Business and Money Tips

When people ask Tony Chen, CEO of Oppo, to cut his price for his company's latest flagship device R9 Plus to be way below Samsung Galaxy S7, here's what he says, "I prefer to add value". Oppo ended up selling 1 million units in 3 days!  Oppo's value add has 8 features that others don't have: 2-years warranty (vs others 1-year, worth at least S$400) First year free accidental cracked screen repair, worth S$180  One-to-one exchange for repair, worth the phone itself S$769) Free 4 screen protector replacements in first year (worth S$60) Free screen glass protector (worth S$15) Free back casing protective cover (worth S$15) Free headphone worth S$80 Free Oppo water bottle worth S$20 Total value add of Oppo: S$1,539 (double the value of the phone S$769) Discounting creates the perception that you are cheap. When you discount, you encourage price shoppers, not loyal customers. A far better way is to add value. There are 2 magical ways that you too...

By now, the British people would have new fears arising from the Brexit referendum. It is obvious that the people who voted for 'Leave EU' are the poorer people and people who are feeling the pressure from immigrants who are taking away jobs from them. This means that if remain in EU can lead to more jobs, UK would not want to leave EU. It's the jobs, stupid! Every politician that does not know this is either stupid or naive. This explains the popularity of Donald Trump too. Since we cannot reverse history, we have to live with the consequences of leaving EU. The only way forward for UK is to create more jobs. How? In fact leaving EU means that UK will enjoy fewer export and business opportunities in Europe, and will become a costlier place as imports will become dearer with the declining pound. This will lead to fewer jobs. How? One way is to forget about creating jobs and instead focus on creating business opportunities and make people become entrepreneurs, not employ...

Your prospect only give you 3 seconds. That is because the average length of video that people watch on YouTube and Facebook is 3 seconds. If you cannot catch their attention, they will leave your video after 3 seconds. Same as in selling. You need to offer nothing but irresistible. According to the book ‘The Irresistible Offer – How to sell your product or service in 3 seconds or less’ by Mark Joyner, we have to answer the following 9 questions near instantly on connecting with a prospect if they are going to pay us any attention – 1) What are you trying to selling me? 2) How much? 3) Why should I believe you? 4) What’s really in it for me? On top of these, your irresistible selling also 1) Must be high ROI 2) Be short 3) Be immediate How many times have you bookmarked a website and never gone back? Your offer must give immediate value and have a clear cut off point at which point the prospect loses out. 4) Increase believability Generally if an offer seems too good to be true m...

(This article is taken entirely from Quartz) First it was Xiaomi. Then it was Huawei. Now two other domestic brands are making inroads into China’s cutthroat smartphone industry. Their recipe for growth is simple, but their relationship remains shrouded in mystery. Vivo is a smartphone brand that’s barely known outside of China, but it’s growing steadily in its home market. In the second quarter, Canalys estimates that its market share jumped from 4% one year ago to 8% by the end of June. Vivo is currently ranked as China’s fourth most-popular brand. Xiaomi, Huawei, and Apple occupy the top three spots at roughly 15% market share each, but Vivo stands out for its growth. Another brand little known outside China, Oppo, has achieved equivalent domestic growth, with market share steadily climbing. While Vivo and Oppo haven’t reached Xiaomi’s rocket heights, they’ve nevertheless enjoyed respectable success amidst a stagnating market , and together make up roughly 15% of overall domestic ...

If you are like most people, you probably used Nokia, Motorola and Ericsson phones 10 years ago. Some five years ago, you started to use smartphones and your brands have shifted to Apple, Samsung, LG, HTC and Sony. But your next phone could be a China brand starting with these letters: O, V, H, X and 1. Time for you to get familiar with these names: Oppo, Vivo, OnePlus, Huawei or Xiaomi. Of course, iPhone users don't care and will continue to use iPhones. But Android guys are starting to switch away from Samsung, LG and Sony. Just look at the declining sales of these top 3 companies in 2016 and you'll know what I'm talking about. (Samsung Galaxy S7 is an exception, but Samsung's market share has declined from 33% in 2013 to 22% now). Essentially, Chinese manufactures like OnePlus, Oppo, Xiaomi, Huawei, Vivo are now making some of the best phones on the market. They are seeing high growth rates unseen by other players. For example, Oppo saw 79% growth in sales in first...

Despite their meteoric rise in the mobile phone industry, few people have ever really heard of Oppo. This 2016, the fastest growing sales in the smartphone industry is not Samsung or Xiaomi but Oppo.  Here are some things you might want to know 1. Oppo's CEO is Tony Chen Tony founded this company in 2004 in Dongguan, southern China.  Little is know about Tony Chen, except that he is young and energetic.  2. Oppo used to make a lot of high quality MP3 Players Before they ventured into mobile phones, Oppo made portable media players (PMPs) that were released only in China and very few other Asian markets. These MP3 players were very well received and highly acclaimed in China.  3. Oppo started smartphones in 2008 Oppo is actually older than Xiaomi in this industry. The year 2008 was also the year when Samsung and LG were small players in the smartphone market.  4.  Oppo innovates Oppo’s first mobile phone didn’t really impress a lot of...

As a manager or leader, how often have you set goals and plans with your team, coach them properly, only to find out that they could only do half of what you planned? Managers and leaders around the world have often asked this question: how can we lead our teams more effectively?  Can we get more things done? A new discovery in the way companies like Google and FaceBook run reveal that there is a better and more effective way to get things done: Never Set an Outcome. You see, you set a ‘goal’, like double sales this year, for your team. But what happens is an outcome, and there is no way you can control an outcome. In business many bosses set goal of "doubling sales in this year".  In fact what they are setting is an outcome.  Their goal should be on things that they can work on, like getting more customers, earning higher average dollar sale from each customers, coming up with new products, etc. Companies like Google, after setting goals, do not leav...

When we say 'mind', we don't just mean the mind in our brain or head. The mind is everywhere, with every atom. Wherever we feel anything, the mind is there. The mind feels. Where does the mind resides?  Our whole body contains the mind.  We need to mind our mind. By this I mean we need to take care of our mind, as though our mind is our physical possession, like how we take care of our looks. There are 4 major ways to mind our mind: 1. Feed our mind with good food The mind feeds on foods of thoughts, emotions and feelings. Feed your mind with good food and your mind will be healthy and strong. If you feed it with junk, your mind will become junky.  2. Calm our mind regularly  We are often so busy that our mind is never at rest, at peace of in a state of calm. To calm our mind, we just need to stop thinking and just take 3 deep breadths, with our mind fully focused on our breathing and nothing else. If you do this mindfulness practise regularly, you will f...