Heard of web 2.0? How about business 2.0? Both terms are coined in recent years and promise to shape the future of social culture and businesses. They do not have official definitions and web 2.0 is a better known term than its cousin. To me, I would term business 2.0 as the future of business, harnessing much of the technology in web 2.0 as its new leverage in the battlefield.

So what are the qualities and characteristics of a business 2.0 firm? Drawing from some sources, I was able to gather the 9 qualities of business 2.0 :

1) Niche – Due to the fact that everyone is getting into the market, you need to find a single area that you can stand out from the rest. If you are not different, you ain’t getting noticed.

2) Specialization – Like what google says, “Do one thing and do it good”. Make your niche your specialization. Be the best such that no one can replace you.

3) Remarkable – Make products or services worth remarking. Mavens are interested to spread your goodness wider and further than you expect, and making you more than happy.

4) Outsourcing – I believe this is not a new term to you but it does bring a new meaning now. With a flat world and supporting technology, small and big businesses have the ability to outsource tasks overseas with speed, ease and economical value. Chinese and Indians are waiting to take work for less money.

5) Crowd Sourcing – New form of leveraging. Harness the power of the masses. Have millions of brains working and contributing for you. Think open source (even for your innovation).

6) Tribing – No man is an island. Like attracts like. People tribe and want to belong to something they believe in and are passionate about. This means that your niche must indeed be able to retain its uniqueness – exclusivity is what makes a tribe special.

7) Permission Marketing – Blasting ads at individuals are no longer as effective as before. It is in fact not efficient to do so. Consumers are trained to ignore ads over the years. It is both more effective and efficient to market to consumers who are interested with what you have to offer.

Value Creation – Business is about value creation for customers. If you create great value for them, they will want to follow your tribe.

9) Innovative – Continual improvements to your business is necessary to survive in the fast pace flat world. There are more competitors out there and they can replicate your present success almost overnight (I just heard from my friend that imitating a new Nike shoe design can be done by the following day in a China factory).

Books that give you a peep into the future

Related posts:

1. One Business 99 Lessons by Nanz Chong-Komo
2. The Cult of the Amateur by Andrew Keen
3. Automatic Millionaire by David Bach

Here are the reasons why I believe selling insurance is a profitable business

Perpetual Income

Insurance agents are paid commissions for every policy they sell. As long as the first client stays with them and pay insurance premiums, they will receive the commission. Imagine you have been an insurance agent for 10 years and on the average you have 50 new clients a year. In the first year, you have 50 clients. In the tenth year, you have 500 clients and everyone is paying you a commission! This means that you get rewarded up to the first deal you gotten.

Multi-Level Marketing

Once you have established yourself, you can even open up an agency with your own agents working for you. Like any other Multi-Level Marketing (MLM) model, you get a part of your agents’ earnings! This means that on top of your own clients, your agents’ clients pay you too! The more agents you recruit and train to become great sales machine, the more leverage and earnings you will have!

Growing Market

Many people have the perception that most have already got their insurance policies and hence, there is little business left on the table. You should know that in every year, there are newborn babies which translates to population is renewing and new business being generated each year – Not to even mention the population is growing. As with better healthcare, people are living longer and they need more funds for retirement and healthcare, which all can be plan for through insurance.

New business

Given that Singapore Government is making annuities compulsory for every Singaporean, this is going to be a big market for you to tap!

Besides the advantages that I mentioned, there are some prices to pay before you can succeed as an insurance agent.

Integrity – you need to have integrity to offer suitable products that meet your clients’ needs and not because you want to increase your sales.

Responsible – you have to be responsible to your clients and respond to them when they need you. You also need to review their status periodically, even potentially there is no new business.

Discipline – as you are almost working for yourself, you must have the discipline to wake up and start work regularly. It is always easy to avoid work when no one is enforcing it.

Personal development – you need to continually improve yourself in terms of product knowledge and soft skills.

Handle rejections – like any other sales job, you need to handle rejections and persevere to make deals.

Agents who are armed with these values and skills will be able to retain their clients and at the same time, attract new clients to increase their earnings.

