An Entrepreneur’s Journey

As a business person, I am always looking for cheaper deals to lower my cost of business. This is a never ending process.

Recently, a friend recommended this website to me. I was simply amaze by the number of promotional products that they offer. Basically you can find almost any kind of products there.

The promotional items in there goes from watches, bags to food & beverages. You may also look for corporate gifts; for your clients there.

One thing to take note, this site sells their products in bulk. Because of that, you can find really good deal if you need products in large quantity.

With the bulk purchase, you can either start your own small business selling these items for a higher price or give it away. Hope that you can find this website useful for your business.

For the past 1 week, I was in reservist, serving my country. In fact it was not a something I want to do. I was basically left with no choice.

Anyway, back to camp, seeing the familiar faces is the only comfort. We stayed together for two years when we were serving our National Service. Seeing my ex-buddies were the only consolation.

Today I was back for a two days rest before going on for a major exercise – four days out in the field.

Going back to be a soldier is simply not adding value to anyone. Learning to kill others, or blow up others doesn’t fascinate me at all. If countries can live peacefully among each other, no countries will need any soldiers to defend their country. Looking at the bigger picture, we are all human race, and the whole earth is our place.

Is there a need to say, “this is our land, your shouldn’t come here.” This is what politician always do. Although there is effort to keep peace among them, but now I felt they are the ones who first created separation and war.

When I look at the new technologies invented for war or training for war, I am at awe with the kind of stuff they invented. However, this people love to use their resources into something that is not adding value and make everyone miserable.

When there’s war, the citizens suffer, the soldiers suffer, the family of the soldiers suffer. No one gains anything during war, no one.

Why are we using our resources in making someone else suffer? Why don’t we use our resources in some other places where it helps others? Very simple, just a three letters word – EGO.

The ego creates separation among us, creates tension between countries, creates selfishness in our leaders. If you are a citizen of this land, we will help you. If you are not, we won’t give you as much help. This is bullshit. In the first place, no one owns any land here. They just claim it as theirs. This land is owns by everyone, but some selfish people wants to possess the land that belongs to everyone. Then they make us pay them so that we can stay in “their land”.

WHy can’t we stay happily with one another? Aren’t we all the same?

Major learning experience today. It was the ice cream project re-launch after a 3 weeks break. We thought we are so good in spotting good location, but hell we were wrong.

This morning sales was pathetic. I couldn’t believe the sales volume in that location. After the first success of the sales 3 weeks ago, I am very confident on finding good location and bringing the amazing result again. Maybe, I am just over-confident. It brought me to the ground, to re-assess the points to take note in locating a hot spot.

We are changing strategy again tomorrow. Our current strategy is too taxing on us in terms of time and mental aspect. We are adjusting again, which is good. It shows that we are not giving up, and we are fine tuning to find the best method to make this business model works.

I am very blessed to have a super duper teammates, Clive and Dennis. They are simply marvelous beings. Being with them is simply a comfort, joyous and exciting experience.

Came across this paradox while I was reading a book. Some wants freedom so much that they are imprisoned.

What this means is due to the desire for freedom, some refuse to make a choice or decision. They would love to keep their option open hoping they won’t be tied down. They may be waiting for the next big thing.

Interestingly, while they are not making a choice, they already made a choice. A choice of not making a choice. Because of this mindset, they are trap. Their decision is being predicted. They are trap into their own prison. They will always make a decision of not taking a stand, thinking that their option is open.

Probably you have friends whom will always leave the decision open. Never able to take a stand. They never dare to commit, they are always hoping for a better option in the 11th hour. What do you think about this behaviour?

I am a person who don’t like to drive. To make matter worse, drive and be caught in a traffic jam. This morning, at peak hour, I had no choice but to drive, I am expected to caught in a jam. No matter which road I took, it was jam. I guess the whole country is in a traffic jam every morning. Fortunately, I am in a good mood, or else some languages will fly.

The introduction of ERP was to solve this traffic jam problem. After today, I am not too sure how effective this system is. Honestly speaking, traffic jam is still happening around the country, even with the increment of price in the ERP. It doesn’t seem to make a difference.

If it doesn’t make a difference, then why pay for it? Why the introduction of ERP?

Is ERP really a solution to traffic jam or is it for something? You probably can imagine what is the reason to have ERP….

Have you heard of the book The E-Myth Revisited by Michael Gerber? I have read the book few months back and learn more about system in a business.

What is a business system? In my humble opinion, it is transforming your business into auto-pilot so that it can run without you. This is the dream of all entrepreneurs, isn’t it? Having a business that run without you, putting money in your bank while you are on holiday, that’s financial freedom.

Interestingly, this is what we want to achieve, but why so few people achieve it. One of major factor is because most entrepreneurs fall in love with their business. Yes, we need passion in our business – but passion and love is different.

I met entrepreneurs falling in love with their business to the extent that they are unwilling to delegate certain tasks. They want to do it because they felt no one can do a better job than them. There is nothing wrong with that, however, if your business grows, you have to delegate. You should focus only on income generating activities, and not some administration work or decorating job.

Yes, you know about auto-pilot, but how to do that? How do I build a system?

