How to Start a Business in Malaysia. A Banana vs. The World!

Stay Tuned

2008-10-10T19:30:00.002+08:00

Remember I said I'm redoing my blog and moving it onto wordpress? Well I'm currently redesigning my blog.

So stay tuned.

When it's up, typing http://xanydude.blogspot.com will redirect you to my Wordpress hosted blog.

Cya in a bit!

ADV: Finding Cheap Car Insurance

2008-10-03T14:32:00.003+08:00

It's not always easy to find cheap car insurance after getting yourself a new car or even when buying a second hand car. If you're lucky, you may actually get car insurance bundled together with your life/ medical insurance. But this is hardly ever the case.

Getting yourself a new car is a great feeling for most people. It makes you feel like you have something that you can really call your own, especially men. But getting yourself a car comes with alot of responsibilities, ranging from fuel, maintenance and of course car insurance. You always want to protect yourself in the eventuality that something unforeseen happens to you while you are driving.

If you are having problems finding some good, cheap insurance, Nlgha.org has got a great range of auto insurance products, as well as a list of resources and guides on the best way to approach getting car insurance for yourself or your family.

An example of a good tip provided on the site is:

"Most car insurance companies offer low auto insurance quotes for female and teen drivers, some offer discounted rates if you will get your health insurance and car insurance within the same company – watch out for offers and promos like these so that you can get the cheapest car insurance quotes possible."

At the top of the page on the site, you can get free quotes for car insurance just by filling in your zip code. You will then be able to compare different quotes for your car insurance and choose the best deal that suits your needs.

Visit the site at www.nlgha.org and take a look around, you'll find plenty of information and products to suit your needs.

[Photo]

F**k The Rain.

2008-09-30T11:47:00.003+08:00

This hilarious umbrella is for all those people who think that Google Maps, Russian, Chinese or American satellites are becoming just a little too intrusive into our lives.

Or maybe you just want to give a gigantic middle finger to that car that just nearly ran you over when you tried to cross the road? Decisions, decisions.

Source: Artemy Lebedev

Internet Marketing Training With Stuart Tan

2008-09-27T17:38:00.005+08:00

Everyone concentrating hard in 'class'

In an earlier post I wrote about how I was attending an Internet Marketing seminar by a Singaporean Internet Marketing expert called Stuart Tan. He authored the book ‘Secrets of Internet Millionaires’ which can be bought at Borders, MPH bookstore and other local bookstores.

Well I went for the seminar last weekend hoping to unlock the secrets of making money online so that I could finally replace my salary, which I’ve not had since resigning from my job.

Stuart Tan on the board.

I arrived at the training center bright and early in the morning, registered myself and stuck my name tag to myself. After taking my seat, what I realized first when looking around was that most of the crowd were at least 40++ years old and there were possibly 2 other people my age (24) in the entire class of 30 people.

Some people were quite confused at this point.

Which just goes to show, you CAN teach an old dog new tricks. Some of them didn’t even know what affiliate marketing meant and most didn’t really have a strong grasp of the Internet in general, but at least they tried right? In fact, some didn’t even have an Internet connection, which leads me to ask how are you going to make money online without having the Internet?

His seminar ran something like this:

Day 1 – Setting up a blogger account and your first blog, signing up with different affiliate networks (to gain access to products), how to research keywords and finally homework (creating 3 blogs before the second day of classes).

Day 2 – Content creation, traffic generation techniques and QnA.

During one of the breaks, to 'loosen up'.

Long story short, his method of income generation through affiliate marketing is by starting blogs on niche products, finding products from Amazon, Clickbank or CJ.com and placing these products on each of these niche blogs.

He then creates or finds content for each of the blogs and concentrates the rest of his energy on driving traffic to these blogs. He keeps creating more and more blogs on niche segments and monitors which ones make money and which ones don’t.

At the height of his blogging career, he claims to have had 4000 blogs online generating traffic.

So I’ve started trying to do the same thing. One of them is http://dellxpsm1530.blogspot.com but it’s new and so far there’s not much traffic being made on it. I’ll post my techniques and some of the things that I learned in the seminar on another post.

NB: Looks like all the sites are targeted to America and Europe, as they are more likely to spend money online.

My Astro Was Attacked By The Sun

2008-09-24T00:24:00.003+08:00

I was taking a break from building one of my websites today and was watching ESPN on Astro. All of a sudden, I saw this message on my TV:

A 'solar interruption'? It sounded like something out of a sci-fi movie. Like Earth was being bombarded by solar flares or something.

I guess one of the technicians was trying to sound really smart. He could have just wrote: 'it's raining in America' or something right?

A Quicky.

2008-09-23T02:16:00.002+08:00

Just finished my Internet Marketing seminar over the weekend with Stuart Tan so haven't had time to post. Right now I'm trying to set up 2 more blogs with my friends, and hopefully up to 1000 more blogs with the purpose of becoming my base of income for bigger things.

1000 blogs you say? That's impossible! Trust me, it's not. I'll explain more in detail on another post...

Somehow Chelsea managed to draw with Man Utd. So damn lucky.

And finally, tweaking CSS on my blogs while trying to figure out how to use the 'new' facebook interface to add some social media applications to it. But it's quite confusing.

Cya!

ADV: Turning Energy Into Income

2008-09-19T01:16:00.006+08:00

In deregulated power markets such as Texas [and Georgia], the state government may require the dictates the incumbent utility energy provider to stand-down and allow for unlimited competition within the marketplace, whereby the consumer is 'free to choose any electricity provider desired and switch over to said company. -Wikipedia

What does this mean to those concerned? It means that for one, small businesses have the option to buy from any energy provider that they wish to. They can choose based on price, service or just personal preference.

Source: Ignite

One of these service providers is Ignite, a Texas based company, which actually started off as the marketing arm of Stream Energy, a retail electric service provider. Between 2005 and 2006, Stream Energy grew 500%.

This was accomplished, in part due to their ignite business opportunity, which they have expanded from Texas to Georgia. It encourages people to join ignite and turn energy into income by joining the company as a personal associate. Your role would be to enroll a few customers who would then enroll more customers. Mostly through word of mouth.

This ignite opportunity could potentially bring you revenue from hundreds or even thousands of people through your ignite business. To join ignite, just visit their website www.jayleatherwood.igniteinc.biz or check out their video to find out more.

However, this service is only currently available for America and in the states of Georgia and Texas.

My Nokia E61i Died.

2008-09-16T16:43:00.004+08:00

Yesterday I didn’t get ANY work done at all. The reason was, while I was just about to start doing some research on Internet marketing on my computer, I decided to transfer some photos from my phone to my desktop.

While doing so, a little balloon popped up from the Nokia PC Suite package that I have installed on my computer that told me my Nokia E61i was ready to be upgraded. I was like, woohoo! Free upgrade! So I clicked ‘start’.

75% through the installation, my phone died and the screen went blank. When I pressed the on button, only the white LED light would switch on on the front of the Nokia E61i. That’s it.

Since I was upgrading my firmware, I pretty much guessed that I bricked my phone and started Googling how to undo it. Here are the few methods that were suggested to me.

Nokia E61i Total Flash Restore
Failed E61i Firmware Update
Update Failed on N73

But none of them worked.

I quickly called Nokia Careline who told me that I needed to send it in to a care center. I ran around my house and found my warranty card.

I was still under warranty!!!! Yessss!!!!!!!! My warranty was about to expire in a month.

So I sent it in to the 1 Utama Nokia Care Center and they fixed it for me within 2 hours. They even updated the software for me.

Problem is that I forgot to backup my contacts.

Source: Free Market Fairy Tales

Improvements to My Blog.

2008-09-13T22:51:00.004+08:00

In the next couple of weeks I am probably going to move this blog over to a Wordpress blog and start posting on a range of other topics besides starting a business. Of course I'm going to post about stuff which interests me, otherwise how will I create any good content for it right?

Firstly, the reason for moving over to Wordpress is because as a blogging platfrom, it makes things so simple and there are so many wordpress templates that are free I can choose from. I can also easily modify my template to make it less cluttered because I think this current blog is just too damn cluttered.

As a template, I'll probably try using a magazine style template. To see if it's more appealing to visitors (i'll track visitor stats for 2 weeks or so). If not, I'll probably just change back to a simpler, more basic template.

There are also plenty of widgets that I can use to enhance the viewing experience for my readers if I use widget-ready wordpress blog templates. This include image galleries, recents posts, popular posts etc.

As for the content, I think I'm going to blog about a couple different categories, these being:

personal - posts about what I am doing, this is an online journal after all right?
internet marketing - posts related to online business and how I am trying to make money on the Internet. This is quite an interesting and popular topic that I can post about.
starting a business/ entrepreneurship - continuing with the same subject matter I have always blogged about. I think people need to know more about this.
Gadget and gizmos - who doesn't like gadgets?

I feel these categories have alot of demand on the Internet (although sex as a topic has alot more demand than all these combined) and I have personal interest in them.

That means I will be relabelling all my old posts into more specific categories, and sorting out the tags that I have used on them, as I have not tagged my posts all that well. It'll probably take me a few hours to do just that, jeez... Oh well, I'm unemployed after all right?

Well I hope anyone who reads this likes how my blog will slowly evolve into something better.

Goodnight (or morning depending on where you are) and have a good weekend!

Internet Marketing Training With Stuart Tan

2008-09-11T14:29:00.004+08:00

The last few months I’ve been trying to learn as much as I can about Internet marketing and internet businesses in general. I’ve also tried putting some of what I’ve learned into practice, but unfortunately it’s not worked out so well. I think that I don’t have a proper process in place to set out my internet business plans.

So next weekend (20 – 21 September 2008) I will be attending an Internet marketing training course about affiliate marketing. The person conducting the course is named Stuart Tan, he’s Singaporean and is from the Adam Khoo Learning Technologies group.

Adam Khoo is one of Singapore’s top sales trainers and has a book out called Secrets of Self Made Millionaires.

Source: www.akltg.com

Stuart Tan has a book called Secrets of Internet Millionaires and runs the Internet marketing side of the AKLTG group. Since he’s written a book which you can buy at MPH and Popular bookstores, then he’s got some credibility in my book.

Source: www.imsupporthub.com/book/

Another thing is that the 2 day course is only selling for RM500, which is quite low compared to other courses that are available. RM500 is barely SGD200 isn’t it? I think what he’s trying to do is build some sort of word of mouth campaign and when enough people are asking for the course, he can increase the price.

The training will be held at their training centre in Taman Tun Plaza, next to the Naza show room there.

Let’s hope he can teach me how to finally get some internet businesses up and begin making some online money. If not, he gives a 365 day money back guarantee, which I WON’T forget about. Trust me, if I still haven’t made it back by then I will go look for him for my RM500.

Wish me luck.

[Free Ebook] How To Register A Business Online Using SSM.com.my

2008-09-09T16:54:00.006+08:00

Although I did do a post about the process when I first registered my sole proprietorship with SSM.com.my, it wasn't very clear and I think some people may have been a bit confused with what to do.

So I've created a short pdf e-book on how to register a sole proprietorship online using the SSM website and all the steps that are required. There are plenty of screen shots of the process, which I took from my computer while I was registering my business name.

This e book is completely FREE, all I ask is that you subscribe to my RSS feed, Digg any articles you find interesting and maybe link back to my blog. You could even add me on Technorati or boomark me using del.icio.us. But the best would probably just be to tell a friend about my blog, I would really appreciate that.

I hope that you find the ebook useful as I've laid out the process in exactly the same way that I registered my business name.

The ebook contains the following:

About Me
What is SSM (Suruhanjaya Syarikat Malaysia)?
Registering Your Business
Step 1 - Register an Account with 'myGovernment'
Step 2 - Register with SSM.COM.MY
Step 3 - Application of Business Name Approval (ROB)
Step 4 - Online Registration of Business (ROB)
Checking If Your Business Name Is Ready

You can download the ebook here (Right click and 'save as' to save it on your computer) or alternatively, you can find the file and discuss more on this subject and much more at my business forum, TheBusinessSuit.com here.

How To Start A Restaurant.

2008-09-08T23:05:00.004+08:00

Source: Wikipedia

Based on some research from my blog, xanydude.blogspot.com, I've found that multiple times people have searched for 'How to start a restaurant' so I've decided to open a topic at my forum, for people to ask and hopefully get a reply back.

To start off though, I think you'd need to consider at least these things before deciding to open a restaurant:

Cost of supplies
Location of restaurant
Finding the right chef
Type of cuisine?
Local health and safety regulations
Purchase ready built restaurant? or build your own?
Staffing the restaurant

Do any of you know what else it takes to start a restaurant in Malaysia? Costs? Locations? Suppliers etc.?

Here are some guides I found online. Although they may be more targeted to Americans, the gist of what they say and the fundamentals are still the same.

Good luck.

I Thought I'd Be Scrooge McDuck By Now

2008-09-08T14:07:00.006+08:00

After resigning from my job, trying my hand at insurance and blogging, I thought I'd be more like scrooge McDuck by now, swimming in a mountain of wealth.

Source: Wikipedia

But I'm closer to Donald duck :(

Source: Wikipedia

Actually... make that Daffy duck :( :(

Source: Wikipedia

Why Do You Blog?

2008-09-07T21:29:00.003+08:00

The reason I started blogging is plain and simple and I won’t hide it. It is to make money.

A lot of people may think this is such a shallow reason to start a blog, which is essentially a journal of your experiences. But the reason that I want to make money is so that my dad can retire from his job and come home. Let me tell you a short story.

For some of you who know already and some who don’t know, you can find out who I am here. Basically, my dad has been working as an expatriate for most of my life, since I was 4 years old my dad has worked in the airline industry, mostly with Emirates Airlines (In Dubai, where he currently works).

Working life as an expatriate in the Arabian countries is extremely high paying and working as an aircraft engineer all these years, my dad has been able to send me and my younger brother to Australia to complete our university degrees. But it’s also a hard living.

The temperature in Dubai can reach up to 50 degrees Celsius in the summer and my dad works in the hangars and on the tarmac, under the planes. He also has to work day and night shifts. On top of all that, my and my 2 brothers eat like machines, which adds alot to his monthly expenses.

Another thing about Dubai is that for how much people see it as a developing, super urban country with buildings popping up everywhere there is another side to it. You have to remember that underneath the skyscrapers, giant islands and prospering economy, it is still a government which runs under Sharyiah law. Also, there is a very different mindset among the locals. To not stir up any tensions, if you think it’s bad here in Malaysia, depending on the situation and your luck, it can be 10 times worse in Dubai. Basically put, working there can be quite a challenge.

Some of the things available in Dubai.

