Author Archives: kanshare

Business Ideas…. training and hobby facilities

Posted on by
Reply

There are many hosting businesses. The newest would be the expansion to heavier hobby facilities and tools with access to skilled instructors. (not necessarily certified but could be craftsmen with years of experience)

Now there are many hobbyist with no place to practice their hobby in todays environment where most persons live in multi tenanted dwellings or even rather small somewhat exclusive lateral dwellings.

So as such arises the need for space to just be able to work on that project, be able to leave in some what a ready to continue state till the next opportunity arises. Another good match is to provide tools on a lease or rent basis. Consumables such as fuses, blades etc can be bought on a need basis but the base tool could be rented to the hobbyist.

Along with that is to conduct trainings, guided project kits, mentoring and much much more. Even the sale of materials be it on order basis or ready of the shelf.

This kind of business would fall into the Share Facilities Business Segment. Much like the Virtual Office Business which is normally hosted along with a Shared Serviced Office Business.

Note that the Business Ideas segment is to give ideas and is just to encourage people whom are looking to start a business. Be it for additional income, just looking for change or opportunity. Information provided is just on a level of concepts generally, some level of detail may be provided as example only. It is best should an individual or group of individuals wishing to use the idea to do through research prior to implementing the ideas. Most of the ideas require adaptation and also further detailing to be even ready for deployment. Take it as a seed. The writers and the host platform is not responsible for any results arising from the use of any ideas that have been made available free of charge in seed form.

Business Ideas….Business of Training

Posted on by
Reply

Training. Today it is provided by individuals and organisations. They are in-house, out sourced and also consultant based. There are initiatives and incentives both by governments and also business to increase the retooling of all the work force available.

Reason being that knowledge now more so than before is really irreplaceable.

Hence the business of training is increasingly lucrative, if not fulfilling. If we were to take a light swing at a tag line from a very inspirational business, everyone can teach now too. And we do not just mean it lightly, but everything from cooking and baking to curing, teaching technology to day to day knowledge even in abstract form can be knowledge to be imparted. More so to be shared too with everyone. Value is just the issue.

Trainings can start from as simple as knowledge sharing (real life experience for motivational purposes to skills) till certification and accreditation by organisations and association.

What is generally needed if you do not do packaged training (Training studied, collated, organised and prepared for by specialized training organisations) and would like to build simple but not necessarily customised training is generally the same. You would require the following:

  1. Obvious is the topic with an objective
  2. A knowledge worker with a high level of experience (certification just increases the acceptance of the training information but not necessary)
  3. Well structured training materials
  4. Tools for presentation
  5. Tools for students (If they are not put on the student as a prerequisite to attend the course)
  6. Tools for practical sessions.
  7. Premise or location with facilties (could be at your clients premise this would normally reduce their training cost but not necessarily if there are tools that require relocation and setup)
  8. And training administration support.

Now the above list is just a basic simplification of the total requirements there may be legal, industry or logical requirements to comply to, you can still conduct training as your business. You do not need to take on heavy overheads of premise and staff. There are many methods and options. The simplest is going to a Shared Service Office organisation and see what they can offer you.

 

Note that the Business Ideas segment is to give ideas and is just to encourage people whom are looking to start a business. Be it for additional income, just looking for change or opportunity. Information provided is just on a level of concepts generally, some level of detail may be provided as example only. It is best should an individual or group of individuals wishing to use the idea to do through research prior to implementing the ideas. Most of the ideas require adaptation and also further detailing to be even ready for deployment. Take it as a seed. The writers and the host platform is not responsible for any results arising from the use of any ideas that have been made available free of charge in seed form.

Business online… do i need a physical space for ….

Posted on by
Reply

“I have an online business. Why do i need a physical address for my customers? They won’t come over.”

As business methods evolve there are many preferences and requirements. Some are driven by your needs, some by your customers and in environment where there is confusion, then comes driven by legal compliance. What ever the drivers, what ever your choosen medium for conducting your business there are a few minimum expectations, even if they are rarely used.

In the current online business environment, as it is becoming one of the prevalent methods of conducting business, as it evolves more expectations arise coming from a hybrid of business styles of conducting business.

One of them is that even though you may be online hence “virtual”, is a physical address location that you can be located. Preferably at this location you have a set frame of business hours and someone to help you attend to your customers. No longer is it the expectation that you have a full blown setup, but at least a setup that is functional.

So you could use light lease options for your space such as that provided by Serviced Facility providers, you can also use loose labour (such as temp staff or remote working staff or even outsourced attendants) to meet your live people interaction requirements. But you do need to up your setup in todays environment.

