A couple of months ago, my family moved into a new place near the Old Airport Road hawker centre. We decided to have some interior design work done by the designer who did our last place.

Back then, it was a small set up with him as the lead designer. There were several other design firms with more experienced designers to choose from but we decided to take a leap of faith and engage his services. We had an excellent experience with him and even recommended his company to our friends. In particular, we enjoyed the personalised service and attention to detail.

A couples of years down the road, his company has grown and now has a partner who specialises in interior design for commercial properties. Going back to the company that did good work for us before should have been a safe choice yes? – Apparently not. There were problems with the designs, the technology was not updated and the attitude was terrible.

When we relayed our dissatisfaction to the partner, excuses came flying out and nothing changed. When we brought this up to our first designer, they vehemently defended each other and pushed the blame to us. The exchange reminded me of the battle of Helm’s Deep from Lord of the Rings where the Aragorn and gang defended Helm’s Deep from Saruman’s army of Uruk-Hai. The designers’ determination and effort put into defending their actions was commendable. Of course this would mean that I am Uruk-Hai and they get to be Legolas skating down the stairs shooting arrows.

In response to the crappy materials and shoddy workmanship, a simple “I don’t think we can work with each other anymore.” was their final response. At this point, we were 70% into the entire project, no designer would continue the job from there! We could either stick to our guns and end up with an incomplete house or settle for crappy work and at least get the place done.

This got me thinking. How do small business compete with the big boys? What can they provide that gives them a competitive edge? It turns out that there are only two.

1. Superior customer service and experience

The distance between the decision makers and the customer in a small business is shorter than that in a corporation. Customer service is not just about being nice or succumbing to every request made my the customer. Superior customer service involves understanding your customer’s needs, not from your perspective, but from theirs. For example, telling the customer in a polite manner that something cannot be done because it is against company policy isn’t good customer service. Understanding why the customer made the requests in the first place, making a case to management and following up with the customer is.

Sometimes consumers cannot tell the difference between two products. Most of a consumer’s perceptions of a product or company stems isn’t rational. Some people will buy Coke over Pepsi regardless of how many times Pepsi claims to taste better. Some people will buy Apple products even if it is more expensive than comparable products elsewhere. You can’t objectively scale a product’s visual appeal from 1-10 because it is too subjective. In the end, people make decisions based on perceptions and if you as a small business don’t value your customer’s needs, someone else out there will.

2. Innovation through understanding

Generally, large corporations push products. They have a process of research, product development, testing and finally after many levels of approval, get brought to market. Small businesses, on the other hand, tend to shape their product according to the needs of the customer. Or at least, they should. As a small business, you have the luxury of getting to know your customers. There is no need to spend thousands of dollars on market research, just spend a few minutes asking your customers what you want to know.

Some people claim that innovation is expensive and they don’t have a budget to pursue it. Others claim that it is a luxury that small businesses cannot afford. I disagree. Innovation can be seen as “doing something in a manner different from existing ways.” The mere action of improving upon a product or service offered by your small business can be considered innovation. After all, you need to provide your customers with a reason to buy your product! As a small business, you don’t need to submit a 100 page proposal to management to propose a change or improvement in your product/service, you just need to shout across the room, figuratively speaking. Keep asking yourself why would your customer choose you over others and if you can’t give a satisfactory answer, then maybe it’s time to rethink your business proposition.

In the end, your customers are everything. No customer = no sales = no revenue = no cash flow = dead business. Maybe it’s time to change how you treat your customers. Let me know what you think.

-Terence

It has been a roller coaster ride for us these past few months and despite a lack of updates from us, we’re still alive and kicking! We’ve had several changes within the company and it frees up some time for me to contribute on the company blog. In this first of hopefully many posts to come, I would like to highlight several important events that have shaped our company’s growth.

1. People come, people go.

We’ve seen our beloved Shara, Shuna & Oliver come and go. They will always be known fondly as “founding interns”. We’ve also welcomed our newest team member, Roslyn, and our first ever intern from Ngee Ann Polytechnic, Malvika.

2. Our pride and joy.

We take great pride in every student that comes through our metaphorical doors and when they emerge as winners in their own rights, sometimes we feel the need to shout it out at the top of our lungs! We claim no credit for their achievements because they’ve worked so hard to get to where they are. We’re just happy to have lead them to their own Epiphanies. Below are pictures of some of our students.

Team Vermi, Winners of SAGE Nationals in Singapore

Team Vermi from SAJC, part of our Students for the Advancement of Global Entrepreneurship (SAGE) outreach. They went on to win SAGE Nationals in Singapore and took home USD$1000 worth of prize money from SAGE Global.