Now, I have a brother who is only 13 years old. He is due to go to college and university after that in about 4 years time. We all want him to be able to study in Australia like how me and my younger brother did.

But my dad doesn’t think that me and my younger brother can afford to support our youngest and send him through to university ourselves. He’s decided to stay with Emirates airlines way past the normal retirement age (55). He is planning on retiring only at the age of 62 (he is 59 years old as it is). Additionally he went for training for the new A380 airbus super plane which bonded him to Emirates for the next 3 years (until he retires).

So my plan is to make enough money to buy out his bond (about USD15,000) and maintain roughly RM4000 – RM5000 a month in recurring salary. I think this should be enough to convince him that we can send my youngest brother to Australia and have the same experiences in life as me and my younger brother had.

I plan to make this money though blogging, affiliate marketing and starting my own website.

So, I know why I am blogging, but why are YOU blogging? Leave a comment, share your thoughts.

Unfortunately, Sex Sells.

2008-09-07T15:34:00.003+08:00

For the past few months, I’ve been tweaking and adding to my blog to try and drive up the traffic and gain more readers. I’ve tried writing it as an informative ‘how to start a business’ blog (hence such posts as ‘How To Choose A Business Location’ which I’ve written to cater to a wider audience as well as submit to article directories) and what do I get for all this work?

Check out my most popular post of all time on this blog:

Work Work WORK!

And why is it so popular?

I would like to think it’s because of my bucket loads of wit and informative writing skills. But unfortunately, it’s because of this picture:

I got it from Google Images and left the original creator’s comments on it. How lucky for me that he labeled it ‘phat ass white girl’.

Of which, most of the people searching for that term are probably looking for porn or sex pictures. So I guess now that I’ve used the image again, this post will probably become my blog’s second most popular post.

Jeez. Why do I even bother?

Business Tips From Donald Trump.

2008-09-05T19:07:00.006+08:00

Here are some business lessons from the comb over multibillionaire himself, Donald Trump. "Money money money monnnneyyyyy! MONEY!"

101 High Paying Adsense Keywords

2008-09-03T15:27:00.004+08:00

The term ‘Adsense’ is defined as: a Google system of advertising for blogs and other websites. Subscribers can insert fairly unobtrusive Google ads and earn revenue from the users who view the ads or click on them. The ads are targeted to the keywords on the web page. – about.com

For a typical blogger or website owner, we make money when someone clicks on one of the Google Ads on our site, or per 1000 impressions of the Adsense links. For most of us, we already know how hard it is to get people to click on these links and even if they do, sometimes the chosen ads are low paying ones because of the keywords used on our page.

So to help maximize profits, here is a list of 101 high paying Google Adsense words you can try and use to target the keywords in your content to. It is assuming that as the website owner, you will receive roughly 50% of the total cost per click that Google charges its advertisers, but you should check this with Google to find out the actual value (if they’ll tell you).

1. adwords - $9.41
2. available domain name - $12.97
3. addwords - $10.92
4. adwords campaign - $14.63
5. adsense - $12.43
6. buy domains - $8.84
7. buy domain name - $17.10
8. bachelor degree on line - $14.36
9. best webhost - $8.68
10. bulk email marketing - $11.77
11. bankruptcy - $5.72
12. cheap domain name - $9.16
13. car insurance - $22.89
14. credit cards - $10.93
15. crm software - $15.96
16. car loans - $11.79
17. construction estimating software - $5.80
18. domain names - $17.57
19. debt - $13.18
20. degree education on line - $12.44
21. dell computer - $5.79
22. degree - $6.37
23. debt management - $7.15
24. database software - $3.13
25. email marketing - $13.24
26. ecommerce hosting - $11.81
27. education degree online - $14.69
28. earn money online - $3.04
29. free domain name registration - $5.81
30. free credit report - $9.57
31. flowers - $4.83
32. financing - $4.50
33. gas prices compare - $6.19
34. google news - $2.07
35. graphic design degree - $12.58
36. graduate degree program - $7.93
37. hosting providers - $14.25
38. how to get a web site - $5.83
39. hp computer - $7.52
40. interest credit - $15.53
41. insurances - $17.67
42. interior design degree - $14.17
43. java software - $1.69
44. keyword tracking - $4.37
45. knee support - $1.57
46. life experience degree - $8.36
47. lung cancer treatment - $6.10
48. loans - $9.86
49. merchant account - $10.55
50. microsoft certification - $4.88
51. mba degree online - $15.78
52. master degree on line - $11.51
53. marketing software - $8.28
54. network monitoring software - $11.45
55. nursing degree - $8.81
56. norton anti virus software - $4.01
57. Norton virus protection - $3.85
58. online accounting degree - $27.50
59. online paralegal degree - $19.45
60. online degree - $13.74
61. online psychology degree - $20.78
62. online college degree - $14.10
63. payroll software - $7.95
64. pay per click - $8.18
65. personal domain name - $10.26
66. project management software - $10.80
67. quicken - $3.46
68. quick money - $3.32
69. register domain - $9.03
70. register domain name - $8.31
71. register a website - $10.47
72. register url - $8.69
73. student credit card - $10.54
74. survey software - $9.51
75. scheduling software - $7.60
76. shopping cart software - $5.23
77. travel insurance - $6.76
78. tax software - $6.89
79. teaching degree - $12.72
80. turbo tax - $5.47
81. University Degrees Online - $10.98
82. unlimited web hosting - $8.31
83. university degrees - $5.68
84. undergraduate degree - $4.71
85. voip phone system - $9.57
86. visa credit card - $11.83
87. voip billing software - $8.21
88. virus protection - $5.58
89. website domain names - $12.65
90. web domain name - $10.62
91. web host rating - $9.75
92. web site register - $13.04
93. web hosting - $13.03
94. web design software - $2.57
95. web space provider - $6.62
96. yahoo domain - $7.70
97. yellow page advertising - $6.56
98. yahoo domain name - $9.00
99. your site - $2.57
100. zire pda - $2.16
101. zenith television - $1.55

NB: The dollar values were correct at time of publication; please recheck keywords using Google’s Keyword Tool for the most up to date values.

Tax For Internet Businesses Continued

2008-09-02T13:24:00.003+08:00

This is the follow up from my previous post regarding if bloggers need to pay taxes.

Below is the email that I sent to the Inland Revenue Board (IRB) of Malaysia regarding tax for internet businesses, such as blogs and websites which generate money from foreign companies, such as Google Adsense or its equivalent.

Hi,
>
>I am about to start an Internet business using blogs. I am trying to
>make money from Google's advertising services, Adsense. But if they pay
>me, it'll be in US dollars and the cheque will be sent to me in the
>mail. Will I need to declare this as earned income? Or are there other
>rules and regulations for Internet businesses?
>
>Thanks,
>
>-William


Here is their reply.

Dear William,

Your e-mail dated 28/08/2008 refers.

There are no specific income tax rules for internet businesses. The income that you earn has to be converted to Ringgit Malaysia and declared in the Return Form for that year.The conversion rate is available in the Guide Book which can be accessed on our website www.hasil.gov.my by clicking forms > B/BE 2007 Guide Book.

Thank You.

S.Pirahaspathy
Customer Service Centre
Inland Revenue Board of Malaysia.

So it seems that there is still quite a 'Grey area' for Internet businesses, as they mentioned that there are still no 'specific rules' for internet businesses as of yet. The forms can be downloaded as shown below.

My advice however, is to declare everything you earn, as you never know when you might get audited. If you run your blog as a business, perhaps you could find a way to get tax benefits from tax deductible business expenses? I'm still not sure about what these could be, but I'm going to read up and find out for myself.

You can discuss this topic further at: The Business Suit - Taxes For Internet Businesses?

How To Choose A Business Location.

2008-08-28T14:16:00.001+08:00

Location, location, location. For some businesses, this mantra is do or die, for others not so much so. But how do you choose the ideal location for your business? There are many factors to consider but here are just a few.

What Type Of Business Are You?

Does your business require hundreds, or even thousands of people walking in or around your shop/ outlet? Does you business require this large foot traffic to sustain itself or to make sales? Examples of this type of business would be Dunkin Donuts or Starbucks.

Are you just looking for a base of operation, such as an office? If so, you would be looking for a completely different location to that of the above requirement.

I Need High Foot Traffic

If you need a lot of people to walk past or around the general vicinity as your outlet, such as a food outlet, then good choices of a location are shopping malls and shop lots that are located near office buildings.

To actually see how many people there are in an area you are interested in, you should visit the area everyday for a week. Bring a small hand counter and go to the area at the times of the day where your type of business would typically get the most business (for a food outlet, this could be during breakfast, lunch, tea time and dinner) and count how many people walk past your chosen location during that time. You can later use this number for a financial analysis of business in the area.

Also important is to make note what is the general audience in that area. Are they mostly young executives? Or are they mostly middle aged managers? Your product may be more suitable to one group than the other and you need to know this.

I Just Need An Office

If you just need an office, look for somewhere within 30 minutes from where you work, as any further would probably cost you more in toll and petrol in the long run. If you already have staff, somewhere convenient for them to get to with ample parking would be a good idea as well.

For offices in relatively good locations at a lower cost, you may want to look out for small shopping malls that aren’t frequented by large numbers of people. Some of them have annex blocks where they sell or rent office space. A good deal may be found here as not everyone knows about them.

You can discuss this further at: TheBusinessSuit.com - How To Choose A Business Location

Do Bloggers Have To Pay For Tax?

2008-08-28T13:51:00.003+08:00

Well I've also been wondering, would a full time blogger need to pay for tax in Malaysia if the money comes from outside Malaysia? If most of your income comes from Nuffnang or any other Malaysian blog aggregator, you will probably have to pay tax once you reach the RM2000 threshold. (But check with a professional tax consultant to confirm - I'm not one.)

For money received from outside Malaysia (i.e. Google Adsense), a local blog I've visited quoted:

Tax Exemptions For Individuals
12. Income Remitted from Outside Malaysia
With effect from the year of assessment 2004, income derived from outside Malaysia and received in Malaysia by resident individual is exempted from tax. (Link)

Original post here.

So to clarify, I've emailed the government department, The Inland Revenue Board (IRB) at http://www.hasil.org.my/english/eng_index.asp, whether or not they reply me is another question. I'll let you know what they say.

You can discuss this further at The Business Suit - Everything You Need To Start A Business In Malaysia.

Is It Important To Have A Website?

2008-08-25T17:33:00.002+08:00

Before I left my ex company, I was talking to one of our vendors about why it was important to have a website for his business. He’s a typical Chinese educated business man and quite old fashioned.

It’s not like he didn’t know what the internet was, it’s just that it never crossed his mind to set up a website for his business, as he would scout out prospects on his own, even though he’s the owner of a medium sized business. I told him that the Internet would help people find him, rather than him always looking for prospects on his own.

As an example, I showed him on my computer what would happen if I searched for his service on Google. I typed in ‘printing services’ and limited the search to only websites in Malaysia. I browsed with him through the first 10 links to see if any of the names of the businesses were familiar and lo and behold, he found the name of a competitor of his, which was just down the street from his factory.

Currently, 60% - 70% if his business comes from my ex company, which we told him is a very risky thing to do, because if for any reason we no longer printed paper products, he’d lose almost all his business in an instance. Hearing this, he finally set up his own website (United YL Printers).

I’ve recently emailed him asking if it’s brought in any extra business, but I am a bit doubtful. The main reason for this is that the site is mostly flash and the text on the site seems to be from a .jpeg or picture file. Both make the site very non search engine friendly as technically, there is zero content on the webpage. Upon further checking, I’ve realized that he’s not listed on yahoo.com either, this could help bring in even more visitors to his site if he had submitted to yahoo.

I’ll let you know what his reply is and hopefully I can give him some advice into improving his search engine ranking (if he wants it).

This topic can be discussed further at: TheBusinessSuit.com

Sales or Marketing? Which Is More Important?

2008-08-24T13:57:00.001+08:00

The question probably does come up every now and again in a lot of businesses as to which aspect of the organization is more important, the sales strategy, or the marketing strategy. The politically correct answer when dealing with the people in these departments is that both are of equal importance. But that’s not always the case.

What Type Of Business Are You In?

Depending on the type of business you are in, the entire organization might skew more towards sales or more towards marketing, just based on the nature of the market you are in. In my previous job at an FMCG (Fast Moving Consumer Goods) company, it was becoming more and more sales oriented, as costs were slowly going up, hence volume sales needed to move up to keep shareholders happy.

If you have a product which is already available in the market such as selling cars, but you intend to sell luxury cars, then marketing may be more important to you than sales. When I say this I don’t mean that you don’t need to sell any cars, but that branding your product may be actually more important to your needs.

You will need to figure out what is the best way of mixing your sales and marketing strategy to suit your market’s and products’ needs.

What Are You Better At?

Another thing to consider is what skill are you better at? For one man or small businesses, the sales and marketing strategy may actually be carried out by the owner him/her self.

Some people are great sales men whereas others are great at marketing their product and branding. You should play to your skills yet still try and maintain some sort of balance between the two.

I heard of a story once about a credit card salesman, who worked for bank A. While showing one of his interns around, he went to a rival bank, bank B and asked to see the bank manager. Once meeting him, this brave salesman asked if the manager would like a credit card from bank A instead of bank B. The manager was furious and shouted at him to get out of his bank, yet he persisted asking him if he would like a credit card. In the end, the manager agreed to at least give his business card to the salesman as long as he left the bank.

The salesman then went downstairs and sold bank A’s credit cards to some of bank B’s teller staff.

So if you’re good at selling, use the skill to your advantage.

How Is The Market Behaving?

Your must also carefully keep an eye on how your industry as a whole is acting. Trends come and go and it is during these times where you may have to switch your plans from marketing to sales oriented to keep up with the competition. The best example of this is when your whole country or state is having a ‘mega sale’, this might be a good time to switch to discounting and a strong sales oriented approach, albeit for the short term.

Carefully considering what are your needs, strengths and conditions of your industry environment are a great way of telling if your business should be marketing, or sales skewed. But the most important this is having a quality product/service to sell otherwise neither strategy will work in the long run.

This post can be discussed further at The Business Suit: Sales and Marketing Tips

Don't Resign Till You Have A Game Plan.

2008-08-21T16:53:00.001+08:00

In one of my first posts on my blog, I showed how I resigned from my job to pursue my own undertakings in an Internet business. In hindsight, there are some things I should have considered more thoroughly before jumping ship.

Financial Security

When you work, you get paid; it's as simple as that. When you are working for yourself, you only get paid when you complete a successful sale or transaction. It could be a lot more than how much you were earning when you were working, or it could be a lot less. You don't want to have to give up your business dream just because you ran out of money due to not saving enough before you quit your job.

