I was reading up on some forum discussion about seminars and workshops that teach you to make vast profits in the shortest time. There were many who complained when they did not get the vast income expected once you get out of the program.
There is no such thing as easy money.
The seminars and workshops are only the beginning of your learning curve. In my opinion, alot of people want to fly before they can even walk properly. The worst thing is, they expect other people to help them fly and when that person failed to help him fly, the blame is on him/her.
I sincerely believe that there are good workshops and seminars out there that are worth attending and opening up your perspective on a particular subject. The only person you can blame when things don’t work out, is you and you only. Only when you find a way to overcome this failure, you can reap the benefits.
And just last night, someone quit on an episode on “The Apprentice” citing reasons (excuses) that things were not what she had thought out to be. What the hell? She should have known what the show is all about? Hasn’t she watched any previous episodes? Great rewards come only with great risks and sacrifice. I seriously think that getting the sack was more honourable than throwing in the towel. She just made the rest look great.
She just went down without giving a good fight. I really hate seeing that. And I’m reminded again, as long as each step is firm and strong, you will not fall - unless you want to.
I don’t know what is it about buyers/merchandisers.
Why are they all out to squeeze you dry? (In my opinion, small businesses with limited capital should always avoid supplying /working together with retailers who operates on a large scale).
I know they have lots and lots of people to meet and seemingly endless work to do that makes them so hard to make an appointment with. Can someone please enlighten me from the perspective of someone how is working or has worked in this position before? (Ok since they are always so busy, maybe just those who had worked before?)
Anyway here’s what happened to a friend who had a really bad experience with a buyer from a company with a chain of outlets retailing health and beauty products (I know hers is not the only one).
They held back her payment because she did not pay for her listing fees, which she claims was not even mentioned to her. The worse thing is, there was no contract signed, just a verbal agreement between them. (I’m abit confused. Because there should always be a supplier account opening form)
My view - I believe her (on the listing fees not told). A lot of buyers just skim through the details too much. You would need to ask them what other costs are involved before they are reminded that they are obligated to tell you.
Another thing about them is, they take damn bloody long to pay the consignee’s share of sales. For all you customers out there, you may think this company looks great. It has over 30 stores islandwide and some in other countries but if you were to work with them, it can be a heart wrenching experience. The delay upon delay in payment is one part I can’t uderstand. Serious cash management issues here. They are expanding the the expense of the suppliers (especially the smaller ones). I doubt if they dare to hold back P&G’s payment!
Anyhow, a last note of advice, always ask questions and beware of buyers who always “look busy”.
Sidetracking from marketing issues - I was enlightened further when I finally decided to bring myself to visit one of those trading workshops just to see what it is all about (there has been a hearty growth in the number of traders who will show you how to get rich from trading). I’m glad I went. I had a new perspective after that session.
I graduated from a local university with a degree majoring in Finance and I totally abhor all the numbers crunching during my uni. days. I was totally disinterested. But after that session, I realized how important my knowledge from uni. days were going to be for my investing activities in the near future.
In my school days, the professors just throw theories after theories at you (they just “teach” what they know). They give you case studies for your group project and you continue to churn numbers without knowing what good it is supposed to do for you. And sometimes these case studies were outdated because by the time they’re published, it would have been 1-2 years later. They never ever went into the possibility of how we can grow our money with all that theories they taught us. We went just taught to work for people (the banks, investment companies).
No, I’m not blaming them for my lack of enthusiasm but I just wished that there could have been a prof. who could have been different and showed us how exciting it can be. Sadly there wasn’t any. Maybe they do not wish to take up any responsibility should we get ourselves burned in the market. We were just content to finish and present our case studies at the end of each semester. The ONLY module that was practical and useful was the PERSONAL FINANCE one. It was great and relates closely to real life situations and it made you think. A great education really should be the one that makes you think, HARD, about that subject and made you so curious that you would want to find out more.
My curiosity into the Finance world grew stronger each day and I kept thinking of how I can multiply my income through investing and trading. Also, I didn’t realize how stupid I was when it comes to making use of my time at night - I could trade and monitor the U.S market, the most liquid and dynamic stock market in the world. I’m not greedy, even if it’s just a US$100 profit for a night, it’ll do, as long as it becomes consistent over time.
