Kumon – Is it essential?

The concept of learning through a method that was developed by a Japanese teacher on how to learn at your own pace seems to be a wonderful concept until you realise that you are actually paying for it. Now education seems to be more of a luxury rather than a necessity. I guess that’s why Kumon is considered as an education supplement rather than a tuition or following school syllabus.



The concept is that students are given exercise books either for Mathematics or English depending on their own learning ability and they would stream through their exercise book base on their pace. By the end of the session they are needed to completed at least one part of the exercise book and are needed to be passed on to their teacher for markings. The teachers don’t teach but they are needed in the class to either mark the exercise sheet or to be there in case the students need them.

From business point of view, are the investments worth it? You are needed to fork out at least RM 15,000 for the initial start-up and maintain at least around RM 5000 for the rental and utilities. So on top of that is your profit. How much can you get and are we really expose to “education supplements” which doesn’t have anything to do with our examination syllabus?

KUMON INSTRUCTOR ELIGIBILITY
1. Dedicated in helping children to develop their potential
2. Passionate in education
3. Malaysian citizen
4. University graduate, with good mathematical and language ability
5. Having the commitment to be fully involved in running a Kumon centre (Instructors are not allowed to be engaged in any other forms of business, including self-employment)

Who’s interested, you can opt for the franchise presentation at their HQ in Pusat Bandar Damansara. You sit around 3 hours for the presentation, take maths and English test and if you pass it, you’ll be opted for the interview. You’ll go through series of screening and training. My bet…not worth it!

1901 - Hot Dog

Today I’m going to give my comment on the 1901 concept of Hot Dog kiosk and push cart which once was the talk of the town. And how they use to be on the newspaper on the ever inspirational story of how a husband and wife team endured the ups and downs of business world to achieve what they achieve now.

1901 have came a long way, not because they came in the year 1901 but they manage to create a concept that attracts Malaysian buyers to buy hot dogs when Malaysian are more into Nasi Lemak and Kuih which cost a quarter of what their Hot Dogs costs. 1901 supposedly was the year Hot Dog was first found. They kicked off their business in 1997 during the economy crisis, Now they have came up with a new make over, a more vibrant outgoing colour and concept. Attracting more market segment and making the kiosk and push carts more inviting. Their website @ http://www.1901.com/ has also gone a make over but almost impossible to navigate and really confusing and also takes ages to load.

Over the years, I’ve been keeping an eye on the progress of 1901 since I was consulting one of the food manufacturing companies along the same line as 1901. They manage to convince entrepreneur to become their franchisee with a very high start up capital but they manage to convince the government to come with a scheme to loan in to the new starters.

The only thing that went wrong is that the support wasn’t up to par with what people expected. All these new starters expected more support from the Franchisor to get them on their feet. In the first few years, the company itself suffered from the increasing price of raw materials and at the same time the franchisee suffered, with lack of support, promotion and awareness on the products. In the first few years, many kiosk and push carts went out of business and they had to advertise on selling their franchisee license to other interested party.

I am not sure exactly they number of people that suffered but I can see the company itself is doing better now. Although they don’t seem to be aggressive and the franchisor seems to be much more busy with other things…help the entrepreneurs and not the profit...profit can help themselves

More freelancing

Entrepreneur often take into count all the hassle of everyday job that might weight more to them than just to gain profit. I guess that’s one of the reason people prefer to be a freelancer. Although most of the freelancer I know has already incorporated their business, to make it more convincing and to reach out a bigger market, by heart they are still a freelancer. Freedom as a true business person comes from the heart and they should follow their instinct.

They are moving quite aggressively, advertisement in major magazine is not monopolized by companies anymore, you can’t find freelancers promoting their products aggressively. The most that I’ve found relates to photography. They have a lot of niche market, for kids, babies, wanna be models. I praise their effort tapping on those markets.

http://asiaparttime.com/

In the effort to help freelancers gain more reputation and assist them tapping the market, I’m delighted to promote the website http://asiaparttime.com/. They provide a site where freelancers are able to see if there are any openings that matched their skills and to contact the offering party their services. I think it’s a good website.

Freelancing..A good start

Entrepreneurship and freelancing have a very close connection to one another. They promote the business acumen of a person to be able to deliver their services of products. It’s all about having the right drive and having to tap the right market. Malaysia is promoting entrepreneurship which means at the same time promoting Malaysian to be able to start their business and excel in it.

There are a lot of parties now being involved in setting up their business and promoting their services and most these parties other than companies and enterprises and freelancers. The difference between companies and enterprises and freelancers are that freelancers doesn’t incorporate their establishment and instead operate on their own. The advertise their services, online or through media adverts, banners and flyers and the most effective one is through words of mouth.

