MBA Thesis Writing

The next thing that I’m going to share is how I organized my schedule, my timetable, and my life when I was doing my thesis.

I know already that my 1st sem will be a very busy. I enrolled TW1 and one subject as advised by the Faculty Secretary. By the way, that one subject was handled by my adviser.

Here’s my normative schedule:

Saturday:
Go to school to do research and attend a class
Stay in the library and have a little corner with all my stuffs. I have 3 bags – laptop bag, resources bag (photocopies and some books), and of course my bag with my usual stuff (water, wallet, umbrella, snacks, etc, etc, etc.) One of my classmates always checks the number of bags that I carry. She will check if my stuff are still complete which I really appreciate J

Sunday:
I really told my mother that I will not be contributing much in doing household chores and she totally understands. I sometimes go to the office and stayed in the garden to write. The place is quiet, conducive to writing, contemplating and tinkering.

Weekdays:
Of course I have work.

I snatch some office hours in downloading some files. That’s why I usually have two monitors in front of me – I have my desktop doing office works and my laptop downloading some files, researching, browsing and emailing. I cannot think and write of course while in the office that’s why I multitask.

Then when I’m home, I write, read, write, read…endless reading and writing from all the information I got.

I sometimes go to my adviser and our TW1 professor for consultation after work.

I also have to rush to some places to get materials or information.

So, for those who are planning to write their thesis, visualize yourself being busy and always rushing to go somewhere, to meet someone or to catch your mentors.

Actually, after you’re done with your degree, you will ask yourself, “What am I going to do every Saturday and Sunday?” Funny but it happened to me and to my classmates. During our graduation day, that was March 29, 2008, Saturday, me and my classmates were eating some finger foods served by the Graduate School for the graduating students while waiting for the start of the commencement ceremony.

Classmate: Ano na gagawin ko tuwing Saturday? (What am I going to do every Saturday?)
Me: Oo nga noh! Ano na nga ba? Di na ko busy!! (Yeah, you’re right! What are we going to do? I’m not busy anymore!!)

What are the advantages and disadvantages of Homestay Bed and Breakfast Home?

I wanted to share a part of the manual I wrote for my thesis about homestay bed and breakfast homes

What are the advantages of Homestay Bed and Breakfast Home?

1) You are the boss
You are fully responsible and have total control over the management of the activities in your Homestay Bed and Breakfast Home.
You can decide the days you can accommodate guests, when to go on holiday, or when to take a day off. You make your own schedule and no one is dictating you on what to do.

2) You get additional income
What you will earn will serve as extra income for the family.

3) You work at home
You don’t have to be tied up in 8:00-5:00 work schedule and struggle through the daily traffic.

4) You have more quality family time
You spend more time at home which means you are home most of the time and more you will be able to manage your own family and home.

5) You can continue other interests
Having a venture of Homestay Bed and Breakfast Home gives you the opportunity to do other activities at home. For instance, you could make sweet delicacies that can be blended in your meals to the guests and souvenir items like key chains and the like.

6) You meet new and interesting people
You will have the opportunity to meet interesting people. It’s an avenue to gain new friends even if you are at home.

7) You can choose your customers
You may choose the people to stay at your home. For instance, if you are a female who live with your child and your mother, you opt to accommodate female guests for security reasons. Or if you are concerned with morality issues, you would want married couples only as your guests.
Of course, choosing your customers should be properly made known to your customers. You should mention that you only accept female guests or married couples to avoid any misunderstandings.



What are the disadvantages Homestay Bed and Breakfast Home?

1) Less family privacy
Having a family business at home makes it difficult to put a demarcation line from your family time and activities. It is inevitable that you will encounter guests that need your assistance during your family time and activities. To prevent this from happening, all the members of the family should give their full cooperation; house rules and policies should be provided to the guests.

2) Work Load
It requires you to do everything – having additional linen to be washed. Full cooperation of the family members is needed to make the work load easier for the entire family. Assignments and tasks could be given to each member of the host family.

3) Repetition
You have to do same activities like preparing breakfast, daily updating your records, entertaining guests, and other activities.
If you are a type of person who doesn’t want to do the same things, Homestay Bed and Breakfast Home Program is not for you.

4) Income fluctuations
There will be times that you have guests and sometimes you have no guests. There will be peak and lean seasons. Sometimes your rooms are fully booked and then there will be times that you have no guests at all. This means, your income per month will vary.

