Getting Started

Finding a good location

The first thing you need to do to start just about any business is to find a commercial building of at least 65 sq. meters situated on a good location. Ideally look for where there are lots of people coming and going like near a marketplace or a center of trade simply put. A location near a bank is also good. When people go to a bank there’s two purposes one is to deposit and the other to withdraw. When people take out money from banks most likely reason is to spend it. Now consider a banker needs to take out a loan or withdraw funds for a project, let’s say a house and your store is just a stone throw away.  That’s where the action is and that’s where you need to be. You also need to consider the development in the area when there’s so much construction going on supplies is needed.  What you need to look for is where there’s plenty of development going on in terms of construction, like housing, resorts, etc. You also need to make sure that the location you select is accessible a good example of this are commercial buildings located on main roads, highways. Make sure that your prospect location is easily seen from left to right. Here’s how you know that you can be seen. 

1.       When you find a nice place to rent or to build your store try standing across it from 50 meters away from left to right. If you can see the building and where you want your signage to be on then that’s an ideal place for you.

2.       Look for anything that may be obscuring the view. Decide if it can be fixed, if not you may need to look for other spot.

Now that you found the ideal location it’s time to consider:

1.       Rent

2.       Renovation

3.       Permits

4.       Employee

5.       Initial stocks

Rent

Rental fees depend on where your location is. Usually for a 65 sq. meter  provincial rate varies from 5,000-2,0000 a month while urban areas would go from 15,000-45,000. Renting a place would require a month in advance and 2 months deposit. So let’s say you got a place for 30,000 that would total to 90,000 out of your capital fund.  So if you got 450000 like ours that would leave leave you 360,000 and you’re still in good shape.

Renovation

For renovation what you need to consider is a display shelf, a stock room, desk, lighting, display. Include also signage expenses. In our case because we need to be conservative I allotted 25,000 php for  renovation because the place we got was already painted

Permits

DTI registration cost 300php for the application and 15php for documentary stamp. You would need to register at a DTI office nearest your area and takes at least 5 days for processing. Think of a name that would best suite your business. Trading or general merchandise are the two options you have. You will be engaging in buying and selling of hardware and construction supplies and it would be best that it’s indicated in the DTI form for the nature of business. Minimum capital that can be declared for this type is 350000php.

Mayor’s permit

Your fee will be determined by classification of the municipality where you plan of doing business. It would be best to consult a bookkeeper for this. It also depends on what quarter of the year you start. So as a piece of advice say you plan of opening sales on September, it would be best to process your mayor’s permit on October because if you don’t you will end up paying 2 quarters instead of just one if you waited till October. Same principle applies on earlier months. 

 

Requirements for mayor’s permit are as follows

1.       SSS

2.       BIR clearance

3.       Community tax clearance (cedula)

4.       Zoning fee

BIR Registration

BIR registration requires an 1901 accomplished form  which requires proprietor’s

1.       Birth certificate

2.       Marriage contract if married

3.       Lease/rent contract