Cupcakes from Teacosy are sold alongside angel figurines and furniture.

As technology advances and business concepts evolve, an increasing number of F&B entrepreneurs and service solution providers are thinking out-of-the-box and making life easier for customers.

By innovating, F&B entrepreneurs enjoy reduced overheads, better customer service and additional revenue. Customers feel more satisfied too. In this article, we chart four recent trends in the F&B industry that have dramatically improved how businesses are run.

If you’re a restaurateur or cafe owner, do look at these trends and consider implementing them in your business.

Managing orders wirelessly

The wireless paging system from Food Icon.

Customers often struggle to get the attention of busy waitresses. Staff also find the handling of order tickets a struggle at times.

To solve these problems, food eateries are adopting new wireless communication devices from companies like Food Icon to make the ordering process a breeze. Swensen’s and Aston Express are some of its customers.

One of its products, Wi-Serve, is a paging service that allows restaurant operators to quickly and easily contact their patrons. It can be used to inform customers when an order is ready to be collected or when a table is available.

Consisting of one transmitter with many handheld coaster pagers, restaurant operators can enter the pager number into the transmitter and press ‘send’, allowing patrons to receive the alert on their coaster pagers immediately.

Says Vincent Shi, co-founder of the company: “The increasingly tight labour market is a strain on the F&B industry. Paging technology can help F&B operators improve productivity and efficiency in spite of limited manpower.”

“Matured countries such as Japan and Korea which encountered manpower shortage many years before Singapore, are heavily reliant on paging technology in their F&B industry.”

F&B outlets are no longer just selling food

Running mixed businesses from the same outlet is becoming a more popular trend among F&B operators. TeaCosy is one example: It serves comfort food and sells angel figurines, lifestyle accessories and classic vintage furniture at the same time.

Daphne Tan, owner of Teacosy, has two retail partners housed within its premises: Ten Thousand Angels (angel figurines, lifestyle accessories) and A Thousand Tales (Scandinavian retro furniture).

“We were all friends to begin with and found that each had our strengths to offer which complemented the space we had. We wanted to offer something unique and niche for consumers, especially those who shop for the angels in-store because they come in and marvel at the ambiance. We also give them an opportunity to dine in-house.”

Pocket Full Of Posies, another unique concept store in the form of a floral retail cum café has outlets in VivoCity and Plaza Singapura.

From the very beginning, they’ve merged both concepts into one as economics dictated it. They worked with the landlords who were able to think-out-of-the-box and allow a unit to be mixed-use.

Online reservations are making restaurants more efficient

Reserveit.sg is a pioneer of online restaurant reservation in Singapore.

When competing with a crowd of hungry diners, the best way to get into a restaurant is to reserve a table. But finding the right restaurant and then making a reservation isn’t always easy. That is where online reservation websites like Reserveit.sg and Chope are built to the benefit of both diners and F&B operators.

Reserveit.sg enables diners to search for the most suitable restaurant, reserve a table, and receive confirmation almost instantly. This differs greatly from the usual telephone call to book a table.

Jesper Gustafsson, director of business development, says: “We have seen a steady increase both in participating restaurants and members on our website. It is only in Asia that restaurants and diners have not utilised this tool for their mutual benefit, convenience and efficiency.”

Describing the benefits that such technology entails, he says: “Using such a system helps diners eliminate time calling multiple restaurants, not having their calls answered, waiting for the email reply in vain or worry that the staff didn’t take the reservation down accurately.”

He adds: “Restaurant operators increase their revenue by getting more reservations and are able to organize their restaurant and optimise seating times and seating arrangements in ways not possible with the pen-and-paper system that they are used to.”

Payments over the cloud

Ordering and paying for food at eateries is becoming simpler and more convenient with the integration of new technology into the ordering process. A good case study would be eOrderNPay, a cloud-based menu ordering and payment solution developed by B-Secure Technologies and Swiff.

eOrderNPay cuts down waiting time for diners by providing interactive e-menus, as well as a faster checkout and payment process. F&B operators would also gain from a reduction in overheads and indirectly provide better customer service in terms of shorter waiting time and an efficient order-payment system.

Here’s how the system works:

• Customers browse the eMenu, select his choices and place his orders all from a tablet.
• Payment transactions takes seven seconds to complete with a tap and swipe of a credit card over 3G or WiFi. The transaction is highly secure and authenticated.
• An eReceipt will be sent to the customer’s email account instantaneously.

Conclusion

Restaurateurs and café owners have been traditionally slow to adapt new technology. But that is slowly changing.

Helped by the rising ubiquity of 3G and WiFi Internet access, and also the openness of younger entrepreneurs who are less resistant to technology and different business models, the F&B industry is prime for a shake-up.

Rising rental costs do also play a part — entrepreneurs are forced to think out of the box and merge seemingly disparate businesses into one.

