Musings of an Entrepreneur

10 Things You Need to Know Before Starting A Business

2015-03-04T00:53:00.001+08:00

Planning to start a business? Is entrepreneurship right for you? Ever wondered what are the challenges in starting a business? Most of the challenges in starting a business relate back to doing the little fundamental things right. Understanding the little fundamentals of business will help you overcome your early business challenges. If you are thinking about starting a business and entrepreneurship, make sure you look at these ten important rules for starting a business.

1. Understand the Entrepreneur in You

Entrepreneurship is a process of combining people, capital, market, physical resources, channel partners and other resources combined to create a business opportunity. An entrepreneur is one that has the ability to harness these resources to create the business opportunity and market. It is important for an entrepreneur to understand the process, their capabilities, goals and objectives before they embark on their entrepreneurial journey. A good entrepreneur learns to start effectually by starting with what they have and move along the journey to consolidate more resources to create new business opportunities.

2. Start Lean

Starting a new venture means that you will be burning money before you start to gather more customers and more revenues to offset your expenses. That is why, it is important to start lean. Trim off the unnecessary expenses and focus on building your revenues. Spend what is needed and not what is nice to have.

3. Validate your market

Every business should talk to its customers as often as possible. More so, before you start venturing into business, you should validate your market. Market validation is key to understand if you offer this product or service, will there be a market willing to buy; and at what price will they buy? How big will that market be? Find out what they like and what they don’t like. Approach them. People like to talk and people like to be asked for their opinion.

4. Create a compelling value proposition

A compelling business value proposition is important for the business. Buyers buy value and the products and/or services are the manifestation of the values that the business is selling. To have a compelling value proposition is to differentiate your business with your competitors. This also means that understanding your competitors is key to determine your value differentiation.

5. You must have your innovation playbook

Every business must have its own innovation playbook in order to have their value differentiation. An innovation playbook is the innovation strategy adopted by the business to achieve core competencies. Innovation need not be based on a good product performance. It can be a business model, channel, brand, customer experience, product system, network, structure, process and/or service. A good organization should have at least 3 innovation types to create a compelling core competency.

6. Business Model

Every business must have a proven business model. Business model validation is important to ensure that you have a proven way to make money and that the business model is scalable to the point that revenues outstrip costs to gain a growing profit. Most businesses fail when they do not have a compelling business model.

7. Marketing and Online Strategy

A new business needs to start working on marketing to generate leads and to communicate its value proposition. Start by networking with local businesses and local business owners. Find out what they do and explore strategic collaborations with them. Thanks to the World Wide Web, the Internet and social networks are one of the best places to start online marketing. Use your website and Google analytics to find out how people find your website and where they come from. There are also free tools available for you to reach out to potential customers. Find out how to engage with them. Do a special deal to acquire them as customers. Learn what works and what doesn’t, and repeat your successful marketing promotions. Don’t spend money if you are not able to measure any results.

8. Identify your Sales Strategy and Maintaining a Good Margin

While marketing helps to create the sales funnel, a good sales strategy will help in expanding your sales. You need to understand your sales channel whether you plan to sell direct (by hiring sales people in your company), or work with channel partners, distributors, outsourced sales representatives or forming joint ventures to expand your sales. You also need to understand your margins on all your products and services. You have to provide a good margin for your resellers or channel partners while still maintaining a healthy margin for your business.

9. Leadership and Management

Take time to think about company culture and what you want the culture to be, and make sure you bring culture into your hiring decisions. Always be on a constant look out for quality and good talent in your business. Have an organization chart ready so that your people know what are their roles and responsibilities and whom they should report to. As the entrepreneur or Head Honcho, you must articulate your vision, mission and goals so that your team is aligned to the same direction.

10. Funding and Financials

The number one reason why new ventures fail is lack of cash. You need to do good cash planning and really understanding the levers in your business that can affect your cash. Do you have inventory? How much should you have on hand? Do you collect payments from clients? How long does it take them to pay you? Are you generating enough sales? Do you have loans you need to pay back? Do you know where are your sources of funding? Do you need investment to fund some aspect of your business? How much?

Starting a business is easy but being successful in business is a journey. The best way to travel the journey is to understand the ten fundamentals of starting a business venture.

Photo courtesy of MAD Incubator.

Author: Andrew Wong, CEO of MAD Incubator (Malaysia’s Largest Startup & Business Incubation Company). MAD Incubator organizes monthly Startup Workshops to help you to discover entrepreneurship and to learn the Fundamentals of Starting and Scaling Up a Business. Website: www.incubator.com.my For more information, please send in your inquiry to Sherene Kok (sherene@incubator.com.my).

Conversion Rate Optimization

2014-05-24T22:42:00.000+08:00

An interest slide on Growth Hacking

Cro preso for growth hackers conf nov 2013 ellis updated from Sean Ellis

A Remind to Self - Reposting Guy Kawasaki's DICEE Philosophy

2013-10-26T18:57:00.000+08:00

This is a reminder to self. I am reposting Guy Kawasaki's DICEE method on creating a great product. Here it is:

Think: DICEE

Deep. A great product is deep. It doesn’t run out of features and functionality after a few weeks of use. Its creators have anticipated what you’ll need once you come up to speed. As your demands get more sophisticated, you discover that you don’t need a different product.
Indulgent. A great product is a luxury. It makes you feel special when you buy it. It’s not the least common denominator, cheapest solution in sight. It’s not necessarily flashy in a Ferrari kind of way, but deep down inside you know you’ve rewarded yourself when you buy a great product.
Complete. A great product is more than a physical thing. Documentation counts. Customer service counts. Tech support counts. Consultants, OEMS, third-party developers, and VARS count. Blogs about it counts. A great product has a great total user experience—sometimes despite the company that produces it.
Elegant. A great product has an elegant user interface. Things work the way you’d think they would. A great product doesn’t fight you—it enhances you. (For all of Microsoft’s great success this is why it’s hard to name a Microsoft product that you’d call “great.”) I could make the point that if you want to see if a company’s products are elegant, you need only look at its chairman’s presentations.
Emotive. A great product incites you to action. It is so deep, indulgent, complete, and elegant that it compels you to tell other people about it. You’re not necessarily an employee or shareholder of the company that produces it. You’re bringing the good news to help others, not yourself.

