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Sunday, March 21, 2010

Just Do It!

This catchy phrase from Nike applies for many things in our life, especially in the area of starting a business. At times, I do see people claiming that they need to think through thoroughly, need to plan more meticulously or they need more considerations, before they can decide whether to start doing something, say starting a business.

My take: By the time one finished thinking and planning (that's if you finish because it will never be enough), others would already be way ahead of you! Not that I have a business myself (I don't consider tuition a business), but at least I jumped into tuition and advertised for myself without going through an agent. I just did it.


One of the keys here is the perception of money. We get extremely afraid that all our hard earned money will be gone; we can't afford to risk a single cent. And that's where differentiates the successful and the failures in businesses. There's no such thing as a totally risk free venture that will make one a tidy sum.

An example... I started this finance blog, which has about 100~200 unique readers a day now. Starting from US$1 a month or less from adsense advertising, it has grown to about US$10+, and all the while I'm doing it to help myself think clearer before plugging my funds into any investments or clearing the cloud in my brain. My main risk is the time I took to set this up, because the opportunity cost of my time is quite huge; I can easily go outside and ask for much more on a per hourly rate. US$10+ per month? Well, I can easily achieve that outside within say... 10 mins? However, I just went ahead and set it up. My motto? Just do it.

But... you may ask.... If we fail to plan, we plan to fail! My reply would be... there's not perfect plan in this world. Just like playing a chess game, a plan can always get disrupted, and one needs to constantly tweak and adapt to win.

Learn and think as we do. Think too long and we won't go and do things in the end.

6 comments:

  1. Great post,no plan survive first contact anyway;it's your reactions to situations that develop which determines whether you succeed or not.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Hi Momo,

    I agree fully with you :) I'm actually quite similar to you.

    1. Teaching energises me
    2. Writing a book too, but keeps procastinating...so far only 1 chpt
    3. Engineer grad

    I'm not always online...best to email me :)

    ReplyDelete
  3. Hi AK71,

    don't get you.... :(



    Hi Ah fAn,

    thanks!



    Hi LP,

    I realised I'm charging too low for tuition for my credentials... Could be earning more :(

    ReplyDelete
  4. Hi JW,

    I used to have this problem. Then I realised that my time is worth more than the pay I'm getting, hence I increased it. You're spending a lot of time outside your work for this, so you should be justly paid for. You just target different segment, that's all. I suggest you raise your rates over a period of time. You'll get the sense of how elastic (or inelastic) your demand/supply is, then work from there :)

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  5. Hi LP,

    I have increase my home rate to 60 per hour (from 50), and group rate to 200 per 4 lessons (from 180)...

    My only thoughts is that my first year of charging low was to build my portfolio and increase my experience. My rates were pegged to a full time retired teacher's rates at the start... But I realised eventually I could charge higher and demand is still coming in...

    Next year, my 1 to 1 rate will be 80 per hour and group rate likely to remain or increase to 220... And at 220, for my credentials, I firmly believe it's still below market rate.... 240 will be my fair value I think...

    ReplyDelete

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