sell a tattoo sticker before
not fail but quit because the ROI is small

Years and years ago i used to be a salesman for engineering product and its services.

Met a lot of old uncle who is the business owner. Most with their sons in the business helping them.

Some of them already more then 67 years old and there is no way for them to retire as they fucuk up on finances and have to continue doing business just to pay back loans. Some only manage to settle interest of the loans. Some Uncle already emptied out their EPF but still owe alot of money. None wanna give up as they die die want to leave the business to their son. Got one uncle only pay his son a just graduate level pay even though the son is already helping him for at least 10 years.

You can see from their son/daughter face that they are absolutely not happy with their life,environment and work.

In the end had to cut ties as they take a long time to pay back the services and item ordered from me. And i can only get sales commission if they settle the amount.

I know a lot of sad details as my accountant friend audit their books, and kinda open the door for me to offer what i sell. It was a stupid mistake but i was young and desperate of making more money.

Hey sir, what do you think of real estate sector ?

Although I'm just a college student now running some part time biz but those are not sustainable in the LR, especially when I leave university.

I'm really interested in RE, but not in realtor/selling .

Smth like Property Management or REIT that has lower risk lower capital etc.

Any ideas ? Or do you have any friends in RE that made it big?

Sorry...just curious....how was that considered a mistake?

I had to spend a lot of time trying to get them to pay back me. My boss is constantly all over my butt telling me why dafuq i sell to a customer that has financial issue, a couple of guy in the office look at me all weird and stupid.

Learn a lot from those experience in my first "real" job.

Damn it was so many years ago.

I feel you bro...I run my own software company....at one point people owed me nearly 200k in unsettled dues and I still had to plough on and pay my own staffs with my own $$$. It was a damn lonely feeling...

Lots of stress, time and brain cells wasted trying to recover back the dues....had to go to lawyers twice (1 successful and 1 still ongoing) but its such a hassle.

wow i didn't expect such a detail and long reply. Thanks for the input

Anyway in summary, because i DIY everything, from website, to packaging, to product selection/some assembly/packaging/delivery, A to Z thus the cost is minimal.

So even if this turns out to be a complete failure, i wont make a huge loss.

As business to me is like gambling, you must be prepare to lose everything the moment you invest and step into it. So I'm kinda prepare for that.

Of course, I'd want a sustainable long-term one rather than just a short gain. Anyhow something small like this is a great learning opportunity for me as well before I have the guts to try something bigger.

Some replies in red below

Hi,

I've still sticking around with my main job which is on web, desktop and mobile development. Most of the time, involves full stack development from front end to back end.

Here's a thing, my main job is not giving high enough salary but with high enough freedom to go anywhere and work at any place as I want. Of course, I'm not abusing this freedom which for the past 10 years experience, I don't see such opportunity.

As for opportunity, I was juggling between online part time development job as well as trying to get a grip into game development mostly focus on mobile.

I don't think the part time development is sustainable in long term but I do need those extra income whereby it is not stable at all. As long as I'm not tied to any part time development, I will start learning and venturing deeper into mobile gaming development. The thing is, while trying to think of simple idea and work ahead on it, I constantly found myself lacking on drawing and animation skill. So, I just use those gibberish type of static arts and play around with it.

I did contact one of my ex-colleague regarding his intention to join me on venturing this mobile game development because I need ideas and his prowess skill on drawing and animating. It seems that he needs some development cost on his side and unable to venture deeper due to uncertainty which I do agree. Unless I came out a brilliant game idea and discuss with him, I doubt I have any potential to have him onboard.

From what I can understand, in order to pull off, I need a developer(mobile + server) which I'm fully responsible, a planner + marketer which responsible for marketing as well as sharing idea and lastly, an animator. Otherwise, this will be a constant hang around without proper move forward as far as I'm concern.

I've even came across a few games development companies that what they did was eventually developed several types of games on mobile to get which games has higher percentage of income through in-app purchase. But somehow, the volume didn't speaks much and after 3 to 4 months after each games released, they resorted to add in ads for extra income.

To be honest, to have a game as easy as flappy bird to hit the spot, I don't even dream of it but I was thinking of developing games to see any potential to hit off.

Mind to share what's your thought on this?