About the author

Julian Abraham Chua is a freelance writer whose works were featured in Strait Times’s Youthink section previously and regularly writes for various magazines including NTUC Lifestyle, Spin Asia, Timeout Singapore and Campus Magazine.  Graduating from Nanyang Polytechnic not too long ago and majoring in business management, he along with his friends, started a company YTY Group and is now an established entreprenuer with his own distribution business in gifts and stationery. His passion for the pen was ignited when he started writing for his polytchinic’s online news portal and interviewed various rising sports stars including footballer Hariss Harun and national gymnast Lim Heem Wei.

Titled Grant Thornton International Business Report 2010, the paper sought the perceptions of owners and directors of PHBs (privately held businesses) on the issue of tax in their respective country.

The global study, which covered 36 key economies worldwide, found entrepreneurs residing in Singapore and Hong Kong are among the most satisfied with their country’s tax system. Entrepreneurs interviewed from the remaining economies felt burdened by at least one category of taxation in their country.

Most burdensome taxes by economy

53 and 38 percent of entrepreneurs cited Hong Kong and Singapore respectively as having no burdensome taxes.

Source: Grant Thornton IBR 2010

Countries with the highest and lowest taxes

These perceptions are not unfounded. According to statistics provided by Worldwide Tax, Singapore and Hong Kong share one of the lowest company tax, personal income tax and value-added tax rates in the world.

Hong Kong in particular has a benign tax regime, with no VAT, sales tax, tax on investment income and no employment taxes paid by the employer. Corporate tax is only 16.5 percent.

Other countries in the low tax regime bracket include Bulgaria, Cyprus and Canada. Countries with a high rate of business tax include Germany, France, Belgium, Brazil, USA, India; while countries with marginal income tax rates above 40% include Australia, New Zealand, Belgium and Germany.

In previous decades, countries like the US and Japan cut effective tax rates to keep local business globally competitive. However, governments are unlikely to cut tax in 2012. They will instead seek to reduce national debts accumulated from the recession by increasing taxes.

This will incentivise entrepreneurs from Europe, the US and parts of Asia to incorporate their start-up companies in Singapore and Hong Kong.

In March 1999, Bob Perlman, then Vice President of Taxes for Intel Corporation, told the Senate Finance Committee that if he had known at Intel’s founding “what I know today about the international tax rules, I would have advised that the parent company be established outside the U.S. Our tax code competitively disadvantages multinationals simply because the parent is a U.S. corporation.”

Full table on tax rates in different countries here.

Starting a company in Asia

When making decisions to invest in Asia, entrepreneurs need to assess a country’s tax risk. Despite the growth potential of many Asian countries, their taxation systems can substantially reduce a company’s retained earnings.

China is a magnet for investment because of the nation’s growth potential. However, China’s tax system is one of the most complicated in the world, incorporating every conceivable type of taxation that exists including VAT, business tax on services, corporate and personal taxes, and worldwide taxes.

India’s business community reports a high burden of indirect taxes including VAT, GST, commodity taxes, real and personal property taxes and excise duties. Complying to the tax codes of these two countries is challenging. Many businesses are too small to afford the professional outsource fees required to comply properly.

In contrast, the tax systems of Hong Kong and Singapore are very simple. The only major difference is Singapore has a goods and services tax. Both countries have low business tax rates, many different kinds of tax incentives and have a high degree of tax stability.

Disclaimer

The information given is of a general nature and may not be applicable in a specific situation. Under the Terms of Use of this website, we disclaim liability for any act done or omission made on the information provided and any consequences for any such act or omission. For specific legal advice, you should seek professional legal assistance.

About the author

Anthony Coundouris is the founder of Futurebooks. Futurebooks offer affordable incorporation, bookkeeping, business planning and business brokering in Singapore and South East Asia. Anthony has helped corporate firms build subscription models, conduct industry analysis and develop brand positioning for new firms. He was founder of Firestarter, a digital marketing agency, acquired by Novus Media in 2010.

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He has run the company for a few years and found it difficult to run multiple companies, so he has decided to sell one and focus on running the other.

He approached us for advice on how to sell his company and value his business. To begin, we collected a few facts so we could get a sense of what kind of business we are selling.

1. Operating for five years;
2. Less than $100,000 in revenue per annum;
3. No retail sales. All sales are B2B;
4. Trademark on the name;
5. No patents;
6. No ownership of manufacturing plants or equipment;
7. Three months of inventory on hand.

Despite the slow sales, the owners believe the product has potential. Sales have been slow because the business lacks attention, which when put in place, will yield results. The product is unique, well-packaged and well-received by buyers.

Here are the two type of buyers who may look at their business.

Enter Buyer A

Buyer A buys businesses based on future revenues. Buyer A is prepared to forgo earning now for bigger pay-offs later.

They will want to see patents, trademarks, exclusive licenses and distribution agreements. These kinds of assets provide assurances of future revenue.

However, the business for sale does not offer this kind of protection.

The product has a cutting edge design, but the design offers no barriers to entry. As soon as the product proves successful, it is likely to be copied by competitors.

Enter Buyer B

Buyer B wants a business with healthy profits now. This buyer wants to see a proven track record of sales, and assurances that the success is repeatable in the future.

