zahari@the entrepreneur street

Jangan Terlepas Pandang!

2008-12-23T16:27:00.000-08:00

Hari raya Korban yang lepas, seperti biasa saya sekeluarga pulang ke kampung FELDA Ulu Jempol, Jengka, Pahang. Suasana meriah dengan hiruk pikuk apabila kesemua adik beradik dan keluarga mereka berkumpul.(kecuali seorang beraya di rumah mertuanya di Bangi) Walaupun bagaimana pun di dalam suasana meriah tersebut masih terasa suasana sedih. Masih terasa kehilangan Ibu yang kami sangat cintai - pulang menemui Ilahai.

Selain berhari raya pertama kali tanpa Ibu, suasana raya kali ini juga agak berbeza. Kami berhari raya di rumah baru. Bapa saya, Tuan Haji Sharit bin Muhammad sudah menyiapkan rumah batu yang telah lama menjadi idamannya. Lebih membanggakannya, beliau membina banglo "fully air-con" berharga lebih dari RM200,000.00 itu dengan wang TUNAInya sendiri.

Hujan yang berlarutan semenjak 3 hari sebelum hari raya menyebabkan aktiviti kami agak terhad di dalam rumah. Saya perhatikan anak-anak saya dan anak-anak saudara mempunyai aktiviti baru. Kalau dahulu mereka sibuk dengan aktivit lasak, berlari di laman rumah, mengejar ayam dan itek dsb tetapi kali ini cukup berbeza. Kini mereka semua terlalu sibuk dan alpa dengan aktiviti online. Wireless yang baru sahaja "Pak Anjang" pasang di gunakan sepenuhnya. Kesemua 4 biji lap-top yang dibawa pulang oleh saya dan adik beradik yang lain dikerjakan sepenuhnya oleh mereka.

Apabila berkumpul adik beradik antara topik yang kami suka bualkan ialah tentang perniagaan masing-masing. Kami semua 8 beradik berkerjaya dalam bidang perniagaan (seorang lagi masih berniaga sambil berkeja), semuanya berminat dengan keusahawanan. Kami terlibat dalam pelbagai bidang perniagaan, dari peruncitan, pembinaan hinggalah ke ICT.

Daripada kesemua yang kami bincangkan, saya sangat tertarik dengan cerita kejayaan adik bongsu saya - Ijam. Empat tahun yang lepas beliau bermula dengan menjual kad pra bayar di rumah. Beliau melakukannya setelah tidak ada pilihan lain selepas menamatkan pelajarannya di UiTM Shah Alam. Satu kad yang berharga RM10.00 beliau akan mendapat kurang dari RM0.50 Secara metamatiknya saya simpulkan satu perniagaan yang tidak menarik.

Walau bagaimana pun semakin hari, beliau dengan gigih mengembangkan perniagaannya. Dengan watak "pak lawak"nya beliau dalam masa yang singkat berjaya membina rangkaian yang besar. Daripada menjual terus kepada pengguna, kini beliau juga menjadi pembekal kepada ramai agen di seluruh Jengka. Bermula secara suka-suka kini beliau telah mempunyai 4 buah kedai telefon di Bandar Jengka. Yang lebih menarik lagi, apabila beliau memberi tahu turn-overnya bagi tahun 2008 melebihi RM12,000,000.00 Saya mencongak, beliau boleh menyimpan keuntungan ke dalam poketnya sekurang-kurang RM20,000.00 sebulan.

Jika anda seorang peniaga atau usahawan (terutama yang kecil-kecilan) tentu anda faham makna RM12,000,000.00. Contohnya, jika anda seorang kontraktor kelas "C" anda perlukan 3-4 projek setahun untuk mendapat turn-over sebesar ini. Dalam keadaan ekonomi gawat dan kekurangan projek, angka begini memang sukar untuk dicapai. Begitu juga jika anda menjadi pembekal barangan atau perkhidmatan ke jabatan kerajaan dsb.

Saya salut kepada adik bongsu saya ini! Saya lihat semangat dan cita-cita beliau begitu besar. Beliau banyak memiliki ciri-ciri usahawan berjaya. Doa saya semoga beliau berjaya menjadi multi millionaire dalam masa yang terdekat ini.

