Cover via Amazon

I've found this post off from one of the discussions at LinkedIn, by a guy named Amol from UK. What he said made sense and its actually what we should be practicing for all this time as entrepreneurs. Learn how to make the million dollars through this article:

Making a million is an idea that appeals to us all, be that a million dollars, pounds, yen or whatever currency your country uses. But unless you’re currency is practically worthless it’s not an easy task.

In fact, making a million is a bit like eating an elephant, it’s a hugely daunting task, but if you’ve ever heard anyone ask:

How do you eat an elephant?

Then you’ll know that the answer is: one bite at a time.

So how does eating an elephant help you make a million dollars?

Well here’s an approach that seems to have worked for Warren Buffett. For those that don’t know of him, he is one of the richest men in the world, with an estimated wealth of $47 Billion dollars in 2010. In other words, for those of you wondering how many millions make a billion, Warren Buffett has made a million dollars 47,000 times over!

According to the biography of Warren Buffett (The Snowball by Alice Schroeder, an excellent book that anyone wanting to make a million and become financially free should read), Buffett’s inspiration for making his first million came from an old book called One Thousand Ways To Make $1,000. As Buffett is a bit of maths whizz he instantly recognised that the title meant that the book explained how to make a million dollars.

The genius of the book however is that instead of trying to make a million dollars in one go (which is hard) it was approaching the task in steps – one bite at a time! The goal of each step being to make $1,000. Do that one thousand times and you would have made a million dollars (or pounds for us Brits).

Warren Buffett’s understanding of mathematics also helped him realise that when it comes to how to make a million quick, it’s much easier to start with money to invest than it is to start from nothing. In other words he realised that by re-investing every cent, dollar or pound that he made from his businesses into growing the businesses or starting a new business he would make more money faster. In short he recognised that a dollar today, could be worth ten dollars in a year’s time, so he was very frugal, spending as little as possible in order to re-invest everything.

As he’s now made not just a million dollars, but 47,000 of them it’s hard to argue against his approach!

How to make millions with your ideas?

So what if you already have a business, a business idea or a product? Well there’s no reason that the one thousand steps all have to be unique. In fact if you’ve got a product that sells for one thousand dollars and you can sell a thousand or more of them, then just do it! That’s what running a successful business is all about.

If you haven’t then make what you can off each idea and when it’s exhausted move on to the next business idea.

Are you ready to make a million dollars?

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Never Assume Anything

Image by danbri via Flickr

The headline says it all about this next article. You should never assume anything at all. You may assume a few things that has little or no consequences that may befall onto you or anyone for that matter. But when it comes to making financial decisions, assuming can lead to being an @$$. You can't spell assumption without @$$ anyways.

Let's say Guy A has a product that he's just recently discovered that he could sell to the market. Here and there he hears that the some of the lot of people wants to buy that type of product. So he assumes that this product has high demand in the market. He's wrong. Assuming anything can lead to bad results but if Guy A is really lucky, that assumption could be a good thing. A lucky call, one might say. How can you tell if you have made an assumed decision or a confirmed decision?

The Price Illusion: How To Cut Costs Further

Image via Wikipedia

You go into a shop, you find something interesting that you have always wanted to buy for (say, a new t-shirt that says, "+2 Constitution T-Shirt" with some added fantasy designs here and there) and then you started taking it to the fitting room. After trying it on, you look at yourself in the big mirror and said to yourself, "This is so geeky and cool that my friends would be so envious." until you see a price tag hanging off from the back clothe tag. The price is $155. It's inexpensive for a simple t-shirt with the simple printed design on. So you have second thoughts in buying it or not while reflecting yourself on the budget you set aside per month on buying new clothes. A salesperson walks up to you and here began a sales pitch and conversation:

Salesperson : "Do you like it?".
You (replying with frugality) : "I love it but it's a bit expensive for my taste."
Salesperson : "Oh don't worry. We're having a sale today for these kinds of t-shirts. It's now only $40."
You (in thought) : "Wow! From $155 to $40, that's a huge drop down. On a well designed fancy t-shirt too. I could try and look elsewhere. Then again, I don't think I could find one similar to this shop for another 2 hours driving from here."

You ended up buying a $40 geek t-shirt while thinking that you have "seized" the opportunity. Not really.

Living Large In Brunei

"Spend up to $100 on your credit card and get 15 per cent offthese products!" "24-hour loan approval!" "Special discounts for credit card holders!" "0% interest credit card payments on all furniture items!"

It's no wonder our credit cards are max-ed out and Bruneians are in debt. It's a double-edged sword: Banks are quick to tempt us with "too good to resist" offers (like the ones listed above) and we get carried away thinking we got a good deal. In fact, the only winners in this case - are the banks.

Think about your credit card. Pay up a day or even an hour after the deadline and you're slapped with late charges or "admin fees" on top of what you owe.

"It's like throwing pebbles into the ocean," said a friend who had paid $100 on her card, only to be slapped with another $45 in late fees, effectively making her hard-earned payback count as only $55.

"It's funny how, if we pay off our cards early, the banks don't reward us with a discount," she pointed out. "Yet when we're the slightest bit late, they won't hesitate to make us pay through our noses!"

The conversation switched to car loan payments. "Whether you pay for your car over seven years or seven months, there is no incentive such as a reduction in the amount of interests you pay." "Why settle it quickly?" shrugged my friend. "Let the bank wait for its money!"

Another friend of mine related how her bank manager had enthusiastically called her one day to offer her a "personal line of credit". The bank would be happy to lend her a huge sum of money, it said, which she could pay back over the years, through deductions in her salary. Was she tempted?

Naturally! Visions of holidays, sports cars and shopping danced in her head. Being young, single and living at home, she had practically zero living expenses and bills to worry about. It seemed too good to be true!... It was.

Her dad sat her down and talked her through the options. She'd have to sacrifice the largest part of her monthly pay packet, over much of her working life, on paying back the bank's "generous" loan offer.

