The No Turning Back Point
It’s almost end of our funding period. Prototype has completed, and hence we were struggling to get Letter of Interest from various parties. Had been months meeting various audiences and potential clients and we were given good feedbacks from both sides. However, although feedbacks are good, now the only problem lies on our product price. The price mentioned by the clients didn’t manage to cover our product cost. And this is the most difficult challenges for us that we need to revamped our business model again. The cost of animations could be very high. 1 episode in 1 series can cost around RM40-60k. Given the feedbacks from clients and audiences, we knew that our product works. It just that how we can sell at a reasonable price and cover our cost and on top of that earn some money. So, we were now heading for MOSTI for a larger amount of fund for the upcoming months, however, MOSTI funds are ending this year. We are in progress developing a preview for pitching, and this only could be complete by end of October. and to get Letter of Interest within November, and hopefully submit my application on end of Nov. By then, I do not think that there will be any funding left over for us. I am frustrated now for not being able to help to built the preview but to do nothing until it is completed. Waiting, is mentally torturing me.
Although we were given good feedbacks from clients, but we knew the road in front is tough, we are left out with no more capital to spent, hanging in between. Looking at your friends and ex-colleague getting promoted with income raise, I have wonder why did I put myself in such situation, but I never regretted. I feel glad that I had a team that runs with me until now, and thankful for the support from my family from the beginning. Hence these only made me no choice but to continue to move forward even you knew the road is tough. I love pressure~!
Recommending HowStuffWorks.com (Must Read: for grant applicants)
Tech geek like me have not when for business schools, marketing nor finance classes. However, such information could be found over the Internet. There is this site called "HowStuffWorks" has started to become my favourite, introduced by my colleague, KC (it was his all time favourite), and I am now eagerly to introduced to all of you who are reading my blog. "HowStuffWorks" has almost everything on how something works, although it is not written in very detail, but it does benefits me in certain ways. for example, when someone proposed me an online Business, I will definitely look into this site for information, such as "How Creating an Online Business Works", crack into the online business giant such as ebay on "How eBay Works", learning the ebay way. Or, being the CEO of the company, I shall learnt the responsibility of CEO, then I read "How CEO Works". Hence, for business starters like you and me, we should read "Starting Business" in HowStuffWorks. The following list of links is essential for start ups and grant applicants to read:
- How Business Ideas Work – Grant applicant must read.
- How Business Plan Work – Grant applicant must read.
- How Start Up Capital Work
- How Does Venture Capital Work
- 10 Ways to Finance A New Business
- 10 Common Problems for New Businesses
- How Business Legal Structure Work
- How Marketing Plans Work
For those who are reading the my blog post on "Basic Tips and Guidelines for applying ICT Funding in Malaysia", the links above is a must read, specially the How Business Plan and Business Ideas Work.
Another lost talent from Malaysia – Pen Drive Founder Pua Khein-Seng
At the recent local newspaper, it has known that the founder of pendrive is a Malaysian. Yes, indeed, Malaysian is the one that invented the pendrive(a thumbdrive, usb flash memory, etc or whatever u named it), Mr Pua Khein-Seng, the pride and proud of an Malaysian Entrepreneur (click here for more info). I felt proud for the moment when I was reading the articles that how Pua made his way up when he started his company (PHISON ELECTRONIC CORP) in Taiwan while he was only 27. I googled around and search for his profile and I came out to a very ironic information (which i do not know how true it was), that Pua was a rejected student from the local university, and even though his proposal of his USB flash memory (pendrive) was also rejected by Malaysian authorities, and he was force to stay back in Taiwan to start his invention. a Malaysian Entrepreneur which was not in MALAYSIA.
Today, PenDrive or USB Flash memory, has revolutionize the era of floppy disk and storage in the world of computer. As an inventor, just only by receiving licensing revenues from different manufacturer would have made how many billions of dollars from around the world. However, the most ironic thing is this, it is claimed to be a “TAIWAN TECHNOLOGY” instead of “MALAYSIA TECHNOLOGY“. First of all, the technology is patented under a TAIWAN company, funded and invented in TAIWAN, hence, it is a TAIWAN TECHNOLOGY. This is just one “in your face” disgraced for MSC MALAYSIA, that has missed an opportunity to sparkle and polish Malaysian capabilities that all pendrive around the world is a MALAYSIA TECHNOLOGY. Apart from that, the millions and billions of dollars that has flown into the TAIWAN company which is worth RM4.1Billion, instead of a MALAYSIA company has really really sadden me off. Arggg…..I am so sad, so angry, the money, the pride, the proud~~ gosh, all gone to TAIWAN~! You can’t blame Pua. Now, whether is it for 1Malaysia, reporters has been running around to spot out entrepreneurs that has lost from malaysia, asking them, “Will you be coming back? do you still love your country? will you bring back your business?”, i think most will answered, yes, I love my country, i will be back. In terms of bringing back the business, hmmm, what will be the offer from the country? My business is well established out of malaysia, whats for the hassle to bringing it back?
