Weighing the Odds & Taking a Calculated Risk

I had an eventful day 2 days ago. As you may already know, I have been chasing a bad debt for some time already and we finally took action 2 days ago. Yeah!

When I first realised that the debtor has been pulling our noses along all these while, I decided to go all out to  claim back my rightful payment. But there were many routes to take and being really green at bad debt collection, we needed to consult our other working partners and weigh our options carefully.

We didn't want to rush into the situation, neither did we want to lose time as time wasn't on our side. Our debtor was closing down very soon. I knew deep in my heart that this time I want to go with my gut instincts. I will weigh all odds carefully, do my homework and let my gut decide. And my gut instincts told me that these are not nice people who are sincere in repayment and we should not play fair with them anymore.

The decision making process was one filled with a fury of emotions and arguments.In the midst of this mini crisis,  I came to realize that many would dish out advices out of good will to influence you to see things their way. Everyone thought they knew better. In times like this, being the owner of your own business, you must do this:

• Learn how to weigh the odds and take calculated risks
  
  • It is imperative that an entrepreneur is willing to do the above
  • If something is bound to happen for sure, anyone will know what to do next. In uncertain times, you just have to weigh the odds and go with the course of action that will most likely lead to your desired outcome.

• Have the courage to take responsibility and trust in your own judegment
  
  • When you have made up your mind after careful consideration, there's no need to fear your decision is not the best one. It is simply the best one at that moment if you have done your homework well and explored all options.

• Do your own homework
  
  • Do not rely on others in difficult times because you yourself will know your own business better than anyone else. You will know what is the best thing to do.
  • But do still keep your mind open before coming to a decision. The key thing is to be selective in seeking opinions and practise critical thinking. More often then not, most people will dish out textbook advices which sound right in theory but not of much value in a practical situations.

Now that our decision has been made and action has been taken, I'll keep you readers updated of  the outcome. I'll also share more about bad debt collection information that I have gathered in the process in my upcoming posts.

I feel happy and liberated. Previously, I was reactive and had to respond to what the debtor do or tell us. Now, I feel that we have gain control of the situation and it is a truly liberating feeling. Have a restful weekend everyone! =)

Defeat or Victory?

Recently, I have been plagued by the feeling of defeat. It feels like I have stumbled and stumbled and just as we're about to take off, we're stumbling again.

When things don't go your way in business and when others have deliberately set out to take advantage of you, do you feel like it's a game that you haven't master?

I must remind myself that defeat starts in the mind. It's my attitude and reaction to this situation and the best course of action to take that will determine the odds of winning.

And the game has not ended; I'll remember to bite back twice as hard this time and GET EVEN!

Robery Kiyosaki - Before You Quit Your Job

I wished I knew about this book before I started my own business. It made me rethink my whole business model and pointed accurately what we have felt was lacking in our current business.

Some key learnings from the book that I found useful:

• Difference between small business owner / self employed vs big business owner
  
  • I do agree that if you have to work in your business for it to continue operations, it is hard to grow it and basically, you're still working for someone; your customers. The key thing is to work on your business.
  • Plan your business model properly before you start a new business so that it can have the potential to grow to become a successful one.

• Get some real life experience before starting a new business
  
  • So that you will have a better understanding of all aspects of running a business.

• Hard work cover up poor design
  
  • A poorly concieved business will hold up as long as the entrepreneur works hard in it. The moment the entrepreneur stop working hard in it or stop out of sheer exhaustion, the business will fail.

• 3 kinds of money
  
  • We are all born with a gift an to discover it and give your gift in business is a choice to be great.
  • Where do you earn your money from?
    
    • Corporative: partnership and teamwork
    • Competitive: most peple work for this kind of money
    • Spiritual: money earned when a job is done in response to a higher calliing

• B I Triangle
  
  • what make up a sound business model:
  
  

• 
  
  
  
  

I strongly recommend you read this book if you have the intention to become an entrepreneur. There'll be more details about what I touched on above and I'm sure you'll find something useful in it too.

Are You Hungry To Get Rich?

Making money is of course one of the reasons why businesses exist. However, I don't think it is the main reason that makes a company successful.

We've heard many times that it is actually passion that drives a great business. And money is a measure of how well you play your game in business; it is a measure of success.

So, should an entrepreneur be hungry to get rich? I think it is an absolutely must! If not, you might as well call the business a hobby instead if it doesn't generate sufficient cash.

Recently, my partner and I have decided to come up with a new business idea to generate 1 more stream of income. We brainstormed about the new business model such that it'll be a more sustainable and profitable one. We also thought through the up and coming trends that'll make big bucks for us. After narrowing down our choices, we did more intensive research and fine tuned this new idea.

2 days ago, we met up to discuss about how to go about executing this new business idea when we found ourselves in a limbo. Somehow, something was not right and we could not proceed further in every angle that we turned.

That was when I suggested that we take a step back and put this new idea aside for a while. We had to think about what moves us instead and visualize what we'd enjoy doing if everything can fall into place nicely. We had to find our calling and mission.