Do You Have The Time?

What you have to ask yourself is if it's possible to balance work, life as well as a side business all at the same time? Depending on your type of business, it may be completely possible (e-bay, blogging etc.) but for others, there are just not enough hours in the day to do two jobs at once. Even now, I figure that I run about a 7 to 8 hour day (although my working hours do start and stop late at night) so I probably would not have been able to balance a business and work.

Have You Got A Game Plan?

Above I mentioned that in hindsight I maybe would have stayed a little longer, but now that I have a plan, I've no regrets. Succeed or fail, at least I've got a plan to stick to which gives me the best shot of success.

But have you got a game plan? Before you resign, set aside some time and write out a 3 month plan. It could look something like this:

Month 1: Goal? E.g. have the articles for the website ready.

Week 1: Target? E.g. have prepared 7 of the 30 articles required.

Day 1 - 7: Specific Tasks? E.g. day 1, article 1, day 2 article 2 etc.

Repeat for 3 months. You need to be as specific as what to do on each day, as if you are not, you will wander aimlessly in trying to start up your business. You cannot be ambiguous in your daily goals, it has to be specific.

When you have your 3 month day by day plan (which you think you can stick to) ready, saved enough finances, consulted with your family, then go ahead, make your day. Resign from your job. But be prepared for many challenges ahead.

The Pros and Cons of Corporate Bank Loans

2008-08-19T20:24:00.003+08:00

The first thing that comes into a prospective business owner’s mind when sourcing for money to start up their business is to go to the bank. It’s convenient, safe and regulated, why would you go anywhere else?

But people must keep in mind that for most things in life, there are its pros and cons. Before you jump on the corporate banking business loan bandwagon, take a while to consider your options and make an informed decision.

The Advantages

Convenience and multiple loan options – Besides a standard business loan, banks can provide a selection of loan choices for you to consider. Even non-commercial loans that are able to be used for business purposes including personal and home-equity. What’s more is that there’s probably a commercial bank no more than 10 minutes from your house.

The bank has little to no control over how you spend the money – If the bank reviews your business plan and approves the loan to you, the money is essentially yours to do with as you wish. Since you are already in agreement with the bank on the interest rate for them to earn from you, they have little to no say what you do with the money. If you decide to use it all to travel the world instead of starting a business, well that’s your choice (although not a very good one).

This is a non profit sharing arrangement – Unlike business partners, venture capitalist funds or any other sources of capital, the bank is not entitled to any of your profits. Besides repayment of the loan plus interest, you do not need to split your profits between any other investors.

Interest rates may be low – The interest rates the bank can offer may be lower than other sources of financing such as credit cards and finance companies. Although not as low as borrowing from friends and family of course.

Commercial loans payments are often tax-deductible – You will need to check with your local tax department, but you may be able to get tax deductions related to the interest payments you are making on your business loan.

The Disadvantages

It may be hard to get a loan – Banks will probably require you to show them your business plan and convince them that your business has a chance of making a profit. If they don’t believe in your product/ service they could easily refuse you the loan. This is to ensure that when they loan out money, they are sure to get it back. Also, standard business loans are often limited to pre-existing businesses that have a financial history of success.

Application for a loan can be lengthy – Bank loans may require more information and a longer review process compared to other types of sources.

Collateral is usually required - A commercial institute usually requires collateral on the business loan, although this would probably not be required from other types of lenders. This may be quite risky if the collateral that you have to put up is your house or other family possessions.

You may not get all you ask for – Unlike a housing loan, which barely needs any persuasion to qualify for, you may not be able to get 80-100% funding for your business. The return on housing loans is so much better for banks that for a business loan, unless it’s quite small, you may only receive 75% of what you ask for. This varies from bank to bank.

So weigh your options before taking a corporate loan from a financial institution such as a bank, it may actually be better for you to find other sources of funding. Friends and family are always a good place to start. Just consider the pros and cons as laid out above and it will help you to come to an informed decision.

How To Start A Business Forum.

2008-08-19T02:00:00.003+08:00

As I suspected when I started this blog, people really ARE trying to find out how to start a business in

Malaysia

because they just don’t know how. We don’t have any many sources of local information for the budding entrepreneur or the hopeful small/ medium business owner.

Even for this blog, which only averages somewhere around 40-50 visitors a day (very low I know…) there are still quite a few search queries from Google and Yahoo which help land onto my site.

Click to enlarge.

Have a look, people want to know how to start restaurants and shoe businesses and especially how to register a sole proprietorship in Malaysia. The demand for information to starting a business in Malaysia is there but it seems there aren’t many places to supply that information.

Because of this, I have created a business forum to let people share, along with myself, business advice and solutions for people who don’t know. The forum is called The Business Suit – Everything You Need To Start A Business In Malaysia and can be located at www.onlinebusinessmalaysia.com or www.TheBusinessSuit.com.

Click the image to visit.

Why have 2 domain names I hear you ask? The reason is simple, it’s for Google/ Yahoo/ MSN’s sake. Search engines like it when the search term people are looking for are somewhere in the URL that you are writing the content on. Although it’s not necessary, it does help a lot, hence the ‘onlinebusinessmalaysia’ domain name. Which has the keywords ‘Malaysia’ and ‘Business’ in it and will help me rank hire in these keywords.

But just having a web name with the keywords in it doesn’t mean your job is done. It’s still about the content and optimizing it for search engines.

I will still be updating this blog, but my hope for the forum is for it to become a complete one stop solution for business questions. I can only write so much in my blog but I’m sure there are much more informed business minds out there who could share information with people. It’s also a place where I hope people will stop and ask questions about any type of business.

So I hope anyone landing here would share any useful business starting information with all the other visitors. The site will be completely up and running soon because I’m still making some tweaks to it.

Using Del.icio.us To Research

2008-08-17T00:43:00.005+08:00

Most people might not know what del.icio.us is or how it works. For ease of typing, I'll refer to it as 'delicious' since when you type in the word 'delicious' in Google, the first result is del.icio.us anyway.

This is delicious.

So what is delicious? Chocolates? No, delicious is a social bookmarks manager that allows you to bookmark any webpage using your choice of keywords to remind you of what that page was. You can access delicious from any internet browser, hence having access to your bookmarks from anywhere in the world.

The old way of keeping bookmarks of useful pages was to create a new folder in Mozilla/ IE/ Netscape etc and add bookmarks one by one to your bookmarks list. To retrieve them back you would have to 1) have access to the same computer you bookmarked with and 2) search through the bookmarks based on the website name alone.

Both are quite cumbersome things to do just to search for a website you thought would help for your article/ project as 1) you don't have access to the same computer all the time and 2) searching through bookmarks by website name may lead you to not finding the specific page you wanted. If you did, it probably took some time.

The Delicious toolbar.

Personally, I have the Mozilla Del.icio.us toolbar installed on the computers that I use regularly for research. At a click of a button, you can add a bookmark, along with all the tags you need to help you find that website again at a future date. The toolbar will automatically update your online account (which is FREE) and update your bookmark database.

You can then access you bookmarks from any other computer with the toolbar installed, or just go to the del.icio.us website.

Hope this tip saves you time and effort when you are doing you future business research. It sure helped me.

How To Register A Business Manually

2008-08-14T01:04:00.004+08:00

The first option you have is to register your business online through the government portal and the SSM website. However as you can see from my previous post about registering a business online, this can be quite a time consuming and ultimately frustrating thing.

If you would prefer to do it quickly (but not any less frustrating I might add) then all you need to do is head over to the SSM building located at 'The Mall' in KL city.

Registering your business can be done at their main counter. However, you have to be wary of all the offices located directly outside the SSM business registration counter. They have 'sales men' standing right outside their offices shouting at you to "come register with us! we do it damn quickly" and it sounds almost like a market place.

"Mari mari! mari mari!"

Although they may seem dodgy, if you want to spend a little extra cash minus all the hassle, you can ask one of them to register your business name for you. They'll charge around RM20 plus to sign up and submit your forms for you.

If not, just walk right past them and go to the information counter. They'll tell you exactly where to go to sign up your business. And if you're not sure, just ask around, someone will surely know what they're doing.

Here's a list of SSM offices around Malaysia you can go to if you can't get to the KL office.

It costs exactly the same as registering online which is about RM60 per business name with additional fees for signing up partners and branches.

The SSM information counter is located on the ground floor of the mall, on the opposite side of the shopping mall as the department store. Just follow the signs and listen for the people shouting!

Need An Office? Why Not Try A Virtual Office?

2008-08-06T00:22:00.003+08:00

The inner monologue of a virtual office.

I've been looking around for a virtual office recently, just so that when I print out business cards, at least it will look more professional.

My original idea was to rent a PO Box from the post office, but who would take you seriously if you had a PO Box address as your office address?

A virtual office provides services at different costs, depending on your needs. The most expensive of these costs is when you have a serviced office which you can use to conduct meetings with clients. The virtual office business will charge you an hourly rate for the use of the meeting room and you will have to book in advance.

The other services you can pay for are mail forwarding, secretary service (someone will actually answer your call and can be taught to answer basic questions about your business, product or service) and fax/ telephone services.

The benefits of using a virtual office in Malaysia are:

You can register your business address as theirs and use it on your business card. (You can even register their business address with SSM)
Your business will have an address in good location. (This helps build credibility and prospects may take you more seriously. Virtual offices usually are located in good locations in KL and PJ)
You don't need to pay rent. (You can hire the serviced office on a pay as you go basis)
You have a fax/ telephone number that clients can contact. (Faxes can be forwarded automatically to your email, but if you use their telephone number, you'll have to pay for the secretary services as well.)
You can work from home but no one will know... haha.

The cons of a virtual office are:

You think you have an office, but you actually DON'T. (But hopefully if you start making money in your business, then you can go buy or rent a REAL office... oh how we dream)

Depending on your budget, there are plenty of serviced/ virtual office services you can pay for in Malaysia. Some are more affordable than others, but they should all offer a professional service.

Pissed Off With Your Boss?

2008-08-05T01:04:00.003+08:00

Tell him to PUT A CORK IN IT!

Or maybe, YOU should put a cork in it.

Huh?

Does Your Car Help Improve Business?

2008-08-03T23:53:00.000+08:00

So you’ve got a potential prospect and you’re about to go meet him/her. You think, hey, why not jump into my dad’s sports car and meet them? I’m sure they won’t mind, it’s not like the car makes a difference in their decision whether or not to do business with me?

Or does it?

Let’s face the facts, we live in a world with real people, who are influenced by REAL EMOTIONS. Let’s say in the above scenario, you appear at your prospect’s office in a Mitsubishi Lancer 2.0 GT and you park in the parking lot just below his office window.

Scenario 1 (Sports Car = Mitsubishi Lancer 2.0)

Let’s say that this prospect likes to look out of the window of his business and just stare into the car park. And he sees you driving up to his office in a Mitsubishi, like you’re some kind of rally car driver.

Bosses inner monologue: Who the hell does this young punk think he is? Driving up here in his BRAND NEW MITSUBISHI LANCER… ooooooo… I’m soooooooo impressed. Has he started his own business in Malaysia and made it successful like ME? I don’t think so.

Has he made money over and over again like ME? No? That’s what I thought.

Young punk. No business for you!

Scenario 2 (Business Car = Nissan Sylphy)

Let’s take it from a different perspective.

Let’s say the young punk, I mean young business man like yourself decides to borrow his mum’s Nissan Sylphy, a more proper, business looking car.

And say he then drives up to the same business prospect and parks in the same spot under the same office.

The boss is still looking out of his window remember?

Bosses inner monologue this time: Wow, what a business looking car. This young man must be serious in whatever he is brining to come talk to me about. Look at how the Nissan Sylphy makes him look like a real business person as he steps out holding his brief case. It looks almost like that advert I saw on TV.

Wow. I’m impressed.

OK both scenarios are a bit exaggerated but the point is that people are people. EVEN rich, educated, learned, wise business men.

First impressions DO count. Maybe even when it comes to cars…

Although we may not be able to afford one anymore anyway.

Coming Soon: The Return

2008-07-05T15:58:00.002+08:00

My blog has been on hiatus while I was concentrating on starting up my website among other things.

Well the website hasn't started yet, but I've learned a lot more about what it takes to run a website.

So...

COMING SOON! The Return of Xanydude! (Hopefully)

Stay tuned...

Phuket Day 1

2008-05-14T22:54:00.030+08:00

Like I said in my older post, I recently went to Phuket for a bit of RnR. All in all it was an enjoyable holiday (considering that a cyclone blew by neighbouring Mayanmar).

We took an Air Asia flight down to Phuket from the KLCCT in Sepang and to save money we took LRT followed by a bus from KL Sentral. At KL Sentral, when you make your way to the buses these punters will start shouting at you to use their bus.

"Boss boss! Mari mari mari mari mari! RM8 only, LCCT!!! MAri MARrii!"

So we mari to the bus closest to us. And it took us to the LCCT where we lined up for our tickets.

Check out the line to Indonesia. Mine was 1/4 the size.

After getting our tickets, it was a quick stop at McDs for some nuggets and to fill in our Thai immigration forms.

And on to the plane we went.

Not bad for a low cost airline, some swanky leather seats (altbeit a bit oily)

Not many people on our flight. Either that, or it was full of short people and I wasn't able to see their heads.

The skies above Malaysia.
Umm. Yeah. (I was sleepy OK?!)

Approaching Phuket, you can start seeing all the surrounding islands as you get closer.
When you land at the airport, there are bags of free maps in all sorts of different languages. As well as brochures for alot of local attractions and restaurants and spas. So we grabbed one.

A 45 minute taxi ride, with an unexpected stop (where the boss of the taxi driver tried to sell us day trips and shows half way to the hotel) next, but we eventually got there. That's our hotel in the distance across the lake btw. Not bad for only rm50 a night eh?

We asked one of the locals where we could get some nice local food. And she told us, go to 'Big Mamas' restaurant. And so we did.

Phad Thai, fried spring rolls and fried rice were our selections. Not bad. The phad thai in thailand is chewier than that founds in Malaysia. For dessert, I got sticky rice and mango from just outside a temple next door. They gave me a gigantic mango and alot of rice. Heavenly.

One of the things I was told about Phuket is that traditional massages at the numerous massage parlours were extremely cheap. Since I had big feet, I decided to get a foot massage while my girlfriend went for a full body oil massage.

Only RM55 for the both of us.

Even the cats here live the life. His/her name is Garfield btw.

Seeing as it was monsoon season, the water wasn't exactly crystal clear and calm. And with the cyclone blowing by just to our North, I was suprised the waves weren't even bigger.

