Expat Community > Philippines

BertelBertelsen
Joined 2016
Posts: 251

What is a good business opportunity?

8 years ago

Over the years I have seen people making various investments in the Philippines. A lot of them had a very bad return on investment. And some had a great return on investment. For some reason foreigners love to invest in a restaurant or bar. If you don’t have a knowledge of that I would suggest not to do that. There are so much cons against doing that in a country that you don’t know. The majority of the foreigners that invest in this lose their money and their peace of mind. The people that succeed in this start small , with something like a calenderia. This is a simple eatery. The investment is low but the return on investment is that as well. But if you open up shop for your girlfriend or wife than this is a good way to start without you losing a lot of money.
Moneylending is another thing that foreigners love to do. Because they see the interest rate that you can charge. But people will not pay you back because you are a foreigner and than you will be left with a lot of collateral that you have to sell to make your money back. So you will multiple cars(most used as collateral) and to transfer the land(second most used) into your name is a long and tedious process. Gold is easy to dispose of but that price is of course always fluctuating.
A boarding house can be a good investment (you will always have the building) , you can vary the investment in the house depending on what kind of boarders you want to have and you can make a nice monthly income.
The best investments are green investments. Most of the foreigners that invest in green have the best return on their money. It can be a hard investment (because you really have to work) or it can be an easy investment. I know people that bought land and planted mahogany on it. For 5 hectares you only need 1 person to work on it and most of the work is only done the first three years. After 3 years there is little work to do and the trees can do the work themselves. The disadvantage is time. It takes 10 to 15 years before you can harvest it. But the return can be minimal 500% (or higher because mahogany will always be popular and now there is already a shortage.
If you want a shorter time on having you money back then maybe going into agriculture is a good move. Especially if you go organic and you focus yourself on lettuce, pepper and other vegetables the return can be amazing. You will be one of the first to do so while the market has a big shortage. So you will have no problem selling your vegetables.
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William Russell

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What is a good business opportunity?

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