Business and Money Tips

Get your business read now, not later.  Because fortune favours the prepared, so said my fortune teller.  For those in business, remember that fortune goes to those whose business activities are aligned with the common good.  The 7 areas in your business as foretold by your fortune teller: Customers : You cannot rest on your laurels and assume that customers will come back, even though you have been serving them for decades.  Look at Microsoft: people don't use Windows phones even though they have been using Windows computers for 4 decades.  If only Microsoft can wow its customers and add more value every day , we will all be not using Apple and Android phones Vendors : Your suppliers are also your customers, so treat them well.   Treat your vendors better than your customers and you'll have non-stop business.  From the "Greatest Entrepreneur in the World" e-book Employees : The goal of all bosses is to find employees that will work for you for ...

In this Chinese or Lunar New Year, many people like to know what is their fortune for this year. As what Sun Tzu said in The Art of War , if you know yourself and you know the environment, you are in no danger. Your Fortune in the Year of the Goat revealed in 5 areas: Money This year you will have chances to make more money than last year. However, you must be alert to take advantage of opportunities quickly or they will be gone. Furthermore, you must work hard, but not too hard or you will missed opportunities. Although this year (2015) inflation is low, you nevertheless must invest your hard earned savings into instruments that beat inflation, like REITs that offer quarterly dividends exceeding 6% per annum.   Lastly, you must know how to donate money, for the more give, the more you will have. Career and Business:  Things appear to be challenging in the short term, as the world economies are not looking rosy at least until the second half of the year. However, as l...

The dumbest idea in the world must be to think that you are the problem. The smartest idea in the world must be to separate people from the problem. All the world's wars are created when people think that people are the problem, when in fact there is a problem in people. When you lump people with their problem, you become personal in your dealings with them.  Like when a service staff is rude to me, I make personal attacks if I think the staff is the problem, when in fact it is the service of the staff that is the problem. The wisest idea in the world is to firstly see ourselves as not our problems .  If not, how can we solve any problem in the world? The second step to solving any problem must be to know the root cause of the problem, followed by finding the solution to the problem.  The fourth and final step is to solve the problem.  If you too want to make your Chinese New Year holidays meaningful, put in good food for your brain.  Come for this r...

Apple Inc. has reported the largest quarterly profit ever made by a public company in the world.  Thanks to iPhone 6 huge success, people are now addicted to Apple's products. But as much as 75% of iPhone 6+ (a new product) customers are switching from other phones.  In other words, Apple is not only strong in customer retention but also great in customer acquisition.  And the customers that Apple acquired tend to stick for long.   Apple's strategy is now studied by analysts and is comprised of 4 pillars: Offer a small number of products.  This reduces operations and supply chain complexity and gives Apple greater power when negotiating contracts with suppliers of materials and parts Focus on the High End. Premium products yield premium profits.  Apple focused on customers that are not price sensitive and are inelastic to demand; in short, people who can afford it and willing to pay the high price.  This is because Apple's customers are more i...

Samsung Galaxy S6 will spot 5.1 inches with screen all round Times have change: it's now fashionable to cover your backside.  Nobody does this better than Samsung: it's latest Galaxy S6 Edge has screen around its edges, the first in the world.  In fact, The Samsung Way does things both sides.  That's why Samsung is so successful: it turned from a low-cost low-brand maker to a global high brand high price premium product maker.  (as covered in our courses ) There are 5 ways that we too can cover both sides: In business, we sell cheap and expensive at the same time to the same customers in the same product group.  Demand is always there.  In human resource management, we pay talented people not high salary but high unlimited incentives for those that perform  In Purchasing, we choose the cheapest vendor for purchases that don't matter and go for the highest price for procurement that matter, like software In Finance, we are very tight on d...

 Korean's Nana is now the world's prettiest star As Sun Tzu said in The Art of War, you have to fight till the end to know who is the loser and winner. There are 6 ways a loser can become a winner, and you too can apply them into your business: Limited Edition .  Products that cannot be sold can be re-packaged as limited edition versions and create a scarcity effect that everyone wants Admit a Weakness .  When you admit a weakness before people bring this up, you come across as honest and forthcoming.  People trust honesty and as long as you mention the mitigating factors, people will see your weakness as a strength instead! Tag along Winners.  Like Samsung tags along its lesser popular models (Alpha range) by using the name 'Galaxy' Sympathy and Empathy .  Appeal on people's softer sides and they will sympathise and empathise with you.  When you win their hearts, you are no longer a loser in their eyes Put in 1,000% Effort .  Thin...

To be rich and happy, you need to make others rich.  What better way to make others rich other than with your goods and services? Yet many salespeople give up when the prospect says no.  Many get de-motivated easily, and could not pull themselves up to do that one more phone call, one more visit and one more follow-up e-mail. To make it easier for you to do one more call, try one of the following 5 ways: Tell the prospect that your CRM system prompts you to make that follow-up call, and you have to make that call or the system will send alert to the top management Pretend you have called the wrong person, but since the prospect is already on the line, you will just check with him one more time on the enquiry he made previously Tell the prospect that the top management has made a change to your proposal or quotation , and you are calling him to communicate that in person Just call him, use an upbeat tone full of enthusiasm and the prospect will be moved Don't c...

