BUENA MANO

Have you ever heard the word “BUENA MANO”? Maybe you have heard it.
Spanish term that means “good hand,” BUENA MANO is a magical belief that a good sale at the start of the day brings in more customers and more transactions.” Good” may mean a large transaction, which spells more money. It may also involve an early sale, which assures brisk business for the whole world day.
Let me share you a story that I have heard or maybe I have read I forgot where I got this, that shows the true meaning of BUENA MANO.
I was in second year high school when I earned my first peso. Enjoying my summer vacation-which meant away from books and demanding teachers-I did not think of anything to do except be with my friends and play basketball. One evening my parents persuaded me to take up summer job in the hospital where both of them worked.
The thought of earning my own money thrilled me.
I agreed to do the job.
By the end of the week, I received my pay-only a few pesos-but it gave me a sense of satisfaction. It was the first money earned from my own labor.
Then my mother suggested we go the city to buy a pair of slippers. We went after work.. I tried on a pair of blue slippers. I do not remember now what happened afterward-it could have been my excitement at my new treasure-but I readily fished out some money from my pocket and handed it to the sales clerk.
Reaching home, I unwrapped my slippers and put them on. But they were too small for me. I was angry with myself, but my parents assured me that they knew the storeowner and I could go there the next day and change them for a larger size.
I arrived at the store the next day while the sales people were just arranging their wares, putting some items outside for shoppers to see them.
“These slippers we bought last night are too small me,” told the sales head, a forty-something woman with bulgy eyes. “Can I have them changed?”
“Little boy,” she told me between loud chuckles,” come back later. We haven’t had our buena Mano yet.”
I could not understand term buena Mano, but the giggles and stares of the sales people made me aware of the futility of arguing; I would have to come back later. I have since learned the meaning of that term.
One columnist* in a daily paper wrote that there is a “need to counter buena mano as a magical belief.” However, many Filipino business people, he said, still limit the idea of buena mano to an exchange of money at the start of the day; one that they think will automatically bring in more money.
We may not be a salesperson or a tiangge owner, but we believe that if you offer fair deals with everyone you meet, you have a buena mano no matter what time of day.
It is time we . . . expanded this notion of buena mano to refer to business ethics. A ‘good hand’ is an honest hand . . . .The buena mano not in the buying itself, but in the goodwill and trust generated by the vendor’s own ethical practices, together with graciousness and a sense of service. All that comes together to keep the cash register ringing, in terms of returning customers and the friends they bring along.