Sebagai usahawan, pernahkah anda terfikir apakah satu jenis perniagaan yang kelihatan tidak glamour dan menguntungkan tetapi boleh mendatangkan HASIL yang jauh lebih BERBALOI? Jadi marilah kita terus berikhtiar dan yang lebih penting, Jangan Terlepas Pandang sebarang peluang peniagaan begini.

Pareto Law - What would you believe?

2008-12-22T02:44:00.000-08:00

I believe many of us heard about the Pareto law or also well known as 80-20 principle. The law was resulted of Parato’s observation on how 80% of the land in Italy was owned by 20% of the population. From there, the law has been interpreted unlimited ways of application in recent days.

Following how the law has been understood. (Excerpt from http://home.alltel.net/mikeric/Misc/Pareto.htm)

Applied to Meetings: 80% of decisions come from 20% of meeting time.

Applied to Managerial Headaches: Roughly 80% of your managerial problems and headaches are caused by just 20%of your problems.

Applied to product defects: Roughly 20% of the input errors typically cause the lion's share of defects.

Applied to Business Units: Roughly 20% of a company's business units will produce 80% of the annual revenue.

The list can go on and on….

I neither fancy nor against this law. To me, it not so important about the law, but the more important is when we see many people understood it destructively. As a result, they are lack of drive for action being reason they are only working 20% and able to produce 80% of results. There is no work hard in their vocabulary.

For example, many people have so many great ideas. In the other word, ideas do not really a matter to them. Every time you speak to these types of person, you would believe they are great people. But if you go deeper, seeing their achievement, you would realize they are nothing more than “talk only”. Their result is much lesser compared to what they should attain from their “great ideas”

Why?

From my observations, these kinds of people can’t go through their first hurdle. They lack of ACTION! For example, if they have 100 ideas they only execute the most 20 of them. They don’t realize out of 20 ideas they implement, only 20% or less have a chance to succeed. Their basic principle is - do less and get more!

What would you believe?

Writing a proposal to a Ministry

2008-12-20T19:25:00.000-08:00

Saturday, December 20, 2008, 11:40pm… Just to take short break for now. A bit exhausted after 3 days in a row working for my latest project – Proposal for Ministry of Youth and Sports. This is my first long write up after I had done it for 20,000 words dissertation in a few years back.

Writing a proposal to a ministry is not the same as we write a dissertation or book. A lot of home works need to be done. The scope of proposal is so broad. We should know which one is relevant and not. There is not fixed rules. This time I under-took this project in group. We divide our scope into three sections. I take on technical section.

The government departments received thousand of proposal every year. If you have a brilliant ideas, you proposal has a great chances to be accepted and implemented. If not don’t waste of you resources working on it. Now, I’m asking myself, am I doing the right things?

Know Our Customers

2008-12-16T07:24:00.000-08:00

There is nothing more important than keep ourselves close to our customers. I always take my best effort to know them in person. I enjoy most when asking about their experiences using our services. I pay full attention to their answers. Recently, I had the opportunity to be with them. They were from Institut Perguruan Perlis, Politeknik Kuching and Universiti Malaysia Pahang.

Communicate with customers is one of our prime tasks as an entrepreneur. The more we know, the more we will understand them. The more we understand them, the more we can take care of them. If we take care enough of them, they will come back to us again and again. This is equally means more business.

You are what you publish!

2008-12-02T17:34:00.000-08:00

Yesterday I had my lunch alone. Once in awhile I take chicken rice for my lunch at one of the stalls nearby my office – just for a quick lunch.

As usual, it was is not easy to get the seat. There were less tables compared to the customers. I sat down at one of the tables immediately after a group of man finished their lunch.

Next to my table was a table with three ladies. One of them was so much over weigh. She almost triples the size of her friends. They were enjoying their chicken rice. After about 2 minutes, I got my order and started my lunch. Gosh! Before I finish half of my plate, the lady ordered another plate. She ate twice of the volume compared to ordinary people. No wonder her size was double or triple than ordinary people. To me, this is a proof what people are saying “you are what you eat”

Similarly, in blog and web spear people say “you are what you publish” If you publish quality & valuable things for people, you will get them back from the people. I hope to see and proof it to myself soon.

Who inspire you most?

