Molave Milk Station at Barili, Cebu

Molave Milk Station at Barili, Cebu

Molave Milk Station is a perfect Spot where you could have some stop-over to refresh or to unwind for a few minutes from a long drive.

Situated just a few minutes drive from Brgy. Mantalongon, Barili - the junction that leads to the town of Aloguinsan (if you're coming from Cebu City) and around more or less 15mins. drive if you're coming from Barili town proper.

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The place is cool since its surrounded with lots of trees, is located below a hill, and a beautiful mountain scenery nearby. I even think that the owner of this place is also the owner of the hacienda (farm) nearby. You can see a number of animals inside the farm. The most notable I saw were the ostriches.

 But more than that - Molave Milk Station is famous for their ICE CREAM! Yup, you've heard it right! They have their own special home-made ice cream wherein its main ingredient which is milk - is a fresh produce straight from the mooo! err, cow from the farm nearby! Really fresh and refreshing!

At Molave Milk Station, you can also have a fresh cow's milk for those health-conscious individuals. Aside from that, they also serve lunch, snacks, other refreshing products and of course - to those who loves lechon - yes! They also serve lechon baboy.

The place can be a good picnic area for the family. A week-end getaway if you want. It has a nice viewing deck, some kiddie activity area, and i think most important to travelers - are their comfort rooms. Generally clean though the water is a bit of a challenge.

So next time, if you happen to pass along the area. This place is definitely worth a try!

Tom Hopkins - America's Number One Sales Trainer

Tom Hopkins - America's #1 Sales Trainer

Photo courtesy of TheEpochtimes.com

Tom Hopkins wasn’t born to wealth and privilege. He lives a life full of struggle. He married early - at 19, with his own family to feed and without good decent job. He worked in construction carrying steel before trying his luck in sales.

Recognizing successful people in real estate who were dressed well and driving nice cars, he decided to pursue this type of career. It took him several attempts to pass his licensing exam before finally succeeded. During that time, real estate was considered an old man's profession.

His next problem was to find somebody who wants to hire him. After several visits from a number of real estate offices around town usually on his way home from his construction job, Tom realized that it was his first impressions he was making that is failing him.

Doing some readjustments and with his continued perseverance, one office manager eventually took pity on him and gave him a job. But he wasn't successful. One day he was invited to attend a three-day sales training seminar with J. Douglas Edwards. Desperate to try to improve his performance he decided to invest his last bit of savings in the program.

Out of it he realized that selling is a learned skill. Inspired by Mr. Edward's training, he became an avid student. He attended seminars, read books on selling and invested in some vinyl records on self-improvement.

Tom applied everything he learned and by the time he turned 27, he was a millionaire salesperson in real estate. He set records that remained unbroken until this century. His last year as a real estate agent, he sold 365 homes—the equivalent of one each day.

To know more about him:

Visit his website at http://www.tomhopkins.com

To know more of his books, visit his Amazon's Tom Hopkins Page

The Accidental Billionaires: The Founding of Facebook, A Tale of Sex, Money, Genius, and Betrayal by Ben Mezrich

The Accidental Billionaires: The Founding of Facebook, A Tale of Sex, Money, Genius, and Betrayal by Ben Mezrich

This is a RePost from my FB Notes: March 5, 2011 - I think it should be posted here.

Photo courtesy from Wikipedia.org

I happen to have an interest with the book since Facebook has been a part of my life, although i had been a member for this social networking site for around four years already but I didn't got really serious logging-in until just last March of this year when I wanted to reconnect an old friend of mine.

I searched for him everywhere on the net, although I found quite a few traces of him, including of course from Friendster but I can't get any feedback or replies from the messages I sent him. I was about to get frustrated when I tried to find him here at Facebook as my last resort.

This site didn't fail me. I found him here. This is where his hang-out is. The place where he not only spend his boring hours but as well as his primary tool in reconnecting his friends and loved-ones back here in Pinas.

From that moment on, I was hooked with this site. This is almost like my prayer, wherein I logged-in before and after I went to bed. Facebook is now running in my blood. And it is just appropriate that I wanted to know the story behind it all. The founding of Facebook and how its co-founder, Mark Zuckerberg turned from an ordinary geek from Harvard, into the world's youngest self-made Billionaire.