The 3 team members who went to South Africa for SAGE Global

Team Ripples Inc. from RIJC during the SAGE Workshop

Team Ripples Inc. from RIJC, also part of SAGE. They were runners up at SAGE Nationals and emerged as overall champion of SAGE Global.

Karthik at PESA 2010 Finals, picture courtesy of PESA Facebook

Karthik s/o Prathaban, ICON Ambassador from Innova Junior College (IJC) who eventually became the first ever finalist representative of IJC at the Plain English Speaking Awards (PESA).

For photographs of more students who we believe will and have also become more confident presenters, entrepreneurs and students, please visit our Facebook Fan Page.

3. Wonderful support from our clients

There’s no hiding that we’re a young company with young trainers. We wouldn’t have made it thus far without the support and belief from our clients. We’re encouraged by the positive feedback we’ve received and will continue pushing the boundaries of traditional methods. We sincerely thank all who believed in us and rest assured as promised – we try harder to do more for you and your students.

4. What’s next?

We have a line up of exciting commentaries, programmes and partnerships coming up so we’re very excited to keep moving along. Stay tuned, learning might never be the same again.

-Terence

A subconscious theme
Nope, this is not a spooky story about the lady in white or Big Brother spying on your income streams. The concept of “the one behind” is a subconscious one, for many. However, it is an evident theme on a personal, national and even global level.

The One (standing) Behind
You may not notice this, but TOB is present in several courtesy campaigns or lessons in morality. For instance, SMRT’s “Standing Left is the Right thing to do” encourages passengers to take root on the left-hand side of escalators so that other passengers in haste can dash up (or down) on the right side. Holding the door open for those behind you is always much appreciated. A series of Chew on it comics highlight the karmic consequences to those who fling water on toilet floors or sleep in libraries. Seen from a superficial level, this is literally caring for those visibly behind you.

We are The Ones Behind
On a more serious note, cross-generational TOB is a problem that politicians and ministers alike are losing sleep over. In the US, 43% of citizens have less than $10,000 for retirement (see video on US Melt-up). At home, we are now The Ones Behind who will have to provide for 95% of the elderly population (Asia Times), with a mere three persons paying entirely for an elderly person’s survival. Coupled with the fact that Singapore is going to be the 2nd oldest nation by 2030..splurging on that iPhone4 doesn’t seem like such a good idea now (http://techielobang.com/blog/2010/06/08/it-is-official-singapore-will-have-iphone-4-in-july-2010/)

Leaving our earth intact for The Ones Behind
The facts are undeniable – we are depleting our earth of its resources, slowly but surely. In fact, the World Wildlife Fund predicts that our earth will expire by 2050. Our children, TOB, will have to magically colonize two planets of their choice because we, their parents, have left them with an earth devoid of resources. A bit less air-conditioning, a pail of water reused, a stack of paper recycled will go a long way. http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2002/jul/07/research.waste

P.S. This article originated because my sisters left dishes in the sink behind for me to wash ):
-stella

what do you put your faith in?
your ability to dump truckloads of cash at Prada? the confident announcement of the state to provide free healthcare? your current luxurious life?

that’s what the US trusted in.

after a mere 13 minutes of watching this doom&gloom documentary, the scary truth hit – the selflessness of the entire nation cannot bail the government out, 43% of the people have less than $10k for retirement (poverty in old age or burdensome social security?), grossly inaccurate (100-1000plus%) forecast budgets, the rich living it up with dom perignon and caviar while an increasing number bank their hopes on food coupons…

i leave the rest to you to watch

really, God bless America.

-stella

For ages, one event has been capturing readers’ attention in the news: affairs. Recently, Jack Neo and Tiger Woods’ affairs have shocked audiences in Singapore and the world respectively. The lesson we can gather is simple: be honest. This is applicable to both entrepreneur and public speaker.
As an entrepreneur, often the ethics of business reside in a grey area. Should I exaggerate my sales figures if they can still be justified? Should I compromise on product quality or service excellence if my customers can still tolerate or accept it? The solution to this is simple. Don’t cheat on your “wife” – the set of values and morals you first married and devoted yourself to. Your side-fling with the dodgy and questionable? As a friend puts it aptly, “It will haunt you dey”. Just like the affairs of these two famous people, this could possibly harm and devastate yourself, your business and possibly cause you to face your “wife” – your values, in shame.

