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vWhen a global financial crisis happens, life doesn’t end there. Yes, we may have completely devastated people jumping off buildings because they may be unable to cope with the unbearable thought of losing everything, but that doesn’t mean you should too! In a previous post, I mentioned about Singapore going into recession and how a seemingly harmless “technical recession” can potentially bring about job less and a downward spiral for the economy in Singapore.

However, a down trend in economy does not mean that you have to go with the flow. In fact, it may be such times that opportunities arise and with properly planning, you may be able to ride through and succeed through the crisis. I am not going to talk about positive thinking and all the hocus pocus stuffs, I am going to talk about how you, or for that matter, I, can ride through the recession comfortably.

To survive the recession, you can either pray that you will not lose your job, or you can start looking around you and understanding the dynamics of this challenging duration and how you can learn to ride on it. If you are thinking of establishing a business and feel that you might be affected by the current economic turmoil, you may wish to take a look at the Challenging Times and Managing Challenges organized by Action Community for Entrepreneurship (ACE). If you are holding on to a job and looking to establish yourself, there can’t be a better time. After all, in the unforeseen event that you decide to stick to a salaried job, you are at least, still holding on to one.

Some people would wonder if they are too young to start a business – to this, they should just scrap this misnomer out of their minds. There’s no right age, or right situation. If there’s a business idea, the person should start assessing it and work towards getting it started. One of the more popular computer forums (creating various, ahem, zones of hardware) probably started off as a simply idea, but look at where it’s at now? If you think you are too young to start a business, you should seriously consider attending the MoneyTree Entrepreneurship Workshop. However, it’s limited to the first 30 registrants and it’s particularly hot as many of the younger generation are already toying with the idea of starting their own business. Here, you will not only learn about starting a business, but also understand why most businesses fail within the first few years.

If you have already established a business, you may also wish to consider attending the workshop on Recognizing the Challenge of the Times. This workshop will help you to not only recognise the hot soup that you are potentially walking into, but also to cover various aspects that you may not have considered previously. After all, no business is too small to be ignored and this workshop will help you reassess whatever that you have now to move on and brace through the trying times.

Lastly, if you are still exploring prospective areas to start on, why not explore the women consumer market? Renowned cosmetics company Shiseido will be talking on the latest topics and trends in the cosmetic industry, as well as challenges that they face. They may not be able to give you a piece of their market, but they may be able to share with you ideas that you can perhaps pick up through the workshop.

Of course, these events are happening during the Global Entrepreneurship Week 2008 which is held from the 17th to the 23rd of November 2008. The entire calendar of events can be found here and locations may various between workshops. So, go on and find out which of the many events catch your fancy. Remember, if opportunities do not seem to come to you, then you should just go out, reach out and grab them!

Global Entrepreneurship Week 2008

17th to the 23rd of November 2008

Be amazed with the superior service provided by the staff. Lawry’s signature dish, Roasted Prime Ribs of Beef, is craved and served specially from Lawry’s silver carts. These carts are wheeled to diner’s tables, giving them the opportunity to choose their preferred cuts, from rare to as well done as they’d like. Absolute freedom. Waiters’ uniforms are designed such that diners feel like they are in a ritzy club.

Lawry’s The Prime Rib Singapore Pte Ltd
#02-42/44 Paragon, 290 Orchard Road.
Singapore 238859

http://lawrys.com.sg/

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Petrol prices are rising and falling and no one knows how long this yo-yo will last. ERP gantries are springing up as if there were ERP-trees that could sprout seedlings. Congestions are getting from bad to worse even with these gantries erected because traffic jams are simply directed from one road to another – and it won’t be for long before ERP-seeds are being planted there.

For car owners, this might be a good time to sell their cars and for aspiring car owners, this might be a good chance for them to lay their hands on a good deal. Either way, there’s always the difficulty of getting onto a common portal for them to buy and sell their cars. Would they have considered getting onto ST701?

News of ST701 first came to me when they decided to have beauty queen Miss Singapore World 2006 Colleen Francisca live in a 50 square-meters glass-walled house to show that a person can survive solely on the ads found on the ST701 classified ads site. I found it a little hard to believe because… how can anyone actually survive just on online services?! But she did! Not only that, but a lucky fellow actually got to spend some time with her and still walk away with a $1000! That’s probably one of the biggest scope for any guy out there.

