Redbox Biz Blog

We just got back from a short working trip to Langkawi. Well, it was a working trip plus a short holiday for us. The best time to take a holiday is when you think you cannot afford the time! Anyway, the break was good for us as it was time to relax ourselves, the assets of the business! (Yes, you are the biggest asset in your business. If you don’t take care of yourself, who’ll take care of the business?)

We had wanted to go for the Sarawak Rainforest World Music Festival this year (we went for three years consecutively starting in 2002) but we could not get the accommodation we wanted. Which was Holiday Inn right next to the Sarawak Cultural Village where the music festival is held.

Here’s a tip if you ever intend to go for the festival - make sure your travel agent books for you Holiday Inn right next to the Cultural Village. It’s just a five-minute saunter over to the festival grounds and you can walk right back to your room even when the concerts finish late. And yes, the festival is amazing. Good world music, great ambience (jungle, sea and Mount Santubong) and lots of nice people. The jamming sessions are out of this world. You have to experience it for yourself!

Anyway, this year, we decided to visit some clients in Langkawi and soak up some sun there in lieu of missing out on the fun at the Rainforest.

Langkawi is a serene place, unlike Penang with its traffic problems. And if you arrive during low season (no jostling crowds, no tourists), you have a better chance of enjoying your stay on this island.

Even in Langkawi, we learnt some useful business lessons. The entrepreneurship spirit is alive and well on the island (even Dr M has set up a bakery cum fine dining business called The Loaf on Langkawi).

One particular business which stuck with us was the fine dining business. Langkawi has some of the most affordable restaurants which serve good food in really beautiful and stylish surroundings. The owners of these establishments have gone all out to ensure that their cafes and restaurants are on par with what one finds in upmarket places like Bangsar or Hartamas.

But the restaurant business is a tough business, particularly when businesses depend on tourist arrivals.

We were particularly impressed to see the owner of a chain of cafes coming by personally to check on his eateries. The other thing is his attention to detail. It seemed that each frangipani, each table, each customer was accorded the best possible attention. The restaurant was spotlessly clean, his staff were enthusiastic and engaging and the decor was impressively stylish to say the least.

But what most people saw were his successes. What they probably didn’t know was that he dropped in to his cafes and restaurants each night to check on everything and he had been building his success for 13 years! He had seen the potential on the island from way before.

He was affable in a humble way, even after we complimented him on his gorgeous restaurant. He was modest about his success on the island. Moreover, he was a people-person. He spoke to his customers like longlost friends. None of that “I-am-a-rich-restaurateur” haughtiness.

We heard he is also one employer who takes care of his staff well. Accordingly his staff are among the most well-paid on the island. His staff turnover is low. Staff stick with him because he truly takes care of his people. And he appreciates good staff training, ensuring his restaurants are looked after by staff who know their roles.

It shows that success, be it in any business, takes time. For this man, it took 13 years but he never gave up. If he had done so, we would not have dined at his restaurant that Friday evening. We would not have met the man who epitomises many of Langkawi’s successful entrepreneurs. Also, success also means treating one’s employees right, being appreciative of the people who work for you.

All of us love success stories but let’s be honest - success stories are layered with a lot of heartache, sweat and tears, mistakes and failures but in every story, it is topped with a determination to succeed as well as infinite patience.

And this man had both. How inspiring!

It used to be a joke that one could throw a stone in a crowd and it would hit a lawyer. That joke was probably valid in the 1980s when everyone wanted to be a legal eagle.

These days, it seems, you can throw a stone and most likely, you’d hit an Internet marketing guru! Yes, everyone (and their dog) is probably on the Internet. And it seems that not only are they ON the Net, they’re also Internet gurus.

Wowwee.

I mean, they can be all the guru that they want. It’s not my turf. I don’t quite care for it either. I am here to help you get a proper business website up and running, advise you on how to make your website part and parcel of a long-term marketing strategy and use it to make your business life easier, simpler and reach out to customers faster. It helps if you are serious about business. Your business, actually. You have to want to make it work.

But what makes my blood boil is that everyone (or at least those who email me) have this idea of ‘I want to make money’ when they get on the Internet (oh yeah, guess where and from whom they get this idea?).

Sure, I want to make money too. But some people don’t have any idea of what they want to do. What’s worse, they don’t care! I’ve received my fair share of emails from people telling me that they just want to make money on the Internet - do I have any ideas how I can help them become multimillionaires?

First, I am NOT a guru. Thank God. (That label itself is becoming more derogatory these days.) I don’t want to give out false expectations either. Just like I tell clients, don’t expect to build a website and hope millions of people will come. Attracting traffic (and qualified traffic) to your website is hard work.

