Haha.. True bro. I'll try contacting SSM and ask, just to be sure. Thanks.

yeah but any idea where to start?

Great start and i saw discipline in you albeit at young age.
I would say perhaps you can go for share market? start off with those blue chips to earn div (higher than FD) and you can learn how to trade if you want.
Alternatively, if you have time to spare, you can start off some online business.
Eventually when you have more saving, then you can start to consider whether 1 to open a shop or your own business or not.

this is how i thought

Thanks for the the advice

I have too look into those options, now I am just planning how to balance my portfolio (Investment:Saving).
Once I decided how much I can put into investment, then I will plan my execution.

These few days I have been looking into Franchising. There are a few "affordable" one that I see potential to operate in the market from where I am now.
But further research (more like common sense) shows that there are actually many hidden costs past the initial capital investment/development cost.
Which I don't think I could afford right at this moment. In addition, loan application maybe a little difficult as I have only work for a year and I don't have any credit history (not sure if its a good thing). The other alternative is I could gather other investors to finance the business.

Therefore, I would be aiming at growing my capital either through investment/ low capital business or services and build my network in search of potential partners/investors.

You can do so through internet if you are comfortable with
I would still thiink it is the best to start off with someone around you, perhaps ex colleague, friends of colleague, relatives etc.
you can try to spread the news that you are interested with some kind of business and wish to look for someone that share the same thought

I think aside initial capital, you should still need some working capital to make sure the business has sufficient funds to operate.
I am not really familiar with this.

Or perhaps you could share with us your finding? to benefit everyone of here and they can share some advice with you too if they have.

I brought that up with my partners. To be frank, we are of lacking practical experience, among us I probably have more exposure to the business world for things such as legal requirement & business procedure. We are planning to get a more experience person on board or just consult friends or elders who are already in the field to give us some pointers.

I suggest all potential new business owner first read up on the legal requirement to start a business or company. The resources are available online such as http://www.ssm.com.my/.

Secondly, have someone challenge your idea, no matter how good or perfect you think your idea is, there will be flaws.

Hi want to share something here for those who are very green and unfamiliar with business (like me). Here's what I learnt, the hard way, when trying to contact suppliers:

1. If your capital is small, and you are likely to make small orders when purchasing wholesale, a lot of suppliers will choose to ignore you cause you are simply not worth their time. Sad, harsh, but understandable...

2. If you email them using a generic email (i.e. hotmail, gmail) they will ignore you as they don't think you are a serious businessman. Your email may even get caught in their spam filter.

3. The biggest thing: Finding out the price you need to pay for wholesale products. Now to us laymen, if you want to sell a product, surely you must have a price for it. The prices are like holy grails to suppliers, they keep it very close to their chests and would never reveal their wholesale prices easily. Most suppliers would like proof that you are a genuine businessman before revealing their wholesale prices, such as business registration.

So here is the conundrum, you are trying to do a business research, trying to determine if a particular business is profitable and worth investing in. So you would like to know the cost of goods to estimate potential profits. But suppliers would generally ignore you unless you are a registered business with a business email address aka serious customer. It doesn't make much sense for a person to register a business, only to find after obtaining price quotations that he/she doesn't find the profit attractive enough to pursue the business. So you end up caught in a Catch-22 situation.

Solution? I'm not sure I have any.... How to avoid email being ignored? Perhaps phone calls to suppliers are harder to ignore. Or save up till you have a large capital, then wave it in front of the faces of those suppliers to show that you are a potential big customer, then maybe they will be more cooperative.

For me, I'm going to give up trying to start a video games selling business for now. Perhaps I'll try looking into a business that requires lower capital, low value goods.... Or maybe services based business. Save up more money in the near future. So yea, a hard lesson I learnt which I want to share to those who are looking to enter into the business world. I wasted time, energy and also embarassed myself in the process of learning this lesson. But at least I didn't lose any money.

kudos to you atleats you have the gut to start from somewhere!

