by: Francisco J. Colayco

An OFW asked my wife, Mary Anne, about setting up  a mini-grocery store. This is the OFW’s letter:

Dear Mrs. Colayco,

I am an OFW working as a private carer here in England. I am planning to go back to our country to be with my family. I am thinking of putting up a mini grocery store as our location is ideal for such kind of business. I actually found the courage to make this decision after reading your book. I hope you can give me business recommendations.

Thank you.

—Rizza

This is Mary Anne’s response:

Congratulations on your desire to improve your life and to return to your family! Going into business is being an active entrepreneur. What is first and foremost is that you must really like the mini-grocery business and have the technical capability for it. Although having the right location is definitely a good start, you must not just choose a business for the sake of having a business. While you could have “employees”, you will need to understand the business completely before embarking on it.

If your idea is having a “sari-sari” store, it will be relatively easy but you will still need to understand the business. From talks with sari-sari store owners, you should have an inventory capital range of PhP10,000 and more. There may be costs for permits and fees for the barangay depending on the practice in your area plus of course any renovation you may need to convert your place to a store. A successful Owner said that if you want significant earnings, no less than PhP50,000 inventory capital is needed. Examining the margins that storeowners add, it seems that 20% is a good average. Assuming you can turn-over your inventory at least twice in one month, then you can have a gross profit of anywhere from PhP2,000 to PhP10,000 per month. You can add to your inventory as you become more successful.

Check out the rest of her response at HerWord.com!!!