Professional or Sole Proprietor: What's the Difference?

If you're a freelancer registering your business to the Philippine Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) for the first time, one question invariably comes up: should I register as a professional or as a sole proprietor?

Even if your profession does not require a license, you can register as a professional. And even a licensed professional can register as a sole proprietor. Hence the confusion.

To find answers, I interviewed a few accountants whose job it is to handle people's taxes and registrations. Here's what I found:

Registration Process

Sole proprietor registration takes patience

To register as sole proprietor, you need to

• register your business name with the DTI,  
• get a barangay permit, 
• get a municipal permit, which may require fire safety inspection, sanitary inspection, and medical check-up. 

To secure a municipal permit, you may (depending on your municipality) be required to have

• a fire extinguisher, 
• business insurance, 
• the written permission of your neighbors, 
• etc. 

The plea that your "office" is just a laptop will fall on deaf ears. Government bureaucracy has little room for flexibility.

And, of course, you need to have a tax identification number (TIN).

To register as a professional, you don't need DTI registration. Municipal requirements, if any, are far less stringent than those for sole proprietors. But of course, you will still need a TIN.

Municipal Permit Fees

Sole proprietor's wallet after municipal permit renewal

Sole proprietors need to renew their barangay and municipal permit annually. Barangay permits cost around P500. Municipal permit is generally computed at 2% of your gross sales based on your issued official receipts. (If you earn P100,000 annually, you'll need to pay P2,000 at permit renewal time.)

On the other hand, professionals only need to pay for professional tax receipt (PTR), usually amounting to P500.

BIR-required Books

The BIR these days has a nagging distrust of professionals. So in addition to the three ledgers/journals that all self-employed individuals need to consistently fill out, professionals also have an appointment book they need to register with the BIR and keep updated.

Sole proprietors are not required to have this appointment book.

Reporting of Employee Wages

Professionals work alone. If you plan to take on employees or get freelance help, you should register as a sole proprietor so you can report their wages as part of your expenses.

Possibility of Income Tax Exemption

The lovely law you will never hear about in a BIR seminar

Sole proprietors with assets totaling less than P3 million have the option to apply for income tax exemption under the BMBE law, or RA 9178. (Click on the links to learn more about BMBE in Real Life and BMBE Certification.)

Professionals cannot apply as a BMBE.

If you are approved as a BMBE, you could save much more than the difference between your municipal fee renewal and a professional's PTR fees. Compare:

	BMBE  Sole Prop	Professional
Gross sales	P200,000.00	P200,000.00
Optional standard deduction	– 80,000.00	– 80,000.00
Net sales	120,000.00	120,000
Personal exemption	– 50,000.00	– 50,000.00
Total taxable income	70,000.00	70,000.00
Income tax due	0.00* *BMBE income tax rate	8,500.00* *standard income tax rate
Municipal fees	4,000.000 *2% of gross sales	500.00 *PTR fee
TOTAL ANNUAL FEE (income tax due + municipal fees)	P4,000.00	P9,000.00

Percentage Taxes, Annual Registration Fees, and Official Receipts

Whether you register as a sole proprietor or a professional, you will be required to 

• pay monthly percentage taxes, which is 3% of previous month's receipts;
• pay an annual registration fee of P500, due January 31; and
• issue official receipts printed by a BIR-accredited printer, not just any ordinary printing house.

Which option did I choose? 

I registered as a sole proprietor under the trade name Escrive Writing and Editing. Sole proprietorship works for me because I was approved as a BMBE. 

But if I weren't a BMBE, I would probably find a professional registration more advantageous, despite the additional book I would have to fill out.


   

The Nanay Notebook is written by Blessie Adlaon, a work-at-home and homeschooling mom of four. Check out our About page to know more about this blog's author and our policies on advertising, press releases, and reposting.

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How to Survive Without a Household Helper

(Image source: nornir)

These days, thanks to the well-meaning Kasambahay Law, it has suddenly become quite complicated to keep a household helper. 

In the old days, it was hard enough to find someone you could trust, who would stay for more than a year, and not ask for a salary advance in her very first month of work.

But now, it's far more complicated. You need to register your new household employee with three government agencies. You need to visit those agencies every month to pay contributions and report contributions. Oh, and you need to fill out each agency's multiple forms every time you remit contributions.

And if your helper decides to leave on her second month, you have to deregister her from all three agencies as well.

Perhaps it is time we learned to survive without a kasambahay. Here are some tips that may help you finally make that big leap towards kasambahay freedom:

1. Engage laundry services. It's hard to find a good helper; it's not as hard to find a good laundromat. 

With laundry services, you save on electricity, water, and soap. You don't have to hang your clothes up on the clothesline. If it rains, your clothes will still dry. And you don't have to fold them yourself! They arrive clean and folded, ready to put in shelves.

If there's no good laundromat nearby, you might also consider getting a fully automatic washing machine, the kind where you just load your clothes and they come out soaped, rinsed, and spin-dried. But yeah, you still need to hang and fold them yourself.

If you have clothers that need ironing, some laundromats offer ironing services too. But I've found that if I hang my husband's polo shirts properly and spritz them with water, then flatten all wrinkles and sharpen all creases with my hands, then hang them again to air dry, I don't need to iron anything at all. 

I haven't had a flat iron in the house for 11 years now. For myself and our kids, I never buy clothes that need ironing.

2. Cook in batches. Cook everything during the weekends, freeze them in meal-sized portions, and just microwave them the rest of the week. Train your kids not to complain if lunch is the same as dinner. 

In our house, instant oatmeal is a staple. Add hot water, some milk, sugar, and maybe Milo. Top it with fruit, and you've got a great, healthy breakfast, lunch, or dinner. My 8-year-old can whip up an oatmeal meal for the whole family in just five minutes.

3. Find a good day care center. Or hire a stay-out yaya. I've noticed that stay-out helpers tend to act more professional. They don't have that feeling of entitlement. Hindi sila masyadong at-home. 

If you can't get stay-out childcare, and you only need to leave the kids twice a week, maybe you can ask Grandma to come visit while you're out. Consider, too -- is bringing the kid with you really not an option when you go out?

4. Hire a housecleaner. Get a cleaning lady who will deep-clean the house for you once a week. The rest of the week, you don't even have to sweep the floor. Just pass a wet mop over it twice, and most of the dirt will be gone.

5. Get your kids to help. If you have big kids, this is a good time to start training them to do housework so that, hopefully, they won't need a kasambahay either when they grow up. My eight-year-old sweeps and mops our floor. My six-year-old feeds the rabbits and gives them water. My four-year-old keeps all toys before Kuya cleans the house. They all wash plates. 

Learn more

For more tips on how to get things done even without a kasambahay, check out this highly rated e-book: How To Work at Home With a Toddler, which comes with FREE international wireless delivery.

To read it, simply download the FREE Kindle app into your PC, Mac, Android, or iPad.

At just around P300, this book costs less than your kasambahay's monthly SSS and Philhealth contributions!

SPECIAL THANKS to the members of the Manila Work-at-Home Mom, who contributed many of these suggestions. If you are a Filipino work-at-home mom based in Manila or anywhere in the world, and you wish to join that support group on FB, please add Blessie Adlaon to your friends list so I can add you to the group. I will remove myself from your friends list as soon as I am done adding you.

The Nanay Notebook is written by Blessie Adlaon, a work-at-home and homeschooling mom of four. Check out our About page to know more about this blog's author and our policies on advertising, press releases, and reposting.

