Ricky’s Online Business Blog

Working For You

Are you interested to hire me to help in your business or organization? I’m available to work for you for FREE one day in a week! I can help in projects such as IT, Internet presence and marketing.

You may wonder why there is such free lunch under the sun. Yes there are, but not in this case. I’m actually being trained to be a “consultant” to businesses and organizations in my MBA study.

I need to understand a company or organization in and out, so that I may write about it as a case study. I suppose the best way to understand a company is to work within it. Would you accept me?

Why I Do This?

I’m currently an MBA student in Graduate School of Management (GSM) in Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM). I have chosen a road less traveled by choosing to do a practical subject in Case Writing & Analysis, instead of the more academic Business Research Methods. For your information, we can choose either one of these two routes to get our master degree.

The reason I chose to do a case study is because I want to be trained in analyzing real life business problems and issues and proposing effective strategies to overcome the problems.

It is in essence like a business consultant going into your organization, learn about problems you are facing, and propose solutions to your company. Isn’t it free consulting service for your company from my business school through a student like me?

So I’m thinking working in an organization (although I’m not required to) in order to understand its issues in and out. In exchange, I offer my skills in helping your business. When I say I work for you, I mean seriously working for you like your staff and helping your company.

Here Are Some Problems

But the problem is, you will need to share information about your company to me and my case supervisor (a lecturer who is supervising this project). The reality is that, not many companies in Malaysia and this part of the world will want to share information out.

But you can be different! In US, many companies approach business schools to have them used as business cases in business courses. This is not only a way to get free business consulting advice and fulfill corporate social responsibilities, but also a way to get their names out. So why not in Malaysia too?

The Solution

The good news is that, information about your company is protected. Any financial information and trade secret is to be known by me and my supervisor only. We will produce a case study report. In that report, these information can be disguised:

• Company name
• People’s names
• Brand names
• Financial data
• Company location

So if you don’t want your names out in the public, you don’t have to worry. The case study report will be kept for reference in my business school. A very well-written case may be modified, used in teaching and even published in academic journal. But such further actions will need your permission first.

Will You Hire Me?

So are you facing any issue and problem in management, finance, marketing, human resources, information system or whatever? Please let us in and help you. I’m posting this not only to help myself but also for my classmates.

I don’t limit myself to organization of any type, size, in any field. You can be a trading company, service business, online Internet business, startup business, non-profit organization, non-governmental organization (NGO), social enterprise, government agency, education institution or charitable organization.

You have little to lose but much to gain. Please contact me here if you are willing to discuss. Thank you.

Guest blog post by Pin of 1.com.my

The classy building and heavy investment of MSC doesn’t really produce second Silicon Valley. It is the people who make it happens! Are we lacking of talents in the web industries? I don’t think so!

Few of them focus in building values to their own projects. Instead, many web developers spent large amount of their time working for others, getting paid on their time than values. Projects such as Blooming Florist and e-Cover are good examples of how values are accumulated and turned into long term recurring models.

Perhaps, running your own business is too huge to be a one-man show project. Let’s work together, by combining expertise of various industries, we believe we can start on something for ourselves!

It takes more than a Blue River to make the Blue Ocean!

Check this out http://www.1.com.my/2007/03/01/web-developer-alliance/

Pin loves cycling and interface design. He started 1.com.my and he has a great team who work only 4 days but seeking change 7 days a week. He has built two schools in Cambodia with a domain name that costs RM55. Currently, he is looking for a way to save endangered animals by selling travel guide at USD2.95. Pin wanted to move his office to Starbucks but was rejected, so he ended up starting his own incubators instead.

Are you interested to write a post on this blog?  Be a guest blogger here!

I’ve been working these days to improve the domain name search service on BizPartner web site.

A domain name search service, or WHOIS service, lets you query the availability of a domain name. If it is available, you can register it. If it is not available, the search shows you who registered it.

It took me one whole day on Monday to revamp the previous WHOIS service. The service is now more robust, accurate and useful. It took me another one whole day on Tuesday to make the search available for bloggers and site owners to monetize their web sites.

Being a site owner and blogger myself, I understand the dilemma on how to monetize (make money from) a blog or web site. A business web site can sell products and services. But how about a non-commercial one, such as many personal blogs out there? How do they make money?

One common way is to make money from pay-per-click (PPC) advertisements such as those of Google Adsense. You just put up some snippet of HTML code on your blog, and it turns into advertisements relevant to your content. When your visitors click on any ad, you get paid by Google.

Another way is to sell other people’s products or services. This is “affiliate marketing”. You become their “affiliate”, and put up a link from your blog to their web site. When your visitors click on the link, and buy from the supplier, you get a cut of the profit.

This is what I’m trying to do with my domain name registration service. But instead of putting up just a link, you are given a domain name search box to be placed on your blog. When your visitors search for any domain name, and buy any domain name within 3 months, you get a commission.

This way, it’s win-win-win for you, your visitors and me. You provide an extra feature or service to your providers and earn money from it. Your visitors can search for their desired domain names on your site, without going to a domain name provider’s web site. And I can get more customers referred from you.

I also think that if domain name search is ubiquitous, more people will be encouraged to have their own domain names. Getting own domain name is also what I strongly recommend to those who want to blog. No more using free blog address!

Look at the search box I put up on the left of this blog. It may not look nice here, but you can change its appearance. Find out more here on how to put up a domain name (WHOIS) search box on your blog or web site.