Thinking of quitting your job to become a full time entrepreneur so that you can be your own boss? Longing to escape the dull drudgery of work and unfairness of being under someone who gets rich on your hard work?

When you become your own boss, here are the glorious days that await you.

Gotcha!

This video was featured in our latest newsletter sent a few days ago which shared what Being The BOSS is really like. If you want to receive our newsletter in your email inbox every Monday, sign up here.

Image Credit: Kumar Appaiah , thelonelyisalnd

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It was as if Danny and Aen foound themselves caught in an explosion of hype and activity after their pitch at the Echelon 2010 StartUp Launch Pad.

Everyone wanted a piece of them – from panelist and Geeks On A Plane founder, Dave McClure, requesting that everyone give them a standing ovation to TechCrunch’s Dr. Serkan Toto tweeting about their “world class presentation”, foound seemed to be the name on everyone’s lips.

How did they manage to earn that standing ovation from one of the harshest panelist at the event? By answering all the right questions and more importantly, putting their ideas across clearly and consisely such that the audience could immediately understand who they were, what their product was and of course, how their solutions were beneficial for their target group.

Hitting The Right Notes And A Standing Ovation

Indeed, Aen shares in the COMA blog that the “slides were deliberately kept simple to reflect the values and messages of the foound brand“. Whilst other teams struggled with faulty equipment and poor internet connection, the team ensured an effortless and smooth presentation by relying on slides instead of a video presentation.

Moreover, the pitch hit all the right notes because it answered all the right questions.

Foound:

(The [timings] listed will allow you to view the exact section of the video where the points were made.)

1) Identified the problem and showed how it affected them personally such that it was in their interest to solve it [40.15 - 41.25h]

2) Proposed a solution to the problem outlined [42.28 - 45.35]

3) Defined their customer profile

4) Showed how their product was differentiated from their competitors’ offerings

(Foound starts pitching at about 39 min 30 seconds into the video.)

In addition to this, throughout their pitch, their speaker, Danny, had a varied pitch and timbre which kept their presentation interesting. Most fundamentally, they were prepared and spoke with brevity and clarity. The last 3 points being the most critical becauase poor presentations often mar a great product as observed for some of the other startups.

Practise, practise, practise.

Of course, it also helps to research on who your team is going to be pitching to; how else do you think that they were prepared for their now (in)famous straightlined rebuttal “no way any normal motherf***** is gonna do this check – in sh**” which was made in response to the comparison with popular mobile location-based “game”, Foursquare?

Not yet checked – in? Find out what Foursquare is and why Mashable has described the game as the breakout mobile app at the South by Southwest (SXSW) conference.

Alternatively, for an introduction on what an effective Elevator Pitch consists of, read this.

Images courtesy of COMA and Karteha.

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2. Organising Hangouts Made Easy With Foound
3. Tying Together Common Threads From ad:tech and Echelon 2010

As part of its goal to develop a vibrant and competitive infocomm industry, the Infocomm Development Authority (IDA) set aside $20 million for programmes meant to develop talent for the industry. The Infocomm Leadership and Development Programme (iLEAD) is one of them: targeted at infocomm professionals, iLEAD will grow a pipeline of experts.

What is iLead?

iLEAD is a new manpower development initiative by IDA. It aims to ensure that Singapore’s infocomm manpower capabilities keep pace with technology changes and Singapore remains at the forefront of technology development. iLEAD fits nicely into IDA’s overall manpower strategy, from encouraging interest in students through competitions and various scholarships, to schemes to encourage upgrading in infocomm professionals.

iLEAD will help sharpen and deepen the infocomm knowledge and capabilities of the professionals in Singapore and build a pipeline of infocomm experts in high-end, niche areas.  IDA will partner key players in the infocomm industry to grow and groom infocomm leaders and experts in the following niche technology areas:

Application Development: Digital User Interface Application Development, Software Architecture, Service-Oriented Architecture, Games Programming

Cloud / Grid Computing: Virtualisation, Utility Computing, System Performance Management

Green IT: Virtualisation, Data Centre Architecture

Infocomm Security: Cloud Computing Security, Mobile Security, Embedded Security, Virtualisation Security, Identity Management, Digital Forensics

Network Engineering: Network Design and Architecture, Network & System Administration, Broadband Application Development & Testing

By coming aboard as iLEAD partners, companies can tap on the scheme to build up the capabilities of their existing employees as well as take in new trainees in these niche areas. Such capability building will be done via local and overseas work attachments and specialised professional courses.