Parties that usually operate as freelancer are people in profession such as photographers, designers, web developers, IT specialist, model (yes, model are freelancers) and a lot more. Unlike companies or enterprises, freelancers gain their reputation through portfolio and the more successful projects they do and the more recommendation they get, means their portfolio gets bigger…to be continued

Freelance or outsourcing business network

A few years ago, I stumbled upon a website that integrates directory of buyers and sellers, B2B, B2C but instead of selling products, they sell services. They let companies put up notice asking freelancers or other companies to bid on any projects that they requires assistance in. It became a hit for freelancers, they could also put their skills set and companies could search for their offered services. The website which was http://www.twogateways.com/ went into the international scene covering UK, US and other countries. After about 2 years in service, they went on hold for some modification to the site and it vanished. Many tried to clone the website but until now no one has managed to replicate the same concept, i guess the closest i've seen so far is http://asiaparttime.com/. We have those in overseas such as http://www.freelance.com/, www.freelancejobsearch.com/ and many more . Although in Malaysia we have dozens of freelancers, we are still lacking of a proper medium to support the effort…Next post..Freelancing…

Motivation

Each individual always have their goals to achieve and the reach their long made dreams. Some people are lucky enough to attain great heights with only expecting half of it and some unfortunate to get half of what they expected to achieve. In business it is really important to realize clearly on your achievable and to align your expectation with the ever demanding entrepreneurial agenda it has to offer.

What motivates you to start and excel in you business?

There are a lot of reasons why people venture into business, some for the money, some for the knowledge, some for the thrill and even some to help the society. We need to know our reason so that’ll be our source of inspiration and motivation throughout our venture. I am intending to list down as many business opportunity as I can on this blog, if you have any contribution, please do email me..Thanks!!

Fun Trading

Most of us already know that there are numerous places where we’re able to start our baby steps in trading business. We can either join the weekend bazaar at The Curve, Mont Kiara or Shah Alam Stadium Sunday Market. These places offers walk in, as long as they still have space. When you reach there, you’d see a stall where the organizers would sit. Just ask them if they have empty lots and just pay the fees and you’re set to sell your stuffs. It is advisable for you to enquire up front on the availability of the booths or stalls.

Some of these places are actually under the local council such as MBSA (Majlis Bandaraya Shah Alam), so they’re usually harder to get it. You have to enquire weeks up front unless you’re bold enough and willing to come at the right time and find empty slots to sell. I’m not encouraging this but I myself have done it at the Shah alam stadium years ago. The most they will fine you is about RM 50 ringgit which is a lot but it offsets the thrill of trading.

Avoid all the newly made uptowns around town, they attract less crowds as the products sold doesn’t meet the expectation of regulars at the original Damansara Uptown. They expect something equivalent to the Petaling Street items.
So bring your stuffs and get TRADING…

Wholesale and Bulk orders

Dear readers, venturing into trading business means having to buy stock. Maximizing margins means more profit for the trader. To gain this we usually come across MOQ (Minimum Order Quantity) which is the minimum amount that the trader would have to buy from the manufacturer or the wholesaler to get a good price or to be sole/independent distributor. This is where it gets a bit difficult. Manufacturer usually put a very high MOQ so they are able to clear their stock quickly. This is for them to get their ROI (Return on investment) faster and reduce their risk and putting it on others.

Traders usually aren’t exactly prominent in buying large MOQ so usually dealers or distributor would buy them, mark-up the price and sell it to the trader in smaller quantity. It’s a BIG race in this battle to maximize profit. Usually traders’ ends up buying items with less than 30% margin which should be around 100% to sustain a good cash flow.

The source of the stock is really important for many reasons; either to get stocks that are good in quality, confirm orders in other words won’t cheat you, on time delivery. For wholesalers, they obtain stocks in large orders from manufacturer all over the world and mainly China and Taiwan because of the cheap labour and which equals to cheaper pricing. For us we get from the wholesalers, for apparels, it’s everywhere Petaling Street, ChowKit, PJ.


Warning!! Don’t try to get to creative and start trusting some parties on the internet especially those from the B2B (business to business) market place such as http://alibaba.com/ . If you’re unlucky and not experienced enough, they would most probably ask for money upfront and you would end up with no stock and would be waiting forever. Note: This is a personal experience

In short, if you believe a business trade would work, work out your capital first and then do purchase the stock upfront rather than buying it from the wholesalers, only if you’re going for the long term.

Food delivery service

Aren’t we bored of eating out? Or having to go for fast food or pizza every night. It always bothers us so much to cook at home with the busy schedule, the traffic jam that holds us back to reach home in time. I came across this website http://www.roomservicedeliveries.com/ which offers food delivery services to home and office in the Kland Valley. It covers menu from top restaurants such as Chillis, Nandos, La Bodega and etc. The website is really hard to access as the page takes ages to load. I heard they are hardly on time when delivering.

