How To Start A Water Refilling Station Philippines

How To Start A Water Refilling Station In The Philippines: Starting a water refilling business in the Philippines is presently one of the hottest businesses. If planned correctly, this business model can be turned into what financial experts call a cash cow.

In other words, starting a water refilling business in the Philippines is a great profitable business. Still, your profit will depend heavily on your supplier costs, maintenance costs, and prices you can charge for the product and other services.

You’re probably wondering at this stage how to start a water refilling station in the Philippines? The whole process is not as complicated as most people imagine when we break it down.

However, just like any business, there are certain stages you will need to hit to give you the best chance of making this a profitable and successful business here in the Philippines. So let’s dive in and ask how to start a water refilling station in the Philippines.

Table of Contents

How To Start A Water Refilling Station In The Philippines

1. Create Your Water Refilling Business Plan

Before we dive into the complexities of any business, we need a plan to follow. This is the basis of any successful business. As we spoke about before, a plan of a business does not have to be airtight. In other words, it doesn’t have to be something you stick to 100%. However, it serves as a guide for entrepreneurs, especially when they are looking into growing their water refilling station business.

When looking into how to start a water refilling station in the Philippines, we need to look at the business plan specifically designed for this type of business model.

Giving you a rough guideline is a breakdown of the areas you may need to focus on.

Marketing Strategies

Financial Plan
Suitable and Profitable Location
A Deep Understanding of The Business Operations

A Market That You Can Sell Too
Water Regulations & Laws
A Strong Brand

Suppliers, Maintenance & Fees
One Or More Unique Selling Points
A Long-Term Strategy

Capital & Emergency Capital If Possible
Potentially Staff

You don’t need to go into detail and have every single one of these decided. Many of these we will come onto later in more detail. Now we have looked at the beginning stages of starting a water refilling station in the Philippines, let’s dive into stage 2.

2. Source The Water Refilling Station Business Location

The next critical stage in this business would be where your location is. A location can be broken down into two different factors (The city & The district/street).

As we know, the Philippines is diverse, and the city and area you choose could impact the success or failure of a water refilling station in the Philippines. For this article’s purpose, we will assume you have decided to set up in the city you live in for ease and flexibility. Once you have the city, it will be your choice to decide the street/district your business will be located in. When we spoke about eight profitable businesses in the Philippines in our latest article, we discussed how different areas could impact your business and profitability.

To summarise this article. You may make more sales in a busy location, but you may make more profit in a more convenient area. This is due to external factors that can add to your expenses. In other words, you may decide to set up in a business district that has tons of businesses that could be your potential customers. This sounds a great idea indeed only if you can make enough profit to cover your business’s maintenance fees (rent, suppler costs, etc.)

Lastly, there might be a few weeks and even a month before you are up and running in your new location. This is because the equipment and facilities will need to be fixed, including any underground and mechanical work which may need to be arranged before opening your business.

3. Purchase The Water Refilling Equipment

There are many different types of equipment for this kind of business. The equipment is often the highest expense for any entrepreneur setting up a water refilling station in the Philippines. Upon our investigations, we have found that the essential equipment can cost between 200K – 400K. (This is for new equipment delivered and fitted for a basic setup)

A few factors heavily influence the equipment’s price, and we’re going to put these as bullet points so they are easily readable.

The differences in price are due to;

The Manufacturers
The Model
The Condition

Additional Fee / Services
The Voltage / Power Performances
The Heating Capacity

The Materials
The Speed
The Litre capacity

The C.O.P
The Size (Sometimes)

As you can see, many different areas will affect the price of the equipment. Another thing that we have not listed on our bullet points is indeed the location. If you are in a remote area, you may be limited to the suppliers who can reach you, so it’s essential to bear this in mind.

One thing to mention is that when we contacted suppliers who offer these services, we found that many suppliers offered an easy payment scheme. Customers can use this if they are within the requirements set out by the supplier.

4. Finding Your Business Suppliers

When we’re looking through how to start a water refilling station in the Philippines, one of the essential parts needed to answer this question is the suppliers entirely.

As we mentioned in the previous paragraphs, many different suppliers are stretched across the Philippines and some well-known national suppliers. Therefore, if you opt to franchise a water refilling station at this stage, then the brand you are working with will have all the necessary suppliers’ details and plans ready to go.

However, if you are setting up this business as a private business, not a franchise, you will need to find your suppliers. When we did our research, we spoke to many suppliers, and we found the easiest channel to find a communicate with suppliers is the beloved Facebook.

The great thing about using social media is that businesses often have listed prices and equipment on their Facebook page.

It’s always important to remember that there will be additional costs, including delivery, fitting, and other essential maintenance costs. Therefore, it’s always recommended you speak to the suppliers you have chosen to get a full breakdown and projected costs, especially at the beginning stages. This will allow you to answer the question “how to start a water refilling station in the Philippines” slightly easier.

