The prospect of fatherhood makes you do things you don’t normally do. For example, I want to keep the house always pristine and immaculate. Also, I need to remind myself not to walk around the house naked anymore, much to the dismay of my wife (I hope). So, I finally decided to work on my Social Security.

My wife, mother-in-law, sister-in-law and I popped into SSS main office in Quezon City to grab our SSS cards. I knew for a fact that we won’t be able to get it right away but I felt that at least we would get away with something. Lo and behold, only my mother-in-law got her card. The rest of us ran into some pretty sticky red tape.

I wonder why it’s so hard to take advantage of government financial aid such as SSS and Philhealth. My wife had to fill 4 different forms, run to and fro between her former employer and SSS. Then they needed our marriage certificate, a form telling SSS that she’s pregnant then another form telling them she wants financial aid on her delivery, then another form to get her card then an authorization letter then finally send them our baby’s birth certificate and a certified true copy of the hospital saying she had a c section, if necessary. If they snuck in a form reliquising our house and all our properties we’d barely notice. I wanted to check the forms to see if there was a clause there asking me for the soul of my first born.

Point is, in our little country, you have to bear all these on your shoulder as an entrepreneur. You have to acquire these services for your family, yourself and your employees. That’s why entrepreneurship is not for the weak-willed. You need balls of steel to risk it all and knees of oak to stand in line.

I’ve been listing down a list of parts for my new PC for quite awhile now. My old PC, going 4 years old now, needs a good upgrade. So I go to my favorite tech mall, Viramall in Greenhills, San Juan. My father and I have been coming to this one store there for most of our PC needs for a number of years now. It’s called XTPro ran by a couple who are quite pleasant and still cut throat when it comes to business. They retail PC parts to individuals and businesses. They assemble them too and sell them in bulk to internet cafes. Thinking about it, they’re the first “mom and pop” ran tech store I know about.

They have several suppliers from different brands that either send them products on a regular basis or they order specific products from them. They usually do the later when your PC needs are more specific. They have a small staff of 4 people that do the sales and assembly for them. Office tools? They have one PC and one phone and a whole lot of pieces of paper for notes and hundreds of pamphlets provided for them by manufacturers for free. The expression “laway ang puhunan” comes to mind. What I find unique about them is that they know their stuff. They suggest parts for you that you don’t even know are in the market already. They bring the “Mom and Pop” care usually found in hotels and restaurants to PC retail which is absolutely welcoming to me.

I don’t know if I’m right but I bet running a business as a couple works wonders for a relationship, or not. On the one hand, you spend so much time working together. You make decisions together, talk them out. Make plans for the business, etc. And maybe these rational exercises in business, could carry over to a less rational notion like love and family. On the other hand, disagreements in your relationship could carry over to business. That right there, is a recipe for failure. I guess it all depends on the couple and the way they communicate.

I have seen several Mom and Pop businesses that have soared to amazing heights though. My primary example would be Hinge Publications, now Hinge Inquirer. A couple named Poch and Doris Bermudez started it back in 2003 they publish well known titles such as Happy, Game, Urbanliving, Northern living and the really nicely named Timpla. The company was later bought by Inquirer and converted into their magazine publication arm. Now they have tons of titles to offer for a number of different niche and wide markets.

My favorite example would be Jojo and Tina Isorena who run Better Dog. Its a canine behavior center where YOU are taught how to make your dog a happier poochie. Jojo has been dubbed the Caesar Milan of the Philippines and they have quite a successful venture.

I wonder if my wife and I can pull something similar off. Wish us luck, ‘cuz we’re definitely going for it.

Oh and by the way, for those curious here are the specs to my new PC:

“Thousands of candles can be lit from a single candle, and the life of the candle is not shortened.” – Buddha

Recently just gave a primer on Social Media integration for web developers and students in Eton Cyberpod in a Tipidpc.com event.  Social Media professionals come few and far between here in the Philippines. There are many who claim that they are gurus but know less to squat or just learned how to link stuff on Facebook. I pity companies who happen upon these pretenders and I loathe them for ruining the name of Social Media consultants everywhere. Sorry for the rant but I just had to get it out there.

I’ve organized seminars before and they have always been very encouraging. I’ve also written talks before on several topics; one on Video Games as a primer for educators and parents, another on which CMS to use, the recent Social Media Primer and many more. On this seminar, I was surprised by the turnout. The organizers, PinoyWebDev.org and Tipidpc.com expected and provided seats for 20 but 180 showed up. Talk about underestimation. Anyway and in retrospect, we should have booked a bigger venue.

