Sometimes, it’s hard to mind the hours when you’re working from home. Time allotted for household and work tasks starts to blur, and your schedule gets thrown off. So how do we avoid this conundrum? We ask scheduling professionals from Meetbit, a homegrown calendar app that aims to make scheduling painless, professional, and productive.

We talked to the company’s CEO, Lance Villacin, who first started Meetbit in college with Kirsten Sy, Meetbit’s chief product officer. It was born of a problem many college students, especially student-leaders like them, have: How do we balance our time for everything?

“It always becomes a long conversation trying to get groups together, or orgs, or [teams] for student projects,” said Villacin. The duo then developed Meetbit to find commonalities in calendars, send reminders to meeting participants, and to have a centralized invite scheduling link users can send to anyone. 

Overall, Meetbit is a useful tool for productivity. “Once you jump into Meetbit, you quickly realize that [it] isn’t really just about meeting links and booking meetings with people; it’s really all about managing your time and making sure that you are able to do the things that you need to do when you want to do them,” says Villacin.

As individuals who were able to juggle academics, organizations, and building a business all during finals week, we can learn a thing or two from Villacin and his team on time management. Below are their five tips to make remote work more productive.

Have a dedicated space for work

If you have an area dedicated to work, it helps eliminate distractions and enable the right mindset. For the Meetbit team, who also work remotely, even a small corner-turned-workspace helps them get to business. “[It] helps to actually just get through things much faster and more efficiently,” says Villacin.

Stick to a routine that doesn’t sacrifice your personal life

“Even when you’re waking up, although it’s super, super convenient to just jump out of bed and jump onto your first meeting when you haven’t even had your breakfast yet, we really don’t recommend it,” says Villacin. Since you don’t have to go outside of your main living space for remote work, it may be helpful to have activities that create a separation between personal and work time. It could be as simple as stretching and having breakfast in the morning, or taking a walk around your neighborhood once your work hours end.

Block your work hours

When it comes to plans, winging your schedule is easy – until you actually have to do the work. Meetbit recommends time blocking during your work hours to set tangible goals. “[It] gives you an idea of how long each task is going to take. It also helps you plan. It’s kind of like giving yourself a deadline within each day … and how long each task is going to take and what you can realistically achieve within that day,” Villacin recommends. For example, you can set an hour for answering emails, and another to brainstorm for your deck, then 15 minutes in between to take a breather. Every move, no matter how small, is worth some dedicated time.

Switch up your location

Even with recreational activities at home, compressing your entire routine into just your living space can become monotonous after a while. Bring some excitement to your work day by switching up your scenery from time to time. “It does definitely help in having a great mindset when you’re working,” says Villacin. In fact, studies have suggested that working outdoors can increase happiness and energy, and can even improve memory. It’s a freedom afforded uniquely by a remote work setup, after all.

Use a time management software

Of course, this is a tip that the Meetbit team can attest to. “[Schedules are] not something you want to spend an hour [on] just trying to make sure that everything’s on track, right? So using a time scheduling software like Meetbit, or something else, does help you get that out of the way and allows you to focus on the work that really matters,” says Villacin.  Making plans may seem simple when you map it out in your head, but it’s still mental labor that can take up your precious energy. With apps like Meetbit that lay out your calendar and send you key reminders, a part of your mental load can be lifted.

For the Meetbit team who came from a high-octane environment of being multi-hyphenate students and entrepreneurs, time is not an enemy but rather a variable that can be tamed. “When you’re not that stressed about your time, it generally helps you really just focus on the metrics and the goals that you’ve set for the company,” says Villacin.

With the power of a healthy, realistic routine combined with tools that can help you commit to it, productivity is bound to follow. To learn more about Meetbit and how you can integrate it into your workflow, visit their official website. – Rappler.com

According to the Tech For Good Institute’s Platform Economy Report, Filipino micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs) comprise 36 percent of the national GDP and employ 63 percent of the population. Despite their contributions to the economy and sheer number, there remains an undeniable gap in their access to financial tools and support, keeping them from growing – in fact, 79 percent of MSMEs cite a lack of working capital to maintain their business.

And while we might not be able to realize it, transacting with MSMEs is something we most probably do on a daily basis. From food to everyday services, they truly are the backbone of the economy – so why do they continue to remain underfinanced and unbanked?

Luckily, there are ways to provide them the growth and financial opportunities they need. This is what Grab Financial Group Philippines Head of Lending Erwin Yamsuan touched on in his piece in partnership with the Official Monetary and Financial Institutions Forum.

But first, where do the issues lie?

In order to identify the opportunities for MSMEs, it’s crucial to pin down what is keeping them from growing – simply put, there are structural gaps that keep them from effectively lending. 

