Financial education for OFWs urged

CEBU CITY - Financial education is deemed necessary for overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) nowadays in the wake of the looming global economic meltdown, officials from a marketing group said. Jose Enrique de las Peñas, Interna-tional Marketing Group (IMG) president, said he believes that financial education, especially among OFWs that are lucky to still have jobs abroad, helps them offset the fears brought about by the ongoing financial crisis.

"What OFWs and Filipinos, in general, need right now is financial education. They have to increase their knowledge on the right way of savings and on how to take care of their finances and reduce the risk of losing what they have," he said. De las Peñas underscored the huge significance of financial education for Filipinos, "where everyone seems to be in fear of the negative prospects of the future."

IMG, a marketing company dedi-cated to serving the financial needs of individuals, has close to 20,000 OFW members nationwide who have availed themselves of their free financial educa-tion seminars. Majority of these OFWs are working in Taiwan, Hong Kong, Middle East and Europe. IMG Chief Executive Officer Noel Arandilla said the common miscon-ception of financial education is that it should only be limited to the elite or the well-educated.

"Everyone has their equal rights to be wealthy but the masses are afraid to go out of their comfort zones and be edu-cated on how to increase their finances. The lack of education is keeping some of us unequipped to the possible effects of the crisis," Arandilla said. IMG seminars, facilitated by their own financial advisers, are now starting to at-tract people from different professions including doctors, engineers, teachers, factory and office workers, among oth-ers, Arandilla noted.

"A lot of businesses are already facing fears and signs that their companies might not survive the crisis. They ask our help to educate them and help them build their financial foundation," said De Las Peñas, adding a significant interest among cor-porations seeking their advice. He said that at the height of today's financial turmoil, many companies from industries such as information technolo-gy, electronics and education have sought their financial guidance as these sectors have been hit hard by the crisis.

"Fear of the uncertainty of the econ-omy could be battled through financial education. With this, you can take posi-tive, proactive and informative actions and will not be in a panic mode wherein you cannot do right decisions," De las Peñas said.

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Are You Being Productive or Busy

By Todd Falcone

Did you know that there is a gigantic difference between having a productive
day versus simply having a busy day?
I can’t tell you how many people I know, whom I have worked with personally, who thought they were productive in their home based businesses, only to find out that they were simply staying busy conducting menial tasks that meant nothing to their bottom line.
In the end, the only thing that matters is production. Ask yourself, “What did I produce today?” In fact, here’s a great tip to help keep you on track. I do it. It works!

Take out a piece of paper and write down the following words:

What did I produce today?

Now, post it someplace you have to see it daily. Put it on the bathroom mirror or your computer monitor. Put it someplace where you cannot miss it. This is crucial. Read it daily and ask yourself this simple question. If you want to make it in this industry, you must produce. Being busy doesn’t cut it. Being productive is all that matters.

This means, focus your time on conducting revenue-producing activities. If it doesn’t make you money, then don’t do it. I have yet to meet a person who makes money dusting his desk, organizing his leads or cleaning up his office files. You must spend your limited time in production mode. We are all limited to 24 hours in any given day. The question you have to ask yourself is, “How am I spending my valuable time?”

Here are some tips to help you make sure you stay on track and in production mode, and avoid simply “being busy.”

1. If you are involved in network marketing, spend all of your prospecting, presenting, closing and training. Nothing else really matters.

2. If you need to conduct tasks that keep you “busy” (e.g., writing auto-responder letters,producing training documents for your team, etc.), do it during your down time. In other words, do these things when you can’t be making phone calls, such as late at night or very early in the morning.

3. Track yourself and conduct regular self-checks. Log the number of outgoing dials,presentations you made, messages you’ve left, etc. This will help ensure you are on the right path before it’s too late. Making it in this industry is simple. Proper application of the right activities on a daily basis will produce consistent results. Failure is just as simple. Application of the wrong activities — and not recognizing that you are doing the wrong things — will consistently produce nothing but frustration and disappointment.

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