Not. A man fixes an aircon compressor located outside a Marine Parade HDB flat. The technician puts his full weight on the compressor mount, some seven stories above the ground. One hopes that the rope hanging nearby is part of a safety harness, which may be the only thing that keeps him from a fatal fall.
Aircon maintenance may be a neccessary business, but it can certainly be a dangerous one. Let’s hope the company has fully reviewed its safety procedures.
I am not a happy camper.
The kopitiam (coffeeshop) near my place, which I frequent very often, is undergoing renovation. They put up a sign declaring that business would resume on the 10th of July. It’s already the 16th, but the kopitiam still has not reopened for business. I found out from the contractors that they needed additional time for National Environment Agency (NEA) officers to inspect the place.
The trouble is, for the kopitiam, your customers don’t care what kind of problems you are facing. All they know is that you have broken your customer promise – and failed to deliver.
In another incident I placed a business order of goods that a supplier promised would take 5 weeks, from concept and design to actual shipment, to deliver. It has been more than 2 months, and I was just told I can only receive the goods in another two weeks.
The issue here is trust. In your anxiety to nail a deal or sale, you may have over-promised customers. If you do, make sure you deliver. And you can’t give a “we’re cheap what, what do you expect?” kind of excuse – unless you want your reputation to be known as cheap-but-unreliable.
Local entrepreneur and CEO of Exoro Pte Ltd, Mr. Alvin Sim, has come up with a unique board game that actually encourages entrepreneurship. Just as Rich Dad, Poor Dad Robert Kiyosaki’s Cashflow 101 game teaches the important concept of cash flow, ExoroGame simulates realistic business elements and real-life company scenarios in a strongly interactive yet educational format.
Exoro recently organised Singapore’s first National Youth Entrepreneurship Conference, which challenged some 200 students and entrepreneurs to get a head start in starting and maintaining their own busineses.
Let’s produce more entrepreneurs!
You can find out more on Exoro and ExoroGame here.
It’s official. According to this AsiaOne story, the annual Merrill Lynch and Capgemini World Wealth Report has reported that the number of Singapore millionaires has grown by an impressive 21.2 per cent last year, or some 11,660 new millionaires. Singapore saw the fastest growth in high net-worth individuals across the world, and even beat India which saw a 20.5% growth. This brings the total millionaires in our dear island state to some 66,660 – this constitutes around 1.5% of our population, so three out of every 200 people here are millionaries.
Many of them have attained their newly-minted status due to the burgeoning stock market in Singapore, as well as the incredibly heated property market which has seen many people become instant millionaries from the en bloc craze. Some of them are senior management executives with large remuneration packages.
If most of these new millionaires are stock market and property investors or senior C-level executives, my question is: Where are our new small business success stories?
If they’ve somehow disappeared, I think we have some cause for concern.
I recently applied for a senior marketing position in a small consumer electronics company. After attending a series of three interviews, I hadn’t heard back from them since.
Today they finally called – five months after the first interview. After telling me that their general manager was suitably impressed with me, they told me the bad news. Instead of the original permanent position I had applied for, they offered it in a freelance capacity instead. They had just restructured and was thinking of using part-time help to market their line of consumer electronics.
Honestly, I don’t know what shocked me more – that their HR took so long to get back, or the fact that a company can ever conceive of outsourcing one of their most critical functions.
I politely turned their offer down.
In my opinion there are two types of innovation: upgrades and sidegrades. An upgrade is an innovation which sees a discernible improvement over the previous product or service. A sidegrade, on the other hand, sees an improvement in one area but has sacrificed functionality or quality in some other area.
While both are considered innovations, the difference may have a significant impact on how marketers market a product and how a market will perceive it. I suspect some marketers either do not know, or choose to ignore, the difference.
For example, a company recently released a “new, improved formula” for its fortified drink. My question is: the formula may be new, but is it really improved? By tweaking various ingredients doesn’t necessarily mean that it has improved – in fact consumers have complained that it no longer tastes the way it used to.
Consider these (I’m going on a limb here with these examples):
Feel free to correct me on any of the above.
So the next time you innovate on your product and service, consider if it is a true upgrade or only a sidegrade.
PS: Is Windows Vista an upgrade or sidegrade? I’ll let you decide.
I just turned down an opportunity to join a start-up company. I know, it sounds like it goes against what I stand for (especially at a time where I’m looking out for opportunities). But hear me out.