So just a frame of expectations that we have collected via responses and enquiries online, human interaction daily etc are these: –

  1. Yes i will buy online. But i want to be able to walk up to the merchants and have a direct live discussion.
  2. I do like the reach online businesses have by them using couriers and such. But would be better if i could just call them up to do the return pick up even if i have to pay for the return cost, but not the replacement cost.
  3. It is ok that i can go to a multi tenanted or hosted location to find them. Even a kiosk will do as long as i can find them there. Even if it is limited days in a week. Hence even a serviced facility location, a mall, even a bazaar or an office address will do. If i get a house address i will drop by anytime.
  4. As many communication mediums need to be available to me. Phone, Skype, Messenger, SMS, Email and more. Even fax.

Leaving you with the above in mind. Look out at any serviced office facility for a Internet Entrepreneur package that should provide you a business address, a mail box, virtual assistant and possible share meeting space. Shared storage would be a nice plus so that you could actually put your stock there instead of your homes. Ask if they could help you secure some insurance service too. This is to limit your losses in event of break in or fire. These facilities do not provide you that kind of protection else your price will be much higher.

Business Address…. more than just a label to a location

Posted on by
Reply

All space can be used for all kinds of purposes. But being able to locate the space requires structure, by all norms this comes with labeling schemes…. in this case addresses for locations.

Addresses through the ages have started from just a generic general area till progressing down to a specific unique location right down to a unit within a location. Example? Well it used to be just a reference to a town or village and person known within that town or village would be known within that community. So anyone from outside that community just needed to ensure that it reached that town or village with the name of the intended recipient and they would be assured it would reach that person. Of course the possibility it may not reach was always there. And it was an accepted risk. Especially in social engagements.

But as we in now present times have multiplied, in terms of names and locations that have many similarities but yet could result in great differences, the need to have very specific addresses has increased. More so in business. Even with the advent of virtualization, electronic communication systems, a good old physical address is still important. Some may refer to having a store front or brick and mortar location with an address as still relevant. And it is true.

As currently more places cost to acquire or build up along with the idea of permanence having so little stability due to the ever constant changing human needs, to set up a permanent place may prove daunting in terms of complexity and cost. So a good middle ground with possibility to scale according to need is to go with the Service Providers. They could start with the basic provider like a General Post Office Box to a more commercial valued presentation such as a professional mailbox service. All these providers may provide you a variation in their service in terms of general box to personalized box with supporting services such as customised receiving services and more.

Today a scale up to this service will be Serviced Office Providers whom will also have available Temporary and Longer term packages ranging from open concept to private and work group office concepts. Along with that also meeting rooms, conference and seminar facilities.

KANSHARE SDN BHD is one whom is able to provide you with some of those services. And where we are not able to meet your needs, through partnerships and good friendly working relationships with similar providers we are able to possible recommend you one whom has a solution to meet your needs.

 

There is no shortcut…. to reaching your audience even via advertising

Posted on by
Reply

Through the ages there have been many mediums that the retailer has been trying to get messages across to their customers. The mediums and effectiveness have been very varied throughout the time but most finally stabilise to an effective percentage ratio to effort.

Below are some of the examples that have come about as the evolution of marketing mediums and methods over the ages.

1. The original mediums
  • Direct marketing… (retailer talking to customer) No change through the ages. A customer loves the direct human touch.
  • Broadcasting… (the first version was the person singing out or shouting out the message where ever they went. They had a specific role.)
  • Parties to celebrate the message. First version of events to conduct marketing was via banquets and village parties.
  • shows that described the products
2. The printed mediums
  • Printed medium – flyers
  • Printed medium – newspaper adverts
  • Printed medium – brochures
  • Printed mediums – catalogs
  • Printed mediums – stickers
  • Printed mediums – labels
  • Printed mediums – car stickers
  • Printed medium – Posters
3. The banners and buntings
  • banners vertically
  • banners horizontally
  • buntings
  • road signages monopoles
  • road signage billboards
  • Shop signage’s
4. The traditional electronic medium
  • cinema pre movie adverts
  • new reels
  • projector displays
5. New age signage’s
  • digital displays
  • outdoor screen
  • led screens
  • indoor screens
  • tvs
  • display kiosks
  • slide shows
6. New age electronic mediums
  • radio (terrestrial, digital and internet)
  • tv (terrestrial, digital and internet)
  • tv (terrestrial, digital and internet) ticker tapes
  • pay per view tv
  • cable tv
  • subscription based tv and radio
  • internet banners
  • internet ticker tapes
  • internet adware
  • websites
  • social media (interactive)
  • mobile adverts
  • mobile apps
7. Alternate mediums
  • branding on buses, taxis and other transport systems
  • airplane banner dragging
  • hot air balloon banners and buntings
  • Airship advertising
  • lazer displays
  • mobile broadcasts via trucks, cars and mobile temporary static displays with recorded messages
  • vouchers
  • coupons
  • branding sponsorships
  • tshirts, cap, jackets and other clothing
  • premium branding

What ever your chosen medium or combination of mediums, remember you need to be consistent in your efforts. Brand building is a long term action which requires maintenance and re-engineering periodically.

