Entrepreneurs should mind their own personal business

November 11, 2015

Learning and loving should be the first order of business for every self-employed businessperson

Being a self-employed entrepreneur is gratifying when you’re applauded for having had the guts, determination, skills and know-how to create a startup company. You suddenly join the ranks of legendary, self-made titans of industry who ‘did it their way’ and are memorialized in books, films and even memes.

But while it is fulfilling to be able to make a living by pursuing your passion (and being your own boss), the proverbial ‘sweat and tears’ abound for those of us who run our own businesses. Your ‘to do’ list is never-ending; partners and employees sometimes let you down; deals suddenly fall through; and with the Ringgit in the gutter and the economic climate stormy, your company’s wellbeing is a daily worry.

But don’t let setbacks derail you. Remember what the great Nietzsche said: “that which does not kill us makes us stronger”. And it’s true: every letdown I experienced helped me grow, every defeat made me tougher. Above all, what helped keep me anchored and on an even keel was keeping my mind focused on ensuring that I:

Am surrounded by loved ones
They’re your rock during your low points, and the ones you celebrate with when you’re on top of the world. They make it worthwhile, keep you grounded, and remind you of who you are and why you’re doing what you’re doing. Even when you’re talking business, only your family or true friends will tell you the truth, no matter how brutal it is. They will crush you before your competitors do – and help you rebound from it.

Make time for exercise
When stress kicks in, running becomes an essential part of my coping mechanism.
It gives me space to not think about anything, or to figure things out when I need to. Studies have shown that exercise, in addition to making you physically fit, helps your mind to connect the dots, think more creatively, and, of course, releases your endorphins.

Meditate
Many great, self-made figures meditate – Oprah Winfrey, Mark Zuckerberg and Deepak Chopra, to name a few. Meditation keeps me rooted in the present and gives me the clarity I need to achieve things I envision. It’s amazing how much focusing on my breathing and ‘letting go’ can do in helping me manage the chaos all around me.

Understand what makes me happy
If you can identify the experiences that make you happy, you can work towards creating more of them. Even little moments of happiness will accumulate to make you a more positive person – a happier person. That is important, because happiness brings success both to you and your business.

From an article published by coffeepreneur and traveler Isabelle Thye in http://www.theartsycraftsy.com/

For more illuminating reflections, lifestyle lessons and inspiring thought pieces, visit www.theartsycraftsy.com; or follow the blogazine on Facebook @theartycraftsyblog; or on Instagram and Twitter @theartsycraftsy.

Get in line for online shopping

October 30, 2015

Start with a click – and before you know it, you’ve ‘clicked’ with the best way to shop (for practically anything)

The internet is now the world’s largest marketplace, and shoppers have traded strolling through malls for surfing through cyberspace in search of products and services. With your fingers doing the walking, you can spend all day searching for all sorts of merchandise and facilities at the best deals – and have them delivered right to your doorstep (or booked from a great distance).

If you’re still not on the online shopping bandwagon, here’s what you’re missing out on:

Fashion finds

Everyone – from big, international labels to small, home-based designers; premium luxury brands, to affordable, ready-to-wear names – has made cyberspace an extension of their brick-and-mortar shops. From suits to bikinis, handbags to shoes – you have a wide variety of merchandise, styles and designs to choose from. Top regional portals like Zalora and Lazada showcase items in great detail – with high-resolution photos, material information and guides to sizes – so there’s little risk of not getting what you paid for. And the latest collections tend to hit the web first – so you’ll always be first in line for what’s most in vogue.

Bonanza deals

One of the biggest attractions of online shopping is finding exclusive deals, discounts and privileges. And the more you search, the more you’ll find! Local portals like Groupon and SavingMart, for instance, are unparalleled sources of coupons and special offers on everything from spa treatments to vacation packages, electronics to furniture that you CANNOT find offline. And lest you think the deals are only for third-rate, little-known products and services – think again!

Convenience

Forget about dressing-up, braving traffic, hunting for parking and roaming the nearest mall just to search for a pair of socks. Instead, simply pop online, browse, choose and order (then wait for you bell to ring). And we’re not just talking about durable goods and clothing. More and more Malaysians are even ordering groceries online and having them delivered to their door. ASEAN food portals likeHappyFresh and Food Panda offer a wide variety of top-notch foodstuff as well as freshly-cooked dishes – so, in theory, you won’t ever have to shop for food outside ever again!

