Despite many opportunities and no matter how I try to innovate the idea of work itself and invigorate my mental state, things became very repetitive for me. Either I’m not doing it right or I wasn’t well motivated enough. But my instinct said it’s neither both. And although I felt it’s not right, I just simply got bored. I aimed to do more and do something new, discover my real passion, explore and use my talents much better in an appropriate avenue, working things my own unique way, reach and serve a broader audience.
Little did I know I am getting too enthralled with the idea of managing my own travel business and setting it up at the comfort of my own home. What I aimed for fell into its proper places and happened just the way I had hoped for. Thanks for the gift of proper discernment.
Yes, my Jitrrie Travel & Tours is an auspicious home-based business. It’s a transformation of my passion for travel into an enterprising activity which can benefit everyone regardless of status. A fulfillment in that sense and hence, it is auspicious because I knew I can make things happen without borders and continuously learn from the experts. I benefit a lot in being surrounded with good people who inspires me to reach success without any politics. This is a clear-cut example of working peacefully with efficiency under the influence of INTEGRITY and HARMONY.
If online business (buying & selling) started trending widely a few years back, home-based business peaked even better in the recent years.
In the Philippines, “Home-Based Entrepreneurship” has gone a long way very steadily with many locals gearing towards working on their own enterprises from home to better manage their own time (this requires a firm self-discipline) and minimize cost. And I’ve seen most of them are able to maximize their profits through this type of setting. The right values are there.
Intermittently, you can check many inspiring anecdotes from successful enterprisers at THE ENTREPRENEUR who worked their way up assiduously to earn impressive results. A majority of them are home-based and a good number of them are young adults.
Apparently, our Census & Statistics Office in the Philippines does not provide a data report on the actual number of registered home-based businesses yet. It only gathers annual report on commercially registered businesses from various industries.
So based on my own meticulous observations as I pass by the entire Metropolitan Manila and the current city to which I live (also part of Manila), some of the small businesses which operate from home (with its eye-catching professional signage) and are gaining sturdy momentum in the Philippines include repair shops (automotive and computer), car wash, ceramics production, services like (printing, manpower resources, beauty & wellness, fashion design & dressmaking, pet clinics, pharmacies), construction & real estate including (engineering & architectural contractual/sub-contractual), hand crafting works such as (bar soaps, candles, perfumes, jewelries). By the way, I hand craft my own perfumes at home which I associate as the official souvenir of Jitrrie Travel & Tours.
Since I returned from Singapore where I was based for 6 years, I have seen a handful of travel agencies in the Philippines which are operated from home. Most of these, including mine, are franchised from top local travel firms. Like in many developed and developing countries, Franchising is an emerging business in the Philippines. In fact, it is a fast booming industry that even the most prominent and established local multinational firms have also opted to franchise some of its business units.
It may not apply to other home-based industry businesses but travel agencies which operate from home are only a bit more than quarter of the total percentage which operate from commercial areas.
Some say, profitability in doing business from home is highly painstaking and almost impossible to achieve compared to operating it from a commercial shop. I agree it’s easier to raise profits in a commercially populated area specifically if your business is dominant and competition is not tough. But this is depending on the amount of your total capital raised and cost incurred.
Whereas, operating from home requires you to raise awareness more intensively to make the public aware that your business exist. But its great advantage lies on a very minimal start-up capital and operating cost. Like I said, either way, you still have to work doubly hard and it all depends on MINDSET.
A few years back until currently, some very well-established local travel firms are conducting intensive seminars on how to set-up a home-based travel agency business. This is part of the requirement before granting the franchise rights. My husband and I are successful beneficiaries of this set-up among many other fellow Filipinos from different islands. It was the perfect timing to leverage my passion on the current healthy trend.
Why my sudden struck to home-based business?
For me, home-based work and home-based business mean two different scenarios. While the former is to provide for basic needs or as an extra income to supplement an 8-hour job (which includes online or telesales jobs either directly working for a firm or sub-contracting from an individual at any desired time), the latter empowers an individual to create his own ideas, translate it into his own enterprise and achieve unlimited results.
But just to address any possible criticisms on my personal views about these two scenarios, it all depends on your own interpretation of each one according to its purposes. Either way, one has to ethically work real hard to achieve interminable success.