Once you have supplies on board, you must test the equipment. This can be done later if there is a delay in setting up operations. However, it’s essential that tests can be performed before the soft launch.

5. Applying For The Legal Requirements

At this stage, it’s time to register the business. This involves the national registration and gaining any local mayor permits that will apply to this business. There will also be specific regulations that you will need to follow. For example, you will need to bring specific examinations such as water levels (bacteria levels / P.H. levels / T.D.S., etc.), a business plan, and any other health and safety that may be applicable.

There will also be form 0506, which will need to be filled out for this business. The length to complete this process can take anywhere from 10 days up to 4 weeks, with an average of 2 to 3 weeks when they are not busy.

Possibly, one of the essential regulations you will need to be familiar with is the Philippines sanitation decree. The decree goes over many of the details and areas you will need to focus on. These areas include help with the business’s operations and as a guideline to abide by local law. It would also be recommended to speak to your local office about any other requirements that they may need from you. (If updated after this article has been written)

I want to mention, however, even though this is our 5th stage on our list of how to start a water refilling station in the Philippines, we can still push back a few stages if needs be. Nevertheless, it is placed in this position due to the length of time it could take to register the business.

6. Plan The Water Business Refilling Station Financial Operations

Financial procedures are one of the essential parts of any business. This is why it has its stage. Now we are at stage 6 of how to start a water refilling station in the Philippines. We have now found out where the business location is, who the suppliers are, its cost, and the price to register the business.

Why do we need to focus on this? Over the year, I have spoken to many entrepreneurs up and down the country. I love listening to their stories, but I always fail business owners admitting that they didn’t fully understand all the outgoings and ingoing’s to the business. Most of the failings and loss of money I witnessed were directly linked to the uncertainty of necessary financial procedures.

Sometimes people feel they are making a great profit but do not consider mandatory outgoings such as; fees, taxes, maintenance costs, staffing costs, etc. These will all impact the financial balance, so it’s essential we fully understand them.

I know. I’m sorry for being so negative here! I don’t wish to sound patronizing ☹. Even if you have a lot of money, a water refilling station in the Philippines is not cheap. I wouldn’t want you to waste any money for the sake of an hour or two of going through a financial report.

Lastly, if you are franchising your water refilling station, you will be required to pay royalty/other fees. This may be per month or annually and sometimes both (or though this is less common).

7. Hire Your Staff

If this is a family-run business, then things will be slightly different compared to hiring strangers. However, no matter who is doing the job, it’s essential that they are competent and follow all the safety regulations and duties that will need to be performed.

Staff costs are high, especially when we look into the previous stage of our financial operations. Therefore, we must consider everything as an example duty, such as the 13th month.

Staff will need to be trained. Training usually involves introducing training and refresher training, which can be every couple of weeks or months, depending on your equipment and business. There will also be a cost to this if you decide to outsource the training.

Speaking of costs, if you decide to start this business on a larger scale and hire more than a few individuals, you will also need to invest in uniforms which is another cost.

8. Introduce Your Marketing Strategy To Grow Your Business In The Philippines

We’re near the end of stage 8. It’s time to get creative and stop promoting our business. Marketing is another essential cog in a business’s machine (Like we spoke about when setting up a food cart business in the Philippines). Your target market will positively influence your marketing strategy and content.

If the funds allow you to, some experts recommend speaking to marketing businesses to get your business in front of the right people and improve your brand awareness, but the choice is yours.

If you decide to franchise, it’s crucial to speak to the franchisor as they can be rules and regulations over what marketing types can be released to the public.

9. Introduce A Soft-Launch (If Applicable)

This is an exciting and significant time for your business because it allows you to test your business in many areas that couldn’t be done before.

Some businesses prefer to do a soft launch before they fully market their business. This is totally up to you, and remember, a soft launch does not always need to happen. However, if you expect heavy customer demand or want to know how things will run, then a soft launch would be a perfect opportunity to test operations.

Soft launches can run anywhere from a couple of days up to a couple of weeks, but they don’t tend to be longer than this.

10. The Overall Business Growth Strategy

The final stages of the business have been summarised as the business growth strategy. Of course, this main topic can branch out to several other topics, but a business growth strategy best describes our final stage.

At this final stage, you will now be running your day-to-day business, and you will start to see what things are working for you and what things you need to change.

The business growth strategy focuses on many parts, but one main area is building repeat customers and introducing new business to your water refilling station.

Starting A Water Refilling Business In The Philippines: TakeAway

It’s no surprise people are searching for how to start a water refilling station in the Philippines. It is indeed a very profitable business. However, from an in-depth analysis of this topic and this business venture, we can see that there are many essential things that an entrepreneur will need to focus on when setting up businesses like this to ensure that profitability is kept to the highest at all stages.

As many different wheels are spinning with this machine, it is essential that any entrepreneur thoroughly investigates each area of a water refilling station in the Philippines.

Many successful start-ups have made this business very profitable, which shows a strong market demand.