Business and Money Tips

The Malaysian Prime Minister Najib has already confirmed on 15 Mar 2014 3 pm that human intervention caused the Malaysian MH370 airplane to have vanish into the oceans on 8 March 2014. Of course this is a human intervention, don't tell me this is a monkey intervention?  But at least we know this is not a mechanical failure, terrorist attack or the plane hit by Malaysian air defence missile by mistake. What about you?   What kind of Human Intervention has Caused Things to Vanish in Your Life?    Have the following things vanished in your life: Love, Kindness, Empathy, Equanimity, Sympathy, Generosity and Simplicity?  We should be careful of the following 7 types of human intervention that affect your life negatively: Discouragements a nd Sarcasms from People Distractions from People, like some mindless facebook postings People Stealing Away Your Time with gossip People who ask you to buy things that you don't need , thus intervening with your spen...

In another 2 months, the haze or smog will stay with Singapore and its neighbours for several months until the rain comes. We are told to stay indoors most of the time. Unknown to many people, your indoor 'haze' is actually more than the outdoor haze.  You see, a haze is defined as an unclear atmosphere suspended by fine particles.  In a non-weather sense, a haze is a state of mental confusion.   Many people are hazy about their future .  They are affected by the environment, what people say about them and about what they read about everyday in the social and print media.  People are even more hazy when it comes to work.   How many people can tell you straight in the face where their company is heading?   What's the company's vision, mission and goals?  When it comes for financial matters, hardly 1% of the population has retirement plans other than some insurance policies.  We at AsiaTrainers.com believe that our job as trainers is ...

When someone is lying, there are at least 6 clues: Volume starts to get lower , as the person will be mumbling and dare not raise his voice and hopes that people don't hear him Volume starts to get higher , as this person will be making his voice loud and clear and ensuring that people hear his lies as truth The eyes start to look elsewhere , as this person will be afraid of direct eye contact for fear of his lie being exposed The eyes start to look nowhere but at you , as this person will be making deliberate eye contact with you to give you the impression that he is telling the truth The legs start to point towards the door , as this person's body is getting ready to run away The legs point to nowhere but you , as this person is now getting aggressive and wants to intimidate you with his body As can be seen from above, there are no easy fixed patterns to catch people lying. Just look at how politicians appear on TV and you'll know what I'm talking a...

The 'certain' here does not mean the opposite of uncertainty but  'definite', like a certain sum of money. The Malaysian Airlines MH370 Mystery is now into the 5th day and still no sign or news if the plane and the passengers are alive or dead.  This is definitely an uncertain time, but the way the Malaysian authorities have been dealing with this issue is making everyone losing confidence in their leadership.  Instead of giving people guidance and clarifications of what had happened, they give conflicting statements.  No wonder people wondered if they are holding back information in order to hide something. In our leadership and management courses, we teach people the 5 Certain Ways to Deal with Uncertainties: Have a Clear and Powerful Authority , i.e. who can speak and who cannot speak.  The one that can speak should be seen and really competent , not someone who happened to be in that position.  Of course this person must have good presentation...

We know that most customers don't and can't comprehend all the sales information that they hear from us.   In fact most people cannot even remember what they had for lunch yesterday.  Yet I know that as a master salesperson I need to make my customer remember what I present, not just for now but for life.  That's why I do the 3-Prong Approach: Repeat-Touch-Repeat. Repeat: During the sales presentation, we have to repeat what we previously said.  This repeat is like giving people a second helping and people will thank you for that.  It's like what happens when we first hear a new song.  We hear mostly the beat and tune and say, "This is a nice song."  Then, after hearing the same song for a second or third time, we start to pay attention to the lyrics, and start to appreciate that the song is quite meaningful.  Well, it's the same as in sales presentation.   Repetition is the mother of liking. Touch: After we repeat our Presentation, ...

I'm sure that there are times in your work or life that you have a person that just doesn't like anything that you do.  In fact, he hates you, for whatever reason that may be.  If you are in sales, this person will never pay attention to your sales presentation and will just give you objection after objection. The next time you're faced with this difficult situation, just put on a serious face .  Then ask that person in a most sincere and humble way, "Please, Mr Customer, would you please do me a great favour? "  The customer, out of natural human curiosity, will automatically say, "What?" You would then ask this unfriendly customer to do something trivial, or something easy to do, like close the door, lend you his pen, or get you a glass of water.  Once the customer obliges, something wonderful happens.  The hostile customer will, very subconsciously, instantly feel powerful and useful, in his own mind.   The moment he feels this powerful way he...

* Find out how to be a great manager in 4 weeks at here Everybody knows that the PIC (Productivity and Innovation Credit) scheme is about the government handling out $60,000 cash every year (from 2012 to 2017) on your spendings on External Training , Internal Training, IT, Automation Equipment, Websites and Intellectual Property Rights.  However, the following are the 5 things that the government may not tell you about the PIC: The PIC Bonus scheme, which is expiring in 2014 , is given to you automatically without you applying.  What they may not tell you is that if your financial year-end is in 30 June, then your PIC Bonus has already expired on 30 June 2014.   Note that once expired, the PIC Bonus will not be renewed .  The g overnment will not send out reminders and companies can only blame themselves if they realized that they have not receive the full $15,000 PIC Bonus. PIC is given to all entities, including non-profit organizations like clubs and soci...

What's the secret to salespeople success?  I believe it is to BE a salesperson. Salespeople are not quotes-people because there is no money to be made in quotes.  Yet I see many salespeople happily giving out quotes, tenders and proposals with NO INTENTION OF CLOSING them.  Many people think that sales is a number game, when in fact it is a quality numbers game .   If you do submit a quote, you have to do follow-up until you close the sale.  You cannot just submit a quote and expect to close it.  Some salespeople think that by submitting a quote, they are putting one foot into the door.  This is far from true.  Companies receive lots of quotes everyday, those that don't stand out won't get any chance of being getting close to the door. So my friend, the next time you are asked to give a quote, ask yourself this question: are you going to do all the follow-up to close the deal?  Do you have a winning quote or your quote is just me-too?...

