This Week Entrepreneur

This week , i am pleased to introduce you one young business.

Its an online business that started be a lady who also a wife and and a mother but that does not stop her from starting on her own.

Just like any other stay at home ladies,commited to family matters and at the same time want to improve family financial status by doing home based business. As she is
still young, that she is confident can do something productive.

39 yrs old, married with 2 daughter age 13 and 11 years old. Highest qualification is only GCE’O’ level and with Certificate in nursing after finished her ‘O’ level.

Staying at home to look after her two girls and her wheelchair bound mother-in-law. She quit her job and be full-time housewife with business minded ambition.

She try to be a property agent with Propnex but find it not for her as have to travel and do viewing quite often thus have to leave her family at home. Her inspiration idol, Mr Sazali Sarwan, a ell known figure and respected property agent in Propnex who is doingery well.

Now hear what she told us in this interview…..

1)What kind of business do you have? What inspired you to become an entrepreneur?

I am running 100% online business at www.little-tots-store.com, Ebay,
Yahoo Auction, Multiply, Forum and other website, selling quality and branded children clothing and toys.

No one inspired me to be an entrepreneur actually. It happened by chance after I quit my job in government sector due to family commitment (as I have to take care of my 2 daughter and MIL who is not well and now she is wheelchair bound). I believe in Malay proverb ‘rezeki Tuhan ada di mana-mana, kalau kita berusaha’ and also 9 out of
10 income comes from business, that’s what Islam says. Only 1 from working. So, with that in mind, I did some research on the Net on what kind of business I can do from home, find my niche market that interest me, read a lot from internet and also read books on how to run an online business, that’s when and how www.little-tots-store.com was born.

2)Did you need to have a certain mindset to achieve success?

Certainly. You need to have positive mindset and never, never give up on whatever you do. In order to achieve success, you must face failure, disapointment and many obstacle. And don’t be lazy!

3)Have you noticed certain advantages to being an entrepreneur?

I can say having online business is having TIME for my family and myself and do whatever that I want to do and most important thing is I can do my 5x prayers peacefully. And also having plenty time to teach my children their school work. This is not possible when I was working as I had to work 3 rotating shift in government sector. My life before
this, have been like tornado, upside down rushing to work and trying to be a good employee, a good mother, a good wife and a good daughter-in-law all in one. 🙁

4)Is it difficult to get financing for businesses? If so why and are there any solutions?

I start my business with ‘0’ actually. I purchase few stock less than $500 and start selling at Yahoo Auction and Ebay. From profit that I have made and customer base that I have developed, I see the need to have a website in order to look more professional, I managed to purchase website templates, domain name and hosting from US website with less than US$100.

5)Did you have a mentor to help you get started?

Honestly none at all. Everything I learn the rope single handed. The only help I get is from reading from the Net, Ebook that I purchased and from library books on business.
I bring my daughter every week to the library to borrow books as both of them are bookworm, just like their mother hehehehehe :), I borrow books on business and motivational books for myself to bring my business up to the next level and learn one or two tips from there.
Luckily for me, I learn Commerce and Principle of Accounting during my secondary school. More or less, I know about running a business and some accounting, that helps a lot. Thank God!
My first daughter who is in Secondary 1 taking photography as her CCA.
She is the one who teach me how to take good photos, how to edit using
Photoshop etc….in online business, picture tells a thousand words, so it’s important to take good pictures and have good editing software. I am very glad her interest benefit her, me and my online business 🙂
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6)Approximately how much money did you invest before your business became profitable?
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Around $4,000. Not much I can say but it make my business running and earn good profit for homebusiness like mine. No need to think about other overhead expenses. I just need to pay US$35 every 3 months for hosting fees and US$12 for domain name once a year.
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7)What resources were most helpful to you when you were starting your business?
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As I mentioned earlier, the Net, books, forum and join other business discussion in the Net. Then later part, I know about those people who are good businessman from the newspaper, magazine and so on such as Abang Abu, Sujimy Mohd and Sazali Sarwan. These 3 people are my inspiration. I read their success, how they cope with business failure and how they move on and succeed. I ask some expert like Mr Ed Borhan
on how to make my website more success and learn some tips from him and other experts on this.
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8)What ways have you found to be most effective in marketing your product or service to get sales?
>>
For me, the most effective in internet marketing is through email newsletter. Get your potential customer to sign up your newsletter or get your customer email address and tell them that you will inform them of any latest news, sales or new arrivals and so on. I’m sure they will be more than happy to provide their email address especially if you have clearance sale of your old stock…..which I have tried
with success 🙂
9)What tips can you give others who want to embrace their dream but, don?t have the confidence or feel they don?t have what it takes to succeed?

As I am running online business, I can give tips something to do with an online business.
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>> 1) Try sells at Yahoo Auction, Ebay, Multiply, Forum and so on that
>> you can think of. Start small first and email or inform your
>> relatives, friends, associate, and those in your contact list
>> regarding your business or your auction and give link to your site.
>>
>> 2) Take good pictures and describe your product as accurately as possible and don’t try to cheat. Honesty is the best policy, always remember that.
>>
>> 3) Join Yahoo Groups or other group like friendster, multiply, community, forum etc. There are numerous group that you can join, post message and inform about your auction or website, blog whatever link you have, that is running currently.
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>> 4) Build your customer base, collect their email address, inform them if you have any new stock, latest news, clearance sale etc…
>>
>> 5) Build your own website if you can afford and if you know how. Try to purchase affordable template and try it on your own, once you get hang of it, it will be easier.
>>

10)How do you manage juggling the responsibilities of being a entrepreneur?
>>
Great I can say. I can easily juggling my responsibilities as
entrepreneur as my hubby helping me too in running my online business by helping me by going together to my supplier, do packaging and sending it to post office. From zero knowledge on shipping procedure to overseas client, now both of us are expert on this. One thing that I always tell myself is that treat all customer with respect, full of responsibility and treat them like friends. Most of them, will come back and re-order if they get good customer service, good product and most importantly is trust.
11)What?s next for you?

The next level that I want to bring my business up is to advertise at Google Adwords to get more exposure worldwide. But first and foremost, I must get lot of lot of stock of nice, good quality and reasonable price children clothing. I am confident, once I advertise there, I will get more exposure, more sales and thus more profit, insyaAllah
with God helps.