Pera ni Juan

How funny how nature works. Until now I couldn't believe how can an individual earn $ 100 dollars a day from cat droppings. But these are not your ordinary house cats. This are Civets.

Civets are small, lithe-bodied, mostly arboreal mammals native to the tropics of Africa and Asia. And yes we do have civets here in the Philippines. Civets have a broadly cat-like general appearance, though the muzzle is extended and often pointed, rather like an otter or a mongoose. They range in length from about 17 to 28 in (43 to 71 cm) (excluding their long tails) and in weight from about 3 to 10 lb (1.4 to 4.5 kg).

They live in a tropical rain forest. Their diet is eating fresh fruit cherries which makes their "poops" taste like Starbucks 10 times better. The price of their waste cost a fortune and the Philippines is making coffee beans out of it called "Kape Alamid". As of today we are gaining big profits from exporting to Western countries like the United States.

Interesting story huh? If only we can breed this kind of cats we would all be millionaires. In Indonesia they are already breeding civets.
For those who are interested to breed civets and make a money out of it, let me know. Let's do business together!

Here is a video about how Filipinos makes money out of Civets. Enjoy!

Imagine yourself in a place like this.... No traffic, no rush hour, no hassle, and no pollution. This is an escape from your every day routine life. It's just you and mother nature. A perfect spot to relax and unwind, along with your favorite book at your side and with your favorite drink to replenish your thirst of the scorching heat of the sun.
You get to feel the wind as you place your naked feet under the powdered crystal beach sand. And as you doze off you say to yourself that "Wow! this is what you call life".

Okay, now wake up and get back to reality. Your now back to your real world where you have no choice but to do what almost everybody is doing year after year.... working hard.
Nothing is wrong with working hard but like I said in my previous article that it is better to work smarter than work harder.
With working harder you get the chance to go to the beach only and just only on Holy Week, All Saint's Day, Christmas Season, and all the legal holidays that we have. That is just a few.

But with working smarter, you could stay at that beach for a month and not worry on your monthly revenue and expenses. How is that possible? Simple... the answer is creating Passive Income for yourself.
With Passive income you let your money work for you and not vice-versa. Here is an example: Let's just say that your a bank executive in one of the top banks in our country. The company pays you well but still you are not contented with your work. Why? Because of the "No work No pay" system. Your earning great but your losing time with yourself, your family and your friends.

You start to notice that you're living inside a close box. You start to think on how to re-live your life and create more time for yourself. Then you decided to create one passive income for yourself. You invested some of your savings in Real Estate. You bought a foreclosed property and converted it into a dormitory since the infrastructure is near to the school.
Let's just assume that the normal rental fee in one room is Php 3,000 and you got 40 units in your building. So that's a total of Php 120,000 in a month. Not bad for a passive income huh!

Plus you offered the ground floor of your building to Pizza Hut and Starbucks where they pay a rent of Php 50,000 each. That's an additional of Php 100,000. All in all you got a gross income of Php 220,000 a month.
You may now have a privilege to resign your job and continue adding your passive income streams.

Now the scene of you lying on the beach will now come into a reality and you now have the option to enjoy your stay on your favorite vacation spot for as long as you want. Your passive income stream is working hard in order for you to enjoy life at it's fullest. Wouldn't you want that?

Passive income comes in many ways, there is business and entrepreneurship, real estate, stocks, mutual bonds, forex, etc. As long as you don't have to spend your time then that is qualified as a passive income stream. How will you do it? It's totally up to you. Just remember that you don't have to quit your job to start your passive income streams. Keep your job while you slowly build your passive income.
When you notice that your passive income is bigger than your active income (salary) then you have a choice on what to do with your life.

Like you I'm also striving to create passive income for myself. So far I only have one, so my dream of staying much longer on my beach paradise is still a work in progress. But I already started my engine and I'm sailing my way to my goal.

How about you? What is your dream?

Most people are like ants. Their mindset is to work from Monday to Friday for 8 hours a day.
They leave their house in the morning and be back home almost in the evening. This people do it in a routine manner that they don't have to set an alarm clock to wake them up. Their body clock is set like ants and they do it 5 days a week.

In the week-end they spend their hard earned money by going to malls and eating out and buying the stuff that they don't really need. Not like ants, they work not for their wants but "only" to their needs. That is why the ants colony have plenty of food during rainy season because they were prepared for it.
And mind you folks, this ants didn't get any proper education. They just do it by instinct. If they don't work they won't have anything to eat.

Unfortunately, we people are the other way around. We are the ones who were educated but it seems we are "dumber" than this tiny creatures. So after this people spend their money in the week-end they have to start the week with no or little money. Their payday seems to be miles away and they have to pay the bills and their personal needs.
That's the time they to do part time jobs or overtime. So their time of work ends not only at 5 PM but they extend it to 7-9 PM. Then they are too tired when they reach home by 11-12 PM.
Tired in a sense that all they can do is go to bed and get ready for another stress-full day tomorrow.

