A lot of people I know claimed to ‘hate’ selling. I hate selling, I don’t like to push people, I don’t want them to think I’m making $ from them (lol), I hate sales people…etc. I was one of them, and sometimes I still do fall into the trap of that warp thinking.

Question is: If you are in business, what business are you in if you are NOT selling??!! If you have a product of some sort, you need to sell. If you have a service, you need to sell. Even if you are online business, you need to sell. You may hire sales people to do the work for you, but at some point, as head of your Company, you need to sell.

When people ask you what you do and you introduce yourself- You are selling your ideas, your services, your product.

Question 2 is: Why are you afraid of promoting whatever is it that you are selling?

Just now, over a conversation with hubby, he mentioned a great statement to himself as he was about to go out, rescuing a deal today. I said: Pray for miracles. He corrected: Pray for a good conclusion, in line with that customer’s interest.

Just like that, and the whole perspective changed. The pressure is OFF. The whole focus is on that customer’s interest, not yours, not your bottom line, not your quota, not answering to your sales manager.

So, I added: Let your conscience be your guide. If whatever you are doing/selling is in line with your customer’s interest- by all means, sell like you never sell before, sell the whole vision to him. Persuade him to see the view you are seeing. Use all your selling skills to get him to see the solution to HIS problems. THE solution.

But, if deep down, you don’t buy the idea 100% yourself, don’t force it down to people just because…don’t use your selling skills to distort the truth.

When the pressure is off, the fun begins, and real bottom line will follow. Not the other way around.

Sometimes, the journey of entrepreneurship is lonely, ya know. It’s you & the world, and you don’t get to bitch with co-workers how the boss sucks, and everything sucks. (Coz the boss is me, ahahahahah)

This is on my notice board right in front of me. Sort of like my bible whenever I got lost.

1.Dream big

2.Do what you love to do

3.Commit to excellence- be the top 10% in your biz

4.Develop unique ability

5.Accept responsibility

6.Develop a clear sense of direction

7.Refuse to consider possibility of failure

8.Solutions oriented

9.Develop workaholic mentality-work very hard at the beginning of your biz

10.Get around the right positive people

11.Be prepared to go from peak to peak

12.Develop resilience and bounce back-how long does it take for you to get back to normal? (Mel’s note: That’s me NOW)

13.Focus questions- ask yourself brutal questions

14.Become unshakable optimist-think/talk abt your goals all the time. Look 4 the good in evry situation

15.Dedicate yourself to serving others

16.Develop reputation for speed & dependability-which activity contributes the most to your biz?

17.Be very honest with yourself- what’s the situation honestly? Don’t self disillusion

18.Concentrate single-minded-ly one at a time

19.Be decisive

20.Backed everything you do with courage & persistence

21.Self-disipline – take time to plan, then decide & ACTION!

Courtesy of Brian Tracy (I think I got these gold nuggets from his seminar)

Boy oh boy, am I in a foul, foul mood today. No, not today, this whole freaking week. Yeah, goes to show you people, Mel is NOT always motivational ok. That said, I do have tricks & tactics up my sleeve to pick myself up when stinking mood hits (NO, I’m not talking about beer today, though normally it helps a goddamn lot)

I found this note I’ve taken a year back. Few pointers I heard over a seminar & resonate with (to? Bah, my lousy grammar), and typed it out. These kind of things are always always good for emergency use. Good timing to use them now when I’m in my woe-is-me, helpless, overwhelmed mood (Though I still think beer will still help a lot…..GAH!! MEL!!)

I hope it will help you as much as it had (and still have) helped me.

Next, oooh, brutal questions…time for a self review? Click here for self review questions.

I am still buried deep with numbers, cost of goods, expenses…etc. And weighing that with pricing of our services.

Just completed, like what…10th round of Excel. Also, managed to work out more savings on costs, and I’m delighted to be able to transfer this savings to my customers.

The offer looks SO GOOD that I myself be darn interested to buy, what a fab value!! And this is coming from a very kiam siap/ frugal person, me.