This is especially felt in the traditional bank lending market. Yamsuan shares that only 4.8 percent of MSMEs obtained bank loans during the pandemic – a small number considering the definitive increase in small businesses throughout this period. Further impediments are seen by the fact that more than 15 percent of cities and municipalities in the Philippines lack any sort of banking presence, according to a report from the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas.

Apart from these, administrative and credit assessment processes and lending requirements made mandatory by banks don’t only add to the strain – it also takes more time for MSMEs.

With such barriers in place, it is then clear to see why MSME owners find it difficult to access financial services, especially physically. From here, a domino effect is seen: With a lack of access from the get-go, MSMEs then are kept from securing loans and building up their credit scores. This results in others not getting the support they need, and others having to resort to illegal funding sources.

But effective lending doesn’t have to end with physical spaces. After all, the space for digital online lending is growing quickly and steadily, too.

A fighting chance for MSMEs all over the country

This is where Digital Finance Service (DFS) providers enter the picture – of which Grab Financial Philippines is a part. There are many key perks in tapping DFS providers, notable of which is how it not only allows for digital lending – but how it makes credit much more easily accessible to businesses.

Another benefit is their ability to leverage big data, from customer reviews to income flows, which is lacking in traditional lending. With this ingredient, DFS providers are empowered to build alternative credit scoring models and loaning systems personalized to the different needs and abilities of MSMEs.

These are strategies that Grab Financial Philippines has already actively started working on. Through Quick Cash, its loan service program, GrabFood and GrabMart merchants can now easily apply for a loan; tailored loans as well as automatic daily micro-deductions are put in place to allow Filipino MSMEs to better keep track of their cash flows. The same is being done by Grab in Thailand, wherein approximately US$85 million has been loaned to 18,000 MSMEs.

Of course, while DFS providers are one step closer to realizing financial inclusion for our MSMEs, support will not be as strong without public-private collaboration. Yamsuan goes on to share that for digital lending to scale responsibly, the inception of the National Strategy for Financial Inclusion would be a good step in the right direction and enable policymakers and DFS providers to work together towards an inclusive, sustainable lending ecosystem.

While securing loans and other means of financial support were traditionally difficult, it is a challenge that digital lending now aims to eradicate. Now more than ever in a world in the midst of post-pandemic recovery, everyday entrepreneurs have the opportunity to thrive and grow. With DFS providers such as Grab Financial Philippines dedicated to helping our small and local businesses, the door is now wide open – and is very ready and ripe for change. – Rappler.com

Last September 17 to 18, the Likha Creative Entrepreneurship Summit brought together hundreds of business leaders and creatives to answer the question: How far can you push your business with imagination? 

For the five speakers of the summit, all outstanding leaders of their respective businesses, it seemed to be the secret sauce to their flourishing careers. 

Grit and curiosity

The summit showcased inspiring talks from self-driven entrepreneurs like graphic designer AJ Dimarucot and Dream Project PH founder Prim Paypon, who both forged their own paths to achieve their current success.

Dimarucot, a self-taught graphic designer, tells the story of how his career began with curiosity about creating drop shadows on text (a feature that was not yet automated in his college years). 

“Creativity is wanting to learn something,” said Dimarucot. The pursuit led to his experimentation with Photoshop, which led to college organization logos, to a stint in freelance t-shirt designing.

Through his natural pursuit of curiosity, and a shot of courage (“So I have this design…” Dimarucot recalls saying once to an NBA player’s representative after a chance meeting in a bar), the graphic designer found himself collaborating with brands like Nike, the Jordan Brand, and adidas. He now brings this go-getter energy to his own playful children’s clothing brand, googoo&gaga.

Paypon, on the other hand, came from an executive corporate position and left it all behind to pursue his childhood dream of serving communities through an NGO. His talk revolved around his inspiration from his recently-departed mother, who herself was able to sustain her nine children through creativity and sheer willpower.

His arduous journey of establishing Dream Project PH and becoming a “Dreamagineer” required him to learn how to personally build mud houses, hydroponics systems, and other infrastructures seemingly out-of-reach for a person with no relevant training. His dream and his imagination, however, proved larger than any doubt.

Now, The Dream Project PH has created over 200 sustainable concept projects and collaborated with over 380 groups across the country over nine years. “Dreams are more powerful than poverty,” Paypon said, and his talk ended with a standing ovation.

Changing perspectives

Braveworks Inc. CEO Kia Alvarez-Abrera and YouTube “educreator” Lyqa Maravilla talked about shifting viewpoints through communication models and idioms, respectively.

Alvarez-Abrera, who had been working on her TikTok account which has now amassed over 130,000 followers, shared her journey of cracking the platform’s code through an exploration of communication models.

