All posts by Chee Shi

Today we continue our discussion on how to manage cashflow effectively.

Having realized the importance of cashflow in a business, which in my opinion, is more important than profit.

We can have a very huge profit, however if it is not reflected in the cashflow of the business, then it is high time we take a closer look at the operation.

How do we prepare a good and accurate cashflow forecast?

To manage an effective cashflow, we need to ensure we are able to prepare a good and accurate cashflow forecast.

There are a few points we need to take care of in preparing the cashflow forecast.

1. Identify the outflow and inflow of cash in the business.
2. establish the right line of communication for flow of information.
3. outlined the assumptions and factors used in preparing the forecast
4. Prepare, discuss and monitor the prepared cashflow forecast.
5. adjust and amend as the situations become clearer.

1. Identification of outflows and inflows of cash in the business.

We need to know what are the outflows and inflows of cash into the business.

For inflows, the obvious item is the revenue of the business, then in the course of business, we may secure some financing. both these two are the inflows of cash into the business.

Besides the above mentioned two, sometimes, shareholders may decide to increase the capital of the business, this will be another item as inflow.

As for outflow, we have to decide which are variable and which are fixed items.

For fixed item, it can be the rental paid for premises, and leasing of equipment which have fixed rental rate.

I like to categorize the outflow into operating, financial and capital in nature.

in terms of operating, we are talking about fixed overhead and variable overhead.

you can also classify into direct and indirect payment, just to make it clearer and easier to understand the natures of outflows.

Direct payments can be expenses such as utility expenses, salaries for the staffs.

2. Establish the right line of communication for flow of information.

In preparing the cashflow forecast, it is important that we have the right line of communication for flow of information.

If we want to have an accurate forecast on cashflow, it is important that the operation side know what information to furnish to finance staffs, so that they can use the right data to prepare the forecast.

Finance staff must also know who to look ask for information, the right data, same with other department like marketing and customer services.

3. outlined the assumptions and factors used in preparing the forecast

In preparing the forecast, we have to make sure we have the assumptions correctly spelt out, and the factors used.

Without showing the assumptions, readers and users will not know what are the basis and how the forecasts are prepared.

4. Prepare, discuss and monitor the prepared cashflow forecast.

a cashflow forecast prepared and just left it on the shelf will not serve any purpose.

the management staffs need to monitor and discuss the forecast every now and then, to see how much is the deviation of the actual from the forecast.

5. adjust and amend as and when the situation become clearer.

if the management of the business is able to monitor the forecast regularly.

they will be able to see the deviation of the actual from the forecast and if need be, make the necessary adjustment, so that the forecast is more reasonable and sensible.

We can also use the cashflow forecast as a tool to make business operation better and more efficient.

from the cashflow forecast and in the weekly review of the forecast, we can see whether we are not doing as good in our debt collections, if that is the case, then we can take the necessary action, may be to beef up the debt collections process, find out why the customers are not paying.

If we pay more than  as forecast, we have to find out the reason.

By doing so, we can improve our business process and operation efficiency.

Getting the real cash position to match the forecasted figures, require a high discipline from every one in the business, thus, the importance of timely review and analysis between the actual and forecast.

Most companies are not able to survive a short term cash flow shortage, if no forecast is available, business will not know where it goes wrong, not to mention to take the remedial actions.

Cash flow forecasting is tedious and arduous,  bear in mind, it is also a very important tool.

This critical process will let you know how much cash your business can generate, it can also enable you to know what you need to fund future expansion and working capital.

While your forecasts will never be 100% accurate, by preparing it frequently, you will develop an uncanny ability to make a more accurate forecast if you can devote the proper resources to cash flow forecasting sooner rather than later.

In my next article, I will talk more about how we can make use of this business tool more effectively.

If you want to learn more about cashflow, you may want to go HERE

Cash Flow, a term every business man is familiar with, it is also a term a lot of business man misunderstand.

So what is a cash flow?

Cash flow, to a finance guy, is the most important thing in a business.

However, if you go and tell the boss this, he will disagree, he will tell you sales is the most thing in a business.

if cash flow breaks down, definitely the business will break down.

People may argue without sales, you don’t have money coming into the business.

However people tend to forget when you start a business, you need capital, that is cash flow!!!!.

In a nutshell, cashflow is the amount of cash that is moving in and out of your business cycle at a certain period.

