Ryan Ho's Entrepreneurship Blog

The question that always comes people’s mind is how do they rate the suitable amount to hire employees, talents, without appearing to be a over thrifty.

The question has being in my mind for many years ever since i learned the importance of money from working at the age of fifteen.

It is only just recently that I finally got to know the answer to my question.

Businesses always pays the lowest price whenever possible, yet it must be above competitive market rate in order to hire the most qualified talent.

I had the privilege of working in a big company yet with a small team and flexible team. Being able to work in the same office, knowing the other departments and get to know the chief executive officer (CEO) and hear the details, planning and the direction that the company is heading, it gives employees a clear cut answer to why they are getting more pay and not the employees.

This might come to many as common sense, but when it is only those who help the company to grow the business, increase revenue gets paid the most.

The rates in terms of wages are pegged against a few factors.

1. Academic qualification. In the absence of which, real results matters and only those individuals who can produce results commands the highest price tag.

2. Experience. It is this that not money can’t buy. In the process of interview, if the company does not have rooms for the headhunted talent to flex their muscles and skills, no matter how much can’t buy talents if they are not given the room to grow and deliver the expected results required of them, should their skills be challenged, nor questioned, than they will soon automatically take their leave.

3. Network. It is this that is most important, as businesses are built, created by people, and only the best connected person with vast positive networks on industry leaders that helps businesses bridge across the untapped boundaries of the unknown. That is how markets are being opened, by opening a new market with insider.

4. Profit sharing. This is what makes the difference between a employee versus a talent. Employees are paid a fix rate for a certain number of hours of physical non-revenue generative work, so even if they under perform, they still get paid, thus business will only .

Talents have additional income like profit sharing to put them on the same importance as one of the few very important people in the company. Only by allowing them a percentage of profit sharing, are they rewarded for performance in leading the business upwards and bring in more revenue.

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There are many opportunities all over the world in different forms and disguise, we just have to find the right one and capitalize on it.

From business, investment  to even relationship, volunteering work and learning, there are so many opportunities, we all just need to analyze which one is suitable for ourselves and grab hold of it before anybody takes it away from us.

In investment, there are opportunities happening daily in the stocks, forex trading, options, electronic trading funds (ETFs), bonds and many other financial products to invest in, but to find the right opportunity best suited for ourselves requires more than just a basic understanding of how it works.

There are a couple of points in helping to determine if it is right for us based on our resources and information.

First: How much investment capital do we have? The amount of capital determines the amount of returns we’ll be getting.

Second: If we understand what product the investment is all about, the implications, highest and lowest point of value based on historical data and the trading patten, with who are the investors and speculators. Knowing how big the market is, as well as how many competitors there are, if there is high demand, low supply or vice versa, all of which makes a lot of difference in determine the right time to cash in on the investment and when to exit to maximize returns without even incurring any loss in best case scenario.

Third: Knowing, understanding of the market, the related products tied up if not may pose as a contributing factor in supporting the value of the opportunity that reflects the buy-in price of the investment. When the returns on investments meets up to expectations, having knowledge helps in determine the next higher level of playing field that investors must upgrade to, so as to make with less competitors, but those with deeper pockets, ensuring each investor gets a slightly bigger slice of the pie. Capitalize on the news, predicting the potential changes and reactions to the market and adjust the investment portfolio accordingly.

Fourth: Self-reflection is important to determine is we have the expert knowledge to invest or do we outsource it to a professional investor and not a professional employee that are parked in the stationed in property and insurance companies.

The successful investors always buy and earn their way into getting the right connections to maximize their profits by buying the same investments that the experts are eying on.

The poor investors and speculators only listen and trust their funds to professional employees without professional investment strategies nor experience, nor is it their interest in helping clients get rich, rather they are paid for servicing companies’ clients, so they don’t really care if clients profit or loss as they get something like a small percentage service charge on the funds invested with the company.

Fifth: Timing – There is a saying “It is better to be early than to be late. Better to be late than never” which can be applied to literally almost anything and everything. Knowing when to go in and out, at times even to pause and wait for the next cycle of identical pattern the next week.

Once you have a basic understanding of how to access the opportunity that is/are coming in your direction either directly in your face, beside you, or behind you, than come up with your own check list to check if all the conditions are met before you jump into the opportunity and ride with the wave.

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Music is the expression of ideas and emotions using rhythm, melody, harmony, tones and the use of sounds. It is produced by either instruments or living creatures.

It is a form of communication especially useful when a person is lonely or calls for help. Music in different tempos and rhythms are only understood by people within the music industry for their secret communication channel.

It expresses not only the feelings and emotions of either an individual or a group of people, it also brings across the ideas which have fused together with music to another person who understood the language.