However, funny as it may sounds, I can’t help but wonder, what if I miscalculated?!! Where is the line between making a salivating offer vs making my Company broke?

Being a start up entrepreneur, and for many other entrepreneurs, one of the challenges is to keep overheads & costs low.

One of the way to do that, is to DIY, do it yourself for certain tasks. Especially in the IT field, some things are free (open source).

For us, holding on to whatever funds we have with an iron fist is vital. Hence, yes, many things we D-I-Y. Website, some simple copies, creative ideas (Boy,we don’t lack in this area for sure!).

However, as I came to find out increasingly, we need to strike a balance somewhere, and not be a maniac DIYer. There are just some things/areas you can’t DIY. What are they?

Simple- things that you don’t have a bloody clue about! Or things that are ridiculously cheap to outsource, and darn mundane to do, stuffing greeting cards into envelopes & licking stamps for example. Or copywriting, for heaven sake. If you are not sure you can write copy that sells, better get someone else to do it.

If it’s gonna take you a lonnnnnnnnnnnnnng time to just figure out the how to’s, that’s gonna cost you.

Time cost. How much $ you actually throw away by putting your time into doing tasks that can be outsourced affordably. As a smart entrepreneur, you gotta know which area you want to spend your time on. If your time is better spent in front of your clients, or developing business, etc,  that is the time that costs & rewards the most.

Dear Melinda, I’ve written this recommendation of your work to share with other LinkedIn users. Details of the Recommendation: “Focused, determined and strong-willed entrepreneur who never gives up!”

I received this email update from LinkedIn this morning, what a great surprise. It came from a girl friend who herself is a director of a successful company, and also a brilliant, creative ID entrepreneur who lends her fab touch to high end condos in Klang Valley. It’s lil things like these that enables me to feel the exhilarating rush that keeps me going and going even though I work my a** off. Thanks dear Ai Ling, hugs.

During an orientation for Pre Seed recipients recently, I was very surprised to find out that only 271 companies were successfully awarded the Mdec Pre seed Technoprenuer fund since 2006!

Even more surprising, only 1287 applications were received over last 3 years. (about 20% success rate)

Hmm…which makes me wonder, what is the situation here? Is it because there IS really so few people that want to be entreprenuers? Or is it because the publicity of this fund can be improved?

Eitherway, I am doing my bit part to promote this opportunity for budding entreprenuers (tech related) to find out how you can go about having the government funding your dreams! How about that?

If you are up for the challenge, batch 20 is open now, you can find more information here.

Just want to share my experience, the support I received so far from Mdec is great, we are constantly kept updated of what’s happening on the industry, and I was also thrilled that they sponsored courses & seminars to help us in our journey. Courses that I will normally sign up myself and pay. I just attended a 2 days workshop CEO Powercamp which was conducted by Change Universtiy by 2 passionate coaches- Robert & Brenda. Their previous clients includes top names like: Gap, Nestle HK, Japan Airline.

Currently, Mdec is organizing a Nationwide Programme Briefing- next one is on 4th August 2009. Admission is free. RSVP here.

If you think you have a great idea that is marketable, and most importantly, if you have what it takes to be an entreprenuer, go for it.

Good luck and all the best!

16.3.09 Monday 1.35pm

Biz: I realized, I so can’t do this biz alone.

Life: To my inner guilt, I’m glad Alanis is away on holiday, as I tend to feel less stressed, more time, less pressure, to do my work & enjoy my life.

18.3.09

Life: I was hammering away on my laptop keyboard, ignorant of the tinkling piano sound from the piano tuning man. Lost in my work. When suddenly, he played a short piece, the most wonderful melody that fills up the whole house with joy & serenity. I felt such strong emotions like I almost wanted to cry. It’s true, beautiful music can bring one to tears.

19.3.09

Life: it’s true that our brain consumes a lot of energy when it’s put in solid use I enjoyed my brunch of Chap Fan (mixed rice) at 10.30am today. Wooh! I’m full of energy now!

