Good Pointers For Entrepreneur: Part 1

Here is a collection of some good pointers I took from my read-ups in Entrepreneur.com.

"I had to think of things from the customers’ perspective. One expectation from a service like ours was for customers to have xxxx: from Jay Barnett, founder, Priority Pickup, a marketplace for private chauffeur rentals
> What I learn: Think why a customer needs my product.

 

Spalding encourages business owners to acknowledge that they will be deferring income for an indefinite period of time and to incorporate rent, food, health insurance and utilities into their business’s financial plans.: from Steve Spalding of Project MONA, A platform for multi-disciplinary thinkers.
> What I learn: Include current expenses and lost income in financial plan

When you're in the latter position (nothing is going the way he or she wants) and the outlook seems dire, it's tempting to become overwhelmed with worry about the future. One way to move forward is to focus deeply on what's happening right now and work your butt off to achieve a small success -- and thereby gain some momentum.: from Charu Chandra of Strongyogi.com. 
> What I learn: Take small but definite steps to move closer to tackling and finishing off a big problem

More to come.. Cheers!

Entrepreneurship

I have made some changes in life last year, and this year is going to be the year of entrepreneurship for me. One of the good references that I keep reading constantly is Entrepreneur.com.

Previously, it is just purely for fun reading. Now it's time to be serious and take those advices and tips in a different manner. Hence, I will jot down those important pointers in this blog. I see it as a pin-up board for my future reference, and also a guiding book for my blog readers.

Not only can you get advices, you will also see how other startups are starting, doing and flourishing in their industry. It is better to be a dumb now and open up our mind to learn, than later when things go awry and blaming game starts to kick in.

Pixajoy : Photobook To Recapture The Beautiful Memories

Do you have the habit of printing the pictures that you took? Ever wonder what will happen if the camera memory card got corrupted, or laptop got infected beyond repair or PC experienced power surge and goes kaput?

Many years back when the digital camera wasn't born yet, we took pictures using film loaded cameras. Nowadays, this thing is as good as gone. Even one of the most famous brand that produced photographic film, Kodak has ceased this film business in 2012. I remembered bringing 14 rolls of Kodak film on my first trip to Europe, and I developed almost 150pcs of photo, but now, even if I take 600~800 pictures, hardly one was developed.

If you are someone who thinks showing pictures in Facebook or Pinterest is cool, it is actually more cool if you have them in hardcopy. Moreover, if you made it into a photobook with stories to share around, your audience will see it with oohs and wahhs. I found a photobook maker by the name of Pixajoy that I'm quite interested in, and they are a Malaysian-based company.

There are some features that interest me, such as selection of design templates for a semi-DIY experience, and different choices of paper, cover and sizes that suits own budget and preference. We might have different types of request for different kinds of memory that we want to preserve, and this gives us a chance to control what is wanted and at what budget that we are comfortable with. For those who needs to work away from home and kids, you can even make a photo calender and have your family pictures in them so that you can flip and see them everyday.

I think the prices are quite reasonable if you consider the memories it will bring back when you have them on your hands. No matter if it's a kids growing up, wedding ceremony or family gathering pictures, having it done professionally makes you feeling more appreciative and proud.

You can check out the banner on the right for more details. I will give it a try after sorting out the thousands of stored pictures in my laptop. It is wise to make a hardcopy before they are gone, unintentionally..

Writing Is Good For You

It has been awhile since I made the last posting. I plan to spend some time writing again. Need to train up my mind to play with words often so that my brain is continuously nourished, and not rot slowly and surely.

I have always thought that writing is one of the most sustainable job, and a skill that everyone should learn and master. People often think of how much they need to save or keep a large amount of money for their retirement, but they never thought of how to keep their life sustainable, in terms of money, passion and interest after they have reached retirement age. With a good writing skill and interest, a person can still survive even if they are no longer physically fit.

There are many areas where writing skill can be used to keep the mind sharp. e.g blogging, contests, article writing, e-book, etc..

My Potential Next Course Of Action: Go For An MBA

Usually, this is the time of the year where I will review again my yearly aspiration. Since the economy is not at its best this year, more so from the 1st quarter onwards, it is good that I put aside my work stuff for awhile and pause to think again if I should go for different path in my life.