But you know what, it's still the same thing. This people earned a little from their weekly part-time jobs and overtime work just to pay for their debts on the tuition of their kids, their electricity, post paid plans, cable TV, water, maids, car monthly amortization... the list goes on and on...

And they keep on doing that year after year. Always struggling financially and always going for the pursuit of happiness. When they reach 60 years old, they don't have any retirement savings, no investments, and no medical coverage. All they have is unpaid debts, body aches, and unlimited tension.

That is why managing your time is very very important. In fact it is more important than money. Why? I know you would ask that... ok here it goes. Money is nice and everybody in this world either needs it or wants it. But here's the thing, sometimes in life you will lose money. Even the rich ones makes mistakes in their investments from time to time. No one is perfect.
But even if you lose money (even a large portion of it or even to a point of bankruptcy), there is still a chance to gain money again.
All you have to do is work again and do the stuff that you've been doing when you still have the money. One way or the other you will get it all back.

But we can't do that with time. Once it's gone it's gone. For example, you were stuck in the meeting and you miss the basketball game. Or how about you were with your friends in the mall and you were not able to attend your son's soccer game where he scored the winning goal.
Or you got sick and we're not able to dance the boy of your dreams in the high school prom night.
All of us, have experienced something that we regret and wish that we could turn back the clock and fix things up.

That is how valuable time is. You could not go back in time to correct what you made wrong. It may sound corny and the phrase is a little bit old and rusty but the "Time is Gold" phrase is very essential to all of us. Time is really gold, it's priceless. The times together you spend with your spouse..... your wedding day, or perhaps the first time you've met.
The times you and your girlfriend went to Boracay and spend 3 days of fun and adventures at the beach.
All of this has meaning. All of this is memorable. All of this is treasured.

So going back to the people who works hard like ants but still doesn't have money to live happily and no worries... here's my tip to you. You don't have to work hard. There is a better way for it... work smarter. You don't have to work for money, let your money work for you.
Making passive income will solve your financial burdens and you will have more quality time with your loved ones.

I have started one passive income where I let my money work for me. All I have to do is to monitor it consistently and just make it a well oiled machine. Right now I collect my earnings from my passive income and I'm planning to put "another" passive income stream so that in the future I can let go of my "active" income (work) and let my passive income streams do the work for me. Neat huh!

I will discuss this more on my next article. In the meantime, work like ants but also save like ants. In that way you can save money and build your own passive income streams that will bring you to financially freedom and happiness.

You might think that everybody is making polvoron and it's very common. But to tell you honestly, there are areas that the polvoron makers haven't tap yet. Just look at the picture shown here, it's a polvoron but it has the combination of chocolate and milk therefore making it different than the common milk polvoron.
Kids especially like chocolate so much. If you add chocolate to your polvoron, you have also tap an additional target market.... the young ones (ages 3-12 yrs old).

There are polvoron variants that you can create and start with, there are pinipig, cashew, pili, cookies and cream, coffee, strawberry and so many others. Be imaginative and explore your mind. Do a research on what other flavors you can add to your polvoron business. The more flavors you can make the better.
Remember that your polvoron business must have a "niche" where people will know and remember your product. Don't also forget to make your own brand name. Creating your own brand name is an integral part of your polvoron business success.

Start first with just a few variants.... 5-6 flavors is a nice number to start with. It will not confuse you but at the same time it will give choices to your customers. Then once you perfect your polvoron, create a brand name. Then comb divisoria and quiapo for the right packaging. Packaging is also important to catch the eye of the prospective customer. Once the customer see the nice packaging, you already 50% sure of closing the sale.
Make a mark-up of your product. Food should have a bigger margin than other business products. Then do you pricing. Make one for retail and one for wholesale.

Begin selling with your friends, neighbors, families and relatives. Why? Most likely they will buy your product because they know you already. Get their comments and negative reactions. Gather feedback on what you need to improve and develop.
Once you find a common ground on your product then you can go full blast on your marketing campaign.

There are a lot of ways of selling your polvoron. You can join trade fairs and bazaars. This is a perfect way to expose your items. Remember to give your customers your calling cards or place your contact numbers on your product label. If you do this, there is a possibility of the customers calling you. They can order your product in bulk, some will do dealership and sell to their areas (provinces), some will offer consignment on their spot and restaurants, and some can offer to export your merchandise to other countries. The possibilities are endless.

You can also target the malls. SM and Robinsons are the best mall to contact with. You can tap their supermarket and place a merchandiser to do your product introductory for you. Or you can get a kiosk inside the mall. The choice is all yours. Rent may be pricey but it's worth it because of the heavy foot traffic.

