Here’s a list of the upcoming bazaars in Metro Manila. Get those enterprising juices flowing and come up with useful or simply cute products to sell in these bazaars.
Remember to book early to get the best selling spots.

Dec. 12-14, 2008

What: Rockwell’s Urban Bazaar, Holiday Series part 4
Where: Rockwell Tent, Powerplant Mall
To schedule a product screening, please call 898-1702 and look for Lisa or Sam
More info: Powerplant Mall at Multiply

Dec. 13-14, 2008

Santa’s Christmas Bazaar @ La Vista
Time: 9 a.m. - 7 p.m.
Where: La Vista Clubhouse, Katipunan, Quezon City
More info: Claudine Baron
Tel: 4946616 Fax: 9208505
Mobile: 0917-8636644 / 0922-6423835
Email: claudbaron@yahoo.com

Dec. 13, 2008

What: Tinseltown’s Sleigh Ride Bazaar
Where: Tent City Building, Ortigas
More info: Libby (0917-8607785) or Marifi (0918-8630048)

Dec. 8-12 and Dec. 15-19, 2008

Shopping Spree Bazaar, GT Tower
Where: GT Tower, 12th Flr., 6813 Ayala Avenue cor HV Dela Costa, Makati City
More info at: Organizer’s Web Page

Dec. 20 - 21, 2008

What: Greenmeadows Xmas Rush Bazaar 2008
Time: 10 a.m.–7 p.m.
Where: Greenmeadows Clubouse, Pasig City
More info: Claudine Baron
Telephone: 4946616 Fax: 9208505
Mobile No.: 0917-8636644/0922-6423835
Email: claudbaron@yahoo.com

Dec. 20-21, 2008

What: Yuletide Souk, The Big Red Bazaar
Where: Rockwell Tent, Makati
More info: Big Red Bazaar Website
You may contact us at 0916.598.5469 / 0922.812.8019 / 02.9940818 or send us an email at thebigredbazaar@gmail.com

Now, anyone can earn online. Of course when I say “anyone”, I mean anyone who has the go-get attitude that really spells the difference between an entrepreneur and a fad rider. The yuppies who get tired of working the 9 to 5 inside a cubicle and braving the rigors of traffic jams twice a day are setting up their Home Business plans and preparing for the real boom of the Make Money Online market.

Those who have never tried website building have it easy nowadays as there are mentorship programs that are available for a minimum fee. What I love best though are the intuitive do-it-yourself programs that aren’t really do-it-yourself. You have help! This page about the Plug-In Profit Site enables the worthy few to learn the ropes of internet marketing swiftly and with minimum hassle. The onlien business you are going to learn from this site will teach you about pay-per-click marketing, email marketing and building business connections, in a manner that is fit for newbies in the biz.

One insider information that I can tell you is this: those who cash into the most effective business models first will be the ranchers and when that position is saturated, everyone else will be the sheep herders. The know-how, the technical skills needed and the internet business savvy will come in time, but you have to start with the willingness to embrace this new business scheme of working from home and earning from the internet.

Get your own Plug-In Profit Site visit this website: Home Business

Small Business Financing is not as easy now as it was, particularly in the USA. Small business loans may be tougher to obtain because of competing businesses, the saturation of the industry you are trying to break into or simply the unavailability of lenders. It is no secret that some small businesses are being denied the financing they deserve.

Will these difficulties, will a small business owner simply pack up and leave? Hell no. Stick to your good idea and convince these people that your business is worth funding. You may have to highlight a strength that you think will increase your profits and gain the trust of would be financers, and it all starts with convincing yourself that you can. You may also start by cleaning up your credit history. There are those who will lend to individuals with bad credit but those companies aren’t many.

A good example of this is how women buy bags and shoes. You probably heard about how women will buy a trendy accessory. It goes further than that. Some buyers simply must have an item if it’s one of a kind (bags and shoes) and comfortable (shoes). A company like Blowfish Shoes will effectively attract women who love footwear because of the variety of the products, the unique styles they offer and the reasonable price of each item.

Blowfish Women’s Shoes convey elegance, comfort and good taste. A single glance at the items showcased in this website will have women picturing themselves wearing the shoes. In their minds, they can see themselves mixing and matching these shoes with the coats they already have inside their closets.

When your product appeals to a customer’s emotions, you have a sure sale. A fashionista will find these Blowfish Designer Shoes online and instantly want them, because they appeal to the core of a woman’s shopping behavior… “Will this pair match my bag and coat?”

Among local franchise operations, here are some food or food-related businesses that won the prestigious award:

Best Local Franchise (Philippines):

• Candy Corner - offers confectionery products; targets consumers but candy business owners can also buy in bulk. Franchise fee is 130k pesos (3250 USD at 40 pesos = 1USD), and estimated ROI is slated at 1-2 years
• Lots a’ Pizza - Pizza cart, stalls and kiosks. Franchise fee 100-175k pesos. Estimated ROI at 1-2 years
• Monterey - Fresh and processed meat products.  Franchise Fee 200k pesos. Estimated ROI at 2.5-3 years.
• Greenwich Pizza - Pizza, pasta, chicken, desserts, smoothies. 800k pesos franchise fee, estimated ROI at 2-4 years
• Max Restaurant - Fried Chicken and Filipino cuisine. Franchise fee 2M pesos. estimated ROI at 4-5 years
• Pancake House - Pancakes, waffles, taco, spaghetti, continental dishes. Franchise fee 1M pesos. Estimated ROI 3.5-5 years
• Red Ribbon - Cakes, Cookies, Bread Products. Franchise fee 1M pesos; estimated ROI at 3-4 years

In the simplest terms, franchising is cashing in on an idea that worked for the original businessman who used it. Franchise shopping can be intimidating, as more and more companies see this as the best (and sometimes, only) way to expand their reach.