One possible route would be to go for an MBA course. This is necessary if I want to move up the corporate ladder quickly and more confidently. Going to the United States for my education would be a good choice since there are many established and respected institution of higher learning offering MBAs. However, getting into these institution is by no means easy, and it is necessary for me to prepare myself well with the right kind of training and consultation before I dive head on into this.

Getting the correct GMAT prep course is important because of the heavy investment of my own time and money into doing the MBA. There are just to many choices out there, but I think identifying the GMAT provider that is rated highly by international and local students are important as well. I was checking out the Veritas Prep that was introduced by my ex-colleague, and they happened to be one of the top GMAT provider, scoring high marks in the courses offered. Other than GMAT, they are also offering SAT test and providing consultation for would-be successful student in their pursue in the MBA, Law or Medical courses.

I have always thought that the GMAT tutors forms one of the most important element in making the education a success. They need to know what they are teaching, have the high passion in helping the students and they themselves are also high scorer in the GMAT test. This way, the students will be more confident that they are paying for a value for money course.

Hopefully, I can be one of those students who can proudly claim "I have improved and ready for MBA!" after undergoing the GMAT prep course.

Entrepreneurship Lesson : Don't Have To Be Something Big

Got a chance to have a quick read on mywifequitherjob.com, and picked up the following pointers from the author that I think everyone should learn about entrepreneurship. I'm sure he will be more than glad for more people to read and adopt them.

> Entrepreneurship isn’t really about what you do, it’s about how you do it and whether you are meeting your own personal goals and expectations.

> We all need to decide early on what our business goals are and stick with them.

> The last thing I want is to run a business that consumes all of my time with only a small chance of a big payout.

> We didn’t want to quit our jobs while our business was unestablished so we resigned ourselves to something we could create only during the weekends. We chose to open an online store because of the following benefits.

• You don’t have to meet with any clients during the day.
• You can work at your own pace, decide when to launch or add products at your leisure
• You can sell your products directly on the web with very little customer intervention. Of course this depends on what you are selling but we chose products that met this criteria.

> There’s nothing to be ashamed of as long as you are actively going after your goals.

> The important thing is to get up off of your ass and do something about it. Be proud of whatever you are doing and feel a sense of purpose.

Tying A Necktie

I found something very useful to everyone, especially the guys. Somewhere throughout their adult life, they need to learn this skill, that is the tying necktie skill. I got this while surfing through taobao.com. Ladies should also learn about this, but of course one or two styles will be enough to last a lifetime.

Looking at the list, my usual style is Simple Knot. I think I should learn up Windsor Knot or Cross Knot as they are tidier and doesn't look senget.

My apologies to those who can't read Chinese. Please blame those who opposes vernacular schools, and yourself if you are too lazy to pick up a second language.

Happy learning and trying!

3rd Wave Is Coming

I see a 3rd wave is coming into my life. I had the past 2 waves back in 2000 and 2002. By my definition, a wave is something that I really want, I feel that it is worth my sacrifice and I need to work towards achieving it no matter what. My motto in meeting and winning this wave is to stay positive and be persistent.

Give me another 1 month, and I shall turn out victorious. The feeling is very strong for me to act, and I see myself is in a very good position to seize this opportunity. Though I had an early knock last week, it was just a minor hiccup. Most important thing is to continuous think I can, and eventually I will succeed.

Entrepreneurship Lesson: Profit Target & Time Planning

There are a few good tips and reminders that I learned from mywifequitherjob.com on breaking down huge profit target that needs to be etched in my memory. What he said is not new, it's easy to follow, but it needs discipline and strong will to power them. I mean, often procrastination is the killer behaviour that causes my things don't move at all or as smooth as what my mind is requesting my body to do. Instead of always thinking that they need to make $100K per year, they worked out to break down the figures into monthly, daily and target no of transaction. Surprisingly, they ended up with a requirement to make only 6 transactions per day to achieve that.

> Choosing the profit target: My wife and I initially chose 100K to be our profit goal for the first year because we felt that it was a number we could actually hit and 100K per year was roughly the salary that my wife left behind when she quit her day job.

> The key is to have a gameplan on how to get there. By breaking down your earnings goal to a daily value, you can plan ahead and figure out how you are going to make your numbers.

In another article about time planning, here are the useful tips and reminders that they have shared.

> There’s plenty of free time lying around. You just have to learn how to extract every last minute.

