Alice Cheong

Since September 15, two months ago, with the fall of the Lehman Brothers, the entire economy climate has changed, and recession is inevitable. Existing jobs are at risk, and new jobs are rare. Bonus will no longer be the norm, but life has to go on for everyone. Christmas, New Year and Chinese New Year are arriving, but where will the finance for these festive spending be coming from? And will there be jobs for the new batch of graduates?

With the current job market’s prospect, the alternative option would be to become an entrepreneur. As the saying of the Chinese proverb, “The times and circumstances create the hero”, and it seems like this inevitable recession will force many to make a choice, just as decades ago, when the Chinese educated graduates were unable to find a job.

However, being a budding entrepreneur does not mean that one will be disadvantaged, as the sudden change in economy climate, has shifted the consumers’ attitude, where thrift is now the mandate of many, and the previous boom years strategy of mindless consumption will no longer works as well. New business strategies will be needed, and a nimble entrepreneur who is able to implement new strategies are at an advantage.

Moreover, Singapore government strongly supports entrepreneur. For the uninitiated, there is lots of funding from various departments and many events are available. For example, in less than a week, starting from 17-23 November 2008, we have the Global Entrepreneurship week, where those interested can attend events such as
1) Business Commercialisation and Innovation Seminar (RSVP by 14 Nov 2008),
2) Technology Commercialisation Forum 2008 (Early bird discount by 14 Nov 2008), and
3) The Big Pitch (RSVP by 14 Nov 2008).

In addition, a nimble entrepreneur can benefit his or her business with the employment of IT. The expansion of market through the use of internet, can greatly increase sales. While accounting, book-keeping, and tracking of sales can be managed through enterprise resource planning (ERP) system, to lower business expenditure and provide instant stock count for online sales. Moreover, for a technological business, internet provide a wealth of freewares and opensource, which can be integreted into their marketable software and hardware depending on the licensing.

Therefore, through the time is pressing, the choice is yours. To be or not to be an entrepreneur?

Would the job be spared? Would your choice be an entrepreneur?

Global Entrepreneurship week
17-23 November 2008

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I once remember reading something along the line that ideas are free, or at most a dime for a dozen. However, right now, it comes to my notice that, sometimes, ideas can be worth much more than a dime.

We usually, tend to be more pragmatic, and say that action is what that counts. That means, action instead of ideas is what that will bring us the money. Hmm. But, guess what? If you have good ideas, and by typing your new ideas in less than 100 words, you stand to win $1000 hard cash.

Currently, Action community for entrepreneurship (ACE) is running a contest – “Why Not?”, in which by writing your ideas in one of the area for
(a) increasing Singapore’s attractiveness as a place for business,
(b) nurturing entrepreneurs of tomorrow, and
(c) encourage more innovative and competitive business, you stand to win $1000 cash.

If you think even further, everything around us actually started with an idea. We have the Heinz tomato started off with selling tomato soup. They made it big by serving more and more people. The Wright brothers believed in their idea of making a flying machine, made many tries, and successfully became the first to invent airplane. So, ideas is always the first step.

Now, in our current world, ideas by themselves can also be use to make money. How? That is where patent law comes in. A good novel idea, and with proper understanding/knowledge of how to make a product or a procedure, will allow one to file a patent, and upon successfully granted the patent, the patent holder can make money through licensing royalty.

So, “why not?” be an entrepreneur? Click here to enter for the contest. Remember the deadline is 17 July 2008, “why not?” submit your ideas now?

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