10 Reasons I am Looking Forward in 2014

Me in the mountains of Sagada

I am writing this just hours after I arrived from a free trip to Sagada, Banaue, Benguet and Baguio courtesy of one of my travel partners. This is another free trip I received actually ( October 2013 I brought my mom to Ilocos for free as well).  This is also the longest I have disconnected myself online.  Believe me It feels really good to leave the online world for a while.

For five days, I did not checked my social media accounts and email inboxes.  I want to take more photos of the trip but I took less because I choose to please my own eyes this time. Sometimes the time we spent taking lots of photos and checking our smartphone letting them know your whereabouts, really took so much of our chance to enjoy the moment. 

And I think It helped me to reflect on things I have to work hard for and look forward in 2014. I would like to share as well this list to inspire me and remind me for the whole year round that I need to accomplish these:

1. My birthday this February 21st

I spent my two previous birthdays in Cebu and El Nido, Palawan. This year I am planning to go to The Circle Hostel in Zambales for a surfing lesson or stay at home then join the Malasimbo Festival at Puerto Galera, Mindoro which will happen a week after so it is going to be a post - birthday celebration. Honestly I am still clueless of where I am gonna be and it is only just 52 days more to go. Help me please!

2. Holidays and Festivals

Our festivals around the country are very vibrant, colorful and fun! That is why how can I resist bringing more awareness to people to come and see it? And of course to earn a bit of money too on the side. Here are the list of festivals I am excited about:

Panagbenga Festival

Visita Iglesia

Pahiyas Festival

Philippine Friendship Balloon Festival

3.  Mt. Pinatubo Tour

I found a very credible partner for Mt Pinatubo tour just recently. I hope to hike this mountain first, my friends and I are planning to do it on March. I am required to create my one itinerary so I really need  to see this place myself.

4. European Tour

Yes you read it right. For the past weeks I was talking to a Filipina contact based in Europe offering classic European tour (London, Amsterdam, Milan, Venice, Rome, Florence and Pisa) and pilgrimage related tours.

5. Heritage Walk and Food Tour at Chinatown

There is this very promising tour guide who pretty knew Manila particularly Chinatown, Intramuros, Quiapo etc in terms of culture, heritage and food. He was doing all these tours for charity and for free so far. I told him to somehow see the business - side of his talent, it's not too bad to earn money out of it. 

6. Google Adwords Certification 

I don't want to spend the rest of my life just selling tours and festivals. As an entrepreneur, there is a ripe age for everything so I am most probably seeing myself to get an assistant to manage my tours then me help small businesses to grow their branding. I also started from the scratch so I want to help others who are in the same situation.

7. Google Adsense payment

Thank you everyone who clicked on the ads above! You have helped me pay my rents and my bills. But seriously please just click it only if it is of "genuine interest", meaning if it will help you in any way. Google can find out if the clicks are invalid or not.  Since more clicks means more payment, I need to at least a month get paid. They pay once the clicks are equivalent to $100. I need more traffic for my site for more chances of clicks!

8. Assistant

I BADLY NEED AN ASSISTANT!!! But as a bootstrapping entrepreneur, I cannot pay for as much as a full time payment. I am looking for someone who is willing to learn the ropes of social media, SEO, online marketing, setting up a blog - based business and willing to be paid in form of free trips and KNOWLEDGE for that person to start his / her own someday. Because nobody deserves to remain working under another boss. 

9.  Collaborate with different travel brands and tourism advocates
This is one of my dreams actually for this blog: to be recognized by other personalities in the travel industry. 

10. Find  CO - FOUNDERS and PARTNERS

It is hard to do this myself.  I need more brains to give me more bright ideas. Period.

I am currently a one - woman team in charged of marketing, customer service and sales via phone and email. All of these are eating too much of my time. 

So there you go, I am not pushing myself to accomplish ALL these at the end of the year because one thing I realized in business, there is what we call chemistry.  More than anything else, I have to find the right people whom I can work with and who possess the skills and attitude I need to make everything above possible.