wanna ask.. how do u guys manage ur social friends in life like good friend or normal friend when u concentrate on ur company?

Entrepreneurs, do you think this can work?

Buy RM1,000 worth of products around RM10 pricing that is very mass market (confirm got ppl buy and sells easily due to low price)
Sell online to earn 10% profit.
Repeat every month.
Man up, do this shit for 5 years non-stop. Stop playing video games, watching useless dramas, or doing pointless stuffs you continued doing from college/school.

By end of 1st year, you get 2.8x the capital
By end of 2nd year, you get 8.9x the capital
By end of 3rd year, you get 28.1x the capital
By end of 4th year, you get 88.1x the capital
By end of 5th year, you get 276.8x the capital

So if you started with RM1,000 today, you will have RM276k by Oct 2020. Can you see yourself in the next 5 years with that much money?

Best thing is you can do this as side job while having a day job. Basically just manage orders, packaging and postage.

What makes you so sure that the cost price would stay stagnant at RM1000 throughout the 5 years?

You don't have to buy the same products. Just buy the evergreen mass market products at the time and aim to earn 10% profit from it.

excellent advice.

Parking.

aren't ya spm student?

Agreed. I believed we have small to big business owners here. We shall start somewhere include staff... Ie: bra seller?

failed business = tutti frutti

inkambing failed business = sangkaya

Wearable products. Wow.... One of the few things investors tend to stay away from (in common). Well, to simplify this, ... trend related items is where you want to get in fast, hit hard and walk away before the buzz slows down. Customized, Trends, Exotic wear-ables are fashion or customary oriented (follow the artist... mentality).

You need to ask yourself. Do you want to stay in this market? OR do you want to get out?

Many part-timers found something cool for them and thought it would be an excellent idea to make a business out of it. (A Big NO-NO)

If you want to stay, from the products you carry... you got to
1. Re-Brand the products..
- Your site is not vogue enough to reflect the price and product that you carry
- Many known brands are within similar price range.
- Pushing a new brand to the market is no longer a stranger. As much as people appreciate branded names, they're willing to explore.
- Make sure you stay unique. (catchy names)

2. Re-Authenticate/Assurance of the product.
- Find ways to have some form of authenticity documents attached to every product.
- This will immediately put you ahead of competitors. No one in the market does this and nothing compares to you.
- Rest assured, as many as there's people that don't mind wearing fakes for fashion, many still do cares.
- Provide assurance. And make sure it's BIG on your site. (e.g. Warranty). It can come in different packages. People dislike arrogant products where the seller doesn't care much about the stuffs they sell and just happened to be a postman. When you show that you care for your products. customer pays attention to this.
- Like some of us, we know that we can buy certain things cheaper. We know that we can service our car cheaper from the new workshop just across the street. But, we like going back to the old guy we know because he explains us stuff. He makes it personal. Although he's a little expansive. It's a relationship you want to keep. You prefer dealing with someone that understands you and make things personal, rather dealing with a corporate environment where they push you around.
- But how do you provide assurance? What if the items were carelessly handled by the user and claiming for a replacement? - There are many strategy around this. We can discuss this in another forum and time when such options are needed.
- Gone were the days where people makes noise over a RM5 chicken rice. Some of us would rather Pay RM7 for a packet and enjoy the food then RM5 for something just to fill the stomach. People tend to take personal taste and preference very closely in trend. Although global study relates this to a more "selfish" personality, but this is how things is. So... RM5 for a rubbish food that would make you full, or RM7 for the same portion but something you enjoy eating? Our parents may think differently, but their generations doesn't reflect how socials nowadays are optioning themselves to suggestions. Nowadays, logic works differently.
- So Yes, people don't mind spending and paying for something that's worth it. So you need to make it "look" worth it.

3. Re-Package the Products. .
- Is the box attractive? Do you know ladies go crazy over packaging materials? Does it matter? Yes!. Hell Yes. Packaging what makes some of the biggest company known today the way they are. It gives an impression of luxury, quality, surprises which leads to expectations. Not to mentioned, good packaging drives emotionally driven buyers when they're at the fence of undecided. So if the box is cool, make sure you show it.Learn to put attractive pictures and not just snap a picture like how we snap pics for food.
Neural Correlates of Impulsive Buying Tendencies during Perception of Product Packaging
- Most may consider this as gift items, while some for fashion... it must provide clear idea to the consumer how it's used
- Provide models wearing it. (Clear Zoom on the body parts)
- Clear Picture (Zoom) on the products. Shows the quality build. Shows your transparency where competitor just throw in picture
- People are skeptical that its something you buy from Alibaba for several bucks and pushing it like a grand item. All it takes it just a right click to "search google for images" and they will find reference to many of these items. Pricing comparison from others. And Potentially the Source of the item.
- It takes minutes to compare the pricing and when consumer start comparing and your products can't stand-out by itself... this is a sign of trouble.

