The Philippines is an archipelago with more than 7,000 islands. Some of these islands are for sale. With pristine white beaches and crystal clear waters this could be the island paradise you have always dreamt of retiring inand enjoy your electronic book! The problem with some of these islands is that they are quite far from the main land and will probably take several minutes or even hours to reach making logistics a problem.

However there are some islands that are for sale that are near the mainland. One of these is Babag island, located in San Vicente, Olango. This 16,856 square meter titled property is owned by my grandfather, Atty. Silvino Maceren. Babag island is only a short 15-20 minute pumpboat ride from Marigondon, Lapu-Lapu City, Cebu, Philippines. Another 15 to 20 minutes and you will be in the Mactan Cebu International airport in no time. So a total of 30 to 40 minutes you are already in the international airport or in one of the main cities of Cebu, Lapu2x City.

Babag island is located within the Olango Island Group and according to wikipedia the area is known for its diverse coastal ecosystem consisting of extensive coralline sandflats, mangroves, seagrass beds, and offshore coral reefs. The island’s mangroves are most extensive in the Cebu province, and its offshore corals are home to scores of various marine species. The island group is virtually flat, and it is surrounded by warm seas and partly sheltered from monsoons and strong trade winds. The Olango Island and islets is one of the seven best-known flyways in the world for migrating birds. Its main attraction is its 920-hectare Olango Island Wildlife Sanctuary, a haven for migratory birds from Siberia, Northern China, and Japan. These birds flock to the island seeking refuge from the winter climate of other countries. The sanctuary supports the largest concentration of migratory birds found so far in the Philippines. There are 97 species of birds in Olango, 48 of which are migratory species, while the rest are resident birds of the island. The Olango Island group is also known for its dive sites.

Babag island itself is planted with several coconut trees and located minutes away from the bird and marine sanctuary and dive sites.

This property is for sale for P 10,000.00 (Philippine peso) per square meter. Truly this property is an ideal investment ! Interested buyers please email me at zigfred2003NOSPAM@gmail.com (Note: Please remove NOSPAM to reveal the true email address) or drop me a comment below.

Anyway, there are many ways to learn how to invest in stocks. You can read books or blogs. I’ve written about stock market investing in my stock market investing blog and you can check it out at http://www.stockmarket-investing.com/

One of the best ways to learn stock market investing fast is of course by attending a seminar. There are lots of stock market investing seminars out there and you can check it out in the Philippine stock exchange website as seminars are announced there from time to time. However there is one particular seminar I recommend which is one conducted by my good friend Claire Quiray. I highly recommend this seminar, because unlike other seminars which puts so much emphasis on technical analysis, Claire’s seminars does a good balance between both fundamental and technical analysis including an extensive background on particular stocks and the Philippine stock market as a whole.  I am not so much a fan of technical analysis thought, but at least here’s somebody who conducts stock market investing seminars without leaving the fundamentals out plus with strong emphasis on the fundamentals of the business behind stocks.

Anyway here are the details for her latest seminar. The price is very affordable, cheaper than the cost of document scanning. (Just kidding hehehe) Should you wish to inquire about other seminar schedules you can just text her in the numbers below:

BE AN INFORMED INVESTOR!
JOIN OUR PRACTICAL TRADING SEMINAR
On GROWTH VS. RISK
And know
What are the safest stocks to trade
vs.
what stocks are the biggest gainers
in the Philippine Stock Market today.
AUGUST 29, 2011, TUESDAY, 3PM TO 8PM
AT INVESTORS LOUNGE OF PSE TEKTITE, ORTIGAS, PASIG

Seminar Topics:

Module I

Fundamental Analysis
Factors affecting prices (macro, micro, internal, external)
Understanding financial ratios, computation and uses

Module II

Qualities of Fundamentally good stocks.
What and who are the Blue chips, defensive, income, cyclical and growth stocks.
Practical guide on how to find Fundamentally good Filipino stocks.
How to trade fundamentally good stocks

Module III

Speculative Stocks and its quality
Speculative Stocks: Growth vs. risk
Most common price sensitive speculative news
Why speculative trading is usually dangerous
How to trade speculative stocks, how to win and lose
Trading rule on halting and suspending unusual price movement of speculative stocks