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 CP...

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 c...

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% o...

As of today, Russia has already formally annexed Crimea, which belonged to Ukraine for over 5 decades.  Such 'lawful' action was done under the nose of the mighty EU and the 'strong man' Barrack Obama of USA.   You may wonder what has this Ukraine's crisis got to do with your work or business in Singapore? Some people said that had the USA and EU got its act together, Ukraine will not be invaded.  Others point out to the political crisis in Ukraine as the main culprit.  Let's make it clear: Ukraine was invaded by Russia because its defence is weak. Imagine if Ukraine had a strong army like North Korea, would any foreign soldier, let alone any Russian army, dare to go inside Ukraine? In fact if you are not careful, you could be the next Ukraine .  Let me give you some very specific realistic examples: In business, if your company is weak in  sales and marketing , your competitors can easily invade into your business by luring your clients away with...

It pains me to see some employees that are so qualified and hard-working but they seem to be stuck in their careers. In fact they have the 7 Fetters of Employees that prevent them from becoming star contributors. Some of the fetters are created by their managers, others are due to organization culture, and some due to habit. Know the fetters, remove them and you will be on a different path. The 7 Fetters are: Having No KPIs. Many managers do not have have KPIs for their staff at all. As a result, employees are just working on a roller coaster - many ups and downs but they will end up where they begin - no improvement at all. For without goals we will all perish.  Having Too 'Ambitious' (Unrealistic) Goals . This is the opposite of Having No KPIs, but is more than that. It is about the KPIs that so far in the company's 10 year history, only 2 people out of 50 have hit the goals. In fact such high goals make many employees give up instead.  Having No Teamwork . No...

Whenever you use force to open your friend's tightly clenched fist, he will resist you even more and be more motivated to defend his position.  This is a metaphor of the difficulties in getting people to change, where the clenched fist represents the stubbornness of the person.  Instead of using force, you can use the following 10 ways effortlessly: Persuade and Influence with Win-Win. Such softness will overcome all harshness. Distract that person and when catch him when he is in a weak moment. Common distractions include phone, food and news Give that person a benefit.  This works all the time and benefits can be tangible or intangible.  You can sincerely praise him in 10 ways, see the article at here Get a more friendly person to do it. This is because no one can resist a friend's request Wait for a Better Timing .  Offer Your Help.  This will reduce their resistance immediately Take Away. When you tell people 'don't change', they will cha...

For decades, businesses have been trying to discover the formula for the 'perfect' manager.  There are tons of books, blog posts and editorial articles out there, and even training courses on how to be a better manager .  While I cannot claim to have unlocked the secret theory of management, discussions with bosses and managers since 1987 revealed the following 5 traits of a 'perfect' manager: 1. Know How to Be Tough Many managers are know to be tough to themselves, tough to their customers and sub-contractors and even tough to their families but soft on their team members. The reason is the lack of people working due to the tight labour market and the ban on foreign workers in many industries.  As a result, managers are too pleasing and let the subordinates climb over their heads. On the other hand, there are some managers that are too tough that they become abusive, aggressive and hated by people.  Such managers end up with zero staff and have to work till m...

Everyone wants to be happy, for this is what life is about.  We also know that we need to be happy to be successful and not wait for success to bring us happiness.  Some people think that money will bring us happiness, whereas others believe that love makes us truly happy.  There are those that, like Will Smith in the movie The Pursuit of Happyness, believes that it is the pursuit of happiness, and not the happiness itself, that will make us happy.  In other words, happiness is a journey, not a destination .   In our trainings, we impart to our participants 3 things that will bring us happiness.  These 3 characteristics of life are interlinked, and you need to see them in totality: 1.   Realizing that Nothing in this world is permanent, and everything is in a flux and subject to constant change All things are impermanent, and everything is in the process of changing into something else.   The entire universe and the cosmos are in const...

Unknown to many people, the PIC (Productivity and Innovation Credit) Scheme was tightened on 21 February 2014.  Effective from 2015 to 2017, all claiming businesses must have 3 CPF employees (excluding the directors and shareholders) every month , instead of only the qualifying month (i.e. March, June, September and December) as in the past. As for the popular PIC Bonus Scheme, it shall  expire for financial years ending in 2014 .  So if your company's financial year-end is on 31 March 2014, the last month for you to receive the PIC bonus is March 2014.  This is because although the PIC Scheme was extended till 2017, the PIC Bonus is not extended , thus it will end as planned in 2014. For those that are not familiar, the PIC Bonus is automatically given out to companies as long as their PIC claims exceed $5,000 in a year.  The PIC Bonus is given out in cash (not tax deduction) up to $15,000.  This PIC Bonus, unlike the PIC Cash Payouts, is taxable . ...

By far the biggest difference between successful people and struggling people is that successful people know that it is the participation that matters.  Struggling people often ask what do they get from a situation, they did not know that it is what they give to the situation that matters.  In short, the only failure is the failure to participate , and it is your level of participation that creates success.  If you too want to participate for success, you must do the following 7 things at work: Work 2 extra hours a week without staying back an extra minute Before bringing up a problem, please think of possible solutions .  If there are no solutions, at least let people know what is your level of commitment, are you a passive spectator or a serious spectator? Always to go the root of the problem and not just solve the surface of the problem. For example, the root of lack of sales is not the market but salespeople not doing what they should be doing.  By t...