There is no short cut…. to web presence and ranking

Posted on by
Reply

Over the years there has been much hype on getting onto the web. Making the business available on the web and now the move towards mobile availability. When any new and not so new but finally more wanted form of presence arises there will be a lot of ideas on how to get there and sometimes how to get there faster.

The danger always comes from wanting to get there faster as this then exposes you to opportunist and other kinds of characters. While there may be many genuine innovators towards your goal nothing beats getting back to basics, that is just doing what you should do and doing it consistently repetitively. In other words build it right then maintain it.

So this brings me to the topic at hand, i have many friends and customers whom are entreprenuers whom have a long standing in the community and also have a lot of experience. However as times change so do the needs and skill sets. But one thing they all concure is that they have to adapt to the new ways to reach their customers.

Now more and more of them have started to focus on ranking on the web and being seen first or as close to it as they can. There have been many organisations big and small that have offered them services to help them achieve that. But sadly not many can maintain a good average or high rank. Else it will cost a whole lot more than is reasonable to the organisation (Formula cost of ranking cost less than oppurtunity, finally what is secured as business that is paid for.)

So they ask what do i advice? Well my solution is this beyond going to a big organisation that has a gurantee with penalty system in their contract go right back to basics. And to help you to achieve that there are a lot of tools that keep coming up for a reasonable price and even for free. You just got to keep up with the times.

So what is back to basics you ask. Well today the internet has got very complex and competitive. But they have also provided a lot of simplification. Now apart from ensuring that all your communications have your website listed do the following:

  1. Get your website written correctly (programmed, designed etc). With the risks and challenges that all web owners have come to such as loss of their domain (possible inability to transfer ownership to business owner), loss of their web designer/programmer, technology change and much more. The current trend is to use the blog tool which is easy to handle and manage. Hence possible to keep in house or to outsource yet still keep an eye on it in an understandable way for even the lay user. To know that you have kept your website search engine friendly there are many tools on the web that can provide you reports and advice of what you need to improve or fix (which could mean add). Interestingly enough this also gives you the opportunity to become interactive with your customers just a it was to do business in person. People like to talk. The forms changes but the need does not.
  2. Run that report tool. Keep the report tools run for the whole host of information that can keep you informed of what you are doing right. They come by way of the basic web analysis tools that tell you how much traffic, how often certain traffic landed on what pages, the unique vistors against revistors and such. That kind of information can guide you on what to update or write on as your users find that useful. Then the more informative reports as described above in item 1. That provides information on what parts of your website that the search engines do not find good on your website hence drop you in the ranking of whom they present first to the casual searcher. Things like your website page labels, meta tags, tags etc.
  3. Use the information that you have found that your website either is good at or lacking. When good make sure you keep it up with information that is similarly attractive. Lacking find ways to introduce what you lack so that you can increase your presence.
  4. Repeat. When you have found a good formula of information and actions. Repeat them. This is called maintenance.
  5. Last of all evolve. Keep a track of what is new and its effectiveness. Introduce it gradually so that you know what keeps and grows your audience. Not always what is new is good for you and the audience you want. Currently making your website mobile friendly is a good idea. It is not necessary to have a mobile app. That is just more people at times pushing you product you do not need. But it is important to make sure your website is viewable in a comfortable manner on all types of devices and on with most operating systems and browsers. But where not possible, set a target of addressing where most of your target audience is. Hence know what kind of devices, os and browsers they use or is most dominant in your market.

Well that is all for now. Keep an eye out for the next article we will have. Need some help? Send an email to enquiries@kanshare.com

 

Business Ideas for today…General Thoughts

Posted on by
Reply

With the advent of fast transportation, mass sharing of information of ideas, globalisation has taken hold strong and fast. The actions of centralisation (coordinating and concentration of resources and production) and industrialisationn (ways to produce or process more in shorter periods) has devastating impact on our more basic needs in our day to day activities.

Food and shelter used to be the most important. Hence farming (growing of food either as crops or even sustainable production of meat) grew in leaps and bounds, by way of genetic modification starting out initially as more efficient production methods. Even utilising selection methods for what was thought of as better reproduction and more.

