Starting a business in Malaysia

Being an entrepreneur in Malaysia. With the recent challenging global market there have been many new entrepreneur and many whom are thinking of being one to join the many others whom have had a natural itch to become one.

The drivers? Recent retrenchment, threat of retrenchment, toughening situations in employment, the need to for opportunity to grow their income. Now the opportunities are many and varied as with anything.

Today you have app driven driving opportunities from ride sharing/hailing like uber, grab, to transporting of goods or packages like lori and kaodim. Personalised skills and more. See the list of apps below:

1. GoCar (gocar.my) – car rental/sharing.
2. Uber/Grab – ride sharing
3. The Lorry (thelorry.com) – rent lorry, van, 4×4
4. Serv (serv.my) – service your vehicle without going to the workshop
5. The Battery Shop (thebatteryshop.my) – delivers car batteries within an hour
6. Carput (carput.my) – petrol delivery, flat tyre change & towing services
7. Kfit (kfit.com) – book slots at gyms, spas, workout studios
8. Kaodim (kaodim.com) – find service providers
9. Bfab (bfab.my) – booking service for manicures, massages, hair removal service etc.
10. Supahands (supahands.com) – will connect you to businesses, data entry work, accounting work
11. PantangPlus (pantangplus.com) – for young urban mums who wants service while they’re on pantang
12. BookDoc (bookdoc.com) – connects you to healthcare professionals near you
13. Helpr (helprnow.com) – platform for personal shoppers
14. PasarTap (pasartap.com) – delivery service for market stuff. RM3 charge for same day delivery
15. Recommend (recommend.my) – on-demand home improvement site
16. PostoExpress (postoexpress.com) – despatch drivers who deliver within 3 hours
17. Zyllem (zyllem.com) – connects you to freelancers, local couriers & delivery drivers. 1 hour delivery.
18. GoGet (goget.my) – pick up, delivery stuff, ask them to shop for you, deliver food, helpers, odd jobs
19. AutoCraver (autocraver.com) – sell your car here and dealers will make a bid
20. Content (content.co) – connects you with content writers
21. Foodmatters (my.footmatters.me) – delivers healthy, home-cooked meals to your doorstep.
22. DahMakan (dahmakan.com) – similar to foodmatters
23. GiveReceipt (givereceipt.com) – generates officical digital receipts and emails them to customers
24. Parkeasy (parkeasy.co) – book parking bays at malls
25. Aiskosong (aiskosong.launchrock.com) – lists stores near you that offers student discounts
26. Gigfairy (gigfairy.com) – event management, book emcee, artists, bands for booking
27. Shoppr (shopprapp.com) – search for brands and it’ll direct you to online shopping sites
28. HonestBee (honestbee.my) – grocery, food and laundry delivery service
29. Speedrent (speedrent.com) – deal direct with owners, no agents
30. BigCast (bigcast.my) – marketing platform that connects you to advertisers
31. iPrice (iprice.my) – gathers products from other e-commerce sites to one single platform
32. CatchThatBus (catchthatbus.com) – buy bus tickets online
33. BeBonobo (bebonobo.com) – a website that lets you easily find things you need from your neighbors – for free.
34. MaidEasy (maideasy.com) – book a 2 or 4 hour slot for maids and they will deliver
35. WanderZoom (wanderzoom.co) – book a photographer for any event
36. FlexiStorage (flexistorage.com.my) – rent storage space
37. Skolafund (skolafund.com) -for underpriviliged students for tertiary education
38. Piktochart (piktochart.com) – offers templates for design
39. Foooqy (foooqy.com) – home-cooked dishes for delivery
40. Currenseek (currenseek.com) – book exchange rate and collect from money changers of your choosing
41. Kakitangan (kakitangan.com) – they handle HR matters for small companies.
42. Hostel Hunting (hostelhunting.com) – for students looking for hostels/room to rent near their campuses
43. Watch Over Me (watchovermeapp.com) – tracks your location and alerts people you choose during an emergency
44. Booku (booku.rent) – rent books
45. Petsodia (petsodia.com) – find hotels for your pets
46. Halal Navi (halal-navi.com) – finding halal restaurants near your location

You also have multi level marketing activities that you can get in to. You can have a look at the list below:

  1. Amway
  2. Cosway
  3. many more from whom have have been around a long while with traditional methods to the current internet and app forms.

Independent portals and online businesses for self selling or buying of products that are structured. The sample list is as below:

  1. www.stemtech.com/my/signup/SignupOptions (Id 5924517)
  2. http://smebold.com/
  3. www.mudah.my
  4. www.lelong.com.my
  5. www.amazon.com
  6. www.ebay.com
  7. www.11street.my/
  8. www.lazada.com.my/

You have also cryto currencies and currency trading activities that you could get involved with. Now as in anything big money normally equates into big risk. Nothing is more risky when they are not regulated or given approvals by the relevant governments and monetary controllers of the country that you reside in. The reason is that should there be fraud or mismanagement your ability to seek redress could and normally is assisted by these bodies. So do not fall for schemes that do not get the permits and accreditations from the regulatory bodies in your country. Do not get taken in that it is ok that it is accredited in another country line. The reason is very simple. Basic if its in another country the cost could be very high for you to seek redress on your losses if they are based on mismanagement or fraud. Very basic cost such as lawyers fees etc. The other is you may not have any legal right to redress solely from the fact that you may not be a citizen or recognised resident, or even the fact that the money that you had invested was not considered legally there in the first place from your part but may be legal from the operators part. Complex? These are not even the half of the possibilities when things go wrong. So don’t use short cuts when investing with your money.