2008-12-01T00:45:00.000-08:00

This morning I had a break first with a few friends. As usual, we had a casual talk until I opened my mouth that I'm a new blogger in town now. None of them pay serious attention to the blog sphere although they follow a fews popular blogs for news. I told them what make me jumped into the bandwagon. I told them the power of blogging. Blog is not only for your activities during free time but it a part of your works as an entrepreneur.

One of them asked me, why only now do I started blogging? He suggested, I should started way back in 2004. To me, it is very simple, I would rather late then never. Although I heard about the blogging since before 2004, I had no strong reason start. But reading David Meerman Scott - The New Rules of Marketing & PR really shifted my paradigm.

We went deeper and discussed why do I chose to write about entrepreneur. And who is my icon in the entrepreneur world? I answered both, but for this time, I prefer to talk about who am I admire most in Entrepreneurship.

1. Sir Richard Branson

He is not as rich as Bill Gates or Warrant Buffett. His wealth is only USD 4.4 billion compared to Gates USD 59.0 billion. I do not measure their wealth but I'm comparing them in person. Both of them started their business at very early age - Branson at age 16. Both of them did not have any universities qualification before they ventured into the entrepreneurial world.

However I admire Branson more because, he is one of the man on earth who have such an extra-ordinary endurance and persistence. He never take no as an answer and fail as a total failure. This make who he is today. He builds "Virgin" from zero. Today he has over 360 companies and 245th richest man in the world.

2. Dato Tony Fernandes

The founder of Air-Asia. With the tag line "Now everyone can fly" he changed the way of airways business specifically in Asia. He came out from no where and now he is in the position to lead the industry. Not only he managed to turn the millions dollar debt company to profitable but now he is ready to compete and win over many players in this region. Surprisingly including national carriers. I believe within a few years, his name will be on the top list of the ten richest man in Malaysia.

I know all of us have some one who we admire. Tell us who do you love most?

What can we learn from Kinokuniya

2008-11-30T02:15:00.000-08:00

This afternoon, I went to Kinokuniya, KLCC one of the largest book store in Malaysia. My mission was to get a few books in IT for my projects. I think if you had been visiting Kino, you would agree that the book store is not only one of the best book store in town but the best library available in Kuala Lumpur. The best place where you can find almost any subjects & knowledge in the world.

I went straight to IT section. For the first time, I wanted to know how much source of knowledge about IT in the store. I started counting the subject title on the rack - Multimedia, Application, Certification, Networking, Programming and Operating System. There were together 14 racks and each rack estimated about 500 books/rack. Therefore all together, I estimated about 7,000 books. Then, it proofed to me what I said earlier, Kino is one of the best place to source your knowledge.

To look in term of entrepreneur point of view. My first question was, why Kino can be one of the best book store not only in Malaysia but in the world? I found my books here, which I could not find in any stores in KL. What does it really mean? Is Kino knows exactly what the clients want?

I have a few favorite bookstores in town to get my books. But what really make me stick to Kino is the way they understand me, understand my needs and wants. They never disappointed me. That is why, I cannot keep myself away from Kino especially when others say no to my needs. And I believe, this is not only happen to me but to all of their loyal customers.

So, can I say, if we want to be great - we must always be great to our customers.

Who is an Entrepreneur?

2008-11-18T06:14:00.000-08:00

Have you ever tried to answer the above simple question? It is a shot and simple question but the answer is not so straight forward. I know, you heard the same question over and over in your life - in business world or in your class room. We found so many answers in so many perspectives by so many people so call experts.

I personally very keen to know what is the best answer for the above question might be. Therefore I decided to do a research on Entrepreneur in my project dissertation for my MSc Project Management. The dissertation title - "Entrepreneurs in Project : Entrepreneurial Qualities in Managing a Successful Project"

What I had found that the definition of entrepreneur alone was so broad and had gone through so many evolutions. From very early defined by Richard Cantilon in 1725 to the latest definition by Harvard's Business School. The definition was sometime so confusing and not easy to understand. To cut the story short, I don't think it worth to discuss further in this blog.

Right here, I do not interested to listen to those "experts" who most of them were never do the real entrepreneurial works in their entire life - purely in lab! I really want to listen from all of you who are really genuine entrepreneurs.

If you think you are an entrepreneur, tell us who you really are? It can be in simple and plain answers but we know you are the real entrepreneurs!