How to Convert a Great Idea into a Reality?

source : http://visual.ly

9 Entrepreneurs who didn't take NO for an answer.

If at 1st you don't succeed, try again! These entrepreneurs did, and found huge success

source : http://visual.ly

How to be a Successful Muslim Entrepreneur?

Do you want to be a successful Muslim entrepreneur?

Prophet has pointed out that the business is being a high position with Allah Almighty, as his saying that : "9 out of 10 of livelihood (available) through the business" (Narrated by Tirmidhi).

The Quran and Hadith set out this code for every Muslim to abide by and it encourages the following traits in a Muslim.

1) Commitment to Faith - the successful entrepreneurs are focused on their worship to Allah(SWT) because they know all prosperity and success comes from Him alone.

2) Impeccable Character - the successful entrepreneurs held high values which are celebrated in Islam such as responsibility, keeping promises, honesty.

3) Creativity and Innovative Thinking - the successful entrepreneurs need to apply Islamic principles to solving problems in many fields, such as medicine, agriculture, food, technology that have great implications for the Muslim Ummah

4) Future Oriented - Successful Muslim entrepreneurs know Allah(SWT) will  ask everyone to be accountable for how they used their time, wealth, health and knowledge and they make sure they prioritize their life accordingly.

5) Motivation - the successful entrepreneurs are driven by their passion to excel and achieve their goals.

6) Be the Best - the successful entrepreneurs work on acquiring the cutting edge knowledge in their fields and always reading about current trends. 

7) Self- Confidence - A successful entrepreneur doesn’t listen to naysayers.

8) Do What You Love - Money isn’t a motivator for human beings, working for something higher than we are is.

9) Be Persistent - A successful entrepreneur always does what it takes to get the job done no matter what obstacles get thrown their way. 

10) Focus on Solving Problems -  A successful entrepreneur follow their dream, remember to focus on helping others find and accomplish their dreams/goals first.

source : http://hodansibrahim.com

Outcome-Driven Innovation

Do you still need to understand the innovation process.

Outcome-Driven Innovation transforms jobs to be done theory into practice. Tony Ulwick, Founder for Strategyn successfully create new innovation strategy and innovation process. 12 element has be discovered such as Customers, Market, Need, Opportunities, Segmentation, Sizing, Competition, Strategy, Pricing, Ideation, Testing and Positioning.

Find out how the best innovation process has be done.

source : http://strategyn.com

Transform Your Passion into a Successful Business

I just wonder why my ayam kampung business is not able to survive even though I have a passion with. The best that happen to me is when I start up my business and at the same time i stay with my parent at my hometown.

Focusing on your passion is of the utmost importance. This will enable you to make faster decisions and help you manage your time efficiency. Anyone can start a business but it's depend to how you business grow and how you sustain it.

Your passion and commitment are the important element that every an entrepreneur when a business faces challenges and lack. If you don’t have a true passion for your business, everyone can sense it either your customers, staff, advisors and investors. But if your customers, staff, advisors and investors are always be by your side, it is a good quality management in your business.

Based on article by Gautam Gupta (chief executive officer of NatureBox) , there are three steps to help transform your passion into a successful business:

1. Do you know enough? If not, start asking

The author say that if you have a great idea, but aren’t familiar enough with the field to get started, use your network, speak with people who’ve started businesses in your industry to help you get up to speed quickly. This is like building an informal advisory board of people who’ve gone through a journey similar to the one you’re embarking upon.

You need know enough about the industry, industry background and know-how before producing products, building a customer base and forging your company vision.

2. Jump in.

The author says that there’s really no better way to start than diving in head-first. In the beginning, you may not have your exact plan mapped out, and you’ll likely make significant changes to your model. But the benefit of starting a business around a passion is that you know why you’re doing it and can more easily overcome barriers that come up along the way. It’s this deep-rooted drive and enthusiasm that will keep you motivated and engaged with the product you’re selling.

3. Surround yourself with others who share your vision

You can share experiences because they help shape the business.

You also can expect long work hours and hard days in the beginning, personal drive and shared similar values with your colleagues will see you through this time. This enthusiasm translates to a positive customer experience. And that's what will build your business.

Turning your passion into a successful business not only allows you to be profitable while doing something you love; it helps set you up for lasting success. Most importantly, passion is central to making decisions that are in the long-term interest of the customer and the company, which will help you, establish sustainability and longevity for your brand.

Maybe after I complete my study, i should apply for transfer again to continue my business with family at my hometown.

Choose the Best form of Crowdfunding before Moving Forward

Crowdfunding is the collective effort of individuals who network and pool their money, usually via the Internet, to support efforts initiated by other people or organizations. Crowdfunding will inject over 5 billion dollars into the economy this year and is becoming a powerful way to fund new ideas and generate buzz for new products and ventures. This creates a huge opportunity for entrepreneurs; however based on the author, only 40% of projects succeed in reaching their funding goal. This book shows you how to shift the odds in your favor. 

