Why Starting business in Singapore?

start a business from a beginning, it takes something different. To start a busines, Initial concept begins with a place. Singapore is a great place to start a business. Singapore is well known around the world as a multicultural, multi religious and multi racial harmonious island food paradise. Starting as a quiet, laid back fishing village, Singapore has grown exponentially to become of the most densely populated country in the world with a population of 4.8million living closely together in a land area of 224.5 square miles. Singapore has also become the richest country in South East Asia and one of the most developed countries in the world. It is no surprise then that Singapore has attracted various organisations ranging from the Fortune 500 companies, small and medium enterprises, educational institutions to news bureaus to form their place in Singapore's business landscape. So why follow the footsteps of those who have established successful businesses? Why set up your business in Singapore? Why Singapore?

Here is Top 3 reason why Singapore is a great place to set up your business.

1. A Favourable Business Climate

According to the Ministry of Trade & Industry (MTI), there is an estimated 6,000 Multi National Corporations (MNCs) in Singapore. Many of these MNCs have chosen Singapore as the prime location of their Asia Pacific headquarters due to its positive business climate. For example, the World Bank's Doing Business 2009 Report ranked Singapore as the world's easiest place to do business, ahead of New Zealand, United States and Singapore's closest competitor, Hong Kong. The EIU Country Forecast published in February 2008 also rated Singapore as having the best business environment in Asia Pacific and third in the world. These rankings by independent bodies are reflective of the Singapore Government's efforts in providing efficient public sector services that support the private sector growth.

2. Highly Educated Workforce

Singapore boasts one of the most educated workforces in the world. Literacy rate stands at a formidable 96%. 89.6% of resident non students aged 25-39 have secondary or higher qualifications. A further significant testament to the huge importance placed on education, the Singapore Government invested S$7,298.1 million in education in 2008. This comes up to 25.5% of total government operating expenditure, making education the second highest expenditure after security and defence. In addition, Singapore's two long established universities, the National University of Singapore (NUS) and Nanyang Technological University (NTU) also rank favourably on various university ranking surveys.

3. World Class Transportation System

Singapore's Changi International Airport has three heavily used terminals serving over 80 international airlines flying to more than 190 cities in 160 countries. Changi International Airport also handles more than 4,500 arrivals and departures weekly, 37.7 million passengers and 1.85million tonnes of air freight in 2008.

With the high cost of owning private transportation, public transportation is efficient, frequent and spans every far reaching corner of the island. Singaporeans flock to the 70 railway stations of the Singapore's Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) system which has a daily ridership of 1.564 million. The two public bus companies with a fleet of 3,600 single and double decker air-conditioned buses transport nearly 3.12 million daily passenger trips safely to 295 routes islandwide.

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three business options

by: Ross Taylor


There are new business opportunities available online each and every day. The internet marketplace is the largest in the world and only continues to grow. With the current state of the economy it has grown even faster as more and more people turn to it for a backup income and financial security. If you're looking to get your online career started but aren't sure exactly where to start, here are three of many popular ways to get involved.

Network marketing, also known as multi-level marketing (MLM) is a great way to get started because you can learn the ins and outs of the internet business world and generate an income while you're doing it. The way it works is that you sell the company's product and recruit new distributors to also sell the product and they do the same. You make a commission from your sales and all the sales of everyone recruited under you. There are many companies to choose from and not all of them are legitimate so it's important to do your research and choose a business that sells a valuable product, has been around for a while, boasts a duplicable marketing and training system and has strong leadership.

A second popular option is direct sales. Unlike MLM, with direct sales you do not recruit distributors and you make all the sales yourself. However, the products are usually high end and priced much higher, and you make a much larger commission. With most companies you get the product straight from the wholesaler at cost and sell it to the consumer at retail. The benefit of doing direct sales online, like with MLM, is that you can use technology to your advantage and set your system on autopilot to automatically generate orders and take customer information.