Heck, business is hard work. Even if you have an MBA tucked somewhere, you would still need to sweat a bit to make business work. And the online business is not very different either. But many think it’s super easy to get the money rolling in by going online.

I always say, start with your passion. What keeps you chugging even if there’s no money coming in? What gets you bouncing right out of your bed in the morning? Be in that business. First comes passion, then comes money. But these days, it’s the other way around. First think money. Then think more money. Passion? Pfffttt…. what passion?!

Anyway, the same people who have ringgit signs in their heads should approach their gurus to help them. After all, who else can help you better than your own guru, right? (In fact, I had a friend who called me up three weeks ago saying that he wants a one-page sales letter with the works. What stuff would you be selling, I asked. He says he doesn’t know but all he wants is to make money and that’s that. I needed to guarantee that he made money. Sigh. Dear Internet guru, please take your ’student’ away from me. He took your preview workshop but came to me. How does that work?)

If anyone’s looking for a guru, erm, an Internet guru, sorry, there’s no one like that here.

But if you want people who are genuine and passionate about all things web and who can share with you if you want to take your present business online, we more than welcome your email.

This week, I am going to point you in the direction of some truly fantastic resources online. You can use these without having to pay a single cent.

Of course, you might be thinking, “What gives? Why do I get stuff for free? I thought there’s no free lunch in this world!”

Well, some people do have hearts of gold and to some people, recognition of a good piece of work is worth more than dollars and cents. In most cases, you can support their work by donating money to them. Otherwise, these people are just happy that you’re helping spread the word about their hard work.

(And if you like the stuff I recommend, be sure to sign up for my free ezine where I share even more interesting and exclusive goodies!)

Resize Photos Easily with IrfanView
IrfanView is a piece of software you can use to view, re-size, adjust and do all those editing stuff for your digital photos. It’s a very fast, small, compact and innovative freeware graphic viewer for Windows 9x/ME/NT/2000/XP/2003.

It’s meant for both beginners and professionals so it’s very simple to use. Just download and you’re off and running. Since 2003, IrfanView has had some 1 million downloads per month! Now that’s a lot of people using IrfanView.

To get this freeware, go to http://irfanview.com

Protect Your PC with LavaSoft Ad-Aware
LavaSoft’s Ad-Aware Personal is one great software which I’ve been using for about two years now. It provides advanced protection from known data-mining, aggressive advertising, Trojans, dialers, malware, browser hijackers, and tracking components. And it’s free! I run it once a week to check for tracking software. You can get free updates of this software too so it’ll never be out-of-date.

Go to http://www.lavasoftusa.com and click on Ad-Aware Personal.
Follow the instructions to download. It is installed easily after that.

Never Forget Important Dates Again with CalendarHub
Too many things to keep track of? Now you can do it all easily with an online calendar which you can access anywhere called CalendarHub.

CalendarHub allows you to create reminders, keep track of deadlines, create a calendar for your church or team, or even a schedule for your family. It’s really up to you what you want to do with a calendar. Plus, it’s free.

And the best part is, you can either keep it private or publish it. Like all cool tools, you can go and test out the demo version. If you like, you can also download it to your PC desktop.

Go on over to www.CalendarHub.com to check it out!

Useful Business Templates from Microsoft
While some Microsoft applications drive me crazy, I find that this Microsoft website superb because it offers all users fantastic templates and resources for free.

You can get tips and tricks on using Microsoft applications like MS Word, MS Powerpoint, MS Excel and more at this site. If you’re a clipart fan, you’ll be truly happy at this site. It also offers good online training courses (short clips of 30 minutes or so) and a large number of templates for business, education, career, home and more. You get to download calendars, lists, to-do planners, house-cleaning checklists, legal forms and whatever catches your fancy!

This site is a timesaver because you can directly download, modify and use the MS Excel and MS Word templates for your business.

Get it from http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/default.aspx

Marketing and Business PDFs from ChangeThis
Change This is a website where you can download free PDFs primarily on business and marketing. Good reads include “The Art of the Start” by Guy Kawasaki and “Do Less” by Seth Godin.

Once in a while, you get other good reads on life and living too. Good to bookmark and check often because new PDFs are added all the time. And unlike other websites, this website serves up quality reads.

And if you’re wondering why the PDFs are free, well, think viral marketing. If something is free, it gets spread fast and on the Internet, this can mean anything. One day you’re unknown and tomorrow you could make the news.

If you’ve always wanted to share your knowledge, the good people over at ChangeThis welcome your proposals too!

Get your PDFs by going to www.ChangeThis.com