The good thing is..Elma, Lance and Jillianne was with me throughout the whole process.

Several check up was done including ultrasound, fbs ( for sugar) , some laboratory and one of the hardest medical I have ever encountered… the Barium enima.

The process involves mounting a catheter to the anus. A liquid substance, Barium sulphate was sent to the intestine and the colon section. Several angle of the internal organs was x-rayed. After that I was asked to reduce the amount of the Barium sulphate by going to the toilet. The medical technician kept reminding me to keep some
of the substance inside me. Soon after that air was pumped to my internal organs also through the catheter.They took x-rays again of the internal organs, intestines, and colon.

By the end of the 2nd day, the doctors one by one visited my room to inform me of the findings. Eventually I had some
high content of cholesterol according to my blood sample.Last month I was diagnosed as having fatty liver and I spend a lot of time on board ship to lose some weight and eat food with less fat contents.

I was happy to know that my discipline and diet paid off. My SGPT reading was made normal at 40. A month ago it was 120.

Executive summary

Applied science for kids ( ASK ) tutorial services aims at increasing the productivity of the Filipino children. It will focus on deep foundation in science , adapting to the newest technology in the market ( the Internet) and an emphasis on diversity would also be practiced.

The instructors or what we would call the ‘engineers’ would focus on the learning habit of each student, having to adjust his approach with how the student easily understands the subject matter.

At the end of each tutorial session the student will not be asked what knowledge he acquired but will be asked what can he do after the lesson. It will be similar to a training center where knowledge is best manifested through demonstration.

It will focus mainly on the middle class families , especially the OFW children whom has the finances to support their children’s welfare and extra curricular activities.

Final projects would vary from robotics, solar panel toy cars and other productive projects.

Our mission

Is to bring science as real as possible to the kids, making them realize that science doesn’t just exist in school, it’s a reality.

To create a new kind of generation of Filipinos who are able to innovate and create useful products ( making them productive) rather than being plain consumers.

To change our schools mentality and eventually shift from literacy to education. Being literate only means you can be taught easily because you can read and write, being educated means having the ability to apply what you have learned

Keys to Success

We would make use of the new wave of technology- renewable sources of energy. It is quite obvious that here is where the US, with President Obama’s leadership, is going. Solar panels, wind turbines, the Bloom Box, Solar farms in space, hydrogen and solar driven cars, Australia’s magnetic generator and so much more are headed in a direction of freeing our world from oil dependence. Having this knowledge in advance, I would encourage the parents and their children to be the first generation of kids to apply science.

A Decade from now, we would see the future unfold before our very eyes, and just like how history would play it our country would be the last to know about it. This time, the Filipino will be there to harness and process its fruit rather than just buy them from the market.

The market characteristics

We will focus mainly on the private schools starting from my son’s school- Governor Hills Science High School. We would present our tutorial as an alternative to Teakwondo and basketball ( for students who are not inclined to contact sports), an alternative to musical and theatre arts ( for students who prefers to do more than just entertain other people).

We will also encourage the OFW parents to entrust their children to our tutorial, promising them that their investment in their children’s knowledge pays the best interest.

The BSP says that OFW remittances in the first 11 months of 2008 had reached $15 billion, 15.1 percent higher than the year-ago level. Let’s try to divert some of these finances to productivity rather than buying luxurious items in the shopping malls.

Competition

Having search the internet, for possible competition, we were able to identify some. In SM Mall of Asia, inside the Science Discovery Centre, they offer short courses on Robotics, There are also some Robotics class somewhere in Ortigas, A school in Batangas includes Robotics their curriculum.

But this areas are at least 80 km away from Cavite. Having the biggest housing improvement within the Calabarzon area (Cavite), we would capture a big part of the market.

The management

Science for Kids will be headed by Chief Engr Elvin V. Salazar. Mr. Salazar was an honor student from grade 1 until he finished high school. He passed the entrance examination in the Philippine Merchant Marine Academy straight from high school which earned him a free 4- year scholarship
while receiving some monetary allowance ( stipend).

Chief Engr Salazar has always been an excellent Science and English student which made him a great trouble shooter in Merchant Ships. He was also the youngest Filipino 2nd Engr in a Greek company and the youngest 2nd Engr in a German owned fleet.