It’s risky when you follow blindly. So, as advised, always do your homework and polish your techniques. It’s never too late to pick up that book or attend a seminar and explore the amazing possibilities that awaits you. I’m glad I did.
I’ve given up on our local free-to-air channels. As much as I really wish to give it my fullest support, it has disappointed me time and time again. It’s either always about food or simply just another advert-programme with a local slimming, hair loss treatment companies etc. In my opinion, the channel is becoming no different from those late nights commercial ads channel. The programme lacks content that provides insightful information and it’s variety shows are totally not entertaining at all. It’s stale content!
Comparatively, you can learn so much from the Taiwanese shows like “Where is the problem today?” (my all time favourite) and be extremely entertained by Small S in “Kang Xi Lai Le”. And for ladies interested in beauty, there’s no lack of entertaining and informative shows like “Nu Ren Wo Zui Da” and “Wo De Mei Ren Ji”.
“Where is the problem today” invites guests from all walks of life. Be it talking about their entrepreneurship journey, discussion on the market conditions or people choosing a completely different lifestyle approach in Taiwan, the show entertains, inspires and full of lessons you can learn from the guests that go onto the show.
Our largest (and only) TV broadcaster has been stagnant for (I believe) 15 + years since the last rebranding exercise. It’s walking on a plateau of stagnation and plain lack of innovation. When the day paid TV becomes much more affordable (Also note that with the Internet reaching blazing speed, online streaming of contents is a huge threat to them) , I can tell you, the big advertisers will ditch them immediately and they will be desperately seeking advertorial income which forms a substantial bulk of their turnover. Treading on thin ice, how apt. Just a step or two away from dropping in.
Part One: The Rise of the mermaid - This part consists on 4 chapters centering on the history of coffee and how it eventually lead up to the growth of the “Caffeinated Craze” worldwide. It covers everything from the formative years of the very first Starbucks opened by Gordon Bowker, Terry Heckler and Zev Siegl to the Howard Schultz years where he took Starbucks and grew it into the leviathan it is today.
The second part of the book dealt with the challenges facing the coffee industry, the threats to Starbucks and the continuing growth of the whole coffee industry.
The book explained Starbucks growth to a few factors:
1) It’s shrewd real estate strategy
2) The systemized process
3) Every Starbucks store is wholly owned
4) Obsession with maintaining brand’s image consistency
5) Cheap raw materials - Coffee and milk - Excerpt “After his near-religious experience in a Milan Espresso bar, Schultz took two cheap and simple ingredients, coffee and milk and used them to spark a national craze, develop a powerful brand…..and expand his caffeinated empire faster than any other chain in history”
The book also talked about obstacles the company faced expanding worldwide and the huge backlash it received when it planted a “tiny six seat store on the grounds of the Forbidden City…” It also looked into the rise of Anti-Starbucks sentiments and how the immense growth of its stores worldwide is threatening the unique cultural features of every city that it has presence in. There’s always a look into the issue of whether ”fair trade” is really fair to the coffee farmers.
The book is a delightful, easy and informative read. Enjoyed myself thoroughly. Haven’t sat down with a good book until this one came along. Worth the read definitely. 5 stars cheers!
This is a video I found on YouTube while checking out if Nokia’s going to release a touchscreen phone anytime soon (I’m very into gadgets). True enough, there’s plan to release a new touchscreen phone in late 2008. The video is from a Nokia presentation some time in August 2007.
After the presentation, during the Q&A, a question was asked regarding the very close similarities to the Apple iPhone. In response, Anssi Vanjoki, Nokia’s Executive VP & General Manager of Multimedia said, “If there is something good in the world then we copy with pride.” Talk about innovation. I think he slipped up on this one.
A better response, maybe: “We are merely responding to consumers’ demands for an intuitive interface. There may be similarities because it’s exactly what our consumers want.”
But then again, Apple probably conceived the idea from copying other people? Maybe everyone’s just copying each other!
Frankly Apple’s touch screen interface is nothing new. They just tweaked it and made it looked better. And they are eating up Nokia’s market share very surely.