Re-positioned your target audience
- Once you've got the items above done. Start moving into ads. Facebook ads for a start and see how the audience react to it. Start moving from one to another. You must always keep in mind, that not all ads works. You can do it, anyone can do it. Thus, people are tired of it. Mostly treated them as junks and spams and plug-ins and software now available to block them out. But, irrespective of such, the penetration level still exist.
- Online may be an option to have your products presented to the public. But if you want to hit the audience, start looking into having small booths organize where there are mass gathering. Association events are the best place to start this. Hundreds to thousands of people involved at a time.
- See if you can position this products as a charm? Have you consider this? ... IF you want to go this way, do it in a grand manner. Not those typical style.
- Have your brand reviewed by bloggers. Fashion bloggers that could make use of your products for their product showcase or videos, will have your names and products mentioned somewhere on their site. You need to make them see your item as something different although there are similar duplicates around. Make use and leverage of other's crowd.

All the above is to positioned your product. So that you could make proper sales rather than shot-gun style. Keep in mind, you don't need actual preparations as such will cost a lot. Use a lot of mock-ups and graphics to make it look ready. Research how branded/expansive items showcase their products. That's professional photography, angles and lighting. Don't try to be unique. Follow their ideas on how presentation is done. Try to get the right angles. Zoom-ins. Style of writings.

Don't try to be creative. Just see how the professionals do it. And Copy. Save time. Save money.

BUT, unless you plan to dish this and move out of the business fast which doesn't seem like it .... but if you do. I'll continue in another chapter.

For Old Friends,
1. Call them and say hi once in a while, keep it short.
2. Always remembers birthdays. Although you don't show up or see them in person. Such occasion puts you in a special place in their memories. (Use Siri)
3. Show up on special day if possible.

Friends normally those that we develop while working together. Staying up to 4-5am cracking our heads on problem solving. Our business partners are our friends. Our Investors are our friends. It's hard-nowadays to maintain friends that is not from the daily-circle-of-life as it takes too much effort and work. So we make everyone that's part of our company/circle as our friends.

The concept of friends have changed with technology. It's overrated to provide dedicated attention just for the maintenance of friendship. The lines between good/old/social/fun/sports friends is pretty much blurry.

Good advice man.
Remember that i ask u about food chain yesterday? I notice that nowadays ppl switch to food truck which i see quite popular (well depends on the area and what are u selling). What are your personal take on food trucks?

This post has been edited by zem: Oct 10 2016, 09:07 PM

Finished SPM last year . But no harm to start working on dreams early right? (wouldnt really count it early in these times though )

Bro..hope you don't mind...are you specialise in mlm? Why Asking teh tarik session at mid night?
Very suspicious fella...

No, the workload increased steadily. I shouldered the extra workload that the fresh graduates cannot manage or endure not due to their ignorance, but purely from their poor, lazy and selfish attitude. In the end I feel happier as I regained control and faith of our customers.

I don't do MLM. Those that have joined, you can ask them. Sometimes we have conversations. Discuss stuffs. Share ideas. Stuff like that. Looking for talents to hire.

Food truck

Investor type: Small
Profit from Investment: Slow
Risk: High Risk Investment
Capital: High Capital Investment

Before we start, many would say that It's a lot cheaper than running a restaurant where rental at 3000-4000 is nowhere close to having a 150k vehicle on loan for 9 years (about 1600+ a month) where additional profits and savings can be used to speed up the repayment and heck, it's an investment into a motor-vehicle and not a lost (Finally, vehicle that is worth buying where the loss of value is compensated... right? .Hmm Maybe)

This is the deal. Although it's a lot less maintenance, less manpower, less utility cost, less capital ... less everything when it comes to F&B compared to a fixed location, it is not a silver bullet for everyone hoping to jump into F&B.

Taking an example from truckers that I know, their operation hours may very between 10-12 hours depends on the days and weekends is something they need to extend up to 14 hours if they would like to hit some sales target.

At a meal that cost between 5-10 per set (lets average out to 7.5), he makes about 100-200 sales per day with an average monthly of 35,000 (nice number huh...). Well, that's gross. 40-50% goes to CGS (cost of food) and it's almost impossible to run a truck with such high sales number alone and thus, when you're hitting this kind of momentum, 2 assistance is common (and that's about 10%). Why is it so high? Well, they're not just working 12 hours a day during run-time, cause preparations takes a couple of hours sometimes, and with all the OT, it can be pretty high. 5% goes to the monthly repayment, 5% for the utilities, 5% for the petrol, 5% for the maintenance and if there is no misc cost to add up, from a 35k profit, you'll be lucky to walk away with 7-10k a month. Pay yourself a salary, it'll be much less profit to re-roll into the business.