Related posts:

1. Whole life insurance or term insurance? Advice from consultant
2. Why you cannot increase your income?

Three simple but powerful lessons from Dennis Wee (with my elaboration):

Get a job first

I like the way Dennis Wee (Founder of Dennis Wee Group) puts the perspective of having a job – getting paid to learn. A self made multi-millionaire entrepreneur, he mentioned that it is very difficult to start a business right from the beginning. The best and safest way to start a business is to have a job first. A job can provide learning opportunities indirectly and at the same time, you get paid! Hence, I always feel it is important to take stress in your job positively. In this way, you will be more motivated to give your best and deliver a great performance and bring about more rewards and success.

It must be remembered that the job forces you to do things that you will normally not do on your own. It forces you out of your comfort zone, and this is why most people are very unhappy and often complain about their jobs. If this is the case, it is very difficult for one to be an entrepreneur. This is because an entrepreneur has to manage his time as there isn’t a boss to ensure he turns up work on time, or carry out the tasks that he needs to do. It takes a lot of self discipline to do it and courage to always get out of his comfort zone to grow his business.

Therefore, you should remember that every time you face a challenge in your job, it is an opportunity for you to overcome it and grow. Do not shunt away from challenges, it will bring you no where. If you do what you always do, you will get what you always get. It is not the job that needs to be changed, it is the person that needs to change. A successful person is like a diamond, it is produced under a long period of intense stress.

Find a mentor

To supercharge your learning and business building, you should find a right mentor for yourself. A mentor can instill the right beliefs in you that you require to go to where you want to be. In law of attraction terms, a mentor is definitely one who has a higher energy level than you, and by interacting with them, their energy will motivate you into actions towards your goals.

You may think that successful entrepreneurs may not have the time and emphasis to help. You may be surprised that many are actually more than willing to impart their knowledge and experience to budding entrepreneurs. It only depends on how much you really want them to be your mentors. An approach is a step nearer.

Leverage

Dennis Wee define business as really about leverage. What he really mean is that business is about having a system where you use resources (people, time and money) to earn more money together, than each single entity can do alone. The more leverage you can apply, the more money you can earn. Many entrepreneurs made the mistake of having to supervise on every single thing in their business and this not only take away their energy and time, the business is limited in terms of its size. One needs to design and operate a workable system and as much as possible, eliminate the entrepreneur from it. The entrepreneur can then use his time and energy on developing the business.

Related posts:

1. One Business 99 Lessons by Nanz Chong-Komo

Book Review:

With so many web 2.0 supporters, it is important for someone to raise an opposite perspective of the downsides of this latest technological driver, so as to remind us that things are not as perfect as they seem, and really ask whether we are ready to accept these downsides. The author received many criticisms (as I surveyed the book reviews in Amazon), especially from apparent web 2.0 supporters. I am a web 2.0 supporter and believes that this technology advancement is almost impossible to stop from influencing our daily lives. But there are indeed some measures to be taken to properly manage the downsides and also take the development at a suitable pace. Some issues that were raised were indeed quite eye-opening and including myself, have not thought of them. It does set me thinking of these possible scenarios and what would my reactions be. I greatly dislike the tone of his writing which is very unfriendly and ever so attacking. The book seems to be a pure complain message to the web 2.0 community – which I feel if he wants to ensure the community to take his argument objectively, he could have watched his tone. He has valid points but as I mentioned, he is not putting them across in a proper manner, which makes me feel the points are not strongly justified.

Book Summary:

Misinformation

By democratizing content generation, many amateurs have joined in to produce information and often, these information were actually “personalized truth” – personal subjective opinion rather than an objective one. “For the real consequence, of the Web 2.0 revolution is less culture, less reliable news, and a chaos of useless information.” Moreover, organisations are making use of this chance (and the anonymity of internet to hide identity) to build a good image of themselves or even for propaganda purposes. “Advertising and public relations are disguised as news, the line between fact and fiction becomes blurred.” For e.g., DCI group, a lobbying firm whose clients include Exxon Mobil, put up a video in Youtube titled, “Al Gore’s Army of Penguins”, to retaliate against “An Inconvenient Truth” by environmentalist, Al Gore. Youtube also began selling “participatory video ads” (PVA) as part of their revenue generating method. PVAs are given priority on Youtube’s homepage and they are almost indifferentiable with typical Youtube videos.

Can amateurs replace the experts or the professionals? Can Wikipedians replace Britannicans? Wikipedia founder, Jimmy Wales, said, “To me, the key thing is getting it right. I don’t care if they’re a high school kid or a Harvard professor.” How does Wales know who is right? You would still need an expert to verify, someone who knows more than anyone else in the subject matter.

