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. Read more
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. Read more
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: Read more
@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. Read more
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.) Read more
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. Read more
Barcamp Singapore 4 was just over. During the event, I made a presentation on “Building Online Communities for Non-Profit Organizations”, which focus on how non-profit organizations can either leveraging on existing large social networks (for e.g. Facebook Pages for Oxfam GB/US or Causes) or built their own to fulfil their strategic objectives (Kiva.org which focus on micro-lending for entrepreneurs in developing nations), for example, fundraising, creating awareness and canvassing community volunteers. Finally, I end with a local example, Give.SG, where one of the co-founders declared during my talk that their platform will be up soon within a month. One of the most important lessons which is not evident from the slides is that I focus on is that building online communities should be a means that can transition your cause into the offline and it is important to find a way to move offline to gather and canvass for your non-profit social cause. Here are the slides where you can check out the talk: Read more
Recently, we introduced a set of 6 social media tools which start-ups should be tapping on in dealing with PR, marketing and branding issues. One advantage is that a start-up being nimble and quick, can find applications on social media tools that can distribute, share and gather feedback on their products and services in a very quick rate. Given that social media is a ever-changing landscape all over the world, and the buzz that are ongoing from twitter lists, enterprise microblogging via Yammer to google wave, we decide to give you a list of three new social media tools (or feature in existing social media tools) that you should know about. Read more
Filed under Dummy's Guide, Featured, Marketing & Branding, MediaTags: Advertising, Collaborative Tools, Enterprise Microblogging, Google, google wave, Marketing, PR, Social Media, Start-ups, Twitter, Twitter Lists, Yammer
Recently, together with Wall Street Journal Asia and GoTo Webinar, Ogilvy 360 Digital Influence: Asia Digital Map presented two interesting webinars that focus on helping businesses particularly brands on how to use Facebook and Twitter for business. For start-ups who most likely not have the marketing budgets until they receive proper investments to scale up, this may be a good reference for the founders to think about how to utilize these new social media tools for their own businesses. Read more
Filed under Dummy's Guide, Marketing & Branding, MediaTags: Business, Digital Influence 360, Facebook, KFC, Lego Singapore, Microblogging, ogilvy, Red Bull Singapore, Singapore Airlines, Social Media, Social Media Strategy, Social Networking, Twitter
Currently, the Ideas.Inc Business Challenge organized by Nanyang Technopreneurship Centre, NTU and SPRING Singapore is still ongoing before the deadline for executive summary on 27 November 2009. Over the past two months, I have conducted three Executive Summary Workshops in NTC, Civil Service College and National Library Board for about 150 participants. In each of the workshop, I included a short presentation, an ideas generation workshop and an executive summary review with the participants. In this post, I will share with you the Executive Summary presentation which I broke down into four main themes: (1) Identification of a business opportunity, (2) Why and How to write an executive Summary and (3) Resources on sites for people who are setting up businesses should go. Read more
