CheeHoong.com

Lack of self motivational factor

admin — Thu, 15 Jul 2010 10:16:42 +0000

It has been months that depression has accumulated within me. A downtime that I am unable to pull myself up again. I can even feel my own negative aura getting stronger from time to time. I was wondering why did that happen. I have forgotten why I started my business, why i choose the path of being an entrepreneur. Its been 2.5 years since I started off as an entrepreneur. Lots of problems faced, from company to family, to my personal life. I am no more a happy, excited, passionate person that I was 2 years ago. I have grown very impatiently nowadays and only demands for results with a very reckless decision and forgetting the main objective and direction that has set off earlier. I have lose my persistence and leadership sway away. I knew I shouldn’t prolong this anymore. I should have faced the fact and get rid of it asap. I am writing this down is not because I need any sympathy. I am writing this to remind myself the purpose and objective of what I wanted in life.

First of all, I wanted to To live a life without regrets. This started off when I admitted to hospital 6 years ago due to a severe dengue case for 8 days with 5 days in ICU, where I felt so helpless and weak and nothing can be done than just lying on bed with all equipments wired to my body. I promised myself if I were to discharged I will do what I wanted to do before I passing out.

To be filthy rich? No. What I want is to be financial freedom. Where money is not an issue anymore to me nor my family. again~this also inspired me during my time in ICU. My parents are unable to paid the admittance fees to a private hospital. Luckily the company which I am working at had an insurance covered. My bosses paid upfront for me and I am glad they are there for me. though he ain’t a very good boss, but still I still appreciated and understand his situation.

For My Family. My parents are one of the inspiration for me to start my own business. I do not want to repeat my parents path. Get good grades and work for an entire life. My parents are not rich. In fact, they are financially in debt, they are lack of investment knowledge, assets are low. Money has always been a concern for them. Every single thing they buy, they have to make repeatable consideration. My dad, is an Engineer, my Mum is a draft women. Both of them didn’t hold any cert or degrees. that makes my dad unable to be promoted. My mum works for her entire life with only 1 company (how did she do that?). And thats why education has always a priority for my family. I am lucky that they manage gave me and my bro a proper education. Now both of them are at retirement age. They are still financially in debt. As the eldest son, I had the responsibility to take care of them and their debts. I wanted them to go for tours and trips and relax. I want them to do whatever they want as they retired and not to be bond by the word of debts and money. Ironically, the current situation doesn’t allowed. I don’t even dare to think of having a future family, although I had a desire in it, but my current problems has been holding me back to involve any relations. It is so envy when your friend’s family bought him a business thats worth millions for he/she to handle. How you wish your dad is a filthy rich asshole.

JOOVE ENTERPRISE SDN BHD. my first baby, a production house born 2 years ago with the aid of Preseed grant. Now an MSC Status company. Sounds nice. sounded big. I have always wanted to become a cartoonist when I was very young. Eventually, I studied IT, and I never think of persuading the dreams until opportunity knocks on my door. MDeC Preseed grant came in play, I proposed and I got it. Oh, here comes the nightmare. Initially started with the idea of having our animations over the internet. Animations or cartoons or Manga whatever you called it, is the only place that I feel reality is not bond with it. What makes Bollywood so famous and entertaining? because its a place that people runaway from the cruelty facts of life. The objectives and the passion of the assistance of this company is to create animations that will sparkle imaginations, entertain families and children. To have Cartoons that contains fun, learning, educational and moral value.

However, come back to the reality of the industry. Animation cost is very high, for example, from preproduction, production to post production, depending on the quality required, it may cost up to 20-60k per 30 min episode. and the selling price, you be surprised, the local TV broadcasters may have only wanted when your price is at 10 – 30% of your cost, and most of the time, they required an exclusive broadcasting rights. Apart from that, most animation sold into broadcasters has a complete series of 10-20 episode. Which means, if your cost is maybe 30K, 20 episodes, is equivalent to 600k for a complete series to be sold to a broadcaster. So what happens if broadcasters does not like it! Apart from that, broadcasters don’t buy animation so frequently. Purchase is done every half year, every quarter, and provided they have available time slots. So why do we still want to struggle with it. First of all, animation revenue is not generated mainly from broadcasters. Real hot money comes in when your animations starts to popularized where merchandised comes in play. Most important, when a children are laughing enjoyably over the animations created by you, you will felt that is worth the value of all your hardship and struggles, I felt that when I actually proposed for interest from preschools.

