Business and Money Tips

Everyone knows today’s economy is very different from 2015 or even January 2016. Not only are the costs rising, selling prices continue their downward spiral. These factors, coupled with labour shortage and Brexit factor, make many businessmen wonder: where is the future? As we know, every crisis produces winners. We need to ensure that we are the winner and not the loser. To do that, we must adapt fast and evolve with the rapidly changing markets. This means that we need to move to higher gear: innovate fast and ramp up productivity. As we know, innovation is about strategies and tactics and productivity is about people.  We can learn from people who have done it before: people who have won numerous battles for thousands of years using a proven formula: Sun Tzu Art of War. Background information and Why Sun Tzu is powerful : Sun Tzu (or Sūn Zǐ in pinyin) was a 500 BC Chinese general and military strategist. He led his country won numerous battles against its stronger

Before we can talk about motivating people, let's know how to Not Demotivate People in 5 Ways: Ignoring People , giving people the cold shoulder and seeing people as transparent.  When you ignore people, you are telling them they are not important, and what you say would be overshadowed by this Over Promise . Nothing beats under promise over deliver and over promise under deliver is the most de-motivating Favouritism . Everyone wants to feel important, and making people feel unimportant must be the biggest insult of all Negativity , like being so pessimistic and make everything seem impossible Ask for Opinion and Then Discard that Opinion .  We know when you ask for opinion you make people feel important. But when you discard that opinion you are making them feel really unimportant!  So my friend, before you open your mouth and post another comment on the internet, ask yourself this question: am I de-motivating people?  If so, don't do it. For we know de-motivat

Everyone knows the PIC ( Productivity and Innovation Credit ) scheme, which started in 2010, will end in 2017.  You can read our 7 blogs on this PIC by searching for 'PIC' at our blog ( Successful Sales Strategies is on 11 Sep 2014)  Today I will talk about 5 finer points of PIC that most people may not take note: PIC Bonus will definitely expire by December 2014 or your financial year end in 2014, WHICHEVER IS EARLIER.  There is no extension to PIC Bonus scheme All PIC Cash Claims must be done using online form and no other manual forms will be accepted from 1 August 2014 onwards. The IRAS site to get the form, plus how to use the form are found here   Equipment List: you need to follow the list of equipment by industry and any equipment not found in the list will need to apply for approval first. Click here for details Training fees: you can only claim PIC for training done for employees. Employees include part and full time employees, local and foreign citiz

Feedback from my 8 articles on PIC and PIC Training revealed that many people, including top management and consultants, have mis-understandings about PIC.  Such mis-understandings arise because of misreading IRAS, hearsay from uninformed people and plain ignorance.   If you allow such misunderstandings to affect your career and business, you will lose as much as $375,000 cash over 6 years .  The top 11 misunderstandings are: PIC is only for Singapore companies.  100% foreign owned companies, like the Singapore Branch of Bank of China, are not eligible.   Truth: All businesses are eligible for PIC as long as they have 3 local (Singaporeans and Singapore PRs) staff on their payroll with CPF.  Note that the '3 local staff' here EXCLUDES the directors, shareholders and proprietors of the business PIC is going to expire in 2015.  Truth: PIC is expiring in 2017 (Y/A 2018) You cannot claim PIC for Training for foreigners and staff that are not on CPF.   Truth: All employees,

The reason people make mistake is that they are unaware of the mistake.  But if you tell them and they still make the same mistake, that 2nd mistake is no longer a mistake but a belief.  Mistakes are not the same as Fraud in that they are all made unintentionally and are all 'honest mistakes'. When you make mistakes in PIC (Productivity and Innovation Credit) claims, you won't get fined but the IRAS will just simply delay the claim process.  So the more mistakes you make, the longer it takes for you to get your money .  The top 11 mistakes make in PIC claims are (in order of frequency) are: Wrong Y/A (Year of Assessment).  YA is always one year faster than this year, so for this year 2014 claims, it should be YA 2015 Include GST when the business is GST registered.  You have to take out the GST portion as you're already getting back the input GST in your monthly GST returns Include non-qualifying amounts , like warranty, consumables, finance charges and st

As we know, PIC (Productivity and Innovation Credit) scheme from Government also funds businesses that train their own staff internally, i.e. do not engage outside training vendors and use their own staff to train their own people.  You can claim this under Line 4(b) in the PIC Cash Payout Form "In-house training not certified by WDA or ITE". Businesses can claim the salary cost of the trainer, not the trainees .  For example, if the HR Department incurs 20 hours every 3 months to do staff induction and staff training, they can claim the 20 hours of salary of the HR department trainers. The maximum a business can claim for Internal Training is $10,000 a year.  Since Cash claim is at 60%, businesses can get $6,000 a year or $36,000 for 6 years from 2012 to 2017.  This $10,000 must be within the overall yearly $100,000 cap for PIC Claims.  Businesses that claim PIC more than $5,000 in a year can receive the PIC Bonus automatically, which is another 100% of the amount c

Note: click here for PIC training As we know, the PIC ( Productivity and Innovation Credit ) scheme has been in place since 2010, and has just been extended till 2017.  Under this general and generous scheme , the government gives 60% cash or 3 times additional tax deductions to businesses that invest to innovate and up their productivity. The 8 types of expenditure eligible for PIC Claims are: Training , IT Solutions, IT Hardware, Software, Automation Equipment, R & D, Intellectual Property Rights and Singapore Design Council design projects. Many employees that we talk to feel that such a scheme only benefits their employer and they cannot see any benefits accruing to them. In fact some employees told us that making PIC Claims only adds up to their already heavy work load.  It's just a government's gimmick, right? Make no mistake: the Government is serious about making Singapore's employees more productive . When employers receive money from the gover

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 means that companies can invest

*Good news: No new foreign workers caps PIC Extension till 2017* As announced by the Finance Minister Tharman on 21 Feb 2014, this is a 'People' Budget.  As such, there are not many things for businesses.  In fact, if you are an old person (called 'Pioneers'), you will get lots of benefits.  Not so for smokers and drinkers, there will be a 10% tax and 25% increase respectively. Here are the highlights: (more details will be revealed by the Government over the next week). All Singaporeans will receive GST vouchers of $250 cash , an increase over last year.  This may not mean much to most you, but will make your staff feel slightly happier TODAY Excise duty on tobacco and liquor to rise by 10% and 25% respectively, effective from 21 Feb 2014. Drinkers will face rising cost, and this will affect pubs that rely on liquor sale negatively Betting duty rates on lotteries to rise to 30% from 25%. This has zero impact on the punter (impact on Singapore Pools only) L

Many working people tell me (in our training courses) that it's hard to keep the momentum going and they are feeling tired at work.   We know that if you are drained at work, your productivity will go down.  This will make you feel even more tired as you are not making headways at work.  If left unchecked, you will soon reach burnt-out stage.  Thus all employees, including bosses, must ensure that they don't checked out at work.  The following are the 7 proven ways that everyone can remain fresh and not get drained at work: Keep a Fresh Perspective every 90 days .  Every 3 months, take a fresh look at your job and its contributions to the society.  You'll realize that your work is not as stale as what it seems.  For we know that as long as you dig deep into your work, you will discover gems at your work. Take short breaks (5 to 10 minutes) every 2 to 3 hours  at work.  If this is too much for your boss, you don't have to take smoking breaks; all you need to do i