> Most of us don’t have huge blocks of time to devote to any given project. You often only have small .5-1 hour chunks of free time available and these valuable time slots are wasted away with the belief that nothing can get accomplished in such a brief moment of time. 

>  I gradually learned to never make sacrifices at the expense of my health. With a business, I discovered that the list of tasks is endless and it’s impossible to just cram through it. You might be able to get through a week of little sleep, but things will eventually catch up to you and you may well burn yourself out.

>  By creating tasks that can be accomplished in small chunks, you can make better use of random time slots and consistently make progress.

Entrepreneurship Lesson: Separating Business From Pleasure

I read about this article on Mywifequitherjob.com, and found that it is interesting and true to an extent. He shared the reason why he thought that selling what you like to do may end up you hating what you previously liked to do.

He gave a very valid example about his wife who likes to do embroidery as a hobby, but eventually became a stressful kind of activity when they started to sell the embroidery products. This is because when it is put up on sales, and there is a customer demand, you will tend to do what the customer is requesting because they are paying for it. This will in turn create a conflict where you are thinking whether it work because of passion or because of sales.

Excerpts from his blog:

> Once we started offering personalization and custom embroidery, customers wanted designs that were all over the place. Some customers had really tacky taste and wanted my wife to create some truly heinous designs and some customers were extremely anal and picky.

> Most orders required several iterations of back and forth correspondence and all of this customer interaction took a toll on my wife’s psyche. What was once fun for her became a chore. She wasn’t creating designs for herself anymore. Instead, she was catering to customers for a couple of extra bucks. 

>  What was worse was that nobody could help her out in this department because she had all of the expertise. Her skill set was not easily transferable in a short period of time. And because her time was so valuable, the money wasn’t worth it and there was no way the business could grow in this way.

Yes, I believe now in what he said, and I see the point in not mixing what's like to do and what's do to make money. However, it seems more possible to like what you sell.

Survival Skills: No Tissue and Water In Toilet

I have heard about this survival skills many years back, and it has been retold a few times. Many of the people haven't heard of it. Therefore, I decided to post it in this blog after seeing it appeared in the internet with pictures that I can use.

This is an important skill to learn because Malaysian toilets often doesn't come with a tissue dispenser. This is either because majority of the Malaysians does not use tissue paper for "big business" due to their culture, or the tissues are given by the cleaner at the entrance, or the tissue is sold upon request (just like the low-cost kind of business model).

I would say, smokers are the safest bunch of guys because they always carry a box of cigarettes in their pocket. In case of emergency, they can easily take out a piece of paper from the cigarette box and use it according to the SOP.

In addition to this, if there is only 1 piece of tissue left, there is something you need to know also. The tissue paper quality is down nowadays. So, you need to fold it on the short side to use without failure. If you fold it on the long side, what will happen next is that your finger will get the "cream" of your business. This is because the fiber of the paper seems to orientate on the long side. Hence, any force from the finger will result it to rupture effortlessly.

I Found My First Inspiration

Last Friday was a day of mouth and brain activities for me. I had a chance to have a lengthen deep chat with a pal on the future. It seems like the wonderful future lies just in front, and if we don't act fast, this future will just be a history.

Both of us doesn't like what lies ahead of us. We thought that something is not right, and we know a strong  regret will come if we are still in a state of denial. What used to be fun for us will evaporate soon. Since there is no hope in the segment of things that we like to do, we might as well move to where our passion can flourish.

Hope what my internal eyes see is correct. We aim to built further up from what foundation we have now. We aim to utilize our left brain experience to enhance our right brain future.

We need to accept that we are given unrealistic goals, and it has effectively killed off any passion left. The longer we are still sitting here doing nothing, the risk becomes higher. Therefore, it's wiser to move before being moved. Dollar and cents are what making us move, and no denying, they can also make us scared to move.

Here are the smorgasbord that motivate me to follow up with my plan.

 

 

Learning Entrepreneurship From Internet: Part 1

I'm grateful to have some spare time lately, and I started to think again about the things I'm doing and want to do. It has been awhile that I have discussed this with a close pal, and what we want to do is to own a business. There is no concrete plans in place, but some sketches in our mind. I have always stressed that money is not the problem, it is the thing inside our mind and heart is the stumbling block to do this. The golden word is Discipline.