Within the 2 years, we have hit too many walls. and each of them are so pain in the ass, continuously de-motivate us. And family problems, and personal problems has taunted me again and again. I think thats why I am so depressed and I lose my patients. Where are we now. we are actually now in negotiation with Astro. Although a good feedback was given, however we still need to wait for results. Much more patient is needed. My mum has been hinting me to go back to my permanent job. She had a pay cut. I am only surviving with a very low salary and she wants to retire. But I neglected her suggestion. We have come to the stage of MSC Status. a stage where Astro is interested. If i stop now, it will be going back my parents path where I do not want to go. Doing other businesses? Maybe. but ultimately, I wish JOOVE will be successful that I won’t mark a failure in my life. Is entrepreneur my only path? No. but I would like to try or I’d b regret for life. Am I too Naive? YES, I am.

MDeC proposing to maintain funding for 10th Malaysia Plan

admin — Sun, 23 May 2010 10:39:08 +0000

In conjunction with the great news of building a B2B system to help SMEs and MSC Companies to grow into a global player. The most exciting part of the story for new entrepreneurs, is that MDeC will try to propose new funds and maintain some existing funds for the Upcoming Malaysia Plan. I believes, most funds allot from the last Malaysia Plan has almost been dry out and the public has been very curious if will be any new funds coming up to assist new ideas and drive the ICT and Multimedia Industry to the next level.

Although there are no promises from MDeC, but at least initiatives are taken into the consideration that certain funds will be proposed to be maintain and new funds will be available. The following funds that MDeC proposed to be maintained include MSC Malaysia Research and Development Grant Scheme (MGS), Pre-seed Funding and MAC3 Co-Production Fund. Lets have some fate and patient with MDeC, and hope that the government continues to drive the country growth into a better economic environment for new entrepreneurs.

Reference Link: http://biz.thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2010/5/8/business/6208729&sec=business

You can now contact me via the [Contact Me] form

admin — Mon, 10 May 2010 17:17:36 +0000

Dear readers, you could now contact me via the [contact me] link on the top right corner. I just upgraded with wordpress latest version. I have been so lazy to upgrade and maintain the back-end of this domain. Sorry for the inconvenience to those that wanted to email me personally. Hope to hear from you all soon. , please don’t spam me ~

Are you really prepared for MLM? (Multilevel Marketing)

admin — Sat, 08 May 2010 12:14:53 +0000

Looking at an innocent fresh young grad that dreaming to become a millionaire is being lured into a business by a pretty young direct seller makes me thinks of my past. Everyone wants to become a millionaire, or have a better living, a luxury car and a bungalow. Specially the freshly young graduates, eagerly to achieve a classy status might be the main drive for them to join into a get rich quick scheme. Due to some influences from Robert Kiyosaki’s series of books, and the famous Cantonese drama “Threshold of New Era”; since college I have been dreaming of becoming an entrepreneur, becoming a millionaire, care about my own business, having a better living for me and my family. As soon as I graduated, I was introduced by some friends about direct selling (there still weren’t any fancy words like ‘network marketing’ nor ‘multilevel marketing’ that time, and now they even called themselves ‘entrepreneurs’), where you were told that you could make millions as you join their network, and you can work part-time (oooo, sounds tempting).

Yes, I won’t deny that Multilevel Marketing can make you a fortune, gives you a better living. In fact, since the introduction of MLM, it created lots of millionaires around the world, its a proven concept. The question comes to whether if you are prepared for it yet. I have joined and tried a few, and personally, I don’t think I belongs there. So I quit. It just not my cup of tea. So before you join, considered these sacrifices:

Are you prepared that your friends (specially your closest friends) will reject your offer, and start running away from you.
Are you able to tolerate the spiritual style of motivations ceremony held weekly, everyone is like a hypnotherapist continuously brain washing you again and again, persuading you to become the next hypnotherapist. (I hated this the most, but you can’t deny their determinations and passion. I salute)
Are you willing to go all out, leaving your career behind and make a fortune in MLM. (In order to succeed in MLM, I suggested you go all out focusing on what you should do, where else you will not go anywhere)
Are you prepared to work your entire life with MLM? (MLMers will tell you that you need not work when your network is established and you will be earning a passive income monthly. and I don’t think that is entirely true. There is no free lunch in this world. No matter which level you have succeed in MLM, you will still need to work for it.)
Are you prepared to take the blames from the person you recruited under you when things gone hay wired or you quit half way. (If you have caught in the most recent Get-Rich-Quick Scam such as the Red Island Cafe and Stevens Corner, you might feel the pain in the ass)
How sure that the company you joined is not a scam? (Nowadays, MLM fees has increased so dramatically. my time, it was only less than RM100, and now there are few which need to start off with RM10k –RM20k to ensure your commitments. If you do not want your money to fall into the drains, please do some homework. you can refer to this site for scam)
Please get your family support or a mutual agreement, your spouse specially. (I have seen husband and wife filed a divorce due to unsupportive relationships since one of the party involved in MLM).

