Earning more in Sari-sari(Small Retailing) Store

My mother has a small retailing store. It sells different consumer commodities. The sales was great yesterday. That is why I was thinking how to earn more.

I noticed today the chips still didn't sell. I was thinking of giving promo or discounts. How can we sell them more quickly. Cash is still king. No matter how big the mark up is but if it doesn't sell fast, it doesn't matter.

The other day, mother posted a poster that says cigarettes are now available. I noticed sales did great. That's when I was thinking if we could get more attention by posting different promos. I think it's OK to cut prices as long as consumers buy continuously. The goal is to hasten the return.

My recommendation, therefore, is add some strategies in marketing. Other things that I also thought about is giving tokens of appreciation to frequent customers. It would be great to know what happen if we implement them.

Japan will support PH

It's great to know that Japan's Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida that his country will have deeper relationship with the Philippines. Great things can happen when nations work together.

Japan will also help in strengthening marine capabilities in our country. It's nice to have a friend country. I also notice a lot of Koreans in the country. It would be great if they will be our close friend as well.

We can look forward for more progress in our country.

Learning from Steve Jobs Quote - Let People Decide

"Sometimes when you innovate, you make mistakes. It is best to admit them quickly, and get on with improving your other innovations." - Steve Jobs

Maybe you experienced one time in your life saying"If only my boss would let me decide in my work, the company would be more productive." Or are you the kind of person who is afraid of deciding on your own? You may have also experienced in your life of being afraid to make a mistake. Why is it that sometimes we are afraid to decide?

Most people really love to give advises. A lot are not aware that some people hate receiving unsolicited advises. I know some people who do not have the confidence in deciding for themselves. It's as if they are scared of being accountable of their decisions. They are scared of being blamed, screwing things, getting fired or getting scold. While these things are normal, the problem is they may have undesirable consequences if an individual develops more hesitancy and accumulate fear of failure. The worst is people develop self-doubt and lose confidence.

The reasons above make me feel that we need to be aware of our contributions in developing self-doubt to the people around us. Here are a few guidelines that I follow:

1. Ask and listen instead of giving unsolicited advise - When somebody asks me for advise, I first ask them what is the most important thing to them. I'm very cautious right now in giving advises. My experience is people get to be too dependent when you give them advises and solutions always. I prefer in helping them find the solution that they want to do and they confidently feel would work for them.

2. Only work with the willing - Most especially if you do not have a lot of experience in leading and managing people. We love to change people. You can save yourself heartaches if you only work with the willing.

3. Delegate decision making - To delegate tasks is necessary. But be sure to have people that you will be delegating decision making. You will burn yourself out if you do not upgrade yourself in delegating decision making. It's easier to have partners that can decide than partners that will remain followers forever.

The guidelines above is not for everybody though. There are prerequisites before they become authentic and efficient. The prerequisite is experiencing that doing the opposite of those guidelines is less efficient. When a person have not yet experienced that, he will not understand the importance of the above guidelines. If you haven't yet experienced this inefficiency, don't worry. Being aware about this is already a great leap. Just be sure to notice this in your surrounding and try something. Do not try this if making a mistake has too much at stake. Only make small mistakes first. So only develop experience with easy tasks. Aim high, but start small.

If you are not very confident with yourself as of the moment especially if you do not have experience, always have a buddy. The important thing is take action.

Ludwig

Photo by Valine Villanueva

Realization after doing the CEO Files

After reading the Tribal Leadership book, I hated myself in creating the CEO Files. Then I realized I guess it was part of the process. The CEO Files is more like someone who knows he has skills and wants to share it. In tribal leadership there is tribal pride. The CEO File is more like somebody's pride. When I understand deeper tribal leadership, individual's pride is necessary before being part of a tribe and feel the tribe's pride.

I seem to don't like to use the title anymore. I guess I'm done with being a superstar. My instincts always look for just what works and get done with it. So, what now?