How many nights in a week do we eat dinner that costs just about RM20 per person. It’s simply ridiculous. So in this post, I’m asking those out there to start a food delivery service to cater normal food (malay, Chinese, mamak, thai and etc) and at least we have variety with a good price tag. Charge RM 3 or something along that line for delivery charges, people won’t mind. They’d pay RM 3 for delivery from Mcdonalds after spending RM 20 and when they can drive thru, so they wouldn’t mind.

People would be sceptic bout this at first but everyone is turning into online booking, taxi, airlines, catering, and movie. Those who’s thinking about this, these are the main things to prepare:

Partners or own kitchen and cook
Menu and pricing
Delivery boy
Website and order form
Help centre (Care Line)

Just a suggestion…

Estimated Startup cost? ========> RM 12,000
Amount I'd invest in this? =======> RM 12,000

Jutawan Pasar Malam (Night Market Millionaire)

This article is about an experience of mine meeting a lot on entrepreneur during my days being a business consultant. This guy at about the age of 30++ who drives a Proton Wira is actually a millionaire by worth. He is not a CEO or Chairman of a listed company nor does he own a chain of manufacturing line. All he owns is multiple stalls in Pasar Malam throughout the various part of KL and the Klang Valley. Selling various types of food products, burger and sort. He bags in about MYR 20,000 weekly.

This is a success story but what I’m trying to portray here is that those who are venturing into stall business, not necessarily you have to be a part of a franchise but you can create your own branding. Enough promotion and make your stall look catchy and presentable. If you are a part of franchise such as Otai, Ramly and etc, it is easier but you do limit yourself from having enough margins and the flexibility of expanding. I am not stopping you from venturing with them, but with the money you are giving to them as initial capital, you yourself are able to do much more. The only difference they have ready made raw materials, support and training.

I have seen stalls that sell their items well but are not able to expand because lack of knowledge and too deep in their comfort zone. They bag in a few hundred a week when they can have thousands. Be proactive and widen your views on this…Malaysia Boleh!

eHomemakers

Throughout the year, I'll be posting websites that I find interesting and valuable for entrepreneurs to expand their views on business. One of the website are:

http://www.ehomemakers.net/en/index.php

eHomemakers.net are South East Asia's only community network that promotes working from home, teleworking and the running of SOHO businesses through the use of information and communications technology. eHomemakers.net e-community promotes self-help, business partnerships and entrepreneurship development for those who want to balance work and home life. eHomemakers.net social profit is derived from a pro-poor project focusing on eco-baskets production and service provision to empower women to embark on social-economic self-reliance.

The reason I put this website amongst all is because it's really a website that is trying to help all layers of business people. From housewives to big companies. Try to take a look

Laundry Business

There are two great paths to wealth; one is through investing and the other through business. Of the two, the fastest way to improve your cash flow is without a doubt through owning a business. The problem with most businesses is that they require full time attention.

You want to get ahead but don’t have time for another full time job and let’s face it; most people already have a full time job or business.There is a business that once set up, can be run part-time. This business maybe a laundry business. It is one of the few businesses that I know of that you can truly run part-time.

If you are looking for a small business or just want the cash flow, it is a great way to go. There are lots of benefits of owning a Laundromat but the best one is that it is an ALL CASH business! It is an easy business to run, but a hard one to find, at least one that makes sense. In fact, I would say that finding one is the hardest part about this business. There’s a lot of information and independent party that would help in setting up a laundry business.

The basic items to start up a laundry business are:

1. washer


2. dryer


3. steam iron


4. iron board with suction and heating element

If we explore business forums on the Internet, there's a lot of people going into this business. Lucrative and quite easy to run. But it's about maintaining equipments and maintaining the quality of service.

Help for entrepreneurs - Sweet Corn

Being in tact with the business scene I've seen a lot of new things happening and the ups and downs of venturing yourself in the business arena. Some might succeed and some may also fail. I'm just gonna be straight saying that no one will ever succeed in business without a second or backup plan. It's a fact.

For this post I'm just gonna share one or two ideas, working from backup ideas. For the primary idea i think it's more less crucial than what I'm gonna tell you. There are a lot of entrepreneurial level. The main ones are:

1. Those with business ideas and funding



2. Those without business ideas and with funding



3. Those with ideas and without funding



4. Those with ideas and with savings



5. Those with ideas and without savings



6. Those without ideas and without funding or savings

I'll work from bottom, the entrepreneurs in the level of without ideas and without funding or savings are the level that carries the highest risk of being an entrepreneur. They should start at the lowest point and be more hardworking and not not to say other level can take that for granted. First advice is that entrepreneurs to go for franchise scheme and training such as the one offer by Perbadanan Nasional Berhad http://www.pns.com.my/pnsfront.shtml. They offer training and paid placement within their panel companies. It'll be good as a start up.