"Think of your future," he told his daughter. "If you wanted to buy a house of your own one day, do you think the bank would loan you the money for it? Not likely, with such a huge personal line of credit to pay off."

Another girl fell for the bait and took the bank up on its offer. "Living large" for a while, she spent like there was no tomorrow and frittered cash away on makeup, clothes, handbags, holidays and a fancy car.

Now, still only in her 20s, she is a whopping $70,000 in debt. With plans to get married, she's in a desperate conundrum, frantically looking for a way to pay off her debts, so she can afford her fast-approaching wedding. How will she manage? Only time will tell.

"The bank is not your friend," lectured one parent to his son. Some would say by offering naïve young, working people personal loans that they didn't really need, banks have exploited these youngsters' lack of financial finesse.

Can we say then, that it's the banks that are largely responsible for young Bruneians being stuck in huge, financial black holes? How does one dig their way out of that hole, especially now with the rising minimum card payments and soaring cost of living? Some struggle.

The only way to dig ourselves out of debt would seem to be to tighten our belts and curb spending. Forget about minimum monthly payments - they don't work!

If you can afford to sacrifice half your salary or more, on paying back that credit card, then do it! Don't think twice! Otherwise, late charges, interest and admin fees all pile up on top of what you actually owe, making it a growing pain.

Since adopting that tactic (as well as digging into my savings account) - I've managed to clear two credit cards and cancel one, keeping the other, only for emergencies.

It may seem harsh to sacrifice 50 per cent (or more!) of your salary to pay off bills and debts instead of treating ' yourself to the usual monthly indulgences. But there is no greater feeling like being free of financial debts. Once you've cleared yours, you'll feel richer in an instant! -- Courtesy of Borneo Bulletin and written by Kartini Knox

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Entrepreneur Web Game

I have always wanted to create a game where it teaches users how to be entrepreneurs or how to make more money from whatever situation they may be. Unfortunately, somebody beat me to it. Robert Kiyosaki, the man and author who wrote "Rich Dad Poor Dad", created a web game for everyone to play. It's free and the best of it all, we all get to learn something out of it. The game is almost like Monopoly but instead of just owning properties and directly fighting against your opponents and getting them bankrupt. The objective is to see if you can reach your dream goal faster than your fellow players. The game is called "CashFlow"

So far, there are a few bugs in the 202 Cashflow game type. But 101 is smooth play so I recommend playing that first. You get to learn a thing or two from playing this game. How to invest wisely, how to make more money, how to ensure a wealthy living, etc. You can even play with your friends or other people because it is online.

Are you ready to achieve your dreams by increasing your assets and get rid of all your liabilities? Play it all now!

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Dominating Your Business Line

Interesting thought (actually a revision through my past business lessons) was that to look into "Diversification" methods. When your business is starting to slow down, you can look at different areas to divert your business into. For example, if you are running an electronic goods shop, you can divert to something else. Basically, it is a way to close and exit one industry or market into a totally different one. But what I have learnt before was another method of diversification. It can also be considered as business expansion by dominating your business line.

What I meant by business line is as simple as looking at both the upline and downline. I'm using MLM terms here; so to clarify, uplines would be those businesses that supplies, supports and help your business to keep on running; i.e. Electric companies, Water companies, Manufacturers, Producers, etc. Downlines are distributors, retailers, affiliates, etc. You're in the middle normally as either the wholesaler or retailer. So now that's out of the way and explained, the whole factors of ins and outs of the traditional commercial system, it is time to diversify and/or expand.

Some business people would prefer to expand upwards. Instead of relying on suppliers and producers, businesses (with enough capital to venture) can open and start their own supply line. While supplying their own materials to their own business and opening up to a whole new market of other wholesalers and retailers.

Example:

Running a bakery shop. Main ingredient needed to bake is flour. Open a flour factory to supply them yourself. Plus, the flour factory can also sell the same or different kinds of flours to other bakeries.

Dominating the upline while expanding gives entrepreneurs more control over their business without relying on other companies for cost materials. Likewise for the downline;

Example:

Running a bakery shop. Then to deliver further, be the distributor. Create branches here and there while maintaining the first bakery shop as the main headquarter. 

Dominating the business line gives the entrepreneur or business people more control over quality service and timely delivery. But all this depends on the business's position in the commercial system. And then from there, start dominating the business line, up and down.

The left and the right (or horizontal line) are other external forces. For this example, it will be the direct and indirect competitors. Dominating these lines is just as hard as dominating the up and down of the business line (we can call this the vertical line).

When it comes to competitors, they can either be your friend or foe. Normally they are your foes but they can also be your friend. Why? Because you can merge, amalgamate, cooperate and then monopolize the market against the bigger competitors. Imagine this:

There is one corporate giant competitor and there are other 3 smaller competitors in the market. Your goal is to beat them all and be the market leader. If you merge and cooperate with the giant company, well done and you deserve all the respect you get. But the problem is, why would the giant merge with a smaller company/competitor? If unsuccessful, you can merge with the 3 smaller companies and form a bigger threat against the giant corporate. All this to dominate the market while keeping in mind that in business, "You can't win alone." and hence, cooperation from any parties will be a benefit to any business. However, do be careful when you do merge. There are cases of who owns what and what responsibilities and profit shares should be assigned, who is liable for what, etc.

While expanding, diverting and dominating the market is great but do tread carefully onto different market grounds as one venturous step can lead to a huge downfall.

Are you dominating your market?

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7 Deadly Sins Of A Business Manager & Entrepreneur

There are so many businesses out there and some aren't performing as well as the other businesses should. Advertising poorly, bringing in customers, products aren't as good or as cheap as the competitors and poor customer support services. If you wanna see some money flowing in, follow these recommendations and repent for your 7 deadliest sins.

1. Pride
   
   While every entrepreneurs and business managers are at their best to manage their business, they just can't do it alone. Or maybe they can. The point is that businesses are meant to be an organization or a group of people who are striving for the same company goals. Hiring or partnering with other like-minded individuals is recommended if you need to expand your business.