While portable music devices and music are downloaded every second and shared over the internet, did anybody question if they themselves the listeners or audience is just listening to music for the seek of keeping up with the trend or is it what they really like?

Looking back, from the age of just radio, to walkman, disc-man, FM receivers, MP3, iPod, mobile phones with storage capabilities for music to palm tops MP4s and subsequently 3G phones which replaced all of the previous products in the market, music has come a long way and transformed in the mediums of how it is being played.

Business evolved, money and profits are made in the process, business owners and clients get rich and poor in the process respectively as both sides are happy with the end results it produces.

Music was once what we listen for relaxation, but as I look around the people in public transport, people are more and more reliant on music as a getaway channel to de-stress. So much so that they are always dependable music, listening if not blasting music into their ears, some which can even, be heard at the end of a single MRT cabin on the other side.

It is a luxury, for relaxation, but over dependence on music will become addictive and trick audience to believe that they themselves are in a tricked believe world of their own. Music accordingly to their own preference, is a reflection of the freedom, and boundaries which each individual seek.

Night clubs, pubs are just a temporary getaway place to relax, but with the portability of audio devices, people over relax themselves to the extent they no longer think correctly, and is showing signs of health complications such as mild deafness, grumpy emotions, inability to control their anger, reluctance to speak and communicate except to smooth themselves in the retreat of blasting music to their ears, jamming up the mind, making themselves in a condition less desirable.

Night clubs is a great place to relax, as it is a once a week, a month kind of places for people to distress, but with the increase stress at work, and at home, patrons are visiting such night spots frequently.

Is it a testimonial of false deception, temporary de-stress and put yourself into danger with intoxication of drinks, drugs and sex; one-night-stands, flings or just for sweet revenge to get back at your partner who is a playboy?

Whatever music you’re listening to right now, ask yourself if it is doing you good or putting you within an arms length from danger itself?

Is music helping you get rich or poor? Why not consider profiting from music instead of listening to music meant for the masses?

The secrets to get rich is to know what you want and need, and not to follow other people’s direction and help business owners fulfill their needs and desire for profit at the expense of your putting yourself in danger at arms length.

Music is be meant to be enjoyed and appreciated but not as a hideout or temporary getaway.

It should not be used as a mean of escaping from reality by blasting music to our ears to trick ourselves that we are happy as long as there is music. It is deceiving and will only do more harm than good.

It is not to be used as a escape from problems, instead, it should be used to help us face the reality as the phrase said: “Be prepared to face the music”.

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Brew is the process of preparing a drink, brewing is often used and association with beer, undergoing the process of steeping, boiling, fermenting of malt and hops.

While there are a wide variety of beers all over the world, the core components of the beer is consistent, which consist of barely, yeast, hops and water. The same components under different conditions will produce different results.

Likewise in business, we may all have being taught and read from the same books, but our ideas plus experiences will result in different business ideas which translates into unique businesses with application put in place to produce either a product or service if not both of which.

Business involves many steps similar to brewing a beer, no matter what you are brewing either from the back of your home, garage, kitchen, workshops, laboratories, or even large scale beer brewing plants, the end results are still the same, beer.

The difference within the similarity is only the core components which go into the transformation process. Like how barely becomes malt and how sugar becomes alcohol, similar on how a idea converts into a business execution for profits.

While the process is troublesome from the third party point of view, but once you understand how it works, you will understand the basic principles in the process to start your business right from your home with a simple starter kit.

Business can take flight anywhere and everywhere, as long as you have the basic components required and know the proper steps to implement and have a successful brew first before you try adding in your own conditions to brew your own unique beer like a new business product.

Passion is all that it takes.

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Identity is the sense of self, providing sameness and or likeness. It is the individuality, personality, distinctness, uniqueness of oneself which makes everyone of us different.

Within a country, there should be a unique country identity, but thanks to globalizing, this identity of a country has being infused with other countries identity and is no longer unique to own country with the exception of some countries.

China, Korea, Russia, India, Thailand, Malaysia, United States of America, European countries each have their own unique identity as a country and it is shared by all of the citizens.

They embrace and honor their respective nation identity, culture, values and beliefs in the form of religion and have faith in what their nation belief in.

Singapore on the other hand, is on the verge of losing our own unique Singapore identity. Gone are the days of the kampong spirit, friendliness. The present us, are all confine and closed up thanks to the lack of privacy in home designs thus neighbours close doors and contribute largely to what we have today, employees who do and not talk thus it is more like a mundane life as compared to the past.

Being a garden city in the past, with such large investments from overseas companies, are we losing our identity? Where is the garden city? It is becoming more and more like a city of another developed nation with nothing more than commercial buildings, earning profits etc.
Not much focus has to thrown on religion, culture, which is our strength but all this is under valued in terms of commercial profits. We are losing our multi-racial identity which to globalization and losing it to just commercial purpose.

