No show for interviews

Guess what. I'm supposed to be interviewing 2 sales executives today and a few things happened.

First, my admin officer, in her hurry, forgot to print out the resume for both candidates.

Second, she has been calling them both since yesterday but nobody answered the phone.
She needed to be told that in such situations she should call other candidates to see if they could turn up instead.

Both candidates didn't turn up. There are various possible reasons why they did not turn up or switched off
their phones, and there is no point in going through them one by one.
They are just not the right people we want in our organization.
I expect at least the courtesy of a phone call or an email to say that he or she cannot make the appointment.

Well, we'll move on to the next few candidates then. Next ....

Branson and the Virgin Business Challenge

Virgin founder Richard Branson was in New Zealand to launch the Virgin Business Challenge, and the grand prize includes an hour with Richard Branson to get some entrepreneurial insight.

He said: "We’re always looking for the next big thing and Virgin is looking to New Zealand as a great source of talent and ideas.

"We know that there are many New Zealand businesses with the potential to succeed at the highest level and through the Virgin Business Challenge we hope to be able to play a role in helping them overcome the challenge of going global."

Hey, come over to Malaysia, Richard !

Click here for more.

Business expansion into Indonesia, anyone?

Today our Chief Operating Officer is leaving for a trip to Indonesia. Hope he gets some valuable information and networking there!

Meanwhile we are having a meeting this afternoon with our Web Developers and some SEO experts.
Hope we understand their jargons. There is also the small matter of preparing 2 corporate videos for our launch.

What I do know from Google SEO is that it is not really that important to be no.1 for a search keyword. Just be no.2 to 5 and that's already a BIG achievement.

Interviewing before hiring

It's the time of the year again. I'm hiring people to join the company which I've just started. This company will basically deliver an online Property Portal as a business by year-end.

We have to start small but start we will. To do that, I advertised for job positions in various online webpages namely Mudah, jobstreet and jenjobs. Great response , thanks to the Ads. We've been interviewing people for almost a month now and so far I've hired 4 people to join the company.

The positions they've filled are Admin officer, Personal Manager, Business Development Manager and a Sales Executive.

The admin officer has started work. She's hardworking & good natured. She's doing all the necessary data entry for our website so far.
The others are starting in November. Interesting times ahead.

Something BIG is happening this December !

Something BIG is happening this December. My pals and I are currently working on a unique online business.

Something in demand, pretty common but done slightly differently.
It might change the way you look for your assets.
Watch this space :)

Ramadhan Sales

Ramadhan is always a challenging month for a Kopitiam business.

We need innovative ideas to overcome this. Thinking cap .... 

Phase 2 Delivery Services

Finally we have succeeded in becoming the first Kopitiam Delivery service in Malaysia.
We have started local deliveries in nearby vicinities eg Metropolitan Sq condo as well as Ritz 2 condominium.

We are now moving into Phase 2 which will cover Mutiara Damansara, TTDI, Damansara Perdana and
Bandar Utama - the first Old Town White Coffee Outlet to be doing Deliveries ! Great !
We have secured 2 Riders and are looking for more.

Meanwhile, I have just seen a few patients with kidney disease today and given them proper advice
and treatment. Hope they get better soon.

http://www.kidneysz.com/

Delivery Services for Kopitiam

Trying to finalise the workflow for Delivery Services for my kopitiam ....
Staff, scheduling, menus, brochures, transport, phone, database.
Exciting times ahead ... :)

The Rule of 72

The Rule of 72 is a quick way to estimate the effect of any growth rate in any financial calculations. Anybody who wants to become rich, financially free or grow their net worth need to know this formula. Here’s the formula:

Years to double = 72 / Interest Rate

This formula is useful for financial estimates and understanding the nature of compound interest. Examples:

• At 6% interest, your money takes 72/6 or 12 years to double.
• If you invested in ASB and are receiving 8% dividends, your money grows every 9 years (ie 72/8)
• If you are Warren Buffett, all your money invested in Berkshire Hathaway shares doubles every 3.1 years   (ie 72/23). Yes, his portfolio grew at 23% per annum! 
• To double your money in 10 years, get an interest rate of 72/10 or 7.2%.
• If your country’s GDP grows at 6% a year, the economy doubles in 72/6 or 12 years. Najib's target! 
• If your growth slips to 2%, it will double only in 36 years.... (yawn!).  If growth increases to 4%, the economy doubles in 18 years. Given the speed at which technology develops, shaving years off your growth time could be very important. Thus when one talks about investment, the velocity of money is extremely important.
• Thus whenever I collect my income, I never leave the money in the Savings account. I will quickly move it to another vehicle (moving at a faster speed).

You can also use the rule of 72 for expenses like inflation or interest:

• If inflation rates go from 2% to 3%, your money will lose half its value in 36 or 24 years.
• If college tuition increases at 5% per year (which is faster than inflation), tuition costs will double in 72/5 or about 14.4 years. If you pay 15% interest on your credit cards, the amount you owe will double in only 72/15 or 4.8 years!

The rule of 72 shows the power of compounding interest. This was what made Warren Buffett one of the wealthiest man alive. Use this rule whenever you think of finances or in making financial decisions. Remember : The velocity of money matters !