If you want a smashing example of DICEE product, you need not look any further than iPod. Deep: thousands of songs, podcasts, and recently video plus third-party add-ons that have added functionality Apple never anticipated. Indulgent: yes, you could buy a cheaper MP3 player, but that’s not the point, is it? Complete: total integration with online buying, Apple’s support (other than a battery or two), and online support by independent web sites. Elegant: One wheel does it all, right? Emotive: How did you first find out about it?

So if you want raging, inexorable thunderlizard evangelists for your product, make sure it’s DICEE.

MAD Incubator and BootstrapLabs create new Silicon Valley Accelerator, BootstrapAccelerator for SE Asia

2013-05-04T15:33:00.001+08:00

This is the Press Release announcing the formation of BootstrapAccelerator Asia

May 1, 2013, Seoul, Korea and San Francisco, California -- Silicon Valley-based BootstrapLabs, and Malaysia-based MAD Incubator today announce the formation of BootstrapAccelerator Asia. This will form the first Southeast Asia-focused Tech Startup Accelerator with a Silicon Valley Fast Track™ for its most promising candidates.

MAD Incubator and BootstrapLabs share the philosophy of “Making a Difference” by empowering entrepreneurs to build global startups and believe that Southeast Asia will be the hotbed for disruptive startups in the future. Southeast Asia is the third-largest-growing economic zone in the world with a population of one billion and a market potential of US$ 30 trillion by 2020.

“What is developing in Southeast Asia is thrilling. MAD Incubator has been doing a fantastic job locally, educating, guiding and mentoring entrepreneurs and partnering with them to empower startups to grow into global companies makes them the perfect partner to achieve our joint vision,” said Nicolai Wadstrom, founder of BootstrapLabs.

Andrew Wong, CEO & Founder of MAD Incubator echoes these sentiments adding that “our partnership with BootstrapLabs creates a different offering than other Silicon Valley accelerators operating in Southeast Asia. By combining aspects of the local culture and disposition with Silicon Valley execution we are creating the accelerator model of the future.”

BootstrapAccelerator will focus on early-stage capital efficient startups that leverage the speed of internet distribution and the scalability of cloud infrastructure. Selected startups will receive a substantial package of cash grants and other perks valued at over US$35,000. Additionally, the most promising teams will take part in BootstrapLabs’ Silicon Valley Fast Track™, and even relocate to Silicon Valley.

“The Malaysian Multimedia Development Corporation (MDeC) will support this initiative in Malaysia, which will catalyze domestic ecosystem expansion to the world. We are thrilled to have BootstrapAccelerator operating out of Cyberjaya and will a range of support through various programs, into the future,” said Dr Karl Ng, Director of Innovation Capital of MDeC’s Innovation Capital Division.

In short, “BootstrapAccelerator Asia is the first and only Accelerator of its kind in the region,” according to Benjamin Levy, Partner at BootstrapLabs.

As a step towards introducing and expanding the regional network of BootstrapsAccelerator Asia, Levy will be discussing the future of accelerators in Asia in a special panel session at beLAUNCH in Seoul on May 2. The event is one of the largest tech events in Asia, welcoming startups from across Asia to participate and build successful futures. It attracts over 2,000 attendees, 200 Investors and 60 global and regional speakers.

Startups can apply at http://bootstrapaccelerator.com/apply/. First enrollment will start July 2, 2013 with a May 30, 2013 application deadline.

Market Validation - Will Your Idea Make Money For You?

2013-02-27T22:36:00.000+08:00

In the course of my business incubation work, I've come across numerous entrepreneurs pitching their ideas or businesses to me; hoping to attract my interest to link them up with potential investors; OR I'm in one of the MSC Malaysia Innotech Pitching session and listening to investment pitches. They always start with a lot of enthusiasm about their product, the features, how big their market can be and how much money they can make with their business model. Usually, I would listen with patience, digesting their business model and numbers and then I'll ask just one question, the question that conjures up minutes of silence and sending them everywhere looking for convincing answers - one simple question that sums it all, "If you build it, how do you know they will buy it?" What investors want to know, is your business idea validated? If it is, show me the data!

This forms the premise for market validation, a critical exercise, many entrepreneurs tend to ignore. Market validation is about validating a market with certainty that there is a target customer segment that has a need for such product, is willing to pay for it and with the right price point. Market validation is a structured approach to find the right target customer segment, the right needs-to-product fit, the right product-to-market fit, the right price points, the right business model and the right go-to-market strategy and execution.

I've observed that many entrepreneurs put a lot of time and effort in developing products, spending time coding or an equally significant amount of time pitching to investors while totally ignoring the importance of going down to the ground, listening and gathering feedback, to validating that there is a demand for the product. The market validation planning component tends to be totally ignored from the startup's development agenda putting it least in the priority of a startup.

A market validation plan is about reaching out to your targeted market to determine whether the market likes your product or product concept and will they buy it when you have it ready. Many entrepreneurs tend to be overly enthusiastic about their product that goes unvalidated with the market. It is akin to firing blanks hoping that one of those bullets hit the target. And the more one fires, the higher the chances of hitting the bull's eye. This strategy can be used if one has deep pockets and many millions to spend. However, start-ups have limited capital to spend on marketing. They probably have to maximize their available resources to hit the target. The only way is to ensure that they have the right market, right product, right price point and the right business model. This forms the classic case of Ready-Aim-Fire!

MAD Incubator has always advocated Market Validation as the most fundamental exercise that must be conducted before one starts a business or develop the business model. By understanding the market, their needs, what they will buy and how much they will pay, entrepreneurs will be able to build a minimum viable product suitable for their customers as a business kickstarter. This is akin to practicing the lean startup. This saves time, money and provides the flexibility for the entrepreneur to be nimble in adapting to what the market wants.