While browsing through the internet for inspiration and motivation, I saw this website with an interesting name: My wife quit her job; Building wealth and entrepreneurship when your spouse wants to quit. I think he has given us a good starting point to our journey on being the own boss. I would like to do this for my wife too, and this is definitely not a sacrifice but a small gratitude.

He has written many interesting and useful articles, and some of the advices can be used to unblock our minds to move towards our aim. I will try my best to read up all his articles, and capture some of them in this post as a constant reminder for me.

Pointers:

> When it comes to my definition of success, I consider there to be four key considerations:

1. Am I earning more than my outgoings?
2. Are my earnings on an upwards trend?
3. Am I happy with my future prospects?
4. Am I happy with my day-to-day living?

> Simply having a good product isn’t enough. How effectively you put that product in front of the right people will define the success of your business.
 

> Almost all of my friends who started very successful companies all had this uncanny knack for staying focused and not getting sidetracked by minute details.

> Most of time, you don’t really need to know very many things in true depth unless it is one of the core competencies of your business. 

> What and how much they spent so start their business:

• Webhost by bluehost.com for $7/mth
• Shopping cart software for free
• Digital camera for $200
• Shipping material for free
• 2nd hand computer for $100
• Inventory for $322.90

> Building wealth requires planning, budgeting and an awareness of how money can work for itself. The sooner you can amass even a small amount of money, the easier it is to accumulate wealth in the long run. It all starts with the proper frame of mind.

This is just the first part of the content that I have read. Hopefully I don't waste this opportunity to be out of the treadmill, and earn something for myself based on my own effort. I can no longer afford to stay on as a NATO (No Action, Think Only) member.

Just before checking out, a humble thanks to the author of mywifequitherjob.com for the well written advices.

Charter Is A Brilliant Father's Day Gift

This is a Sponsored Post written by me on behalf of Charter. All opinions are 100% mine.



Gadgets are getting more sophisticated each day especially in the telecommunication and display field. It is an incorrect assumption to think that the older generations are lost in chasing the technology game, and we should just leave it that way. Getting your dad another tie for Father's Day may be a safe idea, but getting him something that could give him digital access to everything he loves would be a brilliant idea. This could also help in bridging the digital gap.

Charter is giving special Father's Day deal, where you can get cash back up to $300 with the Digital Bundle Bonus promotion that features better TV, faster Internet and unlimited calling! Besides, it also comes with a gift card to The Home Depot or other retailers worth up to $300 when you sign up for one of Charter's best bundles.

The good news does not end there, as they are giving away an 8GB to 100 winners. Charter is giving away iPod Touches to show off it's new mobile app for iPod, iPhone and Blackberry. All you have to do is to order a Charter service and you're automatically entered for a chance to win. The best thing is that no purchase is necessary to enter the contest. Enter now to win an iPod Touch. Dad would love the iPod when he knows that it comes with a storage of 8GB flash drive, a large enough 3.5" multi-touch display screen and WiFi connectivity to give him the required digital access.

The world of Charter opens up to lots of possibilities and it comes with the mobility to access anything at their finger tips while on the move. Other services include checking TV and On Demand listings, viewing On Demand trailers, accessing news, sports and weather, and getting charter support and bill pay info. Get your Dad to hook up and join in the fun to get updates, fun extras, and facebook only deals on Charter’s Facebook page.

Do check out the apps introduction here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MwjlzSsK6sU&feature=player_embedded

Tackling Sleeplessness

Do you know that the happiest moment of the day is when you are lying on the bed and fall asleep? On the other hand, the unhappiest moment would be the time you are supposed to wake up to get to work!

Not being able to sleep when you wanted to is a very discouraging thing. Therefore, having a good sleep is important and it is the only target for you to achieve each night.

I have some own formulated theories to tackle sleeplessness. Hope you can have a try, and let me know the outcome. It is understandable that you cannot force your brain not to think, but you can tune it to think in a way that it is aligned to what your body wants.

1) Think about the future, not past. Thinking of the past only add to the misery because what you are thinking cannot change the thing that has happened. Instead, think of your future plans because the future will eventually come and you can make use of what you have been planning in your mind every night. It's like an investment.