After many months of trying to replicate her one viral video during the early stages of her TikTok account, she came to a revelation. Instead of viewing TikTok as a linear communication model, she shifted to the interactive Westley and Maclean model, where the message (or content) starts with the environment, and is then processed in feedback loops by senders, receivers, and gatekeepers ( which are the creators, viewers, and the algorithm, respectively).

Through the process, Alvarez-Abrera was able to hone into what her viewers respond to, as well as how she can interact with both her audience and the algorithm to achieve the results she wants. “Don’t just consume content; find a way to synthesize. Nourish your own thought process,” urged Alvarez-Abrera.

In the same vein of exploring perspectives, popular education YouTuber Lyqa Maravilla talked about the roots of Filipino creativity through idioms, and how creatives can harness this mindset for purpose-driven work.

She shared how diskarte embodies Filipino creativity. The word’s etymology stemmed from the Spanish descartar, which means to throw away. For centuries, a facet of Filipino creativity has alway been about taking discarded materials and making something out of nothing – like making the proverbial round hole larger to fit the square peg.

Another idiom that Maravilla played with is that you can’t teach an old dog new tricks. “You can teach a dog new tricks, but you can’t teach them using old ways,” she said. She shares how a senior-aged follower of hers was able to pass the civil service exam with the help of her videos – all thanks to her creative approach to education.

Adopting a ‘rich person’ mindset

Finally, Emmy-winning director, designer, and creator Chris Do delivered his keynote talk on how choosing a mindset that attracts success helps creatives manifest their goals.

His interactive talk involved quizzing the audience about comparing a poor versus a rich mindset. According to Do, a rich mindset means investing time in personal development, choosing skill over money, and believing that success is inevitable, among other things.

On the second day of the summit, Do also conducted a social media mini-master class. There, he taught the group how to find their audience and tell their brand’s stories effectively on the internet. 

“Creation is about creating and releasing tension,” Do said. Case in point, he used creators like MrBeast or Dr. Julie Smith as examples of storytelling formulas that work. In the end, it’s about creating a hook and teasing the audience with the carrot, and retaining their attention with twists until the end.

Overall, participants of the Likha Creative Entrepreneurship Summit left the conference chock full of insights and inspiration that can add value not only to their businesses, but to their personal endeavors. 

“I wanted to bend reality because I had imagination,” Do said on taking business risks. Like a common thread in each speaker’s talk, it seemed like the recipe to creative entrepreneurship is clear: It’s a commitment to action coupled with personal development, good old hard work, and most importantly, a mindset predisposed for success.

To stay updated on the latest news from the Likha Summit, follow their page on Facebook. – Rappler.com 

When it comes to fruits and vegetables, we often hear stories of farmers that toil daily for measly, barely profitable fares while, simultaneously, we see the consistent rise of food price tags in retail stores – which makes one question the in-betweens of the country’s agricultural supply chain. Why are consumers paying so much, and farmers earning so little? 

For 28-year-old MooMart founder Eric Choe, this muddled gray area is what he wants to disrupt. “The main concern that I wish more people knew is the fact that farmers’ markets and marketplaces are riddled with middlemen and resellers. They continuously take advantage of hundreds of thousands of farmers here in the Philippines,” says Choe. 

This year, Choe founded the agritech startup MooMart, an online market where farmers of any scale can sell their products directly to the consumer, from households to businesses. MooMart’s goal is to revolutionize the agricultural value chain by providing transparency, both for the farmers and the shoppers.

“It’s extremely frustrating for farmers as these middlemen are passing off grocery store products as farm produced storefronts. On the consumer side, it’s virtually impossible for buyers to distinguish whether they’re buying from a farmer or a reseller. There’s a growing demand to know where our food comes from and how it’s been grown,” shares Choe.

Farmers already battle so many elements on top of their grueling work, from the climate crisis impacting their harvest to the country’s prevailing issues of imported produce dependency and lack of government support for farmers. By being able to sell directly to consumers, farmers get to take home more income by eliminating costs incurred by middlemen. Shoppers also get to purchase organic produce at more affordable prices – a win-win scenario for both sides.

The platform is set to launch in December, and will let users enjoy intuitive features like options for delivery subscriptions, delivery booking and tracking, and inventory management for farmers. These features make MooMart a more seamless e-marketplace for farm produce sellers and buyers, as opposed to more catchall, saturated selling platforms.

“By digitizing the farm-to-fork value chain and using our marketplace platform, we’re able to drive more sales back to our farmers. We plan to launch in Metro Manila in December 2022 and expect to expand across all major cities like Laguna, Cavite, Batangas, Bulacan, Pampanga, Bataan, Tarlac, Zambales, Nueva Ecija, La Union, Zamboanga, Iloilo City, Bacolod, Cebu, Davao, Baguio, Cagayan de Oro, and Palawan by 2023,” says Choe.