Public speakers are not spared from this. Just like a celebrity, public speakers also stand in the limelight, subject to scrutiny from the audience or public. Every single word, action is dissected under a microscope mercilessly. Often, it is ever so easy to “fluff”, to over-exaggerate, to tell a half-truth in exploitation of the fact that audiences are not experts on the topic. In this scenario, the public speaker who talks in an untruthful manner is likely to let slip or contradict himself – almost like a celebrity who is caught unaware or photographed coming out of sleazy hotels and night-clubs. The embarrassment is painful – the Jack Neo video tells it all.

Jack Neo's wife breaks down! 梁智强太太记者会崩溃!
Read the story here.

The age-old message is drab but clear: honesty is the best policy

-stella

Yet another year has come and gone. We bid farewell to another exciting year packed with lots of events – heartwarming, shocking and others terrifying. We saw the world panic in the light of the H1N1 pandemic. We mourned for the death of countless in the Australian bushfires, Philippines earthquakes.

(Source: http://www.telegraph.co.uk)

We bade farewell to the King of Pop, Michael Jackson.

(Source: www.aceshowbiz.com/)

We watched as the U.S. welcomed her 4th president – Barack Obama and indulged in the dissection of Michelle Obama’s wallet-friendly wardrobe in gossip magazines.

(Source: http://www.telegraph.co.uk)

We struggled to keep afloat in the economic crisis. We rushed to get new iPhones and embraced the touch-screen revolution. In Singapore, non-smokers got a fresh breath of air with yellow-boxes being drawn and smoking bans re-inforced.

(Source: http://www.pma-show.com)

The nation debated over the upcoming IRs, received Resilience packages with grateful hands and welcomed the new Circle line. What a year!

Now that all in 2009 has been said and done, it’s time to reflect on the past year and start 2010 on a new note. What are YOUR greatest achievements, disappointments, lessons learnt?

How much headway did you make, in gathering your stage confidence and conveying your thoughts?

(Source: http://joshpease.files.wordpress.com)

How much did you progress, in becoming financially literate and being a good steward (or stewardess) of your money?

(Source: http://cabelfoundation.org)

Most importantly, what are your resolutions for the new year? Your resolutions that aim to BETTER what you have achieved in 2009, and correct or avoid the mistakes that you made?

When writing your resolutions, be sure to:

1. Set specific goals. For example, instead of writing “I want to be more punctual”, resolve to “Be on time for at least 90% of my appointments”

2. Set realistic goals. Balance ambition with reality! If you are drawing a $1,000 monthly salary, ask yourself how realistic it is to aim for a grand total of $50,000 in annual savings.

3. Set goals you have power over. This means that resolving to “win the lottery” is probably not such a great idea!

Let’s start the new year on the right track, shall we (:

-stella

In his recent speech at Stanford University, Steve Jobs encouraged the graduates to view life’s setbacks, even death, as opportunities for greater things. Granted, our future may not shine as brightly as his multi-million empire, but we are definitely successes in our very own right – if we can truthfully and confidently say we are.

In the three stories he shared, he brought up three main points:

1. Connecting the Dots
Remember those picture books where drawing lines will get you a pretty flower at the end of the activity? Life is somewhat like that! Penciling in a line from one dot to another is just like sitting through a seemingly irrelevant module in school – there appears to be no purpose. In his speech, Steve Jobs’ point was that we can only see the purpose behind connecting the dots when we look backward! So one of the direct takeaways is that we should never discredit what we are learning, and be patient in reaping the fruits of our labor.

2. Love and loss
A phrase I hold dear to my heart is “To love is to let go”. Steve Jobs acknowledged the beauty of him being losing his Apple job when it gave him the opportunity to set up Pixar, meet his wife, amongst others. Even in his disappointment, he realized that what kept him going was that he loved what he did – and letting go of Apple, albeit temporarily, opened many other doors for him to greater pursue his passion! With regard to your work, hobbies, choices in life – are you loving it?

3. Live each day as if it is your last
This is nothing new, I’m sure many of us have heard this so many times that it has almost become white noise that our ears block out. However, truly internalizing this gem of wisdom is another story. Often, it takes a near-death experience or loss of a loved one for us to realize the scarcity of time, or the fragility of life. So right now, don’t let life pass you by. To be morbid, we’ll never know when we’ll go, so carpe diem!

Just some food for thought, Steve Jobs’ parting words:
“Stay hungry, stay foolish”

-stella

http://www.asiaone.com/News/Education/Story/A1Story20091202-183530.html

To many students, I’m sure that a score of, say, 200 for PSLE would be reason for much weeping and mourning. However, to Xin En, a score of 90 meant the world, and meant a new record for children afflicted with Down’s Syndrome in Singapore.