Choosing a Business Partner : Essential Pointers

Having a good business partner is essential and integral to the success of a business. I have been fortunate enough to experience running different businesses with different business partners. Choose the wrong business partner, and get ready to face hell ! Choose the right one, and you are half-way on the path to success.

Some of the criteria I look for in a business partner :

1) Somebody who shares Your Values, Entrepreneurial Spirit, and Vision

- this one is absolutely important. otherwise you might end up really frustrated and become the only one doing all the work and thinking.

2) Somebody who practices Good Personal and Business Ethics

- again, I prefer not to work with someone who is dishonest or someone who is comfortable with breaking the law.

3) Choose a Partner who is Financially Stable

- "partner, can I use some money from the business. I'm running short of cash ..."  No, No, Noooo !

4) Someone who treasures Respect

- goes without saying ....

5) Someone who may offer credibility, skills or additional resources to the business

- ahhh, this certainly helps ....
- just like getting a Hairdresser involved in a Saloon business or a chef in a restaurant business or a pilot in an airline business or a nephrologist in the set-up of a haemodialysis facility.

Virgin buys Pluto

The latest news is that Sir Richard Branson of Virgin Group has bought Pluto and plans to restore its mass and eventually it's status as a planet.

Mindboggling ....!!

World Kidney Day in TMC

In conjunction with World Kidney Day 2011, we are organizing an event for families and kids at our hospital.
Including health forums, colouring contest and healthy food cooking demo. Do join us on the 19th of March !

Looking to hire Delivery Boys

It's a Saturday morning and I've just done my morning ward rounds. A few business proposals to do .... interesting ones too!

Meanwhile, we will need to hire a few Delivery boys for our growing kopitiam business. Once we sort that one out, it will be an all out Delivery Service !

"Hot White coffee , anyone ...?"

How does Facebook make money?

Have you ever wondered how Facebook makes money?

A mega huge social network like Facebook is so powerful because the 500 million users have many different likings, needs, interests and this generates a huge potential for online income generation from various industries.

One of the ways is using self-serve advertising. Not only the big companies can advertise in facebook through media such as banners or Youtube, even the average user like you and I can advertise our small businesses in Facebook. I know some of my friends who do exactly that. Recently, a girl told me she sells customised ladies' shoes through her Facebook account. And she is doing quite well.....Interesting !

Companies know that advertising in Facebook is like showing off your product to millions of people.

Read further on how Facebook earns money here.

Learn from one of the Greatest

One of the world's best entrepreneurs I really admire is Sir Richard Branson.

He started the Virgin group from scratch and made it big. Really big.

Imagine those days, he had to compete with an established giant, British Airways. He believed that one doesn't need to be a pilot to have an Airline and one doesn't need to be a singer or artist to own a music record company. His Virgin Records survived the new era of online music downloads. I believe the same thing. One doesn't need to be a chef to open a restaurant.

He said "Business is all about the Details ..."

Read his article here.

Be bold enough to fire an employee

One of the challenges as an Entrepreneur and business owner is when faced with making a decision whether to keep or fire a staff.

When I started the kopitiam, one of the managerial staff under our payroll was lacking in punctuality at work. He kept reporting late for work. But that was not the main problem. The problem was that since he was the managerial staff whose presence is needed to open accounts for the business day, all the other staff will have to wait for him before starting work. Hence, this created a hurdle to the business. A kopitiam business needs to open very early in the morning to catch a breakfast crowd. No point opening it at 8am - everybody's already in their respective office starting work proper.

Warning after warning and yet he kept repeating it. This was already setting a bad example to the other workers. As directors, we had to speak to him, essentially asking him to buck up. Or shall I say "My way or the highway".

To cut the story short, he didn't show any effort to improve and we promptly showed him the door.

Another story is about me firing a dialysis nurse. She did a few blunders. Number 1, when there were no scheduled patients to come for dialysis in the afternoon, she closed the dialysis centre and went home at around 2pm. It was clearly stated in her contract that she had to work till 5pm. Her second mistake was that she did not report to her superiors when a refridgerator was out of order and not cold enough, hence spoiling all the erythropoeitin injections and immunisation injections. Obviously this was a serious blunder and not forgiveable to a staff nurse. She too was shown the door.

As an entrepreneur and business owner, although one would like to be popular and kind, but one must be bold enough to fire an errant staff, especially when policies are breached. Leniency in such cases may be viewed as a weakness by other managerial staff. Of course, humans make errors. But some errors are not forgiveable and some should not be repeated.

Clinics done, off to Kopitiam

Going off to my kopitiam now .... just finished clinic and ward rounds.... and a business meeting about a new website. This new project is so exciting .... but time to go and meet my kopitiam employees now :)

A Thousand Employees

This is the very first day and the very first post of my blog.

I am a doctor, a kidney specialist by training, a Director of a Chain of Dialysis Centres, and a franchisee of a Famous Kopitiam chain locally. I am forever looking at ways to solve problems for others and always keeping an open eye on interesting business ideas.

In short, I am an Entrepreneur.
And my Ultimate Goal is to find a thousand employees.