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No Place Like Home: Glad to Be Globe

The perfect end to a perfect day

It is 10:32 in the evening. The kids are in bed, and I, writing here on my blog, am savoring the peace and quiet that closes another perfect day.

In these past few years, I am grateful to say that I have had a lot of happy, contented days like these. Being a work-at-home mom has allowed me to help my husband meet our daily needs, so although we are not rich, we are materially comfortable. At the same time, I am able to be with my kids all day, to sort their quarrels, mold their character, supervise their education, and nurture their hearts.

This is as close to heaven as I could ever hope to get while I still live here on Earth. But my life had not always been this good.

Tough times

When my husband and I got married in 2002, our total gross household income was P10,000 per month. Those were very hard days for us.

There were times when I could not go to work because I had no more money to pay the jeepney fare. For groceries, my husband and I often had to swallow our pride and rely on my in-laws' charity. There was even one time when my husband and I had to pool all the coins we had on our person, just to come up with P75 for gas, so we could drive home the car that my brother had lent us.

With the birth of our eldest child, my husband took on the full burden of supporting us so that I could be a full-time mom. Oh, how I cherished those days because they gave me a chance to savor my firstborn son to the fullest. His first coo, first word, first step -- I witnessed them all. I nursed him for two years, taught him baby sign language, and read five books to him every night. It was pure bliss.

But financially, we were not at all well. In those two years, we went deeply in debt.

So when our second child was born, I took an office job to help make ends meet. Our finances improved, but with every passing day, I felt like a dagger was being shoved deeper and deeper into my heart. Our daughter was quickly growing out of her babyhood, and I was missing most of it.

"I want my mommy!" "Don't worry, 

you'll see her this weekend."

Our daughter's first roll, first word, first step -- it was her yaya who witnessed them all. To this day, the only thing I can remember of our daughter's babyhood is her sleeping beside me at night.

I know that during those years, I have lost a treasure; and I am painfully aware that I can never get it back.

Going home

Then, in 2010, a year after the birth of our third child, my husband and I decided that I should stay at home to raise the kids. I was happy that I could be present for my kids again -- but at that time, my husband's income was still sporadic. How could we possibly survive?

I decided to find a job I could do at home. I looked into online work and saw promising possibilities.

But to make decent money online, one needs reliable, high-speed Internet because online income is directly dependent on the volume of your output. If your Internet is slow, your output will be low, and your income will be low as well.

Up to that time, we had been relying on our old phone company for our prepaid dial-up Internet. Our connection was slow, unreliable, and had dismal tech support. There was even a time when we lost our Internet connection due to a hardware issue, and it took more than a week before we could get our Internet back!

Fortunately, like a nod from heaven, a Globe agent came by our house at the time that I was getting ready to leave my office job. He offered us a 1 MBPS DSL broadband Internet plan with landline at just P1,295 per month.

Step aside, old phone. We're going digital!

At that time, P1,295 was practically one-tenth of my net office income, but my husband viewed it not as an expense but an investment. So we took the plunge, ditched our old phone line, and signed up with Globe.

And we never looked back.

Better days

A few months after I began working online full-time, I saw my clientele gradually increase. Within a year, it reached a point where I had to hire other writers to help me fulfill my assignments. And so I had a team.

Since most of my teammates were Globe subscribers as well, I could call them with my unlimited Globe call credits to discuss client requirements. Twice a month, I would send out payments using Unionbank transfer or Globe G-cash. It was economical, efficient, and easy.

Now, because I am at home all day, I am also able to homeschool my kids. We use our high-speed Globe DSL to get free educational materials from the Internet, so we don't need to buy textbooks at all. Through YouTube, my kids are learning how to do advanced multiplication, identify dinosaurs, recite the Nicene Creed, make eagle origami, and speak beginner French.

My husband has a steady office-based job now, so I see less of him; but we both appreciate the material comforts that his work now affords us. Whenever I miss him, I simply call his Globe Duo phone. We can talk as long and as often as we want, thanks to our unlimited call credits. (And I always know where he is because I can track him through Globe Tracker, ha ha ha!)

Near the end of 2010, a production team from NET25 came to our house to take a video snapshot of our work-at-home and homeschooling family. The result was the video below. It is a picture of bliss, and I can honestly say that a good portion of this blissful life came about thanks to Globe.

Without the help of Globe's reliable services, we may not have the heavenly home life we have today. Truly, my family and I are glad to be Globe.




(Image credits: kgreggain and Librarian by Day)

The Nanay Notebook is written by Blessie Adlaon, a work-at-home and homeschooling mom of four. Check out our About page to know more about this blog's author and our policies on advertising, press releases, and reposting.

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Where to Find Products for Your Online Business

I just came upon this website that may help jumpstart that online business you've been dreaming of.

Dropery.asia is a clearinghouse of product suppliers that are duly registered in the Philippines. If you're looking for a reputable supplier and drop shipper for products that you would like to sell in your online store, it's worth checking this site out.

How does it work?

Through certification, Dropery.asia ensures that a company is duly registered locally before it is included in the website's database. Then, the website reviews these companies' profiles and provide honest feedback for the users, that is, you!

Once you are in the site, you can find suppliers and apply to them for a reseller account. When your reseller account application is approved, you can search or browse Dropery.asia for the supplier's products that you want to sell under your own account at eBay.ph, Sulit.com.ph, etc.

Then, you can simply copy and paste the product's description into your website. You receive the buyers' orders and payments, and you can forward the order with corresponding payment to your supplier.

The supplier will then ship directly to your buyer. This system is called drop shipping, and it has helped many online sellers put up successful stores even without huge warehouses.

If you want to know more about drop shipping, you can search for it online.

To get access to Dropery.asia, you need to request for an invitation. Just click on the "Request an Invite" button at the bottom of their homepage. There's nothing to lose but a few minutes of your time. Why not check it out and get that online store of your dreams started (before the BIR makes it expensive and complicated to start online businesses as well)? Log on to Dropery.asia now.

DISCLOSURE: This blog and its author received no compensation in cash or in kind from Dropery.asia and its owners/stockholders.

The Nanay Notebook is written by Blessie Adlaon, a work-at-home and homeschooling mom of four. Check out our About page to know more about this blog's author and our policies on advertising, press releases, and reposting.

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Learn How to Be a WAHM. Meet Real-Life WAHMs and Talk to Them!

Are you dreaming of becoming a work-at-home mom but not sure where and how to start? Wouldn't you love to be able to talk to somebody who's been there and done that?

Now you have a chance to do so, by attending the It's a WAHMderful Life workshop!

It's a WAHMderful Life: A Work-at-Home-Moms 101

A WAHMderful Life: A Work at Home Moms 101 is a one-day workshop for is for moms who want to find their bliss working from home while making a home.

This workshop is for

• stay-at-home moms;
• moms who want to start a home-based business;
• moms interested in working from home via outsourcing or telecommuting;
• women who are interested in starting a online business;
• and anyone (single ladies, even dads!) who want to know more about starting a work-from-home career.