Learning methods also has changed from learning passed down from generation to generation, to apprenticeship till master craftsman, to specific learning institutions.

A lot of emphasis has been placed on elevating the status via education which was normally thought of as a formal education, that a lot of long learned knowledge has been lost by lack of recording, recognition of alternatives or even categorising as negative knowledge. Hence a lot of loss of resources and skills to meet what a number of cultures deemed as lower activities such as farming, cleaning, road works, gardening etc.

However as time passes and the different phases and methodologies have been adopted and implemented, better understanding of the impact of too much centralisation of resources is understood. (Single currency impact in a multi nation multi govermental balance and result, single currency bench mark in a world nation economy, and many more instances, single country of manufacture)

So after a few decades of merging and centralising of industries and resource production some elements of decentralisation is beginning to take place. Today the back to basics mind set is also coming back as important.

Realisation has come to mind that the smaller scaling such as in the neighbourhood based businesses and smaller business man is still a good model as giant scale businesses also need a lot of supporting roles and services which in reality is not needed when decentralised. Efficiency and cost can actually come down with a higher valuation.

Hence in the coming weeks we shall give some business ideas where a role or a business can be just part of an entire ecosystem with stake holders whom are unique yet still address the masses, similarly as the large corporations are currently creating standard templates and the masses choose the one that suits them the closest.

 

Note that the Business Ideas segment is to give ideas and is just to encourage people whom are looking to start a business. Be it for additional income, just looking for change or opportunity. Information provided is just on a level of concepts generally, some level of detail may be provided as example only. It is best should an individual or group of individuals wishing to use the idea to do through research prior to implementing the ideas. Most of the ideas require adaptation and also further detailing to be even ready for deployment. Take it as a seed. The writers and the host platform is not responsible for any results arising from the use of any ideas that have been made available free of charge in seed form.

How to handle cost….

Posted on by
Reply

when the minimum usage volume is larger than what you need.

Find a way to share with more than your organisation. Either in a lease form, outsource solution or a mutual share solution.

Example:

1) A receptionist. At the start of any business or even during operations of any business more so when you have few places for staff, an organisation would most likely prioritise the skill area of that business and sales. This however does not negate the need to greet or meet any potential clients or guest whom may visit you at your premise.

So solutions would be to have any staff available fulfill that role on an adhoc basis. This may be fine on a short term basis. But the use of these skilled staff especially when you have them working on more specialised task is costly. So what are your options.

  • Get a temp staff for certain days or hours in a day.
  • Reduce the number of hours you use the part timer for.
  • Or move to an environment that can support multi organisations in one premise, yet share central skills such as receptionists, cleaning staff, in house IT services and more.

This is where Shared Serviced Offices could fulfill your needs.

In an organisation that provides these solutions the take on the risk of unutilised hours and capacity. They also take the calculated cost of depreciation, maintenance, down time and alternate solutions in maintaining uptime.

Such a service can take the risk to spread the usage of the staff timing or any resource that is under utilised to help bring the per use rate to a more reasonable level for you and your organisation.

There is nothing that cost cannot be reduced. It just takes imagination and flexibility.

Use these organisations to help you spread the cost and usage level to bring usage to a  reasonable level.

Have a need that you decided to do without as you could not find a cost effective solution that will meet your needs? Mail us at enquiries@kanshare.com

Stay tuned for more articles soon.

Pt2. How to handle data and create redundancy?

Posted on by
Reply

As mentioned yesterday. The soft/digital format of our data is growing and the level of backup in hardcopy is fast becoming scarce. As such redundancy in soft/digital format is becoming more and more important.

Today the most common method is people making another copy of the same on the same harddisk. For those fortunate to have corporate resources on their company server.

Other methods also are burning cd/dvd(a more permanent format but has its possible failings, see more in the future on this method), Thumbdrive (we will explore this further in later parts), external Hdd and now the NAS (network access storage). This is fast coming a more apparent good choice for most situations if employed properly.

Stay tuned for our next post where we will discuss the NAS further with the ensuing further post with all the other methods in more details.

Pt1. How to handle data and create redundancy?

Posted on by
Reply

Today almost all our data is in soft/digital format. Which means it is stored in electronic bits and bytes. This includes our memories in what used to be printed photos with negatives and videos.

The loss of this can be sudden as well as drastic. The cost of recovery if possible is also costly. But the loss of those memories can also be priceless. But the amount you may be able to pay may not be what is required.

So to follow an old adage “prevention is better than cure”. It would be good to be like a good boy scout and “be prepared”. As such back up in as many forms will be good.

There are many solutions. And all solutions its proper application. Stay tuned we will describe this more in the days to come.