Business and Money Tips

(updated on 30 Sep 2021) Note: The SP Group has increased the electricity tariff for this current quarter from Oct to Dec 2021 at 24.11 cents kWh (before GST).  One retailer Tuas Power Supply offers a low rate of 21.03 cents kWh, which is 13% lower than the SP tariff.  The question on everybody's lips is: how much can I really save when I switch my electricity supply from the current SP Group to any of the 11 licensed electricity retailers?  The Facts First T he Energy Market Authority (EMA) has, since April 2017, been progressively opening up the retail electricity market, referred to as the Open Electricity Market (OEM). The purpose is to bring about competitive pricing for the benefit of all consumers.  NOW THE WHOLE SINGAPORE IS OPEN.  From 1 May 2019 onwards, everyone is eligible to switch as the market is now fully opened for all.  Reason To Switch:  Save Money You save guaranteed and confirmed 16% if you opt for the Discoun...

Many people want to get the most number of WeChat friends in the shortest time possible, for they know that the more friends you have on WeChat, the easier will be for you to do your WeChat marketing. But there is simply no shortcut in getting WeChat friends.  Typical shortcuts include: People Nearby.  Some people think that if you just go to many places and just people add from 'People Nearby' feature at the Discover page, you will get many friends.  The truth is that unless you have a pretty face as your profile photo, the chance of people accepting you is as low as 1%.  To increase your acceptance rate, you need to have an impressive profile photo and a good write-up. You also need to have quality posts on your Moments as people will take a look at your Moments to decide if you are worthy of being their friend Exchange groupchats with friends and simply add people from there.  The chance of people accepting you is very low because you are a stranger...

People often asked me, how can a messaging app like Whatsapp or WeChat be used to get business? Firstly, please understand that we are already in a mobile world where people look at messaging apps like Whatsapp and WeChat more often than emails, Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and Twitter.  In fact, people now send files via WeChat and Whatsapp instead of emails.  Secondly, we don't just communicate with people that we know via messaging apps.  We use messaging apps to get to know people that we don't know.  This is so true when we join groupchats where most of the people we don't really know.  In WeChat, you can get to know strangers via 'People Nearby' function to know people within 1,000 meters of your location.  Thirdly, we use Whatsapp and WeChat to build our brand.  Yes, you can use Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn to build your brand. But using messaging apps is faster because it is more instant than these social media apps.  T...

R ecently some people that were referred by my WeChat students asked me how to use their Singapore WeChat account while in China.   There are some that asked how to open another WeChat account. There was one student that wanted to open their WeChat account from another phone and asked if she can access her WeChat account from more than one phone.  Finally, a common question is why should one open another WeChat account? Let me answer them and more in this article.  1. Limit of one WeChat account As you may know, one WeChat account can have a maximum of 5,000 friends . If you are like me going to hit 5,000 friends in a few weeks time, you need to have another account opened to stand by 2. How many WeChat apps can my phone install? The answer is you can install more than one WeChat app on your phone if you are using phones like Xiami, Samsung or Huawei.  3. Can my WeChat app access 2 WeChat accounts? Yes, you can. Go to 'Me' page, select settings, and g...

Most people equate aggressive selling to aggressive salespeople doing pushy or aggressive selling. Nothing is further from the truth. As we know, selling is professionally helping other people to buy. Aggressive selling is just professional selling done in an aggressive way. Sun Tzu in the Art of War advocated wars be fought quickly and with determination. (The next Sun Tzu Art of War for Sales seminar is on 8 Jan 2019 Tuesday 9 am to 1 pm) . Author Andy Ferrari Norman defined Aggressive Selling to be 'Determined and Energetic Selling that Produces Quick and High Results'. There are 9 ways to do aggressive selling: 1. Aggressive Sales and Marketing, If you have deep pockets, you can expect good results because no one can ignore such education. The recent aggressive marketing by Oppo for its R17 phones is one good example. Anyone that goes to the cinema cannot ignore it and it became a household name very fast. 2. High Incentives for Salespeople , like 100% commi...

Regular users of Facebook find it fascinating to use WeChat.  The 5 common Facebook features are simply not available on WeChat.  Note that other than this, WeChat has at least 28 features that Facebook does not have.  The 5 FB features that cannot be done in WeChat are: 1 .  Hastag # In Facebook, you can simply hastag a topic so that this topic can be easily searched by people. But there is no such hastag on WeChat This is because WeChat uses a very powerful search engine where you can search for key words without the need for a hastag.  Go to your 'Discover' page and select 'Search'. 2. Tag people You can tag someone on in your Facebook's posts so that such posts will appear on their timeline. There is no such feature on WeChst.  As such, your 'My Posts' on WeChat is cleaner as no one can put something not posted by you on your timeline In WeChat, you can simply mention your friends by using '@' in your Moments posts and they w...

Almost all the people that use WeChat has one major goal: to sell to the rich people in China.  In fact, many people told me that the one and the only reason to use WeChat is to get rich by selling to the people that use nothing except WeChat: the people from China. So people learn WeChat and start to do things that they would do in Facebook and other social media: pay money to advertise.  But they soon discover that you cannot just pay to 'boost post' in WeChat.  You have to enter into an advertisement contract with the company if you want to advertise to the WeChat users in China.  But unlike Facebook where paid advertisements start from as low as 20 cents, all paid advertisements in WeChat start from US$20,000 for overseas WeChat accounts and CNY 10,000 for China WeChat accounts.    Frustrated, they next do what a business person would do: do many posts on WeChat Moments advertising their products and services.  WeChat Moments posts work lik...

If you are like many people in Singapore and Malaysia, you feel that Whatsapp is better and easier to use than WeChat.  Many of my customers told me that WeChat has too many features (in fact, WeChat has 1 million features) and way too powerful for the average Singaporean.  They say that why complicates things when all we want are just messaging and groupchats communication?  I too felt the same way as most people.    However, once I started to use WeChat actively in 2017, I realised that even if I were to just use groupchat and nothing else in WeChat, WeChat is 13 times better than WhatsApp.   Using WeChat groupchats (and not Whatsapp groupchats) has made my life safer, more productive and secure.   The 13 ways that WeChat Groupchats are superior to Whatsapp groupchats are: 1.  Your Phone Number is Not Revealed in WeChat When you join a WhatsApp groupchat, your phone number is known to everyone in the groupchat.  You may start receivi...

We know that in WeChat, your QR is your first point of contact. Whether it is your personal account, Official Account, Groupchat, Mei Pian or Mini Program, you need people to contact you (or read your article or site) by scanning your QR code.   Other than face-to-face scanning, there are many other ways that you can get people to scan your QR code. Of course, you must make your QR code available easily and better still, give people a good reason to scan your QR code.  The following are the top 10 ways to get plenty of people to scan your QR code: 1. Publish QR code on your sites and social media At the very minimum, your QR code should be at the footer that shows up on every page of your site 2. Add WeChat QR to your company newsletters and email communications . Remind them that they will get some benefits when they scan your QR code 3. QR code on your product or service packaging Uniqlo, the Japanese retailer, displays its Official Account QR cod...