The next thing that I’m going to share is how I organized my schedule, my timetable, and my life when I was doing my thesis.

I know already that my 1st sem will be a very busy. I enrolled TW1 and one subject as advised by the Faculty Secretary. By the way, that one subject was handled by my adviser.

Here’s my normative schedule:

Saturday:
Go to school to do research and attend a class
Stay in the library and have a little corner with all my stuffs. I have 3 bags – laptop bag, resources bag (photocopies and some books), and of course my bag with my usual stuff (water, wallet, umbrella, snacks, etc, etc, etc.) One of my classmates always checks the number of bags that I carry. She will check if my stuff are still complete which I really appreciate J

Sunday:
I really told my mother that I will not be contributing much in doing household chores and she totally understands. I sometimes go to the office and stayed in the garden to write. The place is quiet, conducive to writing, contemplating and tinkering.

Weekdays:
Of course I have work.

I snatch some office hours in downloading some files. That’s why I usually have two monitors in front of me – I have my desktop doing office works and my laptop downloading some files, researching, browsing and emailing. I cannot think and write of course while in the office that’s why I multitask.

Then when I’m home, I write, read, write, read…endless reading and writing from all the information I got.

I sometimes go to my adviser and our TW1 professor for consultation after work.

I also have to rush to some places to get materials or information.

So, for those who are planning to write their thesis, visualize yourself being busy and always rushing to go somewhere, to meet someone or to catch your mentors.

Actually, after you’re done with your degree, you will ask yourself, “What am I going to do every Saturday and Sunday?” Funny but it happened to me and to my classmates. During our graduation day, that was March 29, 2008, Saturday, me and my classmates were eating some finger foods served by the Graduate School for the graduating students while waiting for the start of the commencement ceremony.

Classmate: Ano na gagawin ko tuwing Saturday? (What am I going to do every Saturday?)
Me: Oo nga noh! Ano na nga ba? Di na ko busy!! (Yeah, you’re right! What are we going to do? I’m not busy anymore!!)

Topic for a thesis...what topic?

As I recall my thesis, I realized that I was able to finish my thesis!! It was indeed an achievement for me! whew!

Will share some tips on how to choose a topic for your thesis. This is based on my experience in the Graduate School of the University of Santo Tomas. I was enrolled for Thesis 1 during the 1st semester of SY 2007-2008 then continued the Thesis 2 and 3 in the second semester.

1) Before enrolling to TW1 or Thesis 1, think possible topics that you are willing to deal with for 1 year or more. I mean, you will be researching on that topic for months, so better yet, choose a topic that really interests you.

2) Talk to your mentors. As for me, I discussed my "possible" topic to one of my professors in the Graduate School. Asked for his inputs, ideas, advices and opinions. Or just speak with someone whom you trust and ask for their opinions if the topic of your choice is feasible and interesting.

3) In UST, the Research Director will ask you to submit 10-20 journals (if I remember it correctly) related to your topic and that will be the basis if the topic of your choice will be approved.

4) While waiting for the approval, spend time in the Central Library and research for resources - books, articles, cases, etc. Search the EBSCO database.

During the Thesis 1 class, our professor told us to choose a topic that will not just collect dust on the shelves of the Central Library! Actually that is true! That made me think that I chose the right topic.

I chose the Homestay Bed and Breakfast as my topic because before I enrol for TW1 and while in search of a topic, I was able to meet the President of a NGO and one of their projects is Homestay Bed and Breakfast. It caught my attention and interest because the first thing that popped up in my mind is that, cheaper rates of room accommodation? Hmmm..that's great. Will explain further on this next time because there are so many definitions of homestay, bed and breakfast, and homestay bed and breakfast.

Homestay Bed and Breakfast

Will start sharing my thesis and for sure it will be a series of posts.


As a backgrounder, I finished my MBA last year, March 2008 from the Royal, Pontifical, Catholic University...University of Santo Tomas. It ook me 4 years by the way to finish because I'm working as well.


My topic was somewhat unusual...or let's say, resources are not easy to find. I had a hard time to find resources on such topic here in the Philippines.


To start with, will be sharing the article I wrote 2 years ago. This was published in Philippine Daily Inquirer.


Enjoy :)