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Bounce Back For Business: Manuel Music Project Inc.

Music is an important part of our lives, pandemic or no pandemic. We’ve been filling our home with music. It just relieves stress for all of us in the family — plus Zeeka loves singing. She would always tell me that she loves singing more than dancing.

Manuel Music Project Inc. (MMP) is a passion-based business, using music as a primary tool to impart values, disciplines and skills to its students. It is a home for talents. We help aspiring individuals discover, improve and develop their musical talents.We want musicians and talents to leave a legacy. It also provides music productions, renders live music on concert and events, and professional advisory and consultation.

The company is a legacy that Edison and Romelle Manuel envisioned to leave to their children.

For over 19 years, Edison has been conducting music training and workshops, locally and internationally. He motivates and inspires aspiring musicians to excel musically by incorporating the disciplines and values in music lessons, directing and crafting innovative programs to equip and enhance individuals and music groups.

His popular songs as a songwriter and music arranger include “Rumaragasang Pagpapala”, “I Promise”, “More Blessings”, “Shake The Heavens” and “I Want You More” from the album “I Promise” which was released in November 2003.

Edison, together with his wife who is also a musician, Romelle, launched Manuel Music Project Inc. on August 7, 2017, to provide an environment that will make learning and experiencing music a meaningful and fulfilling pursuit. The brand tagline “You Can Play” is a strong statement of the mission MMP has embraced in establishing the company.

Manuel Music Project believes that anyone who has the passion in music and desire to learn can play music, given the proper training and coaching. In MMP, the music instructors bear the qualities of an effective coach, one who has the heart and will to teach and develop a student to become the musician he/she wants to be.

MMP conducts individual and group, face to face music programs and workshops for all ages. It also provides entertainment music for all occasions, including corporate events. The business earns mainly from tuition and workshop fees from students.

Their services are delivered to students and clients face to face. With the risk and protocols implemented in light of the corona virus outbreak, their students were restricted to either come to our studio or music coaches had to go to their homes. Some clients had to cancel their bookings with them.

With this pandemic, they are now looking at going online/digitally. “We plan to aggressively obtain state-of-the-art equipment and online platforms available for our business. We also need professional help and necessary funds in implementing this,” said the couple.

Some of the changes that they will implement is that they would be gearing towards delivering online music lessons and partnering with online payment providers. Because of this, they will also train our coaches on how to effectively deliver their online services.

“It is important that there is a Business Continuity Plan in place. To be prudent and intentional in setting aside, not just working capital fund, but also contingency/emergency fund,” said the Manuels when asked what business lesson did they learn from the recent happenings.

Support local business and visit Manuel Music Project Inc. (MMP)!

Facebook: https://facebook.com/manuelmusicproject

Website: http://manuelmusicproject.wordpress.com

Spread the word!

Sincerely,

P.S. Please follow https://www.facebook.com/groups/BounceBackPH/ to see how you can support the Philippines.

P.P.S. Please follow #BounceBackforBusiness #GInspiration #GoLocalPH for more Local SME and Professional stories that we can support!

P.P.S. If you want to be featured next, please visit this link https://mommyginger.com/smes-and-professionals-unite-during-this-time-of-crisis.html and for Women Founders, please visit this website and sign up: http://startupwomenconnect.asia/

#BOUNCEBACKFORBUSINESS: 1PesoHosting.Com

Businesses, especially those with no online presence, have been reading a lot about establishing presence online and how to build a website. When your building a website, you’ll need a hosting provider. Today, the featured local business for my #BounceBackforBusiness Series is 1PesoHosting.com.

Ginger: Hi Herbert! Can you tell us more about your business?

Herbert: 1PesoHosting.Com is a small web and server hosting provider that started around year 2002. We have hosted more than 1,000 websites and have clients in the SMEs, large enterprises, government and non-profit organizations. We cater mostly to Philippines based companies but also have foreign clients.

We are one of the cheapest providers with web hosting plans that starts as low as Php 100/month for a 4GB space and Php 350/month for unlimited hosting and our support teams are purely local. Our servers are located in the US, Hongkong and Malaysia and we provide domain registration services, shared web hosting, virtual private servers (cloud servers), dedicated servers, SSL and server management services.

Ginger: Why did you start your business and what was the mission behind it? 

Herbert: We started 1pesohosting.com because back in the days, web hosting in the Philippines was very expensive. We realized that by offering a US based server, would be able to help SMEs build and host their website at a fraction of the cost of doing it locally. Our mission is to enable companies bring their businesses online with the least cost and effort as possible. This starts with having an affordable domain and email/web hosting service.

Ginger: Can you describe your business model? How do you earn?

Herbert: All our services are availed via subscription and we accept credit cards, paypal and bank transfers/deposits.

