Niche Market: The Way to Go?

In today ultra-competitive business world - thanks to the Internet and Web 2.0 platform - you simply can't compete head-to-head with others. Sure, you can try to beat your competition, the logical way: you improve customer service, you lower your price tag, you value ad your product, you cut costs to give customer more discounts, etc, etc...

Logical? I don't think so... it's a circle of death: You cut price, your competitors follow - you improve customer service, your competitors do, too... Of course, there's always room for improvement - HOWEVER, "the room for improvement" is getting smaller and smaller (or more and more crowded) - there is no such thing of "better mouse trap". You simply need to stand-out to beat competition - but, it's not for the faint-hearted.

What would I do? I would play safe, for some reason: Resources - limited. Knowledge - limited. Network - limited. You wouldn't want to challenge bigger competitors head-to-head. I'd go niche... a market segment that is few competitions exist. Elaborate, pliz?

OK. Opening a fast food restaurant is interesting, but the market is sooo crowded. But, opening an all-organic ingredients fast food restaurant is promising. Giving discounts is common - but pay as you like? hardly in business owner's mind. Cars are men's game field - wrong! Women influence most purchasing decisions made by men - Owning a car showroom exclusively for women is niche... etc, etc.. the lists will go on with endless possibilities.

In conclusion, I think there are no better choice than go for the niche markets. Serve them, and you will be rewarded well. Whaddaya think?

Motomedia: Breathes Life Back to Empty Retail Units with Innovative Use of Technology

Those guys at Motomedia, based in UK, surely know how to use (existing) technology to develop new kind of advertising media. The target empty retail units at highly visible area, with plenty of people passing by. The tech use is so great, that the advert using Motomedia's tech will stop people on their track, curious and be fascinated on the advert. Meaning? To advertisers, it means their ads will be more exposed to potential customers. To Motomedia, it means $$$ (or GBP GBP GBP, to be precise :D)... advertisers will kick each other feet just to be placed in one (or more) spot in more than 70 prime location in UK alone - primarily in London area, and in high streets of UK main cities, such as Birmingham). And, oh, it's also good for the shop unit's owners, since Motomedia will share ads revenue with them... niiiceee...

Their concept? Empty unit's shop front is being transformed into huge ads - with printed vinyl, projected videos & images, and sounds with no speakers in sight (they use the shop front windows to transfer voices - neat-o!). Furthermore, they can customise the tech into many unimaginable ways - to bluetooth ads and promos to people standing in front of the shop windows, to 'see' who views the ads, to identify whether it is he/she who view the windows, so that the system sets the ads to be displayed on screen according to the viewer's gender, etc. - sick-o!

Currently they are looking for investors to bring their concepts overseas. I think this kinda biz could be 'it'. How much to invest, I would learn about it myself. Please visit their website for more info. Cheers!

Another Afro on the Net

J. Hustle from the Chub City - bigga afro! It's actualy a character toy from Jada Toys. But an afro is an afro! A toy or not, 'should give afro some respects :D

30 Under 30: America's Coolest Young Entrepreneurs

Another list of sicko entrepreneurs - this time, the top 30 entrereneurs under the age of 30. Here is the top 3 of the list:

Sicko #1. Ben Kaufman "The innovator" - Innovate lines of iPod accessories, as well as allowing customers to design them. 2006 sales: USD 1 million. *gasp* *choked* And, oh, he is just 20 years-old. *retch*

Sicko #2. Sean Belnick "The Chair Man of the Board" - At 14, he took USD 500 an start selling office chairs online. Today, at 20, he runs a USD 24 million furniture biz (bizChairs.com) whose customers include Microsoft, Google, and the Pentagon. *aargh* *blabber* *hic*

Sicko #3. Bo Menkiti "The Home Maker" - In my opinion, the most noble of all. He develops homes for teachers, firefighters, and other first-time buyers in the neglected middle market of Corporate America. Age: 30. 2006 sales: USD 640 million. *cough* *wheeze*

My favourite? the sicko #2, 20 y.o. Sean Belnick. I mean, selling chairs to the Pentagon? This guy must be the MIB of biz chairs world! Congrats to you, Sean! You really makes me re-think about opening an online biz here in Indonesia. With Indonesia's very low Internet penetration, should I have a Rp. 100 million (around USD 10.000) online biz would make me as good as you, Sean! (is it possible? hmm...)

