Ryan Ho's Entrepreneurship Blog

Fashion is a customer style of dressing showing etiquette, and for socializing purpose.

Trend is a direction, a course which leads from a one style to another upgraded style similar if not better than earlier style and taste.

Fad is a temporary fashion which is followed by a group not making big impacts.

Fashion trends are always hanging around us, and in some instances, keeping up with fashion trend is not a healthy sign nor is it good education for both healthy and mental well-being which creates more profit for businesses at the expense of making customers get poorer as they shop more following fashion trends.

Fashion Fad is a temporary fashion adopted by only a small group of individuals not affecting the majority for businessmen to take notice and benefit from the fad in anyway possible.

There are lots of examples for us to learn from.

No Rules: A t-shirt brand which had previously caused a fashion craze to be part of the wearer among the teenagers. Wearers of this t-shirt somehow have the feeling that rules need not be observed, which is why people wearing those shirts are more daring to express themselves leading getting trouble with the law.

Quick Silver: Another brand which rides on the success of the wagon of No Rules and just after short period of No Rule’s increasing popularity, then Quick Silver came into the picture. They had the same appeal to the teenagers, without making much of the impact as compared to the first mover who has the advantage.

Skirts: In the past when I was still young, the shortest length of skirt maximal length will be stopped at the knee. In older generation it has to be completely covering the whole legs from butt to the ankles revealing only the feet for wearing of shoes. With time and media coverage on overseas fashion propaganda, ladies are taught to  think that revealing more and more is good, looks great on them using the beauty weakness of ladies to start the trend and profiting from this trend.

Look at what the fashion trend is now presently, short skirts, mini skirts, shorts, some even so short that a shirt can easily cover the skirt or shorts, giving the impression on guys that these ladies are attracting lots of un-wanted and unnecessary attention which result in molesting, raping and more social problems happen. With increase exposure in revealing themselves for beauty purpose, lots of teenagers suffer the consequences in sex, pregnancy etc, all thanks to nonetheless fashion trend which started the ball rolling.

With the trend going from long to short and ever shorter, it’s not good for health. If you watch documentary, you will know that our body is designed to lose heat faster so the lesser/shorter you wear, the more money you will pay for extra clothes which reveals your sex appeal for beauty conscious ladies which is the area whereby businessmen profit from.

If you are a parent, learn to look out for signs to communicate with your children else if you don’t know what to do nor share with them, get them to read my blog else wait for my eBook. Help me with comments, so I can reveal more strategies that businessmen profit at the expense of us, the average people on a Just over broke (JOB) situation

Remember what values and culture do you want your children to grow up in? Think about it. I hope you found and realize something which you didn’t’. Comments are greatly appreciated. Thank You.

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Endorsement is a agreement either between two individuals or between a company and an individual with celebrity-liked status with creditability, trust and reputation. He/she can be either an media artist, model or athlete and others.

Endorsement is just a simple business strategy which allows the company and business to leverage on the celebrity’s reputation and the trust which they have built with us through different Medias inclusive of their own effort and hard-work over the years. It is the act of getting paid to endorse products and that doesn’t mean the celebrity endorsing the product have to use the product himself/herself when endorsement agreements are carried out as long as the agreement of a highly remunerative compensation in return for the celebrity to endorse a product.

Celebrity endorsements can be taken likely with a pinch of salt because when the celebrity himself/herself don’t even use the product or is unable to use the product and services because of specific gender targeting, than the endorsement may create a curiosity among the customers and the public which is another strategy which businesses often do depending on the market they want to penetrate into.

The most recent case is Ris Low endorsing a condom brand – Zander Asia who is the distributor of the condom as reported in Channel News Asia. She has said in a morning live interview that she endorse the product condom purely because it promotes a healthy image, which most of us will agree, other queries or doubts with regards to this endorsement, lets leave it to you to discuss and think about it.

Business endorsement is another story and a completely different ball-game in this same aspect. When a business endorses a product or service, the firm is entrusting their reputation, creditability on the line for any business endorsements.

If in the event should a endorsement products or services failed to satisfy the customers’ needs and failed in delivering the promise, the business that’s endorses the product and services will instantly overnight facing huge business loses which will definitely implicate other business endorsement they have a hand into even if they are not related together with the company that pay the business for the endorsement deal together down in times of trouble.