Sally Outlaw, founder and CEO of crowdfunding website Peerbackers reveals the secrets of funding your business with help from colleagues, peers, family, friends and even perfect strangers through a crowdfunding campaign.

 photo credit : bookstore.entrepreneur.com

In her book  ‘Cash from the Crowd’, she give the key steps to crafting, managing and promoting a successful campaign:

• Assess your crowdfunding potential
• Determine the best crowdfunding model for your venture
• Gain expert advice on preparing your project and promotion
• Learn how to craft your pitch and invent enticing rewards
• Employ social media & PR strategies to motivate your backers to open their wallets
• Learn what to do after you’ve reached your goal to ensure your backers are happy

Based on her book, a entrepreneur can choosing the best form of crowdfunding in which to engage is the first decision an entrepreneur must make before moving forward. 

Options include a donation model, a reward model, a debt model, one that offers royalties, and finally the newest approach which is Equity investment,

1. Donation. This is the most straightforward approach, in which a contribution is made to a project or cause, and the donor doesn't receive anything in exchange other than a good feeling for supporting something in which they believe (and perhaps a tax write-off). This approach is more often used for social causes, charities and political campaigns, rather than for entrepreneurial endeavors.

2. Reward. This approach to crowdfunding--also called "perks based"--is one in which the campaign contributors get no financial return for their donations but are offered a thank-you reward or perk in exchange for their support. Most often the reward offered is the product that the project owner is trying to launch. This model functions as a sort of pre-sale. Many service companies use this approach and offer things such as a discount on their services. One of its biggest benefits is that you don't have to repay the money, so you're not starting your venture in debt, nor do you have to give away shares of your venture. You just deliver the perks you promised when your campaign is over.

3. Debt, aka peer-to-peer lending. This is where crowds lend their money in small increments to project owners via the platform and expect repayment over time with some fixed rate of interest. The advantage of this model is it may be easier to win support for a campaign since the backers are attracted to getting a return. In addition to the entrepreneur usually getting a lower cost of financing, the entrepreneurs can bypass the sometimes complex and costly application process for bank loans.

4. Royalty. This type of crowdfunding offers backers a percentage of revenue from the project or venture the backer supports, once it is generating capital. A good example of this approach is a mobile app website where backers can support an app before it's fully developed or launched, and then share in the revenue once the app starts selling to the public.

5. Equity investment. This is the newest form of crowdfunding, where the crowd is tapped for micro-investments. Until recently, due to long-standing SEC regulations, backers couldn't receive an ownership interest, a portion of profits or anything else that could be perceived as a financial return on money provided to projects via crowdfunding. Equity crowdfunding allows businesses seeking capital to sell ownership stakes via crowdfunding platforms, thereby creating the opportunity for individuals to become shareholders and have a potential for financial return.

If you have a good business and high confidence, let's choose the best form of crowdfunding before moving forward.

So, who do you think that is willing to bet on your success.

How iPhone 5S can Sparking Innovation

Since iphone5 was released at the end of the year 2012, i was very excited to change to the new iphone. But after I heard about the scratches that appear at the body of iphone5, I was thinking twice. But as usual, Apple will come out with the new iphone ‘S’ every middle of year to increase their product feature every year.

Right now, I already got iphone 5s.. and what I can say is it was amazing.

Who was say that Apple has stopped create the innovation into their own produce? Based on my experiment about my new iphone5s , the innovation that they put on iphone5s is very amazing. 

 

(photo credit : http://www.machines.com.my)

 1st : Fingerprint scanner
a) The potential of biometric technology for authentication
b) Security and privacy – all the data stored is in your 64-bit A7 chip. 

  

(photo credit : http://www.machines.com.my) 

 2nd : Camera
a) with a new f2.2 aperture lens, slow motion video at an astonishing 120 frames a second and automatic burst photographs at 10-frames per second.
b) There is a solution for white-washed faces - a True Tone flash strobe in ''cool'' or ''amber'' to avoid zombie skin in those romantic portraits at night.

 

(photo credit : http://www.machines.com.my) 

3rd : Battery
a) The 64-bit, A7 chip is fast and an extra two hours of battery life gives you more breathing space for a busy day, when you don't have time to stop and recharge.

