Ricky’s Online Business Blog

What someone you first meet asks you, “What do you do? What does your company do? Why you do it better?”, how would you answer?

in just a few sentences and short span of time, you need to catch his or her attention and leave a good first impression. Perhaps he or she will want to hear from you again and become your customer, or develop a business relationship with you later.

That is called the elevator pitch, a little sales pitch in as short span of time as an elevator ride.

When people ask me such questions, I normally answer “I’m an Internet business developer”, “I run a few dot com web sites”, “My main business is web hosting”, “I operate an education portal” and the like.

Non-technical people may reply, “Oh I see. So you design web sites!” Sometimes I just said, “Something like that lah!”, although I’m not a web designer. But it seems this is more understandable to many people.

Anyway, I have failed to explain and failed to impress them. Lost opportunities

So now I need to think of a better pitch. Do you think these are a little better?

• To business and finance people - “I develop Internet businesses that generate positive cash flow within 6 months for its owners”
• To non-technical people - “I build businesses that operate on the Internet. Learning to earn money in my pyjamas” :-)
• To bosses, sales and marketing people - “I sell products and services on the Internet using the latest technologies”
• To technical people - “I develop dot com web sites with PHP and MySQL”
• To hosting customers - “I provide you a platform to put up your web site and email accounts on the Internet”
• To people in education industry - “I do a little match-making in the tuition industry. Are you interested to be matched?”
• To my mother who doesn’t know what I’m doing - “As you can see, I sit in front of computer everyday to earn money!”

How about you? What is your elevator pitch? Feel free to introduce yourself!

Are you interested to guest blog here at RickySoo.com?  You are most welcome!

If you have any experience starting an Internet business, be it success or not, you are welcome to share your thoughts for the benefit of all of us who want to make it big on the Internet.

I’m interested to gather other people’s stories on how they started their dotcom businesses, the ups and downs they have gone through, lessons learned and any “secrets” for success online.

Your story can be from be from two paragraphs to six or seven.  It’s up to you.  Just share what you have learned so that others will be blessed by your story.

Of course you can always link back to your sites in the blog post.  And don’t worry I don’t use any Wordpress plugin that turns outgoing links into “NoFollow” links

If interested, please contact me here.

Update 13th October 2008 - You can guest blog on anything here in this blog :-)  But priority will be given to articles related to Internet business, business strategy, marketing and technologies.

I enjoy doing planning and strategizing, not only for business but other things as well.  I like to think of stupid ideas all the time. But who knows some stupid ideas are not really stupid.  Maybe their time just has not come?

In these times of rising living costs, some of us may need to be more frugal and prudent in our spending.  We may need to stop spending on luxurious items, eating out in expensive restaurants, and buying more than what we need…

Mixed rice or nasi campur is one most popular and cheapest meal we can get in Malaysia.  But you know even it has gone up in price!  A normal dish for RM3.50 can now cost RM4.00 or more!

What if we open a mixed rice shop where we no longer decide the price?  Customers just pick their food, come to the end of table, collect spoon and fork, and pay whatever amount they want into a donation box?  Perhaps the stall can even be left unmanned and labor cost saved.

For those who cannot pay the normal price, let them pay whatever they want.  For those who refuse to pay anything, let them eat. Those who don’t pay anything maybe because they really cannot afford, or they are simply shameless.  In either case, let them eat all they want.  It’s a service and blessing to the poor in the society.

But I’m sure there are also those who can afford to pay more, perhaps they may pay more to cover for others?  When counting the money, who knows it may be even more profitable than is a normal mixed rice shop?

Who knows some people may even get impressed by such shop that they become our PR to spread out to the whole world by word of mouth?  Maybe we can open even more branches throughout the nation?

Anyway, weird idea aside.  I started to think of such idea not from a business point of view, but as a service to the poor especially in such times of bad economy.

Moreover, in gathering people together, we can get to know these people, talk to them, fellowship with them and expand our social network!

I know it’s stupid.  But don’t laugh at me.  Perhaps one day when I have a little more resources, I may put this into practice!

