Ryan Ho's Entrepreneurship Blog

Taking action is one of the simplest thing to do, but in a business, there’s a saying that goes by this: “If you fail to plan, you plan to fail.”

Thus many people who may have heard of this old saying end up in the planning stage, and never took action, until one day they realize that its too late, and somebody else came up with the similar if not identical solution, and off goes the opportunity that comes along with it to the first person who took action by executing a task on hand.

In the past, i didn’t really understand the importance of Fire, Aim, Ready as told to me by my mentor, but after my third attempt of using Aim, Ready, Fire, it has come to my understanding that this strategy doesn’t works at least in the situations of SMEs aka small medium enterprises for they will always be not ready due to lack of financial funds and cash flow to fight with the big competitors with whatever resources they have, and the luxury of time at there expense to think, plan whatsoever, as reputation, and creditability is what they already have as their ammunition to fend off competitors.

Being small, i after my 3rd attempt of using a strategy that failed to work, it’s time to adopt and carry out the seemingly simple yet critical advice that I didn’t really realize how important it is until my cash flow to keep myself and my entrepreneurial dreams alive and running at a dangerously low level.

Following which, I’ll just do what I can to take any action, slowly  but surely climb my way up and built on my portfolio, reputation, creditability to play with the big boys who can have the luxury of time to plan before execution of task.

Speaking of which, i just realized that even competitors of big scale also didn’t take a long time to plan, they too set a time limit before the execution and carrying out any task on hand so as not to drag and delay any ongoing, incoming or outgoing task that is in the process of completion.

Moving on, with the next fund injection by the govt on the first of may this coming month, a move made before the election as political sweetener, I’ll be careful to use the funds slowly with clear budgeting to put it for good use instead of waiting for it to run dry one day.

Having said my point, it leaves me with a summary and a lesson that I will probably remember always: “You are never ready, you just need to keep moving on and be make preparations while on the move.” – That how we all should, and it is exactly the same way on how the countries, national security, even natural environment, nature is revolving, moving forward.

Nobody is ever prepared, we just need to keep moving ahead and strengthen ourselves with every second that passed by. That is what i believe to be the simplest yet most overlooked primary reason that leads to either success or failure in life, business or even in relationship. We just have to keep on moving ahead.

“Are you green and growing or ripe and rotting?” – Ray Kroc

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Survival is the best bet against anything in the world.

Having watched documentary of the week: Surviving Disaster – Avalanche, it gave me new insights and reminder to on survival and the basic guidelines and principles to live. Linking it up with what I myself experienced on my progress in Entrepreneurship, it gave me a actual blueprint on surviving the hardships of entrepreneurship.

I’ll just summarized what i’ve just learned and convert it to make it business-proof.

In an ski trip with an injured ski-mate with a open bone fracture, and with a handful of team mates, with night approaching, the best bet is to set up a snow cave to spend the night waiting for day light before attempting to find help.

Check for any injuries, in this case, it’s a open bone fracture, cover the open wound with clean cloth to prevent infection, without pressing on the bone, put it on top of it, break the ski stick in the correct length and tie the leg tight against the sticks to prevent anymore movement. Lay person on a ski board, move injured head downwards with leg on top. So in event of hitting an object, wound will not incur any additional damage, with head protected by helmet. With sun setting, it’s time to build a snow cave for the night.

The snow cave allows all ski members a safety cover from the elements, shelter from the wind (which speed up heat lost), allows members to stay together to have the warm air in the cave stay there while the cold air drops to the entrance.

Once the cave is built, immediately move the injured team mate inside, as motionless individual stand greater chance of hypothermia. Lay the injured person on the, while other ski members take turns to take care of each other. Giving the injured as much food as possible to encourage more heat generated, but don’t let injured drink alcohol which speeds up hypothermia. One person in-charge of the injured, another in-charge of keeping the entrance partial open for air to come in, the other one to check for every team member’s health status (preventing death sleep in the cold), and rotate duties every hour.

Next day comes, day-break, leave behind the slowest team mate to take care of the injured in the snow cave while the rest seek help.Member staying behind uses urine and ski board to mark a clear X (cross) sign on the top of the mountain while the rest find help (instead of all waiting to die).