Maybe in future you can pass to us the CCTV contract

Thanks for ur feedback later

Great view man! I was thinking on investing in one. But not sure how's the trend now.

This post has been edited by ciahcra: Oct 13 2016, 09:43 PM

some people think my business fail ,

it is never end , it is just beginning , i will increase my business time to time my salary in , and the more i stable the more stock i keep

Seems to be a hot trend for new generations to open cafe, dessert and restaurants around pj eg uptown, ttdi, dsara jaya, ss2, bangsar, dsara heights etc

All seems to be surviving eg no closure for >1 year as far i know

I believe I owe you this reply weeks back. I apologize due to the hectic schedule I got myself into in our company restructuring, have taken most of my time off the net.

Now, there can be hundreds of marketing style where one can dwell into but the fundamental behind this business is clear.

1. It’s saturated, – there’s many other there that could mimic or setup similar services with minimal setup cost.
2. It’s price competitive – with companies that’s willing to bulk up on their capital with stock purchases would have better discounts and penetration in the eyes of consumer/users. They can have better price, newer tech, but the issue of having to push their stocks out before rendering them obsolete can be a mess. But in this industry, technology development moves quite slowly. Until today, we still see installations which are sub-par in quality and to make matters worse, no one really cares what brand CCTV that you carry and to some, technical superiority is not a concern.
3. It’s limited market penetration – targeting institutions would run you out faster compared to the ever developing construction market. Although not many houses bother with one, especially with the development of high-rise housing complex, CCTV requirements are minimal to the users but more to the management company. Then again, less market penetration.


Off-Script – Uncharted Territories – May not be you but I’m trying to Conceptualize

I’m trying to put myself in your shoes. With statement like unable to expand or hire and with break-even net. It won’t be long before it starts burning into your pockets just to keep it running. This is just not the way how business should run. If one foresee going into this trend with no plans in place to turn it over, rest assured it’s better to cut your losses and bail out.

Most probably, what’s keeping you here is just the customer loyalty, passed down from one generation to another, the satisfaction of users compliments and the thought of not betraying their trust when someone else appear in behalf of your company and do a sub-par job. The reputation. The very same customer that have come over-again recommending and at some point assist in the sales and growth of your company.

But, irrespective of all this. One of the reason why you have not bail-out from this industry is because you just don’t know where to go. What to do next. You know it’s not going to last. You know it’s causing financial stress. But, you’re still here. So here’s the thing. Perseverance may look all nice in “quotes” and “motivation class”, but in reality. It can break family. It can get people killed.

Let’s break it down. Quick Wins Strategy.

Some may look into the product that they carry and see which is marketable. But we’re going to do this in reverse. Since I do not know in detail of the product that you carry. But from a general standpoint, we could all roughly classify which industry and areas of market penetration you and jump into fast.


From the information given, I assume you’re running this business marketing independently. Basically, no formal partnership established as in “alliance” with other businesses to help carry your products. Bundle it with theirs and market as an “alliance” rather “individually”.
Let me run one example:

1. Website – Make sure you have one. Doesn’t have to be updated frequently, but with tech nowadays, they will always reference back to something. And this can be a good platform to have further details explained or FAQ addressed. It’s almost a no-brainer that is it needed as a fundamental support platform.

2. Established marketing partners – Until today, most companies carrying similar product segments tends to “brute force” their marketing and have it spammed across the board through flyers. Housing areas, offices, etc... We get hundreds of these papers all over the place and rest assured most of us tend to throw it upon getting it. It’s at the back of the head when we need it, why not just look up the net for suppliers. Although some number of sales can derive from these method, but considering your financial stand-point, it is not a luxury we can afford now.

_____A. Hostels, Offices come and go. People rent and leave. The turnover exist quite frequently now with markets tightening. However, these equipments are still niche and is something in demand for these groups. Many new tenant may install new equipments and this is where you need to penetrate.