Lastly, Quitters of MLM like me are not credible to give any opinions here about MLM. I don’t want MLMers to blast this post with hatred. MLMers are businessman. and not entrepreneur, though they claim they are. The founders of the MLM company is, but not the MLMers that follows trends that the founder created. To differentiate Entrepreneurs with Business Man, please read this post. There is no free lunch.

ICON Grant Finally Approved (Careful with Tricky Questions)

admin — Tue, 13 Apr 2010 14:05:18 +0000

In my previous post I do introduced the RM100K ICON Grant initiated by government, finally is back on. My applications submitted last year Dec 2009, and we have waited approximately 4 months until April 2010 only we get a call to do a presentation. I believed the secretariats has been tortured by us for the past few months being so determined in requesting for a date of presentation. and is finally here.

Dear ICON Grant Applicants,

Congratulations.

We are pleased to inform you that your application for the ICON grant has been approved. The secretariat will be contacting you soon for the arrangement of your letter of offer.

Thank you.

Regards,

Secretariat

Upon receiving this email, the excitements is ……zero. We have waited for too long and some of our previous plans has been overturned due to the delay of ICON Grant. However, as we expected, with full preparation of our effort from going door to door to get Letter of Interest from various parties, and with the past previous experiences in presentations and answering question, although we are still nervous, but experiences really made us when through the following presentation. On top of that, I have learnt something from my partner which I am still very lack off in QnA. So, here is some advice with some tricky questions that my partner has answered well. Thanks to him that we have gotten through this stage.

What is your expected revenue/profit?

Tricky Part: This is the most tricky question ever. Imagine if you have told them that your expected revenue/profit will be RM1 million. Wow, such a good business to do. If your idea could generate RM1mil, everyone will have started and there is no point for you to receive this grant. This question lures you into telling an unknown figure that you yourself are so unsure. Whether the numbers you have mentioned is reasonable or unreasonable it will definitely lead you to another question that will taunt you down. “So on what basis that your idea will help you generate RM1mil? how sure are you with your analysis?”

Answer: The best answer will be telling them that you are aiming to breakeven for the first year. In any start-ups, if you are able to breakeven the first year is considerably good and reasonable. Don’t try to talk BIG here, the panels are not stupid.

What stage are you in now?

Tricky Part: This question is to see how SERIOUS are you with your own business.

Answer: Even you have nothing started, just bullshit them that you had something started, whatever you have done to your make your idea come true. Of course, if you have really put in your effort, tell them! Grants are only given to people with real effort put in. (In matter affect, we have done IP and Trademark for our proposed idea, we have gotten letter of interest, we have our initial work done, now is left out with the money to push the product out)

Since your clients has shown interest with your product, why do you still need the grant?

Tricky Part: Are you trying to con our money here? The panels will try to give all kinds of reason that you do not need the grant.

Answer: Yes. Indeed that our potential clients has shown interest with our ideas, however, there isn’t a tangible product to urged them to issue us a PO (Purchase Order) yet, and that’s why we only had a LOI (Letter of Interest) instead.

The Invitation as a Speaker

admin — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 11:55:28 +0000

I received an invitation from Taylor’s University College as a speaker to talk about entrepreneurship last week. The event titled "Cradle Commercialisation Workshop at Taylor’s University College" is jointly organized by Taylor’s University College and Cradle on the May 2010.

The invitation surprised me. It is a very kind offer from Taylor’s. And I really appreciated that. A lot.

For the moment that I received the email, I felt an unknown force of motivation spirit just came into me. I am glad. However, I rejected the offer. First of all, I have never thought of becoming a speaker. Secondly, I had a very broken English. The major factor for me to reject the offer would be my personal intention, the intention of building a more strong and sustainable company this year. I hope to try as a speaker one day, to encourage more entrepreneurs in Malaysia, allowing people to worshiped me on the stage (:P), and I bet it will be fun and entertaining with some stage fear.

When that day comes that I could become a speaker, it would be where I am at my most comfortable level with my career and my company.