2. Envy
   
   Sometimes we do get jealous at someone else's success. We do try to benchmark ourselves and be like them one day. But if you were to meet them and ask them how do they do it and can you do it and be successful like them one day. The answer you will get is, yes and no. Meaning that their business success is dependent upon market changes. What happened 10 years ago and the events that lead up till now is so different comparing to what comes into the future. If you had start up a business and follow their business style, you would no doubt be successful. But in this case, you have to be different and stop comparing yourself between others success and yours. As a matter of fact, look at what others are doing and do the opposite. Don't follow the herd and you would be surprised at the results you get.

3. Gluttony
   
   You can't really operate a small business with a huge customer base. If at most, you can only handle tens or hundreds. But thousands is just asking too much work and you will fail if you cannot meet with customer demands. Imagine that in a restaurant business. There is no way to put, handle or care for all thousands of customers in a small restaurant. Less is more especially if those less are loyal customers, then work your way up while stabilizing business.

4. Lust
   
   Emotions like this is dangerous to every business manager and entrepreneurs. And I don't mean just sexually but also the lust for success and money making from businesses. It is okay to have that feeling to keep up with the efforts to make money, but it is dangerous if you do it without considering your own life. A famous quote goes, "Treat yourself first, then the world." Making a small time of your life just to take care of your health and family so that if your business fails, you can still live healthily and a family that supports you until you can get back on your feet again to try another business approach.

5. Anger
   
   Sometimes when managing a business, you may have incompetent employees that gives nothing but production waste or some accident caused to your new shirt or blouse by your little children. Stress is everywhere and sometimes it leads to anger. Problems must be handled with care and getting angry too often or too much will lead to even more problems. Yelling at an employee for not meeting the sales quota does not equate to problem solved (maybe rarely it does).
   
6. Greed
   
   Taking every strategies and tactics at one step at a time. Doing things too fast because you wanna see some fast returns may be asking for trouble as carelessness is becoming more existent if you keep rushing with your tasks. Another form of greed is advertising. You wanna fill every advertising spaces there is in the country, town, cities, villages and especially the virtual world. Don't be too greedy to post it up everywhere. Do it less and do it on occasion rather than always. Aggressive advertising is fine but too much just seems like a waste of branding strategy and money, since this is becoming more of a liability than an asset.

7. Sloth
   
   The obvious "sin" in every business is that laziness attitude to support and run the business can ruin it all. If you can't do the business with enough energy or even run it properly, you might as well close down or sell it off before you run it down to the ground. There is no such thing as an easy automatic running business. Everything requires work and energy in order to earn that that cash value.
   

Remember to repent for your business sins and let the business "Gods" (I am referring to those Corporate giants and famous entrepreneurs) forgive and bless you.

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Watching Movies Online For Free Or Make Money As A Movie Reviewer

As far as entertainment and leisure is concerned, we would spend on them for several reasons:

1. To release stress
2. Hobby
3. A way of sharing fun with friends and family
4. To fill up time or waste time

The list can go on for different individuals. But let us take a look at movies. Watching it in the cinema is interesting and enjoyable with surround sounds, widescreen and comfortable seating but is it worth it?

I scoped around the Internet to find out which is better, watching in the cinema or watching at home. Watching movies has always been a great entertainment to each societies and communities to gather and watch together. Soon after the movie is over, friends whom they brought along will later discuss how much fun the movie was, regardless the genre. In a way, the movie business is astoundingly successful as it promotes itself to the market by peers encouraging others to watch that movie (either through cinema or DVD/Blu-ray) or through movie trailers.

But for some cheap individuals like ourselves, there is a way to reduce the cost on buying/renting DVD/Blu-ray or watching at a cinema; i.e. downloading or streaming them. Quite obvious as the technology we have today uses all kinds of third-party software to download entertainment and taking a lot of bandwidth and Internet speed while at it.

There is one site in particular that you can download or stream to watch a movie. For every individual that needs to let loose, watching movies tend to be the next best thing. Mymovees.com is a movie directory that gives you the opportunity to not just watch them, but also write reviews, getting to know the movie's plot, descriptions, ratings, details, etc. But if you are looking for a means to earn while watching movies, here is a hot option. Be a Movie Reviewer.

How To Be A Movie Reviewer

It is as simple as 1, 2, 3:

1. Watch movies
2. Review them
3. Repeat 1 and 2.

Of course, you may need to be a reputable movie reviewer as well as review very well in each categories and genres of a movie. Looking at how the actors/actresses acts, the lines said, the animations/effects, timings, motions, emotions, impacts, messages, etc.

Do this with all up-to-date movies. And because that we can watch movies online for free(either stream or download), you have less cost to spend on instead of watching it on DVD/Blu-ray, let alone in the cinema.

So what are you waiting for? Be a reviewer and make money writing them.

P.S. This is a sponsored post.

P.S.S. Even though it is a sponsored post, I do my best to research before taking up the offer with the advertiser. Reason would be whether the product/service itself has any beneficial or a waste of anyone's time. And this post represents how well mymovees.com is and I recommend anyone to give it a go. (Who would complain when it's free to use?)

P.S.S.S. Terms and Conditions apply.

-Let the power of wealth be with you~

Business Defensive Strategy

As much as IT is concerned in Business, there are a few things that needs to be taken in consideration. For one, employees in the organization requires to perform their job at their utmost efficiency and effectiveness. While that, there are always obstacles in the way which leads to production waste.

Some of them are:

• Employees spends too much time chatting, socializing and surfing the Internet and social networking sites.
• Employees often procrastinate once they are on the computer. Cause could be lack of motivation.
• Employees may leak out confidential company information to other competitors.
• Employees may have relationship problems at work or at home and uses working hours to make amends.
• Employees may bring down the company's server when downloading entertainment and software.
• Employees' downloading activities may infect the server with a virus.
• Employees may be watching or visiting adult sites during working hours.
• Employees may be writing up their CV in the office.