What is the Support Provided?

Attachments

IDA and iLEAD partners will co-fund attachments in local or overseas multi-national companies, infocomm local enterprises, research and development centres and academic institutions. These attachments will range from a minimum of 3 months to a maximum of 12 months. A summary of the support provided can be found in the table below:

Training Programmes

Local courses continue to be supported under IDA’s Enhanced CITREP (Critical Infocomm Technology Resource Programme). For overseas programme, IDA will co-fund training and certification fees, as well as airfare and living allowances, with the sponsoring companies.

What are the Trainees’ Obligations?

Attachments

At the end of the attachment, the trainee will have to work as a full-time trainee in either the company which provided the training, or any infocomm or end-user organisation. The work undertaken must be in the area of specialisation of the attachment, and must be for the same duration as the training period.

For example, if the trainee participated in an attachment specialising in green IT lasting for 6 months, he will have to work in this field for at 6 months in order to fulfil iLEAD’s conditions.

Training Programmes

For overseas training programmes, trainees given funding support for courses and certification will must complete the course, as well as pass all examinations within 12 months from the certification commencement date.

Trainees given support for certification only will have to pass all examinations within 12 months from the certification commencement date.

In addtion, all trainees will be required to work in either their respective companies, or in any infocomm or end-user organisation, in the area of specialisation of their training. For courses or certification that are under 1 month, the trainee must work as a full-time employee for 3 months. For courses or certifications that are longer than 1 month, the bond period is 6 months.

What are the Obligations of the Companies?

Companies interested in iLEAD need to design the training programme, and update IDA by submit regular training reports. These reports will need to be signed by the trainer as well as the trainees.

Companies must note that trainees on attachment who are subsequently hired by the host company will no longer be eligible for the training grant.

Companies or trainees who do not fulfill their obligations may be subject to penalties.

Who Can Apply?

The iLEAD scheme is open to Singapore Citizens and Singapore Permanent Residents. Applicants can be either existing employees or people currently on attachment, and can also include fresh graduates (defined as people with no more than 3 years of work experience).

How to Apply?

The application process should be initiated by companies. Companies will have to first design a training programme, then submit the relevant details to IDA via the iLEAD Partner Proposal Form. Only after IDA has given in-principle approval can companies source for trainees; this is followed by IDA’s final approval, the signing of the agreement, and the commencement of the programme.

For more information, companies can contact Kiranjit Kaur or Norhikmah Sohoi.

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2. Government Provides Subsidies to Upgrade your Book-Keeping Capabilities
3. IDA Distinguished Speaker – Andy Jassy of Amazon Web Services

Now that the tax filing deadline is nearing, many companies will be frantically cleaning up their accounts. Record keeping is a key thing all startups must do, but that many neglect. Common complaints include the amount of hassle it entails or that they simply do not know how to keep records. One other pitfall I have seen is that startups keep records…but, do a bad job at doing so. This includes keeping some receipts, and somehow misplacing others.

Here, I have picked out a few key points from IRAS’ great basic guide to record keeping for small businesses (PDF) so that entrepreneurs can have a quick overview. But I recommend you to please download the whole file to use as a reference.

Records That Must be Kept by All Businesses

[From the guide]

1.3.1 Good business records should include: –

(a) A record of receipts and payments, or income and expenditure;
(b) The source documents to substantiate the entries in your records; such as vouchers, bank statements, invoices, receipts and other relevant papers;
(c) A record of the assets and liabilities of your business, including listings of your business debtors, creditors and cash/ bank account balances.