Even months before its launch, MooMart had already drummed up significant interest from investors and farmers. To date, the startup has garnered over P8 million in pre-seed funding, and has already partnered with six major farms while over 200 provincial farms have pre-registered to join.

Moving full steam ahead, Choe envisions MooMart as a pioneer startup that will spark change and growth in the country’s agricultural industry through technology – and the business already seems primed to achieve its goal.

MooMart’s website will be operational this November. For more news and updates on the startup’s launch, make sure to follow MooMart on Facebook. – Rappler.com

Industry leaders came together to discuss the need for financial inclusion among micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs) at the American Chamber of Commerce and Grab Philippines’ hybrid webinar Digital Innovation: Advancing Financial Inclusion for MSMEs held last August 30.

Led by speakers Bernadette Romulo-Puyat, Deputy Governor of the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP), and Erwin Yamsuan, Head of Lending of Grab Financial Group Philippines, and panelists Kelvin Lester Lee, Commissioner of the Securities and Exchange Commission; Ellen Joyce Suficiencio, Director of the BSP; Floredeliza Leong, VP for Advocacy, Communications, and Special Concerns of PHILEXPORT; and Rose Ferrer, a business strategist, the webinar looked at opportunities for MSMEs to grow in a digitalizing world. 

The opportunities are there, they just aren’t accessible

Romulo-Puyat kicked off the webinar, sharing the country’s progress on digital transactions. With e-accounts going beyond savings and credit to cover services like payment, insurance, and remittances, it was seen that 6 out of 10 Filipinos now regularly make online transactions.

“From just being a tool for saving and safekeeping, an account has become a tool for convenient transactions any Filipino can benefit from,” shared Romulo-Puyat. 

This doesn’t always translate, however, to the financial support that businesses need as they continue to be constrained to financial access. Coming from Yamsuan’s talk, only 4.8 percent of Filipino MSMEs obtained loans from banks during the COVID-19 pandemic, resulting in as much as 79 percent of MSMEs cited a lack of working capital in post-COVID times.

Besides accessibility to loans, Yamsuan also identified key structural gaps that prevent institutions from effectively loaning:

• Poor physical reach. Filipinos may not live in areas close to a bank that can provide them with the financial services they need.

• Lack of readily-available, comprehensive information. Because MSMEs are often unbanked or underbanked, they can be classified as higher-risk borrowers, resulting in them not being provided with a loan capital.

As such, Yamsuan recognized how fintech can come in to support MSMEs through three advantages: enabling extensive accessibility or for consumers to use fintech services wherever they may be; creating ecosystem synergies between businesses, lowering their possibility of being seen as at-risk; and the growth of AI technology by leveraging on data to reduce credit risk and increase consumer value, allowing one to score higher approval rates.

“Fintech can be a powerful complementary force to traditional financial institutions for financing MSMEs. It has emerged in recent years with the promise to deliver value to customers and business through innovations,” he shared.

How Grab supports MSMEs in their growth 

Given these opportunities, Yamsuan went on to share Grab’s efforts to address business owners’ through Quick Cash, the loan assistance program under Grab Financial Group. 

Quick Cash utilizes Grab’s data to determine tailor-fit loan amounts to every merchant. “These loans are personalized to each GrabFood or GrabMart merchant so that we’re sure we don’t extend more than what they can actually afford, which we’re able to do as we have all information on-hand to assess them,” said Yamsuan.

Besides this, daily micro-deductions are also done to help merchants track their loan payments; loan disbursal is also markedly shortened, with merchants provided with capital within a week.

Success stories have since been seen from Quick Cash, like Anna Monteson of Takoyakiks; Jennifer del Rosario of Aling Tonang’s Palabok; and Dan Cris Camarino of Nadeem Bar & Resto, who’ve been able to stabilize their business after hitting low points during the pandemic.

Apart from citing Grab’s efforts, Yamsuan also cited recommendations for digital lending to be further seen as a viable financing solution. He stressed the importance of financial education programs as a key way to start.

Yamsuan also mentioned the opportunity for a regulatory sandbox to enable the development of digital financing products and regulations in a more controlled environment; as well as considering grants and incentives to further encourage the market to embrace digital financing.

“As regulators formulate and implement MSME financing policies, it is imperative there is close collaboration with the private sector to harness innovations while making sure risks are mitigated. At the end of the day, MSMEs are still the backbone of our economy, and it is imperative that all stakeholders ensure their strength and resilience,” concluded Yamsuan.

GrabFood and GrabMart merchants can easily apply for Quick Cash through Grab’s website. With no documentation required apart from merchant details, entrepreneurs can expect their loan capital transferred to them within a week to let them readily grow in their business.

