BOOKKEEPER FOR IMMEDIATE HIRING

I have a client who urgently needs a bookkeeper for their newly established Manufacturing company at EPZA, Rosario, Cavite. Preference given to Cavite residents.

JOB DESCRIPTION
To record, monitor and report on the day-to-day financial activities of the company and assist in the general administration of the company’s various activities.

JOB SPECIFICATION
1. Maintain the day-to-day accounts for the company and ensure that all electronic and manual records are in order.
2. Liaise with the Chief Company Accountant on all matters relating to the company accounts.
3. Liaise with warehouse staff to ensure that inventory is in order.
4. Take an active role in the general administration of the company activities.
5. Provide administrative support to other company staff.

SKILLS REQUIRED
• Sound knowledge of the accounting requirements of small-medium enterprises.
• In-depth knowledge of financial accounting and taxation in the Philippines.
• Proficient in reconciling bank statements.
• High-level ability in a Windows PC environment using Microsoft Office software applications, especially Excel.
• High-level ability using Peachtree accounting software, or similar packages.
• Ability to work effectively as part of a team.
• High-level spoken and written English language capability.
• Knowledge of manufacturing industry preferred, but not required.

EXPERIENCE REQUIRED
• College graduate - Accounting major.
• Minimum 2 years work experience in a small-medium sized enterprise or larger.
• Newly graduate are welcome to apply.

To apply, please send your resume at: sheila@sheiferr.com

MEDICAL SUPPLIES SALES INCREASE DUE TO SWINE FLU

Philippine health officials say Influenza A(H1N1) cases in the country have climbed to 193, including patients from a farming town north of Manila where a community-level outbreak has been declared.

With this, sales of medical supplies such as Respirator Mask, Rubbing Alcohol, Alcohol based hand sanitizers as well as Vitamin C, Multi-vitamins and Tami-flu or Relenza has soared tremedously these past few weeks.

Previously, a box of mask was selling at only P50 but now have reportedly been sold at P80-P100 per box.

Six Low-Risk Ways to Start a Business

Every business startup involves some degree of risk. But while no business is risk-free, some ways of launching your business are less risky than others. Here are six low-risk ways to start a business.

1. Start your business from home: Choosing a business location requires you to lock yourself into a lease and pay rent, utilities, and other costs for the space. But many types of businesses can just as easily be operated from home. By running your business from home,  you save on the overhead costs of commercial space. You also save the time and money you would normally spend commuting, which means you can be more productive.

2. Start your business part time: If time allows, you can start a business while keeping your full-time day job.  This gives you the cushion of a regular paycheck and benefits from your job until your business is making enough to pay you. If running a business and working full time is too much, consider getting a part-time job to pay the bills while you launch your business. Look for part-time work that has flexible hours to give you time for your business. You can even turn it into a business education; for instance, if you’re starting your own fashion-design company, get a part-time job at a boutique so you can learn the industry from the customer’s point of view.

3. Start an e-commerce business: These days, a retail business doesn’t need a bricks-and-mortar location to succeed. By selling your products online, you can reach a nationwide or even global customer base. You significantly cut your costs, since you aren’t paying rent and won’t need to staff a store with salespeople. Depending on how much business you get, it’s possible to run an e-commerce business with you as the sole employee, at least when you first start out. You can also launch an e-commerce site as a way of testing the waters and then expand to a brick-and-mortar location once your site is successful.

4. Buy an existing business: If the costs and risks of starting a business from scratch intimidate you, consider buying an existing business. Although there is still a certain degree of risk involved, you will be buying a business where the location, employees, customer base, and systems are already established. Since you won’t have to go through the trial-and-error you would with a brand-new business, you’ll save time, effort, and money. You’ll want a business that has proven itself successful and stands a good chance of thriving under new ownership. Enlist a business broker to help you find the right one and have your attorney and accountant help you with the due diligence. If you do your homework, you’ll be buying a known quantity and greatly decreasing your risk of failure.

