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.

New Small Business Concept

Most of us dream of starting a business, some of us manage to start one, but not all is enjoying the success. So what really went wrong? The traditional basic way is to get the right product, find a good location, and logically the business will bloom.

But since it's just basic, everyone else knows it, and everyone else is doing the same thing. So you have to apply another basic in business, to stand up among business and outrun your competitors. You need a new business concept.

A new concept is important to attract customers, and it will provide you the instant success if you get the right idea. Try to use what is available around you and your customers. The internet, the roads, the media. These are your tools to create the new concept.

Here's the concept of my shop, imaginary shop. Since I'm into toy collecting hobby, so I would dream of having a toy shop. I dont have to mention the basic stuff I'm selling, they're nothing new. But what I'm going to do to make this shop special?

First of all is the service I shall provide. I will create a website, all the people that share the same hobby as mine are free to use it for trading and selling purpose. To access the web, customers are required to have membership, purchase at a price or get free when they spent a certain amount at my shop. With this membership, they are qualified to enjoy member's benefit. Such as:

- Trading at the website
- Special discount at Member's day
- Free goodies
- Entitled to pick-up service ( I will explain)
- Entitled to Flea Area ( I will explain too)

So what is the pick-up service? It's basically a delivery service that I will provide. For a small fee almost equivalent to postage fee, the shop will collect the goods from the seller, and have it at the shop for the buyer to collect. Or, the seller can place the item at the shop, and the shop will delivery to the buyer. This is only available for maybe 20km radius from the shop. But if one day you have a lot of shops, this wont be a problem.

Flea Area will be a corner at my shop, and this area is available for members to sell their stuff. They can put their stuff at the shops and just leave it there, the shop will sell it for them.

So you might think that the website and flea area will create competitions to yourself. But the main purpose of this is actually to attract more customers walking into your shop. Without people walking in, you'll have no chance of selling anything.

So that's my idea of a new concept toy shop, there are many other concepts to be explored for other businesses, be creative :)

Electrical Bicycle, why not?

You've heard about it, some have seen it, but why you're not buying it? The obvious answers would be some of you already had a vehicle, or the price(RM1800) is keeping your thoughts away from it.

So what if I tell you that you can now own one at an embarrassingly low price, lets say RM500. The best part is you won't even have to pay for it, literally. So how is it possible?

Before I tell you the magic method of getting an electrical bicycle with an unnoticeable payment, allow me to refresh your memory about the fees we're paying. Do you know we're paying for anonymous fees such as Alumni fees, transport fees, service fees, internet fees etc each semester? These fees can be summed with a rough value of RM500.

So now you should have a little idea of how I'm going to get you a free electrical bicycle. But worry not, you won't have to increase your semester fee, I'm not going to do that. What I'm proposing is to remove the transport fee, which is roughly RM200,as we don't need buses anymore, and use it to purchase an electrical bicycle. You don't have to do the purchase, you will be given one by the university, under two conditions, either you're entering the uni as a First Year Undergraduate, or you register for it.

Now comes the big question: How to get it at RM500? The truth is, you don't even have to worry about it, the bicycle manufacturer will come for you with this price. With a steady demands of 20,000 units per university, with at least 10 universities around Malaysia, they are getting a business worth 200,000 bicycle, I'm sure the price offered will be attractive.

And as how you should pay for it? Leave it to the system. Each semester, RM150 will be charged, replacing the previous transport fees. Each students will at least study 2 years to graduate, by that time, you have paid for your bicycle, without even knowing about it.

So why not get an electrical bicycle?