Be updated on Quick Cash and Grab’s other financial services through Grab’s Facebook and Instagram, and check out https://www.grab.com/ph/merchant/finance/hub/products/. – Rappler.com

“In my head, it was going to be easy,” said Dani Africa, as she told me about the origins of her Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) learning company, BOTched. She set off to create her BOTched Kits – which are 3D-printed educational “building blocks” for kids – with a two-week deadline for a prototype. “Over two months passed, and I had nothing but a cabinet of failures and failed iterations.” 

The 17-year-old engineering design student found her calling to pursue STEM early on in her life. Seemingly born for the career path, Africa qualified to study in the prestigious Singapore School of Science and Technology. She then continued to garner accolade after accolade, like publishing a paper on the piezoelectric effect to being part of the winning team for the Singapore VEX Robotics Competition. 

Looking at her plethora of accomplishments, mistakes seemed almost implausible. But it wasn’t until she shifted her perspective on failure that she was able to fully mold and actualize her vision for her company. “That’s when the name BOTched came to me,” Africa shares.

“I got the idea for BOTched because I studied in Singapore, and I realized how utilized technology was…. at extremely young ages, they were teaching not just [the concepts of] STEM, but the application of STEM, which is what robotics is, and coding and things like that,” said Africa. Upon returning to the Philippines, she was inspired to share her enriched academic experience with other young STEM learners in the Philippines.

BOTched, a social enterprise dedicated to creating “fail-friendly” STEM learning kits and curriculums, teaches Filipino students the wonders of engineering and design thinking through a hands-on approach. The company’s principle? To learn is to try – and to try means to embrace both your successful and botched attempts. 

For Africa, it’s a huge part of the innovation process, and should not be synonymous to total defeat. “If we look at every single invention ever created, especially in the tech industry, it’s really just someone who failed enough times and didn’t give up until they created something. And I think that if we don’t learn how to celebrate failures and learn how to be okay with failing, then, we’re never gonna be able to invent anything, because no one gets it on the first try,” said Africa.

First launched in April of 2021, BOTched has now grown to a six-person team conducting workshops in  schools and organizations around the metro. In a workshop with the Young Men’s Christian Association of Manila (YMCA), DepEd superintendent Dr. Magdalena Lim visited to deliver words of support for the social enterprise. “Kayo ang pioneer, pero magkakaroon pa kayo ng maraming kapatid afterwards (You are the pioneer, but you will have more siblings afterwards),” said Lim.

But for Africa, her most memorable achievement was helping change a student’s future. “At the end of that (YMCA) graduation, someone came up to me, and basically said that they have just applied to take a STEM path in their senior high school,” recalled Africa. 

For her, she believes that STEM teaching in the Philippines could use a more application-based approach to make the process fun and not intimidating. Like in the BOTched workshops, the team encourages students to handle the end-to-end development of a project branching from textbook STEM theories. “They think of the idea, the concept themselves. And I think that the process is really cool, because they also brainstorm and pitch it to the trainers. And then they prototype the object,” says Africa. 

In the future, Africa envisions BOTched as a blueprint to inject more application-based STEM disciplines into Filipino schools. “I’d love to see something like BOTched incorporated into the DepEd curriculum where every Filipino has access to a strong, solid, and, I think, holistic STEM education.”

At the end of the day, BOTched and its kits champion accessibility and fun, so STEM learning can become just an enriched version of play time that keeps children engaged and curious. With entrepreneurs as young and as inspired as Africa entering the market, the future is bright for a more innovative generation of young Filipinos. – Rappler.com

With the mission to help existing entrepreneurs, CEOs, leaders, and ones aspiring to scale their business, 2022 Gen T List Awardee and Serial Entrepreneur Ralph Layco is conducting the fourth edition of New Bold University (NBU) from August 26 to 27, 2022. Interested students may visit www.newboldu.com to learn more about the application process.

Also known as New Bold U, the locally inspired version of Silicon Valley-based Singularity University will feature some of the country’s top minds who are shaking things up in their respective industries. 

Mentors like Steve Sy (Father of Filipino E-Commerce and Founder of Great Deals), Avin Ong (founder, chairman and CEO of Fredley Group of Companies), and Roland de Ros (founder and CEO of kumu.ph, the country’s fastest growing Filipino live-streaming app) will provide some insightful wisdom that can be utilized to fulfill life’s purpose, increase chances of succeeding in life, and fortify against the challenges of the new normal in the midst of the pandemic. They are thought and tribal leaders who will encourage inquiry, development, and creativity while inspiring others to act kindly.

For two days, and a Networking Night on August 25, the New Bold U School for Disrupters will hold live in-person talks at PETA Theater and stream eight online Masterclasses from top CEOs and founders as Mentors, plus five more Expert Classes to help take businesses to the next level.