I was wondering, if Pua managed to do this in Malaysia, will it be the same achievement as he has in Taiwan now? so? the pride, the proud or the shame?
Inspiring Video on Entrepreneurship
This video is really awesome. Although is an telecommunication advert, however it expresses and flourishes the value of entrepreneurship in one single video.
- You remember when you were a kid, and you thought you could do anything? You still can.
- Because a lot what we considered IMPOSSIBLE, is easy to overcome,
- Because incase you haven’t notice we live in a place where One individual can make a difference
- Want Proof? Just look at the people who built our country, our parents, grandparents, our aunts, uncles,
- They were immigrants, new comers, ready to make their MARK,
- May be they came with very little or perhaps they didn’t own anything, except for a SINGLE BRILLIANT IDEA
- These people were Thinkers, Doers, Innovators until they came up with the name, ENTREPRENEURS.
- They change the way we think about what is POSSIBLE
- They have a CLEAR VISION of how life can be BETTER
- For all of us , even when TIMES ARE TOUGH.
- Right now is hard to see when our view is cluttered with OBSTACLES,
- but TURBULENCE, creates OPPORTUNITIES for SUCCESS, ACHIEVEMENT, and pushes us to discover NEW WAYS OF DOING THINGS.
- So what opportunities will you go after and WHY?
- If you’re an Entrepreneur, You know that RISK ISN’T THE REWARD.
- NO. The REWARDS are DRIVING INNOVATION, CHANGING PEOPLE’S LIVES, CREATING JOBS, FUELING GROWTH, and MAKING A BETTER WORLD
- Entrepreneurs are everywhere, they run small businesses that support our Economy,
- design tools to help you connected with friends, family and colleagues around the world.
- and they’re FINDING NEW WAYS of helping to SOLVES OLDEST PROBLEM
- Do you know an Entrepreneur?
- ENTREPRENEURS CAN BE ANYONE, EVEN “YOU”
- so, Seize the opportunity to CREATE THE JOB YOU ALWAYS WANTED.
- Help Heal the economy, MAKE A DIFFERENCE, take your business to NEW HEIGHTS,
- But most importantly, Remember when you are a KID, when everything was within your reach,
- and then say to yourself quietly, but with DETERMINATION: IT STILL IS.
Yes, we have forgotten how innocent we were when we were young. Everything is possible, and we just do what we want to achieved. we are so determined. obstacles are never in our way. Is time to remind us we still CAN~ ENTREPRENEURS CAN BE ANYONE, EVEN “YOU”!
Bridging the fear of Cold Calling
To Technopreneurs and Technology geeks, Calling up a stranger and attempting to pursuit them over the phone to be interested with your product or to schedule a meeting is just not what you do. It doesn’t runs in your vein, doesn’t run in mine tooo~~~.
I have delegate most of the responsibility of sales call and meeting schedule with clients to my marketing partner, kc. However, I decide to take up the challenge to learn something which I don’t always do – A cold call to a potential clients. Yes, is my first Cold Call, which I think is a skill that needed to mastered in the path of becoming an entrepreneur.
So, I listed down a list of potential customers and their contacts in a piece of paper. I put the phone in front of me. then…. oppps , of all the sudden, I felt thirsty, so I go make myself a cup of tea. Ok, the tea is ready, I suppose if I talk too much I still get to clear my throats with the tea. Hmmm, I think not enough contacts in my list, so I when google for more contacts, in between, facebook for a while, and listed down extra 10 contacts to my list. Ok, now I should be ready~! I pickup the phone, suddenly, I felt shit right at my ass, and I head to the toilet and make it big~! Ok, I think almost everything should be ready, the list of contact, the tea, my throats are clear, there is no shit in my ass. Oh ya, I forgotten to write a script for my call. So, I spent some time to write the script. Ok, now everything is prepared. Set to go. What the Hell, I am still freaking nervous when the phone is on my hand. And, 2 hours gone~! I have been shouting at myself – Make the Call ~!!! you Fucking Idiot~!