Lesser Funding from MOSTI – Bad News for Technopreneur for the Year of Tiger

admin — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 20:33:13 +0000

BOOTSTRAP OR DIE. Its time to tighten your belts Technopreneurs, funds are limited for the year 2010. According to source theStar inTech, 2010 Budget for Grant has been cut by RM 1 Billion, leaving RM 2.7 Bil to be handed to deserving applicants. The worst news for my company, is that the eContent fund has been dry out, where animation companies like us are most needed with such fund for content development. However, surprisingly I am not feeling sad nor depress with such news. The reasons is because I have shifted my mindset previously on reducing the dependency on government grants. Apart from that, we are in discussion with broadcasters, although the response is slow, but we had a good feeling that there will be projects coming in this year after Chinese New Year.

So, Start-ups, in such tough times what will you do to prevent from extinction?

Pre-Sales works for all sectors – You need not have a perfect end product to sell. Take a home delivery service offering gourmet meals as an example. A bootstrapper will not waste a cent on making meals that nobody wants, instead, he/she will first compile an interesting menu, then goes into the market to get their interest and get orders first with just only the well presented menu. Another word, sell your ideas in the air, get the money, and developed. the upside for pre-sales is where you get a confirmed sales, and you need not waste a single cent on something nobody wants. the downside is, you need extra effort to convince your clients with just an idea or an unfinished product.
Cutting Down Cost the creative way – There is always another way. Creative imagination is needed to face all obstacles. For examples, instead of printing hardcopies of glossy colour brochures, you can utilized the internet to spam the market. Share your office, share your phone bills, utilized 2nd hand furniture and computers. Employing the Art of Barter,create a win win situation for all parties. You need to loose some to gain some. Every lawyer tells you that contracts must cover all possible circumstances and they charge you at a fly high cost, but you have forgotten that there is no point in suing a bootstrap business because we don’t have money to give anyone. An astute way of avoiding hefty professional fees is to invite your key contacts joining your advisory boards.
Getting alternatives Financing – If you had a rich father, lure him into the business ~ lol (without his control). Banks seldom borrows to a bootstrap business, the alternatives ways can only be friends and family or governments and clients. Getting your first line of credit can take time and patients, but please provide an “excite” to the creditors, is best with a confirmed Sales Contract on-hand. Or ask your clients to advance your payments for you to kick-start.
Managing that Precious Cash – Create your cash flow forecast, plan your cost, and reduce any possible unnecessary expenses. Some research and negotiation with different vendors/suppliers/services provider is needed to understand your cost in-order for you to plan your cash flow. Employ progressive payments and advance payment and spend less. Motivate and maximized your staff capabilities. (If you don’t have money for meals, eat bread and cheese everyday to get you fuel up, joking.)
Marketing on Shoestring – Ignore on Market Research and Advertising on the start. You can think of a FREE Model to assist your marketing objectives. Pick a clear cut message and promote your differentiation and take advantage of today’s technology with internet marketing. Put in clear strategy and avoid to be blown in all directions.
Focused Directions and Vision – Small companies tends to diversify too much in all areas in-order to survived. Taking our animation company which focused on cartoons development as example, why not we take up some advertising jobs or graphic design job in-order to sustain the company. My answer will be NO. In my own opinion, being too diversify with different areas makes your company looks unprofessional, and worst, it may even get your company to no where because you do not have a clear objectives and directions for your company. I prefer to focused on 1 area, and be the best of that area.

Please do share with me if you had any other ways to bootstrap a business. Businesses have to help each other to ride through the tough times.

The emotional roller-coaster

admin — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 22:29:18 +0000

The ups and down were extreme within the past few months. Things seems great one moment and hopeless the next. One day you may think of being the next Google, and the next, you may be pondering how to let our loved ones know of our utter failure; and on and on. The hard part is the low, at this rough days, how long can I keep myself motivated, and how low is low? and this lows can get you crazy one day.

Almost 2 months back, we thought we had went through the first round of RM100,000 ICON Grant, the next thing you know, they had an internal structure changed, and the announcement had hold back. It was so down for me where our cash flow has been so tight. Finally today, Good news knock into my mailbox, long waited 2 months and finally i get to progress to the next stage of ICON application. So, to keep myself motivated for the past 2 month, I urge for sales contract from broadcasters. However, the broadcaster are the big boys that is not easily contacted, and is not when you want to see them, they will see you immediately. so the down and low emotion is where you need to wait, and wait, and wait and wait. All you wait is for just an opportunity. The waiting process is what torturing for start ups where you know cash flow doesn’t allowed you to wait too long. Once you had the chance to meet up with the big boys, your emotion is back high sky rocket, Yes, this is the moment for us.

I accidentally saw my mum is having tears while i drive her back from her work today. I know that she has been suffering pressure from work and wanted to retired early. I was angry at myself for not being able to support her. And I told myself strongly that I will not fail and quit in any situation comes against me. This is not for me, but for my family. Very soon she will get to retire early. very soon as I promised.