First published by fierce ‘n fabulous fashion/lifestyle blogger Carinn Tan in http://www.extraordinarinn.com/

For more outside-of-the-box lifestyle solutions, snazzy fashion features and beastly-good beauty tips, visitwww.extraordinarinn.com; or trace Carinn Tan’s footsteps on Facebook @CarinnCarerynn; on Instagram and Twitter @Carerynn; or drop her a line at carinn.tan93@gmail.com.

E-commerce to drive Asean retail growth

E-commerce to drive Asean retail growth
           

E-commerce can help grow Asean's retail sector and will benefit both consumers and retailers in the region, the Asean Business Advisory Council (Asean BAC) said in its latest report.

In its 2015 report to leaders, Asean BAC said business-to-customers Internet sales in Asean account for only one per cent of total sales as opposed to eight per cent in developed economies.

According to global management consulting firm AT Kearney, Singapore is the only Asean country to be placed in the top 30 in a ranking led by the US, China and United Kingdom.

In the firm's 2015 Global Retail E-Commerce Index, Singapore ranked 14th with a 41.5 score in terms of online market attractiveness.

The study said the city state has infrastructure that makes the retail environment conducive for online shopping.

In terms of consumer behaviour, Singapore was rated at 89.4, a score higher than the US, which indicated a favourable consumer base for online transactions.

Asean BAC said e-commerce technology is essential for the integration of Asean's retail sector as it makes shopping easier for consumers. It also helps grow businesses without having to contend with too many pre-existing impediments.

But in order to develop e-commerce, the council said Asean needs to work on its logistics, develop an online payment system and promote access to finance.

Asean should also consider the establishment of a region-wide e-payment regulation system that will help companies identify their clients.

To speed up the payment process, an e-payment escrow solution could also be explored, the council said in its report.

Asean should also encourage partnerships between e-retailers and logistics players to improve trade efficiency.

The integration of logistics systems in Asean must be accelerated. The council added in its report that the Asean Single Window system should be fully-implemented.

Asean BAC said access to finance and use of regional e-commerce platforms will help Asean e-commerce players keep up with their international competitors.
------ The Brunei Times      2 June 2015

WeChat is Tencent's ace in China's online entertainment race

WeChat is Tencent's ace in China's online entertainment race

 
 The logo of Chinese instant messaging platform called WeChat on a mobile device which has taken the country by storm in just three years.

BEIJING/LOS ANGELES, May 13 (Reuters)

- In a multi-billion dollar dogfight with Alibaba Group Holding Ltd for leadership in China's online entertainment market, mobile messaging app WeChat is Tencent Holdings Ltd's trump card.

The wildly popular app allows Tencent to channel 500 million monthly active users to its entertainment services, a huge consumer base for subscriptions or marketing - pay dirt for media and advertising partners.

Combined with a willingness to throw cash at top-tier film, television, game and music content, Tencent has locked down exclusive deals with some of the biggest names in Hollywood, eager to piggyback on the $190 billion (S$252.8) Chinese group's growing success.

Shenzhen-based Tencent, whose WeChat and QQ social networks are as ubiquitous in China as Facebook Inc is elsewhere, has spent billions of dollars in recent years building up its content library and on stakes in entertainment firms, though the company declines to give specific details on its investment.

Last month, Tencent added streaming rights to Twenty-First Century Fox Inc's FOX, FOX Sports and the National Geographic Channel to its media arsenal, which already includes various rights for Sony Corp's Sony Music Entertainment, Warner Music Group, Time Warner Inc's HBO network and the US National Basketball Association.

"We've paid aggressively to buy some of the most popular content, the most established brands," Tencent's Chief Strategy Officer James Mitchell told Reuters in a recent interview.

Founded 17 years ago by CEO Pony Ma, Tencent already operates an online gaming business to rival those of Sony, Microsoft Corp and Nintendo Co. It also owns China's biggest music streaming service by subscribers, and by some measures runs the country's most popular Internet video platform.

The pairing of Tencent's active dealmaking with the success of WeChat and QQ is critical, says Mathew Alderson, who leads the China media and entertainment practice at Harris Moure in Beijing.

 "I consider them to be ahead because of the reach and sophistication of their social networking tools," he said.

The stakes are huge.

Revenue in China's online entertainment industry is set to double to more than $46 billion by 2018 for online games and video streaming alone, according to iResearch data, prompting China's biggest Internet companies to spend lavishly on TV shows, films, games, music and sports rights.

"When we have the key content, our traffic makes it more popular than it would otherwise be," said Mitchell, noting that Tencent's online advertising business revenues jumped 65 per cent last year, to 8.3 billion yuan (S$1.78 billion).