Besides a low start-up capital, my home-based travel business enabled me to utilize my craft more extensively and make my opinions happen right away. I am now able to design my own marketing approach, to network with the right people from diverse sectors, explore & boost my creativity and use my PR skills more extensively. I can do all these without limitations.
Although it is franchised, it is registered under my own company name which allows me to have full control of my travel business and operate it in my own way in accordance with the rules set forth in the Franchise Contract (this is still vital indeed).
Of course owning a business does not earn me a bed of roses at the start. No one does. In fact, managing a home-based business is clearly more demanding and exhaustive than being employed in a full-time job. I should know (19 years in the glittering corporate world and now reaching almost one year in my simple yet colorful home-based travel business).
Imagine how I cope with various domestic chores at home, ensuring that I spend moments of prayer at some scheduled hours of the day and writing my own travel blog site are considerably very tedious roles daily. But thanks to my multi-tasking skills which are fully consumed. It’s not too tough after all.
Apart from the domestic aspects, I need to prove that my strong passion for travel will certainly translate into earnings. But beyond that, I need to earn the trust and confidence of people who decide to engage my services. These are the most indispensable values in business if you really want decent earnings pouring your way.
And in order to earn these values, transparency and integrity should never be compromised. It should encompass commitment to promises, prompt and polite customer service (refrain from making your clients wait in unnecessary queue at your own pace and wasting their time – this is simply worst!!) and learning to say “NO” if things are no longer in accordance with moral principles which are crucial for the reputation of a business.
Then how do I make it work?
- I treat people (clients and prospects) with respect regardless of their status. This is my primary focus. A number of my clients come from the middle class society and a few from corporate firms, schools and churches/church organizations). Each one has different needs and is to be treated well according to their specific needs.
- So being flexible should follow through. I am willing to customize my services according to my clients’ preferences with my own innovations.
- As I’m still in the infancy stage, I should not mind giving reasonable rates according to the quality and nature of travel. It cannot be that a closer and not so popular destinations and accommodations will have the same rate with that of farther and prominent ones. For me, it is more fruitful to extend much affordable rates for a faster turn-over (whenever possible) than putting a higher mark-up where it’s almost always impossible for people to patronize my services at this early stage, particularly, the middle class people where the bigger pie of my clients come from.
- My confidence in providing appropriate travel advices and tips is a manifestation of my love for travel. People know if someone is really knowledgeable and genuinely passionate in their chosen area. For me, it is very empowering to be able to share this passion with people.
- I always encourage people who visit my outlet to realize that TRAVELING is the BEST FORM of LEARNING even when there is no return of investment in traveling, a great experience cannot be bought and stolen from you. Experience is always the best teacher hence, the best form of learning.
- Exercising the proper conduct in business and acquiring ETHICS is a word I always ADVOCATE. This should include responding to email enquiries at least within 24 hours (I find it very rude and unprofessional delaying email responses and at times not responding at all unless something reasonably urgent came up. I have experienced this a thousand times in my corporate life and it’s absolutely a TURN-OFF to that business!).
- Never imitate styles from competitors or any businesses at all. This is still part of business ethics. I want to be remembered sweetly with my own unique approach and identity in the world of travel business. I am a simple person with simply different approach. And I want to stay SIMPLE.
- Although I have not experienced any unexpected drawbacks yet, it is imperative that I have designed my contingency plans. For instance, the booking system interruptions which I anticipate would be the only main pitfall that may happen occasionally, then I have to honestly inform my clients beforehand that any required travel needs could not be delivered at the moment. But I should have still drawn my contingencies for pending transactions that require immediate attention. Giving clients false hope without action is considered unethical.
- I always offer complimentary after sales services and I find that I am already building-up genuine friendships with my clients through this generosity. It’s not a lot of effort and no cost at all.
- SELF-DISCIPLINE is a MUST, to top it all.
Moving forward, there will be more scenarios I will discover and as such, there should be more ideas I need to create to address these scenarios. Looking back for the past 8 months, I felt more fulfilled and satisfied as a home-based enterpriser. Not a single regret ever occurred to me.
And I quote further “What stays in your mind, controls you for better or for worse. Make sure your mind sticks at the better side and rewards will keep on outpouring.”
So this is my story of how I empower and will continue to empower myself and my home-based travel business throughout. May you be empowered likewise.