An perfect example is Tiger Woods after the sex scandal for sex addiction and most brands has since removed him and terminated the endorsement contract with him. More details in Time website.

With such heavy risks, that is why not many, in fact only a handful of businesses out there are willing to put the business brand and reputation to endorse their products and services. The most successful business endorsement is Trump which belongs to Donald J.Trump a billionaire property investor.

The next time you decide to buy any products or services with endorsements, find out if there is any ambassador who took up the endorsement and if he/she is a businessmen/women or it’s a firm that’s endorsement the products and services.

If you find any businessmen especially successful ones personally endorsing any company, products or services, than don’t even think about it and jump right in joining them to earn wealth together if there’s ever an opportunity to work together with them. Businessmen access and do their own investigation for months first before any commitment etc so if they are happy with the results which risking their business reputation which could tarnish and collapse over night due to a silly mistake, they will jolly well make sure that this doesn’t happens.

Make the right choice in purchasing opportunity, products or services from businessmen endorsements rather than celebrity endorsements. Be smart, save money, and time and grab whatever opportunity that comes your way.

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Media is the means and platform whereby communications messages and ideas are being carried out and conversed to one another to reach the desired party from a person to the next person.

There are many variations of platforms which communications in different forms get the message passed to us. In keeping up with trends, internet and technology are tied hand in hand and these are the tools which it is widely used by different parties of individuals regardless of gender, wealth status and age group.

It comes from television, newspapers, radio, MP3, podcast, blogs, news release, accounting statements, conversations face to face, over a phone call, videos, short messaging service and body language, eye contact, artistic expression, music, culture, environment and many other platforms.

There’s only so much we can do to capture a specific audience but to increase market share to getting a bigger slice of the market, it’s all about mutual alliance, respect your competitors even if they have flaws, but the rules of the game to wealth and success are simple. Get to learn the unspoken rules required for success before you even attempt to declare claim your status and position at the top spot and gain recognition from the audience.

Success is only truly deserved when you earn it, when others and the majority if not the industry experts honors you with the title to be labeled as a successful individual.  Never ever attempt to break the cycle or you’ll be out of the game in no time without even knowing your own cause of death in the climb for success.

It’s all purely business, and observing the rules of the game. To be successful and rich, you need to learn to master the game, only when you’re the best of the best, than only can you have the ability to write your own rules and let others follow whatever rules you have set in the first place.

The winners of the respective media are making lots of money from advertisement ads at different pricing accordingly. Respective media owners will continue to do what’s best for them, but what’s best for them might not necessary be best for us. Bearing in mind that everyone has their own unique appeal that captures their target audience, so whatever is played, showed, read out, written in different forms are just part of propaganda. Take it with a pinch of salt, and don’t completely buy their idea wholesale. Put on our own respective thinking cap and think for ourselves.

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Benchmarking is a comparison of products in the market to allow a fellow competitor to have an in-depth understanding and awareness of the market information

Products and services are bench-marked accordingly to the different market segments which they are targeting as well. It also allows the company to identify the competitive advantages and disadvantages which they have.

It is a excellent strategy, but not necessarily a strategy that all businesses would consider to adopt in their own business model. Example, the top luxury brands do not use benchmarking, instead, they massively increase the price for the same product found available in the market.

The only difference this top luxury brands can commend the huge gap of price tag attracting a lot of green eyes are simply because they are the best in what they are doing.

Example: A diamond industry business specializing in diamond auctions where huge price tags are attached as compared to a diamond retailer.

Decide your company position, branding before you decide if you want to adopt this bench marking into your business.

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Momentum is the rhythm or the tempo at which everyone pace us at getting things done.

This momentum is something which is crucial yet mostly being overlooked by majority of us as we work towards success.

Success is a sum of all previous experiences learn from mistakes, advices from mentors, advisers, coach, and consultants in various fields that each of us have encountered in the quest to reach the finishing line at the top.

Momentum is important, mostly remembered by athletics because they need to maintain their momentum to maintain either their leading and current position to prevent rivals from overtaking. The same goes to business and any other employments; it’s unanimous across all variations of employments.