This year’s theme is “Disruption,” a phenomenon where incumbent brand leaders get challenged by new ones through a unique proposition that either shakes or changes the industry. This  is what the New Bold U current edition is hoping to convey with their newest edition. 

The stage of NBU in PETA is inspired by the TED Talks stage where the audience gets to learn live from various mentors. 

“In these challenging times and a VUCA (volatility, uncertainty, complexity, ambiguity) world we live in, we need to help expand the mindsets of entrepreneurs who are by nature problem solvers. Entrepreneurs turn adversity into opportunity. If we help them improve their mindset, we can have more problem solvers solving our current societal problems, ” Layco said.

New Bold U, along with their students, will have the opportunity to learn the latest ideas and strategies in entrepreneurship. “Everything changes. What’s cool now, what works now, won’t be the same next quarter. That’s the reason why we need to learn to be adaptive. New Bold U is that venue to help bridge ideas to people,” Layco added. 

Winning TikTok campaigns and strategies, disruptive business frameworks, templates to build DTC brands are just some of the topics that will be discussed in New Bold U. 

New Bold U has produced outstanding independent contractors, thought leaders, business leaders, and entrepreneurs who went on to become the CEOs of their respective companies since its founding in 2019.

New Bold U invites all aspiring entrepreneurs in the country to join this year’s edition. You may visit www.newboldu.com or their official Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/newboldu for more details on the enrollment process. – Rappler.com

Starting out with your small business? Odds are you’re running the operation solo, or you’re getting help from a lean team of a few friends or family members. Either way, the beginning of any entrepreneurial venture would likely require you to wear multiple hats.

Thankfully, 21st century technology has provided small business owners with a variety of powerhouse tools to help lighten the load. From project management to social media marketing to bookkeeping, these free apps can help you increase your productivity even with a team of just “me, myself, and I.”

For project management

Tick Tick

Tick Tick is a great daily partner, as it provides the nudges you need to stay on track. This management app allows you to list down tasks and create separate lists to categorize them – perfect for a multi-hyphenate solo-preneur. Tick Tick’s features include having various calendar views for your work errands, the ability to share your lists with collaborators, priority sorters that let you view tasks via an Eisenhower Matrix, and even a Pomodoro timer to help you focus on the job at hand.

Notion

Every business needs its headquarters, and Notion can be your all-in-one digital info hub. This powerful app allows you to track work tasks and events in Kanban view, write and keep all of your meeting notes, and access a number of business templates from workflow roadmaps to content calendars. The app also allows for an extremely customizable interface, so you can design your work dashboard with all the emojis and motivational dog memes your heart desires.

For finance tracking

Peddlr 

Peddlr is a homegrown Point of Sale (POS) system that lets small business owners record transactions as they happen. This POS app can be your mobile cashier, as it functions like the checkout machines you’d see at a grocery or a fast food store. You can even connect the app to external printers to produce a physical receipt. Through the app’s smart functions, business owners can record sales, track expenses, keep inventory, and even create an online store that lets customers check out seamlessly – all with a couple of clicks. 

Lista 

Another locally developed app is Lista, a bookkeeping system designed specifically for small and micro businesses. With this app, business owners can say goodbye to their stacks of manual ledger notebooks. The app tracks your business’ cash flow and provides daily, weekly, monthly, and yearly reports of your expenses. You can also track your customers’ credit balance through the app’s Utang tab, which can even send free payment reminders via SMS or online messaging. For entrepreneurs with multiple projects, Lista can also create digital ledgers for numerous businesses, all in one app.

For social media content

Later

Later is a social media planner that lets you schedule posts and find relevant industry content for resharing in a jiffy. The app’s free version allows you to connect your business Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, TikTok, LinkedIn, and Pinterest accounts for post scheduling. Later also curates shareable content for you by monitoring your chosen Instagram hashtags, profiles, and even relevant stock photos.

Inshot

Want to hop on the TikTok or Instagram Reels marketing train? You’ll want Inshot in your pocket to easily edit your mobile video content. This jam packed tool has video editing essentials like trimming or adjusting clip speeds, along with a number of filters, transitions, vlog music, animated text, and stickers to jazz up your content.

As challenging as starting a new business can be, there are a lot of powerful tools available online at zero cost. To augment these tools, you can also educate yourself through a plethora of free resources online, from money management tips to branding basics. With these apps in your arsenal, you can focus better on growing your business.  – Rappler.com

Starting a business is one thing, but scaling it is quite another. In this day and age, you can’t simply ignore the value technology can bring to grow and future-proof your business. Digitalization is no longer optional, as it has become a major driver for companies both big and small.