So, before you start building a product or pitching to an investor, ask yourself this question, "If I build it, will they buy? How sure am I that they will buy? What will they buy and how much will they pay?" If you know those answers, you have a product that a market wants and data to convince your investors.

Market Validation helps you to transform your ideas into currency. MAD Incubator will be conducting monthly Market Validation workshop as a preview to the MAD Market Validation Program, a 3-months program specifically designed for entrepreneurs or businesses who want to find hidden gems in their market before building their products.

The next 1-day Market Validation Workshop will be held at the MSC Malaysia Technology Commercialization Centre at Multimedia University, Cyberjaya on March 12. Admission to the workshop is FREE.

MAD Business Challenge 2013

2013-01-16T00:54:00.002+08:00

The MAD Business Challenge 2013 application submission was closed on Jan 14. We received 31 projects, not a bad number. Of these 31 projects, 20 will be shortlisted and they will be presented to a panel of judges in a Pitch Fest on January 30, 2013. The Pitch Fest will be held at the MSC Malaysia Technology Commercialization Centre (MTCC) in Cyberjaya.

This is the first time MAD conducted this program in which the best 10 will be given a 1-year incubation scholarship worth RM50,000 per entrepreneur. The Scholarship Program is one way for MAD to give back to the entrepreneur community for the support that's given to MAD for the last 4 years. It is also a celebration for MAD's next stage of business growth with its commencement operations at the MSC Malaysia Technology Commercialization Centre. The MAD Business Challenge 2013 is also one of MAD's initiatives in realizing its "1000 entrepreneurs each achieving USD1 Million revenues" mission.

MAD Incubator is Malaysia's largest private incubator offering the foremost business incubation solutions for the entrepreneur development world. The Inaugural MAD Business Challenge 2013 is one of MAD's way to permit more startups to benefit from MAD Incubator's successful entrepreneur development strategies.

The key area in which MAD Incubator has been able to make a differentiated impact is in building a scalable business eco-system and coaching/mentoring platform that can effectively work with entrepreneurs in almost every industry space. For the lucky 10 entrepreneurs, MAD Incubator will provide facilities and services - working space, handholding, training, business mentoring and coaching, market validation, market access and funding access - for a period of 1 year following the selection process. The MAD Scholarship will begin on Feb 1, 2013 to January 31, 2014. MAD expects the 10 Finalists to achieve accelerated growth within 1 year of this MAD Scholarship Program.

What does the scholarship involve?

The 1-year scholarship will include:

One year incubation office facilities at the Startup Hub@Cyberjaya
Ideas acceleration program
Market validation program
Business model assessment
One year coaching program by MAD Coach Academy
One year of handholding, market and business development and funding access
One year access to MAD Entrepreneur Academy
Showcase at Bizstart
Launching at MAD TechVentures

Plus lots more...

MAD plans to have two scholarship intakes a year which means that there will be 20 entrepreneurs enjoying RM1 million worth of incubation services. This is just a baby step which I hope will be a giant leap for Malaysian entrepreneurs.

Happy New Year 2013

2013-01-05T18:47:00.001+08:00

Jan 4, 2013 - a new year and a new challenge. We took over an old incubator, the MSC Malaysia Technology Commercialization Centre, and is a major milestone for MAD Incubator. Three years...three years of bootstrapping before we got our big break. And now, we can look forward to quantum growth. Imagine, the 1st private incubator in Malaysia that managed to take over a government incubator and led the way in showing that incubators do make money. Three years of toiling and finally we came to higher grounds. I now believe that a startup entrepreneur need to work on the business for three years before the entrepreneur can see the business going somewhere. The 1st three years is where a lot of mistakes and successes happen and where the business model gets validated along the way. So now, I come to this point where I theorized:

Year 1 - the 1st year of any business determines the life and death of a business.
Year 2 - the 2nd year is about validating assumptions and going through the test of sustainability
Year 3 - the 3rd year is when the business model gets validated, sustainability is achieved and staying long enough to realise opportunities.
Year 4 - Growth!

I have seen this pattern in almost every businesses I came across and now for MAD Incubator. We are in our 4th year now. Great dreams are being conjured up for 2013. But most important now is to capitalize on opportunities with the MSC Malaysia Technology Commercialization Centre. No one knows how much we have gone through the 1st three years and to come through battle hardened, now is the time for growth.

I told one of my incubatees yesterday, when we talked about how long since his company pivoted. He said 6 months. Then I told him, "you have 2 and 1/2 years to go before you start to see real value in the company". Then we looked back at his previous business model which he got an investment after 3 years in business and he realised that what I've said, could be true.

To all entrepreneurs out there. Just want to let all of you know that to start a business is easy but maintaining and growing the business is the hardest part. You'll have to go through many trials and tribulations in the 1st three years. If you come out, you'll be poised for growth. So, keep the faith, believe in your dreams and know this..."to the extend you can control the future, you do not need to predict the future."

Happy New Year and may you have a great year ahead!

My latest venture - Entrepreneur Academy

2012-05-24T11:49:00.001+08:00

Entrepreneur Academy (EA) is my latest venture in the field of education. Started out more than 2 months ago, Entrepreneur Academy is an academy designed for Entrepreneurs for Entrepreneurs. It has been a hectic two months working of several challenges coming in at the same time - infrastructure (moving from shared hosting to cloud hosting); content, trainers, trainees, marketing and building a team. The partners have never been so excited on this platform knowing that what we are doing will change the world of entrepreneurship. Now every entrepreneurs can LEARN!

Why Entrepreneur Academy?

We noticed a training gap that entrepreneurs constantly face. Unlike companies who are able to send their employees for training, entrepreneurs are in part an employee as well as a business owner. And as a startup, entrepreneurs do not have the financial resources to pay for huge exhorbitant fees for training. As an entrepreneur myself, I feel those pains and I know that entrepreneurs do need training despite the busy schedule that they undertake to make their business work.

So we conceived Entrepreneur Academy, an academy focusing on real entrepreneurial issues and challenges; giving them the solutions through webinars, workshops and talks. Entrepreneur Academy focus on providing affordable training - something like the price of a bus fare - from quality trainers, some with Action Coach International backgrounds. We also found another market segment to satisfy, that is, good trainers that lack the exposure. They can use Entrepreneur Academy as the platform to promote and market their training.