I was approached by a couple of acquaintances who have plans to start a lifestyle consultancy, who believed that my PR and marketing experience (not that I’m overflowing with it) would stand the company in good stead. The business sounds promising – the concept is good, and the owners have the requisite experience to carry the company’s growth for at least the next two years.
So why did I turn them down?
One reason I – painfully – pointed out to them that they really don’t need me at this stage when the company is in its infancy. Some starting entrepreneurs make the mistake of trying to get too many parties on board at the start. Many heads may be better than one, but too many cooks also spoil the broth. In addition, the business can comfortably support two at the start, but three may have been a stretch.
Another reason was that, for personal reasons, I need job security and steady finances at this point of time.
Thankfully, they fully understood.
I’ll be taking up an advisory role instead.
I recently gave some pointers on what small businesses should consider when looking for a public relations agency.
Earlier this week, Guy Kawasaki posted on his blog an interview he had with Margie Zable Fisher of prsite.com on “The Top Ten Reasons Why PR Doesn’t Work“. Responses to the post was fast and furious, and some pointed out that most of Margie’s arguments shifted blame from the agency to the client. One of them, Glenn Kelman, CEO of Redfin, responded with why small businesses should do their own PR.
I know I may be stoned by some fellow PR practitioners for saying this, but I agree with many of Glenn’s 11 pointers. Here’s two of the most important points he got right:
Passion + Expertise = Credibility
You know your business best. Hence, what you say carries weight. There’s simply no way that an agency is able to learn and understand your business inside out.
Journalists are wary of the lack of credibility behind many of the “well-oiled” press releases and statements that appear today. Who would blame them? Many are written by PR hacks, approved by an internal communications manager and never even crossed the desk of the person who made the statement or quote.
So meet directly with the journos and talk with them. They’ll find your approach refreshing.
You don’t have to seem all grown up and boring.
Like Glenn points out, it is important to be yourself. Many agencies follow a standard format of what has worked for their other clients – but that may not suit you or your business. Remember, the media (the good ones, at least) doesn’t follow what is established. They follow what’s new and different, and what’s interesting to their readers.
But one of the main reasons I think why you should do your own PR, which Glenn failed to point out, is this:
You owe it to yourself and your business.
PR is a learning process for any business. It’s crucial for the business owner to understand, and own, the process. By all means get some advice, if you need to know how to start. But remember: if the agency screws up, at most they lose a client.
You have far more to lose.
My fiancee was telling me of her Internet banking woes with a large local bank recently. She was experiencing extremely slow speeds on the bank’s website – it sometimes even hung on her – and she got frustrated enough to drop them a scathing email.
She highlighted to them (in no uncertain detail, if I know her well) – her flawless experiences with the websites of other banks and the problems she faced on their site. She got the following reply:
****
Dear XXXXX,
Thank you for your email.
We wish to inform you that our recommended system setup for accessing XXX Bank Personal Internet Banking is as follows:
PC configuration:
Pentium personal computer preferably with a Pentium-II processor or better
32MB RAM or higher
Windows 9X or Windows NT 4.0 or Windows 2000 or Windows XP
33.6Kbps modem or higher
Internet connection
Web Browser * – Internet Explorer V5.X or 6.X, Netscape 7.02.
Macintosh configuration:
Macintosh PowerPC with a G3 processor or better
32MB RAM or higher Mac OS 9.x, Mac OS X (10.2)
33.6Kbps modem or higher
Internet connection
Web Browser *
– OS 9.x – Use Netscape 4.7x
– OSX (10.2 or higher) – Use Netscape 7.02
* Please note that all Beta versions are not supported
We wish to clarify if your computer setup follows the recommended settings?
We look forward to your reply so as to assist you better.
Should you have any questions, please contact our 24-hour Call Centre on 1800 XX XX XXX or +65 6XX XX XXX (if you are calling from overseas). We will be happy to assist you.
Yours sincerely
XXXXX XXX (Ms)
Senior Officer
Call Centre
XXXX XXXXX Bank Limited
Singapore Company Reg No. XXXXXXXXXX
***
Nice, but obviously written by people not inclined towards customer service.
They may as well have written:
***
Dear XXX,
It is not our fault your computer sucks or if you’re a computer idiot.
If you can’t fix your own technical issues, that’s your problem. If you need help, call us – we won’t call you.
We really prefer not to help you, but of course as customer service people we are not allowed to say that. Oh, and I’m not giving you my direct line because I’d rather not talk to you, really.
