Mai and I decided to stop working last year. We decided to set up our own internet cafe because we feel that we'll be better off managing our own business than working for bosses. I was a team leader before I decided to officially quit working for a company. I felt that my skills as a web and graphics designer would be better used if Mai and I would open our internet cafe.
Right now, one of our major services in our internet cafe is photo printing. Back when our internet cafe was in Cebu, our photo printing service wasn't a big hit. I guess it's because most of our customers in that area were into gaming and internet surfing. It's a commercial area so we seldom get customers who wanted their photos printed. Plus, there was a photo printing shop a few blocks from our cafe that offer way cheaper photo printing than we do.
Now that our internet cafe was moved to Manila (yes, moved.... our computers were shipped from Cebu to Manila), we decided to continue with the photo printing service. We're now in a residential area, at our own home. As expected, our photo printing service is a hit. Most of them prefer the Cute size (1/4 of a 3R photo paper) printouts of their photos.
Part of our digital photo printing service is that we have photo templates and we also print out invitations, personalized calendars, etc. This is where my love for graphics design comes in. I've made a couple of my own designs. However, we've only had a couple of invites ordered from us. I'm guessing most customers don't know yet of this service so we really need to do more marketing in our area.
Computer rentals and gaming services in our new internet cafe are actually doing well. As of this writing (4pm), 8 out of our 10 computers are occupied. So, we're pretty much doing better than when we were in Cebu.
Because of the success of our internet cafe here in Manila, which I hope would continue, Mai and I would have higher budget for grocery shopping and we can also save up for a possible expansion before this year ends. And since I'm also making money online, I can use the money I earn for other things like celebrating Mai's birthday, buying stuff for our new puppy Choco and her sister Minzy (I'll be posting about them next), and just dining out and window-shopping. I'm doing my best to budget all our earnings. Mai's telling me that I might want to use a software like what you can find on www.homebudgetsoftware.net to help me with budgeting, but I told her I can manually handle the budgeting. Hehehe.
I'm so thankful that our internet cafe and my online money-making are successful. I hope this continues. Thank you, Lord, for all the blessings. :)
More blessings to come!=]
ReplyDeleteIt's good to learn about the success of people who quit the rat race to gain more freedom. I hope you continue the updates. Cheers!
ReplyDelete@Darrel: Thank you. More blessings to you, too.
ReplyDelete@Papa Sez:
We were hopeful that we won't have to go back to working for a boss again. So far, we're doing well and we'll be the bosses in the near future. LOL
congrats in your endeavor.....sana kami din magind sariling boss na in time.....
ReplyDeleteThanks! :)
ReplyDeleteMasarap maging boss... pero nakakamiss din paminsan-minsan yung malaking sweldo. Hehehe. Tyaga and faith lang yan... kasi if you're not willing to take the risk of engaging in your own business, you're more suited to working for a boss.