Date: Saturday, October 27, 2012; Time: 9:30 am to 4:00 pm
Venue: COWO - Ground Floor, Suntree Tower, #27 Sapphire Road, Ortigas Center, Pasig City
Price:
* Regular rate of Php 1,300
* Early bird rate of Php 1,000 (PAID before Sept. 20, 2012)
* Group discount of Php 1,000 for 3 or more participants

WORKSHOP OUTLINE

9:30 AM: Registration
10:00 AM: Welcome Remarks and Opening Video
10:15 AM: Talk 1: "WAHM Revolution": We'll talk about WAHM-ing worldwide and the trend of "location independent" careers by women worldwide
11:15 AM: Forum 1: Working Girl to WAHM (Featuring a panel of real work at home moms)
12:00 PM: Lunch Break
01:00 PM: Interactive Session for WAHMs: Are You Made for the WAHM Lifestyle?
02:15 PM: Talk 2: "Finding Your Bliss"
03:00 PM: Open Forum on Finding Your Bliss (Featuring a panel of WAHM business owners)
04:00 PM: Wrap Up, Picture-Taking, Certificates

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Apply for Your Unionbank EON Account Online

Here's another Unionbank EON post. Really, I can't help being a fan of this bank. It seems they designed their services specifically to cater to people who hate leaving the house -- people like me.

So here's the great news: You can now apply for your Unionbank EON account online!

Just go to the Unionbank EON online application form, type in your details, and wait for the bank to tell you when you can pick up your EON ATM/debit card from the bank branch of your choice.

When you go to the bank, bring the following:

• Unexpired valid photo-bearing ID with signature (passport, driver's license, SSS/GSIS, NBI clearance, voter's ID, etc.)
• Photocopy of the ID you present
• TIN and SSS number (might not be asked for but better to be ready)
• P350 for your first annual fee

You can pick up your card from Unionbank branches all over the Philippines, from Bacolod to Zamboanga. For a complete list of currently available pick-up branches, click here.

To learn more about this online application procedure, you can visit the info page at the Unionbank site, or call Unionbank at their 24-hour customer service hotline, (02) 841-8600.

UPDATE: My husband has recently tried using this service. It goes pretty fast. Right after the online application, he received a text message telling him he could go to his chosen branch that very same day and present his tracking number.

Well, he was not able to go that same day; he went a few days later. When he got there, he was interviewed for his reason for applying for the card. So as not to defeat the purpose of the interview, I shall not reveal here what answers will result in a denial of your application.

Anyway, he got approved, and the card was printed out while he waited.

DISCLOSURE: This is not a sponsored post. The author received no compensation in any form from Unionbank. The author is not affiliated in any way with Unionbank.

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How to Apply for an Online Job, Part I

There are plenty of guides out there on how to apply for a job, so we'll try to be more specific. After all, if you're following this blog, you're probably looking for an online homebased job, not a regular one.

So let's start. If you're applying for an online job, it's pretty likely that you won't be getting a face-to-face interview, so your application letter and resume are your first and last chances to impress your employer.

The application letter

As mentioned in the Five Big No-No's When Submitting a Job Application, you should never, never send in your resume without a cover letter, also known as the application letter. It's just plain bad manners. 

Besides, the resume simply lists your credentials. Employers knows (or should know) that they will be working with real people, so they want to see your personality as well. A lot of personality can be seen through the application letter.

Application letters are, in fact, pretty simple. Here's a quick rundown on what you should put in:

• Salutation: As much as possible, find out the name of the person you are applying to and his/her title, if any. Write "Dear Mr. Cruz" or "Dear Ms. Cruz" or "Dear Atty. Cruz" with a colon at the end. Remember, you are writing a business letter, not a personal one.
  
  Do not write "Dear Juan" or "Hi, Mr. Cruz." If you don't know the name of the person, write, "Dear Sir/Madam." Do not write "To whom it may concern"!
• Paragraph 1: Mention what job you are applying for, and when and where you found the job ad. If you have any attachments to your e-mail, list them down here too.
     
• Paragraphs 2 to 3: Explain what makes you a good fit for the job without going into too much detail. You can say, for instance, that you have been designing Web sites for top companies for five years and you've never missed a deadline in your entire career. Let your resume list down the names of the companies for you.
   
  List down, too, what makes you want to work with this company. This is a good way to show off your research skills, which is always a valued thing among online workers. If you know anything good about the company, mention it here in your application letter.
   
  Remember to keep your paragraphs short, three sentences maximum. If you need to use bullet points, do so, but it should be a maximum of five bullet points.
• Paragraph 4: Let them know that you are looking forward to hearing from them. Also give your contact details, in case they would like to interview you via e-mail, IM, or phone even before they open your resume.
  
  Note that a Skype account tends to give a better impression than Yahoo Messenger (YM), as the latter could make your prospective employer wonder how much time you spend chatting with your friends on YM (as if people do not have friends on Skype). Be prepared for a Skype call. For this, you will need a microphone and speakers, or a headset. Video interviews are very seldom done, so you don't need a Web cam.
  
  A word about e-mails: use a professional sounding one. For heaven's sake, do not use your iamsuperman@hotmail.com account. If you're applying as a individual freelances, a Yahoo or Gmail account is fine, but stick to the yourname@gmail.com format.
  
  If you're applying as a company, you'd best have a company domain name in your e-mail. Mycompany@gmail.com simply lacks the credibility (and impressiveness) of j.delacruz@mycompany.com. I mean, really, in this day and age, what kind of company are you if you don't even have a domain name?
  
  A word of caution: use your company e-mail only if you are applying in behalf of your company. If you are applying as an individual, do not use your company email. Your bosses can probably access your work email, and they will not be happy to see that you are applying to other jobs, even part-time ones.
• Closing. I tend to favor "Respectfully yours" and use that closing in all my application letters. It is formal, and it shows proper respect. You can use whatever closing you are comfortable with, as long as you keep it formal and respectful. Write your complete name at the end, not your nickname.
• Attachments. If your prospective employer did not specify a work sample in the job ad, find your best work that you think is closest to the kind of output this job you are applying to might want from you. I repeat: choose your best work, and make sure it is relevant to the job. You may send one or two samples, but make sure they are in just one file. Don't expect the person doing the screening to open two files of sample work. PDF files are great because they ensure that the file looks exactly the same in the receiver's computer as it did in yours.
  
  If the job ad contained instructions on what work you should submit and how many, follow those instructions carefully. If you can't follow instructions during the application process, how much less will you be able to follow instructions afterward?

In part II, we'll talk about how to write a winning resume, what to include, and what to not include.

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Five Big No-No's When Submitting a Job Application

(Image by The Nothing Corporation)

I've recently posted a Writers Wanted ad at Pinoyexchange, and I've received so many unbelievable job applications, I just felt compelled to write this post.

Dear friends, if you're applying for a job, especially for an online job, please do not sabotage your chances of getting the job by making these following mistakes:

1. Not following instructions. It's not just about credentials and work samples. We need to know that you can follow instructions. If you're applying for an online job, most especially, we need to know that you can follow written instructions, since we can't be there watching over your shoulder, making sure you're doing things right.

If the person who posted the ad says "Put 'Peanut Butter Sandwich' on the subject line," do that even if it sounds ridiculous. These instructions are there to help us see early on if we can work with you or not.

If the ad poster asks you to attach your best unedited sample article, do not attach three; frankly, we have better things to do with our time than download and review three sample articles, trying to find the best one for you.

2. Omitting the salutation. It's good practice to find out the name of the person you're sending an application to. Often, companies make this easy by including in the job ad the name of the person you should send the application to. If they did not include it, it is a simple matter of making a pre-application phone call and asking the company directly whom you should send the application to.