Keeping Electronic Records

Since we are talking about numbers and lots of them, Excel spreadsheets should be your best friend. While you can have all your accounts (including records and even financial statements like Profit and Loss and Balance) in pure Excel spreadsheets, chances are, many of you will also like to try out accounting software.

Check out IRAS’ Accounting Software Register for a list of approved software that you can use and get subsidies for.

Off-the-shelf accounting software makes your life much easier if you do not have someone with accounting training in your team, and you want to keep your operations streamlined by not hiring an accountant.

However, do note that if you are really serious about growing your business, having a proper accounting system is the right way to go. You either pay now, or pay later (to clean up your messy records).

Sales Invoices

[From the guide]

If you issue a sales invoice, the sales invoice should contain the following information:

(a) Business name, address, telephone number and business registration
number
(b) Invoice number
(c) Invoice date
(d) Customer’s name & address
(e) Description of goods, quantity and price
(f) Any cash discount offered
(g) Total price

Payments Made To Individuals for Services Rendered

[From the guide]

6.5.1 – To substantiate payments made to individuals for services rendered (e.g. cleaning fees, free-lance book-keeping and sales commission etc) you are required to include the following details on the payment voucher:

(a) Full name, identification numbers, address of the recipient
(b) Date and nature of payment
(c) Basis of arriving at the quantum paid
(d) Acknowledgement of receipt by the recipient

Summary: Tips For Good Record Keeping

[From the guide]

Here are some useful tips:

(a) Get organised and stay organised.
(b) Set up a good filing system for your paperwork from the start of your business. A good filing system will help you follow up overdue debts and know when your accounts are due to be paid. This will also help you manage your cash flow as well as facilitate the locating of files and reconciliation of your business transactions.
(c) Make sure your records can be understood by anyone, not just by yourself or your accounts personnel.
(d) Obtain the necessary source documents at the time of a transaction. Do not leave it until later. You need source documents to support your claims for tax deductions.
(e) It is a good idea to cross reference records. For example, when you make payment, indicate the cheque number on the invoice.
(f) Get into the habit of entering transactions regularly to keep your records up to date. Do not leave record keeping until the end of the year because the longer you leave it, the more difficult it is to catch up.
(g) Make sure you enter all transactions accurately into your record books.

Organising your accounts can be a great way to learn more about the intricacies of accounting and finance and will do any CEO good to better understand this aspect of running a business.

(On a slight tangent, check out the real experiences by a local entrepreneur on filing his company’s annual returns with ACRA.)

Image courtesy of maticulous.

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Many of us probably did not have the opportunity to fly to Austin, Texas in the USA a couple of weeks ago for South by Southwest (SXSW). For those who are unfamiliar, there are 3 differently themed conferences at SXSW: Music, Film and Interactive. For entrepreneurs and innovators alike, the Interactive one is the most interesting.

In their words,

“The South by Southwest® (SXSW®) Conferences & Festivals offer the unique convergence of original music, independent films, and emerging technologies. Fostering creative and professional growth alike, SXSW® is the premier destination for discovery.”

And thanks to SlideShare, who has again neatly compiled many of the presentations at the festival, we pick out 5 that we love.

Reinvent The Wheel: Sketching Your Own Design Process

The Ten Commandments Of User Experience

Is Too Much Math Killing Marketing?

Persuasive Design: Encouraging Your Users To Do What You Want Them To!

Participatory Space Exploration

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The talk focused on how start-ups can quickly work out whether their ideas are feasible and we offer 7 tips to do that. This presentation was given during the SPRING Young Entrepreneurs Event and Idea Generation Workshop in Asian Civilizations Museum on 29 March 2010. Here are some tips which I spoke about during the presentation which you will need to get things started:

In the real world, you need about two weeks to work out the stage from ideas generation to execution. Here is how I will break it down for you using 2 weeks:

• Day 1 – Day 4: Sketch your ideas within the first four days on the industry you focused. Try to brainstorm without constraints and work out all possible ideas you have. The key is to make sure that you have enough ideas to be eliminated in the next stage.
• Day 5 – Day 7: From the list you have brainstormed, decide on the top 3 ideas which you think will succeed.
• Day 8 – Day 11: Do your market research, surveys and reading secondary data on your industry. One important thing is to make sure that you end up getting the final idea. Make sure you talk to people in the industry whether they are from an MNC and start-up.
• Day 12 – Day 14: Focus on the last idea you have eliminated and work out the timeline and milestones so that you can get a prototype to market within 6-8 weeks from this date.