***
By the way, my fiancee uses an Apple G4 iBook. And it worked with the websites of all other local banks.
During the course of my work, I’ve been regularly approached by small business owners and starting entrepreneurs who are interested in public relations to help grow their business. Whether it is to grow brand awareness or drive public interest in their goods and services, some of them see public relations as a way to propel their business to a new level.
Unsurprisingly, the first thing they always ask me is, “How much?”. I always explain that, like legal advice, PR is really a form of consultancy service that is catered for a business’ specific needs – i.e. case-by-case basis. There is no hard-and-fast rule in charges, and PR agencies charge differently from client and client.
I’ve put together some five points for entrepreneurs considering PR to think about:
Do you even need PR? Don’t jump on the PR bandwagon simply because it sounds hip or that everyone is doing it. There are some businesses which are not at a stage which needs PR yet.
The best example of this is when there is really no capacity for growth in your one-man operation, for example. It is a waste when a successful PR campaign generates interest in your business, but you have no means to leverage upon.
Know what you want out of public relations. It is crucial to know what you want before you even meet up with any agency. Is it purely to drive consumer interest – and by extension, sales – in your latest products? Or is it for branding, or to attract new investors to your business? It could be that you’re faced with possible negative legislation or community backlash? Each scenario is different, and therefore require different approaches.
Don’t expect the PR agency to spell it out for you – because they are likely to give you more than you need, and charge you accordingly too.
Look at the broader picture. PR should not be seen as separate from other business functions. Many people I know make the mistake of isolating PR away from their marketing efforts or even front-line operations – i.e. “what has PR gotta do with customer service?”
Like legal advisors, PR experts are there to support your entire business. Be prepared to share every aspect of your business with them. You want, for example, for your marketing campaigns and PR efforts to say the same thing.
Don’t confuse PR as a cheaper alternative to advertising. Many people, even professionals, confuse PR as a cheaper way to reach their markets as opposed to advertising, which they see as expensive and sometimes, ineffective. This is a fallacy – PR and advertising are merely different marketing tools to reach various audiences. The best marketing campaigns leverage on both tools to communicate different messages to their different publics for different effects.
Advertising – and by extension interruption marketing – is still one of the best ways to reach the masses, especially those who’ve never heard of you or your product.
Shop around. Don’t go for the first agency you meet, and don’t go for the cheapest quote either. Different agencies have their strengths, and you want one with great contacts with the media that cover your industry.
Also, like all consultancies, it’s the people – your account servicing team – who are going to work directly with you that matters. Some agencies send their big guns to win your business, but later relegate the actual work to peons. Make sure that the account servicing team has the appropriate experience, and that you have synergy with them. So choose wisely.
I was house-hunting recently – a norm for those getting married ^^ – and was alerted by a property agent to a place in the eastern part of Singapore. No thanks to the incredibly overheated property market, there were already scores of interested buyers present when we went to view the apartment (a 4-room HDB flat).
When the other potential buyers left, I chatted up with the owner selling the flat. He shared that he was migrating to Malaysia as he had business interests there. After some digging, his heartwrenching story came out – his businesses had failed one by one and he was an undischarged bankrupt. He needed to sell off his apartment to repay his debts. Essentially, he’s moving to Malaysia to start over.
He has eight children, two of whom are about to enter university. He’s about to lose his house. He owes the banks money. What price, failure? For this man, it will be a long and hard climb back into redemption.
This conversation was a jolt of reality. While I am all for entrepreneurship, I am of the belief that the journey is not for everyone. Not everyone can afford to take the risks.
Not when there are ten mouths in the family to feed.
I bought the house, by the way.
I’m reading a great book called Entrepreneurial Faith: Launching Bold Initiatives to Expand God’s Kingdom
“Children are great models of entrepreneurship in action. Whether they are running lemonade stands, washing cars, walking dogs, or mowing lawns, children know what adults find so hard to understand: Entrepreneurs simply see a need and then find a fun, creative way to meet it (emphasis my own).”
“For some reason, kids absorb this concept without making the challenge more complicated or difficult than it is. Children don’t look to add more tedious labour to their lives. For some reason, as we grow older we think something needs to be difficult or a struggle in order for it to have merit. Kids easily do what they love and figure out how to avoid what they don’t like to do. Even when faced with chores when they would rather be outside playing, children find ways to make the work fun, often by coming up with new ways to complete a task.”