If you really can't find the name and title of the person you are applying to, at least write, "Dear Sir/Madam." Do not write "To whom it may concern." And do not omit the salutation entirely and go directly to the body of your letter. That does not only bespeak of rudeness, it also shows you to be ignorant of basic business letter writing rules, which you should have learned in high school.

3. Putting someone else's email address in the "Sent to" field. This practice says, "I sent 200 applications today to random companies, hoping one of them will be stupid enough to hire me. You're one of the companies in my BCC list." E-mails like this are spam, and few self-respecting people read spam. I don't.

4. Attaching a generic resume. If you're applying for a writer position, send a resume that highlights your skills as a writer. Your experience as an English teacher is relevant; your patent in waterproof edible toys isn't, and it simply takes up a valuable line in your resume.

If you have nothing in your resume that is relevant to the job you are applying to, explain in your application letter that you have no relevant experience and why the company you are applying to should consider hiring you anyway.

5. Omitting the application letter. The application letter is your very first chance to plead your case. A well-written application letter tells the hiring company that they are dealing with somebody who is intelligent, educated, pleasant, and polite. At the very least, your application letter can remind the hiring officer that he or she is dealing with a human being who simply wants to live a decent life and is looking for the chance to do that by applying to the company.

A good application letter can improve your chances of getting hired. A missing application letter says you have much better things to think of than this  job. While that is always true, it is foolish to make it so blatantly obvious during the application process.

Having said all these, what makes a good job application? We'll talk about that in the next article.

What about you? Have you ever been tasked to evaluate job applicants? What are your job application pet peeves?

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How to Get Collateral-Free Financing for Your Startup Business

(Photo by iprole)

For a few articles now, we've been talking about businesses you can start right from home. But the big question for a lot of us is, Where do I get the money to start this business?

Often, a compounding problem for a lot of us is that we have no assets we could use for collateral.

Well, this is another reason why I strongly advise everyone to start their businesses while they are still employed. When you are an employee, you have one valuable resource at hand: the salary loan.

SME banks

How much, you may ask, can one get from a salary loan? Well, if we look at the loan offerings of my favorite bank for small and medium enterprises (SMEs), Plantersbank, you can see that you can get as much as P500,000 salary loan (of course, depending on your salary), payable for up to 36 months. And yes, no collateral is needed.

What are the requirements for applying for a salary loan?

• Fixed-salaried individual working in the Philippines’ Top 12,000 Corporation OR  must be a credit card holder with a P50,000 credit limit if not employed in the Top 12,000 Corporations.
• At least 23 years old but not more than 65 years old
• A permanent employee with a length of service in current employer of at least 1 year (if less than 1 year, then total continuous work experience should be at least 2 years)
• Has a gross monthly income of P30,000 for Metro Manila and P20,000 for Provincial Areas
• Not due for retirement within the term of the loan.

Now let me take this opportunity to highlight the usefulness of a credit card. It's true, this little piece of plastic can be detrimental to our financial health when we don't know how to use it properly. But often, our credit card is also our best (sometimes, our only) proof that we are willing and able to pay our debts. When we apply for a loan, our credit card history can be our strongest ally.

Note, also, bulletpoint number 3: permanent employee of at least 1 year with current employer. If you can't keep a job, so much less will you be able to keep a business. Because no matter how difficult it is to work with your boss, trying to be your own boss is even harder.

The SSS loan

But what if your gross monthly income does not reach P30,000 per month? (Mine never did, when I was employed.)

Well, there's SSS too. But to get a one-month SSS salary loan, you need to have paid at least 36 monthly contributions prior to the month of filing the application. For a two-month salary loan, the requirement is 72 posted monthly contributions.

Microfinance institutions

There are also microfinance institutions. Granted that the interest rates of these institutions may be even higher than some banks and are definitely higher than SSS rates, they are still much lower than if you borrow from "five/six," those notorious lenders that charge an astounding 20% monthly interest rate.

If you want to contact a microfinance company near you, here's a list of them. Just click on the links below and find which company is best for you:

Alalay sa Kaunlaran, Inc. (ASKI)

Center for Agriculture and Rural Development (CARD)

Center for Community Transformation (CCT)

Kabalikat para sa Maunlad na Buhay, Inc. (KMBI)

Taytay sa Kauswagan, INC. (TSKI)

Tulay sa Pag-unlad, Inc. (TSPI)

All these companies listed above are partners of the PinoyMe foundation, which was instituted by President Corazon C. Aquino. See the full list of PinoyMe's partner companies here. Or learn more about the PinoyMe foundation by clicking on the link.

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How to Build Your Own Business Website, Part II

(Photo by mmagallan)

So on part I, we talked about what we need to build our own business website:

• domain name,
• logo,
• template, and
• content (i.e., images and text).

Now it's a simple matter of putting it all together. 

1. Start your site. Go to www.blogger.com, open an account there, then click on New Blog. 

• Title. It will ask you for the title of your blog. As much as possible, try to incorporate your blog's keywords into the title. For instance, this blog is not just The Nanay Notebook. It's formal, registered name in the Title bar is "The Nanay Notebook | Work at home Philippines."
• Domain name. For address, you can put in your chosen domain name for your blog. If you're getting a custom domain name later, feel free to put in anything here. But if you intend to use a domain name with "blogspot.com," you put here the name of your blog "e.g., nanaynotebook.blogspot.com" and cross your fingers, hoping nobody has taken it yet. If somebody has already taken it, you'll need to find something else.
• Template. Click on any of the available templates. It matters not which one you click since you will be replacing it with a more professional looking one from Btemplates.com later anyway.
• Finish the preliminary steps. Click on "Create Blog!"

2. Set your other website settings. Go to your blog's settings. On the Basic settings, after title, add a description of your blog, that is, what your blog is about, and try to include your keywords. If, for instance, you sell baby dresses, you could say something like "Beautiful baby dresses for infants and toddlers, free delivery" or something like that (only put "free delivery" if you really give free delivery).

You could also add a custom domain name. If you want to get "blogspot" out of your domain name, you click on "Add a custom domain," input your desired domain name, and hope nobody has taken it yet. Otherwise, you'll need to find something else. You will be directed to Google checkout, and you'll need a credit card to pay $10 or approximately P500 to be able to keep that domain name for one year. After one year, you'll be given the option to give the domain name up or automatically renew your subscription.

3. Add the content of your first page. Click on New Post and paste there the contents of your front/Home page.  Remember that if you intend to make this website look like a regular website, not a blog, this post will be the first and last post you can put in your blog. Click on Publish. 

4. Add a pages bar. Click on Layout on the right side of your blog dashboard. Click on one of the Add a Gadget links. Look for Pages and add that. Then, in the Layout page, drag the Pages widget below the part that says Header.

5. Add a widget to your sidebar. You need to do this so that you can see what your sidebar settings (font size, font color, etc.) looks like. You can add the Text widget for now and write in it whatever you like. You can replace the text or even the widget itself later.

6. Add pages. Click on Pages on the right side of your blog dashboard. Click on the "New Page" button. The title of the first page is About. Paste here the contents of your About page, then click Publish. Then add another page: Contact. Paste the contents of your Contact page here, then click Publish.

7. Upload your template and logo. Now you have the basic elements of your blog, it's time to upload the template you downloaded from Btemplates.com. The instructions on how to upload templates can be found on the site, but if you need more help, leave a comment here and I will help you out.

If you've got a logo and favicon for your blog, now is the time to upload them. Go to the Layout page, find the Favicon widget on the page, click on Edit, and upload your favicon there. Then find the Header widget (instead of Header, this widget may show the title of your blog), click on Edit, and upload your website's logo there.

