Business Travel

Through days and time of business evolution, we could see how businesses expand aggressively which requires extensive travelling. From just a car ride with the same county to hours and thousand of miles to be travelled through to reach the destination and now there’s a lot of option to reach that destination. Companies and businesses spend from hundreds to thousand and even millions on travelling itself. Travelling expense has been on of the major expense and investment in a business.

To expand and realise a business dream, entrepreneurs should not put a limitation to where they should head and could achieve. Meeting people face to face has always been the best option in meeting clients and potential networking. Meeting face to face gives clients and futures networks a sense of exclusivity and a good impression on the potential of having a good business relationship in the future

As discussed previously, there’s numerous ways to travel. As an entrepreneur, we should have a mind set that we have the capability to reach far and wide. Identifying the best method of travelling usually depends on the cost, efficiency, convenience and safest. There’s a lot of option available in the world today, you can choose to drive, take busses, take the train and even take a flight. Budgeted airlines offer good rates on destination worldwide. Just that we have to plan the journey in advance.

Business travelling to the overseas is not usually a priority to new entrepreneurs. Even having the intention to meet counterparts from across the world, that option is usually put as the least priority due to the high cost. However, expanding internationally should be in an expansion plan. To be ahead and stay ahead, entrepreneurs have to be bold and creative in pursuing their dreams.

Internet Presence

In this cyber age, communicating information efficiently is vital for the company. Consumers and clients needs to have a channel for them to be able to retrieve this information. Looking at the progress of technology, businesses prefer to have an online presence for their business. Many of the day to day communication are done through electronic mails (email) and internet messages. This is also considered an image on one’s company, to be able to have an online presence proved their capability to run the business efficiently.

Almost all companies and businesses have a website or a webpage to present their company to the public. A website is usually formed to put the company’s profile and products for the viewing of existing and potential customers and clients and also the general public. Having this kind of presence, the public will be able to find resources base on their needs by the click of a button without having to leave the comfort of their home. They can send enquiries and request quotes from the internet without even having to speak personally to a person.

Websites domain and hosting are now offered even as low as RM 200 and can go up to thousands based on the requirement of the customer. Most businesses are able to design their own website but web designing services are offered widely online and offline.

Definition of Entrepreneur

en·tre·pre·neur (ŏon'trə?-prə?-nûr', -nʊ?r') n.

A person who organizes, operates, and assumes the risk for a business venture.
[French, from Old French, from entreprendre, to undertake. See enterprise.]
en'tre·pre·neur'i·al adj.en'tre·pre·neur'i·al·ism or en'tre·pre·neur'ism n.en'tre·pre·neur'ship' n.
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Definition:

Essentially, an entrepreneur is a person who starts a new business venture.
However, we tend to think of entrepreneurs as people who have a talent for seeing opportunities and the abilities to develop those opportunities into profit-making businesses.

Are entrepreneurs born or made? The debate still rages, but the current consensus is that successful entrepreneurs share a constellation of personality traits. In other words, some people are naturally more entrepreneurial than others.

A common misperception about entrepreneurs is that entrepreneurs are wild risk-takers. Entrepreneurs do take risks, but only calculated ones. One of the abiliities successful entrepreneurs share is the ability to evaluate risks.

Finding Manpower

There is a lot of method and ways to get access to human resources. The most direct approach would be through direct contact as this method is much reliable and safer as the candidate’s background is already known.

Second would be through advertisement in the newspaper and on the internet and other media form. The cost for such advertisement would vary from RM 0.70 to RM 10.00 for small adverts and even thousands for big advertisement.

Third is through employment agencies. This involves companies registering with the agency which offer companies services in finding human resources which they will either advertise on behalf of the clients on pick candidates from their current database.

Manpower

Finding manpower.
For a business to run, it would require human resources as its backbone. This comes in many categories:

The director and proprietor themselves- This is where the directors and partners of the company runs the business as the director and employee

Hired staff- They are staff hired appointed by the company to undergo a specific role for the company.

Contract Staff- These staff are appointed on a time or project basis. They offer services to the company for that time they are contracted by the company.

Outsourced staff- These type of staffs are hired based on the necessity. They are more general workers than contract staff. They will work in the company as long as the company would require their services.

Below is a guideline how much it would cost to hire manpower based on the Malaysian statistics:

Wage Rates

In Malaysia, basic wage rates vary according to location and industrial sector. In addition to salaries, most companies also provide fringe benefits such as free medical treatment, personal accident and life insurance coverage, free or subsidised transport, annual bonus, retirement benefits and enhanced contributions to the Employees Provident Fund. These benefits vary from company to company

Marketing

Identifying the best marketing methods to maximize profitability and productivity has always been an important matter of discussion in a business decision. It is know that companies and corporations spend thousands and millions on hiring expert to assist and train them to just simply find that right marketing ‘formula’ to stay ahead in the market. For entrepreneurs, don’t get discouraged if you have trouble finding the right marketing methods, as it requires time, experience and knowledge to develop it.