He has great knowledge with refrigeration and electricity.

His penchant for learning made him enroll in an International Correspondence School and studied Gas and Diesel Auto mechanics. He took up some units in Masters in Shipping Business Management and grew a liking in accounting management, while taking up Ship’s Finance and Budget.

Among the several courses he took for his Chief Engineers license, he was greatly enthusiastic about the electro hydraulics and mechanics. Here is where he ameliorated on his ideas on automation and control or having to make machineries move using his design.

He also spent several years as an instructor in the Maritime Training Center of the Philippines, teaching all sort of IMO courses like Marpol, Engine Watch keeping, Proficiency in Survival Craft, Advance and Basic Fire Fighting, Personal Safety and Social Responsibility, Elementary First Aid and he also helped on the research department on improving these courses. His experience in teaching in the training center made him an expert in explaining difficult subject matters. Since the curriculum used was an international standard, his method of presentation can be no less than what other students was learning in other parts of the world.

He will be joined by his wife Elma R. Salazar which also was a consistent honor student. She will handle the marketing and accounting department. She was previously working as an Auditor for a pre-need company and this is where she became adept in money matters.

Lance Edric Salazar and Calistha Jilliane Salazar will be the endorser.

Financial projections

The cost of the initial investment would be the main target here. I would say that the cost of technical resources would range from 20,000 to 50,000php. But since we would ask the students of a minimal pay of lets say 200 per session, their actual project would be shouldered by their parents. Lets say if they would choose the solar panel as their project, they would buy the solar panel which would cost $1 (46php)per watts-about 5520ph , the battery -2,000php , the inverter 6,000php and the electrical sockets about 1000php. That would make a total of 14,520php

Having these assumptions it would take 25 students to cover up for the initial investment of 50,000php.

We would make available other projects such as robotics, solar powered toy cars and other productive projects, each with their different financial computations.

For younger kids , we would use simpler projects such as making toy rocket ships and self propelled merchant ships.

As the kids work on their project a camera records every thing they do, this will be used as an assessment tool, for promotions and if the parents likes to have a copy for personal documentation, they can have it at a cheap prize.

Other projections

Then there is the chance to go global. After we have perfected our craft, we would try to penetrate the Chinese market. China now is the fastest growing economy. Most of their executives have tripled their annual salary. It would be a great way to expand our business.

We would also plan to franchise the tutorial to cover more schools in a shorter time.

Investment summary

 The Management team, Elvin and Elma Salazar, are both well accomplished in their respective professions; they are well motivated, and have reached the self-actualization stage. They are driven and are destined to change the learning pattern in the Philippines. Literacy and education is different. Being literate only means you can be taught easily because you can read and write, being educated means having the ability to apply what you have learned.
 Revenues will come from the tutorials, sales of tech items, and video coverage.
 Profits will also come faster when we franchise the business
 Timeline, there is no competitor in the Cavite market right now. When they come, constant advancement of our teaching and marketing process would make it hard for them to catch up.

1. Go to the basics. When trouble occurs, always go first to the very basic, know what or how the engine or machinery works. If you don’t know how it functions then you cannot figure out how to fix it.
2. Commission people who have been there before. Problems at the engine department are most of the time routine. Take along people who have encountered the same problem before, even if they haven’t solved the problem during their time their emotional recollection of the incidence can still be of some value.
3.Dwell in your past experiences. You can never be in your present position if you suck at your previous rank. Remember how good you are before, and how you solved the problems before, usually there is a parallel connection with your present problem. You just cannot find the connection yet.
4.Relax. When trouble in the engine room comes, it usually comes with a time constraint. This makes you think you have to fix the problem immediately. In cases like this, the important thing is for you to buy some time. Just make sure the ship will still run, while you are just trying to figure out what is the cause of the problem. Then gather all the information, what you know and what you don’t know, let your brain relax while analyzing the given facts.
5. Find the connection. On board, there are always diagrams, electrical diagrams or piping diagrams. Find out how each part is connected to another, isolate them one by one and find out where is the faulty connection
6. Write down what you have done, test for any improvement, and write down the results. This will easily make you sort out the details, and before you know it….the problem has been solved.