8. Tweak your template. This is the hardest part. If you know some HTML, it is possible for you to do this step by yourself. If you don't know HTML, I would strongly suggest you find somebody who does. I tweaked the HTML for Escrive.com myself, but it took me two full days to finish. My knowledge of HTML is limited to what I learned from asking questions from our office Web encoder in the two years I worked at goFLUENT.

9. Add other pages or widgets. But before you do so, always save your template. With advanced templates such as the ones you download from BTemplates.com, any change you make in the layout, any page or widget you add, could bring your entire template out of whack.

What other pages and widgets would you want to add? If you're building a blog, just copy the pages and widgets I have here on the Nanay Notebook (shortcut! ha ha ha). If you have specific questions, leave me a comment and I would happily answer.

If you're building a static business page, make sure you have your contact information right on page 1. If you have a separate contact page, it could contain a Web form that should make it easy for your buyers to ask questions or order from you. You can get a free email form from emailmeform.com. 

If you're selling stuff, make sure you have a catalog of the stuff you're selling. You may also want to include an easy way for your buyers to pay, like Paypal buttons.

An FAQ page can tackle returns, shipping, payments, and other things your potential clients may want to know about.

10. Share your new site on Facebook and Twitter. Use social networking to get word out about your new Web site. Start a Facebook page for your business or blog. Get a Twitter account. Link your Facebook and Twitter accounts to your website. (Click here to get the Facebook button. Click here to get the Twitter button.) Keep your pages updated. 

Now comes the hardest part of all: you need to wait. If you keep your social network pages and your blog updated, you should begin to see substantial growth in a few month. In a year or two, your blog or website might even become profitable. The key is patience and constant work. Give it time. 

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How to Build Your Own Business Website, Part I

(Photo by mmagallan)

If you intend to sell things, offer services, or brand your expertise on the Internet, it's a very good idea to have your own website.

Now some people may be intimidated by this, thinking that creating a website is beyond them. Well, I must admit, it's not easy and it's definitely not quick; but it doesn't have to be expensive, and it is definitely not impossible either.

So let's jump straight into it. What do you need to build your own website?

1. Domain name. Some people are able to build their business websites for free on Multiply or even Blogger. If you don't mind having "multiply" or "blogspot" as part of your site's domain name, then you don't need to spend anything to get a domain name. But if you want something that's truly yours, you only need to shell out P500 per year to get a domain name from Blogger.com.

2. Logo. A logo helps build your brand. Even if you're just blogging, if you intend to use your blog to brand your expertise or eventually sell a product or service, you will need a logo. You can make your own logo or get a professional designer to make one for you.

You'll need two logos, by the way: a big rectangular one to use as a banner for your website and a small square one to use as your Favicon (that tiny icon that appears beside the name of your website on the tabs of your browser).

3. Template. Blogger lets you choose among preset templates when you open an account, but if you want something more classy-looking, check out the free downloadable templates on Btemplates.com. That's where I got the template for this blog, though I had to do a lot of tweaking on the HTML to get the exact look I wanted.

4. Content. This refers to images and text. If you're selling a product, you'll need good quality images to display on your site. You'll also need text content for your website's pages.

Mandatory pages are your front page, where you would probably want to tell your clients exactly what you offer; the About page, where you tell your clients about yourself and why they can trust you and why they should buy from you; the Contact page, which lets your clients reach you. To establish the legitimacy of your business, it is best that you include a physical address here, your full name, your landline number as well as your mobile number, and other ways they can contact you.

Other pages you may want to have are Privacy Policy, Terms and Conditions of Use (you can copy the text for these two from businesses similar to yours and just tweak the information and guidelines so that they fit your business perfectly), FAQs, Services (where you give further details on the services you outlined on your front page), and Location (there is a Google Map code you can input here to show people exactly where your office is located, in case your clients want to visit you).

5. Mode of payment. You open a business to earn money. Your online clients need to have a way to pay you. Will you accept payments via bank deposit or Gcash or Paypal?

For bank deposits, make sure you have an account with a bank that's easily found even in remote areas. BDO is a good bank for accepting payment deposits because they are open after regular work hours and even on Saturdays, and you can find them in nearly all SM malls. Metrobank and BPI are good too because they have a lot of branches. If your bank is not one of these three, you may have trouble finding clients willing to make bank payments to your account.

If you're selling products or services overseas, Paypal may be your best (if not sole) option. It's free to open a Paypal account, but you need a credit card to verify your account. If you don't have a credit card, you can use Unionbank's EON card. I can't speak for other debit cards because I've never tried them. I've tried to use BPI's ExpressCash card to verify my Paypal account, but it did not work.

Why do you need to verify your Paypal account? Verifying your Paypal account will remove limits on how much you can withdraw from it. Withdrawal limits vary from country to country. If you are from the Philippines, your withdrawal limit if you are unverified is $0. That's right: you cannot withdraw a single cent from your Paypal account if you are from the Philippines and you are not a verified member. You can use your Paypal credits to buy stuff on eBay, though, and other online stores.

So these are the things you need to have on hand when you start to build your website. Next article, we'll talk about putting it all together.

Did I miss anything? Let me know!

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Work-at-Home Jobs and Businesses You Can Do in the Philippines, Part III

(Photo by Images of Money)

Finally, here's our last installment of the Work-at-Home Jobs and Businesses series. Here are five more ways you can make money from the comfort of your own home:

1. Home-service mechanic. Okay, this is not exactly something you can do at home, but it's a service you can manage from home and offer to your neighbors and everyone within a two kilometer radius from your house. Actually, I've always wondered why this service is so seldom offered. If my car is broken, isn't it obvious that I would need somebody to go to my house to fix it? I could hardly drive it to a shop if it won't start, right?

2. Ironing and laundry service. You already wash your own clothes, right? It shouldn't be too hard to put up a sign in front of your house offering to wash your neighbors' clothes as well. Better yet, put the sign up at the village gate. Really, you never know who might need your help. Good target: moms with new babies. (Can you imagine all those diapers to wash? Just make sure to ask them to rinse the diapers out very well first!)

3. Web design. If you're running an online business, you would do well to have a Web site. For some, Multiply works well. But for the more finicky among us (like me), we want our business Web site to carry our own domain name and our own unique template. I'd been forced to design my own site for this blog and for Escrive.com, but it took so much time, I tell you, if I could have found somebody I could afford, I would have enlisted their services.

4. Tailoring. This is so classic, we often overlook it. With a sewing machine and a lot of talent, you could sew up a dozen outfits and sell them online. You could also offer alterations and repairs to your next-door neighbors. There's always a zipper getting broken or a pair of pajamas getting ripped somewhere, and honestly, not all of us have the time to repair them ourselves.

5. Be an Avon lady. If you love lotions and make-up and jewelry and bags and all those kinds of girly stuff, this is one of the easiest and most fun businesses to get into -- and often, all you need to do is to leave a catalog lying around where people can get them! My mother-in-law makes a pretty good living doing this, I tell you, though of course, it took her years to build up her client base.

I've said it before, I will say it again and again: it takes years to build up a client base. You've got to start sometime!

(Ma, I advise this to others, but I can't do it myself because, as you know, I don't use makeup or lotions or even a toner, and I hardly ever buy shoes and bags; I'm in the running for stingiest person on Earth.)