Marketing is a consequent step which is followed after research and planning are done. Products and services should be compiled efficiently and communicated properly and aggressively to enable consumers and clients to be able to recognise the products and services offered by the business. Presentation and way of marketing also reflects on the products and services that is offered.

For entrepreneurs and business owners, the best possible alternatives to a cost effective and efficient marketing method would be through direct marketing. In this case, brochures, flyers, presentation, marketing media CD and other supporting materials should be supplied. This documents are communicated and sent to consumers and clients directly, either through hand, mail or even through online.
Many marketing methods are used widely in the business world, volume means high revenue generation, this is just a small list of marketing methods:

Direct marketing
Channel marketing
Network marketing
Internet marketing
Mail Marketing
Home marketing

Finding an office

An office is defined as a base for the company more than the business itself. This is because the business can be as mobile as the need to be, operations can be started even without an office. Upon setting up a company, entrepreneurs should submit a registered address and this could solely for formal documentations but any other office has to be submitted for communications, however the day to day running can be done anywhere, either office lot, office space, serviced office or even from home.

Many companies have had experience running their business remotely. This is either their staff would work remotely or the business would be mobile. Partly many companies can even share the same office space with other companies to save cost.

Running a business requires aggressiveness and to achieve this it doesn’t come from being located in a good office but the people behind the business itself.

Types of offices:

Office lot – This is an office where the whole lot of the office is rented or bought. Ion the long term, this is the better option but the start investment could be high especially in prime locations.

Office space- Office space is a portion of office lot. This could as little as 200 square feet which is sufficient for a startup.

Serviced- This type of office is much more expensive than the others, its small but it is maintained by the management of the office. Its usually furnished and the utilities such as water and electricity are included.

Virtual Office- This type of office offers companies secretarial assistance to keep the business running. A dedicated secretary will always be there to attend calls on behalf of the company, Many foreign companies use this service on other branches that they have all over the world and becoming popular.

Home office- This is where entrepreneurs undergo work in the comfort of their own home. Usually equipped with computers, fax, printers, scanners and other necessity they can operate as efficiently as being in the office.

Financing

Every new business needs funds to get started and to resume in business. There are various organisation and bodies who help to achieve this such as:

Banks
Private investors
Venture Capital
Government grants
Incubator Grants
Personal Investment/Contribution.

A business itself is an entity on its own. Its an investment for the future and with that it is known that a high investment means higher risk whilst lower investment means lower risks. There are successful businesses that have started by using personal funds. This type of investment comparatively has lower risk and this type of investment doesn’t attach a string between any owed parties. However personal investments would involve personal risks.

Plan, plan and plan

Planning is a vital and important part of starting and venturing in a business. A careful planning will avoid unnecessary loop holes along the way that would waste time, money and resources. Planning is done mentally and physically. It requires research, knowledge and observation to achieve its main target.

The first stage of planning would most like involve verbal discussion and brainstorming sessions. In this stage, entrepreneurs take time to figure the proper objective why they want to start a business and how to achieve these objectives. The discussions are then put roughly on paper to be filed to develop a more proper and accurate written business planning.

The second stage would involve developing a business plan or a project paper to put their ideas and planning into a written form. A business plan consists of:

Business plan:

I. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
ཉ Description of the Business Concept and the Business.
ཉ The Opportunity and Strategy.
ཉ The Target Market and Projections.
ཉ The Competitive Advantages.

II. THE INDUSTRY AND THE COMPANY AND ITS PRODUCT(S) OR SERVICE(S)
ཉ The Industry.
ཉ The Company and the concept.
ཉ The Product(s) or Service(s).
ཉ Entry and Growth Strategy.

III. MARKET RESEARCH AND ANALYSIS
ཉ Market Size and Trends.
ཉ Competition and Competitive Edges.
ཉ Estimated Market Share and Sales.
ཉ SWOT Analysis

IV. THE ECONOMICS OF THE BUSINESS
ཉ Gross and Operating Margins.
ཉ Profit Potential and Durability.
ཉ Fixed, Variable and Semi-variable Costs, Months to Breakeven.
ཉ Months to Reach Positive Cash Flow.

V. MARKETING PLAN
ཉ Overall Marketing Strategy.
ཉ Pricing, Sales Strategy.
ཉ Advertising and Promotion.
ཉ Distribution.

VI. DESIGN AND DEVELOPMENT PLANS
ཉ Difficulties and Risks.
ཉ Product Improvement and New Products.
ཉ Costs.

VII. MANUFACTURING AND OPERATIONS PLAN (IF APPLICABLE)
ཉ Operating Cycle.
ཉ Geographical Location.
ཉ Facilities and Improvements., Strategy and Plans.