2) Sleep in a specific position. Try to observe your sleeping position and find the position that you eventually sleep every night. It may be on the side or facing the ceiling. When you are twisting and turning on the bed, as long as you are not in that specific position, you can safely say that you are not asleep or ready to sleep yet. Sometimes, when you are trying hard, you can make yourself to lie in that position and you will be fast asleep before the last sheep jumps over the gate.

3) Think of creative things such as music, decoration and art: This is to balance up your brain. In the day time, you are facing with lots of problems, figures and numbers, and they choke up your left brain. So, at night time, it is advisable to tune back by thinking using your right brain.

Our 3-in-1 Dilemma

I saw from the newspaper yesterday that our favourite 3-in-1 beverages is one of the health hazards due to the high content of sugar. It is a potential time-bomb (diabetes) for us if our intake is consistently high and uncontrolled each day.  

A usual coffee sachet is 20g packed with coffee, sugar and creamer. For my favourite White coffee, the sachet contains double of that, which is 40g. Everything is doubled, especially the sugar and creamer. I totally agreed with the statement above because we cannot control the amount of sugar that is taken since it was pre-packed.

 
There are 2 ways to go about; drinking in a bigger cup or choosing the sugar-free option but both are not the best solutions. Option 1 will makes our cuppa not-so-perfect tasting anymore, while option 2 gives us another headache; sugar-free means more creamer, and it becomes cream coffee.

So, my favourite cup of white coffee now comes with a 3-in-1 dilemma;
1) more 3-in-1, potential health problem due to high sugar content
2) go for sugar-free option, potential health problem due to high creamer content
3) go for sugar-free option, price is more expensive though no sugar content

Are We Poor?

I saw an interesting article in Malaysian Insider today, with the title is "How poor are we?". Even before I read on, I knew what it was trying to tell; the reality of the poverty condition in our country.

I don't believe the newspaper reported poverty facts and statistics, more so after what is revealed in this article. Someone did a research and showed to us how the government's definition is incorrect.

Below were some of the arguments, taken from the article. You be the judge.

1) Our poverty base line was defined at RM800. But the actual figures depend on the geographical location of the poor. This means if someone from Peninsular earns RM810, he/she is not considered poor. This income is necessary to buy a group of foods that would meet the nutritional needs of the members of a household, and to meet other basic necessities such as clothing, rent, fuel and utilities, transport and communications, medical expenses, education and recreation.”

2) The World Bank standard recommends that medium-income countries should calculate the Poverty Line Index (PLI) based on US$2 (RM6.20) per individual per day. If that figure was used for Malaysia, a theoretical household of 4.4 people would then need RM858 a month to not be declared poor.

3) However, using Malaysia's defined PLI of RM763, it is translated into a daily income of RM25.45. This means that to the government, you are able to live on RM5.80 a day. RM5.80 is supposed to pay for three meals, transport costs, rent, recreation and the other components for ONE person in ONE day!

5) If we follow countries such as Britain and Australia, the PLIs will based on the median income of its households. In Malaysia the median income is RM2,830. Using this method, the poor people in the country should be earning below RM1,886. In effect, this translates into RM14.20 per day for an individual to meet all their eight needs.

Therefore, from what I understand from the statements above, there should be more poor people than we thought there are, and many of the people living in the city don't know they actually fall into the poverty zone.

Have You Done Your Part?

When I woke up this morning, I told myself that I need to do something good to the people today.

Hence, I am writing again to promote about the Blood Donation Campaign held today at Atria shopping center. To those who have the interest but do not have a GPS to guide you there, the map below will direct you from Lebuhraya Damansara Puchong (LDP), Sprint Highway and NKVE to Atria.

Note: You have another 3 hours more before the campaign ends. The blood donation station is located on the 2nd floor of Atria shopping center.

Date    : 22 July 2010 (TODAY)

Time   : 10am – 4pm

Venue : 2^nd Floor, Atria Shopping Centre (next to J Enterprise)

Blood Donation Campaign At Atria Damansara

I saw this campaign while shopping at Atria Damansara shopping center today. It is a blood donation campaign, jointly organized by K-One Technology, Gamuda and Atria to be held tomorrow (22/07).

The date, time and venue for donation are as follows: 

Date    : 22 July 2010

Time   : 10am – 4pm

Venue : 2^nd Floor, Atria Shopping Centre (next to JS Enterprise)

Just a note to potential blood donors: Please make sure you take a light meal before donating. I believe there will be light refreshments served after you have accomplished the noble deed.