Thanks bro. I guess if we want to make it in business we should learn to accept occasional failures in what we do, learn from it, and try again!

It is understandable.
Even banks won't fund rm10k to you, whether your business proposal is flawless.

They need at least 3 years of experience in the field, before you can start walking into banks and talk.
Harsh but true market.

Just want to ask sifu here.

A trading Business

A trader and A sole distributor.

If a sole distributor do not set a retail price for a product, no advertisement done and nothing on the product, mainly based on word of mouth only.

Is that worth marketing the product? Is it wise to advertise, promote and having exhibition?

Thanks

Thanks for sharing. I went through the same thing while I was in University but I'm glad I learnt that lesson before I invest any money.

My solution to that now is through networking, you might be able to meet someone/friend who is a supplier that willing to do business with you. For someone like me who used to be very introvert & shy, I could understand for some people that it is difficult to approach strangers but I'm glad I got over that.

Good Luck to you

From others experience, usually bank only give you loan when your business is stable.

I'm not too sure myself if that's the whole truth. Despite that, I'm sure there are other ways to get funded for your business start-up other than a bank loan.

imho, advertisement is essential to promote your product. even McD, a well-known global brand still engage in consumer targeted advertising.

just want to ask further, what do you mean by "do not set a retail price for a product"?

Yes you need funds for;

1) Capital expenditures aka capex - usually the sunk cost to setup the business renovation, furniture etc.
2) Operation expenditures aka opex - the cost of running the business e.g. salary, utilities, rental etc.

Capex is easier to plan & forecast, just give yourself like 15% - 25% room for deviations.

Opex is the tricky one cause people tend to miss out some small things that eventually could add up into a large sum. This is the one people often recommend to have at least 6 months worth funds, the more the better of course but too much may indicate that you aren't fully utilizing your funds. You most probably will be running at a loss for several months, break even for several more months & finally start to earn a little after a year or so.

Some business has good potential, but like most of the things in the world, it takes time to grow. So don't give up just because you see RED during the beginning. But do set a loss cutting point & be disciplined on it to save yourself from getting into too much trouble.

Which means, there is no Market Price for that product.

Example, company sells product A at RM30.
They stated that product can be sold in the market up to RM120. (They seems like unsure how much people are selling in the market)

Which means, there is no fixed price in the market, which end up some people selling RM40, some people selling RM80 and some people selling at RM120.

My perception : If I will to sell it at RM100, some people would feedback that I am selling it too expensive (If they ever get any cheaper ones)

My meaning of retail price is - On the product label, printed Retail Recommended Price : RM120.

This post has been edited by kenneths88: Dec 2 2013, 04:10 PM

Hi all,

I have a question for sifus-sifus here.
Who have experience loan with TEKUN?

Thanks for share.

As a matter of fact, I am pretty much an introvert as well. Which is why e-commerce is something I am more interested rather than brick-and-mortar shop. More online dealings than face-to-face dealings. I will have to improve my networking and my social skills. Thanks for the advise bro.

Thanks for sharing. Haha i never heard of those terminology but now I know

I will remember your advise when I'm planning out my financial plan/strategy. I do make it a general rule to est. more for expenses & costs and less for income. I understand there may be some hidden cost that might be easily missed out.

Yea I agree, depending on your business, the pattern will varies. Some business would see high profit at the start but hard to maintain, some business will take time to build up. For me, I am aiming for profit sustainable business regardless of factors such as political or economical.

You're welcome.

My experience how I become more social and comfortable around people, I did so by joining clubs and social activities. Join international club such as Lion, Rotary, Toastmasters, etc. Join a sport team or a gaming team. It was exhausting for me in the beginning, it felt like each outing drains me mentally but I got used to it and learn how to enjoy myself around people.

All the best to you

This post has been edited by WisdomTrumps: Dec 3 2013, 10:03 AM

I started a biz on november 2012. The best advise i would recommend to you is that please avoid biz with friends/relative and the most important part is B&W. Yes everything need B&W. Dont fall with janji janji manis. I sudah kena and now insaf already.