So, wherever you are in the digitalization journey, it’s important to have the right tools under your belt: the right kind of tech, the right kind of partner, and the right kind of community to support you. All of these are what Dell has been providing small business owners with through their Business We Love campaign.

Dell has been a staunch supporter of the micro, small, and medium enterprise sector not just in the Philippines but also across the globe. They have been hard at work in empowering small business owners, exploring innovative ways to educate and equip them.

These are but some of the reasons why a social enterprise like The Bamboo Company has been keen on partnering with Dell.

Owning the right tech

The Bamboo Company is a social enterprise that aims to replace every plastic tool we use every day (like utensils, toothbrushes, and tumblers) with bamboo alternatives for a more sustainable future. Bamboo, after all, isn’t difficult to grow. It absorbs carbon in the air, and it doesn’t contribute to the already worsening plastic pollution across the globe.

However, the lockdown restrictions earlier in 2020 created many challenges for the company, including staying connected with their suppliers and the communities they work with. Jamico Jamlang, the founder and managing director of The Bamboo Company, shared that having a reliable device such as a laptop, particularly a Dell Vostro laptop, helped them manage the business amid the challenges.

Dell’s Vostro line was designed with small business owners in mind. It offers features that entrepreneurs would find useful, such as enhanced security features, state-of-the-art Intel or AMD processors, video conferencing capabilities like a built-in HD webcam, and Waves MaxxAudio® Pro for noise reduction, among others. Vostro laptops are also equipped with multiple ports, including legacy ports which can help those with older devices digitize their business with ease.

All of these capabilities are packed in lightweight and portable bodies.

Entry-level devices are under the Vostro 3000 series, while the more premium and powerful features are under the 5000 series.

Finding the right partner

To own a reliable laptop is definitely useful, but to get continued support is a weight off of an already busy entrepreneur’s shoulders. This is where Dell and their Vostro line of laptops definitely stand out.

By offering technical support literally whenever needed, Dell’s dedicated ProSupport and ProSupport Plus technicians become your own IT department.

As a Vostro user, you can get 24/7 access to a support team who can help you with minor to major issues and with managing your system. What’s more is that they offer next business day on-site service if necessary.

Working with the right business partner is also important. Jamlang shared that he admires Dell’s desire to look for more sustainable practices, which helped convince him to work with the tech company. Together, they are working to inspire individuals and other small businesses to pursue greener practices and serve grassroots communities at the same time.

Joining the right community

Beyond the scope of doing business, Dell also wants to help small business owners get connected with each other. This is why they created an open-access Facebook group called the Dell Entrepreneurship Network (DEN).

In this group, members are encouraged to network and collaborate. They can also get access to business news, promos, tools, programs for running their business, and even opportunities to get some advice or mentorship.

Thinking future forward

Even though life is slowly going back to normal, doing business will never be the same. The way forward is definitely to go digital. It’s the natural shift for businesses looking to stay relevant for their customers in the long term, and Dell’s desire is to make that easier for every entrepreneur.

For more information about Dell’s Business We Love campaign, you can visit https://ph.dellexperience.co/business-we-love/, or join the DEN Facebook group. – Rappler.com

The online world is as exciting as ever, especially since people have become more technologically savvy after two years of working from home, socializing through Zoom calls, and shopping online. The internet has never been filled with so much zest and creativity, especially in the e-commerce space.

But as more businesses go online, how do entrepreneurs compete in saturated and crowded spaces? And where is e-commerce likely headed next? To help us learn more about maximizing online presence, we spoke to two business owners – Andrew Magana of Typica Coffee and Leonard Chad Nimor of The No Good Crew. 

We also learn about how they are planning to innovate, and how you can do the same with the help of Multistore – PLDT Enterprise Beyond Fiber’s newest Curated Digital Solution. This is an eCommerce tool that enables small business owners to easily build their own online storefront.

Start with your branding

The most basic yet fundamental element that will help you thrive online is understanding your own branding and building from it. For Typica Coffee and The No Good Crew, part of this is having a strong creative visual identity.

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In the case of Typica Coffee, this sari-sari store turned into a Japanese-inspired coffee counter uses a blend of being straightforward with a touch of curiosity as one of its core principles. Its founder Drew Magana explains.

Meanwhile, The No Good Crew’s CEO and owner Chad Nimor shares that for him, part of running a fashion label is understanding your customers. “Consider kung ano yung taste ng market niyo. You have to get to know them more. The idea is not to give them what they want. The idea is to create something that they would want,” he shared.

Once you’ve identified your brand, you can strategize all the different parts of your business afterwards.