One more option is distribution to schools, hospitals, government institutions, small groceries and sari-sari stores, airports and seaports, bus terminals, hotels, church, villages, etc. You will need several aggressive sales representative to reach your sales to the maximum.

The internet is also one way of exposing your polvoron. Almost everybody is online nowadays and promoting your product on the net is not only cost-effective but it is also global. I said global because one guy in Japan might be able to see your website and decided to order from you. Now you are not selling only to the Philippines but to Japan as well.
You can contact me if you need me to help you in this category.

So before you start doing your polvoron, let me tell you a story of a couple who started with their polvoron business with just a capital of Php 1,000. They use their capital to buy ingredients and plastic packaging for the powdered milk candies. Their housemaids help them with the production and they started selling to relatives and friends. Once they started receiving volume orders they quit their daily jobs to give more attention to their new business.

Today they have more than 30 workers at home who help them out with their polvoron business. They sell an average of 1,200 24-piece packs worth Php 72,000 a day. And in a year they were able to gross Php 21 million.
They are also now in to export and is planning to reach neighboring countries in Asia, Australia, the Middle East, America and Europe.

Polvoron business looks small and diminutive but it can be a heavy weight type of business if you really dig into it. So go on, start making your polvoron today.

Get a chance to land your dream job offer! Ever wanted to be on ESPN Sportscenter? Audition now! Top 10 commentators shortlisted by ESPN Star Sports will be interviewed via Skype video calling. Winner gets to present a segment on SportsCenter Asia.

ESPN (originally an abbreviation for the Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American cable television network dedicated to broadcasting and producing sports-related programming 24 hours a day.

SportsCenter is a daily sports news television show, and the flagship program of American cable network ESPN since the network launched on September 7, 1979. Originally broadcast only daily, SportsCenter is now shown up to twelve times a day, replaying the day's scores and highlights from major sporting events , along with commentary, previews and feature stories. The show has proven highly durable, having been aired more times than any other program in American television, with more than 30,000 unique episodes. It celebrated its 30,000th show on February 11, 2007. The show is taped in ESPN's HDTV studio facilities in Bristol, Connecticut and Los Angeles, California.

For those who are curious on how much does an ESPN anchors make, well it is not that much. It is only $1.5 million a year or Php 69 million a year. That's about Php 5.75 million a month. Not bad huh? Some anchors earns less (around $500-600k or Php 23-27.6m a year). All the anchors needs to do is get to know the topic that they are presenting on TV. If your a sports buff then you already have an advantage because you already have a background on that department.

Back in 2004, ESPN started this American reality television show called Dream Job. The premise of Dream Job was to find a new anchor for ESPN's popular sports news program, SportsCenter, The winner of Dream Job would get a one-year contract with the network, and would play a trivia quiz on SportsCenter to determine her or his annual salary. The winner would also receive a new Mazda 3. Cool isn't it?

Here in Asia, ESPN still has to disclosed the salary and the benefits that will be given to the winner of the ESPN SportsCenter audition contest. But I'm sure it will be more than you expected.

So before you make an audition. Get to practice first in front of the mirror. Know your strength and weaknesses. Dig down on yourself and find the charm inside of you. Then when your ready you can log to http://www.starcommentator.com/

Once your log on you will be interviewed via Skype. Skype is a software application that allows users to make voice calls over the Internet. Calls to other users of the service and, in some countries, to free-of-charge numbers, are free, while calls to other landlines and mobile phones can be made for a fee. Additional features include instant messaging, file transfer and video conferencing.

So bring out the star in you and rise to the challenge. You may be the next asia's ESPN SportsCenter commentator.

Do you know Bonifacio Global City? It is used to be a military camp but was privatized for commercial used. In Bonifacio you can see the Market Market Mall, Bonifacio High Street, Serendra, St. Luke's hospital and several business establishment. Indeed Bonifacio has come a long way.

Now there is a new one... New Port City. New Port City is not far way from Bonifacio and it used to be a camp for the Philippine Air Force. Here you can see the NAIA Terminal 3, 5- Star Marriot Hotel, 18 hole Villamor Golf course, a 4 story high-end shopping mall, a business IT district, and a first class casino.

Newport City is a 25 hectare Residential Resort located near Villamor Air Base. Since the thrust of the company is to boost the Tourism Industry, they have been accredited as the Country’s First Tourism Ecozone and designated as the new Gateway to Tourism and Entertainment.
Newport's development is a multi billion investment with an infused capitalization of $600 million dollars for the Resort World and $140 Million dollars for the residential units.

The Resort World Manila is an 8 hectare development project within the 25 hectare Newport City with 2 hotels, Marriott Hotel and a six (6) start Maxim’s Hotel and Casino in which the latter is 40% owned by the Genting Group of Malaysia. Star Curise is Genting’s Flagship and is the 3rd largest cruise with 200 destinations and 3 million passengers annually.