Stuff like this happens and in every business, there is a defensive plan. While every business needs to focus on attacking the market with sales, promotions and marketing strategies as their offense, they would lose focus on what trouble may brew at home grounds. So in conclusion, it is best to try and balance both strategies so that the company will still stand strong no matter what forces may come. Okay, maybe except God's forces but still, it is best to be prepared with a contingency plan along with a defensive strategy to keep the business going.

Internet Safety Software is a great product and it should be considered as one of the many great defensive options available. It is designed and developed by Spector Pro at www.spectorsoft.com for not only for employees to stop wasting precious working hours, but also beneficial towards children as well. Protecting the young minds from the dangers of the Internet. But let's stick with solving issues with employees, shall we?

You may be thinking that Internet Safety Software can be a tool used by the Human Resource Team. I mean, what else can the Human Resource Department do in the office, other than training staffs and motivating them to work? Well that is just that, but can they prevent company sabotage or stop workers from procrastinating? Likely. But with Internet Safety Software, Human Resource Management AND the executives or the manager can monitor the employees activities as soon as they switch on their PCs.

These are the benefits of Internet Safety Software:

• Discover and block inappropriate web surfing - One employee spent almost half of a working day shopping online. That is productivity wasted right there. Just imagine how well the company would go and treat their employees if the lazy employee didn't waste so much time web surfing. Could have saved thousands of dollars on expected income.
• See who is surfing web sites that the company blocks - While it is okay to let employees socialize on their free or break time, it is not okay to use any of the working hours to visit adult sites. (Don't look at me, I know it is very common among us. But if you are not the type of employee that visits adult sites in the workplace, then give yourself a pat on the back.)
• Find and eliminate unauthorized programs - While employees are working, it is notable that they may need to let off a steam or reduce their stress by listening to an online streaming radio, play a few games and whatnot. However, using that excuse too much or too long, may lead the employee to be more unaccountable as the individual would rather enjoy in their office, not doing any work and get their paycheck soon after.
• Review suspicious emails sent or received - including attachments - in Hotmail, Gmail, Yahoo Mail & more - Companies had a hard time trying to figure out what went wrong with their executive strategy and how their competitors often be one step ahead than them. The cause sometimes lies within the company. Sending confidential company information such as the customer list, marketing strategies, portfolios and other "top-secrets" via email. A terrible company crime that must be stopped at all cost. If a company is failing because of one employee, all other employees working in that company may fail with it too.
• Track improper access to sensitive files and documents - Sometimes a spy infiltrates the company and steals data, information and such, even without being an employee of that company. Or even at the very least, the janitor could be stealing the company information to sell off to the highest bidder. Defend those files with SpectorSoft's Internet Safety Software!
• Detect and stop excessive use of network bandwidth - And then there is a case of abusing the IT network in the workplace. Downloading software and other programs can cause all kinds of trouble for other co-workers. Find the perpetrator and stop him/her.
• Identify and block employees who abuse chat/IM services - As much as one favors to socialize as much as the next, it is still inappropriate to do too much during working hours. SpectorPro found those programs to be used the right way.
• See EXACTLY what they do in EVERY program they run - You remember that one point above about employees writing CV's during their work. Catch them there as a signal to find out what is wrong or what makes their job unsatisfactory and keep them motivated to keep working for the company instead of the competitor or a different sector.

The Internet Safety Software is a great product and I recommend every small, medium and large companies to buy one. Not recommended if the company does not have any PCs for employees to use but still, it can be used as a final stand between the competitors rising success and the company's downfall.

P.S. This is a sponsored post.

P.S.S. Even if it is a sponsored post, I am still expressing my honest and personal opinion about the product as I see fit. This is my review of the product that they are selling and I find it beneficial to everyone; business and family alike.

-Let the power of wealth be with you~

Do 20% To Achieve Your Goal Faster!

In my previous post, I explained about how you can apply 80/20 Rule on your efforts to results. Now in this post, I am using the same 80/20 Rule but solely on efforts alone.

Awhile ago, I've read an article about how you can use 80/20 Rule to justify, evaluate and help any individual to do less work, to get to a goal easier and faster.

In my last article was a different story about putting in 100% of your efforts to gain 400~500% results. But if you're putting in unnecessary effort, you will not gain that much results. This post is about how you can really look into what kind of efforts can be justified as a 20% effort and which are the 80%.

Let's take a look at a normal everyday salesperson. He's doing his best to make ends meet, paying bills, loans, debts, food, rent, etc. Even though he's putting in 100% of his efforts at work, he's not making enough sales to fit the bills, let alone, have anything to eat. So he'll evaluate what needs to be done and focus on the 20% tasks rather than doing the other 80%.

In his list he wrote down what he has to do, more in the likes of his job description and more.

Task list:

• Contact Prospects
• Meet & approach Prospects (Getting New Prospects as well as closing the deal)
• Advertise himself as a recognized salesman
• Do some paperwork
• Social Media (Getting New Prospects)
• Reading or researching on "How-To" Sales sources.
• Maintaining contact with existing clients
• Socialize (With friends and family for more Prospects)
• Close a deal

And the list could go on with different marketers and salespeople. But let's stick with this list. And then he wrote down his end goal. End goals are used to help individuals focus on what is needed and they are widely used for a short-term. As soon as you get results and it meets the criteria of an end goal, that's completed and done. So this salesman's end goal was to make enough to pay for his bills, rent and car loan. Subjective but doable. So he's going to split his to-do list into an 80/20 Rule. The 80%  Tasks is a list of things he can do if he has the time or money or energy to do. While 20% Tasks is a list of things he must do if he wants to reach his end goal soon.

