Business Opportunity: Starting Your Own Water Refilling Station

Water is an important part of any one’s life. People need to drink water in order to live. However, because of pollution and other substances added to the marine environment, most of the water sources have become undrinkable and polluted.

If you are an Overseas Filipino Worker looking for a business to start, a water refilling station business is one of the most promising and profitable business to have. Especially if you already have a capital to use, starting a water refilling station business is easy.

How to Start a Water Refilling Station Business

1. Start with a Business Plan. A business plan is to create an outline of the vision, brand values, and identity of your business. This helps you in keeping focused on your business goals and making the business attractive to your target market.

2. Choose the Right Location. Finding the perfect location for the business is one of the problems most owners face. The location needs to be near your target market to make your business visible to the people or look for a site that is heavy on foot traffic. Places near schools, offices, apartments, high-rise buildings, hotels, and hospitals are the best spots.

3. Look for a Trusted Supplier. Find suppliers of water refilling equipment and ask for their price list. But don’t settle on one supplier only. If you think their prices are too high for your budget, find another supplier. After studying the quotations as well as the total costs, decide which you think is the best for your budget and choose the right equipment to purchase. Don’t buy cheap equipment and machines since they will not last long.

4. Construction of the Station. After finalizing the location for your water refilling station, contact your supplier and ask for a layout plan that you can copy for the construction of your own refilling station. If you get a good supplier, they will go to your area to measure, evaluate, and make the right design for your water refilling business. Oftentimes, they will ask for a down payment before starting to assembling the machine, with the lead time of about two to three weeks.

After closing the deal with your chosen supplier, you may now start the construction of your refilling station, which normally takes three to four weeks to finish. You may also start making your deep well, if this is your preferred water source, during construction too. Ask your supplier to visit the site and make sure that the carpenters are following the layout plan, especially the washing area, the pipping and the drainage.

While construction is still on-going, you can apply for a business permit to save time.

5. Registration of the Business. To make sure that the business is legal and functional, you need to register it.

If you are a single owner, you need to go to the Department of Trade and Industry, which will issue a certificate of registration of the business name. After you get a certificate for registered business name from DTI, go to your local municipal office and get a Mayor’s Business Permit. This process may take about two to three weeks, depending on the area. There is some municipal office which will require you to submit the following:

• A water analysis of portability which includes physical, chemical, and bacteriological tests from your raw or source water.
• Engineering drawings of the building and electrical plans signed by the sanitary engineer.

After you get the Mayor’s Permit and the operational permit from the municipal office, go to the Bureau of Internal Revenue and fill-up a Form 0506 before paying at the counter. Once approved by the BIR, you are now ready to print your receipts at a printing press. Just bring and show them the approved form 0506.

6. Purchase Other Supplies. You can now start buying other supplies that you need like water containers, seals, sanitiser soap, heat gun, etc. You may also start constructing your business’ signage as well as the sticker labels for your products.

Once the construction is finished and your water source is ready, schedule the installation of the machines and equipment. It is better to do this at night to avoid people around. The complete installation may take one to two days only.

7. Dry Run. Dry run the machine and equipment for one to three days before selling the product or you may also get a sample for a water analysis. Go to the nearest Department of Health office and ask the procedures on how to test the water. If you are planning to do this, it is better to get a water sample after a month of operation to make sure that the result of water analysis is good.

Wait for the result of the water testing. If it failed, call immediately the one who installed your machine and let them check and analyze why.

If it passed, you can already start your operation.

Basic Water Refilling Station Feasibility Study

Capital Investment

Water Refilling Machine – P 250,000.00

Renovation or new store at least 20sqm size – 75,000.00

Delivery vehicle (motorcycle with carrier or multi-cab) – 75,000.00

Business permit & other legal docs (DTI, Mayor’s permit, Water testing, etc.) – 10,000.00

Initial Supplies /miscellaneous – 31,750.00

a) 150 Bottles slim – 18,750.00

b) 50 Bottles round – 7,500.00

c) heat gun- 2,500.00

d) Stickers – 3,000.00

Others – 8,250.00

Total = P 450,000.00

This investment may increase or decrease, depending on your actual resources such as:

• The amount of the delivery vehicle, if you already have an existing one or if you are planning to buy a second-hand unit.
• The amount for the store building if you have an existing one.
• The amount of the refilling equipment, depending on what type of water product you want to sell.

Sales Income

Prices may vary depending on the area and what type of water product you want to sell.

Mineral Water – P20 to P25 per container

Purified Water – P30 to P35 per container

Alkaline Water – P45 to P50 per container

PI Water – P200 to P250 per container

Monthly Sales – P 39,000.00

For the first two months, if your target is at least 50 containers per day (50 containers x P30.00 selling price x 26 days)

Monthly Expenses – P 15,600.00

Manpower/salaries – P500 per day or P9,100.00 per month

 

Electric bill – P3,500.00

Phone bill – P500.00

Transportation or gas allowance – P1,500.00

Consumables and others – P1,000.00

Net Profit – P 23,400.00 (Gross Sales – Gross Expenses = Net Profit)