Video advertising revenue has at least doubled year-on-year in all of the past six quarters.

Tencent reports January-March earnings later on Wednesday. KNOWING THE SPACE Alibaba, meanwhile, is flush with cash after its record $25 billion share sale in New York last year and, alongside its affiliates, has spent more than $3.5 billion since the start of 2014 on stakes in video, music and gaming firms, including a minority share of Youku Tudou Inc, one of China's biggest Internet video services.

Alibaba's entertainment business claims music distribution deals with Germany's BMG and two of Taiwan's biggest labels.

It has also teamed up with Hollywood studio Lions Gate Entertainment Corp to offer a subscription streaming service in China.

 Its operations are led by former members of Tencent's video business, who left following a leadership reshuffle around 2013.

They include Patrick Liu, current head of Alibaba's digital entertainment unit and former head of Tencent Video.

Other firms staking a claim in China's online entertainment market include Internet search leader Baidu Inc and its online video unit iQiyi; Sohu.com Inc ; and Leshi Internet Information and Technology Corp Beijing.

Dealing with Tencent won't be easy, says Mark Natkin, managing director of Beijing-based Marbridge Consulting.

"They understand what users want in terms of entertainment content, they understand how to deliver it," he said.

"Tencent knows that space better than anybody."

Tencent's content library, which also includes South Korean YouTube sensation Psy through a tie up with YG Entertainment Inc, is arguably deeper than that of its rivals.

"You clearly see the growth of (Tencent's) position," said TCL Multimedia CEO Hao Yi, who works with many of China's Internet companies, about the firm's video business.

"A couple of years ago they were nowhere. The WeChat thing, indeed, this is a killer."

In recent months, Alibaba and Tencent have taken their rivalry overseas, both setting up offices in Los Angeles to slug it out for programming deals with Hollywood studios and producers.

While both groups have financial firepower, WeChat could be a clincher for Tencent in winning deals with content producers.

"You can use content to drive very good margins - if you have the right pipes," said one Hollywood executive.
-----  Reuters     13 May 2015

WhatsApp reaches 800 million monthly active users

WhatsApp reaches 800 million monthly active users


Mobile messaging service WhatsApp now has 800 million monthly active users, CEO Jan Koum has revealed in a Facebook post.

SINGAPORE - Mobile messaging service WhatsApp now has 800 million monthly active users, CEO Jan Koum has revealed in a Facebook post.

The app had about 600 million users when Facebook acquired it last year, and it announced that it had reached 700 million users in January this year.

At this rate of expansion, it will reach a billion users by the end of the year, the Wall Street Journal predicted.

 

In a dig at other messaging services, which often report registered users only, Mr Koum added: "Reminder for the press out there: active and registered users are not the same thing."

Facebook messenger is second to WhatsApp with about 600 million monthly active users, making the company the owner of the two largest messaging services in the world.

 

Google revolutionises search to help mobile users

Google revolutionises search to help mobile users



Google search will start factoring in how easy websites are to read on smartphones or tablet computers, underlining the changing way people surf the Internet

SAN FRANCISCO (AFP) - Google search on Tuesday will start factoring in how easy websites are to read on smartphones or tablet computers, underlining the changing way people surf the Internet.

The web titan said that the "mobile-friendliness" of websites will be a factor in ranking results to online searches done using mobile devices.

"As people increasingly search on their mobile devices, we want to make sure they can find content that's not only relevant and timely, but also easy to read and interact with on smaller mobile screens," a Google spokesman told AFP.

The change will affect mobile Internet searches in all languages worldwide and was expected to have a "significant impact" on results to queries, Google said in a February blog post heralding the move.

Lost your Android phone? Now Google can help you find it

Lost your Android phone? Now Google can help you find it




SINGAPORE - Google's search bar is a calculator, translator and currency convertor, and now it can also find your Android phone.

Just type in "Find my phone" in Google's search engine on the computer, and it will display a map that zeros in on the missing Android phone or tablet.

When I tried it, it located my phone "accurate to 17 metres", but it took a few seconds to load.

For it to work, the user has to have the latest version of the Google app installed on their phone, and be signed into the same Google account on their smartphone or tablet and their computer.

Google made the announcement on Wednesday on its social media platform Google+: "We've all been there - you've searched under your car seat, tossed around the sofa cushions and you still can't find your phone.

If you know where your computer is, you can now ask Google to find your Android phone from your desktop.

If the pesky phone is hiding nearby, Google can ring it for you - or you can see it on the map if you, say, forgot it at the bar.

Just make sure you've got the latest version of the Google app installed on your device!?"