As information is democratized and digitalized, it is very easy to spread misinformation widely and rapidly. Links from blogs to other blogs, Youtube, MySpace, Wikipedia, which include many more links to other websites and so on and so forth. It is impossible to stop the spread or identify the source. “Future readers often inherit and repeat this misinformation, compounding the problem, creating a collective memory that is deeply flawed.”

Instead of having expert interpretation and commentary of news and events, many are turning to news written with personal perspectives, like Instapundit.com and the Dialy Kos. The reason is that “we [tend to] seek out the information that mirrors back our own biases and opinions and conforms with our distorted versions of reality.”

“Floggers are bloggers who claim to be independent but are actually in the pay of a sponsor.” These floggers get paid to write good things about their sponsors even if they may not agree to what were written – “bloggers sell their souls to the highest bidder”. On the other hand, sponsors had their own problems – click frauds. Due to the “pay-per-click” nature of online advertising, advertisers get billed whenever someone clicks the advertisements. Many “paid to read” businesses sprang up to pay clients for clicking advertisements, and to a further extent, some even programmed the clicking to be done automatically. “The result is that businesses, which pay per click on theirs ads, dole out huge, inflated sums to advertising companies for clicks that generate no returns in sales, customers, or genuine stickiness.”

Hurting the business

“[The Web 2.0 companies like Google, Youtube and Craiglist] are unlikely to fill the shoes of the industries they are helping to undermine, in terms of products produced, jobs created, revenue generated, or benefits conferred.” For e.g., Craiglist estimated to have caused Bay Arena newspaper an annual $50 million loss in advertising money. The former has a huge responsibility for the many layoffs in newspaper firms, including 101 layoffs in San Jose Mercury News (note that they only have 22 employees).

Traditional media (radio, TV, newspaper, movies) have been affected by free services from Craiglist (classifid ads), blogs (news), radio (podcasters) and pirated file sharing (movies, music). Marshall Poe, a writer from Atlantic Monthly, told Keen that companies cannot make money by providing high-quality content for free – “The Internet is a huge moral hazard for people in general, and it is a huge economic hazard for the serious providers of content.”

“Google is a parasite; it creates no content of its own. Its sole accomplishment is having figured out an algorithm that links preexisting content to other preexisting content onthe Internet, and charging advertizers each time one of these links is clicked. In terms of value creation, there’s nothing there apart from its links.”

With widespread illegal file sharing of music, economic viability of record companies has been undermined. Rarely listeners pay for music now. Music may one day degrade into a bonus item for the sale of other commodities – “equivalent to the plastic toy found at the bottom of the cornflakes box”.

The problem with Long Tail

Chris Anderson in “The Long Tail” has redefined economics from scarcity to abundance – “[T]here will be infinite shelf space for infinite products, thus giving everyone infinite choice.” The big assumption here is that talent is infinite as well – such that everyone involved in the production of information or products are equally qualified. In reality, talent is scarce – each person’s level of expertise, experience, and mastery in any field is different. “The fact is, Anderson’s vision of a hitless, flattened media is a self-fulfilling prophecy. Without the nurturing of talent, there will, indeed, be no more hits, as the talent that creates them is never nourished or permitted to shine.”

Small labels, after the closure of Tower Records (which boasts 40-50% of niche records), lost half of their business. Although Long Tail tells us that these labels can sell directly to customers, it still requires marketing skills to surface themselves to the buyers, which majority of the small labels do not have. “A more likely consequence of Tower’s closure is the increasing consolidation of the major labels.” Moreover, the human touch of having a deeply knowledgeable Tower employee providing recommendation is no longer felt in Amazon’s anonymous reviewers.

Traffic is core business in Web 2.0 but on the contrary, high traffic does not always translate into money. A good example is The Scene Aesthetic, who have attracted millions of listeners + downloads in MySpace, PureVolume and YouTube, has yet to sign a deal with a label and were just able to cover their expenses during their performing tour.

Social Problems

Online casinoes have made access to gambling ever more so easy. Gamblers no longer need to travel to places to gamble and can do it right at the comfort of their homes. We do not want our people to be addicted to it or the younger generations to grow up in an environment with values like gambling is a shortcut to wealth. Besides gambling, pornography has also proliferated in the Internet, which is equally undesirable for society.

The information rich Internet (including personal data), makes it easier for sex predators to prey on their potential victims. MySpace has been sued by families who had daughters abused by men met on the MySpace website.

