Back then, it was a small set up with him as the lead designer. There were several other design firms with more experienced designers to choose from but we decided to take a leap of faith and engage his services. We had an excellent experience with him and even recommended his company to our friends. In particular, we enjoyed the personalised service and attention to detail.

A couples of years down the road, his company has grown and now has a partner who specialises in interior design for commercial properties. Going back to the company that did good work for us before should have been a safe choice yes? – Apparently not. There were problems with the designs, the technology was not updated and the attitude was terrible.

When we relayed our dissatisfaction to the partner, excuses came flying out and nothing changed. When we brought this up to our first designer, they vehemently defended each other and pushed the blame to us. The exchange reminded me of the battle of Helm’s Deep from Lord of the Rings where the Aragorn and gang defended Helm’s Deep from Saruman’s army of Uruk-Hai. The designers’ determination and effort put into defending their actions was commendable. Of course this would mean that I am Uruk-Hai and they get to be Legolas skating down the stairs shooting arrows.

In response to the crappy materials and shoddy workmanship, a simple “I don’t think we can work with each other anymore.” was their final response. At this point, we were 70% into the entire project, no designer would continue the job from there! We could either stick to our guns and end up with an incomplete house or settle for crappy work and at least get the place done.

This got me thinking. How do small business compete with the big boys? What can they provide that gives them a competitive edge? It turns out that there are only two.

1. Superior customer service and experience

The distance between the decision makers and the customer in a small business is shorter than that in a corporation. Customer service is not just about being nice or succumbing to every request made my the customer. Superior customer service involves understanding your customer’s needs, not from your perspective, but from theirs. For example, telling the customer in a polite manner that something cannot be done because it is against company policy isn’t good customer service. Understanding why the customer made the requests in the first place, making a case to management and following up with the customer is.

Sometimes consumers cannot tell the difference between two products. Most of a consumer’s perceptions of a product or company stems isn’t rational. Some people will buy Coke over Pepsi regardless of how many times Pepsi claims to taste better. Some people will buy Apple products even if it is more expensive than comparable products elsewhere. You can’t objectively scale a product’s visual appeal from 1-10 because it is too subjective. In the end, people make decisions based on perceptions and if you as a small business don’t value your customer’s needs, someone else out there will.

2. Innovation through understanding

Generally, large corporations push products. They have a process of research, product development, testing and finally after many levels of approval, get brought to market. Small businesses, on the other hand, tend to shape their product according to the needs of the customer. Or at least, they should. As a small business, you have the luxury of getting to know your customers. There is no need to spend thousands of dollars on market research, just spend a few minutes asking your customers what you want to know.

Some people claim that innovation is expensive and they don’t have a budget to pursue it. Others claim that it is a luxury that small businesses cannot afford. I disagree. Innovation can be seen as “doing something in a manner different from existing ways.” The mere action of improving upon a product or service offered by your small business can be considered innovation. After all, you need to provide your customers with a reason to buy your product! As a small business, you don’t need to submit a 100 page proposal to management to propose a change or improvement in your product/service, you just need to shout across the room, figuratively speaking. Keep asking yourself why would your customer choose you over others and if you can’t give a satisfactory answer, then maybe it’s time to rethink your business proposition.

In the end, your customers are everything. No customer = no sales = no revenue = no cash flow = dead business. Maybe it’s time to change how you treat your customers. Let me know what you think.

-Terence

I’ve linked 2 videos of a girl Korean group called Orange Caramel. You’ll notice they dress up in cutesy outfits and ooze cuteness in their song and dance.

*Disclaimer: You might die of diabetes watching them so proceed with caution.*

So what can we learn?

1. If you commit to a style, go all out or don’t bother.

These girls successfully achieve the “cute till you puke” effect. If you check out their performances with the other group they belong to, you’ll realise that they are pretty normal performers. To make their performance convincing, they wear cute outfits, sing in a cutesy voice and have a dance with facial expressions to match. Imagine them without the outfits, the voice or dance… they suddenly become more dull and less convincing.