As it was getting late, we decided to walk down along the beach road and find ourselves some dinner. On the way there I saw these signs.

It was a bit disconcerting because all I could picture was the tsunami clip that I'd seen countless times on the news and we were walking just meters away from the beach.

Anyway, we finally found some food to eat down the road from this sign. We decided to be adventurous and eat some street food...
Some seafood salad and pork satay.

We didn't eat this, but check out what they consider 'pancakes' in Phuket. It's just roti canai!

And that was the end of day 1 in Phuket! Free and easy.

Back From Phuket!

2008-05-12T13:16:00.003+08:00

Hi all, I'm back from Phuket and it was quite an enjoyable experience...

I'll post pictures up when I've compiled them on my computer and describe the things I did while I was there. These include:

Sea kayaking
Motor bike riding
Temple visiting
Food eating
Phantasea-ing

But one of the best things about my holiday is that is has pushed my body clock almost back to what it was when I was still working.
I sleep relatively early (1a.m/ 2a.m) and wake up at about 10am or 11am. It gives me more time in the day to do such things as this blog, errands for the house and working on my website.

It's also given me a renewed sense of vigour to push myself to get my business up and running (and make some REAL money).

And lastly, congratulations Manchester United! English Premier League CHAMPIONS 2007/2008!

Off To Phuket!

2008-05-05T17:40:00.002+08:00

I'm heading off to Phuket tomorrow for a couple days. RM1300 for 2 people including flight and accomodation bought off Air Asia.

Now a days, you don't have to do anything original because most things have been done before and if it aint broke, don't fix it.

Like for this trip, my girlfriend went on virtualtourist.com to check out what other people have done in Phuket, what's good to eat there and what things we have to keep an eye open for.

The site even provides emergency contact numbers. So there goes the hassle of trying to figure out what's good to plan for our itenirary.

I'm watching Family guy on Star TV right now... It's so damn random. Yet extremely funny.

Till I get back, enjoy work!

Where Did That Blogger Go?

2008-05-01T14:10:00.007+08:00

Where have I been (some may ask)? I've been nowhere, still at home, still plugging along on my website, still sleeping at ungodly hours of the night and still waking up when most people have been awake half the day...

I guess it's the countless hours that I spend in front of my computer which has made me neglect adding posts to my blog, because after 5 hours in front of the computer doing the same thing... you don't want to spend another 1 hour in front of the computer doing another thing.

But I think enough is enough for excuses. So what has happened in the last week++?

1) Been studying to become an insurance agent

2) Had an encounter with another internet entrepreneur, who made me a business proposal to from a new company (will post about this one day)

3) Had an encounter with another insurance agent who tried to sell me insurance while I was at Starbucks, which was quite ironic because of (1.) above.

4) Programming programming programming

5) Chelsea beat Man Utd @ home (stupid bribed referee)

6) Man Utd beat Barcelona @ home (WE ARE GOING TO MOSCOW!!! SCHOLESSSSS!!!)
7) Somehow Liverpool conspired to lose to Chelsea (They are going to Moscow too! Yipeee!!!!)

"I believe I can flyyyyy!"

8) Programming programming programming

9) Fridge broke down, defrosted all my meat (I eat alot of meat, so this is more tragic than it sounds)

10) Attended formal event at KLPAC for the debut screening of Leo Di Caprio's 11th hour, sponsored by YTL. (I preferred Al Gore's 'An Inconvenient Truth' myself, but Leo's documentary did fill in some of the details that Al's didn't do.)

And that's about it.

An Encounter With an Insurance Agent

2008-04-22T13:54:00.004+08:00

The other day my mum's friend came around and she happened to be quite a sucessful insurance agent. She had previously suggested to my mum if I wanted to sign up as an insurance agent part-time, since I was currently unemployed.

The funny thing was how she explained to me how great it was joining on as an insurance agent. It sounded exactly like what a potential employer would say to talk up your career progression in a corporation.

"By 29 you'll be a manager with your own team, no problem"

"Every year they will send you and your family on a holiday, this year we came back from Egypt and it was magnificent. They set up a podium opposite the pyramids of Giza and we had caviar and smoked salmon. In the middle of the desert!"

I'm not sure if she was exaggerating or not, but she then proceeded to tell me how much money she makes, which was 'not much' at RM500,000 a year but some of her colleagues were making a few million RM a year.

I was told the process for qualifying as an agent which was Form 5 qualifications and above and that I would need to study some books and take 2 multiple choice question tests.

I would then need to attend a 4 day course if I passed these tests.

So I think I will take the tests and register to be a insurance agent. But not because of what the lady told me, I have more faith in my website that I'm creating rather than my skills as an insurance agent...

...but rather that I will be able to buy insurance for my dad and family members at a much lower cost (as the comission I would receive from them buying their insurance form me, I could partially or wholely return it to them).

But I have to study books again. It's been a long time since I last did that.

Oh well.

How To Register A Sole Proprietorship Online, Using SSM.com.my.

2008-04-18T01:28:00.004+08:00

[Update August 2008: Additionally, you can download all the steps I have listed below in an easy to read .pdf file that I took the time to create. And yes, it's FREE! Click here.]

Here are all the steps required to register your business as a sole proprietor in Malaysia. And the best thing about it is it's online!

Bookmark this post, tell all your friends and family and forward everyone you know this link. Now no one can use the excuse, 'I don't know how to register a business, so I won't start one' anymore!

Step 1 - Warning

Use Internet Explorer, as there's a problem with Mozilla in the later stages of the application process and you won't be able to use some important sections of the e - gov pages.

Although the government sites claim to be available 24 hours a day, I found that the payment pages didn't work on the weekend and also outside of business hours. Whether or not the system was down for maintenance, I don't know, but it won't tell you that the site is down, it'll just refuse to accept payment.

So I would suggest registering your business name on weekdays and during working hours.

Also, please be prepared to click through ALOT of links, as the process flow of the government portal SUCKS. Just be calm, be Zen and everything should go smoothly for you if you follow my instructions. (Now if only I had some instructions to follow)

Alternatively, you could do all this manually at The Mall opposite PWTC, but I refuse to.

Step 2 - Create an account with 'mygovernment'

Go to the registration page for the 'mygovernment' web page and select your category. Mine was 'Malaysian citizen'.

The next page will ask for your details, such as age, sex, IC number, address etc. Fill in all the details on the page.

Apparently, if you're not sure what sex you are, you may select the option 'doubt'. If you don't believe me try signing up and clicking the 'gender' tab.

Be warned that there are bugs in the form, such as when I tried to check if my user name was available. It gave me the following page. I suggest just choose a user name and fill in the rest of the details first. When you click next, it'll tell you if the name is being used or not anyway.

Once all the details are filled, you will get to the 'registration successful' page. You now have to wait for them to send a confirmation e-mail to your registered e-mail address, saying that you have been added to the system.

It didn't take too long for me, about a half hour... but I'm sure times will vary, just be patient.

Once the e-mail arrives, congratulations! You're now registered with 'mygovernment'.

Step 3 - Become Frustrated

OK, at this point, you've registered with the 'mygovernment' website. However, you will need to register an account on ANOTHER government body site, called 'Suruhanjaya Syarikat Malaysia' or 'Companies Commission of Malaysia'.

I don't know why they have to complicate things like this, but hey, that's how things work in Malaysia.

After a lot of digging through on my own and to cut a long story short, the next step is to register with SSM. (Click the link)

At the bottom of the page, select 'ROB' and click 'open form'. The next page it opens is the personal information that you input when you registered with 'mygovernment' in step 2. Make sure it's correct and click 'finish'.

Once it saves, it will take you back to the original page (shown above). Click 'submit' to continue.

Unfortunately, nothing in life is free. The next page will ask for payment.

It's a RM5 subscription fee (yearly i think). I used my credit card to pay. Just enter your credit card details and click 'pay'. The box labeled 'security code' is the 3 digit number on the back of your credit card, or sometimes referred to as a CVS number.

You will then be issued an online receipt. Print out a copy and keep this aside in case of future needs.

You will need to renew your SSM membership one year from the day you joined, in case you want to sign up any more business names.

Click 'close' to proceed to the next step.

Step 4 - Application of business name approval (ROB)

OK now you have to apply for your business name to be approved. This step is because there are certain business names that you can't use due to certain words being gazetted. Please see the gazetted (ie prohibited) words and the registration guide for a business name. For example, naming a restaurant King of Kings would probably not be allowed.

Firstly, go to the SSM- Application For Business Name Approval (ROB) and scroll to the bottom of the page. You may have to login again.

Click 'Open Form' and fill in all the details of your business.
At this point it'll be good to point out that they can refuse your business name if it is misleading to the nature of your business. So don't go applying for business names like 'Make Money for Free Enterprise' or something like that. It'll just get refused.

I was refused the business name 'Inside the Box' several times until I got fed up and chose the name 'Inside the Box Web Services'. The previous name was refused several times due to a 'misleading nature' of the business name as deemed by SSM.

Once all the information is filled in, click 'finish' and it will take you back to the main page again. Scroll to the bottom and click 'submit' it will ask you if you are sure. Click 'yes'.

Print out a copy of the transaction and then you'll have to wait for them to approve the use of your chosen business name. Once they do they will send you an e-mail, after you get approval proceed to step 5 below.

Step 5- Online Registration of Business (ROB)

Now that you've completed all the frustrating steps above, you can now register your business using your approved business name.

First, go to the link SSM - Online Registration of Business (ROB) and login again if they ask you to.

Scroll to the bottom of the page where it says 'step 1' and click 'open form A'.

Page 1

Page 2

Fill in all the details that you see. (Page 1 is just details about yourself. Page 2 asks you to select your business type and verify your details.)

The very first line, 'Name approval No.' is the reference number of your ROB name approval from step 4 above. It will be in the subject heading of the e-mail you will receive from SSM approving the use of your business name.

Click 'Verify Name Approval No.' and it will automatically fill in the box labelled 'business name' if the name was approved.

click 'next' when you're done and proceed to page 2.

On page 2, click the link 'object code table' and type in the type of business you will be operating. So I typed in 'Internet' and it gave me 2 choices, internet cafe or internet services. I chose internet services.

After verifying the details, click 'finish' and it will bring you back to the original screen. Scroll down and click 'Open form branch info (new form)' under 'step 2'.

Fill in all the details that you see and click 'finish' again.

Be warned that the system is not the most stable in the world. You may have to re-save or re-finish Form A before it lets you move on to the next form. If on the main page there is a red * next to the form buttons, it means you have to go back to the form and re-submit some data or there was an error in your submission.

Next select 'Open Form Branch Info (New Form)'. Fill in the details about your branch location. Click 'Finish' when done.

Next click 'print form A and Branch info' and print yourself a copy of your forms.

Click the 'back' button on your browser to go back to the main screen when you're done printing.

Scroll down to 'step 3' and click the small link of the number 1 that you see under the sentence 'please fill in all the required information'.

Why is this step so weird? I don't know, that's how I had to do it.

Now although it looks like there are more steps to complete (ie step 4 and step 5) after much frustration and through calling SSM, I found out that unless you have a business partner, you don't have to upload any supporting documents.

So click 'submit' and proceed to payment.

It will cost you RM60 for each year that you register as well as RM5 for each branch of your business that you register. Again I am going to pay with my credit card. Select the payment method that you wish and click 'pay'.

Fill in the details and click 'pay' again. Print yourself a copy of your receipt and you're done!

They will e-mail you a copy of your business details in .pdf format. Print one to file away.

The email will also instruct you (in Malay again) to print out one copy and keep it on display at your place of business (which for me is the wall attached to my room).

It will take 24 hours to process your documents. If you can find your business name at SSM Registration and Business Search application, then:

Congratulations! You are now the proud owner of your very own business (well business name anyway.)

Now go make some money you BUM!

How to Start a Start-Up

2008-04-16T00:46:00.002+08:00

I recently read a very interesting article about how to start a startup. The essay was written all the way back in 2005 by Paul Graham, the creator of a number of successful web applications including the back bone for the 'Yahoo Store' application, Yahoo's answer to e-Bay.

Although he writes the essay from the point of view of a web programmer, a lot of what he says has relevance no matter what field of business you are in.

The original essay can be found here.

He breaks it down into 3 key points.

1) The Idea

He states that you need to MAKE SOMETHING PEOPLE ACTUALLY WANT.

He points out that you need not have a brilliant idea to start a business, just offer people something better than they have now. This may be in the form of technology or just offering a better service.

In his words, more often than not, what is available sucks and all YOU have to do is provide something to them which doesn't suck. Overly simplistic perhaps, but true.

And adding my 2 cents worth, if you make something based wholly on the amount of money you can make from it, more often than not you'll probably lose focus and stop listening to what your customers are saying. So focus on your customers, in the end they're the ones paying for your product/ service anyway.

Keep working hard at it and the money will surely come.

2) The people

He has quite a good rule for choosing the best people for his company. His rule is, could you describe a person as an animal? Like for example, if you really need to get a web page designed fast and of the highest quality, would this guy work like an animal to get it done?

Would he stay till 4a.m every night of the last week making sure the website works? If so, you've found your man/ woman.

From my point of view, I've realized that I don't think I'll be able to design and run my website all by myself (although I've tried) and I've finally decided that I need help. The best help comes from your friends, so I'm gonna see if 1 of my friends this weekend wants to come on board.

Although most people (including myself) has the greatest urge to keep something they've created to themselves, in reality that doesn't happen.

I remember when I went to the YouthMalaysia.com conference, one of the speakers was talking about how reluctant people are about sharing their business with a VC. But he makes a good point in saying,

"There's no point in having a business all to yourself if it doesn't see the light of day."

3) Spending As Little As Possible

In his article, Paul describes that he had to raise funds to develop his software. When you actually get these funds, there's a perverse thought that you are actually rich. But you're not.

If you started off poor and ask for money to develop something, that money has a purpose. Which means you are still poor.

He explains that in the 1997 internet bubble burst, what happened was that alot of startups were given loads of money when they were floated on the stock market. At this point, it seemed like the companies were rich and what do big rich companies do? They hire people.

And that's what they did. Hire and spend and hire and spend forgetting that the money was raised to develop a product in the first place.

So if you do manage to raise some VC or angel funds for your business, keep in mind that you're still poor but have a chance to make something of your business with the money you've been lent.

Boot strap as much as possible, that's what I've been trying to do this whole time.

Hence designing my site myself and trying to do as many things as possible at the lowest cost.

Even my home office was as cheap as I could make it.

I suggest you give the original article a read through as it is quite enlightening. It enlightened me that I can't do everything myself no matter how hard I try. Be inspired from it, learn something new and who knows? You may even want to start your own business.