Second Life has drew a huge following of 1.5 million users by end of 2006 and in January 2005 alone, $5 million in transactions have taken place for virtual items. “[I]t can have dangerous financial consequences for addicts who prioritize their second lives over their real lives and drain their bank accounts buying goods and services to consume in their second lives.”

Baroness Susan Greenfield, an Oxford University Neuroscience professor, suggests from her research that children from Web 2.0 generation will be more prone to real-world violence, less able to compromise or negotiate, apt to be poor learners, and lacking in empathy.

Privacy is not so private in the Internet afterall – AOL who kept search queries of users accidentally leaked out to the public. Uncovering secrets of people who would not even confide to his/her closest aide. Search engine companies keep such data to analyze user behaviour and profit from the information. The ethical question is, “who owns the search engine queries?” Financial histories and data were also being stolen frequently in the Internet – data from 40 million MasterCard and Visa accounts were stolen in July 2005.

Nigel Gilbert, a Surrey University professor, suggests that Google is within five years of having sufficient information to be able to track the exact movement and intentions of every individual. Imagine a world without privacy for you…

Keen’s suggested solutions

- marry new media and traditional content without compromising editorial standards or quality

- regulations on undesireable activities like online gambling and unacceptable behaviour like fraud, identity thefts, stealing of intellectaul properties

- legal limitations on the type and duration of users’ data stored

No related posts.

Book Review:

This is the second book I read about entrepreneurship (and here is the first) and I felt the author really covered many aspects of starting a business. Being successful in creating several companies, he reinforces his theory with many real-life, concrete examples. His theory is well organised and presented in a very structured manner and thus, easy to follow and remember them. I term it theory because he addresses the topic of entrepreneurship from the basic fundamentals and principles – e.g. “Three Mantras of Entrepreneurship”. Entrepreneurship is something that is very difficult to define in words, and yet, he was convincing. Entrepreneurship is like turning theory (idea, plans) into reality (business), and it seems like he did a reverse in writing this book – turning reality (entrepreneurship experiences) into theory (book)!

It is definitely a handbook for any aspiring entrepreneur – not only a book to read before you start a business, but also from time to time, in your journey of entrepreneurship!

Book Summary:

Section A – The art of entrepreneurship – the entrepreneur’s mind

Chapter 1 – What is Entrepreneurship? – A General Discussion

Entrepreneurs never consider themselves successful as they are always on a journey to achieve more. Naturally, they do not fear failure and hence, they have the courage to challenge the norm and do things differently. In the process, they create something out of nothing and brought wealth to themselves and others.

Chapter 2 – The Three Mantras of Entrepreneurship

The Three Mantras of Entrepreneurship are:

1) A winning spirit
2) Aim high be prepared for the worst
3) There is no shortcut to success

You need a wining spirit to recognise there is no problem that cannot be solved. Thus, entrepreneurs live with the ‘can do’ spirit and aim for the sky. Although ambitious, they never take blind risks. They will also have a backup plan in case they face failure. This backup plan gives them a peace of mind and allow them to have full concentration on building their venture. They understand that there is no shortcut; hard work and persistence are pre-requisites to success; even to the extent of 24/7 committment.

Chapter 3 – The Three Beliefs of Entrepreneurship

The Three Beliefs:

1) I seize opportunities where others fear failure
2) I can change the world
3) I relish challenges

The ability to discover the right formula for success during the worst of times makes all the difference and creates the best of entrepreneurs. “I can change the world” is the driving force for entrepreneurs to fight the giants, changing the rules of game and winning. As they relish challenges, they will continue to fight against all odds until they achieve their goals.

Entrepreneurs are rule breakers. They can do it as long as the law did not explicitly say it is illegal. The story of NUTS (No U-Turn Syndrome) by Creative Technology founder, Sim Wong Hoo – In Singapore, when there is no U-turn sign, drivers assume they cannot make U-turns. In many other countries, drivers cannot make U-turns unless there are explicitly no U-turn signs. Entrepreneurs should have the mindset of the latter.

Chapter 4 – The Three Realities of Entrepreneurship

Entrepreneurs must face the three realities:

1) Risks and failures are necessary
2) Creativity and innovation matter
3) Timing makes a difference

Entrepreneurs have higher threshold of risks and are more willing to carry on even when not all the risks are addressed. Creativity is needed to think of ideas while innovation is required to transform the idea into a business. A good idea and a good business plan with the best strategies and efforts will not create success unless the time element is right.

