Not everyone is gifted with ability to understand pets and interact with them. Combining your talent and passion in pet grooming and entrepreneurship, you can start a pet business today! These are just some ideas to get you going:

1. Online One-Stop-Information Center for Dog Owners
   One stop information center is a website (or blog) that gives information for dog owners information such as tutorial to train and communicate better with their dog, directory of places to take their dog for a walk, review of dog/pet shops in Singapore. Media used can be in text and picture but video tutorial should be better. To build online community of dog owners, you can start online forum where dog owners can discuss and share info related to dog grooming; and organize meet up off the line.
   
   So how do you make money? There are lots way with profitability depending level of your website traffic visitors and readership. Your revenue sources are varied from selling advertising space on the site, paid review of dog grooming products to selling exclusive dog training programs, books or video tutorials and charging dog trainers and shops a fee to be listed in your directory.
   
   
2. Fish and Aquarium Rentals
   How does it work? The business is simple providing rental of fishes and aquarium to public waiting room such as in clinic and hospitals, hotels, restaurants, business offices, etc. Aquarium filled with beautiful tropical fishes can be an alternative entertainment for people to keep them occupied in a waiting room. They can also be rented for specific occasions such as for wedding and cocktail parties. Of course, this service can be provided to home owners who have no time taking care of their fishes and aquarium. Once you establish a regular clientele base, potential yearly profits to be earned could be exceed $50,000 or more.
   
   
3. Pet Photography
   Like any other family member, pet in our house want to be rewarded with photos of themselves in special occasions. However, not all pet owners a good photographer and this could your opportunity to provide such service. Unlike normal photography service, pet photography service requires someone who have passion for pet and not allergic to all kinds of pet. From dogs, cats, to reptiles, birds, to fishes; they all can be your potential photo models.
   
   You can operate this service in full-time or part-time basis, from a home based studio (rent if you don't have one) or from pet shops. Don't forget to make photography session a fun experience for pets and the owners. Depending on your initial capital, you can consider add on services to liven things up such as special effect of photos, unique pet costumes, custom themed backdrops, videotaping services, etc.

Image courtesy: Joe Shlabotnik

Hey Pet Lovers, These are 3 Business Ideas for You

You are a leader once you decide to take entrepreneurship path. Whether you are working in small or big team -- you will be faced with situations that require your capacity as a leader. The question is how to an be effective leader? In the following paragraphs, I'll share with common traits that are shared among effective leaders hopefully I can give you some ideas in becoming an effective leader. Of course, I'd like to know your view as well.

Many people follow their boss because of the job structure in a organization. The truth is just because you are the boss does not mean people trust in what you do whole hearted -- they may follow you simply because you pay them and provide job security. It will be tough to get people to move toward this direction without right dose of trust. Thus, it's important to gain people's trust before you take the charge.

Communication skills is important for every effective leader. Effective communication skills help you providing clear picture to others of your vision; and how you are going to achieve it together with them. Combining trust and effective communication, you will be able to erase other people's doubt in achieving organizational goals and motive them to work toward it. Effective communication also help you in building organization values which involve all components within the organization.

Often, leaders are faced with the situations where every decision seems to be risky and invites negative feedback from others. An effective leader must always have the courage to do the thing they believe in. In situations where decision-making is critical for organization, a leader should examine other people's thinking and rationale before making the final decision. Again, good communication help effective leaders when encounter other people's reaction.

An effective leader knows when to say no and stick to what s/he believe. As a leader, no one expects you to agree on everything because it everyone has different view and interest toward any issue. Learning to say no is an effective way to stay focused, show your consistency, and commitment to decision that has been made. Indeed, there's a time when you need to take other people's feedback and not isolate yourself from valuable inputs.

These are just some aspects of what make an effective leader. From your experience, what are other traits required to be an effective leader?

In Becoming an Effective Leader

Things to Consider before Launching a Social Media Campaign

No matter how catchy your company name is, it will not market itself without pro-active effort from you. Business card is a non-expensive way for small business owner to build company's brand. So, do make nice business card for your company and spread it around to friends, family and potential and existing clients.

Your business card could be one way to introduce brand name to people you meet. These are elements of a good business card you need to take note before you go to business card designer and make one for your business:

1. Logo and Company name. A well-designed business card give prominent place to company logo as it's an important element for strong company brand. And the stronger the brand of your company, the easier the your business to expand. No wonder that big company often spend a ton of dollars to design the company logo. As small business owner, you might want to spend less on designing company logo which is fine. However, you should consider that you will carry your company logo for the next 5 to 10 years, or even more.
   