Ginger: How were you impacted by this pandemic? How were you impacted by the Enhanced Community Quarantine? 

Herbert: Majority of our customers prefer bank deposits since their companies would issue checks to pay. Payments have been delayed and some potential leads/projects were put on hold therefore cashflow is very much affected. We pay our data centers and support staff monthly regardless of the situation so even if customers are unable to settle their bills on time, we still have to pay our bills.

Ginger: After this lockdown and pandemic is resolved, how can people help you moving forward?

Herbert: We are looking for more companies who are in need of our services. Some changes that we will be implementing for our business is that we will be promoting online payments more compared to bank payments. However, since majority of our clients are businesses who does not usually pay via credit card, we need to find ways to have businesses settle bills online that would be acceptable as per their accounting policy.

Ginger: What are the business lessons that you have learned from this? 

Herbert: Maintain better cashflow for situations where revenue will be delayed

Thank you so much, Herbert for sharing with us the story of 1PesoHosting.com.

Please visit them at http:/www.1pesohosting.com / and on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/1pesohosting

Stay Safe!

P.S. Please follow https://www.facebook.com/groups/BounceBackPH/ to see how you can support the Philippines.

P.P.S. Please follow #BounceBackforBusiness #GInspiration #GoLocalPH for more Local SME and Professional stories that we can support!

P.P.S. If you want to be featured next, please visit this link https://mommyginger.com/smes-and-professionals-unite-during-this-time-of-crisis.html and for Women Founders, please visit this website and sign up: http://startupwomenconnect.asia/

#BOUNCEBACKFORBUSINESS: Forest School Philippines

We’ve been inside our homes for a month now. Lately, I’ve been feeling the effects of staying indoors. It’s mostly affecting my mood. I can’t wait for the time when we can go outdoors and explore again.

Speaking of exploring, our children will need this, too. So today, for the local business that I want to feature, I interviewed Forest School Philippines. Honestly, this is the first time that I have heard of them and what they do is quite interesting.

Ginger: What is your Business? Can you tell readers more about it?

Forest School Philippines: Forest school is an approach that takes place outdoors where children are in charge of their learning through unstructured free play. As a result, children can think for themselves, speak their minds, and keep on getting up every time they make a mistake.

Ginger: Interesting! Why did you start your business? And what is your mission? 

Forest School Philippines: It started as a personal mission because I was stuck for the most part of my life. I was in a career that did not give me joy and meaning. Finding forest school was marrying the 3 things I loved–education, nature, and children. At the same time, we want children joining forest school to discover and unlock their own genius so that they can share their gift to the world.

Ginger: So how do you earn? Can you describe your business model?

Forest School Philippines: Profit-first. Zero capital (except for the UK training I invested in myself). I earn through weekly sessions, private coaching sessions, special events (birthday or summer camps) and speaking engagements.

Ginger: I know it has been tough for schools lately. How about your business? How were you impacted by this pandemic?

Forest School Philippines: Despite the fact that nature is good to boost children’s immune system, the children’s safety is utmost concern. All sessions were postponed to a later date.

Ginger: How can people help you moving forward? What kind of help are you looking for? 

Forest School Philippines: I need help in creating awareness about Forest School or forest kindergarten as an option alongside the other progressive or non-traditional schools. If Scandinavian countries have been practicing this for years, and they have the highest literacy rate, then they must be doing something right. I am also looking for forest school assistants and volunteers from different parts of the country whom I can train, so we can spread this movement fast.

Ginger: Because of the things happening now, what changes will you be implementing in your business? 

Forest School Philippines: Teaching people how they can do it themselves, as long as they have access to space and nature.

Ginger: Oh nice! Since a lot of business owners will be reading this, what are the business lessons that you have learned from this? 

Forest School Philippines: This is a season for planting. It’s a time to work on our marketing, revisit the processes, and strengthen the connection with potential clients.

Thank you so much for sharing your story.

If you all want to learn more about Forest School Philippines, please visit the links below.

http://forestschoolphilippines.com

https://facebook.com/forestschoolph

https://instagram.com/forestschoolph

P.S. Please follow https://www.facebook.com/groups/BounceBackPH/ to see how you can support the Philippines.

P.P.S. Please follow #BounceBackforBusiness #GInspiration #GoLocalPH for more Local SME and Professional stories that we can support!

P.P.S. If you want to be featured next, please visit this link https://mommyginger.com/smes-and-professionals-unite-during-this-time-of-crisis.html and for Women Founders, please visit this website and sign up: http://startupwomenconnect.asia/

How to Adapt to Working from Home

Image by Anrita1705 from Pixabay

Like a vast number of people out there, you may currently be trying to adapt your working practices to function out of your own home. With so many people forced into home working, the business world is having to adapt quickly and efficiently to a completely new reality. This can be stressful and overwhelming, but to keep your work or your business flourishing, you need to be able to make the best of this situation. Luckily, there are a few simple (and clever) steps you can take to maximise your productivity and even use this opportunity to instill habits and practices which could continue for years to come.