Chapter 5 – The Alignment of Your Stars

Stars are defined as the necessary ingredients and success factors for your business to succeed. Different businesses have different stars, and it is important to identify and align them to create a successful business.

In all business, there are three basic stars to be aligned:

1) The Star of Opportunity
2) The Star of the Team
3) The Star of the Investor

There must really be an opportunity for the business you want to create in the first place. Then, you will need a good integrated and diversified team to execute the business plan. Lastly, it is important to select investors that have the same frequency of thinking as the entrepreneur.

Chapter 6 – You Need the Passion

“Entrepreneurship is all about having the passion to do it. Passion drives the actions you take to create success, influences your energy level, and the intensity of your belief about your business idea.”

Chapter 7 – Thinking with Your Heart Not Your Head

Entrepreneurs can come out with solutions that are not able to be derived from logical thinking or through structured decision making processes. Call it gut feel. The best decisions are made when the Head consults with the Heart to come out with the optimal solution.

Section B – The science of entrepreneurship – The technical aspect of creating a business

Chapter 8 – Transforming an Idea into a Business

An idea does not automatically transform into a business and most start-ups fail at this stage. There need to be a process of defining a meaningful business strategy, having an executable implementation plan, followed by proper implementation of the plan.

Chapter 9 – The Process of Starting a Company

There are 12 steps to transform an idea into a business, followed by raising funds for the company:

Starting

1. Getting the idea and writing a conceptual plan

2. Getting the team together for buy-in

3. Writing an initial business plan

Taking off

4. Putting in your money and starting

5. Engaging the broker for fund raising

6. The (real) business plan

Fund Raising

7. The teaser: How many and whom should be targeted to get smart money

8. The non-disclosure agreement (NDA)

9. The presentation

10. The term sheet

11. The deal negotiations

12. Closing the sale and purchase or investment agreement

Chapter 10 – The Three Rules of Thumb for Fund Raising

1) Create value first before finding new funds – focus on creating value first and expand later

2) Bring in just enough funds plus a small buffer each time – under raised = lack of funds; over raised = dilute ownership; buffer should be as much as what you intend to raise

3) Raise the funds when you do not need the money – raise funds when situation or economy is good and not wait till desperation

Chapter 11 – The Business Plan

The business plan is the most important document the essence of your business, plans, strategies, goals, and the people behind the company. It should be a ‘living document’ such that ammendments are made according to changing circumstances as the business progresses.

1) Executive summary – concise and succinct, capturing the gist of the whole company

2) Company’s background – how it got started; who are the founders; what drove the founders to start the company

3) Company’s goals, objectives, mission and vision

4) The management team – details of team background and qualifications are described

5) Product or Service

6) Marketing strategy and plan – illustrate your differentiation

7) Operational strategy and plan – includes the technology roadmap, resource utilisation, capacity planning, and beta testing

Short-term and long-term financial plan – income statement, balance sheet, and cash flow statement

9) Risk factors and contingency plans – provide a risk management strategy

10) Exit strategy – potential investors will be interested to learn when liquidity will be achieved

11) Appendices, annexes, attachments

Chapter 12 – What Do Investors Look For?

Investors generally look for

1) a strong integrated team that has the ability to execute the plan
2) quality business plan, assessing your thoroughness and depth of understanding
3) ability to transform the idea into a business
4) how the raised funds are utilised
5) marketing plan and how you globalise the business
6) committment 24/7

Chapter 13 – What Should Investors Look For?

There are 8 criteria:

1) A strong and diversified team
2) Alignment of the three stars
3) Domain knowledge
4) Long-term objectives and short-term goals – to be set and must be measurable
5) Start with a globalisation mindset
6) Be prepared to fail – plan for contingencies
7) Assemble a good board
Prepare for due diligence assessment – due diligence is the process of investors assessing the start-up and the team behind it.

Section C – Useful Lessons you should know before starting

Chapter 14 – Lessons Learnt During the Dot Com Days

5 key lessons:

1) A business is a business whether in old economy or new economy – revenue models and profitability need to be addressed

2) An idea alone does not make a business

3) Any business requires hard work and there is no shortcut to success

4) Any business must have the right type of money backing it – too much easy money spoils the entrepreneur

5) Good domain knowledge and not just technology, is required to run a successful business

Chapter 15 – Three Ingredients to Create An Entrepreneurial Environment

1) A conducive rules and regulatory environment – pro-enterprise and eliminate/reduce obstacles to entrepreneurs

2) A vibrant financing environment

3) Nurturing the people – entrepreneurship can be nurtured and should be started from young. Develop their innovative mindsets from their early stages of education.