How much room do we have for error?
- Well lets see, in layman (let's not go deep into actual calculations). You have about 3 days worth of room to spare before you hit break-even. Unless on certain days where sales exceed expectations, it may compensate for a much larger breathing space. But it's just too risky.
- So, in general. Lose 3 days and you break even. Lose 6 days and you lose your salary. Anything more, will hit directly into your business sustainability.

Depends on how you look at it, there's too many dependencies that may hurt the business.

1. Competitive pricing
- Too expansive and you lose the crowd. Too low, well .... This act of juggling is something we all love to do. Unless you hit the right spot, with the right crowd (luxury, upper class areas). Price may not really be the issue. Always keep in mind that 20% larger in portion and how you present your food may gives the impression of "worth it" to the customers. If you juggle this correctly, it may only cost you 5% more in CGS and offsetting that against the number of sales you make. This trick might just work.
2. New menu(s) to constantly please the audience and keep up with trends.
- This is something you cannot avoid. And with very little time at hand, this act of juggling what turns most food-trucks into scrap. The moment you get tired or decide to lock into a certain menu so you can have more time for other things to focus on, you start loosing the race and customers may dwindle. That is when most of them thought it would be brilliant to adopt hopping-policies and move around to keep things interesting. Well .... the numbers doesn't seem to favor the majority. To some that I know, if only they have the capital to sustain... they will surely hit into losses for the few months before gaining audience with regulars. And to those that manage to sustain with reserves, they bounce back into equilibrium. It may buy them longer time before loosing out or having to scout for a new area.
3. High-turn over rate (staffing)
- People come and go and depending on where you work and how you work, it is a very personalized industry. Your entire kitchen is open to public. Socials nowadays are very particular when it comes to selective hypocrisy. With a job that provide less rest, unless they're passionate about it, there's a chance they may not be in their best form and be prepared for replacement and retraining. This is always a headache.
4. Falling sick?
- With working over 14-16 hours a day. With not much time for family (unless your style of socializing is with your customers), chances of downtime is highly possible.
5. Locations
- You may want to move around until hitting the right spot and even so, once the hype in the area cools down, you will need to start hopping. It is this transition that shaken most investors and owners. Cause the margin for error is tight. And finding a sweet spot again, may hit you a week before actual sales can occur.
6. Authorities
- To some, this is still a hostile business where authorities are on the lookout. Although they may no longer tow your trucks unless it's illegally squatting on the wrong spot... but sometimes, the place they allocate is just not attractive enough. People doesn't go there much and the place that could make your sales is just to risky. Paying them, will hit your bottom-line further.

Future directions
What best to do after months of sales and securing a possible fixed/secure location, you should want to partner with a small landed business. Vape shops is an excellent partner to work with. Find a landed ones, and position your trucks there. Expand your food/drinks for their customers and workout a partnership with them (give something back since customer may use their facilities without vaping). The more crowd hangs around there, it'll be beneficial for both. Get in some gigs or live bands along the way. Get some trends or coverage for exposure. Call in the bloggers. Throw in discounts, packages for the regulars. Keep things interesting.

OR

Keep things cheap and simple, then float around constructions or factory areas. Target the masses. Even simple Nasi-lemak can be sold in the hundreds (taste good, or die). Just be prepared for competition.


Conclusion

Seriously, this is no longer about the business. It's passion, when you come to think about the commitment of time involved and the risk you faced when you decide to slack.The last thing anyone should do is jumping into this line thinking it's a quick fix to your pocket or something to fill in the blanks. If you do not persevere and doesn't have the passion for it, don't bother.

This post has been edited by Splynncryth: Oct 11 2016, 08:40 PM

I'll get back to you by tonight/tomorrow. The sales & services industry can be very tricky. Highly competitive. Let me try to get some perspective before replying.

Thank you

This post has been edited by Splynncryth: Oct 12 2016, 03:34 AM

Not many are lucky nowadays and less than 2% in Malaysia can actually retire with dignity (while some can't retire at all). I'd say you're one of the lucky few.


The definition of luck in business is not to be confused with "chances" or "miracles". Youngsters nowadays tend to overlook, downplay luck and shred it off as if the person receiving it happens to be liked by some supreme being or karma.

In today's life... miracles almost never exist.

It is the experience, exposure, personality, the people we're with, the kind of mindset we get ourselves into, the socials we entangled with ... that would have triggered the ideas or opportunity that we decide to act upon. - Luck

This post has been edited by Splynncryth: Oct 11 2016, 04:00 PM

My no1 problem