Friday 16 August 2013

Business System is Also Crucial for SME

Recently, I gave consultation to a friend on the business system for his company. I was there when he set up the company last year and the company is not profitable yet. I believe it is normal for a new company to actually just aim at survival for the first few years.
However, I found out that he doesn't have a solid system and depend too much on his manager. He is always away and the control system is absent. That means he could actually have done better if the system were in place. No matter how small your company is, organization and management are crucial.
I also just started my own business a few months ago. Currently, I still put the business under Research phase. I have been doing lots of research, trial and error in marketing strategy and products selection. I had a business plan draft that I plan to finish by end of year so that I can officially launch the business next year.
Type of business: wholesale of fashion bags and accessories.
March 2013 Draft a business plan
April 2013 Research on products and suppliers in China
May 2013 Forming a Limited Liability Partnership and start going outstation doing marketing research.
June 2013 Come up with Resellers Program and start recruiting re-sellers
July - Aug 2013 Trying to create a website, coming up with bookkeeping system, creating facebook pages, expanding connection and network, etc.
Sept 2013 Going to Indonesia to find new source of products.
... to be continued
P.s. SME : Small & Medium Enterprise

Thursday 16 May 2013

Vision and Mission Statement, Why are they important?

We need vision and mission in life so that we can have a successful and meaningful life. We will live it with purpose and will not waste a day in our life. The same goes to business.

Some job interviewers will ask what you see yourself in 5 years or 10 years because they wish to find out if our vision is in line with that of the company.
To put it simply, I would say vision is what you wish to achieve or become while mission is how you are going to achieve it.

In every business plan, we must include our vision and mission statement. It may seem like nothing but my husband decided to dissolve his partnership last year largely due to differences in the vision and mission between him and his partner.
So if you are working on your business plan, don't underestimate the power of the vision and mission statement.

In previous post I mentioned that I started a limited liability partnership with my husband.

Our vision is to be preferred handbags and fashion accessories wholesaler in Sabah.

Our mission : We strive to serve our customers' needs with high quality, value added products and services at affordable prices.

For those with the same vision and mission and would like to find out more business opportunities in this field, feel free to contact us at kkjayatrading@gmail.com.

Limited Liability Partnership (LLP)

LLP is a new business vehicle in Malaysia. A very good news for all Malaysians and foreign investors who wish to form a partnership in Malaysia. It has some of the features like that of a limited company (sdn bhd) but less complicated to form. It is also a separate legal entity and has limited liability.
I have just started a new partnership with my husband and has formed an LLP recently.
However, we encountered some problems when applying our trading license in DBKK as they say LLP only  applies in West Malaysia and doesn't apply in Sabah. We have filed a complaint to SSM and the misunderstanding has been sorted out.

Steps in registering an LLP in Kota Kinabalu, Sabah:
1. Register online at www.ssm.com.my and make payment of MYR 500.
2. Print out the online notification and go to DBKK to apply for your trading license.

To protect the right of Sabahan, it seemed that one of the partner should be Sabahan. The foreign partners are required to apply for work permit before their names could appear in the trading license.

LLP is required to make annual declaration to SSM whether it is operational or not. The form can be downloaded from the website http://www.ssm.com.my/en/LLP-FormEn. The current fee is MYR 200.

It is fairly simple and easy to understand.