So good luck in generating your ideas for the start-up. :)

Related posts:

1. SPRING Young Entrepreneurs Event and Idea Generation Workshop
2. 6 Essential Social Media Tools for Start-Ups
3. Start-Up@Singapore Young Entrepreneurs Workshop – Make Ideas Happen!

@Reader: Twitter has grown at such a phenomenal rate that it has become an undeniable force in the social media arena. Since its inception till date, Twitter has seen an approximate 50 million increase in the number of Tweets made per day and that is equivalent to a staggering 600 tweets released per second. Most brands and companies are already aware of the potential that is Twitter. However, for those who for some reason are still hesitant or are cooking up excuses to not go on Twitter, read on to find out about the phenomenal growth of Twitter and what this might mean for you, as a brand or company.

(You can also read this and this, but let’s move on to look at Twitter’s phenomenal growth.)

Charting Twitter’s Growth

Barracuda Labs recently released a trend report [PDF] on Twitter after analyzing 19 million user accounts for frequency and content of tweets, user-to-user interactions, and each account’s overall activity level.

Most significantly, Barracuda has arrived at the conclusion that more people are using Twitter actively while currently active users are expressing increased activity levels. Being “active” essentially means that users are following more user accounts, users in turn are being followed back by more user accounts and more often and users are also tweeting more.

Tweet Count graph from the Barracuda report.

The increased number of active users has been evidenced by a notable 40% decrease in the number of people who have 0 followers. On the other hand, there was also saw a 20% increase in the number of Twitter users following at least 1 person within the same period.

Similarly, active users have increased their activity levels as shown by a 30% increase in the number of people having more than 10 followers. There was also a parallel 17.6% increase in users following more than 10 people within the same period.

There was also a notable 8% decrease in the number of inactive accounts between June to December 2009. This is mainly attributed to the mobility that Twitter offers its users – tweets can be sent on the go whether it is by one’s mobile phone, mobile web or via text messages.

Twitter Craze Driven By Working Adults

At this juncture, perhaps it is also pertinent to understand the driving forces behind this trend such that we may be able to determine how this will in turn affect how brands communicate with their customers.

NielsonWire has tracked the demographical distribution of Twitter users based on a NetRatings panel of 250,000 U.S. internet users. It was determined that Twitter’s reach to 10.7% of all active internet users by June 2009 was achieved despite a lack of widespread adoption by the under 25 age group. In February 2009, the largest age group on Twitter was between 35 – 39 with nearly 3 million unique visitors, comprising of almost 42% of the site’s audience.

While this currently means that adults are trying Twitter at nearly double the rate as compared to their younger counterparts, it can also be interpreted as greater room for growth of Twitter in the future since the under 25’s make up nearly one quarter of the active US internet universe.

Top Social Networking Platform in 2009

What is also interesting to note is that due to the strong driving force of working adults powering the craze, Twitter has outstripped other social networking sites such as Facebook and Zimbio to become the top Member Community Destinations in 2009. Twitter experienced a 1382% year on year increase in the number of unique visitors while Facebook and Zimbio grew at a rate of 228% and 240% respectively.

What This Means For Brands

As such, brands targeting working adults should make use of the Twitter platform to gain greater connectivity to their customers. In the long run, such close customer relations can only mean paving way for stronger branding and greater brand loyalty from the customers.

For more information on how brands can harness Twitter as a communication channel, read here and here.

Image courtesy of opusbloo.

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Startups usually have a bunch of tech and business people who are usually clueless about accounting, and even if they do, the rules and regulations involving the Accounting and Corporate Regulatory Authority Singapore (ACRA) might baffle them.