Biz: Today is the 1st day, my Windows Mail aka Microsoft outlook is operational! I’m finally using it for the 1st time. Backwards, I know…

5.55pm

Life: I’m so dreading when daughter is back from holiday. No more stress free days working without worrying about her meals, her homework, whether she is bored, whether she is receiving good value…I’m guilty

23.3.09

Biz: Why do ppl do websites that takes forever to load?

31 Mar 09 9.46am

Life: Like my daily dose of caffeine, I hungrily clicked on Windows Mail to check my emails, craving for some To-dos.

4.3.09

BIZ: I realized I’m putting a lot of love into my business. The love is pouring out into my proposal.

SELF: I’m a drama queen

ENTREPRENUERSHIP: Until u have done your own P&L and sales projections, you won’t feel how a business owner feels.

5.3.09

BIZ: 1st round of draft, advisory meeting with lovely Ms Rozie who speaks perfect English. Then while Im having my gimme my coffee now at the incubator’s canteen, even the canteen owner tries to give me tips on Pre-seed. I also met the manager from Sun Microsystem- the company behind the Java provider or something (I know Java is so not related to the coffee in front of me)

Since I hv a bit of time to kill between my next appointment, I went over to meet my friend cum website solutions provider cum consultant- Pin. Who also shares his bits of advice with me.

One day, 3 different advices & tips on my proposal and bizness idea. Time to sit down and think.

6.3.09 FRIDAY 10.03AM

BIZ: My two focus this weekend. Yes, I will be working over the weekend.

1. To tighten up the whole proposal, which means I will drill even deeper, God knows the depth, to the bizness idea, the USP, the ESP, mechanics, costs, run a survey to gauge actual market wants (good for the proposal too) and the marketing plan, PLUS a planner to schedule everything together as my brain files are getting crowded. (Maybe not the marketing plan at this point of time if I can’t make it, that’s another story all together)

2. Connect with good people I met during Master Your Mind seminar last 2 weeks (Gosh, how time flies) for friendship and networking purposes.

7.3.09

LIFE: What a lazy bugger. Alarm buzz off at 9am, and with no serious intention and schedule, the mind tells self, sleep lar. Woke up 1 hour 50 minutes later.

BIZ: 11.32am, checked mails. Cute one from Pin of A4friends.com. Gotta start revising my proposal soon if I want my mission to be accomplished.

9.3.09 12.05am

BIZ: Can’t believe the Mechanic profile side of me came up. I’m crunching numbers on Excel like I never done before! Doing 2 year sales projection, customer acquisition projection, conversion, cost of sales. So detailed, so not creator!

1.25am

BIZ: Farkness! I finally got it done!!!!!!! Rewarding myself with a fat supper AND BEER!

9.3.09 Monday 3.40pm

Life: Public holiday, though I’m semi working. Can’t help it, and I don’t mind actually. I mean, i had a long brunch with darling at kopitiam, eating, drinking coffee, and reading newspaper. Exactly what pensioners are doing! No high end designer coffee for us, and cold, stuffy cafes. We like al fresco kopitiam, must be clean of course, and that makes a darn good cup of local coffee!

Biz: Today, mission numero uno is to pull everything together on my Excel schedule planner. I downloaded it yesterday fm Microsoft Office online. That’s the reward of paying money for genuine software.

11 .3.09 9.49am Wed

Life: I should so go and get myself a new hair stylist. My love in my current one has waned. After a year of able to give me stylo mylo hairstyle, she landed herself in hot soup when I wanna grow my short hair to a longer than short bob. I get bored with my hairstyle easily la.

Is it a Malaysian hair stylist curse that one have to endure months of dodgy hairstyle while growing it out??? I certainly don’t think so. Then, you please explain why I look like a LEGO head now?!!!!!!

Biz: I’m so can’t wait to get this proposal over and done with! And I can get on with getting my bizness started!!