If you're not interested in getting involved with an existing online company you may want to try freelancing. Many companies, especially with so many layoffs, outsource several services to freelancers. If you have a talent or skill that businesses or people need such as writing, photography, graphic design, HR consulting or even cake decorating, you can create a website and easily become the CEO of your own personal business.

The internet is the one job market that never runs dry because it provides an open platform for you to create the career you've always dreamed of.

Source:
http://www.wealthoutcomes.com

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How to Building Customer Loyalty through Brand Equity

What emotion do your customers experience when they interact with your company? What impression do you or your employees, internal systems and products make on your customers and business partners? What is the essence of your company that will stand the test of time?

In my BLASTTM Marketing System, I spend a lot of time teaching entrepreneurs the importance of creating both a business and a personal brand to support their business. A brand is created using a variety of different marketing messages, images and touch points and goes far beyond your logo, websites and brochures. It is about emotion and thought. When customers hear your business name what comes to mind? What is the lasting impression? For example, when you think of FedEx, what comes to mind? How about "When you absolutely have to get it there overnight" and did the big plane they use on their commercials pop in your head? Or when you are talking with a client and you need to overnight something do you find yourself just automatically saying, "I'll FedEx that to you" as though FedEx is a verb?

How about Walt Disney? What comes to mind? What is the lasting impression? How about "Happiest place on earth" or the word Magic? Disney went out of his way to leave a lasting impression and to create a world of fantasy, happiness and imagination and everything about Disney, supported that impression. If I start singing "I am stuck on Band Aid Brand because……. Can you finish the phrase? Are you singing "Because Band Aid's stuck on me" Chances are you even are remembering a story perhaps in your childhood when you used Band Aid' product.

When companies have successfully connected with their customers and live and breathe every moment in support of that connection, is when they create a brand - an emotional element connected to your company, its people, its process and all of its points in between that support that emotional connection. So what are the points in between? Simply, anyway your company touches a client or potential client. It could be your people and their behaviors, your internal systems - technology, invoices, phone, website, etc. and your external systems - your product, how the product is delivered, your marketing and your customer service. When this connection happens, your customers become loyal to your brand.

To build equity in customer relationships develop a concrete brand strategy using one word - three simple letters: BID- Brand Promise, Identity and Deliver your Promise.

B - Brand Promise

Your brand promise should be compelling and unique. It must make a public statement that your product will perform the way the customer expects each and every time. It becomes reliable and creates and resonates emotionally with your target audience. It should be short and truly represent why you are different - "when it absolutely has to get there overnight"

I - Identity

Your identity defines who you are and more importantly why you are in business. You should focus defining yourself strategically rather than the functions you perform. Focus on your core values, core differentiators and the markets you serve. Know who you are with confidence and conviction and your customers will come to rely on that identity.

D - Deliver Your Promise

Your promise delivery will make or break your brand. As the old saying goes "practice what you preach". You promise should permeate your entire culture and everything that touches the client should support your brand promise and reinforce your brand identity. There are never any exceptions and the minute you make one, the minute you lose credibility and trust with your customer.

To build brand equity and customer loyalty, you must have a strong company identity that people can relate to and a public commitment or guarantee, that people can expect each and every time they engage your organization including your employees, internal and external systems and actual product or service delivery. By mastering BID, you will create a loyal relationship with your customers, similar to the Blindly Proud Grandparents from my last article "Master Strategy: Know Your Customer"

sources:
www.KellieDandrea.com
www.blastmarketing.blogspot.com

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Why we Choosing Outsource?

Outsourcing has become an invaluable business strategy in the recent times. Business enterprises and entrepreneurs both, make use of outsourcing to enhance their business proceedings. They choose to outsource their business operations when they lack the necessary knowledge, skills, equipments to complete the tasks themselves or just cant afford to devote quality time to the same. This is the prime advantage of outsourcing, where you can hire service providers to complete the chores that you cannot do by yourself.