For more information about Entrepreneur Academy, please log on to www.entrepreneur-academy.asia.

Now every entrepreneur can learn!

Mobile Gaming is on the Rise!

2012-05-24T11:36:00.001+08:00

Something to share on the mobile gaming market

Created by: BusinessDegree.net

A Different Way of Looking At the World of Entrepreneurship

2012-03-24T17:12:00.001+08:00

started my entrepreneurial journey way back in 1996 when I quit my comfortable job as an accountant and plunged into a business which I have no idea of. No business plan, no business, no market research but with RM20,000 capital from Dad. Wasn’t thinking right at that moment. The only things that I was thinking about is making my first million in 180 days…haha. That was during the dotcom days. But yet, I was not in the dotcom business. I went into the enterprise solutions business, Customer Relationship Management, to be exact. Way ahead of time. I failed, or some of you may call it pivoted (in today’s term) over and over again with different kinds of business ideas.

Somehow, these failures made me wiser in terms of doing business. Keep getting better at spotting things and in business dealings. When I started the MCA ICT Resource Centre, I used these experiences to good use…multitasking, network, creative ways to make money etc etc. When I re-started my business through MAD Incubator, I used the new-founded experience, expanded network, friends, clients and means to start an incubator with zero capital. From the word “Go”, I am started with ready customers, partners and employees plus a ready incubator waiting for me to walk into this opportunity.

Many may shrug this off as me being lucky. Now I beg to differ. I see it now that those years of experiences have allowed me to obtain new means to be able to pull this off. It is not luck. Some people may call it being at the right place, at the right time. Again, I beg to differ. It is about acquiring new means to do things over time. This is called Effectual Entrepreneurship.

I came across this term for the first time when I was at the Bangkok REE Program by Stanford University. REE stands for Roundtable for Entrepreneurship Education. It was just coincident that for the first time, I decided to venture out of Malaysia to acquire new knowledge and new materials to create new programs for Malaysians. It was a worthwhile investment. Anyway, I didn’t know that what I went through in my 15 years as an entrepreneur can be summarized in a framework called Effectual Entrepreneurship. The framework is as below:

Now I believe that entrepreneurship can be taught. It can be navigated even for those who are not entrepreneurs because the entrepreneurial mindset is inherent within ourselves. What we do in our personal life reflects some degree of entrepreneurship…such as finding a job, creating a career, bargaining or negotiating a good price, securing a project etc.

So, what makes entrepreneurs entrepreneurial? The answer is Effectuation. A study conducted by the University of Virginia, found that expert entrepreneurs tend to be effectual in thinking compared to novice entrepreneurs which they labeled as causal. Causal thinkers set an end goal and work towards the goal. Effectual thinkers flow like a river but they create how they want to flow and where they want to flow. They tend to build something out of nothing and are more inclined to see the future as something they set to shape today. Causal thinkers tend to think about predicting the future in order to control the future by planning their set course towards the future. Effectual thinkers seek to control the future so as not to predict the future.

Effectual thinkers:

See the world as open, still in the making. They see human action as having a genuine role. The see firms and markets as human artifacts.
Do not see opportunities as given or as being outside of their control. On the contrary, they believe in creating, as well as recognizing and discovering opportunities
Do not have an instrumental view of the world. On the contrary, they see companies as a tool that allows them to create novelty for themselves and the world, they see markets as being made rather than found, and stakeholders co-create with them rather than being used.
Work on making success happen rather than trying to avoid failure. They see failing as normal part of venturing. Because they are willing to fail, they often create portfolios of ventures, knowing and learning to kill those that will lead nowhere and nurture those with potential.

So now I know why I did what I did before. I now call myself an effectual entrepreneur these days. To help my fellow entrepreneurs, I’ve started the Ideas Acceleration Program, the starting point towards effectual entrepreneurship. This program was created within two weeks upon my return from Bangkok after the REE Program. We want to strengthen the effectual part in our entrepreneurs mindset. Go start the business first instead of waiting for seed money or grants to come in. Start with whatever means we can find and start in whatever form we can start. Do it first. Validate the market and work towards your ultimate form once you acquire new means.

So start being effectual and learn to be an effectual entrepreneurs. Come to the MAD Technopreneur Open Day on March 29 @ Technology Park Malaysia (9am) to learn more about being transformed into an effectual entrepreneur.

MAD Incubator to launch new Ideas Acceleration Program for Startup Entrepreneurs

2012-02-20T14:43:00.000+08:00

MAD Incubator is announcing the launch of its latest program, the MAD Ideas Acceleration Program, which will commence in Q2, 2012. The Ideas Acceleration Program is a 3 months program consisting a combination of field work, classroom workshops, mentors, industry mixers and guest talks. It is a hands-on intensive program to bring entrepreneurs closer from ideation to creating a new venture.

"This has never been done in Malaysia before," said MAD CEO, Andrew Wong; "and MAD Incubator is always creating new frontier in Entrepreneur Development," he added. MAD's goal is to develop 100 new ventures through the Ideas Acceleration Program over the next 9 months in which batches of 35 entrepreneurs will be accepted in the each 3-months program. "We have lined up a list of exciting mentors, workshops and industry mixers to make sure that our entrepreneurs will be able to expand their network and subsequently move the venture forward," said Wong.

The Ideas Acceleration Program is structured using the "Effectual Entrepreneurs" method in which MAD is championing as the reason why entrepreneurs are entrepreneurial. The Effectual Thinking methodology was first expounded in 2005 as part of a research by two professors in University of Virginia, Prof Saras Saravathy and Prof Stuart Read. Their research of more than 60 founding entrepreneurs with highly successful business led them to conclude that expert entrepreneurs uses the effectual method of logical thinking instead of causal method. Effectual method is based on who am I, what I know and whom I know to the initial value of the business. Each means that is gathered through the expansion of the entrepreneur's network can create new venture possibilities and subsequently evolve into new ventures. Unlike the effectual method, causal method impinge on goal settings, situation analysis and stratey to getting to the goals. It is much more management science compared to effectual method.