Once you identified your own pace, you should follow it, get used to the pace, and improve on your pace to out-run the competitor just ahead of you. A method which I previously used in running back in the school days was to use my closest competitor within my vision and doing whatever it takes to get used to the pace of my competitor and storing energy at the last hundred to two hundred meters towards the goal for the final burst catching them off guard.

Discipline, determination and perseverance is needed to maintain, your momentum.

To ensure success, the other trick which is used sometimes to catch competitors who are hot on your tails are to set a below average pace for them to follow you  letting them getting used to the pace which you have set, once any competitor serves as your highest risk of overtaking your preferred pace then only reveal your actual own pace when should be your own pace sufficiently to win, don’t reveal your true potential to your competitors so you will always maintain a hidden winning formula or deep storage of energy required to take your competitors by surprise.

Don’t always surprise your competitors using the above strategy else they will put you on their highest priority to over-take increasing your competition which is why in business benchmarking is always seen in advertising campaigns, just doing what is sufficient to out-run the closest competitor to clinch the championship.

Here’s a real –life example in the music industry: Jay Chou, who was introduced into the Taiwan music industry by his buddy. Taking the music industry by storm, creating a tornado effect by releasing self-written, recorded songs all done by him in a matter of months.  With more than a few albums released in a matter of months, all done by him personally, he soon became the musical talent and the leader with huge fans. Do it once, do it right, and revert back to the market practice by releasing an album each year is sufficient to maintain his lead to date.

In the process of it, by showcasing his talents in music, he not only open doors to music, but also he talent in most of the musical instruments which was being forced to picked up by his mom since he was young (correct me if I’m wrong on this). With his success, album has being written to thanks his mom for the hard learning curve since young.

With that, it’s time for you to start identifying you own pace, set the momentum and test run it until you succeed in your field.

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Simplicity is a word which means the ease of doing things be it activity, event or work. Though it is a simple word, but majority of the people who are working, doing business fail to realize the importance of integrating this single word into the neither the business proposal nor business presentation.

What makes this so elusive is that while majority of the people namely the poor and the middle class people often tends to complicate simple things and events into make-believed difficult task making success seems to high up in on the tip of the mountain filled with nothing but dangers and risk.

A simple word with simple intention is needed to fully utilize the potential of this word in clinching business deals, investments and recruitment of potential business partners, employees. Simple word needs to work with another word, transparency which I’ve mention at least two to three times in my previous blog entries but it seems to be taken for granted.

When simplicity merges with transparency than only will there be higher percentage of closing deals, investments and recruitment in the event whereby clear messages have being passed around without having hidden agenda popping out in between presentations.

It looks simple but it’s difficult to attain simplicity in business due to the lack of understanding but with practice, it is achievable with effort and getting feedback from end users or customers.

Success is so simple that one will wonder why this person who’s not speaking well can do so much better than me in terms of making money. The answer is obvious, they took action immediately and fine-tune while those smarter people will just cast nothing else but doubts and suspicion which is why the rich get richer, and vice versa.

Success comes from solving a problem, it’s as simple as that, and that’s how business started. Nothing complicating about business, it’s just simple mathematics involved with plus, minus multiplication and division only with basic accounting knowledge. All other knowledge can be learning on job training. It all starts with application.

So the next time you have a problem, think of a solution which caters to the masses/majority of the market and sell the idea/solution and make a simple profit from it. It’s as simple as that.

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Detective is a word that is used to describe someone skilled and trained to analyze and make key observations based on what he/she see hear and feel from the surroundings.

As I was watching a repeated telecast of a television board-cast of a movie, the police was retracing the procedures of which the assassin made at the crime scene without much questions asked.

An individual is trained to such an extent just by making observations and asking a few key questions before coming to a conclusion and a detail break-down of the steps which was used.

As I was watching the show, I was reminded that I too was able to play detective, but don’t get me wrong, I’m not that smart enough to break down crime scenes, just that I’m experienced enough to conclude and have a detail break-down of any sales company and the culture the sales agents was being bought up/trained in and the methods they employ during the introduction closing etc.

