Second Hand Car Industry

The second hand car industry is facing a large competition in Malaysia, you can never miss one if you're driving through a town area, either the one with small shop lot or large warehouse. From my observation, they're facing several challenges:

1) They won't be the only second hand car dealer at that certain area, you'll see a row of them. If they're the only one there, that place is not a good place. Hence, huge competition.

2) Lack of creativity in this business, the best they can do is to wax their car, and not many are doing that.

3) Lack of choices. Most of the cars are Proton, boring..

So to revive this business, or simply overcome your competition, something new has to be done. Here are several tips from me.

1) Get a strategic place, surely people will go to a place where they can choose and compare. Being neighbour with your competitors is not a problem if you have the advantage - being different from them.

2) To be different, you have to make some changes to your product - second-hand cars. Buy in cars that are slightly worn out, but with no major accident and good engine. Give the cars new body kit, new head lamp, new rims, and you can sell it for a good price.

The idea here is to be different. Everyone else is selling cars which are as the same condition when the second hand dealer bought them in, maybe just some minor fix up. You can have a second hand shop that sell modified cars, not radically modified, make sure it's just enough to make the cars look new.

This way, your cars will look new, and they can fetch a good price.

3) Make sure your cars are waxed. It really effect the looks.

4) Provide good services, give good warranty. You can give longer warranty period if you sell good cars, because you're confident of your products.

5) Usually people buy second hand cars at the nearest shop. So use this advantage. Set up a package for minor services and car wash service. Make it like a membership. For instance, buyer pays extra RM500 for 1 year free service. And they can choose to extend it by applying for membership, which annual or monthly fee. The fee is up to you to decide.

There are various ideas to be explored in the second hand car business, so go and think of it!

Pyramid Scheme aka Multi Level Marketing Scam

There is a rise in numbers of companies doing Multi-Level-Marketing(MLM) in Malaysia, mostly started by young "entrepreneur" to get rich fast and easy, and most of them are scams. I wont mention any MLM company here, there are plenty of them out there and can be found easily through the net. It's very easy to identify a MLM company, as they all share the same characteristic.

Here are some characteristics:

1) Obviously, you are told that you can earn a few thousands dollars/ringgits in a short period of time.

2) You need to pay registration fee/ buy product to enter the company.

3) You have to search for down-line.

These three basic characteristic are enough to identify a MLM company. Some might argue that they're actually selling stuff, not solely doing down-line searching, hence denying they're a MLM company. But the truth is, the selling stuff part is just another scam, the actual reason for the company to introduce a product is because they need to register their company as a direct sales company, simple as that. Members are tricked into believing that they're actually selling stuff, but in fact non of the effort are made to sell stuff, instead they're busy searching for new members. Tell me, what direct sales company that are only interested in finding downline rather than selling their stuff?

I'm actually quite amazed by the naiveness of people, believing pseudo-science rather than using logical thinking. Even the educated ones are falling prey into these scams. Have you ever wonder how a piece of soap can cure cancer or instantly improve your skin? How to they do that? How did a piece of "nano-tech" disc do so many amazing stuff like saving your fuel, energized your water? What does energizing your water help your health anyway? The scammers are getting tricky by demonstrating it live in front of potential prey, but I wonder why those who join never ask how did that happen? Most of the time these pseudo-science products will have some endorsement by some bogus professor, just a simple google search could reveal their work, whether it's true or the other way round.

So guys, the next time another magical stuff appear, lets say a towel that can magnetized your blood and cure cancer, stop and think for a while how did the towel do that. Always ask how. And for those who join MLM to get rich fast, wake up.