Nokia has a problem with product innovation. It is slow in meeting market demands and coming out with phones to meet consumers’ needs. In my opinion, the N95 is a flop compared to a sleek device like LG’s Viewty. It is ahead today largely due to its domination in the early stages of the mobile phone market and at the rate that it is going, they may find themselves losing out to Samsung and LG, both extremely strong competitors with an excellent international presence.
And judging from the presentation (if compared to Steve Jobs keynote presentation, it’s so “corporatised” and just plain boring and unexciting), I’d would rather be sweeping the floor in an Apple store than working as an executive in Nokia’s HQ. Seriously.
I recently got invites to the launch of this new lingerie brand B.Ha (pronounced bay ha) by Daniel Hechter (thanks to a friend who’s in charge of the brand in Singapore) last Friday 15th March 2008.
“Born in Paris, France on 30th July 1938, Daniel Hechter is a French fashion designer and is known as the inventor of Pret-a-Porter or ready-to-wear. He completed his secondary education and worked as a storekeeper to a fashion house until 1955…..Hechter founded the Daniel Hechter Company in 1962 with friend Armand Orustein. His stated goal was to offer wearable yet high-quality, creative fashion for a wide range of consumer groups. Over time he expanded his company, developing it into an international label that encompasses seven different collections. Brigitte Bardot helped bring his designs to a wider audience when she wore one of his outfits in La Parisienne.” - From Wikipedia
Today the Daniel Hechter brand has been extended into a wide range of products (basically almost anything that you can wear, watches, shirts, shoes etc). The new B.Ha brand is a line of lingerie combining luxury, comfort and sexiness. The boutique is located at 03-14 Pacific Plaza and opened last month.
In fact the Daniel Hechter lingerie line was in existent for a long time already and is known as Hechter lingerie. The new name B.Ha was conceived (I’m guessing this one) because the Daniel Hechter brand has been largely linked to Men’s clothing for the longest time here in Singapore. So if they’re going to sell it under the “Hechter” name, it’s going to be a tough fight changing the perception of the ladies to buy a lingerie from a company who sells men’s clothings. Hence the creation of a new brand name and leveraging on the existing strong brand presence by using “by Daniel Hechter”.
I love going for product launch events because there is always this air of excitement from the anticipation of a whole new product/idea that the company is going to present.
A good launch event, if done correctly, in my opinion works a million time better than placing a whole load of ads in the local media. And for a fashion brand launch event the crowd, the venue and the models play the most crucial part.
The show started off with a speeches and Junita Simon was the emcee and then a live performance by Malaysian Idol Jaclyn Victor singing Leona Lewis’s Bleeding Love. (I didn’t know who she was until they introduced her AFTER she sang. Mistake learned-Always get someone that the locals are familiar with. But what the heck, she sings darn well. So all is forgiven.)
The show then started with the models doing the walk. All I can say is, “ang moh” models don’t always work. I’m pretty sure there are better Asian models who can walk better (has a toner body) and carry off the lingerie in a more poised manner. For someone who isn’t very interested in fashion show (except of course, Victoria Secret’s), half the models couldn’t walk properly and it just spoils the whole “feel” of the lingerie.
Overall, the show was pretty Ok and I enjoyed myself, helping myself to the free flow of Moet and all the best to B.Ha in the S.E.A region!
Recommending this software that you can use for invoicing and tracking your inventory.
The most value-for-money software I found and I’m currently using it.
Go to www.avanquest.com The software is called “MyInvoices & Estimates Deluxe 9 ”
And no, I don’t get any commission from this. Recommending it because I’ve tried it and it works for my biz where I have to track stock level of about 50-60 items.
Gosh. I’ve jut got that “uncreative” symptoms again.
Why? (My brain talks back to me
You’ve been doing reptitive things
You’re not going out to meet enough people
The office light needs to be brighter
Lastly, don’t blame it on the cool weather
Ok. Was talking to myself. Just a note for those doing their own biz. This phase is pretty normal and it comes and go periodically. It’s also your brain telling you that you are overwhelmed by the tasks you wish to do.
So take a step back:
Map out what you wish to do
And do them, one at a time. This is the only time when you should try not to be over ambitious in what you do