Module IV – STOCK PERFORMANCE VS. COMPANY PERFORMANCE

Stock Picking Guide: Analysis of the 247 listed companies in PSE (to date)
Who are the biggest companies based on total equities, Market capitalization
Who are the top performers based on price growth, dividend yield, net income
Who are the cheapest companies based on PE ratio, book value
Who are the companies trading with the biggest premiums or the most expensive stocks
Who are the companies trading with the highest discounts or the cheapest stocks
Who are the most liquid based on float
Who are the riskiest and the safest stocks based on price action

BROUGHT TO YOU BY: Analysts-Traders Equities Training CENTER
In Support of : The Market Education Department of the Philippine Stock Exchange

Register online: tradersgroup28NOSPAM@gmail.com; (Please remove NOSPAM to reveal the true email address) Send text messages at 09178177707
LEARNING FEE: Php2,500
Pay to any BDO branch: Analysts-Traders Equities Training CENTER. Acct. Number: 004958012614

If you have questions please contact Claire through email or her mobile number above.

Well we can finally look back and say that the worst is over and the economy and the market in general have no other way to go but up. For us value investors who has positioned ourselves right after the crash in 2008, we are somewhat happy that we did take action as early as that time. As Warren Buffett says, “If you wait until you see the robin, spring will already be over,” I’m glad I took some great positions. I wished I could have done more, but I am limited with the amount of money that I can put in. Oh boy, got to wait for another 5 to 10 years for another golden opportunity such as 2008 !

For those of you who have been waiting for spring to come, don’t worry, the robins has not yet come. There are still great bargains out there. The question you should start asking yourself is where to invest in 2010.

As a value investor, I don’t really care what market we are in so somehow I don’t care about the where to invest in 2010. For as long as I find a great business at a fantastic price in any market condition, I buy the business, although generally they come in times such as that of 1929 and 2008. Anyway, that’s why forecast and other tips on where to invest in 2010 would be useless to me. However, If you are new to investing on what like to have an “introductory” feel to the world of investing you might be interested in the “Where to invest in 2010” promoted by Learning Curve.

The seminar is will be held on February 20, 2010 (Saturday) from 1:30-5:30 pm at the AIM Conference Center, Benavidez cor. Trasierra Sts. Legaspi Village, Makati City, Philippines. This is not a free seminar, there is a P 1,000 fee. The following topics will be discussed the where to invest in 2010 seminar:

Where to Invest in 2010: Get an overview of and forecasts for various investment options, such as stocks, bonds, gold, real estate, and government securities

Life Cycle Investing: Understand how investing figures in important stages in your life and what appropriate strategy to take

Picking Stocks Like a Pro: Learn the various investing strategies of successful professional investors and fund managers

Where to Put Your PERA, How to Invest REIT: Know what these new financial industrial products and reforms are and how to put them to your advantage

This is not a paid post. I am just informing my readers about this, because I think this is a great introductory seminar to investing. So get your tickets now and who knows you might get some tips on where to invest in 2010.

If you can’t attend the where to invest in 2010 seminar for some reason or another, you might start learning about how to invest in the stock market. Arrange your financial house first in order and start investing. You might start reading all about the Rule of 72 first and how it is used to wisely manage debt. Afterwards, click here to read my blog on stock market investing.

I am somewhat hesitant **wink wink **to give Warren Buffett’s email address and contact information for the reason that a lot of those seeking to contact him seems to be just asking for donations.

Warren Buffett doesn’t want to waste time. Time to him is gold (literally) so I just don’t want to give you his personal email and contact information if you will waste his time. (That is assuming of course that I have it hehehehe) A recent “dinner for charity” with him was worth $2.1 million dollars. (Just imagine how much a minute with him is worth!)

However if you have a legitimate business concern with Warren Buffett especially if you want him to buy your business, he might be interested to hear you out. Warren Buffett’s email address and contact information is as follows:

BERKSHIRE HATHAWAY INC.