Buyer B wants three years of sales history and three-year sales projections.

Buyer B bases his valuations on profits made today and in the past, not on the potential of the company. So it is important the business has a healthy profit and loss sheet.

The business for sale however does not have a fat P+L. It is making small profits and less than $100k revenue per year. All the sales are made through a B2B channel, which does not provide a retail buyer proof the product will sell in a B2C channel.

Ready for the truth?

It is important your business clearly addresses one of these buyers. Most buyers in Asia fit the Buyer B profile. They are attracted by companies with valuations above a million dollars, as anything smaller is not worth their time.

Unfortunately this business is attractive to neither investor.

Here’s why.

Neither buyer perceives value. Neither can see what they are buying. The old truth that nobody buys anything which is not valuable holds true.

Buyer A sees no potential and no proof the designs can be protected against copycats. Buyer B sees a part-time business with small profits.

The most the seller can hope to be paid for an exchange of ownership is the sum of its cash in the bank, accounts receivable (assuming these debts can be collected) and stock on hand.

The net gain for the seller is zero, less the cost of selling and marketing the business to the buyers.

In short, if you are in this position, you are best not to sell, but to trade out of your debts and strike the company off. Or you can continue to trade until such point in time when you can demonstrate the business has value.

Demonstrating value — an alternative path

If you believe you have a great product and have already achieved moderate success, here’s an alternative way to attract a buyer.

It’s simple. You need to build a case and prove to a potential buyer that the product has value.

Consider licensing your product to a retail distributor who is already carrying a similar line and is confident they can build market share.

Finding the retail distributor may involve looking internationally to new markets. In the example above, the client’s product will sell better in newsagents throughout Australia.

Step 1 – Pilot

Secure a minimum order from a retail distributor — say 10,000 units. If you are landing the products from abroad, use a letter of credit or similar financial instrument to facilitate payment.

You can also use the purchase order supplied by the retail distributor as collateral to secure a short-term loan from a bank if you need finance to bankroll the cost of goods sold.

Normally retail mark-up on cost of goods sold is 100 percent, and you can expect to be paid seven days after the product has landed. It is a good idea to meet the retail distributor when they take possession and check the goods for quality.

Step 2 – Reorders and licensing

If the pilot is successful, the retail distributor will want to reorder. Repeat orders are important because they demonstrate to a buyer the business has value.

The retail distributor may decide to take on more risk and responsibility by licensing the product from you. Under a license agreement they agree to produce, distribute and sell a number of units per year, and pay you a royalty, calculated as a percentage of sales (one to five percent).

This can be as attractive as selling the company, as you have few operation responsibilities, but retain executive power when it comes to making important business decisions.

An exclusive or non-exclusive license agreement will also attract buyers who see an investment which offers fewer risks and more returns. The company is making sales, and has some guarantee of future revenue.

Step 3 – Sell the business

The buyer could come from different parts of the retail value chain. They might be a manufacturer from a similar industry, looking to diversify their suite of products. Equally the retail distributor who holds the license agreement, may also be a potential buyer.

Drafting a profile of the buyer is important. You have to know who you are selling to and tailor the pitch to that buyer to secure the sale. The buyer profile depends on a few variables including the valuation of the company, industry, complexity of operations.

About the author

Anthony Coundouris is the founder of Futurebooks Pte Ltd. Futurebooks offer affordable incorporation, bookkeeping, business planning and business brokering in Singapore and South East Asia.

Anthony has helped new companies incorporate, conduct industry analysis and develop brand positioning. He was founder of Firestarter, a digital marketing agency — a company acquired by Novus Media in 2010.

Photo: Ian Muttoo

In the restaurant-eat-restaurant world of the F&B industry, few local brands have stood out as clearly as Crystal Jade, one of the market leaders in Singapore. Celebrating its 20th anniversary last year with a refreshing of its identity that involves extensive refurbishments at its restaurants, Crystal Jade enjoyed a turnover of S$240M (US$189M) in 2010.

Over the last three years, it has expanded aggressively, investing S$25M (together with partners) to open 39 new outlets across Asia. This year, the F&B group will sink in a further S$17M to open 17 new outlets across eight cities. These efforts helped it to achieve a targeted 10 percent to 15 percent yearly growth in sales.

Beginning from a single outlet in Cairnhill in 1991 — which was closed and reopened with a Kitchen outlet in Shaw Plaza and a Palace outlet in Ngee Ann City – the group now has more than 100 outlets sprawled across 18 cities in nine countries. Half of these are in Singapore while the other 50 are in China, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Thailand, Malaysia and more.

To find out more about Crystal Jade’s longevity in the hypercompetitive F&B market, I had the pleasure of speaking to Mr Ip Yiu Tung, its Group Chairman and CEO. Joining the company in 1992, he was responsible for the group’s sterling performance in the last two decades. With a passion for pianos, the former engineer by training is surprisingly soft spoken with a gentle demeanour despite being the chieftain of such a large enterprise.