On a side note, the process for registering my business name is slowly slowly coming along. Will post a really long post on how I did it soon. (I hope.)

Cheers!

Burning The Midnight Oil

2008-04-12T00:53:00.003+08:00

The last 2 weeks I've been sleeping at around 4.30am and waking up around noon or 1pm. So much so that to my body, it feels the norm.

It feels like those days back in uni. when I was rushing to get an assignment done in the last minute and staying up all night to make sure that I finished.

My website is turning out to be just the same.

But the problem is that I'm not so much of a morning person as I am a night person. Starting work in the middle of the afternoon and working until the early hours of the morning feel so much more comfortable to me.

But I don't know how much more my body can take it. So today I'm going to turn in at the early time of 2am.

Sometimes, I wonder what keeps my flame of determination burning to keep on going and going, to somehow know that the little steps I make will eventually get me to my bigger goal.

And I know the answer...

Arrogance. Arrogance stokes a fire to become a mighty flame. The unerring belief that your idea will reap the rewards... regardless.

Others call it determination and I guess that's another word for it.

Side note: The government keep rejecting my business name because they deem it misleading to the nature of my business.

Unless I'm mistaken, Nike in the english language does not mean 'to sell sports apparel'.

And they keep replying my english-written questions in Malay.

Oh well, that's how things go in Malaysia. I've just got to keep trying.

Web Design Is Not As Easy As It Looks

2008-04-08T14:10:00.006+08:00

As you've noticed, I've not written a post for about 5 days already. People are probably wondering,

"What's this guy doing that's made him so busy that he can't put a simple post on his blog? He's unemployed after all..."

Well I've been doing 2 things this whole time.

1) Trying to register my business name

In an earlier post, I wrote about how you can register your business name online (for a sole proprietor or a partnership business). You do this by going through the 'mygovernment website' and following the instructions.

I'm actually in the process of registering my business right now through the site above, and let me tell you, it's the most confusing process I have ever done online.

The site ping-pongs you between 2 government body sites asking you to register here, register there, pay here, sign up this form, wait and wait some more.

All in all, it's been super frustrating. I could have easily gone to 'The Mall' opposite PWTC in KL city and sign up manually, but I refuse to let the government website beat me. I will not lose to THE MAN!

I'll post step by step how to register a sole proprietorship online in a later post (once my online forms are approved by the 'mygovernment' website) but I have no idea how long that will take.

2) Trying to design my website

Web design is not as easy as it looks (OK it never looked all THAT easy in the first place) and my lack of knowledge in the subject has made me be forced to do alot of self study on it.

I could hire someone to design my web site and be done with it, but my philosophy is that if you're in a leadersip or decision making position, you need to know what you're making a decision about.

If someone completely designs my website for me while I sit at home and watch anime and TV, how will I explain what needs to be done to other people once the designer is done (assuming he's a freelancer)? And if I'm really set on creating websites as a full-time business, I need to know a bit more than skin-deep.

So I've been programming my website with the help of some open source software called Joomla! Yes, it's 'Joomla!' with the exclamation mark.

Basically, it's a content management system (CMS) where you write articles and your content on the system and it automatically will upload it to your website. Without this, you'd have to manually create your own CMS or each page would need to be created separately and uploaded to your website.

Joomla! is quite unique in that all your content is uploaded onto templates which you can fully customize. So that's what I've been trying to do, customize an already existing template (which I purcahsed from Rockettheme) to my own needs.

Which is alot easier said than done.

Many long nights have been spent infront of Macromedia Fireworks and Mozilla, reading up on tutorials and trying to create my own graphics.

But hey, I'm bootstrapping my business, so I've no right to complain...

Wish me luck!

Love Your Family

2008-04-02T01:10:00.003+08:00

I've just gotten back from a mamak session with my girlfriend and some friends and want to tell you how I saw a son fight with his father while it's still fresh in my mind.

The mamak in question is the one on jalan gasing, next to the New Ipoh Chicken Rice retaurant on that small row of shop lots opposite the school.

We were finishing up with our mamak and were about to pay when I heard some commotion coming from the road adjacent to where we were sitting.

I turn around and see two cars parked one behind the other just on the side of the road about 10 metres away from us. An elderly guy and a middle aged woman are next to the car in front, a relatively young man is next to the car at the back.

Being the nosy person that I am, I stop and sit back down instead of paying for our food and watch what was happening on the road.

At this point (sorry, no photos at all during the whole incident as I was busy and didn't think it'd be appropriate to take pictures of the kind of situation that follows) the young man at the back walks to the front car, gets into the driver's seat and revs the engine a bit.

He then walks back to his car.

The whole way back the old man was swearing at him in Chinese, saying Fuck you, go to hell, fuck off etc.

All of a sudden, the old man walks to the younger man and slaps him across the face. At this point the young man goes ape shit and starts hitting the old man and while the old man is staggering away, manages to beat him to the ground.

He slaps him a bit more and at this point I hear him shout at the man, "What kind of father are you?" (in Cantonese- yes, I do understand a bit) He then drags his dad along the floor and towards the back door of his car. They start to struggle as the dad fights back from being pushed into the car and the son keeps throwing and beating him into the car.

At this point me and my friends, along with some other passer-bys rush to the car to try to stop the son from killing the dad. (From outside, it looked like the son was strangling the father, but he was actually just holding his shirt and shouting at him).

As a group we manage to calm him down and pull him away from beating his dad (which took quite some time) who staggers out of the car and walks slowly away. At first I thought he was staggering because his son had beat him around, but I realize that he's drunk.

While we try to talk to the son and calm him down, the dad keeps hurling abuse at him, and now in English, he's shouting,

"What kind of son are you?"

"Fuck off, this kind of son can go die!"

"I raised you and this is how you treat me?"

I walked over towards the lady that came with the old man and ask her to take the man and drive away, but she didn't seem to understand what I was saying. (I think she may have been a hooker)

We ask the son what happened and he told us that the dad's girlfriend had called him cause he was driving around drunk out of his mind.

And that the last time his dad drove around drunk like this, he had a huge car accident where he managed to flip his car onto its roof.

He then makes a phone call and we can hear him shouting at someone on the phone,

"He's your fucking father too, you come and get him. You won't get slapped for trying to help him, like I was."

But he makes it obvious that the sister and no one else in particular is coming to pick up his dad.

The whole time, we had to keep the dad from approaching his son and it was quite amazing how he managed to constantly hurl abuse at the son non stop. He even managed to walk towards the son a few steps and spit on the floor and tell him to go die (again).

I even heard him shout,

"I spent 20,000 rinngit for his fucking car when he had an accident in Desa Petaling!"

Somehow we managed to calm the son down and told him to drive home and to forget about the drunk old man. After quite a while he agrees with us and drives off.

Although it was quite a serious and heart pumping situation, I found some humor in it because my friend's car was being blocked by the drunk old man's car, so he couldn't leave even if he wanted to.

The crowd then slowly dispersed and the old man got into his car and drove a few metres in front (only to block my other friend's car) but we managed to get the old man to drive just a little bit forward, where he stopped.

I got into my car at this point and drove off, but the last thing I saw was the old man with his hand on his face and leaning on the window, like he was crying (but I'm not sure).

The whole incident lasted about half an hour.

My friends behind me later told me that they saw the son drive back to his dad's car again, but he was already driving off so he couldn't tell if anything happened.

I don't know the whole story of why the dad was acting this way, but obviously he has forgotten that blood is always thicker than water.

So this is a reminder for you that you should be thankful for what you all have and to cherish and love your family each and every day.

Please pass this last message on to others.

Distractions at Work

2008-03-31T23:26:00.008+08:00

I must confess that because I'm working from home, I do get distracted pretty easily...

The result of this is that I start doing most of my work late in the afternoon or at night, which is not too bad for me because I'm a night owl anyway. But it means that I sleep at 3am++ most nights and wake up at noon.

These are some of the things that have taken my eye off the ball recently:

Yakitate!! Japan.

It's an anime about a young Japanese boy who is trying to create a bread worthy enough to be called the Japanese bread or Ja-Pan (Pan means bread in japanese) similar to how a french loaf is called 'french bread'.

He battles all sorts of funny characters throughout the 69 episodes (Which I average about 2 a day) and what I love about the anime is how they parody other popular anime, such as Naruto and Dragon Ball.

I've noticed that I've had the urge to eat alot more bread the last few weeks... I wonder why?

Battlestar Galactica

This show is an American sci-fi series which airs on the sci-fi channel (yes there are alot of geeks in America) and is about a war between man kind and their robotic creations, the Cylons.

The starship Galactica is the last ship standing (well it is at the point of the series I'm at anyway) and they have 50,000 survivors in a fleet with them with the aim of trying to find their long lost homeworld, Earth. (so cliche I know.)

But what I find quite funny about the series is a character called Dr. Gaius Baltar, who has a chip implanted in his head where the woman (in left of picture below) can be seen by him and only him and makes him do things while he's awake. Oh, and she's a human version of the invading alien army... go figure.

Suffice it to say, he does some really weird stuff while he's talking to other people around him, like talking to the wall, kissing the air, taking off his pants and banging his head into a mirror.

I have 3 seasons of this series. 1 hour long episodes each. And I'm already through season 1.

Various cooking shows

Jamie Oliver

Gordon Ramsay and the F Word

I love food. And for me, the best way to get a good dose of good food action is to watch some quick 30 minute episodes of some British cooking shows.

You'd think it'd get me all inspired to cook right? Well actually all it does it make me hungry then I'll go make myself some half boiled eggs with toast.

So class... what distracts YOU at work?

Please do let me know so that I can avoid any more pitfalls.

Simple Solutions for Simple Problems

2008-03-28T23:23:00.014+08:00

I went for dinner at Sunway Pyramid 2 on the weekend and noticed a couple of neat things they have implemented in the new wing to make your shopping experience a little bit easier.

You ever get frustrated looking for a parking space? Ever wonder if driving round and round on the same floor is pointless since there aren't any parking spaces left on that floor anyway?

Well check out these simple solutions to those simple problems.

When you get into the basement car park at Sunway Pyramid you'll notice alot of these signs with red numbers and green arrows located all around the floor. They point you in the direction of empty parking spaces and tell you how many are available in that direction.

But wait it gets better.

When was the last time you thought you saw an empty parking spot and gleefully drive at full speed towards it? But when you get there what do you see? A bloody Kancil/ Kelisa/ Some other small car you couldn't see from a distance!

To combat the fiendish conspiracy of Kancil owners in car parks, Sunway pyramid have implemented a system where at a glance you'll be able to tell if the parking lot is empty or taken. If you notice in the picture, there are red lights above all the parking spots.

When the light is red, the spot is taken.

But when the light is green? Congratulations! You've won yourself a parking spot!

Cool huh?

But wait there's even more still.

If you're like me, you are never able to remember where you parked your car. No matter how hard you try, you will always go to the wrong area on the way back to your car.

Check out the sign above stuck on most of the pillars in the Sunway Pyramid car park. It reads "Snap the pillar number to remember your parking spot."

That's such a simple solution that it should be common sense. But until I read that sign, I never thought about it.

Once out of the car park, these giant screens will show you every floor of the shopping mall, where you are as well as a listing of all the shops/ restaurants in their different categories.

It's quite alot of information to read but at least you have it all at one glance, unlike some other shopping malls, where they show you the information 1 floor at a time.

What's more... the screen will turn into a giant advert every once and a while. Nifty huh?

Remember my last post on entrepreneurship in Malaysia? Well hoping that I could get some more information about the subject from a local context, I paid a visit to popular bookstore (still in Sunway Pyramid 2) and what did I find?

These 2 books. Now how relevant is this to local entrepreneurs? (Although I found it dumb they labeled these 2 books under entrepreneurs, I know people do buy them, because my cousin bought himself the first book before he flew off to India to start work.)

And the last nifty solution? You see that cardboard piece around the take-away Starbucks cup Sue Ann is holding?

Well it prevents your hands from getting burnt by the heat of the liquid and is a mini advert as well.

So don't over-complicate things. In the end, simple is the way to go.

Where Have All The Entrepreneurs Gone?

2008-03-27T00:05:00.006+08:00

A few months ago I attended the Youth Malaysia young entrepreneurship conference which was organized by an old uni mate of mine, Joel. (Hmm... not sure if he even remembers me actually.)

But anyway, at the event which I attended with Mr. Bozo, we saw no less than 200 - 300 people attend, which I'm assuming have dreams of becoming entrepreneurs. Most of the audience were in their mid 20s and some were even undergraduates from universities.

The speakers for the night featured guests speakers who are young success stories in their own right, these included Kenny Sia, Kid Chan, the creator of Nuffnang Malaysia and even Joel (winner of NTV7s 'The Firm'). Check out all the speakers here.

But what I want to know is, where have all these 'entrepreneurs' gone?

For example, when you do a search on Google for 'entrepreneurs Malaysia' you get the following search results:

Click the image to enlarge it, or do the search for yourself. If you've noticed, I've visited some of the links already (highlighted in purple) and what I've noticed is that you can't really get free information about entrepreneurship in Malaysia. (Please correct me if I'm wrong and give me some good local sites about entrepreneurship and starting a business)

The other links are actually sites overseas giving tidbits of information about entrepreneurship in Malaysia. Whereas the links I visited ask for membership fees to join the site.

Let's take a look at some international websites to compare shall we?

Check out entrepreneur.com and you'll see what I mean.

This site gives all the tools and resources you need to start a small business (in general) but what I think we need is a site which tells you how to start a small business in Malaysia. And when I mean website, I mean providing useful information, resources and forums in layman's terms, free of charge.

If you type 'how to start a business in Malaysia' on Yahoo, yours truly has not 1 but 2 hits on the first page! (but on Google I only feature on the 12th page... haha)

How can my website make it to the 1st page in Yahoo about starting a business in Malaysia? And result in 20% of the links?

In Aussy-land (Australia), the very first link is business.gov.au, a government sponsored site detailing all the information you'd ever need, from tax, to law to costs of starting specific businesses an entrepreneur would ever need.

Why don't we have anything like that from the Malaysian government? What does the Malaysian government provide instead? Some bits of information mostly for foreign companies who want to establish a business here.

There are barely any forums for entrepreneurs to talk to each other, there are no free resources for them to use and I can't find many blogs about telling people how to start a business locally.

So where are all the entrepreneurs out there? The government aren't encouraging or supporting us so we need to stand on our own two feet and SHOUT.

We need more conferences like youthmalaysia.com and we need more Malaysian entrepreneurship resources.

We need more local businesses making a name for themselves on the international scene. We need to put Malaysia on the map!