This particular talk centered around how to effectively use social media platforms such as facebook, twitter, etc to better websites not just to increase traffic but to also create interactivity and more meaningful content. It got a great number of favorable responses. I still think I need to put more detail into the powerpoint though. I discussed too many things which were not indicated on the powerpoint presentation. Hopefully I can sort it out on the next talk. But I digress. What I really want to say is for web developers. Creating a website is one thing, creating one that, by its design and nature, make it easier for traffic to come in, is quite another.

I highly recommend that web developers study this particular topic even if you don’t intend to be social media consultants. Knowledge of the topic is very advantageous should you pursue your profession.

We’ve become very familiar with Facebook and Twitter as social media channels in our campaigns and maybe that’s why it’s hard for other social media network entries to pull us from “the big two”. However with the introduction of Google Plus, is there a chance that we’ll be seeing “the big three”?

Google has attempted to create a social media network of their own in the past with little to no success. Perhaps they just couldn’t get a grip on what made Facebook great. Now however, with Google Plus, I’m thinking they have a chance of biting a chunk of Facebook’s users. Why? Well let me tell you!

1. Google Plus is light. Very light. I don’t know how light it will remain but for now we hardly see any ads nor too many features. Facebook had it right before making their UI simple and easy to navigate. Google Plus is doing the same. I sincerely hope they keep it like this even after launch.
2. Google Plus has Circles. Circles is a way of organizing your “contacts” in a way that limits cross interactivity between them. Meaning, your professional life can be separated from your home life depending on how you handle your circles. If you play it right, there will be no more embarrassing pictures of you being seen by your boss.
3. Google plus has Hangout. You can invite a number of friends to “group video chat” with you. This is a very powerful feature that I’ve always wanted from Facebook but they were not able to deliver. Now if only Google will allow us to share our computer screens turning Google Plus Hangout into a very powerful meeting tool.
4. Mail Integration. Since you already have a google account, you get your news, mail, maps, documents and social network needs all from one service. Google provides it all. Some of you might think this is a bad thing, putting all your eggs in one basket and I am as wary as you are. But no one can deny the convenience this brings to users.
5. Better mobile service integration in the future (MAYBE!). Google develops Android. Imagine how awesome it would be if they can integrate all the features of Google Plus into it. No more searching for contacts from your old phones and calling cards. Google plus conveniently pushes the contacts to your android phones organizing them according to your circles. AND, this is just wishful thinking, enable you to take advantage of the Google Plus Hangout feature with your Android phone! Group call anyone?

There are lots of possibilities in Google Plus and already it is loaded with features. One complaint though is that it looks suspiciously like Facebook. I don’t know how Mark Zucherberg will react to this one.

Alarm alarm! I’ve noticed several accounts on my Facebook friends list with a porn update much like the one you see above. This is malware that for the life of me I don’t know how it got to various accounts all over Facebook. My conservative tita is posting porn on Facebook! I post this as a warning to all my social media clients. Please run anti-virus and anti-malware software on your local machines before you access Facebook. Also please, double check what you allow to access or manipulate your accounts. We do not want you posting porn on your product/service pages for all your clients to see.

This serves as a warning for everybody who use Facebook. There are people out there who have nothing better to do than spread filth where they shouldn’t. To all my clients, I have said that social media channels such as Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn are precious to any organization willing to reach their clientele more intimately. However, I did not mean it to be PORNO intimate. You might want to amend the rules and regulations governing the usage of your Brand’s social media accounts. Adding an approval clause such as “ask permission before allowing an app to access account controls” would be prudent. Guard your accounts dear friends, they could be business or bust.

I know I have a lot to offer companies and SMEs regarding the use of social media but there is a lot to do before I can do that. Questions like how do I offer it? What exactly to do I offer? How much is my professional fee? These questions are still going through my head as I brood on my next entrepreneurial step. But this feels more like a step backward in the greater scheme of things. I know I’m supposed to stop working for myself, move from being a professional to a business owner but I feel I don’t have much choice in this arena.

One option would be to work on it myself and the second would be to train people to do it. Training sounds more in line with my plans but it will take a lot of time. Training someone to be an e-marketing consultant requires some tech knowledge, and more than that, a lot of PR knowledge. So it won’t be that straightforward.

So to my readers, any advice on my next step? Should I start training or should I offer my services first?

My wife and I were introduced to Chocolate Lovers a while back by my sister-in-law. We popped in and the first thing that went through my mind was “Mama would go gaga here”. My mother runs a per order basis bakery back in Cagayan de Oro. She makes cookies, loaf breads, croissants, and loads more. I wasn’t surprised when she decided to start the business for several reasons. First, my brother is a pastry chef. He provides my mother with a multitude of recipes. Second, my mother is no stranger to baking. When I was a wee emperor and my mother a younger mother, she made ends meet by baking cakes and I remember them to be awesome.