In school, we face the problem of trying to stand out from the many groups of presenters. Sometimes the best idea is to try a new style, maybe a skit or role playing the scenario. Often these require group members to play a role that seems silly and they get self conscious and end up ruining the entire presentation. Do it and do it well or just don’t bother.

2. Additional effects can be distracting.

It’s no doubt that these girls capture your attention. The problem is that you get too distracted by the costumes, dancing and the performance in general. If you listen carefully, you’ll realise that these 3 girls have immense talent and they all posses a vocal range and performance finesse that most other performers don’t have.

Sometimes presentation groups go overboard and add too many frills to their presentation. Some sing, some dance, some even get a live keyboardist to add sound effects to add a little drama. For the most part, these help you to stand out but when you go overboard, you cloud the message of the presentation and the audience loses focus. The last thing you want is for them to go “they were kind of entertaining but what were they trying to say?” after the presentation.

3. Image is an overall thing.

What makes Orange Caramel so successful – as can be heard from the hordes of deep voices screaming throughout the performance, is that they fit the look, voice and dance. Can you imagine any other performer in the same clothes and dance? Hm. probably not.

Know yourself, know what you can pull off and what you can’t. As I tell my students, if you’re funny, then be funny! But if you’re not, don’t try too hard.

To end off, becoming an effective communicator is a journey that doesn’t ever end. Your job is not to memorise all the “tools” available but to pick up lessons from people around you. Pick up the good habits and trash the bad.

-Terence

I started paying more attention to these videos and the singers and realised that we can learn a lot about communication from them and apply these lessons to our own presentations. I spent the next few weeks scrutinising several korean pop groups and came up with a couple of learning points we can apply. It was really tough work looking at pretty young stars dancing and singing but it was worth it

In part 1, I’ve chosen Girls Generation a.k.a SNSD with their chart topping song Gee.

9 arguably equally attractive girls fighting for the spotlight. Most music groups have way fewer and they can’t even stay together without wanting to go solo. So what can we learn from them in the context of our very own group presentations?

1. You can shine even if you aren’t speaking.

Each member in the group gets between 5 to 22 seconds worth of solo parts in a 3.5min song. Yet if you ask around, most SNSD fans have a favorite member whom they are fiercely loyal to. In the video, as the camera is focusing on one girl, notice that others in the background are always smiling, winking or doing a variation of some action. For example, in 2:28, you can’t help but notice the 3 girls in the background even though the spotlight isn’t on them.

So you are making an impression even if it isn’t your turn to speak. This is your chance to develop rapport and express your personality even before you speak to your audience. Smile, nod and make eye contact with your audience. They will be more likely to listen to you when its your turn. Which brings us to the next point.

2. People see you even if you aren’t speaking.

Many people think that when it isn’t their turn to speak in a presentation, they suddenly become invisible to the audience. This just isn’t true. Very often you see people who, after finishing their part in a presentation, walk to the side and start to sigh, giggle or chat with the rest of the team. What’s worse is most presenters start their parts with a huge smile but the moment they are done, the smile flies away and all that’s left is either a blank stare or a long (sian) face. Audiences react very easily to perceived emotions. If you seem enthusiastic and have a lot of energy, they are more likely to listen to you than if you seem bored yourself while talking to them.

SNSD girls always look happy and like they are enjoying themselves. It definitely doesn’t hurt the audience either.

3. Be consistent, it shows off your personality.

If you watch other Gee live performances, you’ll realise that the most discernible differences between the performances would be the clothes they wear and their hairstyles. There isn’t much variation in the music, lyrics and dance. You just know it’s going to be a SNSD performance and each girl’s personality shines through the synchronised dance moves. Eventually you’ll realise that the song and dance moves don’t matter. You’ll watch them because you’re attracted to their on-stage personalities.