Recently, I had a chance to really look into a great business opportunity that will be transformed into an auto-pilot business.

I had a major distinction on business system – Break down the business.

The whole business operation may seem complicated when you look at it as a whole. Most of the time, only highly motivated entrepreneurs are able to manage that multi-task requirements.

You may want to break down the whole operation into smaller, simpler individual tasks. These individual tasks should be so simple that anyone should be able to do those tasks.

Recent incident taught me to break down the business operation. Now the business can run with just students working in it. Amazing learning for me.

In a business system, everything must be standardised. It comes down to the pen that you use. Yup, your system got to be so detail that even a pen is taken into account. You have to do that if you want an auto-pilot business.

Then comes to the next reason why most entrepreneurs did not turn their business into auto-pilot. Because, building a system is not easy and it’s time consuming. They have to juggle between managing the business and gradually converting it into a system can be a tedious process.

Every little things in your business has to be documented. That is how you can start to convert it into a business that runs without you. You got to start somewhere.

Get The E-Myth Revisited: Why Most Small Businesses Don’t Work and What to Do About It

Got into the hiring mode. As the ice cream project is re-launching on the 15th Nov, plus managing 2 vans, man power is what we needed most now. Blessed are we, there are 8 students joining us in this project.

It was supposed to be 8 of them. Over the contextualising, briefing, training and preparation of their mindset, there are 3 drop outs; which is what we expected.

This is not a job for everyone, on our side, we got to do filtering as well. There is one particular girl whose ego is probably bigger than the ego of Clive, Dennis and myself add together. A 15 years old girl thinks she knows everything, while a 30 years old guy thinks that he did not know enough.

Blessed are we that the remaining students are committed to work both shifts where initially the agreement was to work only the morning shift.

Some of them are even willing to work after their contract period. To play safe, I didn’t agree to it yet. First, some may not feel comfortable after 3 days. Second, some may not be suitable and we have to chop them.

This process is also a good learning journey for all of us. We are still hiring. Preferably those with driving license. If you have friends who are suitable to sell ice cream, please let us know.

Insurance….something that we could not do without for our current world. With the high inflation rate, the cost of living is getting higher, the medical expenses is getting extremely high. Insurance will definitely come in handy when we need it.

Insurance is probably the only product that we buy, so that we can use it in the future, not near future but far away future. But we will definitely need it.

It is pretty straight forward on what insurance to buy. A car insurance insured your car, home insurance insured your house, life insurance insured your life.

Nation Finance offer all kinds of insurance. There are also related articles in there so that you can learn more about insurance.

It provide home insurance and cheap car insurance as well.

Insurance did help if you really need that help.

Can this be a factor for a failing business? Absolutely! Business is a team sport. And for any sport team to win a game, all members has to play their part selflessness. Not only that, all team members has to be fitted nicely together like a jigsaw puzzle; to create the synergy.

Let’s take an example in football. In the English Premier League (EPL), the top four teams (Manchester United, Arsenal, Chelsea and Liverpool) have the potential to win any teams in the world. However, when you select the best players from these four teams and put them together in a team, they are unable to perform.

Individually they are still the best, but come to a team, they couldn’t create that synergy. It was once said that Manchester United is better than the England team. The fact is England is now struggling to qualify the Euro 98.

What is the keys to create a winning team? I guess there’s no one formula to it.

Everyone must be very clear and align about the goal of the team. There must be a common understanding that no one will quit. Everyone will do whatever it takes to achieve it.

Everyone must be willing to tell the truth. Whenever there is any unhappiness about any issues or team members, it has to be cleared at that moment. The longer you drag, the more unhealthy it will be. The unhappiness will become a resentment to you and it’ll become poison to the team.

Don’t be afraid to ask more of each other. The team is as strong as it’s weakest link. Ask more of each other, so that members can improve, thus the team improve. Warning: don’t think that the strongest will always be the strongest. The strongest may be the weakest link if you are not careful.

Be very transparent with the team. Trying to hide things from the team is going to cause suspicious. If a member in your team know something, ensure the rest of the team knows about it. This keep everyone align and equip with the same information.

Communication, communication and communication. A team is made up of people, and people needs communication to keep them going. The interaction in the team helps to maintain the energy in the team. Interaction brings members closer, and breaks down any barriers with each other.

All the points mentioned are experiences from a winning team. It is the best team I had work with. We are definitely going to be the Champion.

Team building training in Malacca for Aviva, which is an Insurance company. However they had a merger with another company, now its called MSGI.

Helping David is always a fun and educational process. He is always cheerful and he is so good in connecting with the audience. He always makes the audience feels at ease and comfortable, which is why his clients like him so much.

Unlike many other corporate trainers who is too serious, David is having lots of fun in his training. At the same time, he is adding lots of value into training itself.

Some trainers mentioned that it’s hard to get attention from the participants, but this will never be a problem for David. Yup, he is that good.

In my current situation I am gaining distinction in doing those training. There are a lot more to learn, in terms of thought processing in front of the room.

I am very thankful to David whom allow me to train under him, giving me opportunities to learn. It’s hard to find a mentor who is willing to give selflessness. I am so blessed.