Chinese New Year - Going Green!

Chinese New Year is that time of year when there is over-consumption of nearly everything and for some businesses - it is pulling off all the stops to get consumers spending (yes possibly even their last dollar).

Many of these displays are made of large cardboards, plywoord, and large marketing posters, flyers, promotional material are printed all just for this CNY. After this Thursday - all this will be passe, and soon after that - will be removed and sent to the dumps.

There must be a much more eco-friendly method of doing marketing - Go Digital!

Singapore has a high penetration of mobile phone users - it only makes sense to use mobile digital advertising as the alternative to achieve a big impact! However, most businesses are still relying on traditional means to bring their CNY promotions across.

Ozone's Mega event in December

I have been guilty in the First Degree (not of love), but of not posting on my blog!
Yes I have been so pre-occupied with my businesses since December. That was when Ozone had organised a mega barter event, and it had a fantastic turn out of several hundred participants, Ozone barter members and public as well.

My own guests (mainly my family, friends and some of my business friends), dropped by and had a ball of a time.

It also spin-off lots of good PR for Ozone Barter as well.
Out of this entire exercise, I realised that we didn't do enough marketing for the event. As it is our very first mega event. And given that it is our virgin attempt at bringing the barter concept to the masses, and given that it was in deed in a remote place - like Changi Coast Road (some ulu ulu place in changi, near the airport) did have its difficulties. But we did pull it off, quite well - as a virgin.

With that, we have greater experience, in dealing and managing the marketing and publicity for such events in the future. We also realise that PR is really important to a company. Our Spin Doctors - did a very good job getting us radio spots - on 938 Live, WanBao, ShinMin newspaper, Biz Times, Straits Times - was really fantastic.

Event Organising vs exam jittery parents

It has been slightly over a month since I last posted. Yes it seemed really like ages. And I probably might have aged tremendously since the last post. If you cannot see me (what an obviously ridiculous question to ask a reader), you can't see the tired look in my eyes.

But I digress. Today I am writing about my barter trade events. It's the Exam Period again. As predictable as the sun rising from the east, this time of the year, many parents are jittery over their kids sitting for school exams up to those sitting for the O levels. But how does that affect my events. Many of these parents are worried that if they are not seated next to their children, their children will suffer pre-exam symptoms and hence unable to come and attend my business events.

*sigh*

This period is also where game arcades, movie cinemas, hip-hangout places become semi-deserted.

Depressing that my business friends have to babysit (in some cases teenager-sit) and ensure that they revise for their exams.

Perhaps that's why the Asia Outdoor Advertising expo and Wine for Asia expo is held specifically in this week. They want to keep those people who are hyper-jittery out of fun expos like these 2. BTW, I'll be dropping by at WFA today, and perhaps tomorrow drop by the AOA expo. Hope to load up some nice pics for all of you to take a look

Barter vs Cash

Barter vs Cash, the clash of the titans? Perhaps, but one reason many businesses give for not bartering is that they need cash for their business to survive. This is true, but if we look at the bigger picture, greater efficiencies and optimisation of resources can be achieved with bartering. Based on economic ideology, running an economy (or business) at less than optimal levels causes wastage. This wastage most of the time is not recoverable. Cash may sometimes seem more coveted than barter, but on the whole, by bartering, businesses end up benefitting much more than solely relying on their cash businesses - which will always be there.

Time Opportunity Cost

Any business that provides services is in a good position to barter. Why is that so? Their business is time based, and time is extremely perishable.

You cannot sell the service that you were offering yesterday. And that is why the old adage "time is money" or "time is more precious than gold". Electricians, plumbers, air-con service contractors can offer their services on full barter. Did you know how many independent electricians, plumbers and air-con service contractors went bust during the tough times of 2001 and 2002?

If only they had bartered their services, established a strong client base, some of these businesses would still be here today. Many business owners want to save their costs. If any business owner says otherwise is in delusion, because this is the one of the ways to increase profitability. If they're not interested in increasing your business's profitability, then they shouldn't even be in business in the first place. Service based businesses have time opportunity cost - which is cost that is intangible that most people tend to forget about it, as it is sometimes not realised cost. But when you look at it from a different perspective, it is time-revenue lost.