• Have you ever wondered why you  sometimes can’t find your profits in your bank account?
• Your business could be doing great and reporting huge net monthly incomes, but when you check your cash balance, you are perhaps often at a loss where your money went.
• You then try to compare your balance sheet for two consecutive periods to see whether your cash has increased or decreased, but you couldn’t uncover the reasons why your cash balance has changed.
• Finally, you check your income statement to look for leads on where the cash from the reported sales and expenses for the period might have gone, but the income statement can’t give you that information either.
• The explanation for the cash movements  in your business-where the cash came from and how it was spent- can actually be found in the cash flow statement, which can be created without requiring new data.
• This is because the needed information can be derived form your balance sheet and your income statement themselves.
• However, because preparing a cash flow statement involves converting certain financial data from accrual-basis accounting to cash –basis accounting, doing the cash flow statement is actually not a very easy task
• For example, when your record an increase in accounts receivable from additional sales, that increase would require a corresponding deduction from your cash balance. This is because by selling merchandise on credit, your business is in essence lending cash to your customer to buy products from you.
• The cash flow statement can do several  important things for you.
• By looking at your company’s historical cash receipts and disbursement, in particular, you can make a reasonable forecast of your future cash flows.
• You can also use the check from the cash flow statement where the cash of your company comes from and how your company is using it.
• Of course, since your business may spend not only for fixed asset investments but also for paying bank loans and dividends to investors, you can also use the cash flow statement as a guide for predicting if your  business is capable of paying dividend in the future.
• Generally, too, when rising net income leads to higher cash levels and vice versa, there would be times when the company
• S cash and net income won’t go hand in hand.
• It is possible for you to register a net income but not actually get any cash during a particular period.
• For example, you may have sold products mostly on credit.
• Thus , your books would be recording sales and a corresponding net income even if cash actually goes into your ban account.
• This is one of the instances where you need to make use of data from the cash flow statement to analyze the cause and effect of such an outcome.

The Operating activity

• This is the most important among the three activities above because it is where your sales and expense transactions directly impact on your cash flow.
• From the operating activity segment of the cash flow statement, in particular, you can find such inflow information  as the amount of cash collection from your customers, the interest income from bank deposits, and whatever other gains you may have realized form investing outside of your company.
• That segment would also show such cash outflow information as payments  o supplies, payments of salaries to employees  and the company’s overhead expenses.
• If the company reports a net income but consistently generates negative operating cash flow, it could be a signal that something is wrong with the company.
• If you look into the matter more deeply , you may discover that to show a positive net income, the management of the company has tried to manipulate the figures to hid its cash shortages.
• When you are evaluating companies, therefore, always try to find out if it has a positive net income as well as positive operating cash flows. These are reliable indicators of a financially healthy company.

The investing activity

• This portion of the cash flow statement shows the company’s buying and selling activities for its long-term asset investments.
• For example, if your buy office property, you need to report all your payments under this category-including those that you have spent for renovation and for office furniture purchases
• Other long term asset acquisitions that need to be reported under this category are your investments in computer hardware and software, in factory equipment and machinery, and in various other productive assets.
• Your investments in other companies should be reported in this category as well
• In sum, all acquisitions of a company are reported under cash outflow, while all proceeds from sale of assets are reported under cash inflows.
• Generally, the investing activity always results in negative cash outflow, for it means that management is putting its fund in long term productive  assets. When you see a company investing for the future, the outlook is always positive and you have reason to expect that management can deliver what it promises to its stockholders.
• On the other hand, if a company reports positive cash inflows by selling off its assets, the outlook is gloomy; in fact , it may be signal that the business is struggling and have found it necessary to sell income-producing assets to meet its financial obligations.

The financing activity

• This portion of the cash flow statement shows how the  company sources its cash to fiancé its operations.
• For example, if you are starting business or planning to expand an existing one, you can raise funds from outside investors or perhaps borrow from the bank.
• The proceeds from the financing activity need to be reported under the cash inflow category of the financing activity.
• On the other hand, if you are paying dividends to your investors or paying the bank the principal and interests  of a loan, the payments will be reported under the cash outflow portion of this activity.
• By analyzing the different activities of the cash flow statement, you can easily relate how the company is managing the business and conclude with a story.
• For example, you may find that a company reports a huge cash balance in the balance sheet but reports a net loss in the income statement
• When you scrutinize the company’s cash flow statement, you may discover that the company has negative operating cash flow, which confirms that it is actually a losing business.
• You can then conclude that the company is able to survive only because its operations are being sustained by a combination of borrowings and additional investments by its owners.