Positive and Negative Cashflows

If you have more cash flowing into your business than out of your business, then you have a positive cashflow.

That means you do not have to worry about meeting your payments requirement and settling your expenses especially the salaries of the employees.

On the other hand, if your cash flow position shows a negative cashflow, perhaps it may give you some worrying signs.

Negative cashflow may indicate your inability to meet your financial obligation, you may also have difficulty in paying for your expenses, worse still, you may not able to purchase goods to sell.

Thus, the importance of having enough money to meet all the business obligations is also knows as Working Capital.

What is the different between Sales and Cashflow?

Earlier I mentioned about sales and cashflow, and people think these two items are the same and one.

Actually the two terms are quite different, though these two terms go hand in hand and related closely.

Without sales, after the initial start up capital, there is no inflow of money to the business and this will create a big problem for the business to operate smoothly.

Hence, sales to certain extent is an indication how much money will be coming into the business.

What about Profit and Cashflow?

quite a few people like to think profit is equivalent to cashflow.

You can hear people ask a question – the company has so much profit, but why isn’t there money in the business at all?

Some are puzzled the business has so much profit but having difficulty to fulfil its financial obligation.

A good credit analyst will do the followings:

• look at the profit and loss account of a business,
• he will also look at the changes in the financial position of the business.

By looking at the changes in financial position of a business, it is easier

• to determine whether the business has healthy and
• positive cashflow, or whether
• the business is facing acute cashflow deficit despite being very profitable.

Therefore, the management must learn how to read the statement of changes in financial position.

Importance of understanding changes in financial position.

This is to enable them

• to grasp a better idea and take hold of the situation.
• By doing so, at least the management has a rough idea
• of what is the position of the liquidity of the business, and if need be,
• take some actions to strengthen the cashflow of the company.

Why does cashflow matters and important?

Just imagine, if you do not have the cash in hand, a lot of things in the business will come to a standstill.

You may not be able to pay the salary of your employees, this will badly affect the morale of the staffs.

When suppliers hear you have cashflow problem, the first thing they do is to cut the supply and this will affect the operation of the business.

Worse, if the suppliers decide to take drastic action to recover the amounts the business owed to them.

This will definitely

• damage the reputation of the business
• when suppliers file for action to wind up the business or
• put it under judicial management.

Managing cashflow and learning how to do it effectively, is a fundamental process.

A process which eventually will lead you to grow your business in a more profitable and sustainable way.

Once one has learnt and finally know the inside out of cashflow management, it is then the time to start looking at growth of the businesses.

Next I will be talking about How To Manage Cashflow Effectively in my next article.

 

 

Definition of Budget

Budget is a tool used by business as a guide, if it is prepared professionally, it can be a very powerful tool.

Budget is a business plan to enable the business to maximize the resource in order to achieve its plan or objective.

It is an estimation of revenue against the expenditure over a period.

What are the advantages of having a budget?

1. Having a clear business plan.

2. Act as a control of expenses.

3. Use as a benchmark to appraise the performance of the staffs.

4. Serve as an internal control feature for the organization.

5. Enable business to adjust and make changes when the deviation is too great.

1. Having a clear business plan

With budget, the business will have a clear direction in their business plan for the upcoming financial year.

Management can then plan their business plan based on the budget prepared.

After preparing a good budget, management can focus in achieving the target set.

2. Act as a control for expenses

after preparing the budget, the business can use that as a yardstick to ensure expenses are within the budgeted boundary.

Any deviation from budgeted amount will need to be investigated and action taken to rectify if it is human error.

3. Use a benchmark to appraise the performance of the staff.

Every year, business need to appraise the performance of the staffs.

To do that, the company needs to have some benchmark and barometer to assess the staffs’ performance.

Budget is a very good tool to appraise the staff performance, it is a more objective and transparent method.

Failure to achieve the target set in the budget, it leaves very little room for the staff to argue for his case.

Unless the budget prepared is unreasonable and unrealistic, then the staff may challenge the appraisal done.

If we prepare a very reasonable and realistic budget, this can be a very powerful budgetary control tool.

When it is used as the benchmark for staff appraisal, the targets are clear and not disputable.

4. Serve as internal control feature for the organization

when one set up an internal control feature, one of the feature it can use is the budgetary control.