Three Keys to Success

Keeping things simple and straightforward, Mr Ip’s business philosophy is embodied in three basic principles:

1) Offering great food;

2) Providing attractive service; and

3) Caring about the dining ambiance.

While innovation is part and parcel of Crystal Jade’s strategy, the group has not veered away from its core competence in traditional Chinese and East Asian cuisine. To ensure that every dimension of the business runs like clockwork, Mr Ip travels extensively to his outlets around the region. He also has his pulse on the business, knowing its ins-and-outs down to the nitty gritty details.

Sourcing and Buying Fresh

Sacrificing profitability for customer experience, Crystal Jade spares no expense in sourcing for quality ingredients in its dishes. Mr Ip shared that its restaurants actually imported higher quality soya sauce from Singapore (which costed about 23 RMB per bottle) rather than buy cheaper alternatives costing 4 RMB in China. They also use hazelnut oil sourced from the UK for their Yusheng dishes, giving it greater fragrance compared to its competitors who use cheaper peanut oil.

Known for its roast meats, Crystal Jade also purchases 49 day-old ducks from a farm in Ipoh. Unlike the more conventional 40-day old birds that other restaurants may purchase, a 49 day-old bird is lighter and leaner with more muscle mass and less fat. Pound for pound, Crystal Jade is willing to pay more to ensure that customers enjoy a premium dining experience.

Innovating to Please the Customer

To understand what its increasingly demanding customers desire, the Group conducts regular surveys to gain their inputs. These insights help to spark new menu ideas or service improvements. It also operates a full-time customer care team since 2005 with a hotline and email for customers to contact them during retail hours. A service call bell is also installed at the tables of new restaurants like Scott’s Square.

While the group is focused on traditional Chinese cuisine, it hasn’t stopped inventing new ways of serving its customers. The group was one of the first to offer takeaway Yusheng back in the old days, and has recently pioneered a new dish called the Pagoda of Eight Treasures. Every quarter, its menu would have a new chef’s special, and seasonal promotions help to keep its customers coming back.

Responding to feedback from businessmen and PMET customers, Crystal Jade has recently launched a new Nourishing Treats menu that combines fresh, high quality ingredients with taste, texture and health. I had a chance to sample some of these dishes and thoroughly enjoyed myself without feeling the typical guilt accompanying a trip to a Chinese restaurant.

Recruiting, Retaining and Motivating Staff

People are the most important resource in the manpower-intensive restaurant business. Running the Crystal Group chain of restaurants is an army of more than 4,000 chefs, waiters, operations, and office staff. To keep them happy, Mr Ip adopts a simple management mantra of giving them respect and allowing them the freedom to innovate. Believing in staff empowerment, managers are free to handle their subordinates.

To ensure that it recruits the most talented chefs — considered the lifeblood of the F&B business — Crystal Jade gives aspiring joinees a cooking test. In a manner reminiscent of Iron Chef, candidates must cook in front of a committee and pass the taste and food presentation test. Once they join the group, however, all chefs follow a strict training programme to ensure that they could meet the high quality and standards needed by the Group.

The Road Ahead

For the journey ahead, Crystal Jade is paying particular focus on marketing strategies that help it to draw closer to its customers. Other than refreshing its logo and restaurant designs, the group will continue to engage both traditional and social media channels, working with journalists and bloggers alike to get the word out. Future innovations include the refreshing of its website and the introduction of a customer loyalty programme to allow priority queueing for members.

Photos courtesy of Crystal Jade

About the author:

Walter Lim is a corporate professional with more than 15 years of experience in marketing, public relations, social media, events management, strategic planning and corporate development. This article was republished with permission from his blog: coolinsights.blogspot.com.

What do Amazon, IBM, Kickstarter and Twitter have in common, other than being great technology companies?

They all use Ruby on Rails. With so many things going for it, it’s an attractive framework that allows you to deploy web apps quickly and effectively. That’s enough to make you want to pick up Ruby on Rails!

So, I’ve put together ten good sites where you can pick up the framework as a newbie without paying a single cent. These resources will not transform you into a super programmer, but they’re enough for you to create a working application.

Note: Ruby is a programming language that can be used without a framework. But having a framework provides a structure for your code and includes a variety of powerful code modules that make many programming tasks simpler. Rails is a framework written in Ruby, so learning Ruby will give you good foundation to learn Rails.

Before you start learning, make sure you have a text editor (Mac/Windows) and have Ruby or Ruby on Rails installed (Mac/Windows).

The ten websites:

1. Roadmap for Learning Rails: This article provides a good road map to how you should go about learning Ruby on Rails and explains the different components of building a web app. Even if you don’t intend to pick up Ruby on Rails, you should read this.

2. Why’s (Poignant) Guide to Ruby: A cute guide on terminology that will help you understand what “a string is passed to the method” means.

3. Try Ruby: This is an interactive site that teaches the basics of Ruby as you follow the short exercises.

4. Learn to Program: Wordy without being dry, I like how this guide teaches by showing you the input and output codes before explaining how it works.