You want your audience to like you as a presenter regardless of the topic. You don’t always have a super interesting topic to talk about so sometimes it’s better to shift your audience’s attention to you as a presenter instead. If you are consistently good, you develop a presentation personality that people are attracted to and even with the most boring of topics, engage your audience.

4. If you can’t do it, rehearse and stage it.

Having good presentation skills is not like getting hero’s super power. You don’t get it after a special X gene in your DNA expresses itself and it definitely isn’t a side effect of radioactive exposure. Professionals get to where they are because they practice. Stand-up comedians aren’t funny because they go on stage and crack random jokes. Radio DJs aren’t fluent because they jump into the studio and start sprouting nonsense and motivational speakers definitely don’t stand in front of an audience and just “repeat their life stories”.

It isn’t easy to have 2 people synchronise a dance and even more so for 9 people. If you watch amateurs do covers of SNSD’s dances, you’ll realise what sets them apart from the real deal – practice. I’ll go out on a limb here and say that everything is rehearsed. Every move, wink and hand gesture is decided upon and practiced over and over again. This is why you’ll never see 2 girls do the same gesture at the same time because that’ll be weird. So if you have difficulty smiling without looking weird, look into the mirror and practice. If you don’t know where to put your hands when you speak, ask a friend to give you comments about the way you are currently doing it and find a position that doesn’t make you look like you want to chop off your own hands. Keep rehearsing every line and move until you realise that you become so natural that you don’t need to anymore.

Wooh. That’s a long one and my way to justify watching these girls over and over again I’ll do part 2 in a couple of days. In the mean time, here’s hoping you get your Epiphany.

-Terence

1. People come, people go.

We’ve seen our beloved Shara, Shuna & Oliver come and go. They will always be known fondly as “founding interns”. We’ve also welcomed our newest team member, Roslyn, and our first ever intern from Ngee Ann Polytechnic, Malvika.

2. Our pride and joy.

We take great pride in every student that comes through our metaphorical doors and when they emerge as winners in their own rights, sometimes we feel the need to shout it out at the top of our lungs! We claim no credit for their achievements because they’ve worked so hard to get to where they are. We’re just happy to have lead them to their own Epiphanies. Below are pictures of some of our students.

Team Vermi, Winners of SAGE Nationals in Singapore

Team Vermi from SAJC, part of our Students for the Advancement of Global Entrepreneurship (SAGE) outreach. They went on to win SAGE Nationals in Singapore and took home USD$1000 worth of prize money from SAGE Global.

The 3 team members who went to South Africa for SAGE Global

Team Ripples Inc. from RIJC during the SAGE Workshop

Team Ripples Inc. from RIJC, also part of SAGE. They were runners up at SAGE Nationals and emerged as overall champion of SAGE Global.

Karthik at PESA 2010 Finals, picture courtesy of PESA Facebook

Karthik s/o Prathaban, ICON Ambassador from Innova Junior College (IJC) who eventually became the first ever finalist representative of IJC at the Plain English Speaking Awards (PESA).

For photographs of more students who we believe will and have also become more confident presenters, entrepreneurs and students, please visit our Facebook Fan Page.

3. Wonderful support from our clients

There’s no hiding that we’re a young company with young trainers. We wouldn’t have made it thus far without the support and belief from our clients. We’re encouraged by the positive feedback we’ve received and will continue pushing the boundaries of traditional methods. We sincerely thank all who believed in us and rest assured as promised – we try harder to do more for you and your students.

4. What’s next?

We have a line up of exciting commentaries, programmes and partnerships coming up so we’re very excited to keep moving along. Stay tuned, learning might never be the same again.

-Terence

The One (standing) Behind
You may not notice this, but TOB is present in several courtesy campaigns or lessons in morality. For instance, SMRT’s “Standing Left is the Right thing to do” encourages passengers to take root on the left-hand side of escalators so that other passengers in haste can dash up (or down) on the right side. Holding the door open for those behind you is always much appreciated. A series of Chew on it comics highlight the karmic consequences to those who fling water on toilet floors or sleep in libraries. Seen from a superficial level, this is literally caring for those visibly behind you.

