Hope to see more Philippine startups bootstrapping their way to profitability.
I bootstrapped my startup when I was an OFW in Singapore a decade ago. Registered our domain way back in 2013, designed the website myself, and wrote lots of programming tutorials pero walang traction for about 4 years – yet, I kept on renewing the domain name yearly. Sweat equity lang ang puhunan and faith that we’ll eventually succeed.
Medyo mahaba itong i-she-share ko pero sana maka-encourage sa mga struggling entrepreneurs here. Darating din ang araw na magtatagumpay rin kayo, kaya LABAN LANG! Acknowledge the challenges ahead and change your business strategy if needed but never lose track of the silver linings that can lead you on the right direction.
Sa dami ng negativity and unsubstantiated opinions na mababasa mo wherever you look, eh nasasapawan na yung mga available opportunities and possibilities that can help you move forward.
Here’s our story…
Pagka-graduate ko nung 2007, mga 3 kumpanya napasukan ko sa Pinas bago mag-apply at mag-move sa Singapore. Very restrictive ang Singapore government sa mga OFWs na gustong mag-sideline business (conflict daw), so I planned my exodus out of the Lil Red Dot.
I successfully migrated to Australia around 2014 and persisted in trying out new business ventures while juggling my 9-5 job. Permanent Resident na ako noon that time, but I didn’t rest on my laurels and kept moving forward. Most Filipino migrants I know seem to lose the fire in their bellies once they finally achieve that green card/permanent residency.
I failed many times to establish a profitable business, but my break came when I tried Udemy in 2016, where I created a video course that generated a couple of dollars in its first few days. Ayun siguro ang turning point ko since ang dami kong attempts to make a buck online in the past and ito lang talaga yung legit na gumana at naka-produce ng actual sale transaction.
I doubled down on that simple, yet winning, strategy and created more training courses and reviewers. I still have my full-time job as a developer back then, and during that time, medyo hit-and-miss ang course sales since maraming competition at malaki ang cut ni Udemy.
Nag-ko-contract work ako madalas since mas malaki yun sa regular employment so palipat-lipat ako ng trabaho back then ( 3/6/12-month contract roles). Challenging yung era na yun since marami akong ginagawang products yet walang impact sa bottomline.
Nakaka-frustrate pero laban lang! Ito yung panahon na nag-asawa na ako but we both decided to focus on our business at huwag muna mag-baby at mag-mortgage nang pagka-mahal-mahal sa Sydney. Si misis ang naging co-founder ko and malaking tulong talaga na may kasangga ka sa negosyo.
Mga 2018 talaga nag-solid yung business income namin on the Udemy platform na from a couple of hundred bucks, eh umaabot ng several thousands per month. This is when we shifted our focus from programming tutorials to cloud computing certification review materials (e.g. AWS, Azure). Tyagaan lang talaga dahil sobrang lupet ng competition. Kumuha rin ako ng mga Pinoy freelancers to help me out on our content.
It was a gift that keeps on giving and a year after that, more than na yung nakukuha ko from Udemy than my day job in Sydney. Take note na USD bigayan sa Udemy na mas malaki conversion than the Aussie dollar. Hinintay ko muna ng ilang buwan na consistent 5-digit monthly USD income from that platform bago ako tuluyang nag-resign sa trabaho.
Mga 2019 ako nag-resign, and I was about 31 years old then – finally out of the proverbial corporate hamster wheel. Syempre kinareer ko yang paggawa ng content sa Udemy since mas malaki kita dun. I still have the domain I bought before and I used it as a sales funnel to further improve our reach. 2019 is also the year I got naturalized in Australia.
Mga 2020, nag-hire ng ako ng mga tech professionals sa Pinas to build our own learning platform. Ginawa namin yan since luging lugi kami sa cut ng Udemy. Simpleng WordPress lang na may customized Learning Management System (LMS) plugin yung first version then WooCommerce with PayPal/Stripe to accept payments.
Syempre, sa AWS naka-host since marami AWS credits na pinamimigay sa startups via AWS Activate program, so tipid kami for the entire year. Nag-lipat-lipat din kami ng business registration to fully optimize our operations and cost. Initially, naka-register ito sa Australia then we moved it to the Philippines. Eventually, we incorporated in Singapore and kept our operations/internal staff/freelancers in the Philippines.
Since we have our own learning platform, hindi na ganun kalaki ang cut on our sales since we handle our own payment processing. Payment fees nalang yung na-de-deduct sa amin, at hindi na big chunk of the sale, like in Udemy. Madali lang naman mag-setup ng WooCommerce/PayPal/Stripe to be honest pero kailangan mong tyagain.
Of course, since sa amin yung platform, we are free to develop our own features. May mas control kami in almost every aspect of the system.
So ayun, 2023 na and solid pa rin naman ang bootstrapped company that my wife and I ventured. We’re now in a point where we can scale-up our operations pero hindi namin finu-full throttle since may chikiting na kaming inaasikaso.
Dahil bootstrap nga, wala pa rin kaming funding whatsover but that’s still okay since self-sufficient naman yung venture.
What we’re proud of is the number of jobs we were able to generate here in the Philippines, especially during the pandemic time. Win-win ito since mas mura pa rin ang cost of operating a business dito due to the affordable cost of employment in the Philippines.
Internet-wise, mas mura rin and actually, it’s better here than what we have in Sydney. Mahal kasi Internet doon. Dito kasi, matagal mo nang magagamit yang Magic data mo sa Smart for a fraction of the price from 1st-world countries at wide coverage na yung LTE/5G for mobile.
Malaking factor rin yung platform. For me, kung walang Udemy, eh hindi ako agad makaka-kuha ng mga customers. So payo ko sa mga founders, you have to leverage on multiple platforms to help your business gain traction.
Another thing is financial stewardship. Huwag ubos biyaya kapag nag-ka-pera na. We’re still using a second-hand car kahit kaya naming bumili ng bago. Syempre, tumataas din ang quality of living pero dapat within your means pa rin. Ang ginagawa namin, sa real estate on both Pinas and Australia ang diskarte para best of both worlds.
In case na nag-scale down ang negosyo, eh at least naka-establish na kami ng alternative income source that we can leverage on in the future. Kung nag-scale up naman, ayus na ayos of course!
Iba na yung tayo mismong mga Pinoy (and Balikbayans) yung may control sa mismong kumpanya natin, and not by fully foreign individuals who simply invested on our business foray. We can have more impact kung tayo mismo ang nakakakuha ng bigger share of the revenue pie.
Advantage na isa kang OFW or migrant sa ibang bansa since you apparently have more benefits abroad. For example, kung nawalan ka ng trabaho, merong government assistance (dole) na aagapay sayo.
It’s good to receive funding that you can use to launch your operations and finance your expansion, but this usually means that your company needs to issue additional shares – reducing your ownership as a founder (share dilution). Eventually, mawawalan ka ng “say” sa sarili mong kumpanya.
Maraming Filipino founders ang naki-kickout from their own company after makareceive ng funding from VCs and the new board becomes the majority stakeholders. Swerte kung may angel investor ka na hindi ganid sa equity and align sa goals mo, pero quite rare ito.
On the other side, there are also a lot of issues of being a boostrapped startup. One is obviously cash flow since you have to support the burn rate of your enterprise. Second is that lack of glamour as you won’t get featured in popular news sites and the third would be the access to experienced mentors.
Nonetheless, kaya pa rin namang mag-bootstrap at ma-overcome yung setbacks na ‘to. True entrepreneurs thrive no matter where they are and what circumstances they’re facing may be.
Don’t give up!