Frequent analytical review of the budgeted amount against the actual achieve, the management is able to use that to find out the flaws and the shortcoming in the operation of the company.

As an internal control feature, and through analytical review, we are able to see weaknesses in the operation and take necessary rectification actions if need be.

We can also use budgetary control to tighten the control especially on the expenditure, be it revenue expenditure or capital expenditure.

5. Enable the business to adjust and make changes when the deviation is too great.

Through monthly analytical review of the actual against the budget, the management is able to make the necessary adjustment.

Budget is not rigid, it may become not realistic due to the changes in business environment, changes in government policies or any event which is beyond the control of the business.

When this happens, management must at the first instance to revise the budget and adjust the business plan accordingly, if this is not done, then the budget may no longer become achievable.

If you are interested in how to prepare a good budget, you can purchase a copy of my lazypeopleguide e-book on this topic and gain some insight of it.

In my e-book, I will provide a comprehensive layout of the budget preparation and what you need to look for.

As usual my e-book is for those busy business persons who do not have the times to go through lengthy report and write up about how to prepare the budget.

It is a more practical guide, and it is easy to grasp the idea and concept.

If you want to learn more or wish to find out more in detail, you may contact me either using the contact form or drop me a message in my email.

In business, one of the question people ask is – Do we have to do a budget?

then the question is – how important is budget to a business?

if we were to go into more details, you may come across the term budgetary controls.

So, what is a budget?

For a business, a budget is a plan to estimate the revenue and expenditure of the business for a period, normally it is over a period of twelve months, it covers the financial period of the business.

On personal level, a budget is a tool people used to control their expenses

We can notice the different between a company having a budget and one without any budget prepared.

For a company having a yearly budget, the company looks more organized and structured whereas one without any budget, will be like swimming in an ocean without any direction.

How important is budgetary controls to a business?

We have seen earlier that a company without a budget is like operating a business without any direction. It is more ad hoc than anything else.

Without a budget, is tantamount to without any planning.

Simple meaning of budgetary controls

Budgetary control is the mechanism of comparison the budgeted amounts against the actual performance of the operation.

The budgeted amount is the forecast of the revenue and expenditure of an organization based on past performance and the market conditions and current business environment.

It is a process of business planning involving financial planning, business plan and setting of business goals and so on. I will have a separate discussion on how to prepare a business plan HERE.

If budgetary control is implemented effectively and properly, it can be a very powerful tool for a business to monitor its operation, at the same time, achieving the goals set, not to mention to make the business more efficient and productive.

What are the advantages and disadvantages of budgetary control?

Advantages

1. Acted as a tool to assess performance of respective departments and divisions in a company.

2. Setting of reduction of cost as priority.

3. It helps to improve efficiency and productivity.

4. Improve discipline of staffs in valuing how they spend the company money.

5. It can be used a benchmark for appraising the performance of staffs.

6. Serve as a guide in assisting the company to achieve its long term goals.

7. Enable the company to compare the forecast ed expenses and the actual spending and make necessary adjustment.

Disadvantages

1. Information used in the budget is very subjective and may not be realistic.

2. Preparing a good budget is a long and tedious process

3. Inter departments coordination is challenging especially between operation and finance.

4. Comparison of actual and budget may be a problem when there is an adverse variant, it may demoralize the department concerned.

5. Reasonableness and realistic of the budget figures may be challenged by department if it is not to their favor.

6. Top management needs to give approval for the budget, if the approval is not given promptly, it defeats the purpose of comparison of budget and actual.

What are the limitations of budgetary control?

1. As we know, budget is based on historical cost, hence its accuracy and reasonableness are very subjective.

2. In a volatile economy environment, budget figures may look awkward and not realistic at all.

3. Changes in government policies and taxes structure may affect the budget.

4. Changes in nature such as natural disaster, market condition may affect the comparison between budget and actual.

What can you do with budgetary controls ?

1. We can use this to control the cash flow.

2. Operational controls.

3. Cost analysis for the business

1. Using budgetary control to monitor the cash flow.

budgeted cash flow forecast is another form of budgetary control.

with a proper cash flow forecast, we can monitor the cash flow when we compare the forecast and the actual.

2. Operational controls

by having a good budgetary control, we are able to identify the weakness and highlight the needs to take rectification action.

When the analytical review is done to compare the actual against the budget, we are able to identify the area need more attention.

