OK, I had a little experience that other day that got me thinking in terms of how to make more money, so it relates to this website. Last week, I went for a haircut. I go to a little barber shop about a half- kilometer from my house. I enjoy going there because it is a small shop, friendly people, just kind of a friendly place to go.
The price for a haircut at this shop is P40, which is about 85 US Cents. I enjoy going there because the barbers speak very little English, and it gives me a chance to practice speaking Bisaya, the local language, which I am learning.
So, after getting a nice haircut, and free massage, I went to the cashier to pay. The smallest bill I had in my wallet was P100. I gave the cashier P100, and she returned my change. A P50 bill, and P10 coin. So, I gave her P100, a haircut was P40, so she owed me P60. She gave me P50 and P10.
What is wrong with this? There is something fundamentally wrong with the way that the making of change was done. Can you figure out why, even though she gave me the proper change, she did it wrong? If you have a guess, leave a comment below.
On Thursday (Philippine Time) I will write a new article with the answer as to why I say that the change making was fundamentally incorrect.
The change she gave you only allowed a tip of P10 or P50. If you wanted to give a 10%, 15% or even 20% tip, you didn’t have to correct change to do so. If you wanted an even bigger tip, you where stuck at P10.
That’s my guess.
Hi Randy C – Ding ding ding ding (that’s the winning bell). You are right on. There is even more to it too, though, cultural implications and such. I’ll fully explain that on Thursday.
I have toi admit I was puzzled when I read this yesterday and an answer came to me just a moment ago … but Randy had been here before me. Hat’s off, and further proof that “great minds think alike”? 😉
great!! that was ABSOLUTELY GREAT! i haven’t thought about that!! THANKS GUYS!
Hi Bob,I logged on too late to solve the puzzle,but cannot understand their logic.Faced with this situation most people would just leave the P10 for a tip,had the change been in coins he may have got P20 tip regards Chas.
Bob,
He should have given you change in small denomination coins so youll leave big tip. Sounds silly but I have a friend who owns a restraunt in Butuan that becomes a bar at night and remember him instructing his waitors to give customers change in 25centavo and peso coins so the drunk people would just leave it rather than clinking around with jingling pockets. It seemed rather odd at the time but guess it worked because many drunk people did just keep the bills and leave the coins without realizing the coins where more than the bills lolol.
Justin
Hi Justin – Yep, that bar owner was an expert at properly making change! I can guarantee you that it paid off for him too!
Bob,
I must say that guy was a good businessman. Used to spend ALLOT of time there at his place in my pre-sobriety days to extent people used to call there to find me hehehe . Anyway, Fellow become my friends and he used to let me help do the books at night, was good with numbers even when was drunk , anyway on weekend night he’d pull 60-70tphp on average, not bad for fellow that started with a little kiosk.
Justin
Hi Justin – Hmm… P60 to P70k per day…. that’s not a bad side business! 😆
Bob,
Not every day only on weekends, average day was around 5-10tphp. Was because that was most happening place in Butuan for weekend partying , is a outdoor style restaurant but also live band and such on weekends. I stayed there constantly because well was a practicing drunk and had all the free redhorse I could consume there.
I almost started business with him actually as was going to open jollipig and also add his hamburgers as one of my items in the jollipig moving restaurant. Didn’t materialize though because well war started, I got as far as getting architectural drawings, mascot designed, estimates, etc but never got the jollipig up and running though.
Justin
Hi Justin – 😆 Jollipig! I like it.
Bob,
Was kinda cool, a real spoof of jollibee , the mascot identical to the jollibee but a pig, workers uniforms the same, colors the same everything lololol.
Actually was to sell lechon by the kilo together with Chicharon etc, rent was dirt cheap because it was to be a sidewalk kiosk so only 20php per day. But moving so could go to fiestas in other towns and to special events. Had place already even right in middle of downtown.
Came up with idea because had a Chinese friend who was giving poor people 3 pigs, just 500php mestiza pigs not hybrids, the poor people raise and feed them and in return they keep the smallest pig. My Chinese friend then pay a lechonero 150php per pig to lechon them and sold the lechon by the kilo at 225php per kilo. He sold it in cathedral parking lots and was ok to the priests so long as he give them 10% of profit, not overall but profit. Anyway his idea gave me idea to expand on it using the pinoy love of spoofs lolol.
That chinese guy did pretty good built his business from 3 pigs to around a 100pigs and used the profits to also open a meat market, carinderia at hospital, a laundry/dry cleaning house and a virgin color distributing business.