3555 Farnam Street

Suite 1440

Omaha, NE 68131, U.S.A

You can email him at berkshireNOSPAM@berkshirehathaway.com (Please remove NOSPAM to reveal the true email address)

You can also visit his holding company’s website at http://www.berkshirehathaway.com/

Of course don’t expect that he will answer your email personally. He gets tons of letters and emails everyday. His staff screens his email and gives him the ones that are really useful to him. Besides he only uses his computer to play bridge, so don’t expect him to email you back if your concern is not important. By the way, never mind getting his mobile phone number because he doesn’t use one either. (As reported in 2006, I don’t know if carries one now, I’ll have to call him up and ask him LOL)

Lastly, don’t make a comment here asking donations from him. I’m sure it won’t get to him and I have no attention of passing it on to him either.

I attended the said half day event and was quite happy that I attended said briefing. I learned a lot of things and corrected certain misconceptions that I had. I was also able to gain more knowledge about the Philippine economy.

The first lecturer was Dr. Emilio Antonio who was the former dean of the University of Asia and the Pacific school of Economics. He was followed by Dr. Victor Abola a Professor at said University and head of the Strategic Business Economics Program.

I’m sure I learned a lot of things and there are lots of things that can be said. However I will just be discussing the top ten very interesting things that I learned in the mid-year economic briefing on the Philippine economy.

1.) Contrary to what the critics say, it is not true that we have not grown as a nation for the past 20 years. The cold facts reveal that indeed from a macro economics perspective we have achieved a certain level of growth if we compare ourselves where we were 2 years ago. Figures like average annual inflation rate, interest rate and the percentage of change in Peso versus the dollar have been at it’s lowest for the past 20 years.

2.) Economic indicators seem to indicate that we are back at the growth path the we used to traverse in the 50s and 60s.

3.) Believe it or not, income per capita is higher today than what it was 20 years ago.

4.) Even if one of the main delta faucets of our income seems to be dripping (exports) and that the difficulties faced by exporters are likely to continue, we are still holding up in the financial crisis because of two major sources of income, OFW remittances and revenue from Business Process outsourcing.

5.) The main culprit in the decline of export revenues is not the lack of global demand nor the global crisis. The more likely culprit seems to be the erosion of the nation’s competitiveness which has been undermined by the long term decline peso-dollar rate.

6.) Lack of confidence is holding back our growth. Investors continue to hesitate to bet on our future. In other words, the nation’s fundamentals are sound, but foreign investors and creditors are still hesitating to pour in money into the country.

7.) The Philippines will most likely weather the current global turmoil but when the recovery comes in, we might not be ready to take advantage of such unless reforms are addressed. It is most likely that the Philippines is in recess (A slowdown) but will definitely not go into a recession.

8.) According to the IMF on the average a banking crisis will last 3.2 years.

9.) The global crisis seems to be easing; the stock market has bottomed out.

10.) Despite what the critics say, the government has done a great job in terms of infrastructure. The Philippine Nautical Hiway (RORO-Roll on, Roll off port) has almost been completed. The Subic-Clark-Batangas expressway and other supporting infrastructures will decongest Metro Manila and will bring economic activity to other parts of the country. (Through the RORO) A high speed rail system will soon connect NAIA to Clark. (The plan is for international flights to be in the Diosdado Macapagal International airport) Believe it or not the government has managed to clear all “homes-along-da-riles” paving the way for the activation of a more modernized and competitive North and South railway system. Metro Manila Infrastructure project are blossoming including expansion of MRT and LRT lines. This infrastructure boom is not limited to Luzon, but has can been seen in other parts of the country as well. Government heavy spending in infrastructure will aid in pump priming the economy.

11.) There seems to be some truth when President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo claims that the economic fundamentals of our economy are sound.

12.) Despite recognizing that the “. . . Cute economist is the most likely president to have her economic legacy felt by future generations . . .” Dr. Emilio Antonio insists that he has been misquoted by some papers. He never meant to say that the genius behind the current state of our economy is President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo. According to him the facts indicate that it is during the time of President Arroyo that all the economic indicators for the road leading to a healthy economy seem to be in place. However he cannot conclude that it is President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo who is responsible for all of this as no extensive study on this matter has been done yet. This seems to be in line with my conclusion. I’ve explained this in my post entitled “Guerilla Blogger’s take on President Arroyo’s 2009 State of the Nation Address”

13.) The middle class in the world has nearly doubled in 15 years. Most are now found in Asia. (We are certainly in the right place and the right time)

14.) The biggest bulk of OFW spending is miscellaneous 29 % followed by Food which is 25 % followed by housing 24 % and then education 10 %. (No wonder real estate companies are still exhibiting positive growth!)