At the same time, we can also use the analysis to implement better control.

3. Cost analysis of the business.

Budgetary control enables us to find out areas which need to be controlled.

using budgetary control, and from the analysis, we are able to find out which sectors’ costs are not in the norm of the business operation.

We can then take necessary action to arrest the worsening situation.

Conclusion.

Budget is a plan devised to help a business operate in a more orderly and systematic manner.

It is a yardstick for a business to measure performance and improve efficiency.

By having a good budget and using it as budgetary control, a business will be able to have a good business plan which cover all spectrum of the business.

With a good business plan, a business is able to improve and grow according to plan.

Therefore, let us prepare a good budget and use it in a positive way as a tool for budgetary control.

Introduction

COVID -19 as we now know, have created a lot of challenges and issues especially for businesses in general.

Before the spread of COVID-19 pandemic in early 2020, majority of the businesses only thought about efficiency in their operation, hardly any management leaders consider resilience of their operations.

After almost two years of facing COVID-19 pandemic and counting the cost affected as results of the pandemic. A lot suddenly realize whatever they used to rely on may not work anymore.

In Business School, lessons learned on efficiency and how to drive for utmost efficiency are some common topics.

Efficiency seemed to be the key word if you want to be the top management leader.

Anyone who can show how to run an operation efficiently, others will look at him in high esteem and consider him the expert to keep the operation alive and popular.

But now? whether the efficient manager is highly regarded? that depends on a lot on whether he has some operational issues as a result of COVID-19 whereby almost everything comes to a standstill.

What is EIFFICENCY?

Efficiency is profit maximization with the lowest of cost and achieving it in the shortest time possible.

In good time and under normal condition, this seems to be a good doctrine to adhere to.

Any manager who can achieve results with the utmost efficiency is deemed to be the star performer.

Japanese coined the term – Just In Time management, This is the benchmark of efficiency at clockwork operation.

What is Resilience?

Resilience seems to be the opposite of efficiency in business world.

According to the definition in Marriam-Webster Dictionary :

Resilience is ability to recover to its original state or shape after some adverse conditions or something bad happen.

So in term of business, COVID-19 pandemic is a good example as almost all businesses are badly affected and whichever able to recover are considered to be very resilient.

Does Efficiency complement Resilience or contradict it?

We notice how COVID-19 had affected businesses over the last two years.

Some efficient companies seemed to do it badly as times go on since every thing seems to be on standstill.

Factories which used to be efficient were the hardest hit as they ran out of raw materials to manufacture.

They are not able to get the new supply in since suppliers also stopped working, so now the once efficient factories now are facing awkward situation.

They do not have enough to raw materials to produce, previously in their effort to cut down holding cost, they did not stock materials beyond what was required for production.

So is efficiency at the expense of resilience?

To be efficient, one of the common measure management take is to be lean and keep cost low.

However, COVID-19 rear up the ugly side of being efficient at the expense of resilience.

We can look at the following examples to have some ideas of how COVID-19 can provide a good case study on efficiency vs resilience.

1. Health care system.

For years, hospitals are trying to be profitable, be it public hospitals or private run hospitals, to do that, they will keep a tight rein on staffs especially on nurses and healthcare staffs.

During COVID-19 pandemic, hospitals are overwhelmed with patients and all these made the medical staffs stressed and overworked.

2. Logistic and Supply Chain

The current high cost of logistic and supply chain after the slowdown is very obvious.

During the height of the pandemic, some ports tried to be efficient during the good time and now are facing a lot of operational issues, due to the long jam and congestion as factories start ramming up their operation and cargo start to move again.

A lot of ships and tankers mothballed at harbor, at the height of it, you could see a lot in Singapore.

 

3. Construction industries

In the good time, construction firms try to be lean as possible and keep minimum workers especially migrant workers. With the pandemic, when people can not travel freely, and workers movement come to standstill, construction firms suddenly find they are in a jam, as their workers especially migrant workers can not report back to work once they have gone back to their home towns for a break.

Efficiency and Resilience as Optimization .

1. Efficiency is short term.

2. Resilience is long term.

Therefore, do you prefer a long term policy or a short term solution?

How do we balance the two in order to achieve the objectives we are looking for?

COVID-19 forced us to innovate and learn new ways to manage our businesses.

The best outcome from the pandemic is seeing most of the businesses decide to take steps to innovate.