How to get clients

Now the question is, how do you get clients? Here is what you need:

1. Time. I can't emphasize this hard enough. People write and say, I'm giving birth, I want to quit my job, how can I start my own homebased business?

Oh, boy. We are presuming here that you want to start your business so you can replace your job's income? Not going to happen in that time frame! And if you opt to take a shortcut and get a work-at-home job instead, you'll soon find that you'll need to double your office job's hours when you move at home, in order to match your old income. That is, unless you're so lucky that your current office job will allow you to telecommute.

If you want a homebased business, start taking steps toward it as soon as possible. If necessary, offer your work for free just so you can build a reputation and a portfolio.

2. Have an online presence. This means having a shop at Multiply or eBay or Sulit.com.ph. Better yet, have your own Web site. I put up Escrive.com on twenty-four hours of labor and a P500 cashout.

3. Brand your expertise. This is how my friend Tarie gets all her clients. If you want a detailed crash course on how she did it, she's holding a seminar on it this March 2012. Click here to read more. If you want just a brief summary, here it is: she's been blogging on her niche since 2005, and she maintains an active presence on Twitter, Facebook, Google+, Pinterest, etc.!

4. Activate your network. You can't build a client base by being a loner. Solitude can help you be a great philosopher or scientist, but if you're starting a business, you've got to go out and meet people. And you've got to let them know about your business. Have business cards printed out. Have a Facebook page. Have a blog. (If you can't write, find somebody who can. Escrive has written for a lot of blogs.) Join online groups and attend meet-ups. Oh, and be nice! Come on time, keep your promises, do favors, give free advice, etc.

It's hard work, I tell you. If you want something easy and comfortable, you won't find it in a homebased business; you will find it in an office job. But that won't let you watch over the kids and their yaya.

That's as many tips as I can give right now. I hope other successful work-at-home moms out there could add their tips too!

Next up: where to get funding and how to build your own classy Web site!

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Work-at-home Jobs and Businesses You Can Do in the Philippines, Part II

(Photo by Images of Money)

As promised in the first part of this series, here is a continuation of my list of work-at-home jobs and businesses you can do in the Philippines, items 11 to 20:

11. Rentals. There are plenty of things people would do better to rent than buy: formal gowns, maternity clothes, UN Day costumes, Halloween costumes, Linggo ng Wika costumes, non-convertible infant car seats, musical instruments (when you're not yet sure your kid is going to stick with those saxophone lessons), videoke machines, chocolate fountains, LCD projectors, lighting and sound systems, required readings for college general education subjects like Soc Sci II (read them two days, never open them again), vans ... my imagination runs out, but I suppose you get the idea by now.

12. Tour guide. If you live near a tourist area, why not advertise your services as a tour guide? You'll need to learn a lot about the nooks, crannies, and history of the place, but you'll get to go out a lot and meet new people and get paid too!

13. Business card/invitation/letterhead designer. Big companies probably have their own graphics artists to do this for them, but startup homebased businesses often don't. If you've got an eye for design, offer your services online. We homebased businesses who want professional-looking stationery could use your help.

14. Album/scrapbook organizer. Am I the only person in the world who finds it too much trouble to have my digital pictures printed and to put them in an album for posterity? If I could send you my digital files and you can send them back to me as printed pictures arranged chronologically in an album, I'd be willing to pay a reasonable price.

15. Homebased concierge. Mr. X keeps forgetting his wife's birthday; he would love it if somebody would remind him and order flowers for her every year. Ms. Y wants to book a Cebu Pacific flight, but she doesn't know how to use their online portal or she just can't afford to wait two hours waiting for the d*mned pages to load. Mr. J wants to buy gifts for all his godchildren but simply does not have the time; he doesn't mind the purchases being done online as long as somebody else does it for him.

Have you ever been in situations such as these? I know people who have. If there were somebody who could do these things for them, they'll pay. After all, how do you put a price tag on your wife's affection because you remember her birthday and send her flowers unfailingly every year?

16. Project manager. Oh, I personally know three homebased businesspeople who need this (but only two of them realize it. The third is my husband, ha ha ha).

If you know how to manage projects, create timetables, and coerce people into keeping the sched, then this could be the job for you!

17. Pet sitting. This could be a lucrative job if you give your client base time to grow. You don't need a big yard. Most of your prospective clients keep their pets in condo units anyway. If all you have is a condo unit too, but you promise to take good care of their pets, make sure they stay safe, hydrated, walked, and well fed while their masters are gone, your business could be good to go!

18. Marketing/advertising consultant. Have experience in marketing and advertising? Then why not share your skills with the rest of us who need it? We have businesses, we want to grow it, but we don't know how, and we're afraid to approach consultants because we don't think we can afford you, but if it turns out we can, why wouldn't we want to?

19. Public relations agent. My biggest inspiration today, Ms. Nancy G. Pascual of NGP Integrated Marketing Communications, started out as a public relations agent 14 years ago. She had one client. She did all her work from her house.

Today, she has enough clients that she can afford an office in Shaw Blvd. Some of her clients are household names in banking, cookware, baby products, softdrinks, fuel, and transportation. The first time I heard who her clients were, I exclaimed, "Talaga? Kliyente n'yo 'yun? (Really? They're your client?)"

But let me highlight one fact: it took her 14 years to get to where she is now. There are no shortcuts to starting a homebased business.

20. Private investigator. Honestly, missus, have you never wondered if your husband was really going to so many meetings or if he was meeting somebody else all that time? If you have the wits to find people's secrets out, we who are less skilled but just as suspicious may find use for your services. (But don't offer it to me; I know where my husband is all the time.)

Okay, just one more list to go. After that, we'll talk about how to find clients and funding! Stay tuned for next!

Are you already doing any of these businesses? Let us know and we'll post a free blog article to let the world know about you and the services/products you are offering!

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Work-at-Home Jobs and Businesses You Can Do in the Philippines, Part I

(Photo by Images of Money)

"I want to work at home -- but what can I do?" Very common question. Here are some answers:

1. Accounting

If you have accounting background and experience, you can offer your services on the Internet (or you can advertise it here on the Nanay Notebook). A lot of people, including myself, hate to do their own paperwork, so if we can get somebody to handle our BIR registrations; tax computations; monthly, quarterly, and annual filing; financial statement preparation; SSS, HDMF, and Philhealth payments and record-keeping, why we would be willing to pay you a reasonable retainer's fee!

2. Human resources consultant

One of my clients operates a business with two employees, but he still gets a human resources consultant. Why? Maybe he realizes that an expert can judge character better than he can. Maybe he has more profitable things to do than sort through resumes and conduct preliminary interviews. Maybe he wants to make sure that all contracts and paperwork are done right -- with the way the laws of this country are communicated and implemented among the public, you could be doing something illegal without ever knowing it, believe me, I know! Maybe he wants somebody else to do the dirty job of sacking a person who has been found incompetent (or just lazy) with his work.

The point is, there are people who are willing to hire human resources consultants in the Philippines.

3. Photographers and videographers

Wedding photographers, pet photographers, baptismal photographers, party photographers -- the fact is, photography and videography are hard, and if you know how to do it, then you have a saleable skill right there. You'll probably need equipment, though.

If all you have is a digital camera and a printer, set up a stand for ID picture photography.

4. Art/music/sports/dance instruction

Oh, this one's great, because your target market is children, and parents tend to spend more easily for their children than for themselves. Come summertime, or even during school weekends, offer to teach kids a skill you know, be it

• drawing
• painting
• singing
• street dancing
• ballet
• martial arts
• piano
• violin
• guitar
• etc. 