 

The Average, the Good and the Great (Salesman)

The Average, the Good, and the Great (Salesman)

I'd like to quote Mr. Tom Hopkins from his book "How to Master the Art of Selling Anything". There's a comparison there between the Average, the Good and the Great salesman.

The following are the qualities of a Great Salesman: 

• Burning desire to Achieve!     
This is one thing that is hard to measure. If only there's a device that can measure a person's desire so that we could tell who will keep on moving, who will quit and when they give up then that would be great! Running a business wouldn't be that difficult. And we could have figured sooner and save a lot of our time.

• They do what they fear most!
They learn what their fears are - they attack them, they overcome them, they are successful at them. Once they've done that, they've develop the confidence that they radiate from overcoming that fear.

• They keep their Enthusiasm while they're failing.
  Some sales people are only good when things are good. A Great salesman no matter how bad the situation is - he never lost his enthusiasm. He never let himself be affected by the bad events that turn out in his life. He remains to be happy, excited about life, radiate with positivity. Usually, what he does is he will identify the problem, tries to solve it, take care of it and move on. Still keeping the enthusiasm even though at times he failed.

• They Love people.
  They have love-affair of the people they serve and that's why they take lots and lots of referrals. They enjoy meeting new people building lots of contacts and expanding their network.
 
• They don't take Rejections personally.
They knew that the customer or the prospect rejected the product, the price, the service, the company but not themselves. It has never been personal to them.

• They Invest in their Education and are Students of Techniques. 
Every great sales person, every great companies - they share a common characteristic - of believing in education. They tried to have their people to attend to seminars, encourage to read books, suggests to listen to audio recordings, etc. All in the name of education, acquiring new skills, getting updated. Thus, keeping their mind sharp.

 Points to Ponder:
 
*Only you personally can measure your desire - and you can do that by asking yourself this question: "How much pain can I handle until I quit?"
*We want to change our environment, and the way we change our environment is by changing the inner state of our mind.
*You put finer things in your mind and the finer things will gravitate towards you.
*Empty the coins in the purse of your mind and your mind will fill your purse with coins      - Benjamin Franklin

Happy Selling!

FloWer Beach & Diving Resort: Anda, Bohol

FloWer Beach and Diving Resort at Anda Bohol

FloWer Beach and Diving Resort is located at Virgen, Anda, Bohol. A two and a half (2 hrs. & 30 mins.) drive from Tagbilaran City. Anda, Bohol is for me by far better compared to Panglao Island and in fact much better versus the world-famous Boracay Island. Why? Because it's more peaceful there, more closer to nature and the place isn't that packed with so many people.

For budget-conscious people like me, after asking the question: Is it Nice? comes the second most important one - How Much Does it Cost? Well, to answer the first question - I'll show you some pics:

FloWer Beach - Private & Secluded

FloWer Beach - White Powdery Sands

FloWer Beach - Your Romantic Getaway

 

 FloWer Beach - Undiscovered Paradise

 FloWer Beach - Your Escape from Life's Hustle & Bustle

 FloWer Beach - Beachfront Cabana with WiFi Connection

I hope the above pictures answers your question whether its nice or not. Now, to answer the second question, here's the rate. Luckily, the lady at the Frontdesk gave in to my request - to Offer me the Lowest Rate possible. I reasoned that its a Late Check-in (since it's around 7PM in the evening when I came). Also, I reasoned out that its Off-Season so they better give me a good deal. I was lucky, they gave me a Discounted Rate of Php2,000.00. Not bad, a Discount of Php800.00 was given!

Now for the accommodations, their rooms are nice, its simple and spacious. I love their bed, its huge and comfy. Their air-conditioning is adequate. The room has a refrigerator though no complimentary drinks, it has an LCD TV though you have to add additional fee for an inferior Dream Satellite TV service. Their bathroom is fine,  especially the water supply - no problem except that they don't have a cold/hot shower but who cares? Each accommodation has its own veranda so you could see the sprawling greeneries around. Hey let's take a look:

FloWer Beach - One of their Villas
 

 FloWer Beach - Huge & Comfy Beds

FloWer Beach - Personal Ref & LCD TV (See those Booze Over there?)