15.) Their advice to ordinary people? and I love this ! Don’t listen to the doomsday economists. (Especially those from U.P hehehehe):-)  We are a nation who is not really sick, but is insisting that we are sick. Don’t let rely too much on the government. Do what you can as an individual; your future will largely depend on what you will do and not on what the government can do for you.

So that’s it. Invest in the Philippine economy (Invest in the Philippine stock market today ! hehehee) and let us be proud of our nation. Let’s do our part in nation building. Let’s not be obstinately and unreasonably critical. Let us be more constructive in our criticism and let us do something good not only for ourselves, our nation, but the future generation of Filipinos.

This briefing will be somewhat helpful to those who are in business and those who are functioning as business plan consultant since this will give us a glimpse of what we can expect for the next year or so. Although economic briefings are just forecast and sometimes if not most of the times, some economic forecast will be far from what is actual happening, knowing what some economist thinks might be of actual help. If you are also new to exploring the world of business, finance, economics and even the stock market, you might also be interested in listening to this as the more you will be exposed to this kind of stuff, the more you will learn.

The event will be held at the Casino Espanol, Madrid Room, Ranudo St., Cebu City on July 31, 2009, Friday, 8:30 a.m. – 12:00 nn.

Dr. Victor Abola and Dr. Emilio Antonio Professors of the School of Economics University of Asia & the Pacific will be conducting the economic briefing. They will be tackling the following topics:

• World Economy, What is Happening
• Updates on Philippine Economy
• Global Events on Financial crisis and Recession
• Foreign Trade & Investments Opportunities
• High Growth Industries
• Philippine Exports
• Updates on Securities & Financial Markets
• Macroeconomic Forecast for 2009 & beyond

If you remember as I mentioned in my blog post on President Gloria Macpagal Arroyo’s State of the Nation Address 2009, the University of the Asia Pacific, school of economics is the one that declared in public that the “. . . Cute economist is the most likely president to have her economic legacy felt by future generations . . .” So I guess this is one thing that makes their economic briefing really interesting.

Registration fee is P1,500.00 inclusive of snacks and handouts You can call Jojo at 2534411 or 2534427.. If you are planning to pay by check make it payable to: University of Asia & the Pacific.

The next big thing to hit after the internet is Voice over Internet Protocol (VOIP). If you do not know what VOIP is, watch this short Youtube clip for a brief introduciton to VOIP.

In the July 2006 reprint of the Network Marketing business journal, it stated that a CNN broadcast in March 2005 revealed that “experts predicted that VOIP would surpass 1 Billion in revenues by the year 2010 and take more than 20 % of the market share from the local and long distance phone companies in North America by 2008.”

The publication continued that the “Economist Magazine predicts that by 2013 as many as 47 Percent of all callers worldwide will be using VOIP.”

From the graph above, you can see that VOIP is projected to surpass the one-billion user mark by 2013. (Graph courtesy of Network Marketing business journal) The Central Intelligence Agency reports that there are more than 1.7 Billion mobile phone subscribers after only 20 years, about 1.5 Billion landline phones after more than 100 years. However at only 7 to 10 years there will be an estimated, 1 Billion VOIP users.

The projection that VOIP will soon be the next big thing to hit right after the internet is highlighted by the fact that on August 8, 2007, Fortune magazine reported that Carlos Slim had overtaken Bill Gates as the world’s richest man. Carlos Slim main business is telecommunications. He controls the Teléfonos de México (Telmex), Telcel and América Móvil companies in Mexico. Carlos Slim is worth $ 68 Billion U.S dollars some $ 10 Billion dollars richer than Bill Gates.

So how does this knowledge help ordinary people like you and me? Well for one thing, if you have sufficient capital and want to go into business, anything about VOIP is sure to sell. I believe this is a great time now to start getting into the VOIP business.

But for those of us who have limited capital, we can still jump into the VOIP bandwagon by buying companies in the stock market that are engaged in telecommunications. Definitely these companies are sure to someday KVM switch to VOIP or pioneer VOIP based technology in their areas.