In the process, downwards, they faced an avalanche, 2 team mates trapped in it. Using avalanche survival kit to track (20 yards effective radius) members trapped under the snow and dig them out of it before they die of suffocation and hypothermia. Moving in a zig-zag direction to cover the whole distance of the avalanche path.

Upon finding trapped member, dig up, and wait for help, use binoculars to reflect light to the helicopter, and create a landing zone (L.Z) preferrably on a flat surface. Wait for the search and rescue dogs to search for team mate who’s survival kit was not placed with him, and instead a bag further putting oneself in danger.

Than inform the rescue team about the injured at the top of the mountain.

Now for the entrepreneur conversion. The food is the important fuel that allows members to live, in business wise, minimal food to fill our stomach.

Put aside emotions, which is vital for wealth creation, follow and obey leaders who can grow money, not reduce it.

Follow all basic ethics and the laws to observe discipline, so you will not have your efforts gone down the drain one day when you’re caught for any crime.

The snow cave refers to a shelter over our head as a protection.

Team members: Select only a handful who will not put you at more risk. Example: spilling your business secrets/strategies, waste your resources, burn bridges of trust, creditability and reputation critical for success.

Search and rescue team refers to new sources of income when your financial reserves are depleting fast. Seeking help is not a sign of failure, it is to live to die another day.

Proper medical, survival knowledge with experienced leader: Vital in a process, to tell exactly what’s happening, what will happen and how to minimize risk of failure and look out for safety.

PS: In ski, dangers are bears, elements of cold, but in business, it’s the eagles and vultures, seasoned players who gradually/openly steal your strategies, food, business partners, networks and turn them against you!

So weigh your own skills set, financial reserves, networks, expertise, knowledge and flexibility to adapt to new changes, such as temporary going back to employment to first solve the fundamental money issue before you resume your entrepreneurship.

Last but not the least, be damn aware of your own surroundings, keep your strategies and wealth generation sources to yourself. In the absence of team mates, depend on yourself and your own resources.

Never ever give in to opposition of your family and love ones (that’s logical) knowing they will want to be in the rats race suffering together for a short-term most risky employment without any job security.

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Package is a bundle of something usually in small or medium size packed or wrapped in a parcel for delivery. It can also stands for a completed product or fully operational system that is ready to be sold to the clients from the manufacturers to the retail outlets before landing onto the end users.

There are numerous packages bundled up with various business products and services. Package is no longer the same old parcel sent among people via postage. It has now evolved into a whole new package for business, offering a full package by definition is to provide a head to toe one stop solution to the users with any related services that the end user or client will require in attempt to capture and gain the trust and loyalty of a valuable customer encouraging them to return back for their services.

Bundle of services, products of various mediums can be found anywhere and everywhere, big or small there are lots of examples.

Small businesses offer a package in the form of a convenience store also known as “mama shop” in the past which has since largely replaced by convenience stores such as Cheers and 7Eleven franchise outlets offering a one stop retail outlet for general products which we need on daily basis.

Big businesses will provide similar bundle packed services like in a hotel, there are housekeeping, business conference room, social hall, meeting, training room, restaurants, accommodation, swimming and other related facilities to ensure that the customer is satisfied with the range of products and services offered for maximal customer satisfaction.

However, it is not always this way, at times, there will be instances whereby due to some minor error or miscommunication which cause the break in delivering a complete package of services and products due to short of manpower or ill-trained service providers/employees thus resulting in a complaint or silent dissatisfaction causing the client to be a one time client only.

Examples such as in-complete service are as follows: Failure to fulfill services it promised as per advertised (Goldman in the fraud case), trying to cut corners by reducing business expenses with inferior quality product replacements (Toyota acceleration problem)  or in worse case situation, totally omitting a crucial section of the package only to have the client finding out when he/she opens the package up once it is delivered to the end-user (spa business sudden closure without refund/providing services as promised).

Whatever we do, in personal, among friends or with business, it is all about packaging, a package that you offer and sell yourself to your friends, and business partners which are tied up with your creditability, reputation or past track record, branding, efficiency and productivity along with other factors involved. It comes in a package..