FloWer Beach - T&B

FloWer Beach: A Must-Visit Place!

As soon as the first light of day came knocking-in. I hurriedly go outdoors to check the magnificent view. Truly, this place is non-other. Because the location is a cove, this place is perfect! Especially for the honeymooners and for the loners alike who commands privacy. This is a little spot of paradise! Peaceful and quite, high degree of relaxation can be expected here. Unlike some of the beaches out there where it connects to the other properties & sometimes frequented by non-guest. The reason why this place is extra special.

My verdict? This place is a Must-Visit! A patch of Paradise hidden far away from civilization. Perfect for those people who wanted privacy and complete relaxation.

By the way, below are their contact details:

For their website:
http://www.flower-beach.com
Here's their rates:
http://www.flower-beach.com/images/pdf/flower-beach-prices2012.pdf
Here's their email add:
info@flower-beach.com

Here's their Contact Number:
+63 918 579 6166
+49 177 687 9402

Common Characteristics of a Champion Salesman

Common Characteristics of a Champion Salesman

Image Courtesy of advertisinginconstruction.com

Mr. Tom Hopkins - the recognized American #1 Sales Trainer and The Builder of Sales Champions (you may want to visit his bio here). The following are the common characteristics of a Champion Salesman:
According to

• Appearance - a champion salesman is very concerned with their appearance, their grooming, their attire. They put more premium on their looks - like having a clean beard and a neat hair cut and invest on some of their valuable tools like car, cellphones, laptops, etc. 

• Pride - they glow with confidence and pride. They possess tremendous amount of it not only for their profession in selling but as well as pride as a human being. A pride in the service that they render and the value of the products they offer. 

• Confidence - you can feel the confidence these people radiate. Clearly a challenge for those people who are still new and are struggling to build one.

• Warmth - they warmly, lovingly leads people. Not because they're warm and nice and cannot close the sale- of course not! They warmly, lovingly close the sale!

• Self-assurance - a Champion Salesperson only looked for one person for their assurance and that is their Self. They realized that they're in a world where a lot of people really don't care. And for him to survive, is he have to make himself, his family, his loved-ones better thru this profession of selling. This is also what we call as Self-reliance.

• A Champion is one who always wants to Win! To succeed, to make themselves better.

Thoughts to Ponder:
*People are being moved more by your belief, conviction, and the confidence you have in yourself, your product and your service.
*Some inexperienced sales people are too nice enough that they failed or finds it hard to close a sale.
*A Champion sales person doesn't have to be pushy but with warmth, he closes and leads them to a sale. He often uses techniques that are so strong but deliver with such warmth.

Steps to Learning: Habits Essential to Success!

Steps to Learning: Habits Essential to Success!

Successful people have this great interest at learning. Be it for something that is valuable to their career or profession - for them to update or hone their skills or be it as a necessity in order for their endeavors to succeed - like for their businesses or investments. Some also do it for pure passion - like hobbies and crafts.

On the contrary, average and mediocre people stop to learn new things. Thus being stuck and outdated. When time comes when new technologies or methodologies are being introduced, they find it hard to adopt and found themselves obsolete.

That is why in order for us to become successful, we should develop the habit of Learning. For us to be successful and efficient at it, we at Sales have to understand how to do it. Please find below the Steps to Learning: Habits Essential to Success. 

Image courtesy of ww.teachhub.blogspot.com

Steps to Learning: Habits Essential to Success!

1. Impact
2. Repetition
3. Utilization
4. Internalization
5. Re-enforcement

 1.) Impact! - something you have watched, heard, read, identified or stumbled upon on anything that caught your attention and is of a great interest or value to you (be it in the near-term or in the future).

2.) Repetition - as the cliche went "Repetition is the Mother of All Learning". 

According to Tom Hopkins - "Approach any material only once and it will have a Minor Effect on your Life & your Future.The second time, you'll start to Feel it. The third Time and you will say - I Now Grasped the Concept!". Once you have the Concept, it's Not Difficult to take the Idea anymore, making mastery at it and soon making it yours.

3.) Utilization - taking the Impact (the Idea, the Concept, the Knowledge), repeating it, mastering it and then going down into using it (Actual Application).
 
4.) Internalization - You repetitiously use the technique and perfecting it. You Internalized it until it Becomes You.