How cool.
Maybe entrepreneurs should take a step back from what they are doing, and look at the work that they do with the eyes of a child. Perhaps you can discover a new approach to the way you handle an old problem, like treating a potential crisis as an opportunity (think: chores vs play).
Ah, to be a child again! (Which reminds me, I can’t wait for Transformers the movie.)
OK I apologise for yet another customer service rant, but sometimes it gets me when businesses can’t get their basics right.
***
Dear high-class restaurant in The Pan Pacific Hotel Singapore,
I love your food. Your renditions of Aussie-Italian cuisine is rather breathtakingly exquisite, and always worth a repeat visit. Your wine selection is vast, and the service is attentive yet unobstrusive.
But really. If you’re trying to do your promotions through direct marketing methods like SMS-ing a customer (with our number gleaned from the business card we put in the fishbowl at the reception), please SPELL OUR NAME RIGHT.
My name is Daniel. D-A-N-I-E-L. Not Danial. There is no such name, and no, our Immigration Department and Birth Registry has long since cleaned up its act.
I’ve replied via SMS twice, and spoken to someone once, to get my name in the database corrected. So far, NOTHING HAS BEEN DONE.
So until you get my name right, please do not expect to see me for any of your wine-tasting events. I’m sure I’ll miss out of some great wines, but I do take pride in my own name.
Not the Best Regards,
D-A-N-I-E-L Goh
****
EDIT: I’ve just got an direct mailer SMS from them and they’ve finally changed my name to Daniel. I’m glad to get my identity back.
I had the opportunity to meet the CEO of Singapore Anti-Tuberculosis Association (SATA) recently. What I didn’t realize was that this simple conversation would change my life.
We chatted for a while before the conversation turned to how happiness is intricately linked to doing the things that really mattered to you. Not only did she want to help the poor in Singapore who need affordable medical services, it was also very obvious that she utterly enjoyed every minute of doing it.
She said one thing that stuck – “People who are happy in their work places make the best volunteers”. She looked me in the eye and said: “Pursue your dreams. Do the things you like. Then come back and be a volunteer – that way you can contribute best to society.” I was astounded.
Thank you, Ms. Dolly Goh, for these simple words of wisdom. If you’re reading this, I hope to repay you and SATA in some way or other soon.
So to all entrepreneurs out there, if you’re genuinely happy and desire to serve a greater cause, consider serving as a volunteer in SATA. Your time will be well-spent. No experience in doing acrobatics/dangerous stunts for fund-raising charity shows required.
(My affinity for SATA started when I was a young sickly child. My mom used to bring me there because during those times it was one of the very few places in Singapore one could get affordable medical care. Thanks SATA, I owe you my life.)
Kenny and Karen have a common, and almost obsessive, passion for books. The couple’s first date was spent at the National Library, later followed by a book-buying spree. Today the proud owners of Books Actually, the couple still spends much of their spare time buying books for themselves and for the store.
Brandon Lee has an unusual occupation.
This 26-year old is the proud owner of Closet Lingerie, an online commerce site which deals with, ahem, ladies’ intimates. Yes, this young man sells bras and panties for a living.
I usually approach locally-written books (especially business ones) with some skepticism. They are usually not very well thought-through and written, and most of them have layout and design that leave much to be desired.
I am very glad Entrepreneur’s Blueprint, which I happened to pick up over the weekend at the National Library, proved me quite wrong.
This is the companion list to “Ten Reasons Why Entrepreneurship is Like Marriage”, for some lazy and light-hearted weekend reading.
Ten Reasons Why Entrepreneurship Is Like Sex
1. Protection is important. Poor planning can lead to potential problems.
2. You come away from it utterly exhausted, and (some of the time, at least) satisfied.
3. You need a smoke after.
4. You need to experiment a lot before finding the best way to keep everyone happy.
5. Bad experiences can leave a sour taste in your mouth. In some cases, in more ways than one.
6. The Singapore government tells you the right way to do it. In fact, it fines you if you do it wrong.
7. There are heaps of guide books out there, but nothing beats theory as much as practice.
8. Both are driven by passion. Occasionally, it is driven by money.
9. Once you’ve done it, you’re no longer a virgin.
10. You want to do it again and again. And again.
Every Saturday afternoon, a flea market magically materializes around Planet Fitness’ Far East Square branch. Unlike the more glamorous weekend flea market at Clarke Quay or ad-hoc ones elsewhere, the one here features mainly merchants – many of them senior citizens – who trade in truly vintage wares.