80% Tasks:

• Advertise himself as a recognized salesman
• Do some paperwork
• Socialize
• Meet* & approach
• Maintaining contact with existing clients
• Reading or researching

20% Tasks:

• Contact Prospects
• Close a deal
• Meet Prospects*
• Social Media

As he noticed (and maybe, so have you) that he only needs to focus all his efforts on 4 things for the whole day. *Note: You may notice that I have put down "Meet" on both sides. This is because you can't really close a deal if you don't meet them in person. You may close a deal with them over the phone but that just seems a bit informal. And approaching a new prospect can be time consuming if your prospect is shy or not in the mood to talk with a stranger in public. Doing the 80% is fine, if you have the energy and the time to do so. But to reach the end goal faster, you just need to focus on 4 tasks and that is all it takes.

So tell me, what do you do in your situation to get to your end goal faster with the 80/20 Rule? Leave interesting or creative comments and do tell if it works for you!

-Let the power of wealth be with you~

How To Perform Better With Pareto Principle?

Pareto Principle as it was called. Back in Italy, there was an Italian Economist by the name of Vilfredo Pareto. And he believed back in 1906 that 20% Italians owned 80% of the land. A Business Management Thinker, Joseph M. Juran, found this principle very reliable and an optimistic way of thinking. The principle was developed further by observing 20% of the pea pods in the garden contained 80% of peas. And ever since then, it's already a rule of thumb in businesses all over the world. You may have heard of it as it was called the "80/20 Rule".


The refined rule goes, "80% of your sales come from 20% of your clients." as quoted from Wikipedia. If you read further in the "In economics" section of Wikipedia, Pareto wanted to observe more to see if the 80/20 Rule was applied in other countries than Italy. And much to his surprise, everything was exactly the same 80/20 Distribution. He observed it in different perspective such as country's income and wealth over the land. He found this as a natural phenomenon over the power of law in relationships.


So basically, the idea was to make 100% of effort to bring out 5 times the result. (80 x 5 = 400%). So if you are really at 100% of whatever you do, freelancing, working, studying, managing, etc, you will be rest assured that the results will be 400% effective. However, putting 100% effort is quite tiring and it is true that you can bring out that 400%.


Let's take a smaller example than economy and something more to a daily life. Let's say, a salesman works 9-5 with only 20% of his efforts on calling potential customers and meeting new prospects to make his sales quota. He's hardly working as, you know, Brunei is so hot nowadays, he would rather cool off a little than give it his all in a day. But after sometime, he felt the need to buy himself a vacation or wants to continue his studies. And for that, he is willing to work an additional 20% everyday. Which brings in another 80% results. So daily he gets, 160% results. Should be more than happy with all the commissions he's getting. But putting those percentage figures doesn't seem to add up, so let's put them into actual numbers.


Let's say he's a Cellphone Salesman. He sells 1 cellphone for B$100 and gets a 20% commission. Meaning one sale = B$20. And he does this with only 20% effort out of 100 clients that comes into contact with him every month. Meaning every 10 clients, made 2 sales. So in a month, he gets B$400 a month (1 sale = $20, 2 Sales = $40, $40 x every 10 = $400). And maybe plus salary would be $200. So total income, B$600 a month. Not too shabby.


But if he puts in 100% effort, what happens? With 100 clients, he will get every sale (Reminder, this is just an example) since he's really working at it. So every 100 clients, he gets 100 sales. So in a month, he should be getting B$2,000! (1 sale = $20, 100 sales x $20 = $2,000). And then plus basic salary of B$200, is already B$2,200 a month.


Now let's take the difference and see if it all adds up of getting 400% results. This is excluding basic salary: 2000/400 x 100 = 500%. So it may be a little bit off by 100 percentage but still, this is a great principle and everyone is encouraged to work 100% of their efforts to bring out the best results for themselves or for their company.


How do you perform better at work? Leave interesting or creative responses.


-Let the power of wealth be with you~

Another Day, Another Bruneian Dollar

I must apologize for not updating this blog for the past week. I've been pretty busy with my freelancing project. Thankfully, it was completed without a problem.

And so as for this post, I wanted to make something special. I want us to share our experiences, knowledge or anything new about what you can do with only limited resources at your disposal and make the best out of it. I face it almost everyday with different projects and hosts demands more out of me.

So here's an example situation:

You've been asked to do some work. Whatever work you have just completed, you get paid B$1000. Now after awhile, there are no more new projects for the whole month till next, and that looks bad and you need to make more money to meet your monthly expenses. (i.e. food, bills, rent, etc.)

The Question:

How will you manage B$1000 to make ends meet by the end of the month? Use your own examples.

I'm only posting this up because I wanna know what is on your mind if the resources available to you is limited and what would you do with it. Please leave some creative comments and ideas in the comment section. Thank you.


-Let the power of wealth be with you~

How To Make More Money By Typing Only

As I promised, here is another site for writers to make a lot of money out of. It's called Constant Content.

I've already added that site under my "Recommended Links". So if anyone ever tried using it, you'll know its potential.

I, on the other hand, have used it once and sadly, unsuccessful at it. This is because of their high calibre human resources to read, check and approve articles submitted to their site. I've read other reviews whether the site is a scam or not and I find that it's as authentic as it can be.

There are a lot of drawbacks as well as benefits to this site.

Benefits:

• You get paid after what you've written and submitted to the site.
• You get paid on a "usage" basis.
• You get paid more on an "exclusive" rights.
• You improve your writing ability and your English Language.

Drawbacks:

• You can submit articles that are fresh, unique, original and English error free, which limits to those who are poor in the English Language.
• Your articles can get rejected for poor quality. Very common.
• If articles get rejected 3 times (I'm not sure if it's in a row or any 3 times), your account will be banned.
• You only get paid if someone is willing to pay for your well-written articles.

Don't worry about the last part of the Drawback as I can see that there are some publishers (members of the Constant Content Community) request some articles to be written. This may be academic or for their research. Either way, they are willing to pay for it at a reasonable price. And in USD to BND, that's more than reasonable. However, the only main concern about article submission to Constant Content is the fact that they will ONLY accept high quality articles. Meaning no grammar mistakes, no punctuation mistakes, better vocabulary, etc. Which leads to the individual's English level.