Secondly, from an internal sources, Daily Fresh, the booth that always brings the aroma of newly baked waffles to my office http://www.dailyfreshfoods.com/. They offer franchise scheme that will pay you salary until you reach a comfortable point as stand alone Franchisee..good?

Please do question me why I'm blabbering about franchise as business doesn't always evolve around franchises. For me that's the safest way to go. be competitive and yet open for expansion.

MIHAS 2008

Since, the last post was about food, let me just continue a bit more. From 7th till 11th May 2008, The Malaysia International Halal Showcase will be on at the newly built Matrade Exhibition and Conference Centre. http://www.halal.com.my/.

The last time it was held in 2006, I was an independent consultant for a food manufacturing company. at first I was quite sceptic on the turn up but i wasn't surprised that the big crowd came not only for the massive food sample but at the same time for business networking. Do not under estimate the capacity of this event. It is huge and an internal sources told me that this year they are expecting a turn up double the volume from last two years. Demand for booths are also more than two years ago.

This is a great platform for companies to seek business opportunities and to get to know on whats out there in the food industry which are booming. Before the first three days was from Traders and the other two was for the public, so take yor chance to do business networking and sign up for the business matching. You won't regret it. There are a lot of franchisor exhibiting there and just keep an eye open for the popular ones and do enjoy the food!

Yummy Business

In this post i just want to share a personal encounter with a yummy and lucrative business.

Cupcakes are hitting Malaysia by the head. everyone is craving for it to the extend that a home based business has opened a whole new cafe in Uptown..http://cuppacakes.blogspot.com/

For those wondering, no i don't have any share in this, I'm just giving some opinion and critics on this business. I am a regular patron of their delicacy. I have been ordering their cupcakes since forever and they are good. They use to run their business from their home which is also near uptown. I also know that they send their cupcakes to The apartment in The Curve and they've been on Channel V and sort.

I'd kill people to have success as what they have right now. From small Internet/home based business to opening a nice cosy cafe (it is really cosy). I know it wasn't an easy task to reach where they are right now and I admire them for it. I believe they will succeed with the right business recipe. They have 6 partners (up to my knowledge), a good team to have start up and to sustain their business. Their quality control seems to be up to par as well and their contacts seems be very connected.

That's all on the good note, people have asked how long do i think they would sustain their businesses based on my experience. I said, i personally don't know. Malaysians are becoming more and more unpredictable. I don't know where to put my money on anymore. Yes it's been a track record where a lucrative idea was booming once upon a time. Now everyone is craving for cupcakes but for how long? Honestly, not long enough.. time will pass and new things will pop up. we have jelly cakes and God knows what kind of pastry will pop up. There are tons of cupcakes shop open already, I can't even count how many they are in The curve itself.

BUT, with the right recipe...business recipe i mean, they will succeed. Do enough marketing, quality control, returning customer, product variety, consignment,franchise(maybe)..they'll sustain long enough..Good luck!!

Business Ideas

For all your business geeks out there, please reach out and expand your ideas. Find money out of your ideas and knowledge and channel it to get funding and expand. Just think of your selfishness would bring good to the country's economy and you'd be offering people jobs. In this post I'd like to recommend you guys ways to get money out of your crazy and talented ideas. Just bear in min this is for the people with creativity and knowledge on really sophisticated stuffs.

Firstly, ThinkGeek @ http://www.thinkgeek.com/ have release a program where they let people submit ideas on making a tshirt design. I know we Malaysian have ideas to make full use of this. Do submit your ideas and let them offer what they can to you. Submit your ideas to: http://www.thinkgeek.com/brain/customer_bounty.cgi. Looking forward to see your design up and going very soon!

Secondly: For those IT geeks that is good in programming and web designing. If you have application, don't have to look all over for a good funding to expand this. Facebook @ http://www.facebook.com/ have the answer!!...

Check out http://www.facebook.com/developers/fbfund.php where they offer grant for your ideas. It's quick. once you submit ideas, they'll grant you the money in less that a month. quicker than a bank does and the value is USD 250,000.. Good innit? Good luck!!

Office automation

It seems I'm really far off behind with my articles, regular visitors has complained of not being interested anymore to follow my posting as there hasn't been any new one for ages. Now I'm back in the game and I'm gonna go straight to the point. I'm gonna give you guys good business information including business opportunities so you can think it over and try to venture it. reasons why i think it's good an do respond with your views. For today I'm just gonna give you guys something that me and most other business use as an automation for communication nowadays. We keep in touch using video conference found in Yahoo, Skype and others but not free video conference...tadaaa...Do check out...http://www.oovoo.com/

I find this software really cool. It looks very sophisticated so it doesn't tarnish the professionalism for your business. You can chat and conference with your business network and at the same time talk to friends. In business communication is vital, so please use it the best that you could.