What happen to me, why am I so nervous. I am able to faced the 10 panels from MDeC and now I am so chicken~! So, I told myself, If I don’t make the call now, I will be eating bread for life!!! Hence, I get myself calm within minutes, pick up the phone, and dial the first number on my list. A lady pick up the phone, hence, I read my script.. “Hi, I am Chee Hoong. Calling from Joove Enterprise Sdn Bhd”, then the lady answered~ “WHAT IS THIS REGARDING~!”, oh gosh, the sound on the other sides seems having a period, I felt very uninvited, my brain just got a shock, stunned for a second. And I repeated the script again “Hi, My name is Chee Hoong, calling from Joove Enterprise Sdn Bhd. We are doing bla bla bla. and blablabla. Are you able to spare me some time for a meet up?”. Wow, I read that script in one breath~! and I hope she gets my message. She replied. “SORRY, WE ARE NOT INTERESTED!” slammed the phone. There goes my first call. Oh, is sounds so hurt, is like being dump by your girlfriend. OK, get on with the second call with the better feeling, still tense up, half recovering from the previous rejection. Second call, heart brokening. Third call, Failed. Something is not right some where.
So, I call up my partner, get him to call some clients on my list, and I observe his conversation. The next day, I make my second attempt, imitating the way my partner did, these time without scripts, no tea, and with shit in the ass. I converse in a way like how you talk to a friend, gentle, nice and honest. Finally, One appointment made, YES~! That moment, I felt so over joy. I am happy that I am able to overcome the fear, and successfully getting an appointment via the phone. Then the second call, third call, forth call, is so exciting, and I got it all through and appointments are set. I believe, there are still much to learn from cold calling skills. A lot of practice needed on me. Hence, Geeks, all you need is to overcome the fear. Start calling now or you will be eating bread for life.
Small tips for cold calling. 1st, Prepare a Script but Never read from the Script. 2nd, Identify your objective. 3rd, focus on your objective. 4th, converse in a smooth way. 5th, Just enough information will do. 6th, Ask for appointment. 7th. PICK UP THE PHONE AND DIAL AND KEEP A SMILING FACE~!
Links to share:
- http://sbinfocanada.about.com/cs/marketing/a/coldcall.htm
- http://ezinearticles.com/?Top-10-Tips-For-Cold-Calling-Success&id=80590
- http://www.bytestart.co.uk/content/marketing/articles/cold-calling-guide.shtml
- http://www.microsoft.com/smallbusiness/resources/marketing/customer-service-acquisition/7-tips-for-turning-cold-calls-into-hot-leads.aspx#tipsforturningcoldcallsintohotleads
Entrepreneur vs Business Man
Have you ever think of being an entrepreneur? or your are just being a business man? How do you differentiate that? I do ask myself that? Hence I have a quick search through the Google and the following is the summarization of the little research I did.
Entrepreneur
- Initiates, Innovates and converts an Idea into a tangible product/trends
- Creating a product/business model/services/trend from nothing, zero, or something that does not exists.
- Higher Risk of failure. The entrepreneur will not know if their new idea or a new concept is acceptable by the market.
- earn little from the start, multiplies by millions.
- looking for a Long term goal and profits
- Utilises Business man to expand and distribute and grow their licensed product.
- Live at a greater cause.
- Entrepreneur possess the characteristic of business man and Innovators.
Business Man
- Follow trends and utilized a product that was created by the entrepreneurs to meet their short-term goals
- Do not create products/trend/services.
- Lower risk of failure as in the idea and product has been recognized by the market.
- Focusing on Short-term profit. Earns direct cash and money by selling the product of an entrepreneur.
So…What you are? Entrepreneur or Business Man ?
Reference Links:
- http://entrepreneur2007.pbwiki.com/Entrepreneur%20vs%20Businessman
- http://www.millionaireacts.com/473/businessman-vs-entrepreneur.html
- http://globalwealth.wordpress.com/2008/08/28/entrepreneur-vs-businessman-pros-and-cons/
MSC Malaysia Status – The 10 Point Bill of Guarantees
MSC Malaysia Status, famous for its beneficiary on 5 Years Tax exemption, and that is the reason most companies are drawn to apply for the status. However, how many does know what MSC Status are offering? The below “10 Point Bill of Guarantees” are what MSC offering that will really excites you. The points was grab from http://www.mscmalaysia.my/.
