2012

It's a brand new beginning.

We've just got home from a week long business trip plus getaway. Spent quite a bit of time driving, meeting and recruiting. Well, I have concluded that doing consignment stint in another city is indeed very time & effort consuming. Thankful that the boyfriend could drive around (though not very familiar) and we have a lovely place to stay in.

My first working day of the year consists of packing, tagging, preparing documentation. I can't describe how crazy our work station and setup were. Life behind the scenes can be painful, dreadful, torturing, fulfilling and fun at the same time.

Well after dealing with courier companies for the past few years, I can safely say that shipping ain't an easy task. I mean how difficult can receiving/sending a package be right? Wrong.

I shall cover more about freight, courier and shipment related issues soon. In the mean time, have a happy 2012!

Retail Associate (Part Time)

We are excited to recruit new part time team members!

I believe one of the most challenging part about managing a business is staffing/human resource. We certainly hope a few nice people come along and we can have a happy team for our upcoming stint at Gardens Mall.

Well, Veira promise you a rewarding journey and exposure to the fashion retail industry. There is also potential conversion to permanent position with good performance. Grow your fashion retail career with us!

This is the official job listing on Jobstreet.com.my
Retail Associate (Part Time)

What About Home Office?

This morning I woke up and cursed inwardly at the out-of-control situation. This is just one of those extremely rare occasions that I can possibly dislike working from home. But not yet. My lovely neighbor above was aggressively hacking tiles and drilling what not. I've had a pretty long Sunday and I woke up in the middle of the night to follow up on emails and posted some job listing looking for part time staff. Hence, the noise pollution was killing me to the core and it totally didn't help in getting me to concentrate on striking off my Monday to-do list. Well, having said that my lovely neighbor is fully entitled to the full range of renovation activities during normal daylight hours. No one to blame but my reversed timezone.

So, is this one of the downside of working from home?

On a side not, my perfect idea of a cozy home office:

Super gorgeous blue organized desk space. *Heart*
Credits to the original source (forgotten where I got this image from)



Oh so contemporary and cool!
Credits to homedesigndecorates.com



Mobile home office studio cubes by Atelier 37.2. Definitely earned a space in my wish list!
View more interesting configurations at Best Top Design.



Cozy space design.
Credits to 12 Modern Home Office Ideas

Mental note, I must remember to throw in some soundproofing into the package. What is your idea of a perfect home office?

Unique Selling Proposition

The basis of a start up/ business does not only comprise of cash, passion or time etc. Personally, I think the crust of the entire cake is the Unique Selling Proposition. As the saying goes, "good product sells itself". I agree but also disagree to a certain extent.

"I agree" example:

Yummy plain regular chicken rice selling at some high traffic neighborhood food court. Hungry people need to eat and hmmm we all eat chicken rice. Chances are residents from the surrounding neighborhood may just return to the same stall over time if it's good. Assuming uncle does minimum/no publicity, the potential of business growth is still fairly good. It may however take a longer period of time with word of mouth and perhaps some luck.

Photo credits to JulianaLoh

Well, we are not here to discuss about how some plain, conventional stuff may sell itself. That to me is passé. I truly believe in the beauty of hidden gems and creative marketing.

There was once a friend's friend was keen on applying for business funding and she emailed me with some queries. One of the question was "What is novelty?"

To this I responded:

Your unique selling proposition is very important. It makes/breaks.

for e.g. is Janicia Label is the first ever womenswear made from 100% recycled underwear

That is novelty. Then again, it is not about extreme novelties and it can just be a tweak to an existing product. All about differentiation, innovation and target market.

My point is we have to find that differentiating element and believe in our own USP prior to selling the idea or product. A convincing starting point. It may take days, months or even years but without that what is business in this saturated-globalized world? There is no certainty of perfect USP that will work and we will eventually analyze, learn and tweak as we progress along.

So, are you scouting around for some ideas? Here are some sites to perhaps ignite a little spark for that successful seed

Steve Poland 100+ Web Start-up Business Ideas

Entrepreneur.com Low Cost Startup Ideas 

Entrepreneur.com 100 Brilliants Ideas (check out the doggy sunglasses)

Coolbusinessideas.com

Springwise Top 20 Business Ideas for 2011 (*personal favorite site)

17 Great Business Ideas for 2012