SG Wealth Builder

It is no secret that Asia is quickly becoming a global economic powerhouse. In fact, some analysts believe that American dominance within this portion of the world is coming to an abrupt end (1). There are many reasons behind this paradigm shift and one of the most relevant involves the ways in which technology is being deployed across the online retail sector. Augmented reality is a perfect example of how smart businesses are leveraging the power of the digital revolution. Let’s take a closer look at how these innovative systems function before highlighting some of their primary benefits.

AR 101: Taking the Online Shopping Experience to an Entirely New Level 

We should first appreciate that the concept of AR has been in existence for some time. It was first seen within the real estate sector, as potential customers could access 360-degree perspectives of a home or an apartment. However, these systems were rather crude and their capabilities were decidedly limited. Technology has come a long way and AR can now be used by even smaller online enterprises in order to actively promote their top-selling products.

AR essentially employs a series of images so that a specific item can be viewed …

This will be a short post that I hope to inspire readers. Recently when I tried to order Kentucky Fried Chicken (KFC) online, I wondered how come the logo consists of a picture of an old man. Why not a picture of the founder in his prime? It was then I found out that the KFC founder, Colonel Sanders, got rejected 1009 times at age 65 before he found success.

Colonel Sanders was forced to start life all over again in his twilight years. But more amazing was that he got rejected 1009 times before his chicken recipe was accepted! That was a crazy number of failures and to be frank I don’t know how many folks in Singapore can manage to handle so many rejections.

Nonetheless, it was fortunate that Colonel Sanders persevered and went on to build a “finger licking good” global empire. His true life story is very inspiring and made me rethink about failures. On looking back, I feel that I should have remained sanguine in the face of some setbacks and managed certain situations with the spirit of Colonel Sanders.

Like many people, I find it hard to remain positive when dealing with rejections or …

SG Wealth Builder is pleased to share the results of a recent survey conducted by Peatix, an event ticketing platform in Singapore that is passionate about building strong communities through events.

Singaporeans are increasingly keen on entrepreneurial and startup events. Specifically, 23% of participants would choose to attend startup and entrepreneurial events, and 25% want to see more of such events here. Notably, interest in these events was equally high for those aged between 25-30 and those above 40.

“This display of interest in seminars, talks, workshops and networking events to increase one’s knowledge and professional growth even amongst youths today is a wonderful testament to Singapore’s growing entrepreneurial spirit,” says Emi Takemura, Co-founder and Head of Asia at Peatix.

The Peatix Survey has also found that 88% of Singaporeans consider themselves happy, and that attending events regularly contributes to this.

These results run contrary to previous reports of Singaporeans being unhappy – in fact, less than 1% of the 600 survey participants considered themselves to be very unhappy.

New survey reveals a 25% increase in demand for startup and entrepreneurial events in
Singapore.
SINGAPORE, Tuesday June 30th – An independent survey by global online ticketing platform Peatix has …

In my journey as a personal finance blogger, I have the privileges to meet up with great aspiring entrepreneurs. I learned a lot from these successful entrepreneurs because they have been unselfish in sharing with me their views and their thoughts on successful entrepreneurship. In fact, yesterday, I met up with the founder of icompareloan, one of the best websites for comparing mortgage loans in Singapore. Below are some of the traits I think commonly found in great entrepreneurs.

1. They note down their ideas (just like my Investment Notebook). If there is an ah-ha moment, they would quickly note it down and revisit the idea again.

2.They think through their ideas over and over again to see if they can be successful. Sometimes their ideas might have been implemented by others. But if they are able to develop a better and more cost-effective way of doing it, then they stand a higher chance of winning.

3. They do their homework and spend tonnes of effort on researching. After all, no generals would like to fight a losing battle.

4. They can sell their ideas effectively. In business, if you cannot sell, you are finished. To make money, you must …

Quite some time ago, a reader visited my blog and suggested that one niche business idea could be to provide a service to help foreigners or permanent residents to integrate into Singapore society.

I have mixed feelings when he suggested this to me. While this business idea is potentially niche and may have less competition, it is something which I find it difficult to make money. This is because to be a successful business man, one must have conviction that his product or service would be beneficial to his clients and thus create market demand.

As a born and bred Singaporean, I am not so sure whether this is something which I would want to explore, even if it could bring in tonnes of money. There are definitely much better ways to make money in Singapore.