5. Hackety-Hack: Probably the cutest way to learn Ruby! It works a little like Try Ruby, except that it a program you download instead of a web site.

6. Programming Ruby: The Pragmatic Programmer’s Guide: This is a very in-depth guide that’s suitable for people who don’t like to be distracted by cute cartoons.

7. Ruby Koans: This is not a guide where you can learn Ruby. Rather, it has many exercises that will test your understanding of the language.

8. Learning Rails: These 23 podcasts and screencasts teach you how to build a web application with Ruby on Rails. Plus, the materials also come as transcripts and both are downloadable.

9. Ruby On Rails 3 Beginner To Builder 2011 (Part 1 – 3) (Part 4) (Part 5) (Part 6) (Part 7) (Part 8): Best resource for Ruby on Rails ever! The videos explain the terms and teach you how to build the entire application. This gives you a comprehensive, yet not overwhelming, view of using RoR.

10. Ruby on Rails Tutorial: Learn Rails by Example: This eBook teaches you how to code by guiding you through the process of building twitter (yes, that twitter!).

But I don’t want to learn Ruby on Rails!

I’ve got you covered. I’ve also compiled ten free sites to learn Python and five free sites to Objective-C (for iPhone/iPad applications).

Happy learning!

About the author

Elisha Tan is the founder of Learnemy, an online marketplace that helps users learn anything by matching them with people who can teach it. It is an online matching service for offline learning. She believes that people should be able to make a living by doing what they like to do. Hence, she hopes to provide a platform for people to monetize their skill sets by teaching.

Professor Dr. Wong Poh Kam here provides an overview of role of Venture Capital and Angel Investors in teh-startups scene in Singapore. It has been republished here with permission. A more detailed version of this will be published in the Annual SVCA Directory 2011/12

High-technology entrepreneurship has been identified as an important driver of Singapore’s knowledge-based economy, and increased policy attention has been given to encouraging the formation and nurturing of high-tech start-ups, especially those with significant intellectual property (IP). To this end, in 2010 the National Research Foundation (NRF) engaged me, as director of the NUS Entrepreneurship Centre, to conduct a study of high-tech start-ups in Singapore. While the survey covers many aspects of the high tech start-up dynamics, including characteristics of the founders, their sources of technology and funding, growth strategies, performance and challenges, this blog highlights some salient findings on only one aspect of the survey: the performance of start-ups that have received funding from venture capitalists or angel investors versus those that did not.

The survey focused on young ventures that started-up or began operations no earlier than 2004 (i.e. companies that were at most five years old in 2009), and that fall within sectors classified as high-technology using a definition adopted by the United States Bureau of Labour Statistics (BLS), which includes all sectors with proportion of employment in R&D exceeding the average for all sectors. Based on this definition, nine manufacturing sectors and three service sectors categorized at the 2-digit Singapore Standard Industry Classification (SSIC) level are included as high-tech sectors in Singapore.

Based on over 300 responding firms covered by the survey, we estimated that less than 10% of high-tech start-ups in Singapore have received investment from VCs or business angel investors (VCA). The majority of high tech start-ups that did not receive VCA funding reported that they faced two hurdles when attempting to raise funding from VCA. Firstly, they reported that VCA investors tend to impose harsh terms or offer valuations that are too low. Secondly, they reported difficulties in attracting the interest of such investors.

While firms receiving VC/Angel (VCA) investment represent only a small share of tech start-ups in Singapore, the survey results show that VCA-funded firms outperform other start-ups on a number of key indicators.

a) High-tech start-ups that have received VCA investment tend to be more innovative and IP-intensive

Start-ups that have received VCA investment are more likely to conduct in-house R&D (83.3% vs 51.7% for other firms). Correspondingly, they have a higher propensity to develop their own core technologies (88.9% vs 70.5%). They are also more likely to have introduced significant product or process innovations over the preceding three years[1] (76.5% vs 62.5%) and have a greater tendency to possess Intellectual Property (IP) assets (52.9% own/have applied for IP assets vs 11.5% for other firms).

b) High-tech start-ups that have received VCA investment have higher employment growth…

Start-ups that have received VCA investment experienced much higher employment growth rates since their first year of founding (329.8% p.a.) as compared to other start-ups (175.0% p.a.).

c) High-tech start-ups that have received VCA investment had greater growth ambitions

High-tech start-ups receiving VCA investment have a higher propensity to expand their operations to overseas locations (52.9% have overseas-based operations, as compared to 27% of other firms). They also have more ambitious growth targets for the future. Almost three-quarters of VCA-funded firms project growth rates in excess of 20% per annum over the next three years (versus 61.3% of other start-ups).

In summary, our survey of young high tech firms in Singapore show that while less than one in ten of them received VCA investment, those that did get funded by VCA showed higher average employment growth, greater growth ambitions, and tend to be more innovative and IP-intensive. This difference is likely to be due to a combination of the selectivity of VCA investors who chose to invest in more scalable ventures, as well as possibly the value add provided by the VCA investors to the start-ups, enabling them to invest more in technological innovation and to accelerate their path to growth.