Failure to provide a full package will result in loses of reputation and your own brand will be killed in a instant. It is hard to build a brand, but it is extremely simple to tarnish or ruin a brand over night.

Proceed with extreme caution. It determines your success or failure, rich or poor and it depends on what we do in business not only for ourselves but also for the business.

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Secrets are confidential information which was not meant to be shared and be kept within the knowledge and circle among the parties involved only.

Everybody has secrets and it covers a lot of different areas be it health, business or relationship, depending on the impact in an event which should a secret leaks out, what impact of damage will it reflect on individuals, families and businesses thus in the higher middle income to rich and affluent families often have a price tag to every secrets.

How much secrets can a person keep, and how long did the secret last before leaking or is it always safe with the person? There are many factors which everybody can test and sound out on anybody to find a trustworthy person.

The ability to safeguard a secret is c direct and straightforward reflection of an individual on his or her integrity, honesty, creditability and reputation of himself/herself. The better you are at safeguard secrets, the more money and wealth you will receive at the end of the day.

Look at Tiger Woods, reports have mention that his inner circle of friends even help him cover out his scandal and offered to pay the ladies in some previous reports to keep it under the table and from the public media. On the other side, we have the ladies who cannot wait to spill the beans to a short term fame and money for their one-time income for selling their story to the media.

In business, especially secrets dealing with personal, business, the more you help them safeguard the secrets, the more you will benefit as well on a continuity basis which can be considered reciprocal and passive income source.

Before the fall of Tiger Woods scandal, the golf industry was seeing their business media attention and viewership increasing, shortly after the scandal broke free, golf related businesses and individual professional golfers experience a dip in their wallets and in the accounts for individuals and businesses.

The ladies on the other side could enjoy the benefits of being treated like a queen if they keep it under the tabs but they choose not to for unknown reasons which does not make logical sense to me, emotions got the better of them. Committing a suicidal step to their reputation and personal creditability, telling all others potential business partners and friends that “don’t ever let me know your secrets or you will see your reputation, effort and business go down the drain”, in short it is equivalent to telling them do not hire me if you identify me as a secret spiller.

By being a secret spiller, it has not long term benefits at all and it will follow that person till they rest in peace and in some instances, it brings and spills over to the next generation making live more difficult for their kids and family even after their dismissal. Refer to Adolf Hitler and Benard Madoff; read related articles and reports how they people do not want to be associated with such people. That is what I think and after reading lots of similar business related books which support certain parts of what I have written above.

Ladies always wanted to be treated equally, but do they really mean what they say? I’m not against women; in fact I’m supportive of ladies as a matter of fact, more towards women than to ladies for their supportive role and they mean what they say unlike ladies who are still not yet mentally mature and able to take up responsibilities for their own actions.

There are many ways to earn money and keeping secrets is definitely one of the best ways to increase your own network, by being able to keep our own mouth zipped up.

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In life, everything we do, we want a bigger share of the slice, be it business, relationship, food, home or assets, we never fail to desire and seek for bigger and better items to indulge ourselves in especially luxury and pleasure and holidays traveling.

Big is important, the bigger items and assets you possess, the bigger you influence will have on other businesses. Being successful with results will attract more talents below you, wanting to learn the steps from you.

With more influential power, the ability to influence and the words creating stir among people, when this phenomenon happens, you will soon be on your way to be a outstanding person commanding respect, fellowship of seekers wanting to be kept under your wings.

Big are not rocket science, but a gradual genetic thirst and intense urge of desire to increase our share in whatever we do. This happens even in the cat family, tigers, lions, leopard and jugular and among the reptiles. The bigger they grow, the larger stomach they have, the increase of volume in food or prey they target.

Growing bigger is a natural progression, if you don’t seek to improve your standards of living and lifestyle, denying yourself, your body and your genes of the natural instincts to grow and get stronger, you of course will get weaker as each day pass, and be consumed by other larger animals.

Big is beautiful. It happens in both genders.