Thanks to watching shows, I am able to reflect on myself and realize what soft skills which I’ve picked up over the active participation in MLM over the number of years going around different companies exploring analyzing and testing the sales agents knowledge in some ways necessary to cross-reference and justify what I’ve heard from rumors or gossips that’s being spread around.

Having the skill of being a detective actually can be easily picked up but if an individual wants to learn the art of this skill immediately, it is a near impossible without any active and in-depth training of customer and agent interaction prior to learning this skill.

I only realize this when I was reporting back to my uplines, when each reporting and their probing, than I am able to come up with my own set of deeper in-depth analysis and observations to enhance my theory and findings to justify, cross-reference to make sure I didn’t make any inaccurate judgments. Of course like many others, I only share information I deem as open common secrets thus holding those key observations to myself and no one else except to share it once in a while during conversations.

With so much to learn, why are there still to much stigma with regards to this industry, what I can say is because they either focus too much on bringing in the cash and forget about learning forgoing cash in the process – genuine learning through participation.

Follow me via this blog to learn more without even having to participate in MLM to learn without having to pay a single penny. With so much to gain, nothing to lose except for few minutes reading..what more can you lose?

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Extinguish and put out the flames is a skill and a strategy which every aspiring entrepreneur ought to be known and MUST KNOW! Business is war; war is merciless, brutal and cruel with the natural laws of elimination.

As a competitor has being eliminated falls to the ground, another competitor rise from the grounds, which is why elimination is the laws of the natural cycle in the war of business. This isn’t a good strategy to begin with because what comes around goes around and it’s only a matter of time.

Looking at other synonyms of Extinguish, I checked out words like eliminate, eradicate, annihilate and nullify which are most striking and holds a heavy weight in my perception of war. There’s however one word – trample which actually sounds nice and is useful since I play magic cards and I like this ability but nonetheless, in real business, if given a choice, I will not choose this word or tactic to overrun my competitors resulting in dogs eat dogs kind of chaotic society which is the true nature of us man (human).

Looking at the word eradicate, this term is even harsher, and it’s something that not modern people bought up in this first world society like in Singapore should be doing, but that’s what I see everyday in the wellness and health industry which is directing at MLM niche in Singapore in particular local companies. Hoping to plug the roots of one another, head-hunting for the leaders and attract the whole group into the competitor purely for profits. That’s not a business should be about. It’s not about removing the threat from the roots and silencing them by taking over. Such a strategy sucks because the person who employs this strategy will never learn and grow from their competitors and be stuck in a frame and be disillusion from the real business when it became the leader and look down on others.

Annihilate being the next word is to simply wipe out the whole competitors by sheer power and domination by which is no easy feat leaving a trail of chaos, illness and hatred that’s being left behind, perhaps there might be one or two lucky survivors in the aftermaths but what does this brings to the winner of the this war – dictatorship, domination for only a considerable period of time until the grievances, hatred of the survivors have grown up and gain sufficient foot-hold before toppling down to the hands of the enemy.

Nullify is the process of depriving a person/contract of it’s usability and rights of ownership or to legally cancel and remove the existence of the contract. This word nullify is both pleasant, inoffensive yet gentle to be used as a descriptive word for business in the war to solely fight for a bigger share of profits and nothing else that will bring harm to the competitors and damage them in anyway possible. That is a win-win process and a smart way to solidify one’s position without cutting each other’s throat at the expense of the employees in the event should losses comes into the picture.

Nullify to me personally is to cease all operations of the competitors not by force but by their own agreement to either cease, stop operation, take their leave or to merge, join and expand the business increasing one’s main body of tools and talents in bid to fend off potential competitors who just wants to sallow the business without the true understanding of what’s business and what’s required of a business to stay afloat when situation calls for true leadership and good corporate culture to allow employees, partners to share the burden together as a whole and not slaughter each other.

As with the burning desire to succeed, one has got to learn how to extinguish the flames of many others and ignite the flames of passion in another person to sing in tune with the king or the leader of the business identity. To learn to extinguish without causing additional hurt and damage to competitors is a almost impossible task but with will and determination, methods and stroke of ideas will come flashing into the minds of those who truly wish for the best of everyone. It pays to be good, as long as one holds the skills to command such difficult task and is the person who led by example instead of lead with purely actions.