Generally, entrepreneurs and business enterprises do have the tools and softwares and knowledge to process their business operations themselves. When you are running a business, you might as well have skills and equipments to complete the various processes involved. This becomes even more important about the core business processes. However, it still makes sense to outsource certain tasks even if you are self sufficient in completing them at your end.

Outsourcing works on the concept of comparative advantage. Businesses might have all the requisite tools and knowledge and time for the tasks but outsourcing still would be an advantageous option. You just need to know the right time to outsource.

When you need to Save Money There are times when businesses and entrepreneurs need professional services of some kind but are unable to afford the costs of an in-house employee or a professional freelancer. This is when you can outsource the work to offshore service providers, the services of whom come at a considerably cheaper rate. You don't necessarily have to choose the cheapest option. Rather, you should focus on selecting the most cost competitive one where you get the best of services for the most competitive rates. Even if the hourly rates of offshore providers are the same as in-house employees, you will still save on all the costs associated with payroll, taxes, benefits and legal expenses.

When you need On-Time Delivery Businesses also go through times when they are at their bursting points and when you need to refuse client requests and projects because you are unable to complete all the projects by yourself. Or even if you are able to complete it that is because you work 24 X 7 and slog yourself. Instead of losing out on business opportunities, what you can do is outsource the task to third party service providers and continue making money and building your client base. It is very important to have a strong network of reliable vendors, especially so if your business has a fluctuating workload. When there is increased workload, you can simply contact your vendors for assistance. Moreover, you also have a back-up in case any unforeseen circumstances come in that may delay the project past the destined deadline. And not meeting deadlines is a huge blow to your business credibility.

When you need to Complete More Work As business owners you would like to know about all the aspects of your business and complete more and more work in the least possible time. This is where outsourcing comes in. by outsourcing the non-peripheral works to an external service provider, you would be able to concentrate on the core competencies of your business and accomplish more in less time.

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Project Management - Why a Project Initiation Document is so Important in a Successful Project

Many people perceive that generating reams of documentation such as plans and reports are the key to delivering a successful project.. As experienced Project Managers will tell you, this is rarely the case except when it comes to the creation of one piece of project documentation; namely the Project Initiation Document.

Essentially the Project Initiation Document is the key reference document for a project. Think of it as the project "Bible" which will be constantly referred to throughout the project lifecycle when questions of scope and delivery approach are raised.

It is a project document in which is detailed everything related to the project such as:

* Project Definition
* Business Case which details why the project should be done
* Scope of what the Project is delivering
* Strategy to deliver the project
* Project Team structure and Governance

* Communications Plan
* Quality Plan
* Project Risks, Issues and Assumptions
* Project Controls
* Project Budget
* High Level Project Plan
* Project Exceptions criteria

External observers often think that Project Manager's fears about project scope are overdone, but scope creep is without a doubt one of the major reasons why projects fail. Anyone who has experienced a flood of Project Change Requests throughout a project will attest to that!

However having a detailed and accurate Project Initiation Document tends to stop the majority of such problems for the simple reason that when Business Stakeholders try to change Scope, it is easy to refer them back to the Project Initiation Document. Further since this document will have been formally Approved by the Project Stakeholders and other interested parties, it is hard for anyone to say that they didn't know what the project was going to be delivering.

It is for this reason that a Project Manager should spend time on what is admittedly not a straightforward nor simple document to write. The problem is that all too often Project Managers are tempted to skim over this document in their desire to get the project started as soon as possible to meet extremely tight deadlines. However by doing this they are simply storing up problems for the future and the very real possibility that they are initiating a project which will have no chance of succeeding.

So to give a project the best chance of successfully delivering, it pays to devote time to getting the Project Initiation Document written correctly and approved by all the Project Stakeholders to ensure the project approach and scope is agreed upfront.

sources:
http://www.my-project-management-expert.com/

www.wikipedia.com

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