Businesses or industries in the locality also have needs for goods and services.

Their
needs for raw materials, maintenance, and other services such as selling and
distribution are good sources of ideas for business.

4. Examine the available resources. Observe what materials or skills are available
in abundance in your area. A business can be started out of available raw materials
by selling them in raw form and by processing and manufacturing them into finished
products. For example, in a copra producing town, there will be many coconut husks
and shells available as “waste” products. These can be collected and made into coco
rags or doormats and charcoal bricks and sold profitably outside the community.

A group of people in your neighborhood may have some special skills that can be
harnessed for business. For example, women in the Mountain Province possess loom
weaving skills that have been passed on from one generation to another. Some
communities set up weaving businesses to produce blankets, decorative, and various
souvenir items for sale to tourists and lowlanders.

Business ideas can come from your own skills. The work and experience you may
have in agricultural arts, industrial arts, home economics, or ICT classes will provide
you with business opportunities to acquire the needed skills which will earn you extra
income should you decide to engage in income-generating activities. With your skills,
you may also tinker around with various things in your spare time. Many products are
invented this way.

5. Read magazines, news articles, and other publications on new products and
techniques or advances in technology. You can pick up new business ideas from
magazines such as Newsweek, Reader’s Digest, Business Magazines, “Go
Negosyo”, Know About Business (KAB) materials, and Small-Industry Journal. The
Internet also serves as a library where you may browse and surf on possible
businesses. It will also guide you on how to put the right product in the right place, at
the right price, and at the right time.

Key Concepts of Selecting a Business Idea

Once you have identified business opportunities, you will eventually see that there are
many possibilities available for you. It is very unlikely that you will have enough
resources to pursue all of them at once.

You have to select the most promising one among hundreds of ideas. It will be good
to do this in stages. In the first stage, you screen your ideas to narrow them down to
about few choices. In the next stage, trim down the choices to two options. In the final
stage, choose between the two and decide which business idea is worth pursuing.

In screening your ideas, examine each one in terms of the following guide questions:

1. How much capital is needed to put up the business?

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2. Where should the business be located?
3. How big is the demand for the product? Do many people need this product and will
continue to need it for a long time?
4. How is the demand met? Who are processing the products to meet the needs
(competition or demand)? How much of the need is now being met (supply)?
5. Do you have the background and experiences needed to run this particular
business?
6. Will the business be legal and not against any existing or foreseeable government
regulation?
7. Is the business in line with your interest and expertise?
Your answers to these questions will be helpful in screening which ones among your
many ideas are worth examining further and worth pursuing.

Branding

Branding is a marketing practice of creating a name, a symbol or design that identifies

and differentiates product or services from the rest. It is also a promise to your
customers. It tells them what they can expect from your product or service and it
differentiates your offerings from other competitors. Your brand is derived from who
you are, who you want to be and what people perceive you to be.

Branding is one of the most important aspects in any business. An effective brand
strategy gives you a major edge in increasingly competitive markets.

A good product can:

- Deliver message clearly,
- Confirm credibility,
- Connect to target prospect, - motivate buyers, and
- Concretize user loyalty.

Here are simple tips to publicize your brand:

• Develop a tagline. Write a statement that is meaningful, impressive, and easy to

remember to capture the essence of your brand.
• Design a logo. Create a logo symbolic of your business and consistent with your
tagline and displace it strategically.
• Write a brand message. Select a key message to communicate about your brand.
• Sustain a brand quality. Deliver a promise of quality through your brand.
• Practice consistency. Be reliable and consistent to what your brand means in your
business.

In generating a business idea, you should first identify the type of business suited to
your business idea. You should analyze and scan the potential environment, study the
marketing practices and strategies of your competitors, analyze strengths,
weaknesses, opportunities, and threats in your environment to ensure that the

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 products or services you are planning to offer will be patronized and within easy reach
of target consumers.

How to conduct SWOT Analysis:

• Be realistic about the strengths and weaknesses of your business when conducting
SWOT Analysis.
• SWOT Analysis should distinguish between where your business is today, and where it
can be in the future.
• SWOT Analysis should always be specific. Avoid any gray areas.
• Always apply SWOT Analysis in relation to your competition,
i.e. better than or worse than your competition.
• Keep your SWOT Analysis short and simple. Avoid complexity and over analysis.
• SWOT Analysis is subjective.

Activity. SWOT Analysis

Directions: List down all your observations for your business idea. Categorize your
observations according to strengths, weakness, opportunities and treats. After carefully
listing them down, use the stated strategies to come up with a sound analysis, activities
and best business idea.

STRENGTHS (S) WEAKNESSES (W)

- -
- -
- -
- -
- -

OPPORTUNITIES (O) THREATS (T)

- -
- -
- -
- -
- -

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Strategies:
• SW - Maximize on the Strengths to overcome the internal Weakness.
• OW - Capitalize on the Opportunities to eliminate the internal Weakness.
• ST - Maximize on your Strengths to eliminate the external Threats.
• OT - Take advantage of the available Opportunities to eliminate the external Threats.
Activity. Designing a Logo

Directions: Draw a logo that you will use in your business. Provide a simple statement to
describe your logo.