_________I. Bundle your packages (make sure your brochures, flyers when handed out are interesting, straight forward highlighting the thing they want to see the most, cost-savings and value-add). Don’t just go for one time sales and expect maintenance to kick-in for supporting income. Come up with a yearly plan. Thus, giving the consumer the value-add that they need. E.g. Access System may cost 400+ with installation with a bunch of cards and if you need attendance added in, the charge is more, additional cards? Charge per card, added access control for other doors, more charge…. In total, a sum of 1000-2000 may be something a new office under renovation is willing to consider since they have allocated some budget for it, but throwing in a 1200 a year subscription (all support inclusive) can lock them in for a longer term. Also, once they leave, these equipments are re-usable rather one off. Imagine throwing these subscriptions to an office that last only 6-12 months? What if the equipments you give are part of the re-cycled installations (taken from past-subscription)? It’s almost no cost there with immediate profit. After amortization, you can immediately package the deal cheaper across the board and have stronger referrals anywhere.

_________II. Talk to the Management Office. Get them on your side. If they allow you to place a banner/bunting at strategic location (preferably near the management office itself or entry-exit point), that would be awesome. People will always walk to the management office, either to complaint, pay monthly service fees, parking rental, etc.…there will always be audience at such location. Split some profit to them. Keep in mind, if you’re going into subscription services, make sure they get a slice of the pie (monthly) as well. As they start getting these supplementary incomes and it steadily growing by the month, they indirectly become your aggressive marketers without you knowing it. Be generous. It’s a number game. Each management office may be in-charge of tens to hundreds of tenants. This easily hats-off “brute-force” marketing with flyers anytime.

_________III. Partner with Interior Designers/Architect/Construction Firm. These group of people are always on the lookout. They work almost in the same market/client-zone as you but from a different perspective. The new trend for ID are to partner with owners that’s on the lookout to have their property leased or rented out. They could furnish the entire house and have the rental doubled compared to an empty unit. This also applies to offices and with trends of small offices on the rise, they have stronger market penetration where your equipments can be part of their package. This will passively push your products leveraging on alliances business customer.

_________IV. Get it on the net. Mudah. Lelong. Lowyat. Etc... Make sure it's out there where people can find you when they need one. There's a lot of free-options available on the net. Don't pay for advertising yet. Start small.

_____B. Again, bundle-value-add-subscription. Come up with an attractive plan. Look into your numbers seriously and do some projections.

3. The Fundamentals

_____A. I don’t have the resources for the website, flyers, brochures. Tight budget. No Budget. Can’t do it myself either. How?
_________I. We’re blessed with this forum. Find someone that could help you design one. Discuss with them on how you can reimburse when the business kicks in. Work out a package. To the expert, it’s just a matter of hours to have it done. It’s not even a pinch on their life. By giving them your products and information, they would have some ideas how to put it together.
_________II. But, as much as we think people are nice, sometimes, or in most cases, It’s impossible to find them nowadays. They rather nag and spam on forums for hours. We’re living in a more selfish environment whether we like it or not. It’s all about what is it in for us?
_________III. Well, if you’ve tried and have seriously tried and there’s no one here nice enough to assist, buzz me up. I’ll have my graphic designer help you on these one. They’re already tight up to their nose but I’m sure they can find a little time if they eat faster or sleep less ( I dunno…).

_____B. How do I establish marketing partners and alliances?
_________I. The hard way. Look it up. Go out and meet people. Talk to companies. Talk to management offices. There’s no shortcut to relationship.

_____C. Might need some capital to restructure my business?
_________I. Come up with a plan. I'm sure there's some investors lurking around this place. Post it up and keep me in the loop. I'll definitely consider if your plans are serious.

This post has been edited by Splynncryth: Nov 12 2016, 01:09 PM

Started a logistic tech business.
Made approximately 6000 ringgit revenue, profit about 3k in my first two weeks.
Too much competitors and I need to study abroad.
So I call it a quit.
Many investors wanted to invest in me , but they required me to do it full-time.
And quit my studies.
Ain't nobody got time for that.

How did you keep it from melting?

Styrofoam box ??

I got time for that

I'm curious now how did you not have melting ice cream carrying it around in the tropical heat? and a styrofoam box full of ais krim potong is pretty heavy.

Is it actually possible for a styrofoam box to keep ais krim potong from melting for hours? I know if I buy ice cream it lasts for about ten minutes before it starts melting. And how did you carry the box?

This post has been edited by wodenus: Nov 12 2016, 12:25 PM

it's a portable fridge if u put ais into it,.. i still use it to chill my beer,.. some more small kid go rounding village is not long,.. maybe 1 hour already tired,..

how did you carry it?

This post has been edited by wodenus: Nov 12 2016, 12:27 PM