I took an IELTS Test 2 years ago. I got a 6.5 overall band score. So if my band score is not enough for Constant Content, then I suppose an 8 or a 9 should suffice. But enough about the bad stuff. Let's take a closer look at the rewards you will be getting if you actually managed to submit several articles to Constant Content.

There are 3 kinds of payment:

1. Usage - It is a right where someone pays for your article and able to use and re-use your article over and over, while you still hold rights to that article and still sell it to other publishers. They are not allowed to edit or change your article in anyway.
2. Unique - It is a right where someone pays for your article once but they are able to use and re-use your article. A slight difference between Usage and Unique is, that you can use your own article on your own website.
3. Full - It is a right where someone buys your article once and able to use, re-use and edit your article and claim it as their own.

The drawback with Unique and Full is that once your article is sold under these rights, its off the server. Meaning you get paid once. So what's the point? If you see the picture above, you'll notice that people charge higher for Unique and Full. So as you can see, the potential of just writing articles and submitting it to Constant Content will be a blast! Taking you to a new level of penmanship.

There's more about it but you have to go to their site for better clarifications. Be sure you read the terms and conditions and the writer's guidelines before you submit! It's crucial that you do!

And just in case you're not that good in writing, there are other mediums to submit content and get paid for it:

• Photography
• Videos
• Illustrations

Same rules, same terms and conditions, more or less the same guidelines to follow, same process, but more rewards. If you're a photographer and takes the best pictures, submit! If you're a director/producer and creates the best videos, submit! If you're an artist and have the best artwork, submit! And see the money flow.

If you've tried it and made something out of it, please leave it in the comment section about your experiences with it.

P.S. You need a Paypal account if you are going to get paid. Set one up.

-Let the power of wealth be with you~

Be A Rich Inventor

You probably heard how others got ideas and managed to make it sell and get billions of dollars every year just by being original or unique. I kinda got some help after my trip to Magistrate Court.

I had an appointment with one of their Industrial Patent Counsellor, Dayang Noor Hajizah (Sorry, if I got the spelling wrong. If you are reading this, please do contact me for editing or approving the name.). I asked about everything from Trademarks to Industrial Designs to Copyrights. And in the interview, she mentioned about the usage of Trademarks and how it is very important for every entrepreneur to have one. Her example was as follows:

"Let's take example of Coca Cola. In the value of its brand alone, is already worth 6.5 trillion USD. Just imagine if someone were to buy this brand. And if somebody did, the job is simple. Just sit back, relax and watch the money flows as retailers and wholesalers will have to pay royalties to the owner of the brand."

As I understood that, she continues with a question, "Do you know how they managed to get its brand value to that much? They promote and advertise. They do it aggressively and with strategies to be the number one brand in the soft drink world." Her point is that even if you have a unique and original product and set up a trademark for it, you really need it to be well-known that such a product already existed in the world. Otherwise, people will steal it from you since they were unaware of such a product.

And as she explained more of its usage, it's only sensible if I explain its definition and how you can take advantage of it.

A trademark and copyright is an intangible tool in which to protect your unique and original product from being imitated and/or stolen.

If you create a product and then have it under copyright and trademark of your own and start selling it, you'll be like the next Thomas Edison.

Thomas Edison is the richest scientist among all the other inventors. Every single time he invented something like a light bulb to a music recorder, he gets paid in royalties.

Locals should be doing so, as a matter of fact, having an idea and turning it into a reality is the million dollar idea or better yet, billions or trillions. Why? Because you don't need to pay anything to get an idea. You just need to be inspired.

And once you're inspired, you're next step is to turn that idea into a real-living product, well- tested, proven and useful for everyone else to have.

Then lastly, cover your product with copyright and trademark for protection.

Do you have what it takes to be the next rich inventor?

-Let the power of wealth be with you~

Triond: Article Writer's Best Income Source

If you're the type of person who writes (or types), then Triond is your best start. Reason why is that you can write as much as you like and in return, you will earn a significant amount by the number of views. The more popular your article gets, the more money you will make.

More good features about Triond is that it has a friendly community. You learn, you share, you apply, and the more you get involved, the more savvy you are.

As a matter of fact, Triond is also as useful for those who already have businesses. If you're selling your own products or services in your shop, you can use Triond to publish some "recommended" or "reviews" about the products or services that you already have and sell it. That is like a double hitter. You convert readers into sales but not limited to just that. Even if you didn't convert them into sales, you still get a very small income for readers to read your articles.

So why pay for advertisement when you can do it on your own and get paid to do it? So sign up now and start earning today, just by writing.

If you have any questions regarding this, don't hesitate to email me.

-Let the power of wealth be with you~

Brunei One Million Dollar by aman

So I've been to Brunei Community Forum a lot. Pitching into the forums, getting to know new people. Enjoyed the conversation and discussion there. But there is one post there by Aman as he seems to be very wealthy (in terms of financial knowledge) and he posted up something so simple that anyone would do in their position. It's a question of "What if you have a million dollars, what will you do?". Here's his post:

How much is B$1,000,000? Is it a lot? For some, yes. Even if it is a lot but if you make the wrong choice, you may end up with the same old you or worst, poorer. If you have $1million, what will you do?

The spender: 

Buy a detached house for $300k cash, renovate and add in new furniture of your choice, another $100k. Buy at least 2 high end cars of total cost $100k, you left with $500k. You go luxury travel with whole family, spent $80k. Left $420k. You thought you still have a lot. You spend a lot of your monthly expenses, say $5k (could be more) a month for new gadgets, spa, eating out. One year later you end up $60k poorer. In less than 8 years, you used up $1million. 

The saver:

How about another scenario? You buy $300k cash of your dream house with $50k furnitures. You lead a normal life, you start saving the leftover $650k in a local bank earning you $650k x 2% interest = $13k per year, thats about $1080/month. 