Those businesses which are adaptable and creative are finding the challenge to innovate and improve.

The use of Artificial Intelligent is making the businesses more robust and sustainable, hopefully can survive another severe and critical situation like COVID-19

Some businesses emerge stronger and better prepared.

Others take the opportunity to be more efficient and thus becoming more profitable.

Conclusion

A good lesson learned from COVID-19 is to fuse efficiency with resilience, finding the middle path to make the business stronger.

Fareed Zakaria, WaPo, 10/’20:

“The pandemic upended the present. But it’s given us a chance to remake the future.”

If you have any comments and feedback, please feel free to leave your comments in the comments section below.

I will be glad to get back to you.

Do you have any experience which you wish to share about COVID-19 and how you tackle the pandemic in term of business operation,  do share your thought here.

 

What is an employee handbook?

Employee Handbook is a document prepared by a company or organization specifically for their employees.

It usually spells out the terms and conditions of the employment in the company or organization.

The hand book serves as the holy book of the company outlining the followings:

1. The mission of the company or organization.

2. Some will also include the vision of the company.

3. Policies, rules and regulations of the company are also included.

4. Terms and conditions of employment.

5. Codes of conducts.

6. Staff benefits.

Why is an employee handbook so important to the company?

for any new employee who just join a company, a good employee handbook will help him to acclimatize to the company faster.

A good Human Resource staff will save a lot of times if they have prepared a good employee handbook.

By giving a copy of the book for the newly hired, the recruit will understand the company better and know the culture of the company.

The newly hired will understand what benefits and what are the terms of the employment. In the nut shell, he knows what he is getting into.

Failure to have a comprehensive employee handbook

most of the time, companies do not see the need to have a handbook prepared.

They only realize how important and useful the handbook is when there is pressing issue on staffs matters, dispute in employee relation.

Some companies soon realize without a comprehensive employee handbook, there is something missing, such as company culture, organized

What are the purposes of the employee handbook?

1. Outlining the company’s vision and mission and value.

A company usually has its own vision and mission, some companies even have their value stated.

A good place to record the vision, mission and value of the company will be in the employee handbook.

By stating these in the handbook, the employees, especially the new recruits will be able to understand and buy in to the culture of the company.

2. Means to communicate to staffs of the company’s policies and procedures.

Instead of issuing the company’s policies and procedures separately and in piecemeal method, by having the policies and procedures included in the handbook, will be a better avenue to keep track of the various policies and procedures the company.

now and then a company may issue a policy or update its policy and the handbook is a better place to keep track of the changes.

3. Guidelines for company to ensure consistent enforcement of policies.

For a company to implement its policies and regulations consistently, it is easier if the handbook is readily available to record and indicate all the policies and regulations, whenever a decision needs to be made, the management can always refer to the handbook.

4. Benchmark for employees performance and appraisal.

In a handbook, company can always outline its staffs performance and appraisal benchmark. In the handbook also, usually one can note the grades of the staffs and what positions they can look forward to in terms of career advancement in the company.

5. Serve as the code of conducts for employees.

Usually the code of conduct is outlined in the handbook, any grievances and discipline issues can be referred to in the handbook.

For any employee who has violated the Codes of Conduct, the handbook is the right place to find out what action can be taken.

6. Avoidance of ambiguity of policies and regulations of the company.

When in doubt, refer to the handbook, that is what the management needs to do, so are the employees of the company.

Points of Pitfalls of Handbook to avoid.

1. Update the handbook regularly.

It is important that a handbook has to be updated regularly and those replaced sections should be deleted and removed from the handbook.

2. Avoid making the handbook becoming a cumbersome document.

A good handbook must be very effective communication tool, therefore it is important that it is not a cumbersome and thick document, usually when it is too thick, one tends to discard reading it.

3. Make policies which are easy to enforce.

Management must make sure the policies made are easily enforceable and not one which is too details and people have problem understand it.

it is better it can be written in plain language instead of having all the legal jargon.

4. Review and amend outdated policies to keep up with times.

with the changes of times and advancement of technology, management must update and review the contents of the handbook, so that the company has an updated version of the handbook.

5. Have separate sub hand book to cover relevant topics.

instead of putting all the topics in one thick handbook, management can try to separate the various topics and have sub handbook for ease of reference.

