Business Tactics

This post comes as a lesson I've learnt from my emceeing of events.

I've done roadshows for banks recently (HSBC, State Bank of India) and one important tactic I learnt is how to built hype to attract a crowd. Not from an emcee perspective, but from a business perspective.

Both these banks employ a "Hype the front" concept, where they will have an emcee, blasting hip music, balloon sculpture artist, and sometimes even cotton candy. In this case, children will stop and request for balloons and cotton candy. The parents will also have to stop with their kids, and this is when the bankers will tag them. Note that the bankers here are proactive and standing outside the branch ready to spring into action.

Heard from a friend recently that Standard Chartered also does roadshows, but they only have a clown at the front. And they tag the customers inside the branch, instead of outside.

Compare the difference here: The proactive hype the front approach will probably be more attractive in converting sales.

Moment of Inspiration

Moments of inspiration comes from nowhere. It's weird how when you're struggling to find the right solution - and you search hard for weeks - then in an instant moment a single sentence in a conversation yields the answer. So don't stop talking to people. Just continue talking and finding out know, stay curious and conversational, and the inspiration will come to you.

Had a chat today with a good friend, and he mentioned an acquaintance whom I spoke to couple of months back. The acquaintanceknows I'm being entrepreneurial, but he thinks I have too many .  The acquaintance in question is a successful entrepreneur himself, with an annual turnover of 8mil. Got me thinking. Is it true? His theory is that if one has too many, he will not be that driven to find a way to make the business succeed. Coming from someone who has been there, I say that's advice to heed.

Good Advice

“Look into your heart. Work out if you are a gritty winner or a tourist. If you are a winner, dig in. Start selling. Focus your business down. Cut staff. Ramp revenues. Batten down the hatches. Find a niche angle. Focus. Make money. Build loyal client base. Then invest, very carefully, in the tech. Product innovate in a controlled fashion. Innovation, where innovation matters – nowhere else. Get some traction. Raise a small round. Win. If you are a tourist: Pack up early before leaving a hole in any creditor’s pockets. Find a job, whilst you still have time and a salary. Look after your staff – encourage them to do the same. Come back for Web 3.0.”

source: eu techcrunch

Hustlers FTW

With time, everything gets easier. This is especially true for cold calling. Initially when I started out, I used to dread picking up the phone to cold call, or wish that the ringing tone for the other end of the line would be cut off. Now, its getting really easy. I just pick up the phone and do my thing, and just go on. I don't even feel anything when I face rejection, which is quite common. You just gotta keep trying and trying. I move on, and go back to it later.

I met Hian Goh of Asian Food Channel earlier this week, and he said that true entrepreneurs are hustlers. Which I think is really true. Real hustlers get things done, you win people over and you get to push and sell your product. Great salesmen are true hustlers, going in and killing it perfectly. Even if they don't kill this time, they'll be back to finish you off.

Hustling is a skill set which can definitely be acquired on the job.

So don't be afraid to pick up the phone and call. And don't feel demoralised with each rejection. The law of selling is quite true. For every 10, only maybe 3 will meet up with you, and from these 3, only 1 will sign up. Move on and find better targets, then revisit the old leads that you have and try to convince. Hustle if you have to, because while you have nothing to lose, you have everything to gain.

Featured on Penn-Olson

http://www.penn-olson.com/2011/08/03/book-singapore-restaurant-gastro-couture/

The $7 costing is wrong though, and have since emailed him to clarify the business model. 
Its a good feature for Gastro Couture nonetheless!


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Start-up Gives You Discounts If You Book Restaurants Online

by WILLIS WEE on AUGUST 3, 2011 in BUSINESS, CREATIVE, 

Restaurant owners have trouble filling up empty tables; customers want discounts. So the trick here is simple: Give the customers discounts if they reserve a restaurant space online — now everyone is happy!

Simply put, Singapore-based start-up,Gastro Couture mashes both the online reservation and discount concepts into one. Users pay SGD$7 to reserve a space through the service and in return, they will get 20 to 30 percent discounts in the restaurant. Not a bad deal!

It’s smart because it discourages the kind of idiot who makes reservations but doesn’t ever turn up. The $7 dollar charge is a monetary commitment; a promise that they will show up. Of that fee, Gastro Couture takes $2 as a booking fee, and the rest goes to the restaurant. This arrangement makes both the restaurant and Gastro Couture happy, at least theoretically.

The service was founded by Lester Chia and Loh Zheng Rong. Lester explained to us that they always wanted to be entrepreneurs and now they finally have a chance. “Once we found a good idea, we just took it and ran with it,” he said. Gastro Couture currently has about 17 restaurants listed on their site, and the team is looking to even more on board.