5.) Re-enforcement - Not forgetting the Basics. Back in my school days- I always heard my teacher says: Review! Always do some Review (at your lessons). Having the discipline - making yourself do what you don't want to do.

Some Thoughts to Ponder:

*The Pro every year goes back to basic. Just like the professional athlete wherein they spend most of their time doing and perfecting their craft.
*The more professional, the more talented, the more successful an athlete is, the more he spend his time doing practice! 
 

The Basics of Selling: Steps to become a Successful Sales Professional

The Basics of Selling: Steps to become a Successful Sales Professional

1. Prospecting 
2. Making Contacts
3. Qualification
4. Presentation
5. Handling Objections
6. Closing

The above are the steps that each Sales Person must master for him to become a successful sales professional. Now what are they:

Step 1: Prospecting - this is the first step for you to have a sale. You have to identify who, be it a person, an organization or a company that you think needs your product or service.

Step 2: Making Contacts - after identifying who your market is (the prospects), you have to have the names, the contact numbers, the address (if possible) and identify the product or service that they are most interested in.

Step 3: Qualification - this is the process wherein you have to identify your prospect whether he or she is highly motivated to avail of your product. Also, this will be the step of identifying the prospect whether they really have the need or the demand (gap analysis) in which your product or service will help them address or solve a problem or fulfill a particular desire.

Step 4: Presentation Skills - An important skill set for a sales professional to master. It's where the beef is! The Make or Break Stage. Observe how the successful sales people do their presentation and you'll see why.

Step 5: Handling Objections - the more objection a Qualified Prospect have, the bigger the chance of knowing that indeed he or she is really interested in your product. The Challenge for you is on how to identify the top 3 Main Objections are and if you have satisfactorily addressed it, chances are you will most likely close the sale.

Step 6: Closing - the last step wherein you have finally made your Prospect to agree to a sale.

Understanding the basics guides you on how to become an effective Sales Professional. The challenge now is for you on how to master each of these steps. Hard-work is not enough. Mastering the Basics of Selling is Key.

Some Thoughts to Ponder:

*Professionals review the Basics once every year!
*You Earn an income in Direct Proportion to your skills.
*Usually, the problem with people is that they Stop Doing what they Did to get where they are today.


Happy Selling! ;D

Sales Profession: Top 3 Reason Why You Should Consider it

Sales Profession: Top 3 Reason Why You Should Consider it

"Selling is the Highest-paid Hard Work & the Lowest-paid Easy Work."
 

Well, I heard it first from Mr. Tom Hopkins, the recognized #1 Sales Trainer in America. The man I credited with making myself more professional and more successful at the same time.

It's from him where I got my confidence as a salesperson and making me muster the required skill set of leading a successful sales organization. I think it is just right for me to share it to everybody the knowledge and the experience I gained through the years of being into this profession called selling. I have been into this profession for over 12 years now and never did I think of leaving or venturing out of this.

In fact I even encourage any one to try it out. Ever wonder why?

A few advantages of belonging into the Sales Profession are as follows:
1.) Freedom of Expression - Freedom to be Yourself. Freedom to become Successful as you Like to be. There's No Income-Ceiling and nobody Limits your Income but you!

2.) It Takes a Low Capital Investment, with High Potential Return - How Little it Takes to Get into this Profession but with Tremendous Income Potential, with No Limits on Earnings.

3.) Its Self-Satisfying - You Feel Good seeing your Client Walked out with your Product.The Thrill of Having to Help People Achieve what they want in Life by Offering them your Product or your Service.

Of course there is a lot more reasons but I think that's the Top 3 on the List.

Some Thoughts to Ponder:

*Selling is a Daily Challenge - you don't know what will happen at the end of the day.
*You Grow in Direct Proportion with your Abilities & Skills. No one Limits your Growth but You! If you Want to Earn More, you Learn More, You Do More, and You're Paid for it.

*Successful Sales People who are Earning a lot More are Competent People who knew what they're Doing.

*There has never been a Great Salesperson Born Great! They're all been Trained Great!

*If its Not Fun, its Not Worth it. Life's Meant to be Fun! And Selling is Fun!

