Its 2009! Finally! Now we can get out butts out of our holiday mood and get back to work!

*scribbles down new year resolution*

If there was one thing that i look back with regret, it would be giving up the fight so easily (read about the back story here).

Given a chance to relive that part of my life, i would have hung on longer - clenched my teeth and run the race to the finish line. With my decision to sell my company, i realise that i had taken a 3 year detour on my entrepreneurial journey.

Fortunately, i have just been given a second chance to get it right. I had recently reacquired eNeighbourhoodStore Pte Ltd. I now have a chance to pick up where i had left off. I am grateful for the web hosting clients and friends who stood by me in this journey.

Not everyone can afford to or be given a second chance. It is truthfully through the grace of God (not to mention the constant whipping of my current business partner) that all this is possible.

Give Yourself A Chance!

The morale of the story is this: Never, Ever, Ever, Ever Give Up. No matter what!

Cos it is the fundamental thing that drives you and gives you strength to carry on forward. By all means, take a break and give yourself a chance to recuperate & rejuvenate. But never ever stop running the race. For its the journey that makes it all worthwhile - not the destination. Of course, reaching a goal is what drives us, but keeping the faith and persevering no matter what - that takes courage.

Business is a Team Sport

Choose a Business Partner that’s willing to kick your ass.

I was woken up by my business partner’s chide the other day - “I don’t work with losers”.

He said it without malice but with a simple matter of fact tone. I teared up there and then. No matter how tough things get, no matter how much we feel like giving up, never give up. And it’s truthfully something extraordinary to have a friend / business partner believe in me so much even after how much i’ve missed the mark. Never lose heart. Never lose faith.

Never give up the fight - fight for its as if its the only thing you’ve got left - for the truth is that it IS the only thing that makes your entrepreneurial life worth living for. Fight for your right to survive, to persevere beyond your natural means. That takes guts and courage.

Of course it doesn’t hurt to have some friends along the way.

Sponsors

This blog post has been brought to you by the Global Entrepreneurship Week - organised by ACE and NUS Enterprise. It happens between 17 Nov 2008 to 23 Nov 2008. Find out more info at http://www.entrepreneurshipweeksg.org.

PS: This is an Sponsored Review for BLOG2u.

Was off work early one day last week. One of those days where i didn’t have any work meeting planned in the evening.

After a whole day of hard work, i just wanna unwind and grab dinner. I suddenly realise that i needed a dinner companion.

On the way to the bus stop, i messaged D. She works nearby. Figured she’ll want some dinner. However, she wasn’t feeling well and too pissed at her work to eat. Strike ONE.

Decided to go to City Hall. Messaged J cos she hangs out there so often. No response till i reach Raffles City. J couldn’t make it cos she needed to run some errands before her overseas trip. Strike TWO.

Messaged S in the hope that she’s working late and wouldn’t mind grabbing dinner with me before she leaves for home. She was working late, but she had to rush off to some F1 PR event that evening - something she had worked hard on for the longest. She felt bad and promised to make it up to me another day. Strike THREE.

Eventually dined alone at the Food Junction food court.

After sending off my last message to S, i came to a sad realisation. For the whole evening, i was setting myself up for disappointment & rejection. No one likes to be called up like that at such a last minute. No one is THAT spontaneous. Spontaneity doesn’t build a sense of security.

Perhaps its the nature of my work now. I need to focus 100%. No time to think about after-work activities. And by the time i am ready to think about it, i am out of the office door - already too late.

Figured that i can’t afford to allocate time to think for and about a significant other in my life now. If i can’t even make space for someone else in my life, to care for that person, how do i expect others to reciprocate?

Think i’m better off alone. Or perhaps i should just let things happen naturally.

Some of you might have noticed that i have removed the “Lazy Serial Entrepreneur” tag line from my blog.

Not that i am not lazy anymore (although that is a good thing). Neither am i stopping my serial entrepreneurship endeavors. Its more that i’ve given up my juvenile aspirations of becoming “Entrepreneur of the Year”.

In a nutshell, i’d rather be rich than famous.

Complacency in The Comfort Zone

In the past 2 years that i’ve been working for others, i’ve gotten rather complacent.

Working for others meant that i had relinquished much of the responsibilities of a business owner. I’m no longer personally responsible for the well-being of the company.

I was content to draw a salary at the end of the month and live a comfortable lifestyle. I had relinquished much of my personal freedoms. My time is not my own. But its all right cos i’m content to sell 8 hours of my time in return for a consistent paycheck.

This reminds me of the Cashflow101 game i enjoyed playing so much. At the beginning of the game, we’re in the “Rat Race”. Going round in circles, we’ll shout “Paycheck!” whenever we pass the right square (much like a game of monopoly when we pass “Go”).

In essence, i was living from paycheck to paycheck.

And why not? It was a stress free living. My after hours can be dedicated to fun stuff like the social media scene, blogosphere activities and the Singapore PHP User Group.

The sad truth was that I had gotten into a comfort zone and i was becoming complacent.

Yanked Back Into Reality!

Somehow early this year, things took a turn - good things were happening in my off-hour activities.

A momentum was growing in the PHP User Group, pushing it toward a new level. Investors had taken an interest in Podfire.sg. Essentially, my passion for Podcasting and programming are becoming my day job.