The investor:

He will look for ways to improve his financial standing, he will look for ways to leverage his $1million, how to make more money, how to make the $1million he has work hard for him. Since he is a investor, he may look for motivated seller to buy their house and rent it out. He may start up a business he dream about. He may invest his money with high return of minimum 8%. $700k will give him $56k/year, meaning $4667 month. He only spend with the money he earned for his little indulgence or as a reward for his work.

Conclusion: Be both the saver and investor! :D
-Let the power of wealth be with you~

How To Save Yourself... Financially

This post is a response to the news about Credit Card Debts and new directive has been set by the Ministry of Finance to avoid being in that situation.

While all this is happening in Brunei, have you ever wondered what went wrong or where did all this happened? I don't. How is it that people love to keep borrowing things and never return them? How is it that people keep getting bankrupt and/or with more debts in their accounts? It's a rising and serious case of the "Consumer Behavior Problem"

The problem nowadays is that people who don't have the cash, have to borrow some money. It's a serious case. If there are talented loan sharks in Brunei, they would probably be so happy right now and laughing on top of all that cash or the collateral damage items for those suckers who couldn't pay them.

So how does one save themselves from all this credit card debt? There are several methods:

1. Don't own one. If you don't need it, don't own it. Just because the big boys got the cards, doesn't mean  that you have to.
2. Be a Smart Consumer. If you're buying things because you need them (and I mean, really really need them), then you buy it. And of course, as a Smart Consumer, you buy the cheaper ones and not the outrageously over priced product that you were trying to buy.
3. Don't Be Unnecessary. Means that you buy ONLY the things you need and not the ones you want. The reason why I'm repeating this is because people are often neglect what they need and always buy the stuff that they want. Why go for a restaurant and have a meal that costs $15 when you can buy Nasi Katok and a bottle of water for $2? You're saving $13 here. So be necessary! If that doesn't convince you, try looking at the meal itself. Let's say there's a $4 meal that costs a bowl of rice and a chicken wing with a drink. For $4, you could've bought 4 Nasi Katok and since water is free, why not drink it?
4. Use Savings Account. I heard this before from time and time again. People should be doing this. But of course in Brunei, the interest rates are so high (or so I've heard), there's no point in saving. I sincerely disagree with that. Saving your money is saving your life. Use it on a rainy day when things go wrong. Credit cards won't save you. Your hard-earned cash in your savings account will. Just as well with insurance. I'll talk about insurance next time and why would I even recommend it.
5. Declare Bankrupt. The most sensible thing to do I guess.

So technically, it's not really a way to save yourself from all the credit card debt that you may be in now. Since you're in it, you have to work harder or smarter to get yourself out. Just like the stand-up comedian, Russel Peters once said, "Be A Man! Do The Right Thing!"

And to avoid yourself to get even near to owning a credit card and be in a situation of debts, I recommend to save. Of course, telling you to save is just as general as telling some fat kid to exercise. So I'm going to be specific on how you can save yourself financially (for fat kids, please do exercise. You'll be saving yourself healthily).

• Pay Yourself First!
• It's an interesting concept that some American made and just as well as one Malaysian followed. Though I don't remember who was it that said first. Nevertheless, the point is that you have to pay yourself first. Why? The reason is simple. You earned that money. You don't pay others first like Electric companies, Gas Companies, Telephone Bills, Landlord, etc because they don't earn it. You did. So pay yourself first.
• How Much?
• So you're going to pay yourself first but the question is how much? Well for some, it's best to save 10% of your income. Some of you may exclaim with doubt, "10%?! Are you crazy? That's a lot that I could use to pay for! You're getting me broke!". Well think of it this way. You will be budgeting 10% of your total pay as contingency and 90% for you to pay anything else you want. 90% sounds a lot doesn't it? So once you get your pay, straight away put 10% aside and into your savings account. Don't care about the interest rate. Just store it there for emergencies.
• What's Next?
• You keep doing this for at least a year and you'll know how much you'll save. And once you realized you got a lot of cash (hopefully with good interest), you'll have enough to start investing. Whether it be invest into a new business, into a new product, or even in yourself by continuing to study. Or if you want, this is where you can use that hard-earned savings to start buying the stuff you want. Travel. Buy that new car model that was released recently. But still, it's wiser to start investing and have more income. That way, you can buy better stuff later.

And there you have it. 3 simple steps to saving yourself financially. Best of Luck!

-Let the power of wealth be with you~

Half Of The Things You Know From School Is OBSOLETE!

So it has been several months since I graduated from University and College and it made me realize that the difference in knowledge of what I knew back then and now has something to do with the environment.

Everyone understands the meaning of "change" and why we have to go through it. But somehow, I'm writing this article because I wanted to remind all of us including me that we have to keep changing as time goes by.

For example, you have finished med school for four years. And by the time you graduated, half the things you learned became obsolete. Procedures are now moving forward to better and safer methods to treat patients.

Likewise for business students as well as IT students. Whatever it is you learn in college or university, it is never enough and usually it always ends up the same way in the end. Losing half of your effort and time to gain the special skills to perform at your best of knowledge in your specialized field and ended up being obsolete because of one thing that threatens our society. One word - "Change"

So I suppose when looking at not just ourselves but also our dear small country, Brunei Darussalam, we need a lot of change. And let not it hinder you from your goal but embrace it. We all need to be kept updated every now and then. Just like our computers and antiviruses that we bought off Kedai Communist or just downloading free ones still requires updating and changes in order to further improve our IT equipments.

Changing requires effort on our part. Whether it be adapting to a new environment, or learning a new skill, or moving from relationship to another, or even getting better a new stuff that would make your life easier. Some of us may dislike the idea of constantly changing but its for the best.

How would you change?

-Let the power of wealth be with you~

Freelancing Skill: Voice Talent

For those of you who doesn't have the skills that can be made online, think again. Use your voice to reach your target audience. And when I mean voice, I really mean using your speaking skills.