Based on 5 tips that were given from ‘5 Tips For Sparking Innovation’ by Carol Kinsey Goman this is what I can see Apple tries to do for their new iPhone 5S:

1) Innovation is everyone’s job. Whether you lead a team, a group, or an organization, you’ve got to involve and rely on others. Isolating “a creative few” as the sole visionaries in the organization simply won’t cut it anymore. Thirty years ago, by the time an idea got to the CEO, it had been sifted through multiple layers of management. Now, savvy leaders encourage e-mails, phone calls — anything to hear directly from people on the plant floor or on the front lines of customer service to get their opinions and suggestions.

(Apple always create something new since 1976 and besides that Apple is a multinational corporation that creates consumer electronics, personal computers, computer software, and commercial servers, and is a digital distributor of media content)

2) The heart of innovation is trial and error. While many say they do, too few organizations truly encourage failure. I have, however, known hundreds of individual leaders (at all levels and from a cross-section of industries) who created environments for their departments or teams where failure was acceptable. Where it became a learning experience, and not something to be punished. These leaders shared their own failures and made it safe for others to do the same.

(Apple always does a trial and error.)

3) Tell stories that show how mistakes can become successes.

They do so all the time, and it is those mistakes that make it possible for the company to come up with the products that it does. Where Apple differs from other companies is in how it makes mistakes.

“I love the iMac, but we just delivered it in the wrong color,” Jobs lamented.

The issue of colour is always significant with Apple but yet it’s proven one of the most powerful in Apple’s design. Their approach to colour is strategically cyclical much like its own logo. The strategy has been a success, with colours breathing new life into its iMac and iPod . But today, it show that how seriously Apple takes its colour palette by introduce iPhone5S (Gold, Silver and Grey) and iPhone5C (Green, Yellow, Pink, Blue and white)

You can't create and improve products without making mistakes.

4) Help stamp out the Not Invented Here (NIH) mindset. An example of generating motivation to break that mindset came from General Electric in the days when Jack Welch was in charge. Welch made it clear that the sharing of good ideas across the organization was a high management priority. This posed a challenge for GE managers because of the size and diversity of the company. If you did have a good idea, how could you identify the people in other businesses who might benefit from it? The Chief Learning Officer at GE came up with a simple solution. He created a “hot line” to be manned by his team. This operated similar to a dating service – only instead of matching people to potential mates, it matched good ideas with business units that could put them to use.

5) Broaden your definition of innovation. Move the concept of innovation beyond new products and services to include strategic innovations – new ideas about mission, values, and goals; administrative innovation – changes in internal systems; field level innovation – solutions from those closest to the customer on ways to better serve those customers; and job-related incremental change that encompasses everyone in every position finding ways to do things differently and ways to do things better.

 
So, let get your iPhone5s now, because you can be the part of innovation.

LESSON OF SUCCESS : The Legacy of Tan Sri Dato’ Sri Dr The Hong Piow

Last 2 week, when I try to figure out what title for my book review? Suddenly, I saw my lovely nephew was playing with a book. The name of the book is “LESSON OF SUCCESS : The Legacy of Tan Sri Dato’ Sri Dr The Hong Piow” . When I read it, it was book from my sister-in-law ex-company, Public Bank.

As you already know, my sister-in-law is still in unconscious and paralyzed condition since a year ago. It almost 2 month she was admitted to Gleneagles Hospital Kuala Lumpur. Her employer pays for all the expenses. My lovely nephew that I always mention is Faris who is her first child before comma. I hope that she will recover and be able to continue raising her son. Please pray that she will be always happy with her loving family

I was respect about her company and how Public Bank management staff appreciates their staff. The thing that I want to share with you is about the book of the chairman of Public Bank.

LESSON OF SUCCESS : The Legacy of Tan Sri Dato’ Sri Dr The Hong Piow
Author : Dr Victor S.L.Tan
Year :2011

The aims of this book are to share the secrets of success of the man behind the Bank that was recently named The Most Award Winning Bank by Malaysia Book of Records.

Based on the book, the definition of success consists of 6 components:

There are 8 success principles that have guided Tan Sri the as he led Public Bank’s growth from a single branch bank to a corporate giant today with more than 17000 competent and committed staff.

Here is Tan Sri The’s 8 Principles of success onto the Public Bank Logo:

Principle 1 : Know Your Purpose
Principle 2 : Be Passionate About Your Chosen Field
Principle 3 : Be People Oriented
Principle 4 : have Perseverance To Overcome All Odds
Principle 5 : Be Proactive In Thought And Action
Principle 6 : Practise Professionalism
Principle 7 : Maintain Prudence
Principle 8 : Be Positive Towards Work and Life

I hope the lesson of success from this book will give the new step of innovation for other company. It not only about your company but being people-oriented does make great business sense. Happy and satisfied employees are committed and productive employees. 

Be the one you really want. Money? Real life? or Both

Last Saturday, all student of SYS752 - IT eNtrepreneurship & iNNovation - sem 1 2013/2014 need to attend “CHALLENGE OF INNOVATION: ARE YOU READY?”, event organized by AiSociety UiTM Shah Alam on 23rd November 2013.