So who's doing it now? Is it YOU? Is it ME?

Let me know.

"If you think you can, you will."

PLEASE HELP ME Choose a Business Name...

2008-03-24T23:42:00.006+08:00

I've decided that it's about time for me to register my business name. Lately, I've been bumming about at home since resigning from my job and I really don't want to procrastinate anymore than I have.

But the problem I have is that I'm not too sure what to name my business. For those who don't know, I'm thinking of starting up a website which I hope will succeed and drive me in some revenue.

I'm not really designing the web pages for anybody else but myself so I couldn't really call it a 'design business' and I really don't want to name the business after the website name like Google, Yahoo or Youtube as I may want to expand and design a few other websites.

So I would really really really appreciate some votes on some shortlisted business names I've come up with. (you can select multiple names)

&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;a href="http://polls.blogflux.com/poll-22807.html"&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;Take the poll&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/a&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;br /&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;br /&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;a href="http://polls.blogflux.com/"&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;Free Poll by Blog Flux&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/a&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;

Any other suggestions would be great as well and you can post them in the comments section below.

Thanks!

Make Money Online - eBay? Business Tip #14!

2008-03-21T17:14:00.013+08:00

How to make money online is probably one of the highest search terms you can find on Google, Yahoo! or MSN. Even here, in Malaysia.

People on the WWW are all hoping that there is some magic formula to making their millions on the Internet, and there are thousands of Websites out there proclaiming to have this magic formula which is available for EVERYONE!

... for the small fee of $99.99 of course. (nothing is free in this world you know?)

My internet connection just died again because it's about to rain. Before I proceed, let me add that:

There are quite a few methods of making money online which I will discuss over a couple of posts because I don't want to be writing all week. Some may be applicable in Malaysia where as some would probably work better in America/ The Rest of the World.

Firstly,

The e-Bay Store

This has become quite a phenomenon over the last few years, where it allows members to sell their goods online, auction style. Highest bid in the allocated time wins the bid and the item they were bidding on.

What's unique about e-bay is that it works even though it uses an 'honour system' as money is paid up front and then only is the item shipped. You'd think this kind of system would only really work in Western countries right? (not saying that we in Asia have no honour but just that there'd be more susceptibility of scams in our part of the world... come on... you know it's true.)

But you'd be wrong! For instance, check out 2 local sites which offer the same services as e-Bay, lelong.com.my and mudah.com.my. I'm not actually sure how popular mudah is, but I know that lelong claim to have 31 MILLION page views a month. (That's a million page views a day... I'm pretty sure that most of those page views is because people keep reloading to see if they've won the bid, so it's not all THAT accurate)

Off the top of my head and from what I've heard from friends, here are some methods they use to scam, I mean earn some money from e-Bay and similar websites.

1) Using a local supplier but selling overseas

Over a game of poker, I remember one of my friends telling me that he buys 500GB Hard Disk Drives (HDD) from Lowyat plaza for a few hundred RM and then puts it for sale on e-Bay Australia.

You see? It's not so 'hard'

So what happens is he sells it for cheaper than or at the same price for the same brand HDD people are looking for in Australia. Which would still give him a profit because of the exchange rate of almost RM3 to AUS$1.

He would gain maybe AUS$50 per HDD sold which may not be much if he were living in Melboure or Sydney but multiply that by 3 and he's made a healthy RM150 per HDD.

Working full time at doing something like this and aiming to make 1 or 2 sales a day could make you quite a healthy living. (That's RM9000 a month if you sell everyday for 30 days)

So the key is to figure out what branded products are currently popular in countries where the currency is strong and find a local supplier, you would gain from the exchange rate.

2) Be someone worth meeting and sell a lunch date on e-Bay

Yes, I'm THIS BIG.

Yes, this may sound really strange but it's completely true. Investing legend Warren Buffet (That's pronounced buff-it, not buff-ay like the all you can eat type) listed a business lunch on e-Bay with the highest bidder winning the lunch with him. The proceeds would then go to charity.

In 2006, the winning bid was US$620,100 on e-Bay for the once in a lifetime lunch with Warren Buffet. The winner would be able to bring 7 guests along for the dinner.

Boy, I hope Warren Buffet at least paid for the lunch.

3) Sell something so dumb that you think no one in their right mind would buy it

Like an air guitar?

Picture from The Daily Mail. Title? The air guitar US Championships. SERIOUSLY.

Yeap you heard me... that imaginary space of air in front of you which you pretend to play when you used to dream of being the lead guitarist of Nirvana, or when you wanted to serenade that beautiful girl you liked by pretending to be Eric Clapton.

But alas, you can't actually sell an 'imaginary item' as there is no record of transfer of goods and hence breaches the rules set by e-Bay. But that doesn't mean that people never tried to sell an air guitar on e-Bay.

So why would you possibly listen to all the information that I've given you above? You probably think that I'm no e-Bay expert right?

Well wrong!

Check out how I make money online in Malaysia from e-Bay and hope to start my very own small business doing it*.

*OK you got me there, the above link was just to get some much needed keywords in my post to boost my rankings in Google. And the link I've used many times before. And I don't really want to sell things on e-Bay as a living. But I don't care and you won't know which post I've put up unless you CLICK IT ANYWAY! Cheers.

Business Ideas? Where Do I Find Them?

2008-03-20T00:32:00.010+08:00

Venturing out and starting your own business always stems from a first step, this being having a brilliant business idea or plan which you think you can do successfully. But where do you get brilliant business ideas? They don't just fall from the sky you know.

Let's discuss.

1) From your frustrations

Who hasn't been frustrated with one thing or another at any time in their lives? I have and I'm sure you have. What frustrates me? Well for example, those stupid motorcyclists aka Mat Rempits who drive against traffic and break every rule imaginable.

So my brilliant business idea for the benefit of the whole of Malaysia is to have a device installed in your car. This device will be activated by the press of the cliche 'big red button' and from the roof of your car, a NUCLEAR POWERED LASER BEAM will emerge and DESTROY HIM!

Something like this would be good.

I think it's pretty much Malaysian culture that whatever part of the country you travel to, Mat Rempits will always be breaking the rules with their stupid motorbikes. I don't think there are enough nuclear powered canons out there to get rid of all of them. But you can always dream right?

Ever wanted to know more about food but didn't know where to go? Then start a food blog like masak-masak or Two super heroes among others.

Ever wanted to know how to resign from your job but didn't know how? Then start a resigning from your job consultation company. Who knows? It might work.

Well you get the idea, build plans/ ideas from your frustrations.

2) Do something to save the world

And no, I'm not talking about becoming some sort of vigilante and running around the city dressed as Batman and beating up all the criminals...

Damn... I need to fart. Maybe making this suit out of rubber wasn't such a good idea after all.

What I meant was starting some sort of business where you can contribute back to society, such as WWF (Saving all the ~~wrestlers~~ I mean animals in the world), Youth Malaysia (encouraging entrepreneurship) Charity Malaysia (Multiple Categories) and Good Company (Provide the services of skilled professionals to charities who may otherwise not have been able to afford these services).

Saving the pandas... One choke slam/ DDT/ Rock Bottom/ Stone Cold Stunner at a time.

Now of course you are not going to get rich doing any of these, but you will have a salary paid to you from the funds raised by your charity. But on the brighter side, you can say that you are playing a part in changing a life. What more than that could you ask for?

Just a warning, don't go all Green Peace on me and start tying yourself to fishing boats or trees just because I suggested you could change the world. I mean it.

3) From Your Brilliant Mind, Because You Are A Genius

When you're a super genius sometimes things just come easier to you. Take Thomas Edison for example, this guy created the telephone and the electric light bulb. He also was the owner of like 1300 patents and he formed what is now know as General Electric.

Are you as smart as Thomas Edison?

I'm smarter than you. But I can't look straight at a camera.

Well then you're set for life... so stop reading my blog and go create a new Google, Youtube or Facebook!

4) By Being A Social Outcast/ Unpopular/ Oppressed early in life

Now it might be a bit controversial saying this but I really do believe that those who come up with the best business ideas sometimes were bullied or oppressed sometime during their lives. This made them work harder than the 'smarter' people around them just to PROVE they could do it.

Bill gates? Was told that DOS would never succeed and that there'd be no use for it. So he bought it, put windows on it and the rest is history.

Eminem? Was told that his rap style would never succeed in the industry. Well he's rapping all the way to the bank.

YOU? Were you bullied at school? Did people around you always tell you that you'd become a nobody in your lifetime? Do you hate your job, and your boss keeps pushing you past your limits?

Well use all that pent up energy but don't convert it into anger, instead, convert it into determination, so that when all your hard work pays off, you can go back to that person and tell them to kiss your ass.

So where did I find MY brilliant business idea?

From all the above of course.

It all happened when I was running around KL city and was frustrated with what I was wearing. It the dawned on me that I should come up with a business where I could deal with this frustration and raise funds for other people with the same frustration as me.

I then ran past a mirror and realized that I was the smartest person in the world. I was then attacked by some random people on the side of the road who told me that whatever I was thinking would never work in my lifetime.

And what did I come up with?

To sell used underwear of course.

To Sdn. Bhd or Not To Sdn. Bhd?

2008-03-18T18:27:00.013+08:00

Sorry for the delay in posting... for some reason, my modem decides to regularly disconnect from the internet at the onset of rain. Before it rains and while it rains my DSL connection just dies. (Well it's a good thing we live in a tropical rain forest right? And that it rains like everyday...)

It really does you know?

OK enough venting from me already, today I'm gonna talk about what type of business I'm gonna start up as... though I probably should have went and registered my business already. I've been procrastinating and will get it done soon.

Anyhow, I've stolen the below information from various sources =P but added some of my own comments to each:

Sole Proprietorship is the simplest form of business in terms of registration and formulation.

Only Malaysian citizens and permanent residents are eligible to register for a sole proprietorship. This form of business should be registered as soon as it is operational. It is an offence if you fail to register your business.
For someone like myself, this is probably the best way to go as it has the lowest yearly fees and is basically the simplest form of business to register.

However, signing up as a sole proprietor has an extremely dangerous drawback, there is no difference between yourself and the business. Any legal action taken against the business is also legal action taken against you.

Damn, you can even register your business online now! I didn't know that... Hmm... maybe I'll try registering online, to see if the government has really put some thought into the process. (Why do I have the feeling something is going to screw up?)

A Partnership is when you decide to pool capital and work together with at least one more person. In this form of business, you and your partner(s) are joint-owners of the business, and therefore will share the profits and risks.

If you intend to start a partnership, it is advisable to have a formal agreement drawn up by a lawyer. Only Malaysian citizens and permanent residents are eligible to register a partnership. (Just in case your partner decides to screw you over)
I'm quite undecided about 'business partnerships' because you usually form one with either family or friends. What I've always wondered is how you work out the percent ownership when say, I start up the business but my 'partner' only comes in at a later date?

There's no way I'd give up 50% of my business just like that... as the cost of 50% of the business may be low now but you know that in a few years time you have the potential to flourish.

But then again, you can't ask your business partner to pay up for future potential right?

Other things you have to work out in writing (in case of disputes) is the control of the business, i.e. who does what, and profit sharing.

As you can see, I'm not really all that sure about partnerships, and anyway... I prefer to do things myself.

Typically the fees for registering your business as a sole proprietor or as a partnership don't go past RM150 at the most.

Things should run better as a large group of individuals right?

But not always.

Limited Companies are incorporated under the Companies Act 1965, enforced by the Commission of Companies Malaysia.

One type of limited company is a Sdn. Bhd. or a private limited company, when you register your business as one it allows the risk to be taken away from the individuals (the directors/ owners of the company) and placed onto the business as a single entity. A Sdn. Bhd. requires at least 2 directors and a corporate seceratary (whom you can hire from a 3rd party now a days).

The fees to sign up as a private limited company are much higher than for a sole proprietor or partnership and typically can cost in the thousands.

As you will require shareholders to be a Sdn. Bhd, you will need to have some bought up capital invested in the company. This usually comes from yourself and your director(s) but can be as little as RM2 if you wanted it to.

The second and by far the way to go if you need to raise shitloads of funds is to incorporate as a Bhd. or public limited company. Again, the liability is shifted from the owners to the company, thereby removing the threat of personal loss (almost anyway).

Registering your business as a Bhd. will mean that you list your company on the stock exchange (KLSE) on one of the boards (main, secondary, tertiary, fourthtiary... OK I don't know all the names, so sue me.) and shareholders will be able to trade stock in your company. The higher the share price, the more money your company will have to... umm... buy stuff.

But, if the product or service you provide/ sell is not up to scratch or it doesn't have the potential to bring in large amounts of money (and hence the potential for the share price to go up or dividends to be paid out to investors) over an extended period of time, then DON'T HOPE that you will ever be able to incorporate like this.

This one is probably best left to the big boys.

One thing you can rest assured of is that regardless of what type of business you register as, one day the government will come knocking on your door asking for tax. (you know... so they can build roads/ schools/ buy a minister a car/ buy a minister a house etc.)

But that information you'll have to find out yourself... because I don't know anyway.

So good luck in registering your starting business in Malaysia!

John Legend, Incubus and Halal Working Hours

2008-03-16T17:17:00.016+08:00

Yesterday I managed to get myself some free tickets for the Sunburst Music Festival, held at Bukit Kiara Equestrian Park courtesy of my ex-colleagues (thanks guys!). Some of the acts featured were Incognito, The Roots, John Legend and the main band for the night, Incubus.

I love free stuff!

But long before going to the music festival, I went for dinner with my girl friend Sue Ann and her family at the One World hotel.

While I was waiting for them to arrive, I decided to wander around One Utama shopping center for a while when I noticed quite a long line forming outside this Chinese restaurant called Canton-i (it's directly opposite TGI Fridays), so I went to investigate. Standing outside the restaurant you can see the chefs through a glass window cutting up some of the ready prepared meats, such as roast pork, barbecue pork and some roasted chickens.

Looking past them, I noticed the place was completely packed. I guess the food there must be good right? But what really caught my eye was a sign on the window right at the entrance.

Wow, there's so much pork served here, even the working hours are non-halal.

After having a bit of a chuckle to myself (and walking away from the people staring at me for taking a photo of a restaurant's working hours) I made my way over to the One World Hotel, where I had a lovely Japanese dinner at a restaurant called Kura.

Kura means turtle in Malay right? I don't think that's what the owners had in mind, I'm sure that Kura means something damn cool in Japanese, like 'Heart of Excellence' or something like that.

Check out all that food!