What is the contribution of blogging? What is the contribution of writing? Is it just a display of opinion? I like the thing that I heard from Coca-Cola. They wanted to "provoke" conversations. Since communication fuels action, I guess blogging can still be useful. Only, I feel, when I'm blogging, it's a one way communication. How will I be able to collaborate with a group or individuals through my blogs?

I guess the best way is to tackle a certain issue. What is the problem? Then I can communicate with individuals who also want to solve the issue. What issue will I take on? Or rather, what tribe should I join to tackle together an issue?

I think this is the best way to do as of the moment.

Ludwig

Stephanie Nicole Ella Case: What can we do with this celebratory gunfire during New Year's Eve

Just watched the news today and again the News about the little girl who died because of celebratory gunfire during New Year's Eve. Sad faces of her classmates were shown because they miss their friend who loves to have fun. I guess she's a very upbeat and positive girl.
 
She has a little brother that is so young and her parents don't know how to explain to him that his sister is gone. It really cuts my heart while watching this.



I remember the things I learned when we did our animation business last year. We learned something about tribal leadership. I was thinking about this while watching the news. I'm asking myself who is to blame with this issue.

Since I'm practicing not to blame people, I started to think about this in a different perspective. I based the perspective in the things I learned in tribal leadership. The problem roots in the culture. It's not necessarily the Filipino culture but the culture of human beings in general.

The people who do criminal acts, suicide, neglect the value of life and so on can be in the same culture based on tribal leadership (Google search Tribal Leadership Book and you can download free ebook to know more). Do we blame them for having this kind of culture? They may have their contributions for having this kind of culture and of course we also do have our share of contribution.

The recommendation of the book is to help this people upgrade their culture to a better one. The culture that they have as of the moment is ''life sucks" culture. They see happy people as just pretending to be happy. The assume that happy people also have a miserable life and they just pretend to be ok with their lives. That is why, people in this state do not value life.


To upgrade the culture, it takes steps and a process. It would probably take a long time. And it doesn't work to everybody. Only to the people who are willing to improve their culture and lives can it work. Knowing this, I began to reflect more: what little things can I and a few people do? After understanding a bit about these people, what can we do?

I guess I can only start with the people around me. Just like the saying think globally and work locally. And maybe if the circle grows, we could influence more people and share the successes. It would be great that not only the government will take the initiative in doing something.

Ludwig

Photos by Valine Villanueva

I Decided to Grow as a Person through Business

I value personal growth. I value gaining wisdom. I also value in making them work. I will be 32 in March. How is my growth? Did I really grow? What has changed?

It all started when I read a business book. I was empowered and scared at the same time. The book had a prediction of stock market crash. It also gives basic knowledge in financial literacy. The projection of the crash did happen like the book said. I'm a little informed about investment and business. But I wasn't yet full out.

I started to fear of getting broke when I get old. I was determined to learn and take action immediately. That decision created bad and good experiences.



The very first major business I did was with my family. Or at least I think I was involved in that business. It was initiated by my mother. We converted a house into a rental property. We had a heated argument and that pushed me to take leadership seriously.

The last business that I was involved last year was animation. I got very disappointed with myself and our team. I'm still happy for the experience and I learned a lot.



I met one of my very first business coaches. "Fix your life" was one of the lines that struck me when we get to talk again. It really stuck in my head. Yes, it's time to really review the actions I did and plan the next navigation.

As of the moment, I'm taking things slow. I'm happy to spend time with my family again. I'll plan with them and hopefully make things better this time.

Cheers to a very prosperous 2013!

Ludwig


Photos by Valine Villanueva

What will 2013 be?

WENT HOME TO Davao for Christmas and New Year. Got here last December 16, 2012. It's been 6 to 7 years that I haven't spent Christmas and New Year with my family. It's great to be here.

It's been 4 years doing only business. It was a great experience and learning. I'm now reviewing all of my plans. Excited to make it all happen.

Ludwig