Every person is born with an impediment. This may come as a shock, or an unnecessarily harsh statement; but really, no one is perfect. Be it a socially unfriendly habit of clipping nails on the MRT, or bad debts incurred with history textbooks in a past life, or the too-common fear of public speaking, everyone has an Achilles heel. What this inspirational achievement can tell us is to take small steps. Yes, to dream big, but also to celebrate the small footholds gained along the way, the little triumphs often overlooked.

In the movie “Slap Her, She’s French”, the lead character’s dream was to become a newscaster. Ignoring the underhanded means, bribery she took to reach her goal, one attribute that led her to finally succeed was that of long-term planning. She established a clear end goal for herself, and had a checklist of performance markers along the way: winning Miss Texas, attaining a weight target, etc. In the same way, to overcome or fully conquer our weaknesses, the same techniques could be applied.

For instance, if I wanted to be able to deliver an enthusiastic and passionate speech about my pet dog, but I quiver and stutter every single time, the checklist would look something like this:

1. Stop quivering for half the presentation
2. Lose consciousness of movements only a few times
3.  Only stutter on 20 words
4. Only stutter on 10 words
5. Only stutter once or twice during the speech
6. Remember to smile at the storm – when the speech is not going well
7. Smile during the first 3 minutes of speech
8. Smile for half the speech
9. Smile at all the appropriate parts

…and so on. The point is, success takes patience! For Xin En, this triumph in overcoming her disabilities and keeping the faith in herself, was probably very trying. But the perseverance and patience did pay off, and while mine or your “disability” may not be so drastic or devastating, it might mean nothing to the world, but it will definitely mean the world to me and to you.

-stella

http://www.smu.edu.sg/news_room/smu_in_the_news/2009/sources/ST_20090926_1.pdf

How much is a burger worth?

The Big Mac index has been widely used as a measurement of price level in a country. According to the study, and using the prices of Big Macs and wages across countries as a benchmark, comes statistical confirmation that, yes, living standards are higher in Singapore.

As mentioned in the study, one of the two main questions relevant to financial literacy is:
Do Singaporeans lead better lives than they did in the past?

We often hear our grandparents nagging and reminding us about their tumultuous and impoverished pasts, of scavenging for sweet potato and having that rare sliver of meat during only special occasions. There are two things we can consider, in response to this question.

Firstly, are we counting our blessings? We may think that our parents reminding us of the starving African children during meal-times are just one of their tricks to get us to eat our greens (together with ‘the police will catch you’), but it’s actually a wake-up call for us to give thanks for our food. Rather than whining about having to switch from latte to kopi-o, why not just be thankful we have safe drinking water and caffeine?

Secondly, can we really buy these better lives? Will getting that Blackberry make our lives happier when on one hand, it is a cool gadget we can boast of, but on the other hand, is essentially an umbilical cord to your job. The question to ask here, is what exactly are our priorities? Are we able to, using our available finances, reconcile health, wealth and happiness?

Financial literacy is looking beyond the monetary value of items. It is understanding the satisfaction and necessity we glean from our material items, moderating them in order to maximize the utility from the finances we have. It’s about regulating your emotions – giving thanks and finding happiness in the little or much you’ve been blessed with or earned.

-stella

http://www.todayonline.com/Singapore/EDC090827-0000112/Teachers-chart-own-path

For many students, education is yet another inevitable phenomenon in life, just like taxes or death. To the rare few who genuinely enjoy their classes, it’s an enriching learning process. But recent articles have given me a renewed perspective on learning.

There is an overused saying which goes “to teach is to learn twice”. Yes, it is only natural and even unavoidable that by repeating the same facts to class after class, the teacher not only is blessed with the opportunity to learn twice, but an infinite number of times. However, did you know that our very own teachers have been actually encouraged, through their lessons, to learn various skills and attain a plethora of knowledge pools, for the first time?

Have you ever reflected upon the Ministry of Education’s “Teach Less, Learn More” campaign? The common interpretation is that teachers should “spoon-feed” students with less information and instead spur them toward independent learning. But could it be that teachers are encouraged to invest less time on teaching and more time on their own learning, with the purpose of providing higher-quality guidance in future?  

Teachers and students are not very much different from each other. Both are counterparts walking hand-in-hand on this learning journey. I’m not referring to the heartwarming life-lessons that are overly televised. For students, most importantly, their characters and even futures are moulded in these important formative years. (Honestly, how often do you twiddle with your abacus or draw a bar diagram?) But better still, for the teachers, they are able to plan their learning, chart their own path – and in giving back the knowledge passed down to them, develop their own success skills.

My point is: be an enthusiastic learner. Help yourself, and help your teachers to help themselves.

-Stella