Here, co-founder of local company Bloomerang, the team behind bloomerHang® – completely biodegradable and recyclable cardboard clothing hangers with advertising on them – Wong Joon Ian talks about his experiences trying to file his annual returns and provides a case study for other startups. (You can also check out our interview with him.)

Joon Ian writes…

A few months ago we got a bunch of letters and e-mails from the government and our corporate secretary telling us it was time to get our accounts in order and submit our annual returns for the year. After a mad dash for our old receipts and phone calls to friends with accounting degrees, we thought it was all over.

But a coffee last night with another start-up-running pal revealed something shocking: We didn’t need to submit our accounts at all! At least, that’s what our friend told me.

When the issue first came up last year, we got conflicting answers to our questions from our corporate secretary, ACRA and online. So I started re-investigating the matter today.

Do we have to file our annual returns?

The first page I hit at the ACRA site was this, which seems to state very clearly that we had to file our annual return and accounts:

All locally incorporated companies are required to hold their Annual General Meeting (AGM) and file their annual returns under S175, S197 and S201 of the Companies Act.

At the AGM, directors shall present a true and fair view of the company’s accounts to their shareholders.

But…how about being an EPC?

Then I scrolled to the bottom of the page and follow the link to ‘Filing Requirements’. This page talks about something called an EPC — exempt private company. This sounds promising.

What is an Exempt Private Company (EPC)?

An Exempt Private Company (EPC) is defined as a company which has not more than 20 shareholders and its shares are not held by another company under Section 4(1) of the Companies Act. They can also be those that the Minister has gazetted to be known as EPC.

Then, the money graf (ie. the important bit):

Is an EPC required to file Annual Return?

An EPC is required to file  Annual Return via BizFile.

If the company is solvent, which we are, then we also have to complete a solvency declaration via BizFile.

What about audited accounts?

We had a small scare when our secretarial firm told us we needed to get an audit done last year. It turned out to be a mistake, but we did look into the matter. We found out then that we were exempt from audit because we didn’t make more than $5 million lin revenue ast year — which kind of made us wish we qualified for an audit.

That $5 million figure is an important threshold because it means we are clasified as a ’small exempt private company’, which in turn means that we do not have to attach our accounts to our annual return (see ACRA’s Filing Requirements for the complete chart).

At the end of the day…

So in summary, we didn’t need an audit, didn’t have to attach our accounts, but did have to file our annual return to ACRA. In our case we did compile our accounts even though we didn’t have to attach them to the ACRA filing, and it was a very useful exercise for us. It gave us a snapshot of the company’s financial health (could be better!) and put in place a framework for recording our transactions efficiently in future.

But all that’s just about ACRA. We still have the tax authority, IRAS, to take care of. We’ll address that question in another post!

Editor’s Note: This article was originally published here.

Image courtesy of lrargerich.

Related posts:

1. Incorporation Issues: Private Limited Company
2. ACRA New Business Vehicle – Limited Partnerships
3. Start-Up Enterprise Conference 2010

So the new year has come and gone but here we are, still busy lying to rest the ghosts of the naughty Noughties past (too many of them, I say!) – Goodbye Michael Jackson (2009)! Goodbye Bear Stearns (2008)! Hello Youtube (2005)! Hello Facebook (2004)!…

Even so, let’s welcome the Anxious Teenies, a whole new decade of uncertainty and opportunity which has begun opening up for us. The breakthroughs which we have reveled in during the Noughties (so called due to a play on the word Nought which stands for 0 in many English speaking countries) will be topped and improved on, enabling us to become even more connected with the world around us.

And of course, what’s welcoming a new decade with its awkward teen years without indulging in the cliché ritual of creating a list right? With the global economy being brought to its knees in the wake of the recent financial tsunami, it has become even more imperative for startups to run efficient and productive operations in order to enable the David and Goliath story to remain an urbane fixture.

As such, we have listed 5 web apps in order to enable you and your startup to survive the urban jungle out there.