All of a sudden, i am called to stretch beyond my comfort zone. My current self was unwilling to cross the Jordan river to the land flowing with milk and honey (ha!). A part of me was like the fearful scouts that came back from the promised land with bad news of giant philistines and impregnable fortresses.

Problem was that I had moved out of the business-owner mode for so long, that i had ceased to take ownership of things. I was inadvertently sabotaging myself with my mental block. The fear of failure still loomed over my previous business venture.

Time To Bite The Bullet

I think its time i snapped out of my dream and wake up. Things need to move forward and upwards. And at greater speeds. I need a new sense of urgency and immediacy.

I need to become a business-owner again. With the same hunger i had before.

Yes, its time to bite the bullet and move out of my comfort zone. Time to sever the umbilical cord and start living the life i am meant to live.

So… stay tuned for new developments…

“It is tiring to build a business,” says blue-collar worker.

(I posted the original article here. Thanks to Lufeng for the translation.)

A lot of young people want to create their own businesses. But starting a business is no easy task. A survey of local startups found that 60% of local startups found high rental as the major obstacle, while others found rising material costs (37%), maintaining competitive prices (35%) and manpower (31%) as the main challenges.

Thus, some entrepreneurs have actually gone back to being employed. Michael Cheng of 31 years is one such individual.

6 years ago, Michael was a fresh arts graduate with no paper qualifications in IT. This made it hard for him to enter the IT industry. Thus Michael embarked on the journey of entrepreneurship. He setup a web hosting company in 2002 and a web design company in 2004.

An entrepreneur may have to work everyday of the week

In the nascent stages of setting up the second company, the biggest problem faced by Michael was office space. Initially, he wanted to setup office in the city area but this was hindered by high rental. Thus he negotiated with a friend to have free office space in exchange for web design and maintenance services.

Michael had just graduated at that time, and thought that being one’s own boss meant more flexibility in time management. However, this could not be further from the truth.

“The first company was a partnership with a friend. After I left this company and setup a second company on my own, I had to shoulder all the web design and programming myself. To handle all the incoming projects, I had to work almost every day for two years without taking any holiday.”

Recalling his days as an entrepreneur, the current events manager at an MNC expressed that there was never a need to worry about a lack of business, as all his clients were his friends. However, Michael professed that having friends as clients was a double edged sword.

“They will help you to make referrals. However, some of them will ask for “friendship” prices. I did not dare to haggle over the price and could only accede to their request. The prices I had to quote were sometimes lower than the prevailing market rates, and was close to my cost price.”

Plan to Fail

As the business expanded, Michael was able to hire 3 staff and rented a new office.

“Monthly operating cost therefore increased. However, the timeliness of payment by client decreased, and some clients even had problems paying. The company faced a cashflow problem, hovering between profit and loss.”

At that time, the company was worth $20,000. Micheal estimated that the company could be in the red in 2 months. After deep thought, he decided to sell off the company in early 2006.

“It was a very painful decision. But I realised that other than financial issues, I had work endlessly for two years, often feeling isolated and helpless, as well as mental and physical fatigue.”

Some may view Michael who failed as an entrepreneur. But having a contingency for failure makes it easier to let go and make a courages and rational decision, without affecting existing customers.

Michael said, “Every entrepreneur would hope that their company can be successful. But reality and ambition can clash. If the business cannot perform, there is a need to consider the next step, whether to persevere, or to stop the company from bleeding, and start anew?”

Being a boss is harder than being an employee

Micheal’s tiring of life as an entrepreneur, and subsequently becoming an employee, is mirrored in Zhang Hui Qing of 30 years.

Hui Qing started 2 fashion accessories store with a good friend from 2004 to 2007. The first shop was situated at Beach Road. Due to low rental, they were able to break even within 6 months.

Prior to being an entrepreneur, Hui Qing was a civil servant. She worked 7 days a week and often felt burnt out. But she frankly felt that being an entrepreneur was even more tiring.

“Many people think that doing business is less tiring, but that can’t be further from the truth…… We have to stay for long hours in the store, and sometimes have to arrange goods till 4am in the morning. Even when we are not in the store, our mind is constantly thinking about the business.

“But those 3 years were fulfilling, and we learnt a lot of new things, so we have no regrets. But I realised that running a business reduced the time I have to spend with my family. My family also made a lot of sacrifices for me. So I think it is time that I make the sacrifice for them.”

Eventually, Hui Qing and her business partner sold the business and return to their 9 to 5 working lives.

Entrepreneurship relies on passion and a great team

Even though Michael and Hui Qing are currently employees, both unanimously said that they may return to entrepreneurship in the future.

Both of them have learnt valuable lessons during their stint as entrepreneurs. Hui Qing advised aspiring young entrepreneurs, “If you are passionate and have faith in what you want to do, then have the courage to try.”

Besides passion, Michael also emphasized that an outstanding team was important for a startup.

“A team can not only share the work, but can also have more variety of ideas and opinions, as well as share weal and woe together. As a startup has limited resources, it is important to focus on the team’s expertise, and outsource other aspects of the work to other companies. If I had outsourced the accounting work, then cashflow problems in my previous company may have been avoided.”

Although i was glad to have been interviewed for this article, but i can’t help but feel a little sad that i gave up on my passion so easily. On hindsight, if i had held on for a few months more, i would have seen the light at the end of the tunnel… and i would have retained my freedom and energy level. But i guess that’s a blog post for another day. Do check back soon for more posts.