Agree. But they are charging quite expensive also. It should be enough to cover their salary. So back to the question, is this a good business to ventures for new comer?

Oh ok. This I am not worrying. I am just targeting people who actually believe them.   

I will try it. Will update here later      Btw, thanks ghoss....

Hello guys.

Any of u guys here have an experience about water filter machine? The one u insert 20cent, get a liter of water. What's the cost for the machine, the maintanence and everything else? Most importantly, what's the profit margin?

Maybe i should share mine as well.

Business Fail and Gone Wrong - Very Failed

Type of Business : Transportation of Goods (East Malaysia - Sabah)
Started Year Jan 2005 - April 2007
Capital : RM5,000 (Each Person)
Period : 2 years +

Person : 5 partner (But only 3 in the Enterprise Trading license)

Vehicle : 3 Ton Lorry (Upgrade to 6 ton Load)
Worker : 1 Driver, 1 Hookman/Assistant

Business Load all good from KK Major Town to Mostly SDK/TWU/LD - Longest is Semporna

1 Trip = RM350 for the Fuel (RM180 for 1 Way)
1 Driver = RM300 for the Food/Stay

1 Trip Load = Worth of Transportation Fees = RM 1k. (The less is RM700)
Return from Sandakan = RM300~500 Additional Goods load back to KK (But not always, Once or Twice a Month)
If from Tawau/LD = Empty

Every Week surely have 2 ~ 3 Trips.
Simple Calculation = 8 Trips per month
= RM8k ++ (if plus the SDK trip back)

Driver Salary = RM 1.5K (1 Trip RM50) Commission the more the better
HookMan = RM400 (1 Trip RM30) to accompany the Driver and Unload the Stuff

Reason Business Failed due to the Main Con/Supplier.
He acted as the King of Transportation whom can give you more or less of Goods. Meaning have to jaga him also.

How he does ?
Since i mention all the Goods are from Him. Therefore, he can select the best of high income to any transporter. So He is the one direct deal with the Customer. OF course, i also go see the Customer and offer.
But what he does, he get the Goods, pass to me to send, and received the payment within 3 ~ 7 working days.
Lama Lama, he drag and say the Customer didn't pay weekly but into Monthly.
Findout, he use the money to pay his own Lorry (He got 8 Lorry) so he use the money to move swiftly around for his own purpose.

Lama Lama, say all the Money cannot be pay. WHY ? because one of my Partners whom claim is in the Transportation Business before is handling didn't get the Black & White thing to Sign / Chop
That time i was working (Makan Gaji) n use the Salary to cover the Operation. Man, it was my very down moment.

When all partners decide to stop. 2 have left, i mean not in the Trading License. Me myself wan to revive it but failed as the other 2 doesn't want to continue. Jual the Lorry and lucky i still have my job.

From RM5,000 Capital, i have fork additional RM6,000 for the Operation, Fuel and even Driver. Because i belief if i can overcome the DOWN time, i am sure will be a hit since i see the Opportunity but i was been CON in the first place. The Business was a CON, as it was intended from the very beginning moment.

Therefore, i learn. FRIENDS is always FRIENDS. but BUSINESS is BUSINESS. and Evertyhing you do in LEGAL Business please please get it BLACK & WHITE. Sometimes friendship hurts when it comes to MONEY.

Hi to all sifus and everyone who are reading this, would really appreciate if you guys are willing to spend some time to read this and give some opinions/feed backs.

I worked in f&b line before this(my choice), studied overseas and came back, worked a couple years in reputable restaurants, and just recently quitted. The reason I quit is because its taking too much of my time, tiring, health become worse, no time for family and so on. I can't see myself continuing in this situation for long, the passion slowly goes of when problems kicking in.

I went on to take a course to be a certified ACE(American Council on Exercise) Personal Trainer, and currently waiting for the exam results. Sports have always been in my life, and I would want my future to be related to sports/fitness/health as well.

And then I have a thought. Since I play badminton with my high school friends sometimes, why not I provide them free coaching/training(I'm a former state player). I think it's a good way to build stronger relationship with friends and even networking.

And then slowly from word of mouth/friends introduced, if there's  group of ppl who wants to improve their health overall, I will start conducting maybe boot camp style fitness sessions, for free, or minimal cost I don't know yet. Because I was thinking that maybe there are many ppl out there who would like to do some exercise, but doesn't want to pay the premium price, and I'm just trying to make things happen for them, or as a way to contribute to the society.(don't know why already thinking of contributing to society even before I earn money, maybe read and saw a lot of news on bad things happening on other ppl, made me feel that even that I'm not rich but I'm already very much luckier than many other ppl out there).

And later on when I'm known by more ppl, I will take in personal training clients, but this I will charge because it's like one on one and the programme is specially designed for each different individual.

My reasons/objectives for all this is to know more ppl, make more ppl know me, build a big network, contribute to society, and leave something for ppl to remember about me when I'm not here anymore*touchwood, or like ppl say, creating legacy.

So could you guys give some feed backs and opinions regarding this, do you think this is workable? Or will I be bankrupt even  before I start earning money? Is this not practical at all? Thank you in advance...

I guess I seen this kind of story before from sifu sifu from this thread. Partnership, got to be very careful.

Btw, direct family like Father & Son is ok as we don't look at $$ too tightly 

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. 

Agree. But as im new in biz and my partner are 3-4years experience in biz he tend to push me around. For few months i can tolerate but as time past, i was not able to be patience. Im willing to let go the biz and wanted to sell my shares. Best part is my partner think that when i sell my share he should get 50% of the money i got. Although got no B&W saying that, he still thinks this is a norm in biz.

Hi all,

I am planning to open a Sports Shop in a shopping mall.

Any advice on this business?

Thinking for a 1000sq ft area to sell merchandize such as Adidas, Nike, Puma etc. sport products.

Worth to do ?

Any supplier can introduce?

Thanks.

So for your biz after u put up website, how much increase in business?

Thx.

Thanks for your reply.

The shopping mall is in Cheras area near middle income residential areas.

And currently, there is no other similar shop. Only 1 shop but they are selling sports shoes only.

Mostly selling those sports equipment involved Malaysian sports such as Badminton, Football, Hockey, Squash, Sepak Takraw etc.

Not sure the demand high or not but still doing research now.

Found a lot of supplier or distributor in the Internet but wanted to get some good and trustable one from here.

Thanks for your feedback.

Hi Lawrence, Yeah- I want to get the company out there. Nowadays I ask friend to recommend, they straight ask for website. If you don't mind, can you PM to me your company website? Thx

Hey folks,

I'm an expatriate here in Malaysia and for the past four years that I've been here I always wanted to start a business with the same quality/style that you can find in my home country and set it up in a booming environment with an upscale atmosphere. I've finally finished a business plan and found a perfect location, now the few things that remains are funding.

What is the best way to go about grants up in the 30-60k area, does anyone have experience with this? My business partner is Malay if that makes any difference (probably does ). So far about half the funding needed has been secured and we are currently looking for a final investment.

This thread has been extremely informative, thank you everyone!  Will definitely update on how the progress is going.

Hi,
Firstly I am a total noob about doing business.
Me and my cousins decide to open a hobby shop.
We have identified possible supplier for our items and currently searching for suitable shop lot to rent.
My question is regarding about register the business license.
Where should I go to register my business license? SSM or Majlis Perbandaran?
And when should I register? Before open the shop or after open the shop?
Thanks.