5. Buy a franchise: In a franchise you pay the franchise company (also called the franchisor) a fee and ongoing royalties in exchange for the right to do business under the company’s name. As a franchisee, what you’re paying for is a proven system of doing business. Just as with buying a business, you need to do thorough research into the company you’re considering. Do it well, and you should end up with a franchise that trains you in how to run the business, assists in finding a location and opening your business, provides marketing and advertising support, and offers advice and support on an ongoing basis. Franchising is often described as being in business for yourself, but not by yourself, because having the franchisor to back you up greatly lessens your risk.

6. Don’t hire employees: No, we’re not suggesting you do all the work yourself. But hiring salaried employees adds greatly to your risk. First, there’s the ongoing cost of regular salaries as well as payroll taxes and the cost of any benefits. You’ll spend time and money staying on top of federal and state employee laws (or hiring someone to do so). In addition, employees open up liability risks, such as your need to get worker's compensation insurance or the risk of being sued by a disgruntled staffer. No wonder many entrepreneurs find independent contractors or freelancers a smarter way to go. There are no salaries, benefits, or insurance issues to consider. Thanks to technology it’s easier than ever to work collaboratively with a team of independent contractors without being in the same office. In addition to cost savings, contractors offer flexibility because you can hire them on a per-project basis. 

Karen Axelton is Chief Content Officer at GrowBiz Media, a content and consulting company that helps entrepreneurs start and grow their businesses.

Korean firm sets $200-M Clark venture

BUSINESS WORLD
Saturday, June 6, 2009 | MANILA, PHILIPPINES

A South Korean firm will be investing $200 million for a resort complex at the Clark free port’s sub-zone and another P218 million to build roads there, Clark Development Corp. (CDC) said in a statement on Friday.

Donggwang Clark Corp. will be employing 1,000 workers once the resort at the "Next Frontier" in Sacobia Valley, Tarlac is completed. In the meantime, the firm is still drafting the site development plan which will need CDC approval.

The investment for roads, meanwhile, will cover the construction of a 1.8-kilometer "Spine Road" and a 4.5-kilometer "East Road 2" that will link the area to McArthur Highway.

"[The cost of the road construction] will be considered as advance lease rentals following standard government procedures," the statement read.

Earlier, the state agency announced it was developing the 2,000-hectare extension of the free port to accommodate more investors. Investments there will be qualified for the same economic zone incentives including a four-year tax holiday and a succeeding 5% tax on gross income. — JADH

RP food in demand in South Korea

BUSINESS WORLD ONLINE
Saturday, June 6, 2009 | MANILA, PHILIPPINES



Sale of Philippine food products in an international trade fair in South Korea in mid-May more than quadrupled to P70 million from P16.3 million last year, the Agriculture department said in a press release on Friday. Filipino exporters sold fresh and processed food products such as banana chips, processed saba, frozen bananas and mangoes, fresh and frozen tuna, and spiced bangus during the Seoul Food and Hotel 2009, Agriculture Undersecretary Bernadette Romulo-Puyat said in the statement. In dollar terms, booked and negotiated sales during the food fair amounted to $1.47 million, compared to $334,000 last year. "The best sellers included whole, fried and turon saba, frozen fruits like mango, banana and durian, and banana chips," Ms. Puyat said. "These products were represented (sic) by seven Filipino companies." Local companies that joined the event were Sagrex Foods, Inc., Albero Fruits Processing Corp., KF Nutri-Foods International, Inc., MS Seafood Supplier, JN Mercado Seafood Supply, Jarla Trading, Jet Trading and Services, and FAB Sea Resources Corp. Albero Fruits is negotiating with 20 buyers, mostly wholesalers, distributors, retailers, and schools in South Korea. Ms. Puyat said potential buyers have also expressed interest in buying Philippine tuna and plan to visit General Santos City — dubbed the country’s "tuna capital" — to inspect tuna processing plants.