VIII. THE FINANCIAL PLAN
ཉ Actual Income Statements and Balance Sheets.
ཉ Pro Forma Income Statements. ) For a new business a 1
ཉ Pro Forma Balance Sheets. ) or 2 years forecast may
ཉ Pro Forma Cash Flow Analysis. ) be all that is needed
ཉ Financial Highlights – Key Performance Indicators; Ratios etc.

IX. PROPOSED COMPANY OFFERING
ཉ Required Financing.
ཉ Use of Funds.
Investor's Return.

X. CRITICAL RISKS, PROBLEMS, AND ASSUMPTIONS

XI.APPENDIXES
While a business plans reflects the whole operations, a project paper is a written planning for a project. Usually with any type of written planning method, the costing should also be included. The main costing are Profit and Loss statement, Balance sheet and Cash Flow. If the business is just starting then, all the costing is budgeted over a number of years preferably a minimum of 3-5 years.

Motivational Books

Just a thought that crosses my mind and asked by a friend of mine. One day, a friend came up to me and asked whether i had any business or motivation books to be borrowed to him. I say of course, but however i didn't recommend him to read of it. Many of it didn't realise that the motivation that we get from books, media and etc are only a beta effect. Therefore, we are paying something to get us excited and with no results and only false anxiety.

The books written are usually are at a different time, place, environment, situation and etc. We read books from the west oh how they built wealth. From a simple perspective despite the taxation, corporate law that exist in western countries that helps entrepreneur thoroughly, many don't know, people without work can apply for loans, the west offers so much, the populations, the culture gives a different impact to the success on new entrepreneurs.

Most of the books are written by successful business people which reached their prime during a different era where the booming cycles has just reached it's limits. So I'm just saying careful on what you read and don't go overboard with excitement through such readings

When to start?

The issue of when to start a business has been the main question that would arise in each entrepreneur who wishes to start a business. One of the factors that would effect the starting date would be on the taxation point of view. Although most countries would have a financial that starts 1st of January but there are also countries that would start their financial year during March and April.

There are entrepreneurs who would wait years until the finally starts a business but there’s also those who would start as soon as possible. So the issue of when to start could be answered only by one self. It depends on the readiness of the person and how careful the preparation had been underwent, the only the business could be started with full confidence.

Many future entrepreneurs has stressed and expressed their concern that in the future there would be lesser business opportunities, but truly that is only a wrong perception because business opportunities will never runs out and will await for those who are willing to catch it.

Who to Start?

Business knows no one as much as it doesn’t take sides. Everyone has a business spirit in them which are waiting to be explored. Business doesn’t have to be big to be a running business, everyday we see people selling items by the roadside and they are also considered as entrepreneurs as they are willing to explore their business conscience. Profit doesn’t make a person a successful business person but the people who are willing to venture in the business itself. It’s not about succeeding but its about trying.

How to start?

How, how and how??? That’s the most common question been asked. Nothing will start on their own or by itself. Therefore someone had to make a progress and make it happen. Starting is an important stage, it will determine the future success, if done in a proper manner, a positive result would be in order.

These are the main outlines on how to start:

Plan – This usually involve rough planning through discuss and brainstorming session

Put the plans on paper – This is the process where the past sessions that involves planning are put on paper such as business plans and project paper. In this stage, inexperienced entrepreneurs would preferably seek assistance.

Financing – This involves getting funds for the business.

Company Registration – This has to be done either they register as a company, sole proprietor or partnership

Getting Started

Getting started is like building a city. It needs careful planning, attention to detail, effective execution and not to forget passion. “Rome wasn’t built in a day”, so don’t worry if your business will need time to start, get moving and be on its way on full steam.
Nothing comes easy and especially starting a business. At the end of the day, all that matters is the blood, sweat and tears that we pour into it which will make the whole process worth it.
Success and failures depends much on each individual’s capability to plan, execute and manage, but it can’t be denied that luck plays a big role in every success. There had been many startups who succeeded by just being at the right place and at the right time, doing the right business at that point of time. So why not grab the opportunity to achieve what others dream of. But always remember, there's no practical without knowledge, and there's knowledge when there's no practicality

Entrepreneur.com.my Migrated

It's been so long i've been away from writing articles and editing any business materials since the last time i was the managing editor of entrepreneur.com.my which was pulled away due to unavoidable reasons. However, i managed to save all the materials in a soft copy and i shall share it here with everyone...and all the resources are free so enjoy urself. do what you want with it. Treat is as your own...