Ricky’s Online Business Blog

Brian Tracy quotes Elbert Hubbard’s definition of self-discipline as, “The ability to make yourself do what you should do, when you should do it, whether you feel like it or not.” He said self-discipline, self-mastery and self-control are the basic building blocks of character and high performance.

Successful people are disciplined people. They are in control of themselves, in particular:

Successful people master their moods – They do things they should do even when they don’t feel like doing it.

Successful people watch their words – They control their tongue so as not to say anything wrong.

Successful people restrain their reactions – They are proactive in choosing their response to situations.

Successful people stick to their schedule – They control their time or their time will be controlled by others!

Successful people manage their money – They spend what they should and live below their means.

Successful people maintain their health – What’s the point to win all the world only to lose our body?

I confess there are many areas for me to improve. Let’s strive together for success!

The blue ocean strategy is more than just a fad. It’s influencing how businesses made their strategic planning for years to come. Its various strategic tools and models, such as the four actions framework, are extremely useful to create blue ocean strategy business.

The blue ocean strategy is not only applicable to businesses, but in other contexts as well, though we can’t apply everything directly in those settings. In particular, the four actions framework is useful in planning our own personal life.

Whether we like it or not, everyone of us is a Me Inc., and we are the CEO of our own life. We do have a mission to complete on this earth in this life. And to achieve this, we have been bestowed with resources such as time and money.

The four actions framework can be used to differentiate ourselves (or our business) from others yet at a lower cost. It asks four main questions – what to Eliminate, what to Reduce, what to Raise and what to Create (ERRC)? Let’s take an example how I might want to plan my expenses:

Eliminate – In recent years, I have developed a habit of eating out in expensive restaurants with others, that now I patronize these places even when eating alone! I don’t have to spend so much when eating by myself. I need to cut this expense completely!

Reduce – I need to reduce buying seemingly useful but actually unnecessary items such as books and magazines. I don’t have so much time to read all of them!

Raise – I should spend more on high-leverage expenses which give good returns in long term. For example, taking classes to educate myself in business, finance and technology can go a long way toward success in life.

Create – I may want to consider some investment instruments such as shares, which as a risk-averse person I never tried. Of course, getting educated first in these is essential to avoid losses.

I find it helpful to that many things in business and life can be applied through this ERRC model. Is there anything you want to get ERRC’d too?

Consider this case study. You own a company in Malaysia selling a kind of machine to factories and industrial customers. Most of your customers are within the country. But recently more and more buyers are from overseas such as India, Pakistan and Vietnam. These buyers are middlemen who buy on behalf of their customers in respective countries. They come to know you through word of mouth.

Now, what can a web site do for you, especially to help expand your reach to overseas? The normal answer would include:

• Establish presence online – Many customers do research on the Internet to make purchase decision.
• Increase your exposure – Have another channel to reach your customers. What if some buyers don’t get to know you by word of mouth?
• Give good first impression – They look at your web site and form an impression before even contacting you.
• Show your products online – They can look at photos online so that you don’t always need to email them.
• Contact you online – Now they can have another channel to contact you instantly – email, instant messaging or even SMS.
• Eliminate intermediaries – The end user customers can deal with you directly without the middlemen.
• Give technical support – Save costs supporting and servicing your customers by doing it online.

Now these are the common reasons why you should have a web site. But the Internet can potentially do much more wonder than we can imagine. It can be a strategic tool to change your business model, rewrite the rules in the competition, give you unfair advantages over your competitors and even lead you to a blue ocean.

Furthermore, the Internet is not only a new medium, but also a revolutionary one. Its benefits lie in its interactivity, community building and “word of mouse”, among others. It is different from other mediums such as print and TV. You will under utilize the benefits of the Internet if you merely apply the old model to a new environment.

Imagine your customers can design the product they need online using Flash. Imagine your customers help to build a knowledge base online through Web 2.0 technologies so that they can support themselves. Imagine you use a blog to build and maintain your brand online. Just imagine…

Recently I missed a partnership offer to promote Malaysia My Second Home (MM2H) by using a web site. The MM2H program was initiated by Malaysian government to attract foreigners who want to come and live here for extended period. As I understand, there are nearly 200 licensed agents, through whom only the customers can submit their application.

The competition among travel agencies and tour operators is already very intense. Do a search on Google and you can see the online marketplace is crowded too. It may not help much to do another conventional web site or portal to compete with many other sites. It will be just another me-too web site.

But blogging is different. If someone in the field can dedicate some of his or her time to blog about the country, MM2H, travelling and investment opportunities and other related topics in Malaysia, I’m sure it can generate a lot of traffic, especially when blog is very much under utilized by MM2H companies at the moment.

Blogging builds up personal or company credential. It can bring in genuine visitors who are interested in Malaysia and MM2H. It is not only a new way of promoting MM2H, but also an instant one, especially when any new blog post is updated by Google search engine almost instantly!

But blogging is a new phenomena not readily accepted especially by companies. Some may ask why rock the boat while their conventional channels are working fine? Furthermore, blogging takes time and committment from the blogger. The blogger needs to blog regularly and consistently to be effective.

If you are involved in MM2H business and would like to explore blogging for MM2H, please contact me here.

Update – Check this blog post if you are interested to blog to expand your business.