We are The Ones Behind
On a more serious note, cross-generational TOB is a problem that politicians and ministers alike are losing sleep over. In the US, 43% of citizens have less than $10,000 for retirement (see video on US Melt-up). At home, we are now The Ones Behind who will have to provide for 95% of the elderly population (Asia Times), with a mere three persons paying entirely for an elderly person’s survival. Coupled with the fact that Singapore is going to be the 2nd oldest nation by 2030..splurging on that iPhone4 doesn’t seem like such a good idea now (http://techielobang.com/blog/2010/06/08/it-is-official-singapore-will-have-iphone-4-in-july-2010/)

Leaving our earth intact for The Ones Behind
The facts are undeniable – we are depleting our earth of its resources, slowly but surely. In fact, the World Wildlife Fund predicts that our earth will expire by 2050. Our children, TOB, will have to magically colonize two planets of their choice because we, their parents, have left them with an earth devoid of resources. A bit less air-conditioning, a pail of water reused, a stack of paper recycled will go a long way. http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2002/jul/07/research.waste

P.S. This article originated because my sisters left dishes in the sink behind for me to wash ):
-stella

that’s what the US trusted in.

after a mere 13 minutes of watching this doom&gloom documentary, the scary truth hit – the selflessness of the entire nation cannot bail the government out, 43% of the people have less than $10k for retirement (poverty in old age or burdensome social security?), grossly inaccurate (100-1000plus%) forecast budgets, the rich living it up with dom perignon and caviar while an increasing number bank their hopes on food coupons…

i leave the rest to you to watch

really, God bless America.

-stella

With an aging population and healthcare inflation exceeding CPI increases, the burden of healthcare on Singaporeans is likely to be substantial in future. While our “nanny state” has thoughtfully put in place several tiers of protection – the 3Ms (Medisave, MediShield and Medifund) and 3Es (Eldersave, ElderShield and Medifund Silver), there has been increasingly greater emphasis on personal responsibility, albeit with hand-holding by various healthcare institutions.

Take care – because others care
We see hospitals, polyclinics and GPs setting up various programmes to help individuals manage and control risk factors and chronic illnesses (eg Chronic Disease Management Programme). The Integrated Screening Programme offers low cost basic health screening (including tests for high blood pressure, Pap Smear) to those aged 40-69, through a kindly invitation letter in the mail box.

Take care – because transparency in the market allows you to
We are all encouraged to cost-compare, with private hospitals required to publish hospital bill sizes come 2011. From the case study of Lasik, where costs fell drastically and gaps between Lasik providers narrowed with cost-publishing, we can expect cost savings from prudent and rational decision making. YAY!

Take care – because only you can
Nevertheless, some illnesses still remain a lonely walk down the park. For instance, individuals who (a) are infected with HIV through sexual intercourse or (b) infected with HIV through blood transfusions or occupation and are not insured with a Critical Illness plan stand to incur a 5-year present value cost of $37,000 in HIV medications. Mental illnesses remain exceedingly costly, with those counseling paying up to $160 for a 50-minute session, and the “Sleepless in Singapore” making necessary investments of close to $7,000 for ion-emitting mattresses. For these, my only advice is – take care.

Recommendation
After reaching the halfway mark in a health insurance internship, my advice to you would be:
• Save dutifully: you never know what illness will befall you, and there are many unfortunate predicaments that you need to pay the bill for, unassisted (note that these are usually exceedingly costly)
• Be insured: for those intimidated by insurance and financial planning jargon, begin gently with MediShield. When you are able to afford higher premiums, ease into Hospitalization & Surgical (H&S) scheme readily available by various private insurers. Finally, when age and body functions start to get cranky, embrace Critical Illness plans to hedge yourself against costly long-term treatments.
And mostly importantly, take care. As the dreary yet wise proverb goes, Prevention is better than Cure.

