The Star reported that Dell opened its first physical retail shop or store in MidValley Megamall. The move is said to be part of Dell’s strategy to gain its dominance as the world’s number 1 PC retailer. Last year, Hewlett Packard (HP) eclipsed Dell to become the number one computer maker.

By the way, the store is one of the over 10,000 shops opened by Dell worldwide, and looking at the numbers, looks like they are serious into getting back on the top of the leadership ladder. This store is a partnership between Dell and TecAsia, the retail arm of FTEC Resources Berhad, which also sell their flagship, FTEC PC and laptop products.

I think the move is just about right. All this while, customers who want to get their hands on Dell’s products have to look through the catalog and order online, directly from them. The fact that their products are not available through resellers make it difficult for people to buy. The good thing about selling the products directly is that, you can maintain high quality for each product. The bad news is, the supply and distribution chain, from the customers’ point of view, sucks.

Nicol had his best year in 2007 after winning 8 major titles throughout the season. She also holds the record of longest winning streak by winning 51 consecutive matches before surprisingly faltered in the early round of World Open games in Madrid. At only 24, the world is at her feet and such feat is remarkable for someone who is at her age.

Congratulations Nicol. We Malaysians are so proud of you! And for sure, Penangites will be the happiest bunch around.

MIMOS, which is an acronym for Malaysian Institute of Microelectronic Systems is government owned entity that focuses on carrying out technological research and nurture development of home-grown technology. Unlike the normal PC, this slim Makcik PC works base on touch screen panel. The main objective of the development is to produce user-friendly PCs as well introducing PCs affordable by all levels of people and generation.

Makcik PC is priced between about RM500 to RM1100. As reported, the PC will not be only made available for local market, but is intended for export market too. But at the moment, it is still unsure when the first Makcik PC is available in the retail market.

Source: Utusan Malaysia

Some of you might say that you should not do that as the work needs to come from your own self.

How wrong. Off course you can outsource some of your work provided you establish strict quality guidelines for the work produced by that someone else. Also, you can do so as long as you understand that you will take full responsibility for the end result. You cannot simply say to your client,

“I know you are not quite happy with the translation part, but that is not my work. I actually asked somebody else to do it as I was running out of time.”

You say that, and you can forget about repeat orders.

Also, in the process of outsourcing some of your work, you need to know exactly how well the person can do your work. Often, freelance work and freelance outsourcing involve a great deal of trust. If no trust is formed than you should never ask someone to do the job for you.

Where do you find the extra help?

First, find someone who you have known for a long time. It is even better if that someone is from your local area i.e. a person that you can meet up easily. If that someone is from the cyberspace, track the person’s performance track record. For example, many freelance websites provide rating for the freelancers’ past performance, comments and testimonials. Choose those who possess proven record.

Another piece of advice is that, only outsource those work which is not your strongest point while you focus your time doing the work within your core expertise. For example, if your main skill is English writing but the job requires you making some research, then you can outsource the research work and focus your job on the write-up.

It seems that certain people are wasting their annual budget by giving away stashes of cash to students graduating with top honours. Recently the Negeri Sembilan government decided to give away RM25,000 for those graduates who scored first class honours in their degrees.

Off course, that is a generous rewards but in my own opinion, those people don’t reserve rewards in the form of too much cash. It will be good for the state government to help those students paying off their study loans/or convert the study loans to scholarship. They can also help those graduates by placing them in government agencies or in the private sector without having to spend too much time writing applications so that the graduates can better prepare for the real world that requires much much more than academic credentials.

This advice comes from someone who spend many years in the recruitment involving fresh graduates and often found himself disappointed with the quality of the first class graduates. Often, those average achievers with active involvement in extra curricular activities get the job and impress the employers instead of those first class degree holders.

They should remember that first class honors is just a scroll and it does not guarantee them success in the working world and life in general. There’s more to it than achieving top academic degrees.

They will eventually realize that giving away money to them will bring more disadvantages rather than advantages. Unless, those people use the money to run his/her business rather than entering the job market hoping for a high salary at par with the academic achievements. That obviously will not happen for as long as the quality of the education is still questionable.

Let’s not put the citizens money to waste. I hope they will realize their mistake soon.

Mew Choo is also the only 2nd non-China player who wins the tournament. Another player who made it so was Bang Soo-hyun, who won in 1994.

Congrats to Wong Mew Choo. Hope she can be the Nicol David of Malaysia Badminton. I didn’t watch the final, but I was hooked on the TV during her semi with Zhang Ning. She deserved to win.

From my SKOR Career article: 10 Part Time Job, Freelance & Home Business Ideas. Actually there should be more than that; I did not list down everything from my list. For example, no internet marketing is included in the list. This is because internet marketing is a pretty big subject that involve many sub components like affiliate, advertising program, direct advertising, paid links and so on so maybe this one will be covered in a different topics.

Many of these ideas are very much practical to be done in Malaysia or in the Asia market generally because of the high potential and the demand of the market itself. I think these days there are a lot of reasons why we need to look for alternative income other than depending on income from our full time job. Read my explanation in: 5 Reasons Why You Need to Find Another Job.

Off course, feel free to add in any other part time, freelance or home based business ideas.

1. Teaching or Tutoring

2. Freelance Writing

3. Photography, Video, Photo Printing and Editing

4. Translation Work

5. Jewelry and Personal Accessories

6. Proofreading

7. MLM

8. Handicraft

9. Cooking/bakery

10. Project Research and Assignment

Which one will be your choice?

1. You own the profession and not the company

Yes, we are the master of our profession. We can change it, keep it, love it or hate it. But we don’t own the company, which means there will be little to be proud of. If you are looking for flexibility, then you need to find it on your own. You will see how Steve Jobs and Carolyn Kepcher were fired from their organizations.

2. You need to look for opportunities and not wait for it

Life is too short to wait for things to come. Rather than sit and wait for opportunities falling down on your lap, seek for it. There are opportunities out there waiting to be discovered. If you don’t discover it, somebody else will. When they find it, you will be left kicking your own butt.

3. To expand your network

Yes. This is one of the skills that could make or break your career. Networking is critical either when you work full time as an employee, self-employed or running a business organization. Some of your networks may start at the bottom like you. Now you have peers and colleagues and you guys can work and grow together. And oh… just to let you know, Bill Gates once mentioned that Microsoft grows mainly through partnership and network.

4. Make more money

Need I say more? Trying to escape the rat race is always difficult with the rise of the living cost, inflation, economic instability and so on.

5. Give back to society

It’s payback time. For so long those people who came from middle class and poor background have been giving us graduates jobs and charities. In contrary, we always find excuses to give away money for the needy because we are always short of money!

Read full article here.