Your cash flows will be either positive or negative:

• You can either have a positive or negative net cash flow. If your cash inflow is greater than outflow, you will have positive cash flow.
• If your cash payments are greater than your collections, you will have a negative cash flow.
• The operating cash flow is considered as the recurring cash flow of the business because it is your company’s main source of cash.
• Generally, a financially sound company is one that has a positive net income and positive operating cash flows.

Cash inflow

• 1. amount of cash collection from your customers
  2. then interest income from bank deposits
  3. and whatever other gains you may have realized from investing outside of your company.
  4. all proceeds from sale of assets

note: if a company reports positive cash inflows by selling off its assets, the outlook is gloomy, it may be signal that the business is struggling and have found it necessary to sell income –producing assets to meet its financial obligations

5.  Proceeds from the financing activity

Cash outflow

1. payments to suppliers,
2. payments of salaries to employees
3. the company’s overhead expenses
4. all acquisition of a company :

• if you buy office property
• payments  for renovation and for office furniture purchases
• investments in computer hardware and software
• in factory equipment and machinery
• various productive assets
• investments in other company

1. paying dividends to your investor
2. paying the bank the principal and interest of a loan

note: investing activity always results in negative cash outflows

• By analyzing the different activities of the cash flow statement, you can easily relate how the company is managing the business and conclude with a story.
• For example, you may find that a company reports a huge cash balance in the balance sheet but reports a net loss in the income statement
• When you scrutinize the company’s cash flow statement, you may discover that the company has negative operating cash flow, which confirms that it is actually a losing business.
• You can then conclude that the company is able to survive only because its operations are being sustained by a combination of borrowings and additional investments by its owners.

• Be ambitious. Umaasa tayo lagi sa tulong. Kahit anong hirap mo, you have to be ambitious. Being ambitious is not negative.
• Have the right work ethic. Bawal ang tamad. Lalong bawal ang tanga. Manage by objective. Instead of a quick fix or instant gratification, practice delayed gratification. We should go for meritocracy. Hindi palakasan.
• Learn a skill. Poverty is an absence of choice. That’s why you have to continue learning. You have to learn a skill. I never tell people “good luck”. I always tell them “good skill.” Be creative. Nasa Diyos ang awa, nasa tao ang gawa. God gave you skill. God will not help you if you don’t help yourself.
• Work,save, invest, and prosper.  You have to work. Address your needs but always save. Get into business. Get life insurance or a personal accident insurance kung yun lang ang kaya mo. We need a provident fund especially for our OFWs. We have 11 million Filipinos abroad. You put them and our people here in a provident fund, we can prosper ourselves. Combine GSIS and SSS funds and come up with a provident fund, just like what Singapore did. People have to learn to save something.
• HELP.Find extra time to help. Volunteer with the Red Cross. Kapag alam mong ginawa mo, bibiyayan ka. Helping others is a reward in itself
• Lead by example. The Philippines would improve if it elects a leader who can inspire, able to communicate by word and deed, provides a vision, extracts values, and displays integrity. Demand from your leaders. Ask for their qualifications. Look for their record.
• Be independent. I had to fight big guys but I couldn’t tell my dad. He encouraged me to learn judo to protect myself. You have to learn to survive. You  have to learn to stand your ground. Those guys who tried to bully me, I stood up to them.
• Learn from your mistakes. I learn from my mistakes. I learn from other people’s mistakes. There’s only one thing I can never learn: to be overly materialistic. I don’t pay the media to cover me. I don’t pay for my press releases. If my being straight forward is a mistake, that’s a mistake I’ll keep on repeating
• Be assertive. We’re like makahiyas. We shouldn’t be. We shouldn’t be and adapting culture. We’re resilient but we don’t assert ourselves. We’re a happy people. That’s good psychology. We laugh at ourselves. We’re an accommodating culture. We should live by the national anthem, by out oath.
• Make fear your friend. During the MT Pinatubo eruption, I told myself we’re not going to allow ourselves to die here. I prayed, “ If you’re going to take me, take me. Please though, don’t make me look bad as I lead.”  You must make fear your friend.