About the Author
Dr. Wong Poh Kam [LinkedIn] is a professor, angel investor and consultant. He holds positions at the NUS Business School, (by courtesy) at the NUS Engineering School and LKY School of Public Policy. He is also the Director of the NUS Entrepreneurship Centre. As an angel investor, Dr. Wong has invested in many high-tech firms and sits on the boards of many. His portfolio companies include Invantest, iWow and GlobalRoam. He has consulted widely for international agencies such as the World Bank and ADB, various government agencies in Singapore such as EDB, IDA and A*STAR, as well as many high tech firms in Asia.

Dr. Wong Poh Kam blogs at Connect The Dots@Singapore.

Image credit: visualpanic

Reizo is a custom tailoring house, located at Wilkie Edge. Just a few years old, they already have a faithful following by delivering quality at affordable prices. REIZO’s custom suits suggest a wine-sniffing, caviar-munching elegance, which sets you a head above your less dressed colleagues.

At the helm of Reizo is young entrepreneur Vishnu Vasudeven. Graduating from NUS with a major in finance, he gave up a comfy bank job to create Reizo. In his own words:

“I wanted to do something different. I tried internships (at the bank) and didn’t like it. I wanted to start my own thing.”

Reizo in the Singapore Scene

Reizo is differentiates itself by challenging the notion that tailored suits are (1) unaffordable and (2) boring. Walk down Orchard Road and you’ll find a tailor in every building, pitching designs that were probably trendy when Grease was rebellious.

By going against the crowd, Reizo’s getting Singaporeans to rediscover tailored apparel. Their suits are affordable, snazzy, and made with obsessive attention to detail.

Starting Up

Reizo started with a capital of just S$75,000 (US$58,000). That may sound like a lot, but not in this industry; tailored suits have a higher production cost than off-the-rack clothing. Also, there was the worry that Singaporeans wouldn’t be interested; Reizo had to persuade investors that mentalities like mine (i.e. people who think that t-shirts with copulating skeletons is classy) could be corrected.

So where did the seed money come from? S$15,000 (US$12,000) came from Vishnu’s family. The rest of Reizo was funded by Spring Singapore. Vishnu mentions that:

“Without Spring Singapore, I may not have been able to start the business at all.”

Regarding his family, Vishnu says the issue wasn’t the amount of money. They were just worried about the risk he was taking.

“It was difficult to convince them that the risk is worth taking. I had studied finance and they thought working with a bank is a better and more stable option. So I had to prove to them that I was sure of my decision.”

But were they right about the risk behind Reizo? Vishnu thinks so:

“Your own business is not very lucrative for the first 6 months to a year. In fact, 9 out 10 business fail so it is a big risk. But it is worth it if it takes off. That’s why you take the risk, in hopes that you will do well in the future.”

Even with lenders in place, Vishnu made it a point to find alternative income. He spent time tutoring, and cut down on his own expenses.

“I would go hang out with friends at the park instead of the club,” he says.

How’s Business?

Vishnu explains that Reizo sees seasonal trends. Some months profits soar. Other times, they just manage to break even. But his business goals are all on target.

“I want to add more lines of products, and more shops in the coming years, so those plans are still on.”

About the author

In Shubhreet Kaur‘s own words: I’m a passionate journalist with a strong belief in the power of media. Besides penning down my thoughts and ideas, I am an F1 fanatic who loves to travel, experience new cultures and explore new grounds. At all other times in between, I love to shop till I drop! ;)

Having only attended the first part of the event, I got to sit in at the sessions where Google showed off these new technologies.

Here are some takeaways.

Google+ isn’t a new product. It’s a feature added on to what you’re already using.

Ever since Google+ was announced, it’s been frequently compared to Facebook. But as I sat down and use Google+, it became clear to me that Google is not trying to build another social network.

They don’t have to. If they wanted, they could map all your social connections by analyzing your email patterns. Here’s what they’re trying to do: They want to add a common social platform across their various products.

Think of it as an upgrade to your existing Google experience. Unlike some new social network that’s going to require you to sign up all over again and manage yet another account, Google+ is all about enhancing the products you probably already use on a daily basis – Chrome, Gmail, Reader, Search, Android.

If they can build it to the point where it meets most of your social needs, then you can literally stay on one platform for work and play.

HTML5 is going to destroy Flash as we know it today.

Eric Bidelman gave a quick demo about the capabilities of HTML5 and it totally blew me away. Take a look at his presentation (preferably using Chrome). His entire presentation was made in HTML5.

While I don’t think it’s the end of Flash, HTML5 is definitely able to replace a whole range of Flash functions when it comes to delivering rich, dynamic media content.

Of course, this is going to be very browser dependent so I’m not sure if it’ll pan out well if other players don’t support it in a uniform fashion.

When Ice Cream Sandwich comes, it’s the real beginning of convergence between our real and digital worlds.