You don't need a big fancy studio or even super-great skills. If a parent just wants to know if her kid has some gift in a certain field, she'll be perfectly willing to enroll her kid in your ballet class, even if you just hold it in your backyard, if the price is right, and especially if you just live in the same village!

Once she knows her kid has a gift and will stay with the sport or art, then she can opt to enroll the child in one of those fancier, more distant, more expensive schools.

5. Jewelry designer

If you know how to make jewelry, you can sell them on eBay. Jewelry are great eBay items because they are small, often non-fragile, and cost little to ship.

6. Event organizer

If you enjoy organizing parties for your children, why not level up and start organizing parties for other people too? By now, you've probably met a lot of caterers, balloon sculpture makers, cake makers, clowns, event hosts, dressmakers, and whatever else parties need, to offer a good variety of choices for your clients.

7. Event hosting

If you've been asked to emcee a lot of events for free before, you could probably start emceeing for strangers and charging them for it too!

8. Freelance musician

Who would need this? Well, weddings, for one. A violinist or flute player would provide a good touch at a wedding ceremony. Some people may want a musician at their parties. You'll probably need to have a good barong or tuxedo, though.

9. Language tutor

You can do this online. Lots of parents would love for their kids to learn a second language. Some people may just want somebody to practice with.

10. Subject tutor

If you're good at science or math or English or Filipino (you'd be surprised at how many kids need Filipino tutors), offer tutorial services, even via Skype.

Okay, I gotta go back to my own work now. Please wait for the next items on this list (oh, there are many) and for advice on how to get clients for these jobs. Till next time!

Are you already doing any of these businesses? Let us know and we'll post a free blog article to let the world know about you and the services/products you are offering!

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Work-at-Home Job vs. Homebased Business

Recently, I've been receiving a lot of emailed queries from mothers asking how they could start working from home. Often, the hope is to quit the regular office-based job and replace the office-based income with homebased income.

I'll say this straight: If you're looking to replace your office income with your work-at-home income, you should not be looking for a work-at-home job. You need to start your own homebased business. And it is something you should begin to do while you are still in your office job.

Why?

Because often, work-at-home jobs pay much less than a homebased business will. After all, with a work-at-home job, you are just getting a percentage of what your employer gets from the client. If you own the business, you get 100% of what the client pays.

In fact, from my experience, the only way a work-at-home job can equal an office income is if you double your office hours, which means you work 80 hours a week instead of 40.

The downside, of course, is that with a homebased business, you will need to search for clients yourself. But let me tell you this: the process for finding your own business clients is almost the same as the process for finding a work-at-home job you can live with. In both cases, you need to 

• search online, 
• send a lot of application letters and work samples, and 
• activate your social network.

That is why you need to start your search for a work-at-home job or business many months before you quit your office work. It's no overnight deal.

Perhaps, the reason why a lot of people shrink from starting their own business and look for jobs instead is the fact that a business promises less financial security than a job. It's true. Client payments get delayed. Clients themselves are seasonal. You need to learn to manage your finances. But whether you have a business or a job, that is a skill you need to learn anyway.

And though a job offers more financial security in terms of regular payments, a business offers more financial rewards in terms of payment volume.

Another problem with having your own business is that your amount of accountability gets magnified. In the case of a writing company, for instance, the writer's work gets edited and fact checked and proofread before it is sent to the client. If the writer contacted the client directly, the writer would need to be able to edit and proofread his own work and make sure his facts are correct.

If you feel that your skills are not sufficient for you to contact clients directly, then yes, you may need to get a work-at-home job instead of start your own business ... but do the job part time, while you are employed, so that your skills can be honed to the point where you can eventually stand on your own. 

Then, when you quit your office job, you won't need to look for a work-at-home job anymore. You can start your own business.

Next post: A list of homebased businesses you can start. Watch out for it.

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The Sound of Scam

I had an interesting experience today at Sulit.com.ph. I found this ad that was looking for work-at-home Web developers in the Philippines, inviting interested parties to apply to archer@debtresourcegroup.com.

"Wow," I thought. "Some of my readers might like to know about this."

So I asked the ad poster for details on the job. Naturally, I would not want to post it on the Nanay Notebook if I wasn't even half sure it was not a scam.

To establish their credibility, I asked them for the name of their company, some company background, the name of the contact person, and their payment schedule and methods.

Here's the "professional" reply I got (font styles, colors, and highlights not mine):

As you can see, this is a "work from home" job opening so there is no physical address. The company itself is in the United States.

We would like to reserve our right to privacy and will only disclose information during our screening and interview of applicants who think they are qualified.

I have been in the offshore outsourcing industry for a couple of years now and have worked with a couple of U.S. based firms who outsource full-time and part-time jobs to the Philippines. And every experienced independent work-from-home worker is fully aware that there is always a concern out there for the "validity" of the job and the company. However, this "comes with the territory". Payments are made at the "back end" so there will be a "waiting time" that may cause apprehension.Needless to say, there is no company that pays upfront. It is always done in the back end. I cannot even say that MY OWN salary is guaranteed. What if the company folds up tomorrow or days from now? There are so many companies in the US that are losing money and closing down left and right. Even giant corporations have filed for BK.

In actuality, there is as much risk to the employer as there is to the employee because the services of the employee also cannot be guaranteed. Offshore oursourced jobs entail a higher level of trust from both parties. Some might ask for a "guarantee" and all we can say is "it is what it is". One tip I can advise your readers to keep in mind is that "if the employer is charging an application fee or joining fee, then there is more reason to worry". In our case, may I reiterate that we are NOT charging any fee. We are just looking for someone to do the job.

And just FYI, we have interviewed 3 people today and are currently evaluating them.

My dear readers, may I just use this as an example of the kind of work-at-home job you do NOT want to apply to. Why?

Mr. Job Poster was right on one thing: there is naturally less security for both the company and the worker when you take a work-at-home job. How do you know you will get paid? How do you know they will not run away from you after you have submitted the work they needed you to do?

But he is wrong in one thing: it does not need to "come with the territory." A good and legitimate employer, being aware of such issues, will bend over backwards to establish its credibility with its applicants. This includes, at the very least, giving out a physical address, phone number, and the name of a real person to contact. Ideally, they should have a Web site. After all, in this day and age, a Web site costs a mere $10 to get and about 8 hours to create. It may not be the slick, professional-looking Web site you would desire, but it's still better than nothing, which is what www.debtresourcegroup.com is.

And if the company folds up, that's no excuse to not pay your employees, no excuse to say that salaries are not guaranteed. There may be legal loopholes, yes, maybe, but a decent human being will make sure that his workers get their due.

Mr. Poster says he would like to reserve their right to privacy "and will only disclose information during our screening and interview of applicants who think they are qualified." What are they hiding? If you are a recruiting agency, I can understand why you would not want to divulge the name of your company, although I know reputable recruiting companies that stand proud by their name -- but to not even give out the name of a contact person? No physical address?

It is a lame excuse to say that since the job is a homebased one, "there is no physical address. The company itself is in the United States." You cannot form a legal U.S. company (or even a legal Philippine company, for that matter) without a physical address. My virtual company, Escrive Writing and Editing, operates from my home. Therefore, that is the physical address of my company. My son's "school," Kolbe Academy, actually operates its homeschool program from a church in Napa, California. Therefore, the church is their physical address.