At morning session, I am asking the speaker Mr Hakim (http://www.linkedin.com/in/hakimalbasrawy) about something that i always worry when i want to continue my ayam kampung business besides working as government officer. The question is :

“I am a person who is looking for normal life.. how I can be an entrepreneur and at the same I want to spend my life with my family?”

Based on that question, Mr Hakim suggest two books for someone who want to start up their new challenge in business and still can spend their life with their family.

Based on my first review for both of this book, the best that I can tell you is Everyone can be an entrepreneur but they just need to be creative to combine their own freedom and value of the business so that person can transforming into a successful entrepreneur.

 Credit - http://onewebhosting.com/blog/

Title : The 4-Hour Worksweek
Author : Timothy Ferriss
308 pp (2007)

a) Based on his experience while working 14-hour days at BrainQUICKEN. Ferriss's frustration and then personal escape from a workaholic lifestyle was the genesis of the book

b) The 4-hour Workweek blog for the book. http://www.fourhourworkweek.com/blog/

credit: http://uncommonlysilly.com

Title : The $100 Startup
Author : Chris Guillebeau
2012

a) Chris describes his goal for the book:

“What if you could achieve your own life of freedom by bypassing everything you thought was a prerequisite? Instead of borrowing money, you just start — right now — without a lot of money. Instead of hiring employees, you begin a project by yourself, based on your specific personal combination of passion and skill. Instead of going to business school (which doesn’t actually train people to operate a small business), you save $60,000 in tuition and learn as you go.”

b) Website about this book. http://100startup.com/

Lastly, here are our group pictures for that session : )

 credit to AiSociety UiTM Shah Alam

An ideal smartphone for entrepreneur?

A smartphone is a mobile phone built on a mobile operation system that have advanced computing capability. Since an entrepreneur always busy, smartphone is a best device that they can carrying around as an organizer, an email device, a cell phone, contact details, access to the internet and edit Office document.

"Behind every successful entrepreneur today is the right smartphone," says Jennifer Jolly , consumer technology journalist and author of USA Today's Tech Now series.

Here are 3 thing when considering potential smartphone:

1.    Internet Access
2.    Advanced Features
3.    Battery life

It's important to choose the best smartphone for essential business needs. Based on the latest smartphone, consider these three suggestions.

1. iPhone 5S

Image credit : http://www.machines.com.my/iphone5s.html

Apple's new iPhone 5S brings power and performance with genuine innovation that offering more than iPhone 5, with a few key improvements on the device.

It's a four-inch screen that easily to operate with one hand and comes with a resolution of 1136 x 640 . iPhone 5S is the first smartphone processor with 64-bit support that currently used on desktops. The most notable has to be the new Touch ID fingerprint scanner, which is embedded directly into the home button.

The iPhone 5S on the market has an amazing battery life, with heavy usage like email, navigation, social networking, web browsing, calls and taking pictures or videos,  it can use up to 8 hours, meaning that you can spend more time on productive tasks. Ultra-fast wireless connections help you get things done faster while over 900,000 apps in the App Store can aid in your daily business tasks  same like iPhone 5 based on freelance writer, Tommy Whyer .  

2. Samsung Galaxy Note III

Image credit : phandroid.com

The Note series gets its 3rd phone that Samsung decided to create a phone that features a 5.7-inch Super AMOLED screen display with capacitive touchscreen, and it all ties into productivity. This smartphone, allows you perform mobile tasks easier, such as sending emails and taking notes that you can take with you or at business meetings.

Additional top features include 4G LTE, up to 64 GB user memory with 3GB RAM, GPS, NFC, an 13 megapixel camera with LED flash, 32GB of internal memory in a Note 3 that make faster file transfers. The Galaxy Note 3 has the first USB 3.0-compliant socket we’ve seen on a phone that increases the rate at which the phone can leech data from a computer.

3. Blackbery Z30

 
credit image : blogs.blackberry.com

BlackBerry smartphones have long been use as the top business phones available. BlackBerry Z30 is a great choice.

Equipped with top smartphone features, such as voice control, NFC that allowing easy exchange of data, office package comes with a full-blown Office document editor and a file manager that makes completing daily business tasks simple.

The BlackBerry Z30 also comes with many productivity apps for business, such as BlackBerry Remember, an intelligent calendar and a WebKit-based browser with full Flash support. With 16 GB of internal storage and cloud sync, you can save and share countless business files right on your phone. Plus, it uses the new BlackBerry 10 operating system to help you complete business tasks quicker and more efficiently. The Blackberry Z30 is a good multitasker, and has solid social app and communication skills.