   
2. Information contained. Your name, job title, company's address and contact details like phone number and email is a must. But people communicate with many ways these days so consider other ways for people to reach you like Facebook, Skype and LinkedIn. If your company has a website and blog, which is great, don't hide it from your business card.
   
   Another essential thing is to give people a clue about what your company provide. I will avoid having one brief paragraph of company history on my business card. One line should do well. Can you tell people what your company is doing in one sentence?
   
   
3. Look and feel. Don't spend your money on average business card, people will just forget. While people tend not to pay attention on other people's business card, well-designed business card will impress people which is at your advantage if it's the first time they heard about your business. Element of business card design including, colors, shape and size, fonts type and size and content layout.
   

Check out the following link for inspiration of cool business card designs:
http://dzineblog.com/2008/06/cool-business-card-3.html
http://creativebits.org/cool_business_card_designs

3 Important Elements of a Good Business Card

1. Understand your preferences. The best way to get the most of your time is by scheduling your work base on your preference. People have different preferences over their working style. For example, some people work faster at night, others focus better in early morning. Working preference also include like communication tool, office condition and type of work. While you need to follow your working preference, don't forget synchronize with your colleague and client
   
   
2. Don't multi-task, do one at a time. In contrast to popular belief, multitasking does not actually give you effective result for task management. You won't save time by doing all at once, instead you'll get yourself in trouble of losing concentration for each task. This is because, you spend most of your time trying to refocus on which task that need to be prioritized over another.
   
   
3. Plan, plan, plan. Take about 10 minutes to plan your work everyday or every session. To-do list with estimated time spent on each task could be one good tool to plan and organize your work. Use the list to help you to avoid procrastinate and keep your schedule on track. Allow 10-15 minutes buffer for each task and give yourself one minute rest in between of the tasks.
   
   
4. Get an assistant. Stop doing it all alone. If you're better at talking than writing, then you should focus on make calls and get someone to help you with task that requires writing skills and vice versa. You will be amaze how much benefit you can get by just focusing on your strength instead of trying to do all by yourself. You may also need to get an assistant to help you to manage easy-but-time consuming tasks such as data entry, managing emails, etc.
   
   
5. Take a rest. Spend 3 hours working non-stop will give you much less result than if you take 5 minutes rest every half an hour over the span of 3 hours. This is because you will lose your concentration over time and take a rest will help you refresh your mind and avoid mental block. In longer term, having rest in between your work will help you prevent health problem such as back pain and fatigue

Have you tried any of these method to boost your productivity? How do you manage your time in a workplace?

5 Time Management Tips to Boost Your Productivity

On 8 April, Our Managing Director Mr Ken Koh gave new insights on being an entrepreneur to Millenia Institute Entrepreneurship Club. The session was very interactive; the students agreed that the entrepreneurship talk had beneficial insights on the current world job situation.



Many were shocked to find out, about technical knowledge education learned in the first year will not be relevant by the time they graduate. Students learned that being an entrepreneur takes much more than just owning a business. Some key characteristics to success is passion & innovative spirit. Ken highlighted that future graduates cannot depend on the economic market or job opportunities when planning their career growth. To pursue their dream job & financial security, students need to start paving the road to entrepreneurial success now.







Below are feedback from the students:

Entrepreneurship Talk at Millenia Institute

Are you feeling to young to start (a business)? Then, you shall think again. Jake Fisher and Weina Scott, both age 17, started Switchpod in 2005. The company provide basic podcasting package that covers hosted space on their servers, costs as much as $30 a month. And by the time Switchpod's product had generated 800,000 downloads, a company named Wizzard Software came in.

Wizzard Software makes speech-recognition and text-to-speech technology and was looking to add podcasting to its product mix. Wizzard Software's CEO, Chris Spencer, recalls that it took a while to realize that the students he was negotiating with were in high school rather than college. What funny was Scott and Fisher met face-to-face for their first time that time! Both live 1,440 miles apart--she's in Miami, and he's in Rochester, Minnesota.

Later, they signed paperwork transferring ownership of Switchpod to Wizzard in an all-stock transaction worth $200,000. The sale includes agreement of annual salaries of $40,000 for a 20-hour workweek. Good thing is the contract acknowledges that Jake and Scott's schoolwork comes before business.