1. Stop Spamming Me! – Other Inbox  (OiB)

We often find ourselves under siege from a mountain load of emails – most of them unimportant junk and the like. Important emails often get lost in the clutter and precious time is often wasted in trying to handle our burgeoning inboxes.

However, with OiB, these problems may soon be worries of the past. OiB scans all your mails (yes, it is in sync with Yahoo! Mail, Gmail and Hotmail) and helps you file away all that unimportant computer generated messages which tend to pile up.

A daily digest of new messages from the past 24 hours will be sent to you, making it easy to decide which messages need your attention and which can wait. Definitely a time saver for keeps!

2. Brainstorming the easy way – Mindmeister

Creativity and innovation lie in the bedrock of any startup and in order for these to flourish, a smooth unhindered flow of ideas must be able to take place across the company. Mindmeister has shifted the long standing white board into the virtual world and now brainstorming sessions can take place with great flexibility to time and place.

However, what’s most appealing about Mindmeister is its collaborative mode which enables all members to, quite literally, stay on the same page. The team will be able to build on the same mindmap simultaneously, and even initiate Skype phone calls while at it.

The Wunderkind and Advanced options enables one to assign and keep track of a large number of collaborators therefore saving a lot of time in terms of manual administrative work.

3. Spot the Truth, Connect the Dots – dotspots.com

It will not be difficult connecting the dots when trying to decide the usefulness of this web app. DotSpots is essentially a micro blogging tool which functions similarly to traditional blogging platforms except with big differences – DotSpots places your blog posts in context of news articles.

DotSpotters can make comments related to industry specific news, and given our previous advice, with insightful thoughts and comments, this certainly is one good tool in helping one generate intangible corporate goodwill from others within the same industry. 

More importantly, DotSpots will instantly distribute your “Dots” to all relevant news articles and you will be able to penetrate mainstream channels instantly, ensuring that your time spent on that blog post goes a much longer way!

4. Livehit.com

LiveHit describes itself as a platform using “real-time data analytics to connect users with who’s hot and what’s hot within partner sites live in the moment”. This is enabled via their backend analytics and frontend LiveMaps which is able to make suggestions to the user, therefore driving consumer engagement on the site.

Companies can now make use of automated editorial programming and are able to track how users are concurrently consuming content. This will give insight into user and site usage patterns – all in real-time – so you don’t have to try to track them manually and piece together such information yourself using various analytics tools, enabling you to make better use of your time, and having faster responses to your customer needs.

5. Advertising to the World – Jivox

Marketing a brand is analogous to the communication function in a relationship with one’s partner.

Of course, how you communicate will also change with the phases the relationship is in. For startups, marketing should parallel the “chase” in the relationship – introduce yourself to the customer and form connections with them. Show them that you understand their needs and more than that, are able to provide them greater value than other firms.

The right platform is critical and with limited advertising dollars, one should get as much leverage from the platform as possible, increasing the efficiency of the limited budget. Jivox provides customizable video advertising campaigns as well as a slew of freebies such as free video sharing site campaigns as well as local search and directory listing campaigns. Such video advertising campaigns are created, run and placed directly to publishers along with the specifications required to correctly traffic the ads.

Moreover, Jivox has upped the ante by including unique interactive features in order to drive higher viewer engagement with the brand. Tracking mechanisms are also in place so that your company receives real time data regarding the effectiveness and reach of your ads, enabling you to fine-tune your ads and increase its effectiveness!

Use Jivox to manage your video ad campaigns so you don’t have to. Save that time and put it into other parts of your business.

Image courtesy of Fe Ilya.

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We present the slides for the talk in Start-Up@Singapore on the topic “How to write an executive in 24 hours”. It provides a comprehensive guide with examples to how one can write a 2-5 pages executive summary: (a) introduction, (b) problem/opportunity, (c) technology/service/product, (d) team, (e) route to market, (f) business strategies, (g) financials and (h) exit strategy.

Related posts:

1. Executive Summary – Ideas, Innovation & Purpose
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