Chapter 16 – The VC (Venture Capitalists) Trap

Select a few VCs and choose carefully. Study their valuation proposal and do not be too optimistic over their high valuation. It means that you have to meet their high expectations and also bearing the consequences if you fail to achieve them. Guard against conditions that may cut down the company’s valuation at a future date and be clear about issues in the investment agreement betwen both parties. Choose a VC who can bring in money and add value to the company through their experience or knowledge. Remember that indivuals in a VC are out to make money for themselves. In future fund raising rounds, take control and do not allow VCs to be in command.

Chapter 17 – How to Survive the Challenging Times?

1) Survival mentality must be instilled in all stakeholders of the company, to allow them to rally together to tide through good and bad times.

2) Always go back to the basics – fundamental purpose of business is to make money. Thus, stay focused on gross margin and cash flow.

3) Embrace a start-up mentality – You created something from nothing initially, and it is necessary to continue to be creative and innovative, so as to adapt to changing busines conditions.

4) Look at crisis in a positive light – see opportunities rather than adversities

5) Understand what risk taking is and what is not – take risks, but calculated risks

6) Plan for failure – lessen the chances of faliing by employing counter measures

Chapter 18 – Deal Fatique, Team Disagreement, and Backup Plans

Deal negotiations are lengthy and demanding; be prepared and also be a little flexible. Ultimately, get a win-win outcome for everyone. Learn to exercise give and take to minimise team disagreements. There should be a few contingency plans to offer a peace of mind for all team members.

Buy at S$20.90 here!

Related posts:

1. One Business 99 Lessons by Nanz Chong-Komo

Book review:

I can still recall the once popular and hyped ONE.99shop retail stores, and how rapidly one store sprang up after another. Just when everything seems to go smoothly, SARS (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome) outbreak arrived and eventually caused the downfall of ONE.99shop. The author, Nanz Chong-Komo, is the founder of ONE.99shop and wrote this book based on her experiences as an entrepreneur. ONE.99shop was actually a second venture after her first successful boutique business, which she sold it less than a year for $80,000. In this book, she shares tips on starting and running a business, problems and difficulties that a typical entrepreneur would face, and the aptitude that an entrepreneur should possess in a gruelling business environment. She cleverly coined the title of the book (one business 99 lessons) in relation to her company name (ONE.99shop) and indeed, it was all about her experiences and lessons learnt from that business. The content is simply organized into 99 chapters = 99 lessons and categorized in 5 major parts. It is an easy to read book, and definitely useful for any budding entrepreneurs, either learning from someone’s mistakes or seeking inspiration. After the failure, Nanz has not given up her entrepreneurial spirit, and in fact, she had used this failure as a source for other ventures – writing a book and serving as a business consultant and motivator. A true entrepreneur indeed!

Book Summary:

As there are 99 lessons in this book, I shall not share everything. I picked out some lessons that I feel are important and perhaps, interesting.

Lesson 5 – Never hire someone you cannot fire
Family members and friends are difficult to handle in work when they do not perform their jobs to satisfaction. It is very difficult to fire them but at the same time, you cannot show double standard in protecting relatives as compared to other employees. To avoid such awkward situations, hire the right people in the first place.

Lesson 11 – Outsource!
Outsourcing has 2 advantages which are cost and time saving. In her example, she outsourced warehouse operations which saved her 20% off the costs, and instead of overseeing the operations, she could channel more time to other areas of her business.

Lesson 20 – Turning an idea into the real thing
Ensure that you have done a thorough thought process and research such that you are very clear of how your idea will work out. To quote: “It is only when you can answer every difficult question anyone might ask you, become aware of possible pitfalls, and find that you still want to do this business, that you will suceed.”

Lesson 23 – Find your mentors
You can learn the successes and failures from your mentor’s experiences and it would be a much quicker and smoother journey to your goals.

Lesson 26 – Can you be responsible
Have the courage to make a decision when the need arise and do not procrastinate. “…it is not so much about making right or wrong decisions but able to make a decision.” If the decision turns out to be a wrong one, be responsible for it and do not blame on others or bad luck.