What does Singapore has to offer to tourist? There’s nothing unique of Singapore if it doesn’t focus on your multi religion identity and the ability to work, trust each other regardless of race, language, religion or culture. We allow cooperation and helping one another, but obviously this is what is lacking.

Tourist are paying money just to see what they can find in other countries, Formula One race track, casinos, buildings, all these are just solely for commercial and tax benefits only with no unique identity for Singaporeans. Are we duplicating other countries success at the expense of losing our own unique Singaporean identity which cannot be duplicated in any other countries for obvious reasons?

It is an expensive identity that we are losing and it is heavily neglected and thus giving tourist more reasons to by-pass Singapore if we were to continue with whatever the decisions the tourism industry is thinking.

Even cultural identity is losing, why the local religion and culture are losing to religions thanks colonization during war times. The focus should be local religion and there we have so many locally born Singaporeans embracing religion from overseas. It should be the Singapore Experience and not something which can be seen, duplicated in any part of the world. Fatal mistake!!

Investments should be pumped into showcasing Singapore’s rich
bio-diversity of various religions and cultures staying to our roots.

It is the relationship which we are bonded to by birth which we should stick to and not to embrace other countries identity like what majority of people are converting to other religions from our own roots.

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Selling is the process of persuading someone to buy a product or service in exchange for a sale, commission and profit. It is done by a sales person who exchange the time in engaging a person in exchange for a single sale. This is usually done over the counter in shopping malls and centers.

Marketing on the other hand is the process of offering value and selling in bulk converting to more sales, profit and commission for the company and the salesperson and at the same time helping the client to save money. In order to generate that high sales volume, it boils down to relationship building, value creation and unique selling proposition of the products and services which a business or an individual can offer to a potential client who may turn out to be their potential joint venture partner in future.

Selling is a job, an employment; marketing is strictly business and nothing else. The income or salary between a salesperson and a marketeer commands a great difference. Business owners make lots of money, wealth because they are marketers themselves, as compared to sales people.

If you are reading this blog entry right now, and is thinking of becoming a marketer, you can either leave a comment or contact me directly from my site to have your questions answered.

You can learn all those skills but find a right coach as a mentor and advise you accordingly, don’t pay for people who are not marketers.

Learn to identify the difference between sellers and marketeers.

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Foundation is the basis or groundwork of anything.

To learn to walk and run, we first have to learn to crawl and balance by standing on our own two feet.

To speak a variety of language and dialects, we first have to understand how to talk and communicate.

To do business, we have to learn accountancy which is a advanced mathematics derived from basic mathematics of add, subtract, multiply and divide so as to calculate profit and loss.

For good health, we first have to ensure our body constitution is in good health with the help of traditional Chinese medicine via herbs therapy.

Building a building requires a strong solid foundation, the portion of building’s structure that transfer the weight if the building into the ground strata so as to remain strong.

Healthy relationship between family, relatives and friends requires a strong foundation of trust and bonding too, which is cultivated and built since young by celebration events and gatherings.

Like wise, marriage and boy-girl relationship is all about emotions handling which is needed in everything which we do, in presentation of business, family communication, health, and the passion for language learning. The love for learning and doing anything keeps us moving forward and always improving for more.

Driving a car requires the basic understanding of both theory and practical knowledge and experience too.

Like a tree in nature, it starts small, grows deeper as it grows taller from a small tree to a strong tree sufficient to stand and withhold itself against strong winds with its deep roots spread all over thus it is not easy to uproot a tree.

Whatever we do, we need to stick to the basic foundation, so never ever belittle the minor details which is a necessity to start the learning curve. It is the catalyst to success.

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Festival is an event staged by local community centers on the unique aspect of the community.

There are many types of festivals across the globe, from religious to arts, food, entertainment and seasonal festivals. The most talked about regardless of nationality will be the various religious festivals of respective countries.

Time and time again, religious festivals have being board cast on television shows numerous times and showing different types of religious cultures and festivals. Christianity and Buddhism are the most commonly featured on the media due to the yearly festival across the world.

Media telecast of religious festivals is to neither a good nor bad thing, it’s just another piece of news and allow people to get updates for people to follow up with.

Buddhism has quite a number of religious festivals that has being shown on television and in other media channels. With its deep roots and influence from all around South-East Asia, all the way from China, Japan, Korea, Taiwan, Iran, Afghanistan, India, Thailand, Laos, Vietnam, Cambodia, Sri Lanka, Myanmar and in Singapore. With different religious practice and worshiping of different gods, generally we are all from the same roots, Buddhism just that our way of celebrating festivals might deter from among ourselves.