Currently they have many indirect competitors. There are numerous online restaurant reservation sites that allow users to book online but don’t give them discounts; whilst there are daily deals sites that give customers big discounts but the restaurant pays a hefty price. This fragmented situation is not a great long-term solution for restaurants.

Lester explains to us:

We work long-term with a restaurant and we don’t just do a one time deal, so a person can be assured of making a booking instead of missing the opportunity once the deal is over.

The founders were funded SGD$50,000 by Spring Singapore’s YES! startup fund to test the concept. It’s new, it’s raw, and we’ll have to wait and see whether or not it can work. But if executed well, Gastro Couture could be the golden ticket empty restaurants need to fill tables day in and day out.

Moving into SMU Incubator

So we'll be moving into SMU Incubator as of 1 Aug 2011. The best thing about an incubator is that it provides an office space, rent free. Also, as I'm very much playing a sales role, an office space in the city will be a good place to regroup and settle down.

The SMU incubator has quite a few startups. However, more than half of the space is empty. Not exactly sure the reason, but I guess I'm going to find out.

Worldwide Map of Penis Sizes

Ever wanted to try a bigger dick?

With this map, now you know where to move to!

Or better, how about the exact average penis sizes by country?

9 Startup Lessons Learnt From a Serial Entrepreneur

http://www.women2.org/9-startup-lessons-learned-from-a-serial-entrepreneur/

Awesome technology - Oblong Industries

This is some pretty cool technology. No more just what you see in the movies.

g-speak overview 1828121108 from john underkoffler on Vimeo.

My Experience with Spring YES! Start-ups Funding

Two weeks back, we received word that we have got Spring funding. We were awarded the Spring Sg YES! Startup Fund. This scheme matches $4 for every $1 we put in, to a max of $50,000.

When we were pitching to Spring, I told my partner, Z, that if we ever got it I'll pop my wonderful tasting Cava (which i painstakingly brought back, and can't bear to drink) which I brought back from Barcelona in celebration. That was 3 months ago. For me, its the pressure. Self-induced pressure. Being on your own, your vested interest is in the company. I will want nothing but success for my company. The opportunity cost is high, and its sort of like an "all-in". The funding came in at a time when we were quickly running out of money. The Spring money serves to allow us to expand the business and acquire more users. The journey is a steep uphill from where I'm standing. So I'll save the cava for when I'm up on the hill.

Now, a little bit more about the YES! startup funding.

This scheme is for 1st time entrepreneurs and under 26. 1st time entrepreneurs mean you must NOT have registered a company before. So even if you registered a company and did not act on it (meaning just registered for fun), it's considered that you are not a first time entrepreneur anymore. You can ask Spring about this if the above scenario applies to you, but chances are quite low for you to be considered a first time entrepreneur.

If you're over 26 or not a first-time entrepreneur, grab a business partner who fits the criteria.

Now about the idea. I'm under the impression that Spring values tech companies. One of their four main criteria is that the business idea has to be innovative. Now what is innovative? I was always under the impression that it is mostly tech, but here's a list of the companies under YES! Startup, and you can make the conclusion yourself. Most of the companies in the SMU incubator are tech companies as well. That said, I know of two F&B ideas that Spring have funded, so as long as you have an interesting twist to a traditional model, you should try to apply for it.

What if you don't know nuts about technology? I have no tech background as well, so don't let that stop you from starting a tech company.

The other criteria which is top of their list is feasibility. The business of course, have to make sense monetarily. Every business is in it to make money, even social businesses (they need to make money to continue their social cause). So you definitely have to be able to make money, which is the priority. Read this inspirational Richard Branson interview.

The next important thing is to have something to show for. When we went to Spring, we already have about 9 restaurant partners on board, with some names bigger than the rest. To them, they want to see your idea being validated. That means having partners on board your business. This would greatly help your funding chance.

One mention about the green lane through the institutions (SMU/NTU/NUS/Polys). If you have a business idea and you go back to your institution and they support it, it will be considered "green-lane", meaning Spring will fund your business if your school supports your plan. Of course, you will still have to go through some formalities. We decided to go to Spring direct instead of through the school because of the short lead time that we had. We estimated that if we went through the school, it would take much longer because the institutions' reputation is on the line with the start-ups. We had an experience back in Feb when we pitched to them another idea, and we figured the time spent to make the required changes to the plan was too long after they shredded our idea. While we founded Gastro Couture eventually - which was our 2nd idea -we put the other idea at the back of our minds, and then decided that we would go to Spring direct for Gastro Couture.

These are just some thoughts and experience to getting Spring funding. If you want to know about something which I didn't cover, feel free to drop me an email!

Life's too short to not try something funky, so learn more about Spring YES! Start-up funding.