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Activity. Making My Own Vicinity Map
Directions: Draw a vicinity map reflective of potential market in Computer System
Servicing in your province. Provide a simple statement to describe your map.

Computer Systems Servicing NC II | 25

Computer Systems Servicing NC II | 26
Module 2: Applying Quality Standards
(AQS)

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Learning Competencies:
1. Assess quality of received materials
2. Assess own work
3. Engage in quality improvement

Pre-Test
I. Multiple Choice. Choose the letter of the best answer. Encircle your answer.

1. Which refers to the sets of rules that outline specification of dimensions, design of
operation, materials and performance, or describe quality of materials, products or
systems?
A. Workplace procedure C. Production Process
B. Standards D. Failure testing

2. Which behavior affects the quantity of work in the workplace?

A. Tardiness C. Customer dissatisfaction
B. Negativism D. Failure to follow instructions

3. When should a safe working procedure be written?

A. When you have nothing else to do C. When the boss tells you to do so
B. When designing a new task D. When there are tasks to be eliminated

4. Which factor should be considered when choosing the right material for a certain
project?
A. Cost of material C. Popularity of the material
B. Brand of the material D. Source of the material

5. Which is considered as the most important factor when choosing materials to buy?
A. cost C. quality
B. demand D. suitability

6. Which task must be done first when receiving materials?

A. match the packing slip to the items received
B. sign the delivery form immediately
C. make an inventory report of the items received
D. check the items for any defects

7. Which behavior affects the quality of work?

A. Ana arrives in the workplace 10 minutes late.
B. Joseph used his sick leave to attend to his friend’s party.
C. Stephen did not follow the specifications ordered by the customer.
D. Sheila is always involved in arguments with her co-workers.

8. Which is an inappropriate physical behavior?

A. Smoking in the workplace
B. Lack of flexibility in response to problems

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C. Insubordination
D. Inappropriate or poor work methods

9. Which refers to the process performed on a whole consumer product?

A. statistical control C. quality control
B. failure testing D. production process

10. Which is a systematic approach to the elimination or reduction of rework, waste, and
losses in the production process?
A. Quality control C. Quality planning
B. Quality improvement D. Quality assurance

11. Which is a system in manufacturing for maintaining standards?

A. Quality control C. Quality planning
B. Quality improvement D. Quality assurance

12. Which refers to the process of identifying which quality standards to focus on and then
determine what to do?
A. Quality control C. Quality planning
B. Quality improvement D. Quality assurance

13. Which focuses on improving the production process?

A. Quality control C. Quality planning
B. Quality improvement D. Quality assurance

14. Which refers to the direct one-on-one interaction between a consumer making a
purchase and a representative of the company that is selling it?
A. Customer-company relationship C. Customer service
B. Customer interaction D. Marketing process

15. Which system or process is being implemented after the finished product is
completed?
A. Quality assurance C. Quality planning
B. Quality control D. Quality improvement

The student must relate material properties to product and process quality. These are the
factors that must be taken into consideration when choosing the right material for their
components and assemblies:

1. Selection of material
Material selection is one of the most common tasks for design engineering. The ability to
assess the material’s impact on the performance of a product is crucial for reliable
performance. Sometimes, buyers are also considering the label or name of the company
which are producing great quality of materials and are known in the market. Examples
are the name HP for printer and Intel for some computer hardware.

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2. Testing of material
The testing of material properties is widely understood to be the key to obtaining data for
a project, performing failure analysis, or understanding material interactions. Material
testing also provides information on the quality of incoming and outgoing products.
Inspection test equipment and techniques are demonstrated for a wide range of materials
and assemblies during the class. This provides the participants with both knowledge of
the common failure modes.

3. Cost of material
The cost of material is also considered when buying or selecting materials for a specific
project. The amount may vary but never taken for granted the quality and the reliability of
the material. Will you buy material which is less expensive but worst in quality? Will you
buy material which you cannot afford? People look for places which can meet their
standards and right cost for materials.

Before planning and designing takes place, you should evaluate the material options and
system requirements

The characteristic of the materials to be used for specific project must be:

1. Good quality
This is the most important factor when choosing materials to buy. Products with good
quality are long-lasting and safe to use because you know that it follows certain standards
before being commercialized.

2. Reliable
It means that you can be sure that it will perform its function well, will operate safely and
will give the best it could give.

3. Suitable for the application/purposes

Choose the materials which are very necessary to make the project possible. Making a
list of products/materials to buy is a good trait of a wise consumer. Products which are
not to be used must be crossed out.

4. Low cost
It doesn’t mean that you will choose for the less expensive one and exclude the quality.
Low cost means you can afford to buy the materials without hurting your pocket and being
assured of better quality.

Essay.

What does Good Quality mean?

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