Afro Artwork

Great artwork by Vincent Fraser... Give afro sylez some love, y'all!

i-tutor.net: Better Education For All

I've come across a franchise (license, I think), than run rampant in ASEAN countries, particularly Indonesia. Why run rampant? This fact: 500 licensees in 1,5 years - in Indonesia alone. But it's only happen in Indonesia. Others seems 'normal'... Indonesia's i-tutor.net is so 'un-normal' that investors from other countries buy the license from i-tutor.net Country Rep. in Indonesia! sicko!

The reason is that Mr. Sofian, the i-tutor.net Indonesia Country Rep. re-develop i-tutor.net original system, in such a way that it accomodates Indonesia's limited Internet access. For info, i-tutor.net original system is for students to access study materials through the Internet. In Indonesia, i-tutor.net uses offline software that looks and feels like the online version. Genius!

From educational perspective, i-tutor.net introduce cinema edutainment concept - students learn in an environment that uses audio-visual learning system through a 'movie' projected to screens - just like watching movie in cinemas. In this way, students learn 5 times more effective than conventional learning methods (proven) in an intergrated environment that promotes affective, cognitive, psycho-motoric, and EQ of the students. Moreover, i-tutor.net is relatively low in tuition fee - great value for money, considering the i-tutor.net education is endorsed by e-ASEAN Initiatives, developed by 60 professors (including 10 child psychologists), and developed according to Singapore curriculum standard.

From biz perspective, i-tutor.net is, perhaps, only one of few franchise (license) that offer investment model - with license value that tends to grow, with license term that is for a life-time and transferable (this will end soon, so join i-tutor.net now!), and with multiple source of income - not only from the increased value of the license and from the operating profit of the courses, but also from sponsorship program - through referring new licensees, promoting i-tutor.net system to education institutions and local gov't office, and through becoming a distributor - managing licensees and retaining a percentage of the managed licensees license fee, royalty fee, and merchadise sales. Sounds like a networking system? It IS a networking system, but not a pyramid system (not all can become a distributor - distributorship is only assigned to one entity per region) - so it's legit.

Interested? Please contact me for more information. Cheers!

OilPods: Oil and Natural Gas Leases Ownership Possibilities.. for You and I and the People Next Door

Do you ever has a dream of owning a oil and/or natural gas-producing land? Well, today, you and I... and the people next door are given the opportunity to play in the big-boyz' playgrounds - at least a fraction of 'em - this concept is called retail investment in oil and gas... jargon, jargon...

OilPods, a Singaporean company, market ownership deeds (called working interests) to investors resides in Asia region. You can own oil and/or natural gas-producing land for as little as USD 5,000 (USD 10,000 in Indonesia for somewhat reason).

OilPods is a marketing company for a number of projects from Powder River Basin and Gas Corp. (PRVB), a US small-capped-going-public oil and natural gas drilling company. PRVB focuses on already-producing oil/gas fields, therefore significantly reduces risks (watch the video of TV coverage on OilPods).

Up to the date of this post, PRVB has "outsourced" the marketing of 8 projects to OilPods, with the latest project - a natural gas project - Biamante, has started on 1 August, 2007 at Goliad County, Texas, US. The project offered working interest, representing up to 26% of the Biamante Project Field for USD 10.5 million. Should you invest USD 10,000, you'll end up owning 0.095% of the field. A bit smallish, but, hey, you own a part of the gas field! The USP, is the ROI they claimed to be achieved within 2 to 3 years of involvement in the project (3.5 years, conservative projection), plus 1.5% to 3% of cashflow thereafter for a total investment period of more than 10 years, all depend on the fluctuating energy commodity prices and the oil/gas reserve that, they claim, always goes beyond the forecasted. Whoa! that's right... should the reserve will be depleted in 10 years, you may enjoy 7 years of passive income out of your investment!

Interesting? you bet! By investing in oil/gas field, you are enabled to diversify your investment porfolio. And, you own a real asset - unlike your savings and mutual funds.

Wait, wait, wait! what about risks involved? well, EVERY investment ALWAYS involves a certain degree of risks. Even your savings involve a certain amount of risk. In this case, instead of high risk high gain of oil exploration projects, your investment in OilPods projects brings you low-to-medium risks and more-medium-than-low gain. The risk? environmental risk, including storms that often happens in US, and shorter-than-expected fields' life span.

I'm interested in investing in the Biamante projects. It's a new project, thus by entering early, I have a chance to enjoy more years of passive income. Should you interested in the project or the retail investment concepts, just e-mail me for more information. I believe this is a new form of investment, by building a community to leverage power to fund the projects, as well as share ownerships (it's a trend, according to TrendWatching.com).