Trample which I said earlier isn’t a strategy which I would use in my business as winners literally walking, running over fallen competitors alive trampling them to their unnatural death. Those who employ such a tactic will gain temporary and short term win but what lies after the trample is a view of damaged ruins of the remains who were once lived to tell a story only to leave behind marks and evidence of once alive to become fossils for the future generations for laboratory studies.

Back to the subject proper, with regards to the term extinguish, why I wrote it down today is because I believe that in business, it’s not necessary to slaughter each other’s throat, because when someone wins, somebody else loses in a war situation. Look at the Starhub Singtel example for the rights to EPL and others..Singtel finally won over the rights after Starhub having the rights to EPL for a decade. And the verdicts of Singtel winning – consumers are forced to pay extra money to fork out for a Mio-tv box. This action itself is a typical example of when the warloads fight one another, the nations beside it suffers. What kind of approach to employ in business is a secret which I’m eventually planning and roll out after all my foundation work has being completed. Patience and time will tell..if what I write and think is correct that will determine my entrepreneur mindset and success down the road.

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Just as I was watching television, the one thing that struck my mind was that agitation is an emotion that brings only harm and not any benefits at all.

Not only is it harmful to us in terms of health, and it will only allows the competitor or who ever is purposely out to evoke the anger emotions in a person, that intention has got nothing but only damage which will slowly translate to long term.

When dealing with villains, one has got to learn how to handle every event or happenings that comes our way with a smile so as not to let the competitor or whoever isn’t with any good intentions left the place and person feeling frustrated themselves.

Agitation is a normal procedure and a natural emotion, but once if we ourselves let it control us, than gone will be the future for our own health and mental well-being. Perhaps this may seems unrelated to the topic of entrepreneurship but if oneself needs to really succeed, one has to learn to handle their own emotions and face everything with a smile.

In a family, this emotion is also a strictly NO in any event because this will only worsen things instead of helping it. Handle everything with a smile, of course if there’s really a need to vent the frustrations, vent it in terms of exercise, boxing, shouting tire yourself out and not to endanger anybody else in the event.

This war strategy is also being discussed in The Art Of War Book. If you’re clueless about it, than read the book, if unsure of the contents, can go to library and borrow this book.

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As a family grows and matures so does the children inside the family. What used to be a harmonious family will soon turn into a constant argument debate over different views or perspectives.

The change within every single family is inevitable because kids will outgrow and turn into adults. What ever methods used to nurture, teach and used to control kids in hand will no longer work once the kids mature, have a shift of perspectives like an adult and they will stand by their views.

Once the kids matures, parents will have difficulty coping with the differences because they have being using this very method which works for 20yrs and suddenly realize that the methods no longer works one fine day. That very small shift in perspective is what I deem it as the spark of forest fire aka family arguments.

Family arguments are very common in HDBs and Condominiums as many families are packed in a tight space with little freedom thus family clashes are unavoidable at all!!

I myself is currently facing this problem the day I started learning about the business and adult world when 5yrs back. Once the differences start, that’s the way of no return. People change, and we must learn to accept it. Via writing this blog entry, I have come to understand and agree with one practice of the western people – once you reach a certain age, move out and learn to be self-independent.

Such a frequent argument is very normal for my family which is why I rather be an introvert, let them throw out their junk/rubbish, once they are done, than peace will come by. But rather than always keeping quiet, one should learn acknowledge the problem and find solutions to solve the root of the problem and not a temporary solution which leads to another problem.

If any of you have these similar problems, moving out is the best solution. Only when your absence is felt, than only will people learn to appreciate it. Such is what I learnt from growing up without a Dad, I always filled with envy whenever I see a happy family outing outside. Put that aside for now, lets get back to the topic – differences, once the problem has being spotted, immediately rectify it else gradually come up with a sustainable solution to resolve it once in for all to avoid future clashes and arguments revolving around the same topic or digging out past issues which results in a sour relationship.

Such a daily problem and solution brain-storming can be used as a assessment to gauge how an individual come up with a solution to rectify the problem. Depending on the type of solution, we as entrepreneurs to be and future bosses, ought to know this so as to throw a problem to a prospective partner/employee to see how they respond to determine if he/she is up to the job.

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