MAD Incubator is collaborating with the University of Virginia professors and a global movement of Effectuation Instructors and Practitioners to apply the Effectual theory into practice. This is the first in the world that is being used on entrepreneurs.

MAD will officially launch the Ideas Acceleration Program (IAP) in March. In its soft launch, more than 15 entrepreneurs have signed up. MAD Inc hopes that the IAP will springboard more entrepreneurs into business, moving Wong's dream closer to achieving the 1000 entrepreneurs that he intends to develop by 2015.

Surviving Your First Year As An Entrepreneur

2012-01-03T01:51:00.001+08:00

I was wondering what I would write in a New Year of 2012 that would help to create an impact for the rest of the year. Wouldn’t it be a great idea for a seasoned entrepreneur to give a few tips and tricks on surviving your first year as an entrepreneur? After all, I failed to survive the first year, three to four times over and the lessons learned after the fourth time, is invaluable to my fifth venture. So, here I am, an incubator entrepreneur, offering some handy tips and tricks that hopefully you will refer and use throughout 2012. Thanks God, you have me to tell you what to do in your first-year of being an entrepreneur. Do everything I say below or you’ll probably fail. I am dead serious!
Find a team. It will be difficult to work alone. Find a team to help you in areas of technology, business, sales, marketing and finance. All in all, a team of 5 with different competency is ideal. Usually, in a typical start-up, it will be two or three partners, multi-tasking.
Do not hire anyone. Start with the founding members. Ensure they have the competencies. The founding members should be working to move the venture forward in an organic way. Only hire people when you are absolutely desperate for more hands. That’s when you know your business is growing. If you need extra hands in the beginning, you may want to consider internships. Interns are cost effective. Apart from interns, you could hire freelancers on project basis. Focus on growing sales. If you have sales, you’ll have the cashflow to hire more people. Hire based on needs and quality people who can fit in your organization and be easily trained; not quantity.
Finance your business. Finance your business by acquiring customers first, borrow against your receivables (factoring), self financing, borrowing by mortgage, borrow from friends and families. There are many entrepreneurs that started their businesses by acquiring the customer first. MAD Incubator, for instance, acquired 5 customers before it began operations. By the time, MAD Incubator opened its incubation doors to entrepreneurs, it is already sustainable.
Manage your cashflow. Spend wisely as and when needed. Stretch your money to last as long as possible until a VC invest in you. When stretching your money, prioritise your spending. Increasing sales should be your No. 1 priority. Monies need to be spent to increase sales. Do not indulge in luxury, thinking your big sales will come in a month’s time. All these are make beliefs. Do not do what your ego tells you. Be prudent. Spend where necessary, so long as it is to increase sales, improve productivity, marketing and product development.
Get a customer. Do whatever it takes to get ten paying customers. If you are a content site: get a sponsor or advertiser. If you are a product or a service, get a customer. Say “yes” to everything they want. Do whatever it takes to get them. If you can’t get a customer then that means you have a lousy product that does not meet any market expectations or you’re not passionate enough about it. Go back to the drawing board.
Stay healthy. Many entrepreneurs, as I have observed, tend to ignore their health. If you don’t stay healthy: physically, emotionally, mentally, spiritually, in your first year, its a guaranteed failure. Your business depends on you to being healthy and if you are not mentally strong in your first year, you’ll make mistakes…big mistakes along the way. I think I have failed enough to tell you what ought not to do.
Sales calls. Make sure you fix the number of sales calls your team will have to make in a day…a week…a month. I’m horrible at sales calls and if you are like me, make sure someone in your team is able to complement you.
Follow up. Someone in your team will have to follow-up. If you have a potential client, move it from the phone to the meeting, to dinner as quickly as possible. Pick up the bill. Build relationship with them. Close the deal.
Network. As a first-time entrepreneur, creating a strong business network is important. Network, network, network. A lot of entrepreneurs undermine the importance of networking. Networking opens up opportunities. Therefore, go to as many networking events as possible.
Form strategic partnerships. Strategic partnerships are important as they will help you to create business opportunities. Make sure partners work for you and to do that, you’ll have to offer a deal that motivates them to work for you, ensure good business support to help them sell your products and incentives to keep them constantly motivated.
Exceed expectations. My strategy, under promise and over deliver. ‘Wow’ the customers and make them feel important. Do favors for your clients. They will appreciate it. After ‘Wow’ing them, they will refer their friends to you.
Solicit references. Solicit customer references once a product is sold. Customer references can work wonders and act as a testimony of good performance about your company.
Make sure your employees understand your corporate mission and vision. You must ensure that your employees and your founding members are focused on the business and corporate mission and vision. It goes a long way if your employees believe in what they are doing for the company.
So, if you follow the above, you’ll have customers, cash flows, a network of contacts, good partners, great employees who will work hard for you, great team and most importantly, staying healthy. This is where BizStart membership program kicks in to help you overcome hurdles in your first year in business. To find out more about BizStart membership program, email us to bizstart@incubator.com.my. Good luck for 2012!

Incubators can nurture new businesses

2012-01-02T00:46:00.001+08:00

Startup companies seeking to expand beyond the home office or garage have several options. Some companies will find a good fit in a larger office space, while other innovation-based entrepreneurs may choose to grow through incubator space. Incubators support the start-up process by providing entrepreneurs with affordable rent space, management coaching, business networking, market access, funding facilitation and other specialized support services.
By locating yourself in an incubator, you surrounds yourself with experts who have "been in the trenches" and can mentor/guide you along. Seek out trusted colleagues in your network who can provide honest feedback, and be nimble enough to change direction or seize opportunities as they come along. This is what an incubator is able to do for you.
Incubators provide entrepreneurs with opportunities to work in a collaborative business community to connect them to the right resources. Entrepreneurs can build their businesses through a network of entrepreneurs such as MAD Incubator’s BizStart Membership Program. A vibrant network of entrepreneurs, investors and service professionals will help when entrepreneurs are seeking office space, growth capital or quality management. Furthermore, this network will help to increase the entrepreneur’s startup knowledge and build new relationships. Through the BizStart Membership Program, every members are part of a collaborative business community for only RM100 (USD 35) a year!
MAD is also creating an open co-working space for women entrepreneurs and SOHO/Services based businesses for those who are keen to have a business office with shared facilities while remaining mobile and flexible with their time. Two new open co-working space have been identified at Empire SOHO Business Suite in Subang Jaya and Sunway Mentari in Bandar Sunway. MAD is expected to roll out its first open co-working space in February 2012.
For more information, contact MAD Incubator at andwtf@incubator.com.my

Deciding the right business partner

2011-12-28T00:31:00.001+08:00

A moment ago, someone asked me in my FB wall on how should he choose a good business partner. I think this is a good question which I should share with entrepreneurs since finding a good business partner is mission critical to a business.