Mr. Poster reiterates that they are not charging any fee to applicants, so they are more trustworthy than those outright scams that make you pay money so you can do the job.

Not necessarily true. There are several stories on Odesk where the service provider did a lot of work, no "application fee" involved, but did not get paid in the end. The lack of an application fee is no sign of trustworthiness.

So what's my take on work-at-home job posts such as this? Is it a scam? I would not categorically say so -- but it sure walks and talks like one.

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How to Become a Work-at-Home Mom

This is no generic, anonymous post. Today, I write about my own personal journey towards being a work-at-home mom.

Perhaps, this will help other mothers who want to work at home understand something very important: the road between being an office mom to being a work-at-home mom  is not a road you can travel overnight (or even in one year).

A long road

We've all done it, I suppose. We searched Google for "how to be a work-at-home mom," hoping to find those five or ten steps that will let us resign from our regular jobs and start working from home in a week or so.

In my case, though, it took much longer than that.

It all started when I was a stay-at-home mom in 2005, seven years ago. I had resigned from being a public school teacher to care for our first baby full time.

It was not easy to survive on one income because my husband's income was not steady at that time. So I looked for something I could do at home. I decided to try my hand out at writing.

Now I had absolutely no professional experience in writing or editing. I had no portfolio whatsoever.

So I took the only writing job I could find that did not require experience and portfolio: I started writing keyword articles.

It was terrible. They paid P50 for a 500 word article. It was of no real financial value. But it gave me my portfolio -- and it gave me the courage to call myself a writer. Now I had something to put in my writer resume.

Tip 1: Start doing the work, even for free. The money will follow.

First break

Soon, my brother Ivan found out about what I was doing. He, too, wrote articles, but for a print magazine.

When Ivan heard how much I was making per article, he said, "You know what -- I'm a bit busy these days. Perhaps you would like to write some of my articles for me? They pay a bit more." 

Only then did I realize how much print articles pay. I never looked at keyword articles again.

Now let me say this: my brother would never have let me write articles for him if he thought I could not do justice to them. And he would never have passed the work to me if he did not care for me in the first place.

Tip 2: Build a reputation. And build relationships.

Relationships are very important. My brother once said, "What you know can only bring you so high. In the end, it's who you know that will bring you to the top." 

He was not being cynical. We all know he was right.

So let me say it again: relationships are important. They are especially important if you are hoping to step out of employment and into freelance work. College degrees and portfolios don't bring in clients; they only secure them. But to bring clients in and to keep them, you need to reach out. You need people who will refer you to others. You need people who will trust you.

Paid training

All the events I related to you so far occurred while I was a stay-at-home mom. Now a month or so after our second child's birth, I got a regular job as editor at a Swiss-owned company. And yes, to secure this job, I put in my experience in writing keyword articles (which paid peanuts) and print articles (which paid real money).

I was hired as writer. It was a few months after that -- before I was regularized -- that I was unofficially promoted to editor. How did that happen?

We did not have an editor. We needed one. So I volunteered. I had absolutely no editing experience, but it was close enough to writing. The other skills I needed, I learned from the Internet. 

It entailed more work for the same pay, but it was a learning opportunity. Not only did I learn what a serial comma was, I also learned how to deal with writers, the editor's natural enemy (I'm kidding -- somewhat).

Tip 3: If you are employed, give it all you've got.
Volunteer to do the tasks nobody else wants.
Consider it paid training.

Going home

At this point, I had one client for freelance writing. I started to look for others. I found a company that accepts home-based editors. I applied and got accepted.

When I finally decided to take the leap and leave my office job to work at home full time, I asked this same company if they would take me on a fulltime basis. They accepted.

Tip 4: Collect your clients one by one.

While I was working from home, I kept looking for other work-at-home jobs on the Internet. I found one on Craigslist.com. He was looking for a virtual assistant. I had never been a virtual assistant, but I looked at his work requirements and told myself "I can do that."

I e-mailed him my application. He replied in an hour. We talked on Yahoo! Messenger, negotiated, and he gave me a test assignment: news writing.

I had edited a lot of news before, but I had never written one. I learned how to do it by searching the Internet. The next day, on the deadline he gave me, I submitted my sample article. 

Just like that, I had a new client.

Tip 5: Meet challenges head-on.
They will force you to learn new tricks in your field.

More clients

Here's one other new trick I learned online: a blog is a good way of marketing yourself and your skills. In 2010, I started writing this blog. Again, it was one of those "non-income-generating activities" that I felt I had to do, for long-term benefits.

Many months after I began writing the Nanay Notebook, a television company looking for working moms to interview found me through this blog. They interviewed me and showed the segment on television. 

That's how an old classmate who now worked with a PR company found me. She asked me if I could write press releases for her. 

Of course I said yes. Who cares if I had never written a press release in all my life? Google to the rescue! I learned how to write a press release, submitted my first copy, it was accepted, and I received more assignments.

Now I had another client.

Leap of faith

By this time, I had enough work to keep me busy more than eight hours a day. Then one day, I got sick. I had absolutely no output -- and no income -- that day.

A week before that fateful day, a childhood friend Jocelyn Domingo had invited me to a free financial literacy seminar. I learned two important things there:

1. The wealth of a person can be measured by how many days he can stop working and still eat.
2. Insanity is doing the same things over and over again and expecting a new result. (I believe this was a quote from Albert Einstein.)

On that day, I decided to do something different: I decided to hire freelance writers so that, even if I stop working, articles will continue to be written and the work process (and income flow) will not completely stop.

It was scary because at that point, I was earning barely enough for our family's needs. How could I think about sharing that income with other writers?

But a good aunt, Vidda Chan, referred me to a very inspirational video that reminded me to trust in the providence of God. I took the leap.

Sure enough, on the first few months, my income was halved. But with writers helping me out, I had more time to look for other clients. My Tita Amy referred me to a friend who needed somebody to edit biomedical journals. On Elance, I got invited to do small jobs. In time, my team and I were writing fashion articles, technology articles, travel guides, product reviews, UK news ...

Eventually, I was able to earn as much as I earned before I had writers to pay. At times, my new income even exceeded my old income.

"At times?" you may ask. "You didn't always earn a lot? So where was the benefit, then?"

The benefit was that now, I could go out on dates with my husband. I could take weekends and holidays off. (When I first started working from home, I had been unable to stop working, even on weekends and holidays, for about six months, because I had so many deadlines to catch all by myself.) I could even get sick now, when it was absolutely unavoidable.

And all that time, the work and the income continued to flow. What's more, other people -- my dear writers and editors -- were able to share in the blessings too.

Friends in high places

Today, the story continues. I have been working at home for about two years. I am far from being an expert.  I am very far from being a millionaire. I can only share what I have learned so far.

But if there's one last thing I would like to point out, it is this: I am no savvy business person. I don't really know how to market stuff; I don't know how to sell. What I have so far, I have gained through two things only: (1) my sincere effort and desire to do things right, and (2) God's pure grace.

A famous poet once said, "Only God can make a tree." It's true. The most we can do is plant the seed -- and indeed, the seed needs to be planted. But whether that tree will grow, and whether it will bear fruit, only God can say.

So whatever you endeavor to do, make sure God is on your side. Make sure it is an endeavor that you can ask God to bless.

As my brother said, "It's not what you know; it's who you know." It's a great idea to make friends in high places -- and heaven is as high as anyone can get. Make friends with the One there, and you will be on the right track.

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