Venture Capital Funding

Venture capitalists are typically very selective in deciding what to invest in; as a rule of thumb, a fund may invest in one in four hundred opportunities presented to it. Funds are most interested in ventures with exceptionally high growth potential, as only such opportunities are likely capable of providing the financial returns and successful exit event within the required timeframe (typically 3-7 years) that venture capitalists expect.

Because investments are illiquid and require 3-7 years to harvest, venture capitalists are expected to carry out detailed due diligence prior to investment. Venture capitalists also are expected to nurture the companies in which they invest, in order to increase the likelihood of reaching a IPO stage when valuations are favourable. Venture capitalists typically assist at four stages in the company's development:^[19]

• Idea generation;
• Start-up;
• Ramp up; and
• Exit

There are typically six stages of financing offered in Venture Capital, that roughly correspond to these stages of a company's development.^[20]

• Seed Money: Low level financing needed to prove a new idea (Often provided by "angel investors")
• Start-up: Early stage firms that need funding for expenses associated with marketing and product development
• First-Round: Early sales and manufacturing funds
• Second-Round: Working capital for early stage companies that are selling product, but not yet turning a profit
• Third-Round: Also called Mezzanine financing, this is expansion money for a newly profitable company
• Fourth-Round: Also called bridge financing, 4th round is intended to finance the "going public" process

Because there are no public exchanges listing their securities, private companies meet venture capital firms and other private equity investors in several ways, including warm referrals from the investors' trusted sources and other business contacts; investor conferences and symposia; and summits where companies pitch directly to investor groups in face-to-face meetings, including a variant know as "Speed Venturing", which is akin to speed-dating for capital, where the investor decides within 10 minutes whether s/he wants a follow-up meeting.

This need for high returns makes venture funding an expensive capital source for companies, and most suitable for businesses having large up-front capital requirements which cannot be financed by cheaper alternatives such as debt. That is most commonly the case for intangible assets such as software, and other intellectual property, whose value is unproven. In turn this explains why venture capital is most prevalent in the fast-growing technology and life sciences or biotechnology fields.

If a company does have the qualities venture capitalists seek including a solid business plan, a good management team, investment and passion from the founders, a good potential to exit the investment before the end of their funding cycle, and target minimum returns in excess of 40% per year, it will find it easier to raise venture capital.

Google links Philippine users to Google Maps

By Joel D. Pinaroc, ZDNet Asia
Wednesday, March 18, 2009 02:06 PM

MANILA--Google said it has "linked" the contributions of Philippine users of its popular Google Map Maker to Google Maps, allowing people across the globe to view the edits of Filipino users.

In an announcement last week, Google said millions of Google Maps users can now view more accurate and updated online maps of the Philippines, including new roads, points of interests and more regions all over the archipelago.

Google in October launched Google Map Maker in the Philippines, allowing the country to join some 121 nations in which the application is available.

The company said the Philippines is "unique" and a challenge for Google Map Maker users, owing to the more than 7,000 islands found in the country.

Due to the popularity of Google Map Maker among Filipino users, Google said it was compelled to take the next step to include Philippine contributors to Google Maps.

But Derek Callow, marketing chief for Google Southeast Asia, said the company will not offer any commercial application for Google Maps in the Philippines.

In an interview with ZDNet Asia, Callow said the inclusion of Philippine contributors to Google Maps is an initiative "purely for users of Google".

"It is extremely important for us to provide this service. Most Internet users access the Web to search for some location-based information, and this platform will do just that," Callow said.

He added Google does not plan to introduce money-generating schemes for Google Maps in the Philippines and will instead focus on generating more traffic ad more users.

The executive said Google is also not looking at partnering or tying up with local data providers on possible commercial applications of Google Maps data.

The executive said a large part of the Philippines's geographic data is not yet available online, and that this initiative "is purely for users to contribute" to make these information available via the Internet.

Although he did not have actual figures, Callow said Google Map Maker users in the Philippines currently stand at "hundreds of thousands", based on daily edits.