- Provide a world-class physical and information infrastructure. - MSC Status companies will required to move into office area which was awarded with MSC Status. There are now approximately 14 office area are classified as MSC, namely Bandar Utama, Cyberjaya, KL-Sentral, KLCC and more will be coming in within the next 1 year. World class infrastructure really sounds great, however the cost is respectively high as well.
- Allow unrestricted employment of local and foreign knowledge workers - as from what I know, MSC has direct collaboration with the Immigration department to speed up the process for hiring foreign knowledge workers, which reduces your hassles in foreign employments.
- Ensure freedom of ownership by exempting companies with MSC Malaysia Status from local ownership requirements. - is this means by foreign investor are able to take up majority ownership? I will have to check this out.
- Give the freedom to source capital globally for MSC Malaysia infrastructure, and the right to borrow funds globally.
- Provide competitive financial incentives, including no income tax for up to 10 years or an investment tax allowance, and no duties on import of multimedia equipment.
- Become a regional leader in intellectual property protection and cyberlaws.
- Ensure no Internet censorship.
- Provide globally competitive telecommunications tariffs.
- Tender key MSC Malaysia infrastructure contracts to leading companies willing to use the MSC Malaysia as their regional hub.
- Provide an effective one-stop agency – the Multimedia Development Corporation.
Being an MSC Status company, you will also enjoy the services such as Business Matching provided by MSC. MSC will collaborate with agents of MARTRADE, MIDA and etc around the world to match your business with other businesses in foreign country, providing you an opportunity to venture into the foreign markets. Middle East countries are very favourable to MSC Malaysia Status. Apart from that, employment of internship will also subsidized by MSC with an amount of RM500 each.
As a recipient of Technopreneur fund, our company is eligible to apply for the status, however, not all Technopreneur recipient are qualified for the status. MSC will look into your business model, and the revenue source as the based line, specially your revenue model. If your revenue model are too complex or too exaggerate and it does not matches your business model, or it sounds too un-logical to them, your chances are limited. God bless me, hope my company are qualified for it.
Ideas that I will not proposed to MDeC for Pre-seed fund
Recalling that MDeC Technopreseed fund has divided into few clusters, such as Creative Multimedia, Hardware Design, Software Developments, Shared-Service outsourcing, Support Services, and Internet based businesses. With the recent information, of all these clusters, Software Developments and Internet based businesses (Web 2.0) are now tougher to achieved. A lot of ideas has been very much categorized into these 2 clusters, and MDeC will most probably not fund the same similar idea twice.
For the past few months, we have been brainstorming with some friends who is interested to apply for the grant. Eventually, they did not manage to get it. Some of the reason is due to the presentation was not well prepared. Here are some of the systems or ideas that I feels that is not suitable or it is much more difficult to apply for the grant.
- Accounting Software – There are too many established accounting software in the region, even how niche, or how well you could differentiate your software, it will be difficult for you to compete with the established one that has almost penetrate most of the market share in their region.
- Directory or Classified Portal – Examples, a Wedding Portal, listing of directories and branches for all the bridal house, linking up the bridal houses, or even implanting a wedding scheduling system sounds great. But it will not interest the panels. and most does not deserves 150k for development of such sites. and i do believe a lot of people proposed wedding portal in pre-seed before
- ERP/CRM software – No matter you are doing a small scale or big scale of an ERP system, with financial module, inventory module, production, CRM , PO and SO etc. I still feels that the situation is same as the Accounting software. where you will faced difficulties in penetrating the market. Companies like SAP, Microsoft AX, PeopleSoft has many years of experience in the field, and has done a lot of research and developments for many years.
- Buy and Sell Portal – If you are trying to create another ebay system, or lelong.com.my, I suggest that you do it on your own without the funds. You will faced questions from panel saying that they can used less than 5k to complete a buy and sell portal.
