Its been a year
Time flies, since the day of being awarded with RM150K from pre-seed, 1 year passes like a blink of an eye. Life of an entrepreneur has never been easy as i have expected, but i didn’t expect it to be that tough. Through out the year, we have been focusing on producing the proposed idea to Mdec, creating prototype and animated cartoons and hoping one day that someone will buy the idea. From the process of preproduction to post production, storyboarding, animating, sound recording, it is fun and exciting. Now, prototype and animation has completed, the funds given to us as almost dried up. We had gotten the interest of potential parties. 40+ kindergartens with 2000+ students have sign the letter of interest, even clients shown interested with our product. The only problem is to cover our cost and to generate revenue that our strategy might not be able to cope with it, and we try not to sell it investors that will consume our control over the company. So we have to put things on hold for the moment, and change our strategy to target at broadcasters in order to survive. However, broadcasters doesn’t work in the way we expected, and government has put most funds on hold. and I feel of throwing out with the pressure that the challenges I had to faced in an unknown future.
I got lots of things wanted to do. Get a girlfriend, buy a luxury car, invest in stocks, buy a house,and etc. but my cash flow is so tight for me that prevented me to do other things. Looking at your friends with high salaries, thinking of yourself just having RM1500/month, if i have not venture into the business, my salary will be around RM5-6k a month or more, and why do i put myself in this shit. A friend from a big corporate ask me about entrepreneurship which he feels like venturing it, lack of satisfaction in work where things he achieved successfully in the corporate doesn’t belongs to him. With a salary of 9-10k, living in a comfort zone, and his commitments has feared him from coming out.
He ask me if he had got funded and start a business on his own, what will be my advice. The problem starts when you got funded, things change, the market demand will change as you go along, you might not know the future what will happen. All can be done is to believe and work for it. My mum did ask me what did I do for the past 1 year, cause she can’t see any achievements from me yet, and I told her that I am not selling nasi lemak or chicken rice by the road side where profits can be seen immediately. There was once a mentor warn me to expect there will be no customers for 1 – 2 year during start-up. I guess that this is the process.
We compared a corporate worker, a family business and entrepreneurship in the chat. Corporate worker has steady income with lack of satisfaction, Entrepreneur a strong believer and a psycho with 0 cash, and how I wish my dad is rich and runs a business that I have not much to concern with only the challenges to expand it. Which will you choose? I grown up in an average family, my dad and my mum is working hard for their bosses, and i pity them for not enjoying their life, and i wish i could do something with it and this becomes one of my motivation to venture into business.
Sometimes i just wish that this post is in private to release my tension and depression. To cheer up myself a bit, at least in my life, I achieve 150k in a year, I achieve MSC Status for my company which my previous employer failed to do it. In the year 2009, I have learnt something which average corporate and schools did not teach. And I only can believe the future will be a brighter one. Happy New Year and Merry Christmas~!
The “FREE” Model – Cheap but Intelligent
“FREE”, from the author of “The Long Tail”, Chris Anderson. The word FREE, sounds cheap, sheepish and stingy. However, I found it to be intelligent, brilliant and fascinating in the sense of business and marketing strategy. Long before this book was published, the word “FREE” has come to me while i am doing research for a business proposal. It is everywhere whether you realized it or not.
For products that I am interested with, “Cheap people” like me are always never hesitate to take “FREE” and discounted products. And people with high egoistic and self-esteem person will never understand. However, these people did not realised that the Radios they are listening and the TV they are watching comes “FREE” as well. and with today’s informative world of internet, most content and services are provided “FREE” such as, email, news, blogs, dictionary, music, video, software whether is it from google, yahoo, youtube or etc.
FREE is never meant by entirely “FREE”. Is just that money is being subsidized and transferred from one product to another or from one person to another. For example, our local media broadcasters such as “TheSun” newspapers, RTM 1, 2 and TV3, NTV 7 and etc, are provided free to the public to read, watch and listen. So where does the revenues comes from? It is obvious that these broadcasters charges the advertisers at a very costly price. So in this sense, audiences are being subsidized by advertisers to watch free content. Same goes to Google search engine, YouTube and etc. Hence, whether is it a “buy one FREE one product”, or a “FREE trail” saloon, the intention is to gets consumers interested in the paid product. for example, Skype provide free phone calls to users, and you need to pay to call to cell phones.
Ideas can be generated within the “FREE” Model and it will be the future trend of businesses employs. For start-ups to employ such strategy will be a brilliant one. However, the tough part to employ such strategy is how you will be able to sustain the losing part to gain the interest of consumers with your paid products. Huge capital is needed.
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Life is interesting, its all about experimenting, trial and errors and self improvments. This blog is all about my personal experience. I am full with ideas, and i will achieve every one of them step by step.