Those Chinese always amazed me as they where very smart in investing and reinvesting their earnings. Most my Filipino friends didn’t do so good though as they would build a business, live extravagantly and go broke because not preparing for the business down times.
Justin
Hi Justin – Very interesting idea, and I believe it is one that could do quite well. The only caution I would give, though, is that if you get too close to Jollibee on such a spoof, you may have a price to pay for that. Yes, Filipinos do this a lot, but for a foreigner to do it, well, it may not be tolerated.
Bob,
That’s true, I was betting that theyd be ashamed to though because my plan was to hire only disabled people to work the place because they present a tax break and otherwise maybe couldn’t get employment.
However, Your right though and Jollibee may not be the company to bump heads with as a foreigner as they are huge business.
I checked on it with our legal defense team at the time and was told no problem but as a foreigner maybe would have caused a problem just like that NZ guy found himself in. Will never happen now though anyways.
On another topic, I just have one more question about making websites. Is wordpress a type of hosting service? If not where to get hosting? I already checked go daddy and found several nice web titles but have no idea what hosting is or where to obtain it.
Justin
Hi Justin – A few things….
1. WordPress is not hosting. It is software that runs the blog. It gives you an interface where you can write your posts and such.
2. You won’t want to use the host that I use, as it is very expensive (I pay a few hundred dollars per month). I would recommend hostgator.com or bluehost.com for inexpensive hosting for you.
3. Be careful about using a domain registrar to check names before you are ready to buy. Often if you use them to inquire about the name, if you don’t buy it immediately, some how it will now longer be available anymore. What happens is that the name will mysteriously be purchased by somebody else, and they will be happy to sell it to you – at a much higher price! If you want to make inquiries, but not buy, I recommend using a whois server to inquire. The one I use is who.is
Good luck to you, Justin.
Hello Bob,
Thanks again for the advise, I’m writing all this down.
Justin
Bob,
Do you meen a few hundred dollars for each site to host them? Your right Id not want to pay that as in all probability wouldnt even earn enough from ad clicks to pay for the hosting and would lose money on a monthly basis. Wow I just cant imagine a few hundred dollars per site. Is it worth it? Do different hosts put you at different levels of search engines etc? Im now amazed as didnt even notice that the first time I read your message but only now did I notice it.
Justin
Hi Justin – No, that price is what I pay for my server (I have a server all to myself). On that server, I have all of my sites. There was a time a few years ago, I had more than 200 sites (like I said, I am not working as hard these days). Now, I have maybe 20 sites or so. I am aiming more for quality than quantity these days. Is it worth it? Of course! If I didn’t pay that few hundred dollars per month, I couldn’t make the money that I make.
Hosts and search engines are not the same. Google, Yahoo and such are search engines. Hosts are companies that sell you space on a server that is connected to the Internet.
Bob,
Now I understand. Seems it works better for you because some of those hosting services are charging 7.25 a month and etc. I cant figure out though if thats to host 1 site or multiple sites. Im assuming its for 1 site though.
Regarding Server, Why cant just buy a server? I see these server towers for sell on internet and it looks like they just hold many hard drives or something. If its just matter of buying one of those things is it better I just buy that so Id own it rather than just giving money to a hosting service.
Justin
Hi Justin – For $7.95 per month, there are many hosts who will host multiple sites for that price, just look in the list of features and you will see if it is for multiple accounts. Now, if your site grows into something with a lot of visitors, you will probably need a better account.
You can buy a server. Then you need to get it hooked to the Internet Backbone, so that it can serve your site to others. That will cost you thousands of dollars per month. You’re going to need multiple backup servers. You will need a chilled room to set this all up in. Believe me… if you can’t afford to put out $5k to $6k per month, you are better to pay a host $7.95 per month. 😯
Bob,
Thanks again. I just saw where that hostgator site you reffered me to lets you do
UNLIMITED Disk Space UNLIMITED Bandwidth Host UNLIMITED Websites FREE Instant Setup 99.9% Uptime Guarantee 45 Day Money Back Guarantee CGI, PHP 5, RoR, Perl MySQL, SSH, SSL, IMAP, POP FREE Site Builder cPanel Hosting ( View Demo ) 24/7/365 Upgraded Support No Contracts or Hidden Fees View Web Hosting Plans Only $7.95 /month
I will just use that one. I thought it just as simple as buying that big tower loading it with hard drives and opening up shop, could even host for others. Now I see it not that easy, I guess if it was everyone allready would have their own hosting . lolol
Justin