Feng on Jun 21st 2008 About our Biz
I’ve got a piece of good news! We got word from the Bids and Awards Committee of the government agency we’re bidding to supply newspapers and other publications that we won the six-month contract that will commence next month! Yipee!
It really helped that our little growing business is registered with Philgeps . 
Philgeps or short for Philippine Government Procurement System, is a Department of Budget and Management-deviced electronic exchange system where all public procurement requirements and activities are posted and where suppliers can view all possible procurement opportunities they can submit bids.
It was through Philgeps that we knew about the requirements of several government agencies and so far, we’ve bidded for two. The first one, we bidded and successfully bagged the contract December last year and the second one, only May of this year, and we’re happy we got this one too. 
Hubby, being the person whose more than techonology-challenged than I am (if I may say, he’s technophobic, to be more exact), used to abore the idea of searching for newspaper supply opportunities online. He’s more comfortable into inter-personal negotiation with clients and most often than not, he had this notion that online transactions are mostly fraudulent. Well, I can’t blame him really. With so many news and issues in the media environment that talks about lack of online security, it’s understandable he had that thought. Continue Reading »
Feng on Jun 16th 2008 About our Biz
Hubby and I slept quite late last night. We did something really really important and urgent. Heehee. We had the comforters and pillows lay on living room’s floor and we opted to have all the lights on the entire night. We’re supposed to do it in our room, but because we’ve expected we’re going to get noisy and afraid we’re going disturb the Little Boy who didn’t have a chance to nap in the afternoon because we’re out all afternoon to celebrate Father’s Day, we decided to do the important thing just in the living room. We didn’t care if the house angels saw us, what’s important was that we’re able to accomplish that one important task.
Haha! Oooopppps, before your minds turn to green and envision something rated PG, may I just make it clear that the one important thing that Hubby and I did last night was the bid proposal for a prospective client in the newspaper dealership we have. The prospective client is a government agency who is looking for a possible supplier for their bulk sets of newspapers for a whole year so Hubby and I really sat down, and buckle our heads to work on an equally good offer. Heehee.
We’re really hoping and crossing our fingers that we will win the bidding, which will be this coming Friday. It’s “the hard times” really, and for a business to keep afloat, one has to grab every opportunity given to them. In our case, we’re keeping up with expanding our clients in government agencies because at least, these are the clients that give us the regular stream of income. Continue Reading »
Feng on May 30th 2008 About our Biz
It’s Friday today on my side of the planet and am already in a weekend mode. Good thing there’s nothing much to do today, except for some pending paper works for Hubby related to our little growing business. First on my list of to do’s which I have accomplished this far is our monthly billing statements for our clients. Gee, that sure is important and it was what I prioritized or else, our delivery boys will not be salaried tomorrow.
My second task would be to do our BIR papers like SAWT (Statement of Assets and Withholding Taxes) and the Monthly Percentage Tax Return or Form 2551M. Geez, that’s one drawback with a Non-VAT business like ours, you always have to accomplish and file these papers to BIR or else you’ll get penalized. Actually, these papers are really easy to accomplish. It’s only a matter of simulating the income vs. the expenses, then attaching the receipts, and that’s it. Well, that is, if not the lazy me didn’t have the drive to finish thetasks as early as possible. These are those matters that will have a percentage of our hard-earned money going to Mr. Caesar a.ka. BIR, and whenever the end of month nears, it’s just so difficult to accomplish this task.
And since there’s still tomorrow anyway…. Guess what? I temporarily put the BIR papers aside and did something that’s not so urgent. But I swear Hubby would be happy to know this later when he’s home because I’ll claim it’s laziness converted into creativity.
You don’t believe me, don’t you? Oh, well then take a look: Continue Reading »
Feng on May 4th 2008 About our Biz, Being a Better Half
I finally received the new healthcards from our Office’ personnel section the other day. All
two of them, one for me being the principal holder and one for Hubby, which I decided to enroll as my dependent the last minute before the deadline of submission. If only I can enroll Nico as a dependent too, but because of the congenital heart disease that he had at birth , he’s not yet qualified for a healthcard even if the hole had closed by itself, until the Medical Investigation Bureau cleared him after five years. And since Nico’s four years old now, I have to wait another year more for him to finally qualify.
This is the first time ever in my entire working life I’ve had a dependent for a healthcard. And unexpectedly, it was Hubby. Hubby used to be enrolled separately through the company he worked for. But since he just availed of an early retirement December last year, perks and benefits he had, including the healthcard, only lasted that month.
It’s been four months since his early retirement, I know. But never it dawned to me so concretely that we are now a single income earning family, with me as the “officially” declared head of the family. Not until I received the healthcards just last Friday. It got me in leaps of paranoia and I can’t help but feel too worried how our finances would go now that Hubby had retired.
Though he’s still connected with the company, but it’s only on a consultancy basis, meaning there would be no more constant stream of income earnings for the family on his part. It was a courageous career move on his part because he wanted to be full time in the little growing business that we have especially now that we’ve taken a step higher by venturing into newspaper dealership in a certain area in north of Metro Manila, aside from the delivery services that we have.
I remember a post by Teacher Julie before, it’s a photo of tunnel which depicted how life was so unpredictable. Continue Reading »
Feng on Feb 20th 2008 About our Biz
They say that the first year is probably the hardest, but is considered a milestone that truly deserves a celebration once it is reached. True? I ought to think so because that’s exactly what we went through during the first year since we put up our little growing business.
On Heart’s Day of 2007, one of our long term goals—to be able to start a business of our own finally came into reality. I vividly remember then how busy I was manually writing the delivery receipt details for all the publications we were about to distribute to all drop off points in Metro Manila. And while I feel the tips of my thumb and middle left fingers developing callus, Hubby, together with just one helper, carry on in segregating the newspapers one by one, not minding the smudges of dirt from the loads of newsprint in their hands. And all of that we quickly did on the wee hours, just to make ends meet with four of our delivery staff who must then deliver the newspapers at designated points before the break of dawn. Imagine that! While all couples and lovers in the world painted the town red, we dirtied our hands with charcoal-like tinges. Continue Reading »
feng on May 31st 2007 About Some Family Matters, About our Biz
He always opens so many windows.
But we often look so long and so regretfully upon the
closed door, that we do not see the ones which open for us.
–Alexander Graham Bell
Continue Reading »