Over the past one month I’ve been obsessed by a new business idea to do Internet business consulting. For those of you who have heard the plan, you know it is actually not a business, but an income generation and distribution scheme for anyone who want to learn to do business on the Internet.

Maybe I was a bit too ambitious, thinking to help people earn more income to cope with the rising living costs. I thought of not only helping them to earn, but also equipping them the ability to earn by arranging training for them. I was even thinking of charitable giving to contribute to the society. Suddenly I became so drowned in all these seemingly “noble” purposes.

The business is a kind of affiliate marketing scheme with twist, where the members refer clients and earn money. If you know the business plan, you should know the profits are to be shared by members and given to charitable organizations. I myself maybe the owner, but I’m still one of the members who earn like all other members.

Most people to whom I shared the scheme agreed to join. Some were excited about it. Some said they would consider. But recently I met up with someone who is looking for an opportunity in Internet marketing who criticized the idea even before I went into the meat of the business.

I admit I had a really terrible presentation that night, and I failed to recognize that he came looking for a certain kind of business and with a certain motive. In summary, I just failed to communicate. On the other hand, I guess he may have judged too fast and misunderstood a few things.

But anyway he did lead me to an important discovery that now I decide to scrap the plan for now. Somehow my eyes have been blinded to see this. And I must thank him for the revelation.

While it maybe easy for the affiliate members to earn money - just refer clients, I as the coordinator will work like hell having to do the selling and manage the myriad of projects and clients. But do all these efforts justify my time and resources?

It will not be too much a problem if it is a standard product or service with minimum customer support. But a consulting business is time, labor and brain-intensive. I will be wasting much time having to coordinate among clients, web developers and SEO experts. Moreover, I would have to bear great responsibilities especially in making sure the clients are able to sell and earn money on the Internet.

The “business” actually seeks to serve the needs of the members by distributing income generated from the clients. While the income generation part of the idea maybe quite interesting, the source of income may not be sustainable. Internet business consulting service may be a wrong service chosen for the purpose. It is a wrong mean to an end.

Having decided to drop the plan, I’m now quite disillusioned and have to face the members whom I had so convincingly talked into believing in Internet consulting. Sorry my dear members. Please contact me for alternative arrangement if you are still keen.

Throughout my years doing Internet businesses, I have been resisting the idea of doing web sites and Internet marketing for others. I’ve been wondering for those “experts” who know how to market for others, why don’t they market for themselves? And for those “consultants” who teach people how to earn money online, why not earn for themselves?

But how come now I myself fall into the trap and become one of them?

People have been talking about economy getting worse.  Prices are going up everywhere.  Individuals are having less disposable income.  Banks are tightening their lending.  Sales are going down and companies are going to find it hard to do business.

In such a time, what can a business do?  Apart from looking inwards to protect ourselves by keeping cash reserves and being more prudent in spending, is there anything we businesses can look outwards to help others?  These are some thoughts gathered from others.

• Be honest and maintain integrity in dealing with employees, customers and stakeholders
• Don’t raise prices to burden customers just because others raise prices
• Be fair to employees and treat them well even in recession
• Use entrepreneurship to help others

In particular, business people possess something others do not, that is called entrepreneurship.  How can we use this quality to help others?  Can we use it somehow to generate income for others?  I do have some thoughts on this and will blog more on using entrepreneurship to bless others when time comes.

Of course it’s easier said than done.  But for those businesses who have more resources, why not consider it? Even those without much resources can also do a part, at least be honest, for example.

I strongly believe in the societal marketing concept, where businesses exist for a purpose in the society.  There is a social responsibility to bear.  There is a mission to fulfill, of course not the one hanged on wall only.

Yes, corporate responsibility (CR) can do a part in differentiating a business from others.  I believe businesses who give to the society can really gain from it in the long run.  But we should not try to give in order to be given.

A business exists not only to make money but also to serve and bless others.  Those who bless others will be blessed in return.  The more we bless others, somehow we will be blessed even more.  We are to become a channel of blessings to others, not a reservoir of blessings by keeping everything to ourselves.

In times of bad economy, how can you help then?