A million peso business idea

Literally, a 1 million peso worth of business venture that I am proposing to my husband. But he and I know that whatever I put in my business proposal (which I sent him just minutes ago!) won’t be the end of it. Like planning a wedding, where you thought you had everything listed and planned out, there will be additional expenses here and there, for sure. But yep, I need (at least) a million pesos to make this business vision come to life. 1 million to 2.5 million pesos, to be exact.

If you know my husband, he is anti-corporate slavery. HAHA. Probably because of the fact that he never worked for anyone else besides running their own business. This is very different from what I was made to believe – success is mostly based on how high you’re able to climb the corporate ladder and/or your job title and/or how much you have in your paycheck. If you came from an average Filipino family, wala naman mag-eencourage sayo to start a business. For us, pang mayaman lang ang pagsstart ng business. Diba? And so I swear, every time I changed companies (na feeling ko, achievement na or malaking level up sa career ko) or no matter how much I received as a bonus or incentive (I was in sales), he was never impressed. NEVER. His initial reaction, “tignan mo nga nakaltas sayo o” referring to the tax or kung anumang kaltas sa payroll ko HAHAHAHAHAA. Not that he’s being unsupportive. HE WAS. He just doesn’t believe that one’s skills, efforts, and capabilities can be measured by a fixed salary and limited benefits/incentives. Yung may ari lang daw ng kumpanya ang yumayaman pero kami ang pagod na pagod.

When I left the corporate world and entered the world of freelancing, I understood what he meant. I’ve reached a point in my freelancing career where I earn more than what I can make in 6 months of everyday corporate struggle with just one project. Na-experience ko din na walang limit yung income mo as long as you’re putting yourself out there. Yes, pagod ka, sometimes stressful din naman. But you decide kung magkano ba yung pagod at stress mo.

But I am not gonna lie, I am not a business-minded person. Although I try to be, I am learning to become one. That’s why I also believe na hindi para sa lahat ang pag-ffreelance at pagbbusiness. Although I am good with negotiation and sales, there will be times when you’ll feel lost, insecure, and just… not worthy enough. When you’re a business owner, you do the work of more than one person – you’ll be the boss, sure. But you’ll also be the accountant, the HR, the marketer, you’ll do customer service, handling of complaints, etc. It never ends. And no one will be there to help you. Di mo pwede i-escalate yung problema because ikaw ang sarili mong boss. And the temptations… the temptation to not work, to prioritize other things, it will hunt you. And you’ll give in. Until you realize that you’re way past your deadline and you’re not ready with your deliverables. It has never happened to me, but as someone who lives by the moment, I cram 80% of my freelancing life.

Anyway, freelancing and starting a business are different contexts in this story lol. Well, same same, but different.

The fact that starting a business and investing a huge amount of money for something that may or may not work, is fucking scary to me.

“Bakit mo naman iisipin na magfafail.”

But that’s just the way I am – someone who always expects the worst in every situation, I handle things better that way, I guess. I am always the person with an unofficial/unannounced backup plan.

What’s funny is that I used to be so brave when it came to taking risks. I always jump head first without any assurance or anything – I’ll never know unless I try. I’ll never figure things out without trying. But I think, as I aged, and especially now that I have a family of my own, I learned to back down a little. Maybe because whatever I decide on doing will not just affect me but my husband and our son as well. Dati kasi, sarili ko lang responsibility ko. If I lose the money, then it’s my money. If it didn’t work out, madami pa namang opportunities dyan na iba.

I just don’t want to be unstable at this point in my life when I should be wise with my decisions. Feeling ko kasi, at this age, wala na ko karapatan and extra space to experiment. Everything should be a calculated risk, everything should be well-planned out.

Also, the idea of investing a million pesos and failing is fucking crazy to me. Yun na yon? Move on na? Ganon talaga ang life? Lesson learned the hard way? I won’t be able to just shrug it off when that happens!! Wag ka matakot mag-fail, sabi ng asawa ko. Easy for him to say, right?? HAHAHAHA

Okay, I am yapping nonsense now. Di ko alam kung ano ba talagang point ko. I guess I just want to map out where my thoughts are going with all these business ideas and conceptualization.

But you know what, one thing about me is, not to brag, but somehow, I can make things work out my way. I swear, feeling ko superpower ko yun. Again, this is not the first time I am taking risks. And with all the risks I’ve taken so far, everything turned out well.

Well, siguro hindi siya supepower. It’s just how we respond to life. Diba?

When something needs to work out, we’ll do everything for it to work out.