Management may want to consider having separate documents for the following:

a. Codes of Conducts.

b. Safety procedures.

c. training manual.

d. appraisal and recruitment procedures.

by having a separate document, the employees can refer to the relevant books for whenever they face some issues and the documents can be easily accessible by all staffs.

Finally it is important to make sure the company has a handbook which is in compliance with the government laws and regulations on employments, and managements.

The Newest Method of Scam by Scammer using Human Resource Approach.

In the last few weeks, I experienced the latest trick by scammer posting as recruitment agent representing some companies.

It seems that this is one of the latest method by scammers to get to fish money from innocent job seekers.

What are the Modus Operandi of the Scammers.

1. Scammer will post for a job opportunity in some job boards.

2. If an applicant saw the job posting and applied.

3. Someone impersonating the Company HR will then email to the applicant .

4. In the email, the bogus HR will ask the identified candidate whether he or she was interested in the job applied, claiming that they found the applicant experience and qualification is a good match,  and just the right candidate they are looking for.

5. The person would in the email ask the candidate to click yes and at the same time asked the identified candidate to provide the contact number.

6. Reason for asking for the contact number was they would conduct an interview via phone or Whatsapp and urged the identified candidate to attend as the session would be very interesting.

7. Example of the email content is as follows:

Dear candidate I recently saw your resume online and want to know more about your background. We are actively looking for professionals with your qualifications for current and future positions. To discuss this opportunity further, please contact me as soon as possible. We will contact you for an interview through a very interesting process. Therefore, during your entire process, we will contact you by phone or what APP. Please provide your what up number so that we can contact you directly.

8. . A self-proclaimed HR Director would contact the candidates on whatsapp. She explained that due to the pandemic, interviews are now done on whatsapp chat, and not face to face.

9. The interview would proceed with the usual questions like asking what were the reasons’ candidate seeking the employment in the post advertised.

10. Exchanges of messages would go on for hours and the “HR Director” did not reply to the message immediately.

11. Soon the conversation would move to more personal level and HR Director would ask about the candidate hobby and sharing her own hobby.

12. Do you invest in any investment instrument? this was the next question popped by the HR Director.

13. HR Director then talked about how she was in cryptocurrency trading and how much she could make.

14. She further claimed that she just followed her uncle who was expert in crypto trading and in any one night, could easily make USD 10,000.

15. Then she would share her photo and ask to comment on her beauty.

16. She further offered to guide the candidate in cryptocurrency trading even though I had indicated that I would not be involved in cryptocurrency at all.

17. She then sent a link about the trading platform and asking me to register.

18. The whole episode became more urgent as she kept messaging ans asking whether I had registered.

19. When I told her I could not enter the link sent, so she sent a web based link.

20. When I told her I would study the platform first before I register.

21. That was when the true color of the HR Director showed.

22. She would say – wish you find a new job, and got very angry for not registering and funding the platform immediately.

When I decided to stop messaging and made a due diligence check on the platform, and noticed the platform for a cryptocurrency trading was badly organized.

You could see my comments about that platform HERE.

What do we need to do to prevent falling into the trap?

For those job seekers who are actively looking for job opportunity, especially during this trying pandemic created havoc time, we have to be more alert to identify this type of trap and scam.

Normally the recruitment firm or job advertiser will not write such a lengthy email as indicated in No. 7 above. This tells you something is not right.

We may be able to carry out the following due diligence and find out the reality of the job offer.

Steps to be taken

1. Check out the company website.

2. Call the company and find out whether there is really such a HR Director working in that company.

3. Do a thorough review of the links’ given.

4. Do not fund your capital in the platform even you are being pestered by the HR Director,

5. Read all the reviews about the platform and check with the anti scam website about the platform.

6. Ask for video call if possible instead of just Whatsapp messaging.

7. If the Whatsapp dragged on for more than one day, stop the conversation.

 

Why Do People Fall For It

COVID -19 has made a lot of people very desperate and short of income.

Some may fall into cash flow problem and urgently need cash, and scammer pry on this to lure these people.

Realizing human being like to take advantage of money making opportunity especially those quick money, because of this, scammers will make use of this to attract these group of people and scam the money.

The Correct Way

We need to know there is no such thing easy trading especially on cryptocurrency.