-Stella

Public speakers are not spared from this. Just like a celebrity, public speakers also stand in the limelight, subject to scrutiny from the audience or public. Every single word, action is dissected under a microscope mercilessly. Often, it is ever so easy to “fluff”, to over-exaggerate, to tell a half-truth in exploitation of the fact that audiences are not experts on the topic. In this scenario, the public speaker who talks in an untruthful manner is likely to let slip or contradict himself – almost like a celebrity who is caught unaware or photographed coming out of sleazy hotels and night-clubs. The embarrassment is painful – the Jack Neo video tells it all.

Jack Neo's wife breaks down! 梁智强太太记者会崩溃!
Read the story here.

The age-old message is drab but clear: honesty is the best policy

-stella

What is Social Enterprise, anyway? To define it in a broad sense, it is simply a business that addresses a social cause. At Epiphany Education, we believe in the life-changing power of social enterprise. This year, we will be partnering with Students for the Advancement of Global Enterprise (SAGE) to enable and guide students to revitalize the social entrepreneurship scene in Singapore! In the past, we saw Jurong Junior College students setting up an e-gaming centre to address gaming addictions, Raffles Junior College students orchestrating concerts at popular spots such as the Butter Factory and Temasek Junior College students developing educational programs to enhance learning, amongst others.

Through our greater collaboration this year, we are committed to pushing these young talents and their various social enterprises to far greater heights! Our dynamic workshops with both the SAGE university mentors and the students will enable them to jazz up their projects and presentations through our strategic two-pronged approach of effective marketing of their projects, as well as stellar presentation skills. On top of that, for the betterment of both their businesses and lives, we will teach them how to apply fundamental financial literacy into their social enterprises and personal expenditures. Lastly and most importantly, we enable them to obtain for themselves, the entrepreneurship and business know-how that will definitely serve them well in this triple-bottom-lined business environment in Singapore!

So, what are you waiting for? To enjoy not only the learning experience of a lifetime, and also training workshops by Epiphany Education specially tailored to your needs, visit the SAGESG website to sign up!

-Stella

(Source: http://www.telegraph.co.uk)

We bade farewell to the King of Pop, Michael Jackson.

(Source: www.aceshowbiz.com/)

We watched as the U.S. welcomed her 4th president – Barack Obama and indulged in the dissection of Michelle Obama’s wallet-friendly wardrobe in gossip magazines.

(Source: http://www.telegraph.co.uk)

We struggled to keep afloat in the economic crisis. We rushed to get new iPhones and embraced the touch-screen revolution. In Singapore, non-smokers got a fresh breath of air with yellow-boxes being drawn and smoking bans re-inforced.

(Source: http://www.pma-show.com)

The nation debated over the upcoming IRs, received Resilience packages with grateful hands and welcomed the new Circle line. What a year!

Now that all in 2009 has been said and done, it’s time to reflect on the past year and start 2010 on a new note. What are YOUR greatest achievements, disappointments, lessons learnt?

How much headway did you make, in gathering your stage confidence and conveying your thoughts?

(Source: http://joshpease.files.wordpress.com)

How much did you progress, in becoming financially literate and being a good steward (or stewardess) of your money?

(Source: http://cabelfoundation.org)

Most importantly, what are your resolutions for the new year? Your resolutions that aim to BETTER what you have achieved in 2009, and correct or avoid the mistakes that you made?

When writing your resolutions, be sure to:

1. Set specific goals. For example, instead of writing “I want to be more punctual”, resolve to “Be on time for at least 90% of my appointments”

2. Set realistic goals. Balance ambition with reality! If you are drawing a $1,000 monthly salary, ask yourself how realistic it is to aim for a grand total of $50,000 in annual savings.

3. Set goals you have power over. This means that resolving to “win the lottery” is probably not such a great idea!

Let’s start the new year on the right track, shall we (:

-stella