They say that Singapore employees are no longer hungry.  Many lament these employees lack drive, want more pay with less work, and become very selective in selecting which jobs to take up.  Many also do not take up skills training, and often resign without a job as they can rely on their past savings. But if you talk to any Singapore employees they will tell you that they are not 'not driven' or hungry.  In fact they claimed that many employers fail to provide the right environment for employees to be hungry or driven.  If you look at employers like Facebook, Google, Samsung or Apple, they have created very good environment for their employees to be driven. The 4 ways these successful companies do are as follows: They offer extremely high remuneration and even higher salaries for those that out-perform.  High flyers are given rapid promotion opportunities and big performance incentives that may amount to another 1.5 years of salary If your company is ...

Yes, you must say auspicious greetings during lunar new year. For those non-Chinese and people not comfortable in Chinese, you may say it in English (hanyu pinyin and English translation as below): 1. ­ Gong Xi Fa Cai 恭喜发财  Congratulations to you striking wealth 2. Sheng Yi Xing Long 生意兴隆  Booming business to you 3. Jinyu Mangtang 金玉满堂 May your wealth come to fill a hall 4. Dazhan Hongtu 大展宏图 May you realize your ambitions 5. Yingchun Jiefu 迎春接福 Greet the New Year and welcome bliss 6. Wanshi Ruyi 万事如意 May all your wishes be fulfilled 7. Fushou Shuangquan 福寿双全 May your happiness & longevity be complete 8. Zhaocai Jinbao 招财进宝 When wealth is acquired, precious objects follow 9. Caiyuan Guangjin 财源广进 Money and money sources come in abundance 10。 Shenti Jiankang 身体建康 Good health to You. This is actually the most important greeting, though often overlooked What Not To Say: Caiyuan Gungun 财源滚滚 as this sounds like 裁员滚滚 'Retrench you and get lost! Also don't say Hongbao N...

There are many gurus out there teaching people how to be rich - for yourself. I teach others how to make others rich. Because when you make others rich, you make yourself rich. With the law of abundance, what goes around, comes around.  There are 7 ways that you too can make others rich: Teach Them How to Be Rich, like what we do in our training : we teach salespeople how to make their customers rich, employees how to make bosses rich and ordinary people how to be rich (read here for snippet)  Raise funds for them, or lend money to them at no or low interest  Give them your tools, strategies and tactics, either with money or free of charge Refer or link them to people that can make them rich Expand their mindset - make them positive and have limitless concept to do the impossible (there are many ways to do limitless thinking) Show them the way, give them a helping hand, and most importantly, give them the first steps Don't Make Them Poor.  This is s...

Read 'How to get iPhone 6+ worth S$1,488 without paying' at here It's time to make more money - from training. 3 Steps:  Know what you want to learn .  Like I want to learn how to negotiate successfully, so I source for such a  training program .  Learn with an objective in mind . When I attend the course on negotiation, I am not interested to learn everything about negotiation, I just want to apply negotiation to my work situation n ow .  Assuming I am a buyer, I want to learn how to get a good deal from supplier without being fooled by them Apply the learning within the next 3 days .  Studies show that unless you apply what you learn within the next 3 days, you will not apply the learning at all.  In fact, people lose money on training in one of these  5 ways , application is the main reason. To ensure that your training is profitable, you have to compare 2 things: What you gain from applying the learning . Like I will gain a 1% di...

From now onwards, we don't do training any more.  We do only training that leads to higher profits.  Because it is profits that people want, not training.   Profits to a business is obvious: higher sales, lower costs, higher gross profit, higher net profits, improvements in cash flow, reduction of risks and higher other income. To a non-profit organization like the Government or Voluntary and Welfare Organizations, Profit means the above too, plus higher reserves for future use.  To an individual, profit means higher increment, bonuses, incentives, rewards, promotion, better welfare, and moving up the corporate ladder. Our training focuses on 5 key areas of a business: (note: all our training qualify for PIC 60% cash back, details at here ) Profit Sales : how to increase sales with higher profits and how to increase profits for your customers with what you sell Service Profit : how to create raving fans and sell more at higher prices at higher frequency t...

There are at least 10 ways where employees and employers can work together to reduce staff cost without cutting staff pay: Work with your hearts , and you'll it not hard to work hard . When you work hard, hard results will arise.  Staff cost will drop naturally.  Find out the various ways to work hard at  here .  Focused, never get distracted when at work.  Work like the Germans with clock-like precision Have Better Team work , and productivity will rise naturally Resolve Conflicts better , and output will rise fast Reduce mis-communication and we can do more with less time Upgrade your skills weekly . Every week, invest at least 3 hours to learn something new.  Come for short, effective trainings like these T ake ownership of your work.  Never blame, give excuses or worse still, deny your mistakes Profit sharing , not overtime pay, and you'll find that people will go all the way to increase the company's profits.  Reduce Overtime . S...

I love unconventional management: the management ways that only those people that never study management do.  People like Larry Page, Steve Jobs, Mark Zuckerberg and Sergey Brin all never went to MBA school, they are just computer nerds that know nothing other than computer programming.  Yet the companies that they lead - Google, Facebook and Apple - are one of the world's most admired employers. Indeed unconventional management leads to unconventional profits.  The 7 areas of unconventional management includes: Never hire the best people available in the market , hire the best not yet available in the market. Only in this way can you grab talents before your competitors. Never hire people that look for a job, hire people when they're still in schools or never think of changing jobs Smart creative people are what a company needs, not just smart people.  People are creative when they do things in their own ways even when they're not left alone . Some people ca...