But Jake and Scott are not only young entrepreneurs who launched their ventures after school-hours. Laima Tazmin, 17, is finishing her last college semester while overseeing her web design business continues to expand. Omar Faruk, 18, earned Youth Entrepreneur of the Year award from Ernst & Young for helping nonprofits with limited resources through his Web management company, Blue Stream. Read more of their stories on "A Portfolio of Young Business Owners"

Let's have enough of US young entrepreneurs. Who are young successful entrepreneurs in Singapore that you can think of?
YES! Startups was launched on 18 November 2008 by SPRING Singapore, provides funding support for youths to set up their innovative start up with S$4 for every S$1 raised by the applicant through self-funding, schools or any other third-party sources (maximum S$50,000). Do you think this fund will increase number of youths who are willing to take risk and start their business? I do hope so.

Young Entrepreneurs' Stories

When flipping through the Inc.com's Reflections on the Entrepreneurial Journey (slide), I found one interesting story of Ted Turner, the founder of CNN cable news channel.

Ted Turner for revolutionized the media industry when he launched CNN, the first 24-hour cable news channel in 1980. Already a mogul in the television business -- he started Turner Broadcasting System (TBS) in 1970 and later Turner Network Television (TNT) -- he went on to lead Turner Broadcasting through a merger with Time Warner.

When Time Warner subsequently merged with AOL in 2001, Turner's stock in the company collapsed and so did his position as an executive at the company.

Undefeated, he returned to his entrepreneurial roots and started Ted's Montana Grill, now a nationwide chain of 55 restaurants. Looking back on his rise and fall, he said this to Inc. in 2004: "I got fired. I was over 60, and it's hard to get a job when you're over 60. People don't want to give you insurance. I thought: I better get a job! Hell, I lost $8 billion!"

It might be true that Ted is still richer than us even after losing his $8 billion; and so you think, it's easy for him to start another business. But I believe it takes more than initial capital to grow a nationwide restaurant chain. It must be knowledge (of starting and growing a successful business) and execution that enable him to run totally different from what he -- not counting his ability to fight back from financial crisis! These are traits of successful entrepreneurs, like Ted, that differentiate him from any other man in the street.

Ted Turner's Reflection of Entrepreneurial Journey

Internet Trainer
There are still lots of folks—including many senior citizens and retirees--who don’t have a clue how to access and use the internet. If you spend more than 50% of your day time online -- then you can teach these individuals to learn how to navigate the information superhighway with ease as an internet trainer.

Service you can provide including seminars and workshops, day-long to week-long courses or provide one-on-one assistance and tutorial senior centers and in individuals’ homes. And you can teach the basics or tailor your programs to the specific types of internet use your clients want to know like web browsing, online shopping, or even using Facebook.

The advantages to this business are that--assuming you already have a computer--you can start on a shoestring. Trust me, while internet’s been around for a while, not everyone is internet-savvy, so there’s plenty of room for growth. Plus, you get to play on the internet every day!

Online Researcher
If you caught yourself spending a lot of time surfing the web, why don't you consider an internet research service so you can get paid for the time you spend surfing?

Not a long time ago, this business opportunity was once called "information brokering" and with the introduction of the internet, the name has changed. However, how the business works is still remains the same. Thanks to search engine technology, information that was once researched and compiled from newspapers, trade magazines, and business and industry journals may now be found online.

An internet research service operates in two ways. The first is to collect data and relevant facts of a specific topic or topics, and sell the compiled data to individuals and businesses that require this information. Second, business owners can also enlist their services as internet researcher to source specific data and facts relevant to their particular business, industry, or market.

Bargain Hunter
People love bargain, why don't you help them to find to ones? As bargain hunter, you compile an e-mail address list of people that would like to receive your weekly e-bargains newsletter that features discounts on a wide variety of consumer products and services. You should not introduce membership fees or costs associated with receiving the newsletter. It’s absolutely free of charge. Income and profits you will earn are from selling a very limited number of advertising spaces to online shops and service providers that want access to your newsletter subscribers.

In addition to paying the advertisement fee, these shops and service providers must also agree that the products and service that are advertised in the e-bargain newsletter will be at least 10-20 percent cheaper than the normal retail price. Securing just five advertisers per week each paying S$50 will create a monthly income of S$1,000. All this can be accomplished with a part-time effort of less than 7-10 hours of work each week.

What any other online business you can think of? Never underestimate your technical skills because they might be valuable for other people. Once you know how your skills can be your advantage to help others, it means "business"!