I realised at this point that we have moved away from our passion and centered our new business ideas on making money instead. Maybe this is why it didn't work out as we expected it to. And when we refocus our thoughts on a totally new idea that the both of us were more passionate about, everything seems to flow more freely. This 2nd new idea seems to have a higher chance at succeeding.

So, be hungry! But do realise that there's a difference from being hungry to get rich and being hungry to get rich from your passion.

You need to combine your passion and the desire to get rich to succeed. 'Coz when you do reach there someday,  it'll mean that you have succeeded in playing your game well. That's our goal too. ;)

So You Want To Be An Entrepreneur?

Take this test first:

I Want To Be Entrepreneur!

Enjoy! =)

Go With Your Gut Instincts

I have mentioned in a post below that I did not go with my gut feeling when I should have. And reading about learning to trust your gut instincts got me thinking.

For the bad debt that we can't collect, I have a bad feeling about it. Although the customer reassured us that he will not disappear and that the management is already making plans to pay back all the debtors, I don't trust that he was telling the truth.

Maybe it was the way he rolled his eyes up to the side when thinking of what to say to us. It seem as though he is putting in a lot of effort to frame this thoughts.

Now, we can only think of ways to minimize our loss and I hope my gut is wrong.

Why Choose To Be An Entrepreneur?

From the time I first discussed about the possibilty of running my own business., it has taken me less than half a year to make up my mind and plan for my exit from my previous job.

So, what made me decide to leave a job I love to start out on my own?

I felt that I was no good at office politics and didn't know how to use it to my advantage. I couldn't foresee myself working for someone else in the long term. If office politics were pulling me behind instead of propelling me ahead, maybe it's time to start my own company and build my own culture.

The timing happened to be right.

So, here's a list of reasons that pushed me ahead:

Self-Starter

• Freedom, it's my call!
  
  • Being totally in charge of a business means I get to decide its culture,  directions, customers and even down to simple things like the working hours. I'm not a morning person and ever since starting my own business, I really do enjoy sleeping in late.
  • As a woman myself, I believe that at least 1 parent should be around during children's formative years. The flexibility to manage my own timing when I eventually have children is very attractive and important to me.

• Potential to significantly increase my income
  
  • You have to realistic if you want to start your own business. Do a projection to estimate when you'll start to earn sufficiently and don't even start if you're not comfortable with the timeline.
  • If I were to continue on my corporate path, I would be able to safely gauge my comfortable future earnings. But I know that if I can manage my business(es) well, I'll be able to earn many times more, in addition to doing things I truly love and with the freedom to do it my way.

• Excitement & Challenges
  
  • I thrive on challenges; constant learning and growth is paramount to my mental health.
  • We excel in whatever we're passionate about. I knew that if I were to start a business, it'll be build around my passion and be my baby. I was sure that I'll experience satisfaction in the process of learning all the aspects of running a business.

• Support
  
  • The support from my family members and boyfriend definitely gave me peace of mind. Both my paternal and maternal grandfathers (and my father) are businesses owner and this may have helped. My boyfriend have been ever so encouraging and is still helping me out whenever he can spare the time.
  • For those of you who are thinking of starting your business, do speak with your loved ones and share your plans. It'll save you the headache to manage any conflicts to on top of your business and financial challenges.

• Timing
  
  • I don't want to live with the thought of "What if?" for the rest of my life. Since I have not much of obligations currently and had gain some work experience, I felt that the timing was right to  pursue my dreams.
  • Finding the right partner is of great importance to the survival of any business. It was just the right timing when my good friend brought up this idea when we were both ready.

What about you? Do drop me a comment and let me know what prompted you to start your own business?

Stock Ownership Certificate Pretty Packaging, Especially Suitable For Kids

Ever since I started my own business, I have been more serious about my financial education too. Not that I wasn't previously but now being fully in charge of making sure I can bring money home without relying on someone else's company, I am even more serious about it!

So, while surfing around for ideas, this cute website caught my attention: OneShare.com

I think it's a really good marketing move! Packaging the stock ownership such that it actually looks attractive and friendly to children (and some adults). What a fun way to receive your first share of a company. And I think it'll be an effective way to introduce stocks and share to children.

I know many of you out there would probably think this is all fluff and silly. But I personally like the idea. The gift of a financial education and money (stock in this sense) makes a great gift.

A good salesman can build rapport by mirroring the speech and talking in the language of his client. So, to get children to warm up to the boring idea of stock investment, why not use this as a tool to get them interested?

It'll be cute to receive a piece of Walt Disney like that, don't you agree?

Donald Trump's Get Even!

I enjoy reading Donald Trump's books. I used to think the books merely provided ego boosting opportunities for him but he does give some solid advice inside and of course, being a billionaire, his thinking is very different from many. Nonetheless, I think that's lots to learn from him.

One of the advices he dispense is when someone intentionally harms you or damaged your reputation, you must GET EVEN!!,  go after them and fight back. It certainly doesn't sound like the typical advice but I do see his point and agree that sometimes we just have to fight back. In doing so, you'll let the other party know that you won't let unfairness and unreasonable behaviour off so easily. This will probably deter future disturbances from them.

Being a small start up, I definitely have had my fair share of bad experiences and big bullies.