Now I bet you have already seen cartoon movies or episodes or at least some animation or if you're a Bruneian, anime, where you watch cartoons and voice actors play out as their respective characters in the story or series. Such project in animation requires the right artists, animators, directors, producers and especially voice actors.

There are plenty of businesses out there in the world of entertainment and this is one of them. You could start one up but if you have no idea where, I can recommend putting it up on flash animation sites like:

• Newgrounds (www.newgrounds.com)
• Flash Portal (www.flashportal.com)

That's just a couple of sites where I often go to when I was *ahem ahem* younger and bring some entertainment to my boring life. And as I go around watching how well they work, it surprises me that they can deliver quality for free. It's like youtube except it's meant for those who are flash animators.

For flash animators, they work around the clock to make the animation perform exactly to their storyboard. For voice actors/actresses, they have to act exactly to the scene. So to those would be actors/actresses, flash animation can lead you somewhere.

The point to this is that, you would not need to act on queue. Like cry on the spot or get really angry on the spot or anything of that sort that requires you to perform perfectly without retaking the scene. However, as a voice actor/actress, there's more to that. You can voice act as a baby, a kid, a teenager, an adult, a senior or even different creatures. This is the great advantage over traditional filming where it takes millions and billions of dollars to pay for each extras or characters to play the part or even pay for the costumes.

Voice acting is one method to freelance. Another method would be podcasting. It's a simple method of recording one's voice and upload it online. Where others can just listen to your words instead of reading. Which becomes an advantage to the blind Internet surfers.

No idea what to podcast? Why not do public speaking about a random topic? Do a stand-up (or sit-down) comedy online. Do an International Debate with someone overseas. Conversation with another over a radio online. Etc.

And why stop with voice acting and podcasting? There's also singing! You've already probably seen others posting up their videos of themselves singing a song on Youtube. So do the same thing and there's bound to be a record breaking opportunity for your singing talent. However, it is a slim chance since not everyone has that great talent to sing perfectly.

So however your voice may sound like, these are the options provided to you for your passion in your sound. Make or break online with www.voices.com should help you get started as well.

Do you have what it takes to may your voice be heard online? O.o

-Let the power of wealth be with you~

Stabilizing Income: The Easy Way

So here's a post by Ed Gandia. And he says:

"An Easy Way to Stabilize Your Income

by Ed Gandia

One of the secrets to running a successful freelance business is to

occasionally borrow and apply great ideas and strategies from other

types of businesses to your own freelance practice.

For instance, over the last few years I've been working with

clients who market technology products and services to manufacturers.

One of the things I've learned is that manufacturers schedule their

production runs extremely well.

An idle production line can cost manufacturers thousands of dollars a

day in overhead and opportunity costs. So knowing how to fill that

unused capacity is critical. That's why they'll often spend

millions on planning and forecasting technology.

As freelancers, we may not be churning out widgets, but we face a

very similar dilemma. We're moving along at full capacity for a few

weeks. We complete a project or two and suddenly find ourselves with

time for more work. A smart and steady prospecting strategy can help

offset much of this ebb and flow. But it won't completely eliminate

it. So what do you do if you find yourself with idle time?

Simple. You proactively reach out to your clients and hot prospects

and present this as an opportunity.

Here's How This Works

Say you're a graphic designer and you know one of your clients will

soon be going through a major rebranding effort. If you know you're

about to have a few weeks of idle time or excess capacity, why not

discuss this availability to see if you can start working on some

preliminary tasks?

Or maybe you're a writer and you have a client who usually hires

you to write a white paper about once every quarter. You could mention

your upcoming availability and see if you can start work on the next

piece a few weeks sooner.

This strategy is also ideal when a client puts a project on hold at

the last minute. Say the project is still a "go," but it's now

been pushed back a few weeks. Rather than let that availability go to

waste, I will often contact another client about this unexpected

opening in my schedule and ask if I can help complete a project in the

queue.

Upcoming vacations can also present an opportunity to fill idle time.

A couple of years ago, I took two weeks off in July. Rather than wait

until early July to let my clients know, I contacted them all in early

May. I gave them plenty of notice and encouraged them to look at their

project queues to see if I could get started on something.

This resulted in three projects that kept me very busy until I left

for my vacation, which was great because work was a bit light at the

time. I avoided the stress of dealing with new project requests coming

in a few days before leaving town. And my clients benefited by getting

the work on time.

Now, there are five keys to making this strategy work well. Follow

them all and you'll keep your "factory" humming all year long.

1. Keep and Maintain a Project Schedule. Don't try to keep this

stuff in your head. Use a spreadsheet, white board or large desk

calendar -- whatever works best. You can't forecast accurately if

you don't have a clear view of what you're working on now and what

lies ahead.

2. Think "Value Add," Not "Help Me!" Don't beg for work.

And don't sound like you're on some sort of fishing expedition.

Position your request in a way that benefits the client. You're not

asking for a favor. You're bringing an opportunity to the table --

an opportunity for the client to get ahead on some work that will need

to be completed anyway.

3. Use a Soft Approach. Don't come across as pushy. Keep it low

key. In fact, spend some time practicing your delivery. Record what

you're going to say, and make sure that it sounds sincere and

well-intentioned.

4. Explain the Reason for Your Offer. Just as important, make sure to

explain the reason for your sudden availability. As long as they're

true, reasons such as the ones mentioned earlier (upcoming vacation, a

current project put on hold, etc.) are effective and keep you from

sounding like you're begging for work.

5. Don't Abuse It. Approaching a client once or twice a year with

such a request is about right. Any more frequently and you'll come

across as desperate and unprofessional.

Taking a more proactive approach to your workload is good business.

Plus, it will help even out your income and reduce the stress that

comes from having too much time on your hands...and not enough money

in the bank!"

I find it an awesome article and I encourage not just all freelancers, but also to every human being. You've got some extra time or vacation coming up? Don't idle by and waste such an opportunity! Now get out there and make some money!

-Let the power of wealth be with you~