1. If you really want to do trading, do it with the one you know.

2. Unless you really know how cryptocurrency trading work, do not get into it.

3. Trade with a platform which you know instead of those online platform where you do not even know who run the platform.

4. Talk to your investor advisers or bankers who handle your financial matters in the bank you deal with.

5. Moreover you can also ask your banker to recommend one good colleague of his who handle investment in the bank and talk to him in person.

You Know You Only Live Once

You Know You Only Live Once, hence try to live a useful and colorful live instead of the one you regret later.

I hope this article will help those who are looking for jobs and may come across similar encounter and learn from it.

If you have similar encounter and wish to share it, please do put your comments and feedback in the comment section below.

latest update on the job scams.

The Straits Times of Singapore covered this in more details on the increasing job scams, you can read the whole story HERE

When one starts a new business, the most commonly asked question is how to start and how to go about doing it.

In this technology age, a lot of start up are business related to Artificial Intelligence,

the peopled who start this are mostly peopled who have knowledge of computer programming and tech geeks,

most of the times, these people may be able to create a good application, but whether they are able to run and manage the new start up is up to the promoter of the business.

I have come across a few of these peopled who can invent some good applications, program but running the company? that is totally a different story.

Most of the technology start up failed because the owners do not have the necessary knowledge to run the business.

Why do the new tech start up fail?

1. The owner is too engrossed in the program.

2. No proper business plan is prepared.

3. Business owner fail to identify the market for his creation.

1. The owner is too engrossed in the program.

A lot of owners of the technology companies like to spend their time in the programming of their product and they are very passionate about this.

Most of the time they will spend their time fine-tuning their product and trying to make it as perfect as possible,

Because of this, they neglect their main task, the task of getting their business operating.

2. No proper business plan is prepared.

Most of the new start up do not know a proper business plan is important.

A good business plan acts as a guide for any business and can provide the following:

a. It gives the business a direction.

b. With the plan, the business can focus on achieving the target set.

c. it outlines clearly the targets to be achieved.

d. Enable the business to prepare and be more organized.

3. Business owner fail to identify the market for his creation

Business owner sometimes fail to identify the market, they just create the app and then try to market it.

there are tech businessmen who created the app and then only want to find out how to market the app instead of creating something required by any industries.

What Should Technology Companies Do In Creating An APP?

Before any app is programmed, it is advisable that the technology firm take the following steps:

1. Find out what application is badly required by any business

2. Create the app specially tailor to the demand of certain industries.

3. Make sure the app is user-friendly.

4. How the APP can help the business?

5. Whether the APP help to improve efficiency and productivity.

Before a business man wants to market a new APP, he must know how his APP can help the business he is targeting to sell the APP .

How useful and how the APP is able to help any business is another thing always overlooked by the APP developers, they may just create an APP which is so generic and thinking one size fits all will do.

This is just some pointers for new start up to consider.

If you have any comments and feedback, please feel free to leave your comments below.

One of the challenges of any business is staff retention.

Staff turnover is very common in any business and the bosses always face the issue of staffs resigning and having problem to recruit staffs to work especially the right staff.

Why do staff resign?

a lot of companies are not able to keep their staffs for long, the staff turnover is so high, it makes them need to recruit new staffs every month.

Most companies always take the easy way out by blaming the staffs for not able to work long hour and so on instead of reviewing whether all these are because of their own doing which cause the resignation.

What are the effect of high staff turnover

with high staff turnover, the continuity of the work is in doubt.

For staffs who resign, the position will be vacant before the new staff comes on board

worse if the staff resigns and new staff has not joined yet, no one does the hand over to the incoming staff. Incoming staff will not know the background of the transaction.

How to do staff recruitment?

with vacancy in company, the Human Resource Department will need to do some recruitment to replace the resigned staff and get someone to do the work.

The HR department either do the recruitment themselves or engage the recruitment agency and or head-hunting firm to do the hiring.

There are some advantages and disadvantages of doing the recruitment on your own instead of using the headhunting firm or recruitment agency

Advantages

1. HR staffs get to review the applicants’ information closely.

2. Save cost in engaging a recruitment firm.

3. Able to understand the candidates better.

 

Disadvantages

1. time-consuming in sorting out voluminous applications.

2. May not have the time and resource to do the screening of candidate.

Some firms when they think it is too time-consuming to screen applications and do the background check, they will decide to engage a recruitment firm to do the work.