One in particular stood up in my short entrepreneur career so far. My partner and myself had made the mistake to approach a big book store chain here in Singapore before we are ready. After a few weeks from the first meeting,  they started to chased us for our account opening payment. Even though the executive that we liaised with changed her words quite a bit, we still went ahead with the payment.

I did had a bad feeling about them and should have trusted my gut. That feeling was that the person wasn't a nice person and not someone very reliable. True enough, more fees were needed soon after. And when we failed to deliver our first product on time. We thought that we had better talk to them and let them know that we're truly sorry. We did indeed want to show our sincerity by working out other promotions or deals with them.

At that meeting, we saw their true colours and lack of character. Both the executive and the manger started to show us their high and mighty attitude. There were no smiles and all smirk on their faces. The manager kept insisting that their is a big company and that we had no moral / ethics in delaying the product (it was delayed by our irresponsible agent by the way). Initially, we did speak to them nicely and explain that it was due to an unforeseen circumstance and that we were truly sorry. We even offered to work out some other deals as our form of apology.

We also highlighted some of the additional fees and rules that we were not informed of beforehand even though we clarified the details before signing the contract with them. The executive merely insisted that we were informed already.

So, this torturous meeting dragged on for about another 15 mins of incessant insult by the manager. I felt it was totally uncalled for for him to insult our character even if they were angry. I can understand their anger and displeasure but I will not stand up to their insult.

Well, the meeting ended in the end when I could no longer put up with this bullying attitude from them. As I was sitting there and fuming like crazy, I broke his incessant insult by telling him off that if we already knew of and read about all the additional fees and rules, we wouldn't have signed the contract too. They were not stated in the contract in the first place and neither were we informed of the additional requirements. So, there was no need to keep insisting that we were informed beforehand and was now backing off without morals etc.

With that, the manager kept quiet for a while before saying "Too bad!" to us. I replied with "Yes, it's simply too bad for us." Seriously, that wasn't the kind of response I expected form someone his level. Being a manager and a middle age person, I would expect him to be more in control of his emotions and speech too. And being me, someone who is quick and hot tempered, I found myself pretty collected throughout the whole process.

We left the meeting shortly, with them insisting that we deliver our first batch of products as soon as they arrived. Of course, that never happen. We wrote an email telling them that we won't be able to work with them for now as we foresee more upcoming problems. It was a relationship I definitely wanted to end fast! I am surprised that they even thought that we would still want to work with them with that kind of attitude. We may be a small company but we are not that desperate.

Although we lost out in this deal, but it was my way of getting even. And it's definitely a well learnt lesson.  After talking to more people in the industry, we realised they already had a very bad reputation. It was a blessing in disguise that we did not place our products there and end up with more mess to clear.

My take away lesson? Stand up to bullies but do not lower yourself to their level by insulting others and losing control of  your emotions.

Pinky & The Brain

How many of you out there loved the cartoon, Pinky and the Brain? I use them as my profile picture because of my background in Science and my past as a lab rat.

I was sucked into the propaganda that life science was the next big thing and I've imagined myself to be a cool brainy researcher.

*Dwang* back to reality, I was merely one of the lab rats trapped in the cage like those 2 above. I had worked in a hospital laboratory and also a forensic science laboratory. CSI was hot then and many thought I had a cool job in a forensic lab.

Only 3 days into a new lab job, whch was also my last lab job, I called my good friend and cried as I saw my future. It was bleak and a big clockwork routine. I couln't accept that thought. To me, that was the end of my growth and the start of my brain decline.

If there are defining moments in everyone's life, that was definitely one of mine. I spent 2 months pouring through books, reflecting on my strengths, weakness, loves, dislikes and talking to a lot of people before realising what I wanted out of my life.

In the end, I decided on marketing as my next career move. Next came the 2 years relentless pursuit of getting good job interviews, upgrading my skill sets, numerous rejections (from potential employers and from my end too) before I finally got a marketing role as a marketing executive.

I took a pay cut, gave my heart to the job and am thankful for that opportunity.

And today, I love being where I am in life. And like the 2 rats, you know what I want to do each morning right? Yeah, to take over the world!

Pinky: Gee, Brain, what are we going to do tonight?

Brain: The same thing we do every night, Pinky - try to take over the world!

I hope to achieve a kind heart like Pinky's and the brain size of The Brain.

Bad Debt

Some may find it ominous to start my first post about a bad situation. But it is exactly this that prompted me to start a new blog about my entrepreneur journey. I hope to share and get to know more with like minded friends here.

It has been an eventful 11 months since I've left my job I love at a MNC to start my own business. Business is finally growing to the level where we feel more comfortable but the bad retail scene in 2009 has created a lot of bad debt situations for my company.

Today, we were informed by one of our retailers that they'll be closing their doors after Chinese New Year. We still have 6 months of outstanding payment from them and this is definitely worrying. With the constant bad news that we've been hearing, I'm kind of prepared that we will be in this situation and there's no point in worrying. What we can do now is to limit our risks and continue to ask for what is rightfully ours.

I'll keep my fingers crossed and just remain cool. It's time to relook at the business model since it's very flawed in my opinion.