Some memorable moments of being first time in Astro; and the impression for us on Astro working culture is definitely Fun and Entertaining.

The 2 Things in my Mind.

admin — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 04:46:57 +0000

There are 2 things in my mind keeps bothering me these days. First is a SALES CONTRACT~! SALES CONTRACT~! SALES CONTRACT~! SALES CONTRACT~! SALES CONTRACT~! SALES CONTRACT~! SALES CONTRACT~! SALES CONTRACT~! SALES CONTRACT~! SALES CONTRACT~! SALES CONTRACT~! SALES CONTRACT~! SALES CONTRACT~! SALES CONTRACT~! SALES CONTRACT~! SALES CONTRACT~! SALES CONTRACT~! SALES CONTRACT~! SALES CONTRACT~! SALES CONTRACT~! SALES CONTRACT~! SALES CONTRACT~! SALES CONTRACT~! SALES CONTRACT~! SALES CONTRACT~! SALES CONTRACT~! SALES CONTRACT~! SALES CONTRACT~! I WANT A SALES CONTRACT ~!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! APPOINTMENTS~! WAIT ~! APPOINTMENTS~! WAIT ~! WAIT ~!WAIT ~!WAIT ~!…. I DON’T WANNA WAITTTTT

2nd one i can’t tell. That is quite personal.

but this 2 things has really get my going crazy these days. Didn’t had a good night sleep ~! and has been sleeping very early ~~~ 5am ~~

Kre8tif – The last event I went for the year 2009

admin — Tue, 19 Jan 2010 23:17:19 +0000

Back dated to 7-9 December 2009. MSC Malaysia kre8tif is the last event I attended in year 2009. Kre8tif Digital Conference, in the mission to showcase the best work from the Malaysian creative industry, and to invite many international industry experts to share their experiences, knowledge and ideas, for instance, Mr John Stevenson’s, the Director of KungFu Panda, gave a very insightful knowledge and experiences on the making of KungFu Panda. “Story is King”, the phrase denotes that the fundamental of a successful interesting animation lies within the story.

There is a clear cut motive that I intended for the event. My ultimate mission is to get at least 1 broadcasters contact or any potential investors so that we could sell our idea. I am not a natural born salesman, and i felt like Tom Cruise in “Mission Impossible”. of course the secondary missions will be understanding the industry’s future trends, competitors, technical knowledge and other information, etc.

However, while I was wandering around the event. Talking around, bullshitting around, throwing name cards (the ninja way). I had a very weird feelings walking up to competitors (specially the local’s one). for example, if i walk up to them, showing my name card, ask them how are they doing lately, seeking advice in the industry. Will they tell me the truth? So i tried on with one of the company, and I regret immediately, and I felt that I will never get the right answers. To me, I believed being sincere and truthful to the person i met is a kind of respect, however by showing my name card to the competitors, the information i get from them will be vastly filtered, so what’s the point of being sincere? Maybe I am too ingenuous to think that there is a day that we might had a chance to cooperate on a certain project. On the other hand, one of the most funny thing that I found out is, that some of the local companies, they complete their products first before selling it. Some gotten grant to developed a series of animations from MOSTI. but when I ask if they have secured any sales contract from the broadcasters, surprisingly the answer is ‘No’, and they told me the industry works that way. ???????!!!! WTF, I don’t believe!!! What if happens when the final product completed, and broadcasters do not like it? Anyway, they had the capital and resources. So is not up to me to judge. But I think I will do it in a different way.

Back to the mission. There is a session given by for broadcasters representative regarding on the industry. I feel lucky that the 3 largest local broadcasters has 2 turn up for the session, Mr. Zainir Aminullah executive director from Astro, Malaysia, Syafiq Al Fonse from RTM Malaysia, and lastly Tim Brooke-Hunt, Executive Head of Children’s Content for Australia’s ABC Television. I paid full attention to their talks, however, my mind keeps bothering me to “take their name cards”, “take it or you live hungry and miserable”~!!!! Right after the sessions ends. Oh gosh, people is like swarm of bees. I was just pancaked and squeezed out from the scene in seconds. I didn’t know they are even more hungrier people than me. However, I did manage to get their names cards, and we are in the process of setting appointments with Astro and RTM. Phewww~~~ Mission Accomplished.

Final conclusion, the event is a fun and awesome experience I never had before. I learnt a lot from the gurus, the competitors and the industry players.

For more information and the summary of the speakers presentation. follow this link: AnimationXpress