I believes there are more that is not suitable for preseed fund, but I just can’t recall. However, the above mentioned ideas is just an opinion, it doesn’t mean you cannot apply, but an extra effort is definitely needed. For an example, just to crap a bit on the ideas. Maybe you decides to create accounting system, you can differentiate that your system is over the Internet, and you are able to ensure your software is robust enough in-terms of security perspective, plus additional features to tackle the existing problems in the market. So, you can still leverage the existing technology or software, is just that how you can differentiate yourself in terms of technology, business model, strategy is more important. Anyway, it is just a crappy idea.
Just to recap on the tips and guideline for application for funding, you can visit here: http://cheehoong.com/entrepreneur/basic-tips-and-guide-for-applying-ict-funding-in-malaysia
Video Sharing: The Secret of a Serial Entrepreneur
I found out this inspiring videos on Entrepreneurship. It really blown me up. The public speaking is so amazing and the topic extremely interesting. hope you enjoy….
Summarise of the video:
- In a Public Speaking session, 30% audience will follow the talk, 20% will be day dreaming, and the 50% will be engaging in sex fantasy.
- 6 phases of entrepreneur: Start -> Innovate -> Sell -> Hire -> Partner -> Finance
- Common mistake of entrepreneurship, they don’t see "Marketing", "Building Brand".
- Start Part
- Am I passionate enough, do I think I could make a difference.
- What you are trying to do is UNKNOWABLE by its nature.
- There is NO EXIT STRATEGY for entrepreneurs, the end game is to earn lots of money, and you won’t know how much…
- Entrepreneurship is about the Start, is not about finishing. you start you learn, is a marathon.
- The will, passion and determination that the only thing entrepreneur has.
- Innovate Stage
- What is the key insights, unique, and sustainable advantages in the model?
- Rapid development and iteration.
- Galvanizing events.
- Sell ( this is the part I don’t really understand)
- Marquee Account, Referenceable User….
- New pain point – Finding out your real business.
- Cost of customer acquisition and LTV
- Does it scale?
- Hire
- Big companies, hires extraordinary people and force them to do ordinary work. Startup hires ordinary people and inspired them to do extraordinary work.
- Established company, will hire 3 people to do the job of 1. Startups will hire 1 person to do the job of 3. (the 1:3 rule.)
- Fire yourself and contract everyone. Hiring long term employees are more costly for startups….
- Work is more important than advice.
- leveraging on "Client Development Programs".
- To keep your contractors fire up with work, advertise every position in the company every 6 months.
- Partner
- Finance
I am lazy to write… the rest is up to u to explore. 
Can my ideas work? Can my business model work?
Can my ideas/business model work? From time to time I may feel doubtful on the ideas that I am working with. I believe every startups may have the same question as I do. Not to mention, for those who has an idea and are still afraid to make the move to face the challenges, maybe the following tips that I used to self hypnotize myself may ease you in making your decision.
If Thomas Edison did not invent the light bulb or if Graham Bell fails to create a telephone. Do you think you still could still see in the dark without wood and fire, or do you think you could communicate with your loves one over a far distance. How many times do you think they have failed?
If you said you wish to fly in the sky today, no one will annoys you, because the teasing has been ended since the The Wright Brothers invented the first airplane.
Thomas Edison started today’s world famous General Electric and Graham Bell owns a Bell Telephone Company that has evolved into today’s AT&T (American Telephone & Telegraph Company). Hence, there must be something in common that these inventors/entrepreneur possess to make them what they are today. There are 3 things that I always keep in mind, which I am still learning to master it.
- Thick Face – Prepare to be called an Idiot. Are you ready to face the laughter, annoys, teasing, and harassment from your loves one and friends.
- Passionate and Determination – Are you able to accept failures! Fail and Restart all over again? Do whatever it takes to make things happen?
- Believes - Do you believe in what you are doing? do you believe in your idea? Do you believe everyday is a great day?
When someone pointing at you saying that your ideas won’t work. Are they really saying that the ideas will not work? or are they saying that they themselves are not able to do it? or is there a flaws in your ideas like for example, the targeted market, competitive advantages, the niche in your product that you have miss out? So, you should be glad that some one is telling you that your ideas don’t work, because opportunities still lies ahead of you.
The above mentioned items is generally known by everyone, however, how many did manage to master it? Saying is easy, Mastering is hard. Starting is always the hardest part, to really kick start an idea, first must master the above mentioned items. Next you should look at your approach, strategy, marketing, product niche and etc that will determine and strengthen the success to your ideas.
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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.
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