Choosing a good business partner can be based on many factors. I have been into many good and bad partnerships over the last 15 years of entrepreneurship that I think I have seen it all. Business partnership is like a marriage. It is easy to form a partnership, simply by just registering with ROC or SSM but it is not easy to maintain and certainly difficult and costly to end a partnership. Imagine all the legal fees and division of assets one will have to go through to end the partnership.

So, over the years, I have accumulated a wealth of experience when it comes to business partnerships. But essentially, for a startup, one may want to consider the following as some of the points you may want to consider before signing on a partnership. They ranges from:

Synergy – does the partner provide some degree of synergy to your business?
Trust – do you trust your partner as if trusting him/her with your life? Remember, a business is akin to your life as you are putting all your life resources – time and whatever money that you have – into a business and partnership.
Value add – does your partner provides any value add to any gaps in the business? Does he/she complements you in the business?
Team player – is your partner a team player? Is he/she a good team player?
Comfortable – are your comfortable with the person that you will be partnering with? This is a key point that I always look into and more often, I rely on how comfortable I am with the person.
Common vision – do both of you share a common vision on the business? Are you both in agreement on the direction of the business?
Ability to listen, be heard and find the best solution – partners at times tend to disagree on certain things. I feel it is really good to disagree because this brings out the best for the business. Question is: can both partners agree to disagree and work out a common solution that incorporates the best ideas and acceptable to both partners?
Understanding – does both partners have a common understanding about the partnership and business? Trash out everything and every expectations that the partners have at the onset so that there will be no misunderstanding among partners. Best of all, agree that if there are anything that needs clarifications, either partners can call for a partners meeting over coffee and discuss on the issues.
Ability to work with you – very essential in a startup because we need all the skills, resources and connections that we can get from our partners
Money – I won’t say this is the most important because we can still manage without much money but sometimes, partners do come out with the money and less of the others. I generally put this last in my priority list because key in making a business successful is to find the right team. You can hire (which cost money) or you can get that in your business partner. A partner with money but could not work with you well, could also be a bad partner. So, the choice is yours.
Integrity – find someone with integrity.

The list can go on and on but generally finding a partner entails looking at some of these points, aside from the money. Over the years, I have relied heavily on my gut feeling, testing them a little and wait for sometime before I decided to suggest a business partnership.

So what happens if they have the skill set and reliability but not the integrity. But the integrity issue is because you hear rumours about them? In this case, I would suggest that you investigate this matter thoroughly. It happened to me before. I got to know this young chap whom people in the industry tend to give me a not so favourable view about this partner. I was definitely distressed about it but I did my own investigation. I discuss this with the guy, got his answers and got the other side of the story as well and then I did my own investigation, calling out those involved in the project and seeking their feedback. The end result was a misunderstanding and a mismatch of expectations. I decided then that there is no harm going into a partnership with him. It went quite well I must say. After sometime, I sold out my shares and made a gain. So, it was a win-win for me. So, seek out the truth, if you think that this potential partner is worth staking for.

I always believe that a partnershipis what we set out to create. It may end up good or bad. Nevertheless, it is part of our journey as entrepreneurs. We can only learn. No one is perfect. It is a journey of discovery. Sometimes things happens for a reason. We just need to find out why. Most importantly, trust yourself and make it work yourself. Just make sure that there is integrity in both partners, be comfortable with yourself, and choose a good team player.

One final piece of advice: in any partnerships – good or bad – make sure you have a partnership agreement. Not to say that we don’t trust each other but it is good to keep the partnership less complicated in case complication sets in. Documentations play a wonderful role when it comes to disagreements. So, it does keep things less complicated.

All the best in business!

Life's A Pitch!

2011-10-24T12:03:00.000+08:00

Life is not a pattern of gradually evolving improvement. It is a series of long, fallow patches punctuated by moments of crucial change. How you handle the long fallow stretches doesn't matter much. How you handle the moments of change is vital.
These big moments are not decided by chance - they are decided by how you handle them. How you pitch your case is what makes the difference. In business as in life, they are all the same.

The pitch moments, those crucial moments which give the opportunity for big change, all have one thing in common. You are trying to get someone else to do what you want them to do.

When you are pitching to someone, you are asking them to judge the future. Since knowing the future is beyond logic, their judgement wont be based on logical factors but on emotional factors: trust, confidence, hope, ambition, desire. And these factors are rational. They are instinctive. Therefore, they must be communicated from the heart. To pitch successfully, you have to understand that it is not about appealing to rationality but also it's about giving them a jolting power surge to their emotional electricity.

A pitch does not take place in the library of the mind. It takes place in the theatre of the heart.

Therefore, think 'playwright' not 'actor'. Good pitch is not about good delivery. It is about good scripting...ie good content. Think about how you can write a good script...write a good story and paint a good picture.

A pitch story must be one of problem and solution. Most pitches contain an unending load of information, but precious little persuasion. Why? Because they are constructed in a business mindset of facts, data, information. You must free yourself from that. Don't concentrate on the data. Concentrate on the problem. Your audience have a problem they want to solve. They are not in the room with you as a favor to you. They are there because they have a problem to solve and you could just be the one solving their problem. So when you construct a pitch, construct it as a story, not just any ordinary story, but a story of problem and resolution.