After dinner it was straight over to Bukit Kiara, where I parked the car and used my free tickets to get it. Myself, Sue Ann and Kenny (whom I met at the entrance. No, not Kenny Sia) made our way across the field and started checking out the acts.

The first act we saw was by local artist Chanelle who tried to rock it out on one of the smaller side stages. While watching her sing, me and Sue Ann noticed that she was lip syncing to the whole song! Wtf? I mean, she only had to sing for like 45 minutes, you'd think she could at least sing with her own voice right? I guess she knew there were too many 'complimentary' ticket holders in her crowd and she gave us what we paid for.

Have you heard the lyrics to her song? Apparently she fell in love with a DJ, who later tries to attack her with a knife. But everything ends up alright. Umm... OK....

After watching Chanelle move her lips and dance, we made our way over to the main stage area to see who else was performing. On the way there we met these charming fellas:

From left to right: Tom, Dick and Harry.

Dick wanted to say 'hello' to Sue Ann. She then proceeded to rob him of his fire stick. But it's OK, we gave him my monopod instead.

After our brief encounter with the 'breathers of fire' we finally made it to the main stage. When we got there, an old school band which I don't really know much about were on. They were called Incognito. That's quite ironic, because no one really knew they were there anyway.

incognito
adjective
1.	with your identity concealed

Nothing much to say about them...

Look at the size of those signatures! They must have used like a hundred marker pens...

But I'm pretty sure the man of the night had to be Mr. John Legend who performed right after Incognito.

What a cool surname.

What was funny before he appeared on stage was when the crowd started chanting his name out. To better explain, this is how I picture a crowd of Americans chanting his name:

"John (flat) le (up) gend (flat)". If you don't understand, just pronounce the word 'dude' like an American would, then use the same slang to say 'John Legend'.

But how do us Malaysians chant his name?

"John (flat) le (up) gend (down)". Imagine pronouncing the word 'banana' like a Malaysian Chinese would say it. Then use the same slang and shout 'John Legend'.

I couldn't believe the whole crowd was chanting in Manglish!

"John Legend! John Legend!"

But regardless of how the crowd pronounced his name, he still did a great job entertaining everyone. One thing I noticed was that he was obviously not used to the humidity in KL because half way through his act, he was sweating as if he was singing in a sauna.

John, busting a move.

John, charming the ladies.

John, singing his heart out. What a 'legend'.

The night ended off with Incubus but they weren't really my cup of tea and we left after one song.

But the crowd obviously loved them.

Woah... check out the head-banging action!

I managed to bump into my 'rat race' buddies at the event. They're so happy outside of work.

Including 'Live and Loud' which was held last year, having more international acts coming to Malaysia is great for us living here. Usually, most of the big acts pass us by and stop at our Singaporean neighbors before heading off to other parts of Asia.

Let's hope there are even more events like Sun Burst Music Festival held throughout the year... (And hopefully there are some free tickets for me too)

What Style of Blogger Are You?

2008-03-15T00:54:00.008+08:00

In the past 2 weeks I've been reading article after article about how to drive traffic to a blog. From these tips, I've tried and tried different methods and for some reason, none seem to work that well.

I still average about 50 unique visitors a day and this is only with the help of Project Petaling Street, a Malaysian blog ping service. Without it, I'd be lucky to get even half that amount of visitors.

Random cartoon 1. (www.jasonlove.com)

What I've figured out is that my style of blogging is quite random at times and this may be the reason that my audience is pretty random as well... sometimes I'd write about a funny situation (Resigning from your job), then I'd write about something serious (How to write a business plan), then something personal (who is Xanydude?) and at other times it's complete and utter crap (How to win the lottery).

Random cartoon 2. (www.jasonlove.com)

A recent article I read on Blog Style and Traffic Stats actually said there are 7 different styles of blogs. (I'm not going to list them all here so click on the link and read them yourself). But to me, there are 3 types of blogs.

Personal blogs: Or life documentaries on your day to day activities. Blogging about going to the shopping mall and buying a nice pair of shoes has made some bloggers really really successful, so don't laugh (Dawn Yang's Blog). It also doesn't hurt if you're a good looking girl.. even if you've had tonnes of plastic surgery. Kenny Sia deserves a good mention as well.
Topic specific blogs: These types of blogs write about a very specific subject matter, such as politics (Jeff Ooi's Blog), tech gadgets (Gizmodo.com) and even tips on how to blog.
Something in between: These blogs try to mix the above 2 points into a coherent blog, sometimes documenting interesting information about the writer's life and then sometimes giving useful information about their niche topic. I thought my blog fell into this category, but I realized I created a new category instead, the 4th blog style.
Randomness: This is when you write about events backwards and forwards in time, sometimes giving random posts about random events and sometimes trying to write stuff about your specific topic. I don't think I want to stay in this category anymore.

So what I've come to realize is that I need to refine my writing style. To do this, I've decided to write in a style which is a bit closer to a 'topic specific blog' with a little bit of my life and laughs thrown in between. This being, 'How To Start A Business In Malaysia' providing as many useful tips and resources as I am able to.

Random cartoon 3. (www.jasonlove.com)

Hopefully, this takes out the randomness from my writing style.

In the end, maybe I'm just a random person and that style is my own. Who knows?

"The stars outside my house taste like sea cheese."

Now THAT'S random.

My New Home Office!

2008-03-14T01:35:00.014+08:00

Yes!! My new desk came today to replace that crappy old desk I showed in my last post on how to set up a good home office. Now I can get some real work done... (Well I hope so anyway)

I've been telling people that the new desk is going to inspire me with brilliant ideas and help me start my business at lightning speed. But then again, I said the same thing about getting a 6 pack when I bought the book The Abs Diet, which unless you're blind, I don't have.

I don't even know where this book is anymore.

They unload all the components from their car in separate pieces and assemble it on site so that it's easier to transport the pieces around.

Sometimes I pity these guys working so hard all the time for so little just to support themselves and their families. But people don't realize that without some level of poverty, no one would do these jobs for a low cost. Take Australia for example, where no one wants to work as a plumber, lock smith or carpenter anymore. How many Aussy kids do you think say, 'Mum, dad, when I grow up, I want to be a plumber and fix peoples' toilet bowls with pride!'? Not many I would bet with you.

The result? Fixing a lock, fixing a light switch or unclogging a toilet will cost you about AUS$150 per hour. Wtf?

Back to the guys building my desk, it didn't take them very long, about 10 minutes to complete the job.

They came in their truck and carried the pieces upstairs

The main table was assembled first, starting with the base

They screw the legs of the base together and prepare the table top. The guy didn't bring a screw driver so I lent him one. Jeez.

They then flip the base over and attach it to the underside of the table top.

The side table I ordered was small enough to come as one piece, so they actually sent it to my house ready assembled.

And Voila! A brand new office table! All for RM350, not bad huh?

It took me another hour or so to assemble my computer and put it on the table. I was sweating my ass off because I had to climb under the table, move some furniture around the table and even carry a 29 inch TV by myself. But it was worth it.

Look... before.

... and after!

Not bad huh? Now to get some REAL WORK done...

Who is Xanydude? [Part 3]

2008-03-13T01:58:00.011+08:00

I must admit that some of my last few posts didn't really have the best quality of content in them. In fact, some of them were down right random... Not enough 'personal' touches and not enough emotions in them is probably the reason.

So you don't have to read part 1 or part 2 of my story if you don't want, they weren't particularly good posts anyway... so I'll summarize it for you below.

Part 1

Well long story short, my dad moved to Dubai in 1988 and brought along me, my mum and my younger brother. He joined Emirates airline as an aircraft engineer, which was quite a huge risk as at the time, the airline industry was still quite small and he was moving his whole family thousands of miles away from home to start a new life.

I spent 10.5 years of my life there playing in the desert and studying English all the while. The result? My Chinese vocabulary is pretty much non-existent and hence the blog title A Banana vs. The World!

This is a plane. It flies in the sky.

Part 2

I then flew back to sunny Malaysia for high school and chose the nickname Xanydude for my MIRC and ICQ usage during the start of the internet revolution. How I got it was pretty random so I won't bother explaining any more than that.

The story continues...

The reason for me coming back to Malaysia was that my dad thought that me and my brother had to come back and learn to live here, since most likely we'd be back here soon enough. (At the time, Dubai's education system only went up to Form 3, or year 9 and it would have been too expensive to send 2 growing boys overseas to study)

It was hard to say goodbye to the sand box where I grew up but it had to be done.

Hey, I can see my house from here.

Now being basically a foreigner in your home country was a bit challenging at first. For starters, I spoke with a strong British accent when I arrived on these shores (which has now faded to some strange american/ english/ malaysian accent) and I had no knowledge of any of the local languages.

Thank god I was in an international school.

Look at my hairstyle! I'm standing in between the box head and the white guy in the back row.

Now although you can see from the picture most people in my class were locals, a lot of them were like me as well, a class of bananas you might say. So we all got along pretty well together.

Year 8 to year 11 was in this school and during that time I went through 2 hairstyles (centre parting and a monk-like shaved head. Let's just say I didn't look like a potential future model) and with the help of some friends managed to set a table on fire in the chemistry labs.

It was also during this period that I learned to be sarcastic, REALLLLY sarcastic. I'm not sure where I learned it from, because I'm pretty sure I wasn't when I left Dubai.

An appropriate cartoon. www.cornered.com

This is my 'good job' face. Any of my ex-colleagues ever get this face? Well it wasn't because I meant good job. Sorry.

So I brought this new found super power of mine through to college, then through to university... but that's a story for another day.

10 Reasons To Hate Work

2008-03-12T23:33:00.004+08:00

I've been told by some of my ex-colleagues that my posts are getting a bit dull... which is hard to disagree with because I'm kinda cooped up at home trying to work on my business stuff.

I've not got the chance to go out and take candid photos of life as I see it and present it here, to The World!

One or two blog sites have told me to add lists to generate traffic as well as writing timeless content, so I am going to try and do both.

Here are some reasons that I think YOU hate your job. Enjoy!

When you go to the toilet to take a dump, the guy in the cubicle next to you seems to always be emitting radioactive gases into the air. And for some reason, the toilet is always wet.
When that cow from sales makes a spelling mistake in her e-mail, you politely tell her personally that it's three items not tree items. But when you make a spelling mistake, she CCs the whole damn company. You cow.
You've been in the company 5 years, she/ he has been in the company for 2 years and she/ he gets promoted for doing shittier work. It's because you don't know how to play golf, don't blame me.
The IT guy has blocked all my favorite websites.
"They don't pay me enough for the shit we're overloaded with".
"cos i am surrounded by fcuking idiots"
[Insert company name here] sucks.
For some reason, the MD is never wrong.
I'm busting my balls off to make someone else rich when I should be doing that for myself. (Why don't you just resign from your job then?)
And finally... because Hillary Clinton told me to.

Please come back and visit my site more often... pretty please?... pretty please with a cherry on top?

Starting Your Business With Success: Calling All Sunway College Alumni!

2008-03-11T14:15:00.009+08:00

This coming Friday (14th March 2008) I will be attending an alumni event organized by the alumni of Sunway College University (I never understood why they added the word 'university' after college, it just sounds so weird) on how to start your own business in Malaysia.

The speaker of the day will be Mr. Ong Siew Hock. Mr. Ong is a dynamic businessman with numerous businesses started by himself. He is also an avid adventurer, sportsman and mountain climber taking on Mt. Kinabalu 52 times.

Truthfully I know nothing about the guy, and his blog has no posts (which I'm hoping is just a temporary error) but he's written a few books which I've not read and hey, what have I got to lose? I'm unemployed remember?

Click image to register for a ticket.

There are still plenty of seats available and the prices of the tickets are only RM15 for alumni and RM25 for non-alumni. But remember, please don't blame me if the night sucks.

Alumni of Sunway college encompass any of the courses that are offered there, these include MUFY (My own course), A-Levels, CIMP and SAM amongst others. You can register at the Sunway College University Alumni website.

Sunway College's alumni include Kid Chan, Malaysia's most sought after wedding photographer (who completed CIMP there).

Hope to see you there!

How To Write A Business Plan: Business Overview - Business Tip #12

2008-03-10T18:59:00.004+08:00

The first part of the business plan that you should write after the executive summary is actually an overview of the business and its strategies for success.

Now since I'm planning on starting an online business, my initial capital required is relatively low. My business plan may or may not be required to present to investors asking for funds and hence it is quite simplistic.

How I've laid out the business overview is as follows:

Business

My business will provide/ sell (insert main services/ products here). My business will feature (insert main features here) and ultimately we aim to (insert a sales goal or an ultimate aim for your business in the near future)

My business is different to any of the other businesses available in Malaysia today as we will be (insert differences here or if it is a business already existing, explain how you will be differentiated). This type of business (if the business has been seen in other countries, describe where and some details about it. If not, describe how the business will benefit the people in the country you are in).

My business's short term goal is (insert short term goal here with a deadline) with an aim to be (insert medium to long term goal here) in the mid to long term. Revenue will be generated primarily through (insert revenue sources here, such as advertising, joining fees, product sales etc.). My ultimate goal is to (become the number 1 in your field in the whole of Malaysia?)

Currently, similar business such as (example 1) and (example 2) don't offer the same level of service/ product benefits because of (explain and explain some more). Whereas my business will provide (benefit 1) and (benefit 2,3,4,5 etc.) instead.

My business will be targeted at (insert niche audience or main stream audience here) as they represent the ideal audience for our product/ service. This audience is considered ideal because (insert reason here).

The following are what we feel will be our key unique selling points which we hope to use as an edge against our competitors.

(Will your main unique selling points be marketing? Price? Quality? Explain each one in enough depth to highlight their benefits but not in too much detail as to overwhelm your audience, who could be potential investors. Layman terms should suffice.)

Finally, add a SWOT analysis (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats) on your business as a whole. Be honest with yourself, it's no point saying that you have no weaknesses, as this will bite you in the ass later on anyway. So don't lie.

Setting Up A Good Home Office: Business Tip #11

2008-03-08T10:21:00.015+08:00

Update: Just to add a bit more information to my previous post, these are some of the tips that that I manged to get from Lifehack.org on a good home office setup.

Choose a comfortable chair that does not strain your back and a table of suitable height to match it. Since most chairs have adjustable heights now a days most standard tables will do.

Since it's so hot in Malaysia all the time, choosing a chair which lets your skin breathe would be a good idea. These kinds of chairs have a fabric 'mesh' for the back rest instead of the regular all-cotton one. Ikea and other furniture stores should have it, but it'll set you back RM200 - RM400 depending on the model.

The best posture for sitting at a desk is to have the desk all the way towards you so that your forearms up to your elbows are resting on the office table, NOT on the handles of your chair. This will apply stress on your upper back which can cause long term back problems.

