Malaysia – From Pride to Shame. We need more competitive awareness.
Read this article “From Hare Speed to Tortoise Pace“, from theStar Deputy Executive Editor Wong, telling his story in the golden days to the darkest night of Malaysia Broadband services. 10 years ago, Malaysia is proud with its broadband services where we have the most advance technology in the broadband industry compared to some of the countries in Europe, such as France where they have only dial-ups. With that moment, we definitely feel the pride and joy of being a Malaysian. However, with only one decade away, today France had a far more better and faster broadband service than Malaysia. and where we are now? Our broadband services has not improve at all for the past 10 years. I guess is either we fail to learnt the moral from the story of “The Tortoise and the Hare.”, or we are just too satisfied with the current situation. We are the Hare, we are sitting under the Tree, and we are still asleep.
Malaysia needs more competitive awareness, and I personally still feels that Malaysia has not awaken from its comfort zone. The best example that the recent abolishment on implementing English in Maths and Science has raised a critical issue in the region where the authorities are over protecting the inability of rural areas and the insufficient knowledge of the poor educators and has forgotten of who we wanted to be in the global position. In my personal opinion, applying sufficient pressure in the education system is the only way to improve our competitive advantages in the global industry. Stop protecting and stop giving excuses to yourself for not improving. Its only a matter of whether you want to be improved or not. I came from a Chinese independent school, and I remember the horror in learning English, Chinese and BM in both Science and Maths. Get over it, Malaysian~!
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
Zoo Negara is a Non-Governmental Organization
I was reading on theStar online that a frustrated visitor urge to saved our Country Zoo, claiming the animals are not well treated, looked under-fed, dirty and unhappy, surrounded by untrimmed bushes and uncut grass, incomplete renovation and expansion work, filthy walls and drains and other unsightly scenery (details read here.) . Yes, indeed the Zoo “Negara” needs our help. Is sad to say, Zoo NEGARA is an NGO, Non-Governmental Organization. I was surprised too when I first known this off when I tried to approach Zoo Negara as our potential advertising clients weeks off before the news came out from the paper.
Holding the word Zoo “NEGARA”, a Country Zoo, I bet everyone thinks that the Zoo, is supported and funded by the country government. And is very sad to hear that, our country government is not doing anything with it, and the Zoo is not listed as a tourism spot in Malaysia. The management for Zoo “Negara” are looking for sponsors for to feed the animals in the Zoo, sponsors for their advertising campaign, and sponsors to renovate the zoo. and I was wondering, why in the first place it is called ZOO “NEGARA“.
Why is Singapore Zoo so crowded with tourist, Jurong Bird Park is so pack with visitors? and our Zoo, you don’t even need to queue to get your tickets. First of all, the location of the Zoo is Not strategic (don’t expect someone going up to Genting will drop by the Zoo), secondly, there are no special performance that will attract the visitors (I prefer to go Genting to watch the White Tigers that performs Magic), and the Zoo is barely surviving itself.
Someone and Some department under the government has to do something about it, or find someone to put his head in the tiger as a key attraction to the zoo. Instead of spending such a huge amount of money in promoting Malaysia Tourism via EPL, why can’t that amount be used to improve the countries properties! Malaysia has lots of attractive tourism spots, jungle tracking, water fall that needs to be well maintained, and yet you see rubbish stacking up everywhere. Tourism Malaysia has over focused on foreign markets, and have neglected the local markets that will also indirectly steer the economy in within the country itself. If our own nation does not even support the local tourism, why do you expect the foreigners will?
Tough time ahead but an Exciting one for Joove
It has been long since I updated my blog here. Had been busy with work to keep progress on schedule when man power are in short. My company currently in the most critical condition where everything is in concern. It is coming to the last quarter of our fund disbursement from MDeC Technopreseed Fund. I have been missing in most entrepreneurs event organized by MDeC and I have started laying out plans to counter what happen next when the pre-seed project ends on coming August 2009. By then, a tangible product should be ready for demo. The problem now is how do we survived the tough time when we are not supported by the funds. The needed marketing cost, operation cost, continues development cost, expenses and expenses and expenses etc. Our product, , which is not like any products that will be sold for an immediate revenue. So Hell we go again, Fund raising campaign is needed. However, after speaking to a few clients and audiences to gather interest from their side, it is happy and excited that we are in the right directions and right timing, that our product does interested them, but, the only problem from both site is the “Chicken and Egg” issue, the common glitch and headache that most entrepreneur faced. The clients wants a confirm mass market to be ready, and you need the time to build that huge market. Apart from that, small players like us need to strategically plan the time for product launching …. so everything is in concern~~~ Hell we go again~~~ Will I survived ???
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.
Some story to share
Just to share a story that I read in the papers which I felt very inspiring. The story is in chinese, I manage to Baidu the story from a china website, and I translated it with Google Translate…. I hope it inspires you too.
总裁的昨天
一个城里男孩移居到乡下，从一个农民那里花了100元买了一头驴，这个农民同意了第二天把驴带来给他。第二天，农民来找男孩说：“对不起，我有一个坏消息要告诉你——那头驴死了。”男孩回答说：“好吧，你把钱还给我就行了！”可农民告诉他钱花掉了，男孩想了想，就让这位农民把那头死驴给他。
几个月后，那农民又遇到了男孩，农民问他后来如何处置死驴的，男孩说：“我举办了一次幸运抽奖，并把那头驴作为奖品，我卖出了500张彩票，每张2元。”
农民好奇的问：“难道没有人不满吗？”
男孩说只有那个中奖的人表示不满，所以我把他买彩票的钱还他，这样我就赚了998元。
许多年后，长大了的男孩，成为了一家大公司的总裁。
经营需要智慧
The Past Story of a CEO
A city boy moved to the countryside, he bought a donkey from a farmer at the price of 100 yuan, the farmers agreed that the next day to bring him a donkey.
The next day, farmers came to the boy and said: “I am sorry, I had a bad news for you- the donkey is dead.” Boy replied: “Well, you just need to return me the money will do!”. However, The farmer told the boy that he has spent all his money, the boy thought for a while, and ask the farmers to give him the dead donkey.
A few months later, the farmers met the boy and asked him what did he do with the dead donkey, the boy said: “I held a lucky draw, and I put the donkey as the grand prizes, I sold 500 tickets, each ticket at 2 yuan. Farmers curiously ask: “Will there be anyone satisfied with a dead donkey?”
Boys said that there will be only one person that will feel dissatisfied with the prize, so I repay back his ticket, and in total I earned 898 yuan.
Many years later, the boys grown up to become a big company’s CEO.
Business Managements needs Wisdom
Translated with Google Translate, and refine by CheeHoong:
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About
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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