Convergence between the real and digital world has largely happened through overlaying data onto maps or using Augmented Reality to overlay video and pictures. But I think things are about to take a huge leap forward.

A lot of problems have been brought up about the Android ecosystem since Day One with fragmentation being a major complaint. Gingerbread is still phone-optimised, while Honeycomb is more tablet-optimised. But when ICS finally comes, they’re going to start allowing developers to set options to change the look of applications depending on whether it’s a tablet or a phone.

Take that, and their Android@Home project, and I think the possibilities are endless: From your Android device, you’ll be able to do scour the web for information, leverage the cloud for processing, wirelessly interact with stuff around you and eventually even control the appliances at home.

The time to dream and build is now.

I think there is no better time to think about what sort of things you want to do when it comes to digital communications because the Google platform as a collective is almost ready, the developer base is huge and it’s all either free or really affordable and accessible.

About the author

Starting and maintaining Ridz.sg aside, Ridzuan Ashim is the co-founder of Senseless Labs – a software solutions company currently focused on building mobile-based Marketing and CRM solutions. He has been dabbling in both web and mobile development since 2003. His interests include how technology can be used to improve the human condition, poverty alleviation through sustainable development, education and microfinancing.

Setting up a website, building a customer database, sending out newsletters and many other impractical tasks have become affordable for everyone, at a fraction of the costs 20 years ago, thanks to a plethora of Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) businesses.

Here you’ll find a brief overview of web-based services that you can start using today to help bootstrap your company.

Designing your logo and corporate identity

A good logo is always a good investment, so it’s usually is a good idea to find a good designer who specializes in corporate identity design.

That said, crowdsourcing your corporate identity design can be a much more affordable alternative especially when every cent counts: 99designs and crowdSPRING both enable you to put your project in front of thousands of designers who deliver their best work in exchange for the price you set.

Email and Office Software

Google provides businesses web-based tools such as Gmail, Calendar, Documents and more with Google Apps. Unless your business requires you to create super-complicated financial plans in Excel or prepare 1200 PowerPoint slide presentations, Google Apps is more than enough due to its compatibility with Microsoft Office products.

The free plan is limited to 10 users, but you can also consider the paid version — complete with a Service Level Agreement and more features — at US$50/year/user. Compare the versions and see which is best for your business. Alternatives include Zimbra from WMware and Zoho.

Setting up your website

Depending on your business, you have a multitude of options which do not include your geek nephew. If you’re a freelancer or small business owner, you can setup a website with beautifully designed themes for only US$10/month at Virb. Looking for more functionality off the shelf? Adobe’s Business Catalyst plans gives you all the tools you’ll need starting at US$9/month.

For an e-commerce business, take a look at Big Cartel if you’re an artist or designer. Shopify would be a better alternative if you’re more interesting in selling products.

If you aim to go really big, check out Magento and Volusion. Finally, you can also consider the Singapore based e-commerce platform The EZsuite (see our product feature), which has exclusive partnerships with PayPal and Singapore Post.

If you need more control of your website, you can easily set up one for yourself. There are many open source tools such as WordPress to get you started. Start by buying a web hosting package and then install WordPress in five minutes.

For a WordPress site to look good, you’ll need to install a theme. You can get a professionally designed theme at WooThemes for only US$70.

Alternatively, if you’re looking for a custom design, you can probably find the best designers in Singapore at Sortfolio to create a theme for you for less than US$3000.

Web Analytics

The most popular web analytics tool around is the free and awesome Google Analytics, followed by Yahoo! Web Analytics. Also do look at KISSmetrics for customer-based analytics, ClickTale to understand what your visitors are doing on your website, and Crazy Egg for a combination of both.

Customer Support

Soon after launching your website, you will find out that email is probably not the most efficient way of handling support tickets or receiving feedback.

Zendesk is a popular choice for most startups with plans starting from US$9/month. Equally popular alternatives include Get Satisfaction, which has great community management functionality, or UserVoice.

Finally, Tender Support is another great tool with advanced reporting options but a heftier price tag (from US$24/month).

Relationship Management

As a startup founder, you will probably spend a significant portion of your time marketing your business to other people. One of the best ways to keep track of your interactions is Highrise, which is simply a joy to use. If your business model is more sales-driven, Salesforce CRM or PipelineDeals would be a wiser choice. For a free alternative, try Zoho CRM.

Sending promotional emails and newsletters

Regardless of the type of your business, you will want to send newsletters and/or special offers from time to time to your beloved prospects or customers.

Luckily, permission-based email service providers take care of almost everything: Building and maintaining email lists, delivering your emails to inboxes, tracking opens and clicks and automatic follow-up on unsubscription requests and bounces. Madmimi has been praised for its ease of use and excellent customer support.

MailChimp is another great choice, with high delivery rates and integration with popular services. Constant Contact provides a complete suite of additional applications such as online surveys, social media tracking, etc. All of these services are permission-based, meaning that they require everyone in your list to give you explicit permission to send emails to them.