Time-Keeping

The hardest part of working from home can be keeping to the same schedule as if you were in an office or outer workspace. It’s easy to start getting up that little bit later, letting your workday bleed into the evenings and weekends, and losing sight of scheduled lunch and break times. It might seem counter-productive, but those trips to the coffee machine or the water cooler are actually very important, giving your brain little moments of relaxation that aid productivity and focus overall. Without these interactions at home, it’s easy to end up at your desk for hours, even missing lunchtime – make sure you’re standing and going for regular little walks about the house to keep yourself active and focused. You can even set alarms on your phone to remind you, if you need!

Moving Online

Almost everything is having to move online, which is a massive shift to deal with. However, there can be some benefits, including efficiency, speed of communication and ease of access, which it’s useful to see as benefits rather than inconveniences. Of course, if you receive physical mail at your business address, this can be a difficult thing to negotiate if you don’t have access to it. However, this might be the perfect time to investigate a physical address; a method of dealing with letters where they can be mailed to an external company and then digitally sent to you wherever you are in the world. Visit https://physicaladdress.com/ to investigate the possibilities of setting this service up, allowing yourself to work from home without worrying you might be missing important communications.

Video Calls

Video meetings are here, and they are here to stay. Rather than shy away from them, it’s important to embrace the potential of this technology, and become an expert as soon as possible! Being able to run an efficient video conference will be a vital skill in the coming months, and the quicker you can get to grips with all their features – including screen sharing and comments – the better.

Home Working Practices

Of course, there are also some basic home working practices it will always help to follow, aside from just keeping to a timetable and making sure to get up at a reasonable hour! It’s important to dress appropriately – comfort is necessary, but wearing pajamas will adversely affect your mental state and ability to concentrate. Setting up a dedicated workspace away from partners, kids or other distractions will also be invaluable in setting a line between your home and your work, allowing you to focus and work as efficiently as possible.

Do you have other tips that you want to share?

Feel free to message me in the comment section below!

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https://mommyginger.com/sustaining-a-business-in-times-of-crisis.html

How to be Productive while Working From Home

Sustaining a Business in Times of Crisis

With the world slowly shutting down, it’s hard to see that there could be a light at the end of the lockdown tunnel. With COVID-19 making its way across the globe, people are suffering, and businesses are dropping like flies. The rate of small business closures in their first year is usually 50%, but with this virus, small companies cannot sustain themselves.

Before you panic that your business may fail, let’s take a breath and remember that you are not working from home: you are at your house trying to maintain your business during a massive crisis. You may be in the middle of a time of uncertainty, but that doesn’t mean that you’re going to flop.

If you stay informed and you stay busy, there is a good chance you can come out of the other side of this crisis relatively unscathed. So, let’s take a look at a few of the ways that you can keep your business steady through quarantine.

Photo by Christopher Gower on Unsplash

Accept It

It’s not easy to accept that the future you have so carefully mapped out for your business is at risk. You can’t deny what’s going on, though. If you bury your head in the sand and try to continue with business as usual, you’re going to struggle. You need to accept what’s happening and get organized so that you can react appropriately to what’s going on around you. Choosing to accept it isn’t weak; it’s how you organize yourself better. Use Templafy and get a document out to clients and employees about how life will be in your business going forward. People need to be in the know, and that’s up to you!

Read The Information

The more you know, the better off you will be. Check with the government as to what initiatives are being put in place for your business. Several grants are being offered to small businesses right now (from different entities). I saw one from Facebook the other day. You could be in line for a cash injection to keep your business moving forward. Unless you stay up to date with the information out there, you’re not going to know.

Speak To Your Landlord

A big blow to sustaining a business in times of crisis is paying off the rent for an office space. Your commercial premises may be closed right now, and all your staff is working from home. So, if you are paying rent to a commercial landlord, speak to them about the situation. There are policies in place to have payments deferred until later, and businesses are protected from eviction in these circumstances. Again, though, check with your government!

Plan Ahead

You know that this situation isn’t going to go away immediately, so speak to your finance team and your Co-Founders about what to do going forward. You should have a plan in place for furloughing employees so that they can feed their families. You also need to work out your immediate contingency plan for lost business. Plans will keep you in control and prevent heavy business losses.

Sustaining a business in times of crisis can be tough. Quarantine has positives, though; you can still work on your automation and productivity strategies. Make the most of working and stay safe!

Sincerely,

Check out Taxumo’s #ATimeForHope campaign. Visit http://taxumo.com and talk to us about it!