Lesson 27 – Emotional qualification
You need to handle people in the correct manner and your level of EQ is crucial. During situations where there is dissatisfaction and division among employees, it is paramount to resolve these issues with great sensitivity, and unite the team to move on together. This demand high EQ skills.

Lesson 32 – Hope alone is not enough
Hope without action is false hope and is plainly waiting for something to happen. Hope can only be realized if you take action and do something about it.

Lesson 35 – Quick thinking and a dash of daring
There are times where you simply do not have the luxury of time to think and make a decision that involves some risk taking. Quick thinking and a dash of daring would allow you take the rare chance, and it would be a choice you would never regret.

Lesson 46 – Passion is the secret ingredient
“… a true entrepreneur cannot be lukewarm about his ideals or feelings. If one is less than passionate, it becomes very easy to just let things go.” A passionate entrepreneur will demand the best out of him and be a source of motivation that propels him despite the obstacles.

Lesson 47 – Money is good!
Making money is the primary motive of doing business and thus, do not be shy to admit it. Do not lie to yourself or others that you do it because of your passion or interest. Money is great, it can do alot of good to other people once you have control of it.

Lesson 51 – The rewarding art of giving
Instill giving into your business as “it is a our moral duty to give to society, especially to the under-privileged”.

Lesson 57 – Getting your “E” up
The 5 Es cycle: Excitement, enthusiasm, eagerness, energy and excellence. When you are excited about an idea, you would do something about it and you can sense the enthusiasm within you. You will be eager to produce the results and hence, self generate energy to work towards these targets. As you feel the heat of the competition, you tend to offer the best of you which enables you to achieve excellent results.

Lesson 59 – Removing limitations
People usually tend to be affected and limited by fear and “what ifs” – what if the product do not sell? You need to stop worrying and remove these fears and limitations from your mind, to “break free from the trap of my own mental prison”.

Lesson 62 – Take stock every three years
Every three years, entrepreneurs should spend time to reflect about their businesses – evaluate the status of the business; check alignment with the goal that was initially set; review the relevancy of the strategies as business environment is always changing. Basically, entrepreneurs need to assess their business and make plans for the future so that the business will continue to survive and grow.

Lesson 66 – Time multiplication
Time is precious and it is important to invest it wisely. Nanz would invest in her inward qualities by reading books and listen to tapes. She would save time by reading in flights.

Lesson 77 – Don’t put all your eggs in one basket
Nanz had the whole family invested in her business and when it failed, her whole family was affected. “When the boat sank, it took my family and I, and all our resources down with it”.

Lesson 78 – Cash is king
As business grows, it is important to manage cash flow and cash projections. Inventory replenishment should not overtake daily sales as surplus stocks would depreciate in value overtime. Writing off such excess is equivalent in throwing cash into the bin.

Lesson 79 – Plan for a rainy day
Optimism in business is good but realistic financial projection is necessary. Nanz was too optimistic about her business and went on to expand it – signing more rental contracts to acquire more shop spaces, without factoring contingencies like a possible drop in sales. In the end, the market was saturated, new stores did not meet expectations and old stores’ sale performance were affected. SARS gave the deadly blow to her business as sales dropped tremendously.

Lesson 85 – Loss-leaders, the cleverest marketing tool
Loss-leader is a marketing strategy to attract customers by offering goods below their cost prices. Nanz’s loss leaders were more effective than advertisements. Moreover, her research found that happy customers tell 4 to 5 people about the reasons being happy. Thus, it was a good word of mouth advertising at the same time.

Lesson 88 – A clean cut
At times, when things do not work out properly, it is worthwhile to cut losses rather than trying to work around the problem. More often than not, you would incur a greater loss if you do not end it early.

Lesson 93 – Learning to walk away
An entrepreneur is full of ideas and sometimes, certain ideas may not be fruitful to be carried out. Thus, an entrepreneur must learn to walk away from such ideas.

Lesson 96 – Bosses must delegate
Delegation is necessary so that the boss can focus on the bigger picture. In order to do a proper delegation, effective communication is crucial to allow the employees to understand what the boss really wants. Initial personal coaching of staff may even be essential. In addition to that, Nanz would bring her staff for a meal twice a week for dicussions.

Lesson 98 – Set your goals
Set goals so you can be focused on where you are going. Once you know the direction, stay on track and work towards it.

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