Don't be shy about dwelling on their problem. Define it, discuss it, deliberate over it.

A good pitch starts with a crystal clear exposition of the problem you are trying to solve. The unspoken response you want in the minds of your audience is: 'He may not have solved it yet, but this guy really knows what our problem is.' That quickly leads to the feeling: 'If he understands the problem well, I trust him on the answer.'

Elaborate. Develop your understanding of that problem. Show some research, stats, anecdotal insights, dramatize the problem. The objective is to make your audience gut-wrenchingly, suicidally miserable about the scale of their problem. The bigger the problem, the more valuable the solution.

Next, show them the answer.

The big point for now is to understand that it is not the originality of the idea which drives most business successes, it is the commitment to making the idea happen.

The key to pitching is to understand that it is the pitcher who is on trial, not the presentation. So the pitcher must inspire confidence in his audience. How? Your audience want to back a winner. You have to look like a winner. How does a winner behave?

Winners have four things in common:
1. They set their sights high; they are ambitious
2. They are pragmatic. Ambitious they may be but they are not dreamers.
3. They concentrate on the big issues. They get others to do the details.
4. They keep it simple.

Winners instinctively know that to make something big happen, they've got to concentrate on the few things that really matter. That is why they keep it simple. The simpler your idea and the simpler your presentation of it, then the more likely you are able to emerge the winner.

Create a cornerstone slide. The cornerstone slide illustrate the powerful idea at its core. This is the central theme of your pitch. Go through your draft presentation and identify the one slide that encapsulate this central idea. Make sure it is as clear, as crisp and as simple as it can be. When you deliver the presentation, linger on that slide and say, "If you forget everything else but remember this slide, you'll still have captured the essence of what we're saying to you."

Demonstrate comprehensiveness and clarity. Summary must come at the end of the pitch.

A good pitch unfolds like a good story. A good pitcher controls his audience as that story unfolds.

"Adapted from the book, "Life's A Pitch!""

DARE BizStart Showcase 2011 - Why I Started It

2011-10-11T22:05:00.000+08:00

D.A.R.E BizStart Showcase 2011 is itself a challenging experience. Creating this event from nothing into something and yet with such a huge magnitude, seems like an impossible task to many entrepreneurs. What I did is to proof to my fellow entrepreneurs that if we DARE to think BIG, we can surely achieve it. I have now done it, and I don't believe why any of you cannot do what I did. All it takes is a little ingenuity, leverage on relationships, self beliefs and the ability to mobilize people to believe in your cause. Now, I believe I have taken my entrepreneurial skill to another level. Now, impossible seems nothing to me and nothing is impossible.

Entrepreneurs are humans too especially seasoned entrepreneurs. Sometimes I do worry. Sometimes I do feel optimistic. It is a roller coaster experience. But that's part and parcel of the job. Sometimes I wonder what happens if no one turns up? Or everything we set out to do right on that day, all turns up wrong? Fears of failure and the list goes on. Nevertheless, I chosed to continue. To lead the team that I have towards a battle where we are outnumbered. And yet we know we are the winners. As the leader, I must exhibit strong leadership. Leading a team of mavericks to do something that we have never dreamt of and yet succeed in pulling it off is indeed an achievement by itself. I must pay tribute to my team. They worked hard and I know they are tired. Yet, they want to do the final push to make sure that everything turns up well and everyone is happy with the show.

So, BizStart Day was a huge success! I must say "Thank you" to the CREWS...those who made it happen. I recall it all started with developing an initial website for the show, I must thank FAITH WONG for putting so much effort into coming with a website. Then ALEXDRINA and YANN HUEY for branding and bringing out the best of the Show's essence; MICHELLE and YEE TZE for the Event Management; ALICE and WINNIE for managing the operations and speaker logistics; ANDREW WONG (BIG) and JACK for constantly updating our website content; MELISSA, MAGDELENE, SANDRIN for helping out in the Events Operations; Scores of VOLUNTEERS and scores of partners for putting in effort to galvanise their communities to attend this GREAT EVENT.

I must also thanks our 30+ speakers who have availed themselves to volunteer their time and knowledge to share with other entrepreneurs. I salute all of you for sharing. I've always believed that knowledge should be shared. And I am glad that there are more than 30+ entrepreneurs who share my vision. I am sure there are many more and we will definitely engage them in future BizStarts.

My thanks to my co-conspirators, supporters and sponsors - ManagePay Bhd, iPay88, Cyberview, Microsoft, Mavcap, MDV, MSC Malaysia, MDEX, SocialWalk, TechAge and the host of media partners and community partners who came out to support this show. Without them, I don't think I could have made this happen.

D.A.R.E BizStart Showcase 2011 featured more than 30 workshops on business, marketing and management knowledge which everyone were spoilt for choice. On top of that, we had 5 Featured Seminars based on "How to Start A Business" series focusing on Franchising, Services/SOHO, ICT, Internet-based Business and Mobile. To top it off, we invited 4 prominent Keynote speakers to share their entrepreneurial thoughts and experiences. They are Datuk Badlisham Ghazali (MDeC), Ms Chok Kwee Bee (Teak Capital), Premesh Chandran (Malaysiakini) and Mr CC Puan (Green Packet). Everyone had some interesting tales to share which even I myself had not known although I have known all of them for many years. To top the cream, we had four coaching sessions that helped to enlighten our entreprenuers' minds and prioritise their priorities.

Glad to say that all our workshops and one-on-one business clinics/advisories were fully subscribed to the point of standing room and we even had to stick the "Full House" sticker on the doors.

All in all, everyone chipped in to contribute. We had wanted all entrepreneurs to benefit from this show. At the end of the day, more than 3000 entrepreneurs benefitted from this Showcase. Imagine with 3000 entrepreneurs, they are your market. 3000 is just a start. It will grow as BizStart goes on a nationwide tour to galvanise entrepreneurs in this country. As we continue to help our fellow entrepreneurs, I am sure we can make entrepreneurship alive and a great success in Malaysia. What started as nothing has become something. I must admit, I do feel emotional about this. I won't be surprised that when all these are over, I will be an emotional wreck. Well, that is the human side of me.