Females seek beauty in terms of both physically, and deeper wallet size to allow them to spend happily swiping the credit cards on a shopping spree thus ladies will naturally without fail look up to a man who can provide financially for the ladies. Even if there’s no love, the lady will still stick to the man who’s the provider. This again is inside the genes, since apes gradually evolve into barbarians than to modern man today.

Males without say look for materialistic gains but by being practical and doing it within their ability in terms of assets, wealth, influential power, commanding respect from people, get acknowledgment from even their competitors.  Respect comes not from being able to earn money, but is built when they are entrusted with secrets that ties to reputation and they will not try to oust out a fellow competitor via underhand tricks such as accusations, piracy etc.

Look at Tiger Woods incident, the sex addiction scandal was not at all surprise among the golf professionals in the inner circle of the golf association, in fact other golf professionals even helped Tiger to cover up for his personal life matters. Personal and business issues will never ever be mixed together, that’s one rule of alpha males, an unspoken rule binding all successful professionals together.

There were news articles reports which mention about this, and also on reports that the ladies regretted not listen to the advice to remain silence in return for money benefits and choose to reveal it to the media. Why the regrets, read newspapers to find out more, I know it, because I’ve read that book which told me all about the unspoken rules of alpha males which was meant for ladies, but I borrowed it to read and gain unlimited wisdom and in-depth understanding.

The reason why businessmen never fails to be a sore topic among ladies claiming for equality is already written all over different books, but they just don’t spread out, thus when men see such things, they are often ignored. The unspoken language of the successful wealthy businessmen, to be like them, if ladies can’t beat them, why not join them but first thing first, there are lots of steps to take to be able to join the bandwagon.

The core reason why people always say businessmen and not businesswomen is solely because it’s a fact that alpha males rule the world, not the government, the holder of wealth calls the shot. To win the game, you first have to learn the rules of the game. Not learning yet playing will only result in unfavorable results working against you.

Alpha male value honor and integrity while beta males, alpha females and females will just take it with a pinch of salt and do steps that sabotage and ruin their own future without anybody doing anything.

Learn the rules of the game, if you don’t be prepared to be left behind and you will not even notice who speed up the process even if the compliance and person who wants to get rid of you are standing in front of you.

To survive, learn the rules and stick to it or you will be axed in an instant without knowing who and why.

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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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Reputation is the key consideration factor when doing anything be it business, going into a relationship or investing on an individual or a company.

As simple as it sounds, it doesn’t looks easy to carry out. Reputation is an intangible asset which is in the balance sheet of profit and account statement which we treat it as branding. How much does the brand cost, and what is the difference between products which is branded versus a product which is new on the market.

A new product will take time to build a base of customers by offering services for value creation and giving customers more reasons and small gifts here and there to convince and persuade customers to change direction from a brand to another. Whoever is able to command a higher perceived value in the eyes of the customers wins until the next contender surface.

Business is all about reputation, creditability, and how much he/she can influence and make customers or even strangers take his/her word with complete trust and assurance without even an doubt in the individuals’ character or personality. That to me is build on mutual trust, and a unprecedented high level of trust will be build when quality is not compromised even in big companies and franchise models. This is the true value of trust which goes a long way.

It takes from months to years to build the trust in both the brand (business) and in the leader leading the company risking his/her reputation on the line with each and every step. One wrong move will result in overnight tumble just like when a professional explosive specialist has being given the go-ahead to push the button to detonate the explosives in a vacant building to give way to new property developments.

With reputation being placed on the line, every step we take with ourselves or with our business partners, colleagues and friends should be taken into consideration first and their credentials first before signing any agreement.

If in the event, there’s no trust and credentials yet, a guarantor and disclaimer policy can be put in place before you carry out any business campaigns. By first drawing a clear line between what’s yours and what’s not, you can be sure of what and how to react in times of problems should they try to push the blame to you? Always have a mutual black and white agreement with people whom you work with so once they commit, they will have to obliged by the terms and conditions set and follow throwing away any grey to black hat strategies which they have if you are not a push-over.

Devise your own terms and conditions before hand, get to know what potential problems you may encounter if you have a lot to lose considering you’re a influential successful person. If you’re a nobody, just go right in, learn whatever you can build your trust, reputation and credentials from the first project you do.

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