Things to Consider

1. The track record of the franchised brand - Did it provide value to customers? Was there anything related to it that customers did not like? Were there negative issues connected to the brand?

2. Mentorship and Management Assistance - How transparent are the franchisers about their business system? Are they willing to share most of their trade secrets with you? Do they reveal how long it took them to profit from th business, and IF they have profited at all?

3. Prospect for More Growth - Is the brand dying or has it established itself as a daily thing among families? How in demand is the brand?

4. Cost Benefit Analysis - Does the benefits justify the cost of the franchise? Is the ROI worth it? How long before your investment feeds you?

Hard work and perseverance are a given in any business, but there are franchise opportunities that are less hassling than others. Buying a franchise means joining an already successful organization, saving you time and marketing effort.

You have probably seen this brand around and are now familiar with the Incredible Stylish New Frames From Zenni. If you go to their website, you can immediately see why they are now a household name (view this tidbit: Zenni Optical was on FOX news!). Their sunglasses are not just for summer, because the designs are trendy enough to wear anywhere, and in any season. Particularly captivating are their Zenni Optical $ 8 Rx Eyeglasses, inexpensive yet fashionable.

An enterprising attitude starts way before we get introduced to girl scout  cookie selling, which by the way are really charity cookies, and adults buy them knowing that they ARE overpriced. We start out with toy money, and we pretend that we are selling stuff to our elders. In fact, even the credit concept started this way for us. They (adults) avail of our services, make us do errands and promise to compensate us. So, that makes several concepts learned with just one errand: credit, employment and business.

To kids, the credit concept starts out by learning the meaning of a promise.

When someone promised to pay something back, we believed the person. Then we soon discover that we cannot depend on an open-ended promise to get our due, so we set deadlines on promises, and eventually develop a system to remind that grown up about his promise. Thus, the concept of credit and debt is born.

Then there’s the investment concept.

A kid who might want to sell lemonades must work to build his store. Parents could be the ones who will pay for the lemons, but the child has to help prepare them. He does the cleaning of the stall, squeezing lemonade and vending. All his efforts are suitably rewarded when people start buying. A wise parent will gently remind his son that the lemons cost something, so that the child could deduct that cost to obtain his final profit at the end of the day.

It doesn’t take much for kids to develop an entrepreneurial spirit, and parents will discover that when a child learns something early, he keeps the knowledge throughout his life.

Plastic spending means worrying about your purchases at a much later date, and justifying this strategy by saying that you will earn the money spent in the future anyway. ideally, you pay with credit for your purchase now because you don’t have cash, and when the day of payment comes, you will have the cash that you lacked before. It doesn’t always turn out that way, as other bills come along, and these too require attention and priority.

Some people see debt accumulated via plastic spending as a necessity of daily living. The notion of having a lifeline when you have nowhere to turn to for immediate cash need is well and good, but people must remember that something borrowed cannot be truly yours unless you pay on time and pay as much of the debt as possible.

Credit cards have become a necessity and there are ways to use debt wisely. One way of doing this is by strategic spending. Before getting one of these convenient plastic lifelines, make plans on what you intend to buy with it… and stick with that plan. For example, you commit to using the card only for extreme basics like food, clothing and home. Then, you list the details of these basics i.e. how much is your fixed mortgage payment, how much will you likely spend for food, how often you will shop for clothes every month and how often will you go shopping for ONE clothing item every month.

If you stick to your plan, and moderate your spending in such a way that you do not pay for other luxuries using your credit, you will have a clear picture of how much you are likely to pay back every month, and whether you can afford that amount or not.

You can haggle with your budget, make allowances and such during the initial planning stages, but the most important thing to do is… stick to the plan!

Tourists are such because they have the inclination to visit unfamiliar places for the sake of visiting. Considering these, they do not want to be troubled with some of the technicalities involved in their trip. A company that provides quality service in this department will be able to make the burden of preparation lighter for a tourist.

For example, someone who wants to visit Italy will want to know about the hotels there (e.g. Hotel Venice, Hotel Florence and Hotel Naples). A shrewd hotel reservations business will provide information on the following:

Location Background: The exact location of the hotel, and proximity to various landmarks that the tourist will visit; the accessibility of the location to public transport; and the probable activities inherent in the location. Also, the tourist may want to know the most conducive places for their various needs, some may prefer a hotel situated far from the bustle of the streets, while some others want to partake in the bustle as soon as they step out of their hotel room.

Amenities - Photos and detailed description of the rooms are preferred to simple lists stating whether the rooms belong to standard or deluxe categories. Are there provisions for families, kids or special conditions such as the presence of people with disability in the group?

Rates: Updated hotel rates, the currency used (a currency converter table is recommended), and the corresponding number of people, nights and days that the rates cover. Is breakfast included? Does the hotel accept all major credit cards? Discounts and incentives to come back are good things to know, as people will always look for these.

Guarantees - Under what circumstances will the reservation be canceled? Will the tourist be assured of a smooth handling of his reservation under late-arrival situations? Is there a refund policy just in case some plans go awry and he might need to cancel?