Today, 2 weeks after the event, people are still talking about DARE BizStart Showcase 2011. Our website www.bizstart.com.my is still active. Our work has just begun. Through the BizStart Membership that was launched on BizStart Day, we will start to engage our entrepreneurs to work on their success. We want to showcase them in BizStart 2012. Membership is opened to the first 1000 members only @RM100/year which will end on the next BizStart 2012. We want success stories and we want to make sure that they are well D-Designed; A-Accelerated their business; R-Realised their business potential and E-Empowered to scale higher grounds in their entrepreneurial journey.

Looking forward to BizStart 2012.

5 Ways To Get Your Strategy Right

2011-04-09T11:15:00.000+08:00

1. Play to Win
Play offense and not be defensive. You have to spend money to make more money but spend where it is productive to make money. Play to win!

2. Ask Customers For Ideas
This is what we usually do at MAD Incubator. We make products that customers want. Your customers know best what they need. Spend time to listen to them and start working on products that meet their needs.

3. Know Which to Ignore
Customers may want everything but you must also know which one to ignore and which one to accommodate. The rule of thumb is 80/20. If 80 percent of your customers want the same thing, then you should incorporate it as standard feature into your product. And perhaps...raise your price by 20%? :)

4. Involve Your Key Management
Be a team player. Include your key management staff in your planning sessions so that they are aware of your plans and share your vision. They, in turn, will keep their staff/downline informed of the company's vision. This is a top-down approach to disseminating information. If everyone in the organisation shares your vision, everyone will work towards a single goal.

5. Set Fewer Priorities
Do not be distracted by having so many "to-do" items in your plans. Nobody can focus on everything. So just focus on a few set priorities. An ideal number will be 5. How do you set priorities for this year?

If you haven't got the details right or shaped from a proper perspective, take two days to work on it. Take your whole management team offsite and work on a proper strategy. It is still April. You still have time to polish your strategies to make the most of 2011.

Happy hunting!

Entrepreneurs can change the world

2010-07-04T01:10:00.000+08:00

Fail: 12 Ways To Blow Your Investor Pitch

2010-05-09T23:52:00.001+08:00

Check out this SlideShare Presentation:

Fail: 12 Ways To Blow Your Investor Pitch

View more presentations from North Venture Partners.

Options to Commercialize Invention - By Uncle Bugs

2010-05-06T21:54:00.000+08:00

Views from my IP sifu
http://uncle-bugs.blogspot.com/2010/04/options-to-commercialize-your.html

Designing For Social Traction

2010-04-24T00:27:00.001+08:00

Check out this SlideShare Presentation:

Designing For Social Traction

View more presentations from Joshua Porter.

Good Marketing Gimmick

2010-04-10T16:42:00.000+08:00

I was shopping at Carrefour this afternoon. Suddenly my daughter told me to head to an aisle where pharmaceutical products are sold. As we were heading towards the aisle, she pointed to me the place where handwash are sold. So, I thought she wanted to buy handwashing liquid since our home ran out of it. I chosed a twin-pack Shokobutsu handwash costing RM6.80 but she kept insisting she wanted another brand and pointed out Dettol! :)

I was curious as to why she wanted Dettol which cost RM8.00 for just a small botol. Then it came across to me that just a few days ago, she got some Dettol stationeries from her kindergarten and I believe the Dettol people must have visited her kindergarten the other day. She can even quote saying "Dettol keeps the germs away" :) I guess the Dettol people must have taught the children how to say it.

Now, this is what I call good marketing gimmick. If you cannot get to the parents, who are simply spoilt for choice, you can get the kids as well. Kids are simple, easily understand a simple message and push you to buy the Brand. They don't know anything about choices and are not exposed to other brands. Kids are really good sales people. I must remember this...

Well, as for the Dettol story...I bought it at RM8.00 although I know it is expensive. See! See how a young kid can become influencers to her parent's buying decision. So, marketers, take note. If you cannot get the parents, get the kid. I believe this gimmick will work for FMCG goods especially toothbrush, toothpaste, cereals, yogurt and not to mention Yakult drinks. My kid went to a Yakult factory during one of her school trips and from then on, she is a Yakult fan. She will say...Yakult keeps the stomach germs away! :)

Parents, beware! :)

Use Technology and Innovation to Move Up the Value Chain

2010-03-19T12:19:00.003+08:00

http://bit.ly/aD6VsS

NINA to launch Malaysia - Shanghai Market Access Centre with Shanghai Incubator

2010-03-16T23:47:00.001+08:00

Great News! I've just negotiated a soft landing zone with a Shanghai incubator to provide a low cost arrangements for Malaysian companies intending to set up business in China. The pilot program is for 5 companies as a start and the program is divided into 3 phases.

1st phase is the Entrepreneur Xchange Working Program which incorporate market study tours and briefing sessions. This is a short 5 days trip to will allow the entrepreneur to explore the China market with the help of the Shanghai incubator.

2nd phase is the Market Exploration Program. This involves a 2 weeks - 1 month program where, following the Entrepreneur Xchange Working Program, companies who are still keen to explore the market in China will be able to do so for a period of up to 1 month. The Shanghai incubator will provide temporary office facilities for free; and market assistance and other assistance for free.

If the companies are interested to pursue the market in China, then they will enroll into the Market Access Centre, which will cover a long term program lasting 6 months to 1 year. The pilot 5 companies will be given office facilities at the lowest cost, coaching/mentoring, legal assistance, business support, marketing assistance, financial access and other services required for our Malaysian companies to succeed in China.

This pilot will allow our Malaysian companies to have access to all services offered by the Shanghai incubator and strengthened their success in the Chinese market.

I am definitely looking forward to start this program and for those who are interested, please contact me at the NINA secretariat at (03) 8994 1750

Target Unveils Scannable Mobile Coupon Campaign - MarketingVOX

2010-03-15T23:06:00.000+08:00

Target Unveils Scannable Mobile Coupon Campaign - MarketingVOX