Of course good old brick and mottar businesses are not dead. They have been evolving by distributed locations but not necessarily full build up. With the commuting skills etc some businesses have gone the working partner route for every role within its business. Right down to the receptionist. This method though may be costly in some ways generally seems to work out to be a model with better motivated deliveries as no deliveries or lack of quality the renumeration and rewards can be tuned appropriately. Also very easily moved to a new partner or operator and the overall delivery to customer can remain of the level the customer pays for. Yes even the cheapest equating to possible deliveries with less frills.

So if you are thinking of starting a business do remember even if your are virtual or online. Do register your business in the countries you operate in.

For Malaysia the link below is for the body responsible with one variation of business registration type.

http://www.ssm.com.my/ms/sole/starting-a-sole-proprietorship-partnership

From that if you have a physical space you work out from such as a office or shop lot then a business licence from your municipal council. In Malaysia an example of that would be as follows:

  1. http://www.mbpj.gov.my/ms/perniagaan/pelesenan
  2. http://www.dbkl.gov.my/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=74&Itemid=272&lang=ms

Of course there are many more municipal and city councils more. Just do a search for the area that you wish to operate in. Now note the following:

  1. SIgn boards need additional licences in some locations.
  2. Some locations signboards are mandatory requirement for running a business.
  3. Running a business from home in actuality does not exempt your from requiring a business licence. Though many do not have any. In some locations some businesses are exempted from needing a business licence especially the home operations according to specific categories or requirements. (could be annual income levels or the possibility of harm or need for regulating what you do.) Having said that running something from a home may get you into trouble without a licence due to a neighbor unhappy that you are operating out of your home and you cause an inconvenience to them due to storage, traffic and much more. So best get some regulation in place.

You may wish to operate from home but may wish to have a place of meeting up and being represented from besides your home as it may have people calling at all hours of the night or day which you want to limit. So you set up a physical commercial premise or even use one of the pop up or service providers that provide you from virtual services to physical services. We at KANSHARE SDN BHD do provide those services. Please look at our other segments of our website. http://kanshare.com/Products/ or http://kanshare.com/Solutions/ and even http://kanshare.com/Partners/.

Whether you make money or not you do need to declare the state of your income or lack of it as it may be. For Malaysia the taxation department link is as listed below:

http://www.hasil.gov.my/

However with the implementation of GST and prior to that there were some variation of taxes or taxation in the line of doing business. Their link is as follows:

http://www.customs.gov.my/en

As you work especially if you are in a more mobile industry, getting hurt may be unavoidable. If you have been an employee you would have been already contributing to this fund and as such able to claim from it. So to retain the possibility to claim you could also continue to contribute to them.

https://www.iperkeso.my/

Of course there are private solutions also available such as medical cards and insurance policies. Note some of these can be tax deductions.

Of course when preparing your financial records and business interaction records you may require legal services (lawyers), accounting and book keeping services (accountants with supplimentary accounting software which you can own), Auditing services (auditors) and company secretaries (company secretary)

As you worry about your old age, you may wish to continue to save in these various funds. Some of which are mandatory.

http://www.kwsp.gov.my/portal/ms/web/kwsp/home

http://www.kwap.gov.my/en

Mutual Funds like

http://www.publicmutual.com.my/

http://www.asnb.com.my/v3_/asnbv2_0index.php

Now with all the above there are many more services or skills you will need to learn or hire.

That is why rather than owning the cost of setup and operation, save where you can.

Cost of renovation and such is one major cost (the amount spent here could give you months to years of operation in a serviced office such as KANSHARE SDN BHD. Need an office or an option of having a space that shows you are serious and committed into business (really helps in keeping you disciplined, increasing the view of your customers towards you and tender evaluation especially for government opportunities. But not necessarily grand requirements.) Use virtual premises and such. KANSHARE SDN BHD uses the close to home concept (There are many concepts available when choosing serviced offices/business centres/share space/coworking space. There is classy, regional, free spirited and many more) and always encourages new operators whom would like to follow. We provide solution assistance to setup and also willing to operate for you or let you take over our location while we start new locations. (Why take over? Cos the initial build up period and learning relevant to your area is reduced. All you need to do is operate which is service and retain your existing customers and grow more customers with more marketing.

Interested email us at enquiries@kanshare.com)

Interested in having a coffee session to get a feel of what you may be getting into buy into the entreprenuer mentor session from KANSHARE SDN BHD. Want to know more? That’s right email us at enquiries@kanshare.com. Buy some hours or sessions from us.

Custom sessions based on your specific topics also available beyond the regular free style topics.

The need for technology tools in todays business

When embarking on a new venture today, technology usage and support is very important. As such finding the right provider is important. The task of finding one is normally daunting as the terms and jargon can be out of this world.

There are times you may find a credible sounding support system(this being person, organisation and tools for the purpose of providing efficient delivery in your business) only to find out at a later date when it fails that useful solutions are far from ideal. The normal retail solution would be replacement. However if your usage is high a strategy for migration may prove to be challenging. Or rather in the small organisation or providers for this segment to be non existent.

With the above elaborated very simply but not throughly nor completely. We at KANSHARE have leveraged on our partners and business partners to provide this at a cost effective consultative manner.

Since June 2011 we have also expanded this in house solution to a small tech retail solution shop. So that we may better support our customers in thier day to day challenges.