By Victoria “NIKE” De Dios
While the coronavirus pandemic disrupted the lives of all the people in the world given the fact that it has impacted on both health and safety concerns not to mention the economic and income uncertainties that lost many jobs and increase unemployment.
Back in the height of the surge of the pandemic and in the absence of the vaccines from 2020 till first quarter of 2022, there were estimated of more than 50 percent of the MSMEs have closed down. There’s been zero revenue in the tourism industry since April 2021 apart from the most dreadful forecast is that about 5-10 million jobs are to be lost by end of 2020.
But to many Filipinos, the question is, “Are we going to allow ourselves to be victims of this predisposed forecast?” While many amongst us have already thrown in the towel, there were those who took the challenge and developed a strong mindset that affirmed what Filipino resiliency is all about.
Now, the Philippines’ domestic business economy continues to show resilience and entrepreneurial outlook at the opportunity present. Since the start of the pandemic, many had to find other sources of income to get by, resulting in a rise in online businesses. The Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) reported that in 2020, there were 900,000 newly registered businesses nationwide and 88,000 were online businesses.
If you’re looking to start a business soon, here are some tips from Lista, a free financial management tool for MSMEs and individuals, on how to start your own business.
Take note of essential documents
Starting with the basics, you need to note the essential documents that are required by the Philippine government. These include: Barangay clearance, Mayor business permit, BIR registration, Registrations from SSS, Philhealth, and Pag-IBIG, and lastly, special permits if the nature of your business requires it.
Think about your branding
With many businesses popping up, you have to think of ways to make your business recognizable and stand out. Branding is an essential component of a business because this is the how, what, where, when, and to whom your business wants to communicate and deliver your messages. When creating your visual logos, identity, or at the very least your business name, think about what is the target audience of your business, what your business stands for, and what is your business promoting.
Build your online presence through promos and reviews
Promotion is another key component in the success of starting a new business. If you can, promos do attract people in buying your products or services. An important thing to remember is to always aim for high customer satisfaction and encourage posting of positive reviews. This can create word of mouth and start conversations online. You can also create a social media page and create simple photo and video content about your business.
Establish an efficient digital financial management system
Lastly, one thing to remember in starting a business is to manage your finances, the heart of every business. Luckily, Lista can help you manage the finances of your business with ease and provides increased efficiency, productivity, and maximization of profits.
Lista is a free financial management tool that allows you to manage your business more efficiently
Lista co-founder Aaron Villegas shared, “Growing up, I saw the struggles that my family had running a sari-sari store, so uplifting MSMEs is an advocacy close to my heart. We have seen the need to replace traditional finance management habits such as manually tracking expenses through a notebook, that are prone to error and may hinder financial growth. Now, I’m glad to be able to bring together those early experiences and what I’ve learned from forming tech startups abroad to create accessible and sustainable solutions for not just MSMEs but for any Filipino who wants to start making better financial decisions.”
Lista gives users easy-to-use digital bookkeeping features such as keeping records of your transactions to make sure that your company’s money is accounted for as well as real-time profit calculations for your business. You can also set weekly and monthly sales targets and record customer debt management, which keeps track of the debt that customers incur. Lista can even send free SMS reminders to remind customers of their payables.
According to Lista co-founder Khriz Lim, “I’ve also seen struggles of courier riders from my time in Grab and most of them have difficulty tracking their income and expenses, so they don’t have visibility on their profit. As Lista continues to grow, our goal is to continue to listen to our users and identify their pain points to improve their experience and help them manage their businesses and hard earned income more efficiently.”
Lista recently introduced their highly requested new Inventory feature, which makes it easier for business owners to keep track of their product’s stock and properly categorize them accordingly. Through this feature, you will be able to replenish the stock immediately before it runs out.
Starting a business is no easy feat, but with a little perseverance, management skills, and the right tools, your success might just be right around the corner.
Download Lista via Google Play and App Store. To stay updated and for more information visit Lista’s Facebook page and website.