Sometime last week, my Dad asked me to attend a multi-level marketing seminar involving Voice Over Internet Protocol (V.O.I.P) products. He wanted to attend the seminar personally but he asked me to attend the seminar primarily for two reasons first he had another meeting to attend and secondly, he just did not understand what the product is all about. (This also goes for all other “hi-tech” products) So I reluctantly attended the seminar.

An American gave the presentation. He was very eloquent and convincing. The product was equally good as well. But what really intrigued me was the sales pitch he made when asked he people to join the multi-level marketing company.

He told us that Microsoft is one of the richest and one of the most successful company in the world. The company is currently worth more than $ 200 Billion dollars. If these guys would come knocking at your door, you wouldn’t hesitate to give them your investments.

But let’s just pretend for a moment that it is the year 1978. A group of casually dress casually dressed, long haired, hippie looking geeks came knocking at your door asking you to invest in their company or even work for them. They said their product is something called “computer software” and that it would change the world in the years to come. That skinny little geek at the left side wearing a blue shirt at the bottom of the picture said you would regret it if you wouldn’t invest in their company. Would you have invested your time or your money?

Those who did decide to invest became millionaires and even billionaires later on. Some of those people left after several years and months while those who remained and stayed with the company for a long period of time became very rich.

Nobody expected that those casually dressed, long haired, hippie looking geeks would make billions and change the world years later. But those who invested in them truly reaped the benefits. The speaker closed by asking the audience if they are willing to take the chance to join in the multi-level marketing scheme of the new VOIP product. The sales pitch was good, and the product is good. But experience tells me that any multi-level marketing based business will only be good for a couple of years, after that the business has to switch to traditional since the market will be so saturated that you will have nobody to recruit. If the speaker was asking people to buy shares of stocks perhaps I might buy some. Who knows ? 20 years from now I might look back and say that I’m glad I have invested. (P.S the skinny little geek wearing the blue shirt happens to be Bill Gates and the bald guy is Microsoft CEO Steve Balmer, if he had been this filthy rich now, I guess he could have resorted to hair loss prevention)

Instead of being stagnant because of the dwindling dollar, our export sector has exhibited growth due to business brought about by business process outsourcing.

My brother who is our company’s vice president for finance wanted us to join the bandwagon. He was interested in involving our business in the business process outsourcing industry specifically in the call center operations. I expressed my reluctance that we do so since this is totally unrelated to our existing line of business although I acknowledge that business process outsourcing is the next big thing in business for the decades to come. So I decided to tag along and listen to the series of meetings between our proposed partners. A would be partners had extensive experience in the call center industry and is now currently a call center development consultant.

As the meetings progressed, I learned a lot of things that dispelled my misconceptions about call centers. These are as follows:

1.) Operating a Call Center still follows the traditional business processes – Contrary to what most people believe, Operating a call center does not spell instant big bucks in a short period of time. Just because the demand in the market is so big and because you are earning dollars does not necessarily follow instant profits.

According to the study presented to us, it is only in the second year that the call center starts to profit. In the first year, losses or a break even has to be incurred first. This is similar to any kind of business. You can’t expect to profit immediately. There is a window of time where sacrifices have to be made. Just like any traditional business you have to have a good management team. A lot of small time call center operations have been shutdown due to bad management. Most importantly your Human resource has to be very good as this is one of the most important departments of the call center operations.

Putting up a call center is just like putting up any other business. You will have to follow traditional business processes and rules. It’s just that a call center is more sophisticated since it involves international factors and hi-tech equipment. But the principles in handling the people, processes and profits are very much the same with traditional businesses.

2.) Operating a Call center requires intensive Capitalization – Most people believe that putting up a call center requires very much little capitalization. After all you just rent a small space, put up a bunch of computers hook it up to internet connection and viola !!! You can now begin operating right ? Wrong !!! Operating a call center requires intensive capitalization. The dialing software alone cost more than a million pesos. Add to that the computers, plus you have to get licensed copies of Windows XP. You have to set up a server, a good stable and fast internet connection, hook up the wires, buy i.p telephones that call center agents will use.