The scale and magnitude of how a country practice their own religious goes to show how united they are actually. I’m not trying to promote any religion here, but just that I was watching a Chinese show this afternoon and it help me understand the importance of culture, generations, unity,

Celebrating festivals is good way to build bonding, unity and getting to know one another of the same belief. Example like what I watched in the show, the dragon boat festival also known as the 端午節(Duan Wu Jie) is a good way to let people among the community interact with one another.

Dragon boat festival is especially successful in this aspect. Due to the involvement of lots of people, competition among respective dragon boat teams (different communities pit against each other) thus getting to know and understand respective cultures thus encouraging mutual understanding.

With a common celebration, it is not limited to a small group but it is done a big scale. Making of the dumplings in the kitchen increase the family bonding when the cook, and the assistance on a small scale.

Within a community, the village will work towards preparation for the dragon boat festival, all the festive practice; beliefs will be passed down to the next generations with participation and involvements thus strengthening the bonding among them.

Beyond community level, they cheer each of their own community to spur each other community to fight for the dragon boat championship thus increasing the tolerance for other communities with a common goal united as one.

Organizing a festival is hard-work but the rewards far exceed the cost of the festival strengthening themselves with their own country’s identity, culture and unity.

That is something which we all can learn from, to understand each other’s religion and practice instead of condemning and trying to stir up conflicts which results in only more signs of trouble etc.

Tolerance and mutual understanding is the way which we all should work towards together as a whole. Like wise in business, instead of trying to cut each other’s throat with reducing profits, getting into a price war competition, why not work together, spilt profits, and have win-win situation?

At times, when I read and watch news and getting to know businesses trying to fight for a bigger slice, it just amuse me to know how much they lack in terms of mutual respect and cooperation.

Most businesses outside are just dumb in my personal perspective, why can’t they learn a simple thing like cooperation like the politicians, government, helping one another? Although it’s true that businesses are making much more money than politicians, but they are killing each other instead of helping one another.

Businessmen should instead learn from entrepreneurs who are successful than businessmen themselves.

Festival is the way to go, respect, tolerance, and understanding is needed to build a relationship and a mutual beneficial business for profits and not losses seeing red figures.

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Idea is something that comes to the mind before one starts to think. It often comes constructed in our minds representational images, objects; it also can come from concepts, an art piece or abstracts.

Such ideas can usually earn us lots of money if taken into application towards the right purpose and intent. People who have ideas should immediately jot down the ideas, and amplify it to become a business proposal and profit from it. Ideas are free, so monetize those ideas, everyone has brains, so make good use of the brains and make money.

Instead of using hands and hard-work to make money, why not start learning on how capitalize on our own resources, the brain for monetization?

If you are not convinced, look around you, your scope of people, and the financial situation of people around you. Are the people who are wealthy doing all the labour themselves or are they passing the workload to the employees as they work on new ideas to come up with new innovative and creative products for more profits and to capture a bigger market share?

If you don’t know of any successful people around you, the next closest people you can look to is your superior, does he/she talks more, do more sales using speech to close more deals making clients happy or does he/she does more manual labour like average employees like you and I?

The prime example that everybody will experience will be the food and beverage industry. Do you often see waiters and waitresses talk and interact with the valued regular customers more or do the supervisors and captains talk and interact with the clients more? Are you the waiter and waitress doing more hard-work labour or is the supervisor and captain doing more hard-labour?

Answer is straight-forward. To succeed, we do not need to depend on hard-labour in exchange for money, all that we need to do is to think of ideas and monetize those very ideas which often comes free of charge with the exception of those businesses paying people to comes up with ideas that it example designers etc.

Put on your thinking cap and have a notebook plus a pen by your side at all times. No ideas are stupid, you just need to refine and commercialize your ideas for profits. Make sure you protect your own ideas from theft at all times.

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Control is to exercise restraint, dominate, command and to eliminate and prevent something or someone getting out of hands. Example controlling a forest fire, restraint a dog with a dog leashes to deter it from going against the owner’s direction.

Be it wealthy or poverty, everybody needs to exercise some control in them.

People in poverty will have to exercise restraint over poor money decisions and better manage whatever resources they have for survival.

Wealthy individuals will have to control their spending as well as investments to limit their losses and increase their profits.

How to win the game and succeed is another issue, but controlling our own financial statement and knowing how to do it is important to everyone if they don’t want to live and suffer in misery filled with money woes each day and home becomes a war place.

There are lots of issues, emotions which we need to control, being successful means there are even more things to look at so if you exercise lots of control over positive things and people, you should be seeing your profits increase with time, if you’re seeing it, than it is time to relook at what are you in control of and what to give up control over so as to switch and learn what you should be controlling yourself to move forward and upwards.

Control and exercise self-restraint when needed.

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