Hot 500 - The Fastest Growing Company in America

Entrepreneur Magazine published Hot 500 - The Fastest Growing Company in America. In my opinion, the publication raised two of my eyebrows, due the fact that those biz is not typical fast growers. I thought that the list will bulk up with Tech company, including ITs and DotComs. But the fact is, the three most loaded industries on the list, in orderly manner, are Construction (surprise, surprise!), Business Service, and Technology (typical!). Sure, Tech place #3, but construction place #1? in fastest growing list? I've never thought of that! Sure the #1 fastest growing company is a Tech industry company - DivX Inc. - THAT video tech famous.

Success Secret of DIvX Inc.:"The ability to embrace an unforeseen opportunity and the patience to ride the waves to see the vision realized."

About the construction industry, the leader on the list is Earth Tech Entreprise (#32), a landsite development company. Started out in 2000 with $2,000.00 initial investment, turned profit in 2003, reached their first million-dollar in 2003, and 2006 sales reached $25,000,000.00 (whoa! lots of zeros). Eybrow-rising isn't it?

Success Secret of Earth Tech Enterprise: Having the same customers that we
started with."

Check on the list for the other 498 crazyly-amazing companies to learn from!

Ben Wallace of NBA: Heroes

Ben Wallace, a basketball player of Chicago Bulls of NBA, should receive more love from you guys. Everybody talks about Michael Jordan in NBA history, but you should give credit for those who are not only hard worker, but have "resilient" in their middle names!

Ben Wallace's career is not a walk in a park. He started out being a sub in Washington (1996-1999), Orlando (1999-2000), and finally bling his way to superstardom in Detroit Pistons with NBA Champs titles (2000 -2006), and now with Chicago Bulls (2006-present). Being a sub for the first three years is no fun; especially if you only average 5 minutes of play on your 1st season for 34 games. I mean, you have to learn a lot in those 5 minutes! Never give up, finally, all the hard work and resillience paid off. At Detroit, he won Defensive Player of the Year, being in All-Defensive first team for years, play in All-Stars, NBA Champs, etc. etc. Nobody to somebody. A Winner. Period.

To be a bit one-sided on his game, a defense-only approach, makes me think of one fact: you have to play to your strength; don't be a wannabe. Ben's situations can be found in your life - family life, biz life, etc. You want to be rich? play to your strength. You want to be happy? play to your strength. Nobody can guarantee your happiness should you marry celebs or not; nobody can guarantee your success should you play in the stock market with gambler mind set... the point is, work your way up through learning, learning, learning, learning... so that when opportunities are present, you know how to take advantage.

And, oh. He has an afro hairstyle, too! :D

ARN Business Opportunity

ARN (Ananda Rambah Nusantara) is a local biz ideas consultant where its biz evolves around setting small-scale shop, its standard ops procedure, management system, admin & accounting system, including hiring staffs, initial stocks, and shop decor & furniture. ARN also provides consultative service on bizzes need boost, while keeps options open to buy the "dying" bizzes, re-managed and re-packaged, to be sold or simply to be owned by the franchisee. ARN focuses on small bizzes/shops, with capital requirement less than Rp. 100 million (mostly, ARN develop shops for as little as Rp. 15-20 million in cap requirement).

Sounds complicated? Wait, it's actually simple: First, should we buy the franchise, we are entitled to help others establish new shops or developing existing ones for a fee in exchange (hard cash coming in!). Second, the shop owners may trust the shop's management to ARN franchisee, for a percentage of net profit in return (cashflow coming in!). Third, ARN franchisees are entitled to build such shops ourselves and may sell them to potential investors later (cashflow coming in + potential hard cash coming in!). Fourth, ARN franchisees are entitled to receive from many more income sources, such as ARN Biz Book sales, additional services - staff hiring, back office system, etc, commission on opening new ARN offices, etc, etc, etc (more hard cash coming in!)

I also interested in this client-based biz (+ with multiple stream of income$$) simply because it's what early entrepreneurs have been thinking about - limited in cash, want to start biz, don't know where & how to start - more guts than experience (even ability). ARN tries to accomodate such entrepreneurs.

From the proposal I receive, the total investment is approximately Rp. 200 million - Rp. 75 million in license fee (take note, license fee is not franchise fee, although it's treated as one), Rp. 50 million in working capital (to establish 2 or 3 shops for potential clients), and others for renovation, fixtures, equipment, etc.

In my opinion, this business opportunity can be good in the future, because of its uniqueness in Indonesia biz arena. However, I'm still unsure what potential it will bring for the investor. And oh, investors aren't required to be active-owner: managements are set up by ARN HQ and run by themselves with minimum involvement of the investor. Possible? I can't say, unless I buy one and prove it myself. Any investors interested to work with me? :)

Anyway, I'll update soon should any information uncover! ;)