Sometime I wonder what kind of nation we want to build. Do we want to be a rich nation but with the majority of the population consisting of foreigners? Or do we want to slow down and strengthen the core population? I guess there are always trade-offs in life but as a young nation, we probably need to start to define our identity in …

I have not been blogging for quite some time. This is because last month I became a first-time dad and I was really busy with my day-time job. To manage time, I engaged a confinement nanny to look after both my wife and my little bundle of joy during this challenging period. The experience also gave me the business idea of setting up a confinement nanny agency.

During our research on confinement nanny agencies in Singapore, me and wife realised that there are not many established ones around, notably only a few. Eventually we settled for PEM which claimed to be the largest confinement nanny agency in Singapore.

The first nanny lasted for one week and left because she claimed her grandmother passed away and she needed to go back to Malaysia. The replacement nanny who stayed throughout the confinement period was old and slow.

We were not satisfied with the services of PEM but held on to their services because we felt it was a hassle to keep changing nannies during this short period of one month. Somehow we also felt that the services rendered wasn’t value for money.

During the contractual discussion, we stated that the nanny was …

Starting up a business is not easy and very often, it can really take over a person’s life due to the huge efforts and financial commitments required. Therefore normally I would not advise anyone to quit their job and start a business because that could be a recipe for disaster. Do it right and your life changes drastically for the better. Do it wrong and your life goes spirally downhill. So always plot your move carefully and make sure you do your homework before making the big escape from the rat race. Below are five reasons why you must never quit your job and start up your business.

Starting up a business needs time
Starting a successful business takes time. Do not be fooled by media reports of young entrepreneurs achieving overnight success and becoming incredibly rich. Founders of Microsoft, Google and Facebook actually went through a lot of hardship, trial and errors before attaining wild success at international platform. They had made a lot of mistakes and setbacks before achieving business successes. Henceforth, learn from others mistake and avoid the potential pitfalls. It could be a long time before your business makes any profit, so make sure you hold …

Before you take the leap into the path of entrepreneurship, it is essential that you done the homework and write a business plan. As cliché as it might sound, if you fail to plan, plan to fail.

Having a good business plan will provide you a clear business objective and an organized way of looking at all the important aspects of your business. Most importantly, it will provide you a crystallized view on whether your business idea can be successfully implemented.

A well written business plan will also come in handy, when you are looking for funding from potential investors (venture capitalists or angel investors). Key elements of it should focus on:

Stating/defining the problem
Your plan must define the problem which your business is addressing and not just stating your business idea. Nobody will be interested in a business idea if it is not solving a problem and is impractical. The plan has to be precise and easy to understand for layman (nobody likes to read a long-winded business plan filled with technical jargon, especially bankers and venture capitalists). Focus on how and why your business can deliver and solve the problem.

Market size and industry trend
Define the …

Being an entrepreneur is not easy and not everyone can be a successful founder. However, the process of starting up a business in Singapore has been made less painful with the various business-friendly policies in this city state. Each type of structure comes with different structure. It may be useful to check out ACRA website.

To help aspiring entrepreneurs up to speed on Singapore laws, regulations, taxes and government assistance schemes, Enterprise One (a government agency tasked to promote local enterprise) has prepared a simple checklist:

1) Sign up for EnterpriseOne Digest, a monthly newsletter tracking the latest updates on the laws and regulations. You can log on to Enterprise One website to sign up.

2) Ensure your business premises (office, shop, factory) can be used to carry out your business. For example, applicants who wish to use their HDB residential flats for home office are required to seek prior approval from HDB.

3) Apply for all licenses and permits needed.

4) Familiarize yourself with various tax incentives and Government assistance schemes.

5) Register your business with Central Provident Fund (CPF) before hiring your first worker.

6) Register your business with Accounting and Corporate Regulatory Authority (ACRA) and comply with …

One of the major obstacles faced by entrepreneurs is the lack of available funding in Singapore to help them kick-start or sustain their business ideas. Even if there are government schemes to provide grants or funds to assist business owners, many of them are clueless on how to obtain these grants.

In many cases, investors and entrepreneurs found themselves having to navigate through layers of bureaucratic red tapes and micromanagement when seeking grants. That is probably why entrepreneurs are more attracted to venture capitalists and angel investors for business opportunities.

In the early stage of a business, funding is needed to nurture the seed into viable business model. But beyond cash, founders should ask themselves serious questions whether they are willing to cede control in exchange for the money. But assuming they are willing to do so, then he should know how to pitch to investors and position his business in a strategic manner.

To obtain that all-important pot of gold, there are several fundamentals that business owners need to highlight or observe in their business proposals:

1) Financial factors: Track records speak a lot and obviously no one likes to invest in a sinking ship. In your plan, you …