We are not talking here about setting up an internet café. During the early phase of the operation you have to shoulder to salaries of your people first as it takes time for your clients to process your bill. And the salaries of those in the call center industry are not cheap. The lowest you can give call center agents is P 10,000.00 otherwise they will transfer to another call center. So it is not as easy as it thinks.

3.) Call center operations requires intensive marketing – Some people think that because there is so much demand for call centers they can just build a call center and expect clients to come. This kind of thinking is very erroneous. Clients are not just looking for “call centers” per se. They are looking for reputable call centers. Call centers that can deliver services that their clients wants them to deliver. As a new player, you will have to establish yourself as somebody who is reputable. This requires that you present to them that you have sufficient equipment, the proper kind of people and more importantly the proper kind of management team. This requires that you market yourself intensively.

Big players in the industry have no problem with that. Clients immediately sign up to them because the have already established a name. But what about small players ? They usually only get the outbound. (Outbound refers to call center agents calling persons abroad trying to sell something or offering a service while inbound refers to catering to the needs of already existing clients of big companies who are outsourcing their services) There is money to be made in outbound but the problem is most outbound agreements are usually performance basis. So if your agents are good at selling or convincing people to buy your client’s products or services than you make money. If not, then you loose. It may take some time for small players to establish themselves as reputable and trustworthy with the outbound before clients entrust them with the inbound.

Again this is not an easy thing. Operating a call center requires intensive marketing just like any traditional business. I even know of someone who has built a call center expecting clients to just pour in, until now their call center is a white elephant and it has been there for more than 2 years.

With all these in mind, before you jump into the bandwagon of the business process outsourcing industry especially call center operations, think before you leap !

At the beginning of the meeting, I gave a talk on the 7 Characteristics of highly effective managers. Here are the points I gave:

1.) – They are good leaders

Effective managers are good leaders. Leadership in one word is INFLUENCE. Good leadership is influencing others to achieve our mission and vision. Systems and structures are managed but people are led. Managers don’t simply wear blac label clothing. Managers wield authority while leaders apply influence. Managers administer programs, leaders develop people. Managers formulate policy, leaders set example. Managers control, leaders empower. Highly effective managers are good leaders.

2.) They continuously maintain the balance in the organization

I have always maintained that there are three basic divisions in an organization. Marketing, Operations, Accounting. Highly effective mangers always maintain a good balance between the three. If you are good in marketing but weak in operations, you will have lots of customers but eventually your customers will go away because of the bad service or product that you offer. If you are good in operations, but weak in marketing, you will end up with little or no customers. If you are good in both marketing and operations but you are weak in Collection and accounting, you are like building your company on sand since you will not be informed whether you are really profiting or not.

3.) They have integrity

Integrity is being more than just honest. It is the “State of being complete, unified.” It means practicing what you preach. Integrity means “living it myself before leading others. “Integrity is important because it builds trust. Integrity is so important and vital in an organization or a group of people. Even thieves require integrity among themselves.

Consider the words of Stephen Covey:

“If I try to use human influence and strategies and tactics of how to get other people to do what I want to work better, to be more motivated to like me and each other – while my character is fundamentally flawed, marked by duplicity or insincerity-then in the long run, I cannot be successful. My duplicity will breed distrust and everything I do even using so-called good human relations techniques will be perceived as manipulative.

It simply makes no difference how good the rhetoric is or even how good the intentions are: if there is little or no trust there is no foundation for permanent success. ONLY BASIC GOODNESS GIVES LIFE TO TECHNIQUE”

4.) They have purpose and direction

Mission equals purpose, while vision equals direction.

Highly effective managers have the company’s mission statement in the hearts. Their plans are guided by the company’s vision statement.

5.) They are a people person

Business is all about establishing relationships, good relationships. In order to do this, managers must take time to meet with their people. They must take time to develop people since people are the organization’s most important assets

6.) They are disciplined

After World ward 2, the Japanese succeeded in getting their economy back at its feet because of discipline. – Being discipline means doing things right (Efficiency) and doing the right things. (Effectiveness) Being disciplined means being organized.

7.) They constantly seek to develop themselves and others

Highly effective managers always seek ways to develop themselves because you cannot give what you do not have. However managers must also develop others because the best way to learn it is to teach it.