When I was last there, I counted about one dozen stalls selling a wide array of retro goods such as vinyl records, stamps, jewellery, paintings and even old currency. I especially like an old gramophone I found.
As I browsed through their offerings, I couldn’t help but wonder how successful these – let’s call them vintage entrepreneurs – were at selling their wares. Although the things on offer were visually captivating, there scarcely were any passers-by and even fewer people who would be interested in buying such retro stuff.
Some of the questions that flashed through my mind:
Did they consider human traffic, or were they attracted by the free rental?
Do they have a regular supply of goods, or did they merely intend to sell what they had?
Were they concerned if their goods targeted a niche audience, or did they just want to hang out together?
Do they base their prices on the scarcity of their wares, or did they allow passers-by to haggle them down?
Were they concerned about profit, or were they happy with just a couple of transactions in one day?
Did their livelihoods depend on this, or was it to them just a cheap hobby?
Did they look at this as a business or did they just want to pass their time?
I’m not sure if I’d like the answers.
I like Seth Godin’s “The Realistic Entrepreneur’s Guide to Raising Venture Capital”, a rather frank and accurate wake-up call.
No. 4 is precious – “Being a little better than the market leader is worthless”.
1. Finding the right partner, with the same ideals and vision, is critical. Otherwise it can be disastrous.
2. You have to register with the government.
3. The government encourages it. Sometimes with grants too!
4. Your time is no longer your own. In fact, almost nothing is.
5. It sucks up all your money. And energy.
6. The risks are great, but the rewards are out of this world.
7. Failure is expensive. And not to mention painful.
8. If it works beyond 3 years, everybody wants to know how you did it.
9. If things go well, you can even have subsidiaries!
10. The subsidiaries demand as much time and money, if not more, than the holding company.
It’s true – but I didn’t say it. Pitch Johnson and Reid Dennis did, here in this amazing video clip about the history of venture capitalism, called “Innovation Is Nothing New: 100-Odd Years of Venture Capitalism”. The two pioneers of venture capitalism (with a combined experience of more than 100 years) had shared their views at a Computer History Museum talk on 27 Apr 2005.
Beware: this video is 1 hour 39 minutes long and can get dreary at times. What do you expect from two old fogeys? ^^
Thanks to Jeffrey Paine for sharing the link with us.
1. You are young (40% of you are aged below 40).
2. Educated (42% of you hold at least a bachelor’s degree).
3. You prize individual freedom and control over your own career.
4. You started your company with less than $50,000 and less than six months of planning.
5. Your company has turned profitable within three years.
Congratulations. According to an Action Community for Entrepreneurship (ACE) Start-up Enterprise survey, you are the new Singapore entrepreneur and you generate employment for up to eight of your fellow Singaporeans.
You can find out more about the survey here.
Marketing guru Seth Godin is a God to many in the marketing world. On the other hand, he’s also considered a Devil in many of its quarters as well, especially with his views on traditional advertising. In Unleashing the Ideavirus
Seth Godin eschews traditional, plain vanilla big-budget advertising for relevant and targeted direct marketing when it comes to marketing a product or service. That much is clear in his book – he believes it is far more effective to turn ideas into an epidemic by helping customers to do the marketing for the business instead.
Whoa, wait a minute. How does one get customers to market your product on your behalf? Read on.
Here are the ideavirus tactics (adapted from his book) which I believe can help the small business (italicized comments are mine):
1. Make (your idea) virus-worthy.
If it is not worth talking about, it won’t get talked about.
Cheap $10 massage at a sleazy massage parlour? Not worth talking about. $3,888 OSIM iMEDIC Pro massage chair in the comforts of your own home? Much more interesting, and a conversational piece during Chinese New Year.
2. Identify the hive (people most easily infected by your message).
You won’t get the full benefit of the ideavirus until you dominate your hive.
Why spend big bucks on advertising to promote your organic product to the masses? Maybe yoga practitioners, health nuts and elements of the hippie subculture can help you spread the word instead?
3. Expose the idea.
Expose it to the right people, and do whatever you need to get those people deep into the experience of the idea as quickly as possible. Pay them if necessary, especially at the begininng. Never charge for exposure if you can help it.
Make it painless for them to adopt your product. It’s new and uncertain, so they are rightfully scared. “Thanks for coming to my health spa. Here’s a free medical consultation and trial treatment, no questions asked.”