Choosing a platform

Both Typica Coffee and The No Good Crew have their own physical stores. Typica Coffee is located in Taytay, Rizal, while The No Good Crew has a shop in Cubao and their flagship store in Cebu. But the pandemic helped the two entrepreneurs realize how impactful online presence can be, whether on social media or online marketplaces.

For Magana, Typica Coffee’s reach expanded exponentially when he started posting about his business on social media, eventually gaining virality through influencers and media outlets sharing his story. He even proudly shares that he hasn’t spent on boosted posts or ads, but is now making sure he carries on the momentum and has opened up his shop for online deliveries through food delivery apps.

The No Good Crew on the other hand was initially hit hard by the pandemic, especially since the first few months put a halt to a lot of their shipping and deliveries. Then three months into the pandemic, they began receiving a lot of orders through e-commerce platforms. Nimor says that as a fashion brand, they weren’t expecting people to buy their pieces but were delighted to find out that people still wanted to dress well even at home.

One point that Magana and Nimor agree on is that, while they already have different platforms that they use for reach and sales, having their own website or storefront will also be beneficial. With a space in the interwebs of their own, they’ll be able to not only attract new customers but also have total control over what shows up on their pages.

Customizing your storefront

Their shared interest in having their own storefront comes from how they feel restricted by what social media sites and e-commerce platforms offer when it comes to branding their pages. Magana also thinks that having to scroll through social media profiles is too troublesome especially if you’re looking for specific information as opposed to having a storefront you can customize.

Meanwhile, Nimor thinks that e-commerce marketplaces are too focused on products so there’s little opportunity to inject creativity into your pages. Not to mention both marketplaces and social media sites are also filled with other businesses competing over attention.

For those who want to have a stronger branding presence, the key is to have their own website or digital storefront. This is where PLDT Enterprise’s Multistore can help you. With your own digital storefront, you’re given control over how it looks – the store layout, the color scheme and the photos to put upfront – without all the technical fuss.

Having control over transactions

Magana also says having your own storefront is an opportunity to consolidate products you are selling, explaining that most delivery apps will have separate buttons for food or items. He says that food businesses that also sell merchandise on the side can’t put items of different categories together, so customers who want to buy pour-over devices or shirts will have to book a second delivery if they’re ordering drinks too.

Transaction fees can also be quite pricey, adds Nimor, explaining that for most delivery or e-commerce sites, a cut is taken away by the platform for every purchase. “Like for a shirt na 700 pesos, minsan the cut is a hundred. That’s big,” he shared.

So if you’re considering offering your products online, Multistore allows you to sell without taking a cut on your transactions. With zero platform transaction fees, it allows you to do unlimited transactions and sell unlimited products at no additional cost.

It’s also interesting to note that the Multistore comes with nearly 20 ready-to-use, local payment methods and logistics options for you and your customers. This means that you can now immediately accept ePayments and Cash On delivery (COD), plus offer same-day delivery, scheduled delivery and even store pick-up to your customers on day one. You also have control over which payment channels or delivery partners you will enable, and with just a few clicks too. Plus, revenues can be remitted to your account as early as the next business day.

Understanding your cash flow

“It is important to know the ins and outs of your cash flow, so you have to familiarize yourself with that. You have to know when the money comes in. This is budget and sales forecasting,” shared Nimor when asked about challenges in running a business.

Nimor explains that the way he approaches cash flow is by determining a pattern on how his customers behave whenever they launch a new product. By taking careful stock of which items sell, when, and by how much, he is able to better control their spending.

While Nimor says his main advantage is studying finance in college, a good starting point if you’re struggling with analyzing your business’s cash flow is through the dashboard that the Multistore offers.

Multistore’s all-in-one dashboard gives you a quick overview of all of your inventory, even across all branches if you have more than one. Here, you can easily keep track of products and sales without having to swivel into other apps, and hopefully help you identify a pattern or understand how to better serve your customers.

Growing online and offline

Being online was a key to Typica Coffee and The No Good Crew’s success. Typica Coffee is now about to open their business for franchising, while The No Good Crew recently released their first unique collection and are about to start more collaborations with different craftsmen in Cebu.

“It’s really important to be out there because how many millions of people are there in the Philippines and imagine the scale of your business. The scale of my business right now hasn’t even tapped 5% of the population yet. And if you just tapped that 5% through online presence, through adapting to the technology and adapting to the algorithm, that is one thing to consider,” shared Nimor.

And at the end of the day, a digital storefront, much like your branding, is how you want your customers to see your business, and it will come to a point where relying on marketplace platforms or social media profiles may not be enough.

By owning and carving your own corner of the internet with Multistore through PLDT Enterprise, you’re able to present your brand the way you want to while having the capabilities to operate and manage your business.

Sign up for Multistore now and get free access to the platform for 90 days and rev up your business’s multi-channel reach. – Rappler.com