So just today, we brought her to Chocolate Lovers and you could see her light up like lamp. So excited she dropped a sack of peanuts which exploded on the floor. So excited that the checkout counter lady was waiting for her to add more stuff before she printed the receipt. And so excited that she became frustrated that Chocolate Lovers doesn’t have a branch in Cagayan de Oro. So why would a baker love Chocolate Lovers? Let me tell you!

Chocolate Lovers has everything a baker or pastry enthusiast could ever need. They have more nuts than the Philippine Senate. They have chocolates of every variety that would shame the Goya Fun Factory (if you get this reference, you are as old as I am). And, finally they have packaging as well as wholesale pricing for flour, shortening and everything else a baker could need. They also have baking tins and chocolate molds, loads to choose from. My only caveat in getting all your supplies from them is they are a bit on the expensive side on retail and only gets slightly lower in pricing when on wholesale.

If you have to scratch that pastry itch, try and give them a visit.

Thankfully, Divisoria has improved a lot these days. There are new parking spaces (near the 168 mall) and the off season makes it calmer and easier to navigate. One thing that did not change though is the very cheap supplies. My brother and I bought baking tins for the bakery for almost half the price you’d get in SM. We also found suppliers of paperbags (for our packaging) as well as plastics and boxes. You name it, you can probably find it in Divisoria.

I do have several things that irk me about the place though. First is the layout. Everything is so disorganized. You don’t even know where to start looking for the stuff you need. Best thing to do is wear walking shoes, bring a water bottle and extra t-shirts. Think of it as a long workout session. By the time you find what you need, unless you’re lucky, you’d have one helluva workout. Second is the distractions. I came in having a set budget for our bakery needs and spent a whole lot more on cheap (but awesome quality) shirts, stuffed toys, vegetables (yes bumili ako ng gulay dahil mura). The second one is probably a more personal problem than anything. But, Divisoria is full of cheap tempting stuff!

In conclusion and as a general guideline when visiting Divisoria I offer the following advice.

• Parking has improved but not at all exemplary – take public transpo.
• Wear comfortable and flexible apparel. Better yet, come in your workout clothes.
• Psyche yourself out of buying things outside your list.
• Take a nice shower when you get back home.

Also we’re moving to our new place in Eastwood and we’re opening a small bakery in Taguig. A lot of stuff to write about and I can only manage these few sentences. So to all my readers (what’s left of you anyway haha), don’t despair, expect
entries from this blog and more zaney articles.

It all started with a project with another mentor of mine. I hesitate to name names as they are very private people. We’re currently building a payment system for e-commerce in the Philippines that will not require the buyer to have a Credit Card. Buyers can simply walk into a mini grocery or a pawnshop and even a money forwarder and pay for their online purchases there. Imagine all our e-merchants in Multiply, Sulit and Ayosdito not having to verify in their individual bank accounts if the money has been received or not. Imagine buying a PC at tipidpc.com paying for it at a 7-11. One image comes to mind when I think about this little venture of ours (which will grow to be big I feel) is a farmer who walks into an internet cafe in a rural area, adds some industrial grade fertilizer to his shopping cart and walks into an MLhuillier to pay for it. Suffice to say, I have big dreams for this venture.

Just today after driving my empress to work, I drove and parked at the Podium to meet this industry master (from here on, let us call him Qui-Gon, in reference to the Jedi). After my friend and I talked for a couple of minutes (my friend is now Obi-Wan), Qui-Gon walks in with a huge smile on his face, shakes Obi-Wans hands and looks at me. Obi-Wan introduces us and I shake Qui-Gon’s hand, and I can feel the force flowing through him. He has a calm demeanor as any Jedi Master and his control of the force can be seen through his body language. Not proud and prudish, but serene and totally in control. He is one with the force. Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan talk for a while about Jedi Master stuff as I, the padawan, listen intently to how they weave through the political intrigue within their various domains (they both have businesses in the IT industry).

After a while, Qui-Gon talks to me about our little e-commerce venture. Then he also introduces his own venture to me, which this padawan will have to use his limited Jedi Powers (my little company Hangad) to develop the backend software for. I could say that I was intimidated, but a Jedi (and a future emperor) is not intimidated. I am simply honored listening to 2 great Jedi Masters talk about being Jedi. In the few minutes we were sipping coffee at UCC, I have gathered volumes of information to help me create my own empire.

Before we parted Qui-Gon asks me about my little IT company and I got to talking about how we got started. He simply smiled and nodded his head. I simply could not control myself and told him how I envied his position as Jedi Master. He answered “Nauna lang kami ng mga 12 years.” Those words meant a lot to me. Those words meant that in that amount of time, 12 years, I could be like him. I will be a Jedi Knight, no… I will be Emperor (que darth vader theme here).