4. Figure out what you want the sneezers (customer-marketers) to say.
You’ve got to decide what you want the sneezers to say to the population. If you don’t decide, either they’ll decide for you and say something less optimal, or they won’t bother to spend the time.
Create your message. Ya Kun Kaya Toast has the tagline “The toast that binds”. It reminds you of friendship, kinship, partnership and the kind of bonding that is shared over a good cup of coffee. And it works.
5. Give the sneezers the tools they need to spread the virus.
After you’ve got a potential sneezer, make it easy for him to spread the idea. Give him a way to send your idea to someone else with one click. Let me join your affiliate program with one click. Reward the people I spread the virus to, so I don’t feel guilty for spreading it.
Make it easy for them to spread your message. It’s easy to send a YouTube video to someone. It’s only a link, and far easier to download than a 5MB video clip.
Go read the book.
To find out more, download a copy of Seth Godin’s “Unleashing the Ideavirus” e-book. It is a sample of what great ideas he has in his book and a perfect example of practising what he preaches. If you think I’m breaching copyright, Seth would be the first to tell you he’d want you to have it. And for free too.
Find out more about “Unleashing the Ideavirus” here.
Read more about Seth at his blog.
Private equity investor Jeffrey Paine recently sent me a list of criteria that serial New York entrepreneur Fabrice Grinda uses when he assesses companies. It’s a good guide to follow when you set up a new venture.
Serial entrepreneur Fabrice Grinda knows all about creating new businesses. His current and previous companies – OLX, Allmydata, Zingy and Aucland, to name a few – have been successful to varying degrees. Fabrice himself has even been featured in TIME magazine for the success of Zingy, a mobile ringtone company.
Fabrice Grinda’s Nine Criteria for Investing in Businesses
1. At least a $1 billion addressable market
This criteria is inherently personal and depends on the entrepreneur’s ambition, but there are good reasons to target larger markets – It’s easier to obtain funding. Many Internet businesses have a certain amount of fixed costs but limited variable costs, therefore the larger the business, the higher the net margin. I find it more interesting to build larger companies. This does not mean that the market must be a $1 billion market at the launch of the company, but that it must have the potential.
2. A valid business model understood from the get go
There is only a 5% chance that a company created today will still be around in 5 years. I have not seen official statistics, but many VCs seem to believe that only 0.1% of the company started without a valid business model succeed. It’s so risky to create a company to begin with, I would rather have all the odds in my favor. For clarification purposes, by having a valid business model I mean understanding how you are going to generate money and having a good sense of the gross and net margins at the creation of the company.
3. Does not require more than $2 million in seed or $15 million in first round (venture capital) VC money
If it requires much more, the business might be too capital intensive which could lead to too much dilution and suggest that this is an idea that is easier for a large incumbent to fund rather than a new startup.
4. A business where you have a real shot at being one of the top players – at least in the region you are targeting
Avoid entering businesses where many players are well-funded or where the incumbents have a sustainable advantage. That is not to say not to enter businesses where there are incumbents – just make you have a hard-to-replicate edge on them – after all Skype did extremely well because it entered the telephony market with a radically lower cost structure than the traditional telcos and used it to its advantage.
5. A scalable idea
This is again a very personal criteria. Walmart and Starbucks are great businesses, but I would rather not be in a business where I need to open a new store to increase my sales as it leads to slower growth and greater capital requirements. Internet businesses are magical as they give you the ability to build and grow global companies in record times – just look at what Google, eBay, Skype and many others accomplished in less than 10 years – in some cases in less than 5 years!
6. A business with little or no risk of disintermediation and/or margin compression by suppliers and/or customers
You are in a much safer position if you are much larger than your customers and/or suppliers. Walmart exerts tremendous pressure on its suppliers which are much smaller than it is and depend on its sales. eBay can also continuously increase prices on its sellers – none of which is in a meaningful position to fight back on its own.
7. A business that is in a rapidly growing market
A rising tide raises all boats. Growing markets generate more interest from the press, consumers, customers and suppliers. Moreover, if you are gaining share in a rapidly growing market, this can create exponential growth.
8. An idea that I know how to execute on or can learn how to execute on
9. An idea that I like and want to do
One of the keys to happiness and success in life is to do things you love and are passionate about!
You can read Fabrice Grinda’s blog here.