Great time of my life

revisited these videos after Kei from Lester & Kei's Adventures started talking about it again. One of the best, if not the best, time of my life.

What to do when a Giant comes onto your turf

An awesome post from Mark Suster. Love his posts.

In this post, he talks about why you need not fear when a giant comes eating into your startup's lunch. Much to fear? Fear not, he says.

What age is too late to start a company?

No age is too late. But apparently the ideal is by 29.

Read here.

Determination

Mercata vs Groupon

Everyone knows the success of Groupon, the darling of the next generation internet boom that spawned clones all over the world. But how many of you know that group-buying is not a recent phenomena? Group-buying started in the 1990s during the dot-com boom, with Mercata taking the lead, raising tens of millions of dollars and shutting down barely a few years later.

Group-buying is a great idea. Back then, Mercata focused on consumer electronic goods on a national level. This essentially competed them against all the big boys, Wal-mart included. And they failed. Wal-mart have their own sort of off-line group buying power, and it was a tough fight. Andrew Mason took the group-buying model, twisted it and fitted it to the local scene, and it became a huge run away success.

On the overview, its the same idea, but why did one succeed and the other fail? If you ask me, timing of market entry is key. But the point here is strategy. Groupon focused on the local scene, bringing small retailers and interesting vendors out onto the internet. Many of us use it to buy deals which we have never heard of, but find it to be real interesting (For eg, Groupon Sg recently featured a B747 flight stimulator). Mercata, on the other hand, focused on consumer and electronic goods which at the national level, was already cluttered with shops selling those products. The consumer and electronic goods manufacturer definitely would not take a loss marketing their product on a site simply because they have their own marketing team. Groupon, on the other hand, targetted those vendors who could take a short term loss on deals for online publicity in exchange for long term gain.

While timing of entry into the market is everything, so is strategy.

**UPDATED - A few hours after this post, Groupon files for a US$750 million IPO. Read about it here.

Inefficient Communication

Here's a lesson which I think should not be repeated anywhere, and it has got to do with communication. I was emcee-ing for a roadshow over the weekend, and this picture sums up the problem of inefficient and ineffective communication. Basically, the manager felt I wasn't communicating effectively the way he wants it, and he went through the whole food chain to get to me.

This should never be repeated anywhere in any organisation. I believe direct communication is the most effective and efficient form of communication.

Obama O's & Cap'n McCain's

Fred Wilson, a prominent VC from the US, posted this post. The takeaway for me from this post is the stunt that the Airbnb team pulled off, which was uniquely creative. The team, unable to raise any money for their business, created limited edition cereal boxes to sell, raising much needed cash for the company.

When the going gets tough, the tough gets going. Airbnb today is reaching a billion dollars in valuation. From nothing 2-3 years ago.

Why do I do it?

Leaving the stability of a job is not for everyone. During my time in Uni, everyone wanted to do a startup. The idealism of being successful is what everyone wants, but until you truely go for it, all there is is an ideal.

Personally, I've knew all along that starting a business, whatever it may be at that point in time, was something I've always wanted to do. Never mind the hours may be long (or not), never mind that this may wipe out all my savings, never mind that at the end of the day, I may land up with nothing. To me, this is a journey worth undertaking. I'm glad that my parents don't need me to support them, so this frees me to pursue whatever it is that I want to do in life. Honestly, the thought of working my life in a 9-6 job seems alien to me, and I'll do whatever I can to either prolong it, or avoid it altogether.

The thought of being an entrepreneur honestly, first came to me after my stint in Orlando, Florida, working at seaworld. The summer of '07 was the point where I truely grew up, and experienced the world without the shelter of my family. It was there that I saw the American dream, and it inspired me to want to do something with my life. From there I moved on to living in other countries, and it further reinforced the point of what I want to achieve.

The other aspect of running your own startup is the freedom and creativity that comes along with it. I can actually implement strategies and see it happen in real time, and not just what I read in theory in textbooks in the Business school. If i feel that taking this line is what will make the business work, I can go for it, and monitor if it works, if not, I can try something else the next time round.

I've always been a sort of risk taker. In life, in love and well, gambling. It is well known that startups have a 90% chance of failing. Still, I say the 10% seems totally worth it. At the end of the day, it's the experience that matters. At the end of the road, I want to be able to say, I've been there, done that. My big boss told me, I'm throwing away the good standing i spent 10 months building up, for scratch, for something but may never materialise.

In one week, I'll be officially "unemployed". The journey will be tough and long, but I'm ready for it. As Helen Keller says: "Life is either a daring adventure or nothing at all".

I hope you find your own daring adventure in life, be it career, love, or family. The important thing, is to be able to look back, and look back without regrets.