My mother is a kapampangan and she is a great cook. I don't know if it's true that kapampangans are good in cooking. But in my mom's case, it is true. This special talent of her was used months after my father died. She opened a small carenderia/eatery at Dona Segunda Complex. We have some money left at that time so she was able to buy the necessary equipment to start an eatery. She would wake up early every morning and cook viands to be sold and she will set aside something for our breakfast. Then she would left the house by 9:00am to open the stall. Sometimes she will cook new dishes for lunch at the eatery. She hired someone to help her out but she is still the one doing the chores like cooking, serving, and washing the dishes. Most of her customers were students from Interface Computer College, a school just above her stall and some sales clerks on the garment stalls nearby. But that business only lasted for about 3 months or so. The income was not that good because the competition is tight and there was no customer loyalty. She was spending more on the ingredients than the money she is making for serving them.

Lesson: Technical skill is just one thing, management skill is also another. Not because you are good at something, it does not necessarily mean you are going to succeed on it.

  My father has a dry goods business.  But one time, he tried to engage in a small scale money lending.  Small scale because the maximum amount he allowed to be loan is P2,000.  His client were mostly supermarket vendors.  Here is the business system.  Every 3 pm, the store clerk that was assigned to my dad's money lending transaction would leave the store and proceed to the vendors.  She will bring some cash and ledgers.  The next morning, she would then have the names of the borrowers and the amount they borrowed.  Collection was done everyday.  No credit investigation and no further verification about the borrowers background.  This went on for about how many months.  Many loan releases but minimal collection.  The store manager then started to question the clerk who is doing the lending transaction.  She explained that she can no longer locate some of the vendors that is why their is minimal collection.  This was investigated and it turns out nobody knows anybody.  It looks like the names were just fabricated.  And the money?  Charge to experience and considered as losses.

Lesson: Before you engage in any business, be sure to establish a system that will protect your investment.

My mother used to run a sari sari store. It's the easiest business to start yet some don't really succeed. You know why? MISMANAGEMENT. The start up stocks of my mother was purchased using my credit card. I told them that they will just pay me when they already have the money. I have four siblings and all of them are still studying at that time and my mom does not have a work. So there is no other income coming in. By the way, I'm already married with 3 kids. Anyways, the store sales were okay. The problem is, they use the money for my brothers and sisters school allowance and transportation expense. If they no longer have food, they get from the store without paying for it. The store was just like their extended pantry and stock room. By the end of the month, there were no longer items to be sold and no money to buy new stocks. They tried to ask me for another capital. But I told them that it won't make any difference because they will still do the same thing. I told them that they should not touch the store's earnings if they still want to continue the business. Or they can just get a portion of the proceeds but not everything because they need to replenish their stocks. Well, I can't blame them for doing those things. They have no other source of income.