Forms and Surveys

Collect information from your audience is something you will do once in a while, whether it’s about figuring out if they like your offering, or to see who will attend your event, or for accepting job applications.

For general purpose surveys, SurveyMonkey is the most popular solution with a complete set of features. For simpler forms, you can take a look at Wufoo. If you just need to collect data into a spreadsheet, you can always create free forms with Google Docs.

Social Media Management, Monitoring and Analysis

Keeping a close eye on what people are saying about your business on social networks is a great way to understand what you’re doing great (and doing wrong). CoTweet does a very good job of helping you co-managing a Twitter account with your colleagues.

HootSuite is a complete social media dashboard for your Facebook, Twitter and Google+ accounts. TweetDeck makes it easy to manage your twitter account on your desktop, iPhone, Android and more. For social media monitoring, SocialBro helps you analyze your Twitter followers and Singapore-based JamiQ is great for monitoring social media across Asian markets.

Accounting and Invoicing

One of the best services for online accounting is New Zealand based Xero with its mobile support, developer-friendly API to connect with your existing infrastructure, and a beautiful interface. Saasu easily integrates with many services including Google Contacts, Highrise and Magento. FreshBooks focuses more on invoicing and has a lot of features such as automatic follow-up reminder emails and recurring invoicing.

Conclusion

For almost all startups, having a laser-like focus on your core business and fast execution is key to success. You don’t need to have the perfect design to get your website up and running, or wait a few months for your tech-savvy friend to build an accounting software for you. Smart outsourcing enables you to get your business up and running, fast.

Decide what your core business is, and outsource everything else. You won’t regret it.

Onur Ozer is one of the co-founders of and head of marketing at Brandsfever, a private shopping club headquartered in Singapore. Since 2001, he has worked in digital marketing agencies producing award-winning web projects and online marketing campaigns for blue-chip clients such as Coca Cola, HSBC, Garanti Bank and Turkcell.

Homepage photo: theaucitron

Part one defined what kind of questions industry analysis aims to solve. Here we recommend some of the best resources on the Internet to help you carry out industry analysis.

To start, look at the industry as whole, and then begin to make a study of the top three or four players. Cross reference analysis of individual companies with industry analysis to see if you can verify the industry reports and make your own conclusions.

Analyst reports

To gather this intelligence, examine free industry reports published by financial analysts from firms like KPMG and Deloitte. Analysts write reports on individual companies, and across whole industries.

The industry reports are more valuable. These reports benchmark the industry as whole, look at the key players and examine where the industry is moving towards.

Independent research reports

Research companies often publish industry reports they write on behalf of their clients. Parts of these reports are often made available for free, and you can normally purchase the entire research for around a thousand US dollars.

If you find part of a report well written and informative, buy it. It will cost you a fraction of what that research would cost to do from scratch and will save you time in mistakes later.

Prospectus and annual reports

If you can find and dig up an old prospectus of one of the top three /four competitors in your industry, you’ve struck gold. An IPO prospectus contains a wealth of information. They are written at the time when a company is trying to go public and list their shares on a stock exchange, so the reports are very revealing.

A prospectus explains a lot about an industry, why the company is in the industry and where the industry is headed. They often include a financial analysis of the industry, so competitors are benchmarked.

If you cannot find a prospectus, download annual reports. Though these are often not as detailed as a prospectus, annual reports do provide financial information.

Wikipedia

Good for cursive research. You can find out top-line information about each of the key competitors, their major shareholders, market cap and price to book ratios.

IPO listings

Are new companies entering your industry? This can be a healthy sign the industry is growing. Keep an eye out for IPO listings, and the positioning of these new firms. Their position in the value chain and level of disruption reveals a lot about the future of the market.

There are some good applications on Android and iOS to track IPOs.

Listen to news wires

If you are starting a company in a young category no older than 18 months, there may not be a lot of data available. It may be that the major players have yet to publically list. Private companies are not required to disclose their financials.

Daily deals are one such category where unless you are from the industry, understanding the implication of Porter’s Five Forces as an outsider is practically impossible.

Listen to statements made by CEOs of key companies. Track company consolidations – who is buying who? Consolidation reveals which companies are aggressive and what they value.

Monitor Twitter as a source of information. There are many analysts and industry specialists on Twitter freely conversing about juicy tweets and sharing links.

Work in the industry

Consider working for a competitor for a year. Lots of people worked at Google and Yahoo, and left to start their own businesses. They made lots of friends, gleaned valuable insights and some even got bought out by their previous employers.

Make friends from competing businesses and interview customers and suppliers in the value chain.

Go back to part one.

About the author

Anthony Coundouris is the founder of Futurebooks. Futurebooks offer affordable incorporation, bookkeeping, business planning and business brokering in Singapore and South East Asia. Anthony has helped corporate firms build subscription models, conduct industry analysis and develop brand positioning for new firms. He was founder of Firestarter, a digital marketing agency, acquired by Novus Media in 2010.

Front page image: Lumaxart