Have a good large table for your computer which has enough space to work as a desk as well.

For me, I've only got about 1.8metres squared to set up my table which is just about enough. Make sure your work area is not too cramped or this will hamper organization and productivity. Have all your work documents/ materials close at hand if possible.

The table I've chosen is actually 2 tables which you can arrange yourself to form any combination of shapes. Since placing a table in a corner of the room will save the most space, I'm going to put my computer and desk into the corner of the space I have available. Cost is about RM420 which I am about to buy from those furniture warehouses near the Damansara toll, next to Kampung Kayu Ara. The price is quite decent for such a large desk.

Choose an area away from noise. Placing the computer next to your home theatre system is not exactly the best idea in the world. (However, my brother's PS2 will be right next to my computer desk so I'm not the best example)

Finally choose an appropriate computer for your type of work.

If you are just going to sell items off e-Bay or use mainly Microsoft office 90% of the time , a simple computer which can access the internet will probably be enough.

The Dell Inspiron basic model at just under RM2000 will probably be good enough. Although you could probably get a clone at Low Yat for cheaper, Dell does give you an original copy of Microsoft Windows Vista as part of the package.

If you are going to do home based web design, you'll probably need a more powerful computer, such as the Dell XPS performance desktop, which with the minimum settings will already set you back over RM4000.

A good idea would be to get a really big monitor as well so that you can 'try' to multitask. Adding a 24 inch monitor will probably require up to RM1000 extra.

Finally if you need to do web/ multi media design and need everything to be portable as well, you could try using a Dell XPS laptop. I know it sounds like I'm very pro Dell, but I've not had too many problems with the brand and the stuff they sell is relatively cheap.

Full specs for this laptop (15 inch version) will probably set you back close to RM6000. But it's powerful and is tagged as the world's lightest power laptop, or something like that.

End of update...

So you've taken the plunge and have decided to start working from home? That's great to hear and I hope more people jump aboard the ~~unemployment~~ I mean home business club...

As it is, working from home has provided me many temptations that encourage me to bum around and not actually do any work. These include watching TV, just aimlessly surfing the Net (which you're probably doing at work anyway... psst... your boss is behind you!) and even lying on the couch and watching more TV.

This is not a home office.

This is not a home office either.

I've decided that enough is enough and it's time for me to create a conducive working environment for myself to actually get some REAL WORK done. So let me show you what I have set up at home that I think might help me get some work done.

ADSL modem (front) Wi-Fi router (back): Approximately RM110 and RM250 respectively.

Dual monitors. Because I can. Dell 19 inch (left) Phillips 17 inch (right): Approximately RM800 and RM500 respectively.

Microsoft comfort keyboard and mouse: Approximately RM59 and RM20?

Bamboo chair cover to keep your ass cool. RM12 from Ace Hardware.

Epson multifunction printer. Prints, scans and copies. RM240.

No space to put it all? Priceless.

As you can see, my tiny little computer desk does not cut it when it comes to having a comfortable, conducive working environment. I can't really get my business thoughts flowing like this...

So I'm looking to get rid of my old table and probably get myself one from Ikea.

Something like this which I can stuff into one corner. Asking price? RM700 or RM800, crap that's expensive.

But sometime in the future, I'm going to really pimp up my home office and get me one of these:

So wish me luck.

Why People Are Stuck In The Rat Race.

2008-03-07T01:34:00.004+08:00

See it animated www.foei.org/livemore
More work from this cartoonist www.polyp.org.uk

I'm sure all of you have heard of the term 'the rat race' right? Well, I'm guessing almost 95% of you are still stuck in it..

Myself? I'm now unemployed and trying to make my dream of starting my own business turn into a reality... And never look back at the rat racing I left behind.

So why are people still stuck in the rat race? Here are the main reasons that I have found.

I've been here too long and have no where to go...
I'm comfortable with my routine and have only a few years left before I retire.
I'm waiting for a golden handshake/ VSS (Voluntary Separation Scheme).
I still haven't won the lottery yet.
I'm waiting till I get my bonus/ pay increment/ promotion then they can kiss my ass.
I'm in love with my boss and could not live without seeing him everyday of my life.
Because Hilary Clinton told me not to.
Because I love my company. It is the best company in the world and I would die for it...

OK so the last few were a lie (especially the last one) but you get the gist. Any other reasons you wouldn't quit your job?

Drop me a comment and enlighten me... ''you dirty rat you...''

[Rewind] When I GOT HIT BY A CAR.

2008-03-05T15:44:00.012+08:00

I admit due to my unemployment and excessive amount of time spent at home, I am finding less and less material to write about what I'm actually doing now.

So unless you want to know what time I woke up, how much TV I watched and what I ate for lunch, I'll tell you a little story about when I was a kid.

My dad works for Emirates airlines and when I was a little kid (I think I was about 4 or 5 years old) he was sent for training in Toulouse, France. The training was on how to fix a plane called 'The Guppy' and we were there for a few weeks.

Well what can I say? The French made it... so go ask them why.

Now it was during this trip that I had a couple of 'accidents' and no, I do not mean that I peed in my pants or something.

During a day out on the town with my mum and little brother, my mum decided to load up on Pampers (for my brother not me). As she had her hands full with carrying my brother and his bag of food/ pampers/ toys etc... It was left to 4 or 5 year old me to carry the bag of pampers which were pretty much half my size.

Something like this.

So there I was... carrying this huge bag in front of my face and just walking in a straight line behind my mum, every once in a while taking a peek over the bag to see where I was going.

Now in this small French town most of the side streets were made out of cobblestones. It was at one of these cobblestoned streets that I met with my accident...

Let me show you what happened:

My mum crossed the street in front of me thinking I was right behind her.

I take my sweet time and lag behind my mum

By pure Confucius luck, I manage to intercept the car as it passes me and I walk full speed into the side of it.

I get knocked on my ass while still holding the Pampers in front of me (it absorbed most of the shock)

Now since this was France in the 1980's, not many of the locals could speak any English. So when the initial shock faded away, this was what I was looking up at. They could have been shouting "Would you like some escargot for breakfast?" for all I knew.

When all the excitement had died down and people realized that all I got was a bruised pack of Pampers and that I was unhurt, the crowd slowly dispersed.

So the moral of the story? Confucius says "When buying Pampers in France, always buy medium... or you'll be hit by a car."

Oh, and later on in the same trip, I flung a wet towel at a heating lamp which promptly exploded in my face and a piece of glass shrapnel embedded itself into my chest.

So don't go to France when you're 5. It's too dangerous.

What The Hell Is A Xanydude? [Part 2]

2008-03-05T02:50:00.001+08:00

So you're probably asking why the hell would anyone call themselves Xanydude?

It all started way back when... somewhere around 1998/1999, where the internet was really starting to pick up in Malaysia. At the time I was using dial-up (heaven forbid!) and the 2 most popular messenger programs were MIRC and ICQ. (You remember those programs don't you?)

Wow, it seems like an eternity ago, I must be getting old...

Anyway, as for all chat programs, you have to assign yourself a nickname. And usually, the nickname is not actually your name, but something that you think would be really catchy and mean something to you...

So how did I end up with Xanydude? First of all, there's no such word in the dictionary as 'xany' it's actually meant to be zany (see definition below) but I guess my spelling wasn't all too great during my teenage years.

zany
adjective
1.	ludicrous, foolish; "gave me a cockamamie reason for not going"; "wore a goofy hat"; "a silly idea"; "some wacky plan for selling more books" [syn: cockamamie]
2.	like a clown; "a buffoonish walk"; "a clownish face"; "a zany sense of humor" [syn: buffoonish]
noun
1.	a buffoon in one of the old comedies; imitates others for ludicrous effect
2.	a man who is a stupid incompetent fool [syn: fathead]

So you're thinking that I chose the nickname Xanydude because I'm a 'zany' kinda guy, or dude? Well... not quite.

Back in the day, I used to pay alot of computer games... and one of my favourite games of all times is a game called Toonstruck.

Hey, I was a kid back then OK?

In the game, you play as Drew Blanc, which is actually the actor Christopher Lloyd (You have to remember Doc from back to the future right? Well that's him!) who journeys through a strange cartoon world with his creation Flux-Wildly.

Flux Wildly is a wise talking, sarcastic purple animal. In hindsight, I guess I should have called myself fluxwildly-dude. It may suit my character more, but it's just not very catchy is it now?

Long story, short... basically, you and flux travel around solving problems in this strangely cartoonishly demented world with the aim of trying to stop some evil cartoon villain.

And the name of this world? ZANYDU.

I have no idea why.

Somehow, somewhere, sometime... it clicked in my mind that I am zanydu but as a person, hence Xanydude!

Extremely strange but also, extremely true.

Business Tip #10: How To Write A Business Plan - Executive Summary

2008-03-04T00:47:00.007+08:00

A business plan to most people is probably as easy as:

"Quit job, start business, make money"

That is not how you write a business plan.

You can find out extremely indepth information about writing a business plan from sites such as entrepreneur.com: Creating a Winning Startup Business Plan or at about.com where they provide you with business plan templates that you can download and modify for your own use.

But possibly the best place of all to get a business plan is with this new and upcoming blogger that I've heard so much about.

Some say he eats concrete in the morning and that he uses his powers of handsomeness to concur the blogging world... all I know is, his name is William...! (sorry Top Gear)

Trust me... you'll be fine.

Although I may not look it, I've actually done some research of my own on how to write a business plan. In fact, the template that I'm using right now is a business template for startups from a web company called SCORE. If you click the link, you'll notice that the template itself, even empty is 32 pages long. I've tried filling in as much as I could on the template but it's just TOO DETAILED and TOO COMPLICATED.

So I've decided to come up with a simpler business plan of my own (which I stole from a book I read anyway).

The book in question is 'Anyone Can Do It' by Sahar and Bobby Hashemi, the creators of Coffee Republic in the UK. OK... with Starbucks around their little empire has pretty much crumbled, but the business plan in their book was really good and simple.

I bet you that even they drink Starbucks every once and a while too.

DRAFT VERSION

CONFIDENTIAL

My Business

- A Business Which Does Blah Blah Blah

BUSINESS PLAN

March 2008

Write this section LAST. Why? Because it's meant to be a conclusion of your whole business plan, summarizing everything that you wish to present in brief. You'll need to finish the other sections of the business plan first to have conclusions right?

Unless you think backwards, in which case... go ahead, start with the executive summary.

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

My Business is (describe what company does here). My Business is a new (insert niche market here and describe main key benefits of My Business). The main difference between My Business and others is (blah blah blah).

My Business offers its customers not just the normal (insert product/service here) but a host of other exiting options such as (describe all benefits of your product here in a bit more detail).

The concept of My Business started (now unless you have designed something new like youtube or Facebook, I’m assuming your idea has been done before somewhere out there. List where you heard of the concept for My Business and describe the main key statistics that you feel could back up why you are even considering doing this business and why you feel it may be successful) and is constantly growing at a rate of (insert an exaggeratedly high rate here).

Currently, no one is doing this type of business in (insert country/ state here) and I feel the opportunity is ripe to start here before the established overseas brands enter into the fray. (If the business type is already in the country then describe why it does not matter that they are here as what you will be offering them is so much better than anything currently in the market – In other words you don’t care about the competition)

Times are changing and the emergence of (this and that and this) will slowly but surely increase the demand for My Business and this is demonstrated by press/ internet coverage (insert any research done on this product/ service here).

We at My Business would like to emphasize that our potential competitors are not as capable as us because of (main reason here).

The following (insert desired number here) are our main unique selling points which differentiate us from our competitors and which we feel will eventually gain customer loyalty.

(insert a list of your main unique selling points here)

Our short term goals are (blah blah) but we intend to aggressively expand our business into (more blah blah) and to create a strong brand identity here and perhaps in other markets.

OK... I realize it's kinda pointless to tell you to write this last but tell you how to write it first but the post is getting kinda long...

So by unanimous vote (my vote) I've decided to describe how to write the business plan in a couple of parts. I'm not sure how many parts it'll take either... just that it's more than one.

Hope it helps at least a few people out there.

Comments on my business plan would be appreciated. Thx!

How To Start A Small Business (In Malaysia)

2008-03-03T14:16:00.010+08:00

OK well I am not what you would call an expert in starting a small business in Malaysia as my family does not have it's own business, I've never worked in a small business and actually I've not done all that much research in how to start a business.

But how hard can it be right? Those Youtube guys managed to do it easily enough...
So I've come up with my very own checklist on what I think I need to do before, during and after I've set up my business venture.

As you'll notice, some I've already done and others I've yet to do... click the links to go to my older posts.

Get a job
Come up with a brilliant business idea
Become disgruntled with the corporate world
Try starting a part time business (Mine was used underwear)
Resign from your job.
Relax on a beach
Write your farewell letter
Say goodbye to your colleagues
Write a business plan - Executive Summary
Write a business plan - Business Overview
Set up an effective home office
Do your financial analysis
Choose what type of business to sign up as (Sole proprietor? Partnership etc.)
Choose a business name
Sign up your business name
Start setting up the business
Hire people or use freelancers if necessary
Design a business logo
Develop a marketing plan
Come up with a mission statement
Relax on a beach
Go Live!
Keep the business afloat

OK... that's about all I can think of right now. I'll keep adding to this post if I do anything in between which I think would be useful and also I'll add to the end if once my business gets up and running.

The Night Before Unemployment

2008-03-03T01:07:00.006+08:00

Tomorrow I will not have to wake up and rush to work (although I never rushed to work anyway) and I'll be able to sleep in until the afternoon...

Now for those of you who thinks this is a great idea and you too wish you could do it, please remember one thing. Tomorrow, I will be unemployed.

That means no income into my small and miserable bank account.

No more money! NO MORE, no MoRE, NO moreeee.... OMGGGGG NO MORE MONEYYYYYY!

But it doesn't really matter, because I'll be happy regardless.

So, what am I going to do tomorrow?

Wake up late for a very late breakfast/early lunch
Go to 1 Utama and do some grocery shopping
Watch TV
Eat food while watching TV
Maybe exercise
Watch some more TV and eat more food
Eat dinner
Blog while watching TV
Sleep

Oh crap, I forgot to schedule some actual work into the list... ummm... OK, remove number 6 and replace it with 6. Finish writing business plan.

Just to prove that I've got such a long way to go before I actually start making real money I'll show you how much I've made from Google advertising since I started my blog.

That's right, a whole US$0.19! Wow, I'm RICH! (Click image to enlarge)

At this rate, it'll take me 69 years to make back my monthly salary of RM500.

Maybe I should just stick to selling used underwear.