So anyway, I decided to take a peep at ST701 because I had always been eyeing at the Suzuki Swift 1.5L

Picture: Home page of ST701

Picture: The Cars section at the main page

The home page is simple to navigate and I thought it’s nice and simple. Of course, I am saying this after I got a cultural shock at Straits Times’ new layout, which I think I’ll take some time to get used to. Clicking onto the Hatchback section, it returned a shortlist of all the hatchbacks that are available for sale now. I keyed in "Suzuki" at the search box on top, and it returned 4 pages of Suzuki Swifts! It does seem like there are a lot of people who are placing ads here!

Picture: Search results

With so much results, I was hoping that I’d be able to keep a few on my watch list. This was easily done by clicking on the heart-shaped icon that’s just next to the picture of the car. Moreover, if I wanted to do a comparison, I could just click on the graph icon that’s just next to the heart-shaped icon. Everything’s very easy and intuitive. If you are really lost on what the icons mean, you can just do a mouse-over on the icons and a tab will display what the icons mean.

While doing my comparison, I was asked to create a comparison table, which I think does make sense since I may be comparing other non-related things as well. There’s also a "Back to previous page" option which prevented me from getting lost on my searches. One of the things I hate most is to lost my search results, but I thought it’s quite well thought here. Adding new car sales for comparison is as easy as clicking on the correct comparison tables. Moreover, the pictures of the cars are actually visible in the table, so I’d know what cars I put in.

Picture: The comparison table

When I am done with putting cars into the table, I clicked on the table name and a nice comparison table is displayed. From here, I was able to compare the price, engine types, power, top speed and additional information amongst other things. Overall, I thought it was quite a pleasant experience as everything was very straight-forward and informative. The only peeve I had was on the part where I had to register… where in the midst of registration, I wasn’t able to go back to my search results after registration. However, I did manage to use the back button, so it’s not that bad.

ST701 gets my thumbs up as a comprehensive classified ads website which is as good as the print counterpart. Speaking of which, I wonder if I am able to find this car in ST701.

Heh.

How many times have we came across a "Eureka!" idea but realised that we didn’t have the resource to do it? How many times have we thought of some silly ideas but waved it off just to discover that someone else did it later on? How often have we "talked cock sing song" with friends over the coffee table only to discover that all the sing-song could have spun off into a product?

If any of these have hit you at least once, then you will want to consider penning it down and sending it ACE (Action Community for Entrepreneurship) for a chance to see their ideas come to life. ACE (http://www.ace.sg) is currently encouraging every man on the street to blast their ideas to them. If you think that your idea is silly, have you considered how many uses can be made out of a paper clip? If you are going to say that it can be used as a fish hook, or a book mark… then you are not letting your creative juices run! How about using it as a cutter to open your packet of Twisties, or as a pimple squeezer?

Silly? Hey, you might just be hitting on a pot of gold! Imagine if you were the patent holder to the invention of the simple paper clip, you’d be sitting back and enjoying royalties paid to you every year. Still, nothing beats the satisfaction of seeing your own name appearing on the US Patents and Trademarks Office (USPTO).

While the ACE website may quote more "high tech" innovations such as the Online Business Licensing Service (OBLS) (for which I was personally involved too!), the concept of Duck Tours and the F1 night racing, simpler ideas that can improve the daily lives of many others are never too small to be suggested. After all, it didn’t take too much of a genius to figure that since "Drive-Thrus" worked for McDonald’s, it may just work for banking! (Guess where in Singapore you can get drive-through banking, although the one I knew is already defunct now).

So why not hurry up and get your creative juices running! After all, typing is free and submission is just a click away at http://www.ace.sg/acewhynot/webpages/whynotform.aspx. More importantly, you should do so by the 17th July 2008 and that’s when you can stand to win prizes of up to S$1000. If ideas are free, why not cash in on yours today? =)

—

1. Creative Technology Limited collected US$100 million from Apple for a grant to use a Creative patent on hierarchical user interface on the latter’s products that was originally used in Creative Zen’s players. Source: CNet, http://news.cnet.com/Apple-settles-with-Creative-for-100-million/2100-1047_3-6108901.html
2. This post is made possible by Blog2U @ http://blog2u.sg, who, amongst others, figured that if advertising works for papers, magazines and bus stops – then why not blogs?

FAST easySafe is the only hardware cryptography product available in the market with unique features. It protects all sensitive information in your computer, external hard disk, USB flash drive, SD card and etc.

Although the design is compliant to FIPS 140-2 standard with PKI technology, FAST easySafe, as its name implies, is rather easy to deploy and use as compared to other sophiscated security products that require dedicated IT specialists for deployment and maintenance.

Visit us at the Newstead Anniversary Roadshow this weekend.

Fast And Safe Technology Pte Ltd (FAST)
Venue : Funan ITMall Atrium
Time : 11am to 8pm
Date : 3rd to 6th April 2008

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