 Implementing a 5s program might entail significant costs to the business, while the benefits may not be evident immediately. However, the entrepreneur will soon find out that the advantages of a sustained 5s program will outweigh its costs.

• One of the most powerful strategic planning tools your business can possess is a marketing plan. I’m not referring to an academic  exercise found in college marketing textbooks.
• Your marketing plan should be a simple (in some cases,one-page) document  that specifically answers who you are, what you do, who needs what you do, and how you plan to attract their attention.
• It’s a combination of the planning process and the completed action plan
• Follow these seven simple steps to build the perfect marketing plan:
  1. Narrow your market focus. Try to describe your ideal customer into the narrowest and most detailed terms possible, as though you’re describing him or her to a referral source.
  2. Position your business. Figure out what you do best and what  your target market wants. Maybe it’s how you served a niche or package your products. If you don’t know what it is, call up three or four of your clients and ask them why they buy from you. Craft a core marketing message that allows you to quickly differentiate your business
  3. Create education-based marketing materials. Recreate all your marketing materials, including your website, to focus on education. Make certain every work in your  marketing materials speaks of your core messages and to your target market
  4. never cold call. Make sure all your advertising is geared toward creating prospects, not customers. You must finds ways to educate before you sell. Your target market needs to learn how you provide value in a way that makes them want to pay  a premium for your services or products. You simply can’t do this in a 3-inch by 4-inch ad. Your ad must get viewers to ask for more information, then you can proceed to selling. Determine all the ways you can get your education-bases messages in front of your narrowly defined target market.
  5. Earn media attention. Create a list of journalists who cover your industry or community, and build relationships with each by becoming a reliable resource of information. Plan out an entire year of new items you can promote by season or event.
  6. Expect referrals. Create a referral marketing engine that systematically turns each client and referral network into a kind of unpaid sales pro. You must instill a referral marketing mind-set into your business’s culture. Do this by making every customer  a marketing and referral contact. Map every contact and build processes that focus on referrals.
  7. Live by a calendar. After you complete steps 1 through 6, determine what you need to do to put them into action. Then create an annual marketing calendar, noting the required monthly , weekly, and daily appointments necessary to move your plan forward.

John Jantsch is a veteran marketing coach, award-winning blogger and author of Duct Taper Marketing: The World’s Most Practical Small Business Marketing Guide. Find out more at ducttapemarketing.com.

• There’s an old saying in business that you can only improve that which you measure.
• It makes sense that if you set a goal to improve your performance or grow your revenue, you must keep track of how you’re doing to know if you’re moving toward that goal.
• There are certain marketing elements every startup entrepreneur should track to grow and become more profitable. The key indicator are leads generated, leads converted, average dollar per transaction and average number of transactions per customer.
• When you’re just starting, the notion of tracking may feel like overkill. But focus and improvement spring from the habit of constant measurement. Start now to create your baseline.
• You’ll find it much easier to focus your strategies and actions on the right areas of your business- the areas where you can get the most bang for your marketing buck
• Here’s a little more detail on the four key metrics and how they can make a difference:

Leads Generated: almost everyone gives this one some thought. You must make the phone ring if you’re going to do business, right? What I find, though, is that few businesses keep track of how many leads are generated or where the leads come from. By getting really fanatical about this metric, you can determine the best ways to spend your precious marketing dollars.

Leads Generated. You must know exactly what percentage of your generated leads actually become customers. Yet lead conversion, or the process by which a lead becomes a customer, often gets so little focus. Understanding your lead conversion numbers can help you refine your ideal customer and core message. Your goal here is to aim for 100-percent conversion

Average dollar per transaction: when businesses are just getting started, this numbers is always too low. Use this measurement to  put upward pressure on your own pricing. With each new customer, raise your prices. A hard number like this, brought down to the individual customer’s level, is much easier to understand in dollars and cents than all the gross revenue charts on the planet.

Average transactions per customer: again, the focus here is to do more with your existing customers. This metric keeps the attention on rounding out your services, adding more value, more products and more partnerships to the mix.

By boiling all your marketing efforts down to these four easily tracked numbers, you can set your sights on big-picture goals such as income and revenue, knowing that your activity is focuses on the micro metrics that make growth inevitable.