Social entrepreneur and chairman of the non-profit World Toilet Organisation, Mr. Jack Sim, is reportedly feeling so unappreciated by the lack of government support for his efforts that he is thinking of relocating to Australia.
Also the president of the Restroom Association of Singapore, the social activist recently shared with The Straits Times that his proposal to the Ministry of the Environment and Water Resources to host the first global forum on sanitation in Singapore was turned down. Mr. Sim is considering moving Down Under – oh, the irony! – with his family instead.
“Bureaucrats are not bad people, but they don’t think out of the box… They told me there is a risk in supporting new things,” he had said.
Rebuttal from the Ministry came swiftly in a forum reply to the same paper the next day, however, putting his situation in an even bleaker position. It is sad that in these days when entrepreneurship of any kind in Singapore is already lacklustre, the activist – recognised by the Schwab Foundation for Social Entrepreneurship – faces difficulty in pushing his project off the ground. All these while the Singapore Tourism Board spends precious resources trying to convince offshore non-profit organisations to hold their MICE activities here!
So what does this mean for social entrepreneurship in Singapore? It will be interesting to see how transport and logistics giant DHL‘s call for social entrepreneurs in its Young Entrepreneurs for Sustainability (YES) Awards will fare here in Singapore.
I highly doubt we’ll see many entries from Singapore. But maybe there’d be an additional one from Down Under.
If you’re looking for cool ideas to start a small business, you can always check out Springwise. The site deploys more than 8,000 spotters around the world who scan for smart new business ideas, bringing instant relief for troubled entrepreneurial minds looking for the next big thing.
The last we checked the site, we saw ideas ranging from mobile key storage and delivery service catering to those who constantly lose their keys, to wholesome halal baby food for encouraging Muslim mothers to switch from liquid to solid foods early for their babies.
Coolzors!
So you – the enterprising entrepreneur – think raising capital for your business is tough? Not necessarily, if you know how to go about it. We ask private equity investor Jeffrey Paine how.
Jeffrey Paine has been in private equity and business investment for 7 years, and has invested in companies in India, China and the United States. He gives us some tips on how and where entrepreneurs can seek funding.
Where are the main sources of funding for small start-up businesses?
Entrepreneurs should look for investment in this order –
First, an entrepreneur’s own money. Investors will not be confident in entrepreneurs who don’t pump money into their own businesses.
Next, try your friends and family. These are the people who will usually offer you loans with reasonable or no interest. Just be careful – most people think that raising money is the hardest thing. It is actually returning the money – especially when it comes to friends and family – because bridges can be burnt very easily.
Then you move on to business angels you don’t know very well. Try to get an introduction from someone who knows the angel. Do your research. You need to know who his best friends are, and those who do business with him and whom he trusts. Make friends with them. Always have the business angel like you as a person first, and then do your pitch only if they want to talk business. One thing to remember – when someone introduces someone else, their reputation is at stake.
Finally, you can approach institutional investors such as venture capitalists. However, in Asia there are very few institutional investors who focus on early stage deals – they are usually risk-averse.
How do I know if an investor would be interested in investing in my business?
Businesses belong to two categories – highly-scalable businesses, or normal sustainable businesses. Depending on investors, they may look at either kind of businesses.
It also depends on the profile of the investors, who look for different kinds of qualities in businesses.
Strategic investors are those for whom returns are not the main focus and invest for different reasons, such as business angels. Friends and family who invest in your business also fall into this category.
On the other hand, risk investors are those who look at market size, strength of management team, and how unique the product or service is. Most importantly, how highly probable they can exit and get their money back. A business’ market size will determine its scalability of the business and hence its returns.
All business plans should be structured for risk investors. It’s the hardest to do.
How do I approach investors?
First you always have to have a solid business plan. How do you know whether it is solid or not? You may not know, so you have to find someone with experience to read it. Choose the right people to get advice from, such as other businessmen. If your business plan is professionally done, no one can blame you if things go south. You are ultimately accountable to anybody who invests with you.
When approaching investors, never be too openly needy. Don’t ever say you’re raising money. Think about it – If you’re that good, you probably already have funding. There’s currently too much money and too few good deals in Asia, so you can afford to play hard-to-get.
Interestingly, public relations help.
What kinds of businesses receive the most funding?
Not surprisingly, consumer technology – mobile and Internet – receive the most money from venture capitalists. Depending on their background, business angels can invest in bars, restaurants etc. Silicon Valley venture firms like to contribute and invest back into technology companies.