Happy Selling! ;D

Franchising in the Philippines

Franchising in the Philippines

Franchising is the right or license granted by a company to an individual or group to market its products or services in a specific territory. For the Franchiser, it is an alternative way of growing the business without actually using much of the company's capital. For the Franchisee, it is a shortcut of owning a business. Less the cost of trial and error of building a business from the ground up. 

Image courtesy of www.cido.co.uk

A quick look at the industry the Philippines has seen a tremendous growth in the franchising business over the past decades. During the Franchising and Licensing Asia 2010 convention in Singapore, the Philippines is the top franchising nation in the ASEAN, followed by Indonesia and Singapore with half the number of franchise concepts that we have. The franchise model has spread throughout the nation in leaps and bounds. With over 1,000 franchise concepts existing in the country, recent studies show that the most popular franchised products remain to be food with a 43% share, followed by retail franchises at 28% and services at 21%. In fact, this trend remains the same both regionally and globally, with food still being the top choice when going into the franchise business. 

What are the advantages and challenges of going into franchising? 

According to Philippine Franchise Association (PFA), the pioneer and largest franchise association in the country. 

The Advantages are: 

• High success rate - A franchise is a business model based on proven ideas and implementation. As opposed to having to build a new business from scratch, a franchise business comes with a reduced calculated risk. 

• Recognized brand and trademark - A franchise offers a product or a service that has become a household name. The powerful brand names that your franchise carry will guarantee your success. 

 • You are not alone - Franchisors discover and perfect operating and management efficiencies that they pass on to their franchisees. These powerful and superior training and coaching system offered by the franchisors are designed either to help a franchisee overcome his lack of experience in running a business, or polish an acquired business sense. 

• Ease in financing / Re-saleability of the franchise - Financial help for businesses with established good reputation come easy. Businesses with high success rates get nods for loans from banks and financial institutions. Moreover, a good franchise is an appreciating asset, thus maintaining its re-saleability at all times. 

Some of the Challenges includes: 

• Control - As franchising involves the use of a proven business expertise, trademark, knowledge and training, the franchisee is required to follow the system. Some franchisors impose on a certain degree of control that makes following the system difficult. 

• On-going costs - Aside from the franchise fee and royalty, franchisees pay a certain percentage of their franchises’ revenues to the franchisor each month. Additional fees for services provided, such as advertising costs, are also charged regularly to franchisees. 

• Failed expectations - Conflict may arise in a franchisor-franchisee relationship due to incompetence. Franchisors can destroy its franchisees by failing to give ample support or by squeezing them too aggressively for profits. On the other hand, franchisees who tend to be lax in adhering to franchise agreements create dents on the established system, later on creating damage to the business or the brand. 

If you are planning into doing business and you have identified the kind of opportunity that is available. You have to Ask yourself next whether you have the experience or having some first-hand knowledge about it. Because If not, going into franchising is the best step to take. Especially if the type of business is very competitive - like a competitor is already present. The more familiar Brand would definitely help you give a boost. 

Here are some available materials if you want to dig deeper into the subject. 

FAQs on Franchising in the Philippines 

www.franphil.com 

www.entrepreneur.com.ph 

www.pfa.org.ph 

Sample Available Franchise and Upfront Cost 

www.sulit.com.ph  

www.smc.org.ph 

www.franchisemanila.com 

www.mcdonalds.com.ph 

Future Trends in Philippine Franchising 

www.rappler.com 

Special Thanks to: 

www.dictionary.com 

Good Luck with your Endeavor!

My Blog & 5 Years After

My Blog and Five Years After

Funny how I see that after more than five (5) long years - I can still see my blog. I've even somewhat forgotten its existence but here it is! No updates, no new posts, no nothing! But yet, I noticed that it still somewhat gathered a few visits (from Lost Cybersouls I guess) and in fact when I did checked my Google AdSense account, it is still active and look what I found....a $1.28 Income !

I imagined that if I took this a lot more seriously, it could probably be in hundreds of dollars more. Also, I Discovered that when you Googled the word "Bisdak Blogger" - it would return at the very top! If only I can monetize this up and devote myself an hour a day of this or probably even a post a week, then this could be a form of a Passive Income for me.

Now, I think I'm up to this Challenge! Follow Me and we'll see where will it leads me.