3 Online Businesses You Can Start Today

Many entrepreneurs tend to exaggerate, especially when talking to investors about success of their business. Funding your business without exaggerating isn't easy, however one need to understand a clear line between optimistic exaggeration and outright fabrication. These are some guidelines to help you kick start your start up without selling your soul or spinning a web of lies.

Create excitement and exclusivity among investors and business partners
Even if your product isn't ready, you can use a similar approach to raise funding for your business by getting investors and business partners -- who can provide financial support -- to compete to be first. There's a certainexcitement in being part of the first group of investors, partners or customers to help launch a business.

You can create the feeling of exclusivity by spreading limited invitation to use your "beta-version" product/service and generate buzz about your product plans among blogs that investors read. There's less need to exaggerate if you can set expectations that your product is still being tested among early adopters.

Develop financial projections which based on verifiable assumptions
Investors and VC firms tend to see financial projections that shoot up like a hockey stick. And thus, entrepreneurs often feel compelled to exaggerate projections to look like their businesses can reach a billion dollars of market value in just a few years. But justification need to be made. There's no point fabricating a set of projections that aren't based on reality.

One way to build a set of realistic projections is to start with business drivers that can be discussed and debated with investors. Let's say, if you're selling bread that depend on the cost of each ingredients, develop a set of financial projections that link selling price to the number of bread you plan to sell and the changing price of ingredients. This will show how much market value and allow investors to understand what assumptions you're basing your growth on.

Write paychecks that increase the business grows
One of the most difficult tasks for entrepreneurs is to convince talented employees to join the team and stay on the team before company is profitable or stable. As a start up owner, you have to option of paying you employees: Pay your employee a market salary and take a bet that you can grow the business to justify the salary, or share risk with your employee by paying a below-market salary plus equity incentives.

Many experienced entrepreneurs agree that it makes more sense to share risk with employees, at least until you have funding or until your product line gets market traction. While this makes sense, it often puts the entrepreneur in the position of having to recruit employees by exaggerating about how developed the company's strategy is, or how popular the company's products are.

Employees are among the first to know when funding prospects dry up, strategies fail and products don't sell, so it's better to be upfront about the risks of joining a young company. But enable new recruits to share in the rewards of business success immediately rather than waiting for their equity to appreciate.

Do you have any experience of creating excitement for your business? How did it work for you?

How to Combine Excitement with Honesty To Grow Your Start up

March and April saw the first collaboration between the HomeTeamNS Entrepreneurs club and Talentpreneur Hub. Managing director of Talentpreneur Hub, Mr Ken Koh, gave us two wonderful talks from which participants gained a better knowledge into opportunities to start one’s own business.

During the sharing session, participants agreed that they would like to achieve financial and career stability. Many wish to pursue a career they are passionate about; Mr Poh Chong Wee, who has been working in a logistics company for 11 years, added “I would like to achieve freedom in expressing myself, my own management ideas and work style.”



Another participant, Mr David Han plans to start his own company, but is afraid of financial risks. As such, he brought his wife, Joanne, along for the talk to learn more from Ken on spotting opportunities, which will be especially useful during these difficult times. The couple feel that entrepreneurship is a feasible way to achieve financial stability.

The Startup! Accelerator Programme by Talentpreneur Hub is an intensive entrepreneurship training course designed to help aspiring entrepreneurs, with a step-by-step practical curriculum to create a sustainable company. The programme is uniquely tailored to help participants understand everything they need to start their business. This 10-week course consists of business training, incubation and mentoring, after which budding entrepreneurs will pitch their business plans to Talentpreneur Hub’s network of investors.

Ken assures, “as long as you are committed to start on your own, we can help aspiring entrepreneurs to generate viable business ideas and take action to turn those ideas into sustainable businesses.“

“Through Ken’s guidance, I now have information that can help me start my own business”, quipped Ms Esther Liow. Stop fighting for jobs, create your own has truly been an insightful session for one and all. HomeTeamNS hope to have the opportunity to work with Talentpreneur Hub again in the near future, promoting and inspiring the next generation of entrepreneurs to create a vibrant entrepreneurial community.

Entrepreneurship Talk at HomeTeamNS Balestier

Learning the art of delegating is essential as an entrepreneur After all it is an integral part of leadership. Whether you are a leader of an organization, or the manager of your small business, you need to be able to successfully delegate tasks in order to be able to develop your staff and get the job done.