Newport City is a prime location. It is near the business district of Makati, top schools are located around the area, hospitals are not that far away, it is accessible to major highways (EDSA, C-5, SLEX) and has the convenience of luxury of several commercial establishments in the area.

This is the best time to make an income opportunity. You can be a Newport city real estate agent. There are several condominium units that are still available. There is the Residential Resort, the Parkside Villas, and the PalmTree Villas. All of this is owned by Megaworld Newport Properties Inc.

For more information you can log on to their website at www.newportcity.com.ph or contact them at Tel no: 855-7580, 855-7583, 855-7586, 855-7594.

Yes, you too can be Superman.... I'm not talking about you getting his super powers like extra ordinary strength and x-ray vision, but you can be "super" in your very own way.

Remember that Superman was also an ordinary person back in his hometown planet "Krypton". He only became super when he arrived on earth. All of a sudden Superman became a "hero" in the planet earth just by doing what is normal for him. In Krypton, Superman was known as "Kal-El" when he was an infant. On earth, Superman is an icon and a symbol of excellence.

What is Superman have to do with you.... well you can be like him if you really put your mind into what your good at. Yes, each one of us is unique. God made us special and gave us a specific and exceptional gift.
Some of us is great in music, some are excellent in sports, some are great inventors, some are good in numbers, some are great poets and writers, some are good in cooking, some are experts in computers, and some are good in dealing with people.

You see each one of us have a unique gift and talent. People like Micheal Jackson, Brad Pitt, Michael Jordan or Tiger Woods are over pouring and oozing with talent. This individuals that I mentioned are great in their category.
Micheal Jackson, a gifted singer and dancer, is probably the best entertainer of all time. He earned a fortune on his record breaking albums and concerts.
Brad Pitt used his pretty face to be widely known in the movie industry. Known as one of the world's most attractive man, Brad Pitt captured the hearts of many female admirers.
Micheal Jordan brought basketball to a different dimension. Jordan won 6 NBA championships and several MVP awards. He is known as the world's best basketball player of all time.
And Tiger Woods, the most successful golfer and the most highest paid athlete in the world. He earned an estimated $ 110 million from winnings and endorsement.

But to most of us unfortunately, we are not aware of our gifts and talents. Or worse don't even bother to look to their hidden gifts and talents. You don't have to be like Michael Jackson or Tiger Woods. You can be great even in a small and different way.
In the Philippines there is one guy I know who used his love for animals (specifically dogs) for business purposes. He has this St. Bernard and he brings this huge and lovable dog to Burnham Park in Baguio. There he earns money from tourist while taking the picture of his dog. He gets to walk and bond with his dog in the park and earns a profit at the same time. He gets the best of both worlds..... business and pleasure.

Then there is this woman who is an accountant. She has a family of 5 and works in a small company in Makati. Her salary is just enough for their monthly expense. Little did I know that she has several passive income streams on the side. She has earnings from her rental on her real estate business. She has several investments on mutual bonds, stocks, and other paper assets.
She even have 5 extra small business to add to her income streams.
She told me that her passive income streams is much much bigger than her monthly salary.

I also knew a guy who was a struggling musician all his life. He told me that he was a failure and he has no place in this world. I sympathize with him and told him to let go of his depression and I even joke with him to cook something for me. He took my joke as a serious comment and cook something for me. When I tasted his dish I was overwhelmed and told him instantly that this is what you have been missing all your life.
I told him the reason why he was struggling as a musician because God has different plans for him and he was on the wrong field. His arena is into food and he was destined to be a great chef. With just one joke everything click for him. Now this guy has 3 big restaurants in town.

So you see, there is something "super" inside of us. We just need to discover what is it. It could be your passion or your hobby. Or it could be something that you don't like to do but you excel in it.
Sometimes it's better to ask from a different perspective and ask the opinion of a third party. This person might see something that your loved ones haven't seen. Ask around and get their honest comments about you.
You could go on a retreat on a quite and serene place. In that place you can ask our creator what is your hidden gift and talent. God may not answer you directly and I'm pretty sure he will sent down a sign or signal for you.

Remember it doesn't matter if your a garbage man, a helper, a security guard, a waiter, or a clerk. As long as you are doing your best on your field everything will be alright. Rags to riches story doesn't only happens in the movies... they happen in real life as well.
Just know what is "super" within you. Make the most of your gift and talent and use it to the best of your ability.

It is better to be Lion for a day than a sheep all your life. Don't settle as Clark Kent. Take off your coat and be the Superman. And when you discover your hidden gift and talent, don't forget to share it to the rest of humanity. Share your blessings, give something back, help the needy. Then everybody can call you the true "Superman".