Business and Money Tips

Over the past few days, I poured over 20+ pages at IRAS website and managed to sniff out the 7 changes to this PIC (Productivity and Innovation Credit) Scheme .  Know them and you'll be able to take advantage of them.   If you are ignorant, you will lose out at least $375,000 .  The 7 Key Changes are: PIC is now extended to 2017 (originally to end in 2014).  This means that companies have more time to plan and take full advantage of this very general and generous scheme; Cap for Tax Deduction claims are now increased from $400,000 to $600,000 a year, effective for years 2013 to 2017.  This new scheme is called PIC + .  For cash payout, the cap remains at $100,000 per year; Website design and creation, including the registration of domain names, now qualify for IT claims, also effective for years 2013 to 2017.  Note that Search Engine Optimization (SEOs) will also qualify for this if SEOs are done as part and parcel of website creation . This m...

This small artist monopolised the entire Chinatown.  Yes, micro players can always monopolize the market if they do things differently.  Yes, a micro like You can become the Microsoft of your industry today.  This is because the market is not absolutely homogeneous and is heterogeneous, that is, each segment of the market is actually different.  Many small players do not realize this and make the mistake of following the market leaders blindly.  They end up with no business because customers would rather play safe and go with the leader than an unknown brand. The following are the 7 ways that any small player can monopolize the market easily: Do Things That Nobody Does .  Like NEXT Computer (1986 to 1998), it focused on the education market and avoided the rest of the market dominated by IBM-clones PCs powered by Microsoft's operating system.  In fact NEXT was so successful that Apple had to use up all its available cash to buy it over in 1998 to...

Mention the word 'branding' and most people will only think of international brands like Facebook, Google and Apple. In reality, we are each a brand, as a brand simply means what you stand for. Today we may be a not-famous brand, but tomorrow we could be reaching out to people we never thought of before, as long as we build our brand in 5 easy ways: Know What We Stand For.  Yes, what we stand for are usually our deepest passion and innate desire to help others.  Like me AndyTheCoach, people know that I stand for coaching and teaching, for I gave up a high-figure Director post in a Japanese MNC 13.5 years ago to go into full-time coaching and training.   Do That Few People Do .  It doesn't need to be something big, all you need is that you don't do what others do and you dare to do what others don't do .  Like Steve Jobs in 1997, when he took over the interim CEO position in Apple Inc, he took just a $1 salary but asked for huge amounts of stock options...

As we know, making money, especially making plenty of money, is the goal of everyone. But because everyone is focused on making money, other things like environment, morals and health are ignored. Just look at the rapidly deteriorating air and noise pollution in cities like Beijing and Jakarta and you'll know what I am talking about. Today the corporate buzzword is "Making Healthy Money". Like what Jack Ma, the founder of www.alibaba.com and www.taobao.com says, making healthy money will also lead you to making more money in a sustainable way .  And when your health is better, you can make even more healthy money and so the vicious cycle goes up .  By the way, ' healthy' includes not just physical health, but also mental and spiritual health. Here are 5 Ways that You Too Can Make Healthy Money in Your Job or Business Now: Use computer systems and e-commerce systems to reduce wastages, improve communication and excess stock.   Reduce negative stress among ...

Your purpose as a manager or employee is to get things done, not to impress your boss. But we know that to get more things done you need to impress your boss so that he will trust you and pass to you more things. Here are the 7 Easy Ways that Anyone Can Impress their Boss Without Licking his Boots: Be Frank and Open . Admit mistakes. Never shade truth.  This is key to gaining long term trust Help Your Boss to Be Right . This is not being subservient or time-serving, but means you support your boss in whatever ways so that he can be right.  For example, you help him to improve his writing so that he will not be mis-understood.  Respond Fast or at least Show him Enthusiasm .  Show a Can-Do attitude, not 'See-What-I-Can-Do' style Handle your personal problems well so that he knows you can be trusted to handle the organization's problems. For example, don't have frantic calls from your family members frequently. Protect him with your willingness to take the ...

Often in my training courses, my participants would like to share with me their problems at work and ask me for advise. The advise I gave them is to solve problems in a 3-Step SAD way:  Step 1:  See the problem as what it is, not what you wish .  Reason is that if you  don’t exactly see what the problem is, you're going to perpetuate it.  Y ou are already in reality, all you need to do is to see it. All problems at work, be it sales, cash flow or people management, can be summed up in two words: Human Problems. Settle the human problems and you'll settle all problems.  Human problems can be in the area of motivation, morale, competencies, distraction, complacency, leadership, communication, inter-personal skills, teamwork and compliance.  Step 2:  You don’t lack ideas, strategies or solutions to your problems. S o stop blocking yourself and attend to what’s going on .   When you really attend to the problems, the soluti...

They say that the Singapore workplace is getting complacent due to our maturing economy and the tightening of foreign labour. In fact many bosses lament that employees are too comfortable and do not strive hard to do their best. Experts say that there is a lack of healthy competition at work. Unknown to many people, without a healthy dose of competition, work standards drop and soon your company may not be able to compete in the tough business environment. Just look at fallen companies like Nokia, Blackberry, Sony and Oracle and you will know what I am talking about. If you too want to make the best out of your people, inject healthy competition at work. Remember, if your people are not competitive, your company will be chased out of the market.  Power-packed Contents Include: 1. Test on how Competitive is Your Company in the workplace 2. Myths and Truths of Competition at Work 3. Five Steps to Creating Healthy Competition at Work: a. Get People ON b. Get ...

Selling is base on nothing but needs and wants. A need is something that is basic and cannot be done without with, i.e. a necessity. A want is a preference , something that can be done without with but because it is preferred, it is considered important and often become a necessity, i.e. a want becomes a need. Like smartphones, it is not a need but a preference, but who can live without a smartphone nowadays?  If you sell base on both needs and wants, you have a customer. If not, you have a prospect. There are prospects in prospects. Using SNAP Selling, you can sell anything to anybody with the following 4 steps: 1. Situation . Find out what is the situation of the prospect now, what are his concerns, problems and issues that need to be addressed now. Like my prospect now has high staff turnover that is bothering him. 2. Need . From the situation, you uncover his need. So my guess that my prospect needs to learn how to hire the right people and retain hi...

Me teaching the audience the Jim Rohn's 5 Puzzles of Life  Like you, I as a Coach and Trainer am also human and very often are concerned of what makes me feel good that I sometimes forget what makes me great. Yet I know that a successful life is one that is lived through understanding and pursuing one’s own path, and not chasing the dreams of others. I also know that Character is not made of sunshine and roses. Like steel, character is forged in fire, between the hammer and the anvil. So I find the ‘Thick Face Black Heart’ concept by Chin-ning Chu so useful. Because Thick Face Black Heart is not about ruthlessness. It is about adapting and adopting non-destructive ruthlessness, to gain the freedom in action necessary to achieve effectiveness in the execution of your task. We all have the innate power within us: Thick Face is the Shield while Black Heart is the Spear. A Thick Face person has the ability to put Self Doubt aside. His confidence instills ...