assumption that it takes money to make money.

I, too, believe that money begets money because capital is where the energy of an enterprise comes from. It’s not the only source, of course. An inspired business model, determination to succeed and all that are all folded into the business enterprise. But when it comes to money and capital, either you have it or you don’t have it.

Cynthia Baello, in “From P200 to riches”, an article from the Philippine Daily Inquirer, made me think again. She started her business with P200, and grew it from there. This story has several business lessons for everyone.

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Serendipitous moments are crystalline in their beauty. Just as Open For Business readers figure out how to handle the continuous strengthening of the peso against the dollar (see previous post), here come your friendly central bankers explaining how YOU — exporters, small business owners and even private investors — can prepare.

Doris Dumlao wrote after the central bank forum on the exchange rate that disadvantaged sectors could tap a wide array of hedging tools to reduce their foreign exchange risks. (Click here to read the entire article).

“The peso is expected to remain firm for the rest of the year on the back of sustained dollar inflows from overseas Filipino remittances, portfolio and foreign direct investments and export receipts,” BSP Deputy Governor Diwa Guinigundo said at a forum with exporters.

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Are you ready to get 40 pesos for every dollar by next year? What about 30 pesos per dollar by 2009? Whether it’s a sign from the heavens, what the tarot cards say or a forecasting model, the signs show the peso will continue to strengthen. At least, for now.

Businesses, big and small, cannot escape foreign exchange risks. Doris Dumlao wrote in the Philippine Daily Inquirer early last month that 75 firms, mostly small and medium scale enterprises, have closed shop as the invisible hands of the peso’s sharp appreciation caused owners to surrender to the trend.

Sergio Ortiz-Luiz Jr., president of the Philippine Exporters’ Confederation, has challenged the central bank’s bias for a stronger peso – something that the central bank immediately refuted. Finger-pointing, however, cannot solve the issue. Almost all currencies are strengthening against the US dollar.

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