However by doing so, there are some advantages and disadvantages of doing so too.

Advantages

1. Free up the times of sorting out the applications and use the time to do the normal HR work.

2. Recruitment firms have better resources to do the background check of the candidates.

3. Recruitment will do the first round interview and shortlist the “right” candidate for the company.

Disadvantages

1. Not able to know the candidate is the one whom thee recruitment firm has been marketing for various companies.

2. some more suitable candidate may be dismissed by the recruitment firm.

3. Recruitment firms use some filtering software to filter the applications which they have set some wrong benchmark and by doing so, eliminate some good candidate.

Why do some firms use agencies to hire staffs always do not work out well?

Some firms after engaging recruitment firm to do the hiring, if they really do an analysis, will find the candidate/staff recruited via agency, normally do not seem to stay long in the company.

there are various reasons why this is so.

1. As I mentioned earlier, recruitment agency use a software to filter the applications.

2. If they set the parameter of filter wrongly, then good candidate may be eliminated in first filtering.

3. For example, when hiring a CFO, some firm may require candidate to have either a degree or professional qualification, .

4. If the recruitment agency does not how one can be a professional accountant without a degree, he or she will set the parameter and those with professional qualification but not degree will not be selected.

5. If that happens, the good candidate with professional qualification but no degree will miss out.

6. When this happens, the hiring company will miss having a good staff.

because of wrong parameter set in the filtering software, the hiring miss out recruiting the right staff.

We know how important it is to recruit the right staff for the job.

this in a way will ensure the staff will stay longer in the job and not job hopping,

Having the right staff will also ensure the company has less staff turnover, we know high staff turnover is bad for the company, not only it affects the morale of the other staffs, it also gives a bad reputation to the company.

In Astute Business Advisory, we help our clients to recruit the right staffs for the job.

we emphasis the importance of knowing the culture and the work ethnic of the company and we see whether the candidate can fit in smoothly and seamlessly.

the most important thing is we in Astute Business Advisory will not use the software to filter applications for jobs we posted.

We also set priority in getting the groups of candidates who are unemployed and looking for jobs, for those who are currently having jobs, we will not consider their applications.

For those companies who want to hire the right staff, do get in contact us and discuss your requirement and we will advise you what type of right staff you should hire for your company.

Do you want to restructure your small medium enterprise and make it more profitable?

There are a lot of Small Medium Enterprise (SME) in Singapore, and most of them depend on the government to guide them, by providing subsidy and incentive through Enterprise Singapore, or previously commonly known as Spring Singapore, instead of going ahead to restructure the business to face the new challenges.

Instead of embarking on businesses where government is providing subsidy, a business entity should embark on a business after careful analysis and evaluation and determine the feasibility and profitability of the business, if not, we will lose focus on what we set out to do in the first place.

It seems that a lot of SME only take on business where government is providing subsidy and incentive, it gives the impression they are looking at collecting the goodies or really want to do the business?

Before a SME is restructured, the owner of the business must know what he wants for his business for the next few years or decades.

Why do we hardly see SME expand beyond Singapore and become Multi National Corporation or MNC?

There are quite a few reasons for that.

1. As mentioned above, a lot of them are in business or start the business because government is providing subsidy and incentive.
2. Lack of succession plan from the pioneer of the business, most of the time, the owner or operator of the SME find it difficult to continue the business as his children are not willing to take over the business and he does not have a professional manager to run the show for him.
3. Element of change and evolve with time is lacking, with the change of business environment especially with the COVID-19 pandemic affecting all sorts of businesses and life, there is a need to have new normal in the way business can operate and survive.
4. Most SME in Singapore were started in the last century and even though some may have been taken over by the children or the 2nd and 3rd generation, however will it be operated by the 4th generation or 5th? considering now the children seldom follow the parent to the office , even they do go to the office, they will still be busy with their mobile phone instead of observing what the parents are doing.

 

So how to make a SME change to MNC and expand beyond Singapore and move out from their comfort zone and find more challenging business in the region and beyond?

Can We Help?

If you are one of the SME who is thinking of expanding and taking the next step to become a better business entity and one which employees like and enjoy working in, do contact us and we can work out the plan for you.

What Else Do We Offer?

At the same time you may want to subscribe to our short business solutions in our Lazy People Guide and learn a thing or two, if you are interested, you can click HERE to learn more.