Many bosses obsessively hang on to tasks as they think that only they can do them successfully. Too often, they feel that they must have control of everything in the company. However, that defeats the purpose of having other staff employed at all. Learning to delegate can be difficult, especially if it's your first time. You can give your staff the most difficult and most menial jobs. Neither it is fair or fitting to give your staff "too easy" jobs which me demotivate them.

Be fair in delegating tasks. Try to match the talents of each staff member with the task in hand. It is no good if you assign a duty to someone who is not motivated to even think of doing it. If you can match their talent to the delegated job, it would be easier to identify the training needs of your workforce and enable you to organise such training. If someone does not feel confident with a particular task make sure that they get the necessary training.

You can also ask the staff in a professional manner to do the job desired. Don't just throw tasks at them as if they were no-one. If you do you, will end up with a demoralised workforce that is little use to anyone, least of all you. Thank them for getting the job done, assuming that it has been. Credit were credit is due after all and it will motivate them to do better job in future in more efficient manner.

Encourage staff to feel part of a team and to feel useful. Try not to ask staff to do something which you would not be happy to do yourself. Basically I think that you need to use your common sense when delegating and put yourself in your staff's shoes. By thinking how you would react to certain methods of delegation, and how you would like to be treat, you should be able to delegate in an appropriate and successful manner.

Few Tips on Delegating Tasks Effectively

With 20 years’ experience in the industry, Benjamin Koh could see both the problems and the opportunities. It's why he set up Addicon Logistics Management (S) Pte Ltd, he knew he had to try something new.

Benjamin explained his initial thought for the business (quoted from Business.gov.sg):

“I wanted to be different,” he said. “The conventional business model of logistics businesses being mere transporters – in the sense that we simply move all sorts of goods from point to point – is not sustainable because of low profit margins and intense competition.”

Benjamin decided to focus on fashion logistics, a niche industry segment that provides integrated transport, storage and ancillary services for fashion manufacturers and retailers.

He said, “People in Singapore and the region are becoming more educated and informed. With this increase in sophistication comes more refined tastes. Naturally, people also want to wear nicer clothes, which would drive demand for fashion products.”

Prior to fund raising through SPRING, his team prepared business proposal elaborating how the project would help the business to create new value-added services for clients. Business proposal also demonstrated innovation in developing new service concept to create a new market niche.

A month after his submission, Addicon's application was approved. He received S$300,000 under Logistics Capability Development Programme (LCDP) grant. This fund covered half of consultancy fees, manpower expenses as well as equipment and material costs for the project. It also helped his company to increase its budget and incorporate all desired features into its project.

Read the full article at Business.gov.sg

Grant Helped Start up to Develop Warehouse Management System

The best education for entrepreneurs are the learning plans they design for themselves (sometimes without even realizing it) to fit their needs and personal situation. This can be a combination of formal education, reading business-related materials, mentoring, and trial and error of his or her own ideas.

Formal Education (College and University)
Formal education is important, but even it should not be taken passively. Courses that encourage creativity, brainstorming, and problem-solving help establish a thought process that is very beneficial to entrepreneurs. On the other hand, courses that focus entirely on memorization and recall are not necessarily bad but are limiting.

College and University definitely help an entrepreneur gain necessary knowledge (such management or accounting theory) and skills to help them with their business ventures. However, one main mistake some people make is believing that a college education and degree alone is a gold-key of business success when it should be treated as one part of an overall educational plan. While it is sometimes hard for many people in their late teens and early 20s to know what they want to do as a career, focusing on skill development can actually open up possibilities of several different career and business paths.

Mentors
Having experienced business mentor is literally better than someone handing you a million dollars because if you listen to him or her, they'll make you a lot more than that over your lifetime. Mentors usually come from different backgrounds in any situation. Some people have parents or family members who own businesses. Others meet a mentor through an employment situation – such as church, or through friendship and social connections. You may have one business mentor in your life or several. The main thing is usually you have to seek a mentor out, as opposed to them coming to you.

Literature
Business books, magazines, articles, CDs, DVDs, and seminars also have educational value. If for some reason you feel like you can't or don't want to pursue a college education, designing a self-study program from your local library and bookstores can be very economical alternative. The best thing there is book for every problem, so books won't limit you to learn necessary knowledge given different needs of your learning process

Lastly, after all of your preparation and learning you still have to do the work, and this is where you will learn valuable lessons from your own experiences. Starting and running a business is a challenge, but it can be very rewarding and could change the way you see yourself as an individual.

Learning Sources for Entrepreneurs