Create Not Consume

Fixed aspect ration. Printing digital photos of point and shoot cameras

2010-05-21T16:34:00.000-07:00

It all comes down to the difference between point-and-shoot and film (and digital SLR) cameras. It also has a lot to do with a fancy thing called an aspect ratio. “What the heck is an aspect ratio?” you’re wondering. Let’s start with that.
Aspect Ratio

The Aspect Ratio is simply the ratio of the width to the height of a photograph.

Let’s assume your photo were perfectly square shaped. If it were, the width would be the same as the height. In that case, the ratio of the width to the height would be exactly 1:1.

Now let’s move onto something a little more complicated. Let’s say you have a rectangle that is 4 inches wide and 3 inches high. If you were to do the math, the aspect ratio of this rectangle would 4:3. For every one inch of width you have .75 inches of height. The same ratio applies even if the size of the image increases. The aspect ratio of a 12 by 9 inch rectangle is still 4:3.

The reason your photos are printing with the top and bottom cut off (cropped out) is because the aspect ratio for a point-and-shoot camera image is 4:3 whereas the aspect ratio for a printed photo is 3:2. In order to fit a 4:3 image into the 3:2 print, the photo needs to be cropped. Usually they cut the top and bottom.

The red rectangle is a 4:3 image.
The yellow rectangle is the 3:2 image that will be printed.

The other way to do it is to resize the photo, so you see white edges on the left and right. Now while that keeps the whole of your original photo, it adds ugly bars. Most people don’t like that, so printing shops prefer the crop option.

Your 4:3 photo resized in a 3:2 ratio print.
Note the white edges on each side.
3:2 is for printing

Why does the printed image have a 3:2 ratio when cameras uses 4:3? Why can’t the printers use the same ratio, so the cutting isn’t needed?

It’s because film cameras use the 3:2 ratio. The entire photo printing industry (around well before the digital age) has adopted the 3:2 standard. That’s why you didn’t need to worry about cropping with your old film camera. In keeping compliant with the film model, digital SLR cameras have inherited the 3:2 aspect ratio. So if you have a DSLR camera, you don’t need to worry about cropping for printing.

Point and Shoot cameras were first designed to show on a computer screen, so create an image with a 4:3 ratio – the same as the computer screens of the time.
Avoiding the Chop

If you want to avoid the dreaded chop, there are a few things you do.
Shoot your photos knowing part will be cropped away

This is probably the easiest and most practical solution to the problem. Just try not to place anything of importance, such as a person’s face, in the upper or lower portions of the photo. What can you place in the those parts of the photo? You can shoot the sky, hills, and other background elements. So long as there is no subject matter in the top or bottom portion, you do not run the risk of cutting that subject matter in half.
Print with vertical bands

You can tell the printer to keep your whole photo and print white vertical bands on the left and right of the image. You can cut the bands off yourself later if you want.
Crop your photos before the printer does it for you

Remember, the printer will take any photo shot with a 4:3 aspect ratio and try to cram it into a 3:2 space. But you can beat it to the chase! Some photo kiosks will show you your photo beforehand, and allow you to select what part of the image to cut. You can move the ‘cut marks’ around so you don’t cut out anything important.

You can also use image manipulation software like Adobe Photoshop to crop either the top or the bottom of the photo before you send it to the printer. You can also look for the handy ‘crop for printing’ option available with some other image editing programs. Photoshop doesn’t have that, but here’s how to do it:

* Open up your point-and-shoot image in Photoshop. Go to the rectangle selection tool. On the upper toolbar (just below the File, Edit, etc. menu), there will be some options labeled “style,” “width,” and “height.”
* Under style, select “Fixed aspect ratio.”
* In the width box, type “3,” and in the height box type “2.” You guessed it. That’s the aspect ratio of a digital SLR picture.
* Now simply use the rectangle selection tool to select the part of the photo you want to print. As you do this, you will notice that the rectangle is constrained by the aspect ratio you specified earlier. Whatever you select, it will always be 3:2!
* Once you are happy with your selection, copy it, create a new file, and then paste your selection into that file. Save your new file with a clever name to remind yourself that it is the cropped version. I like to add “_crop” after every cropped photo.
* Take your new files to the printer and enjoy life without the dreaded top chop!

11. Hand tremors - Parkinson Disease?

2010-03-14T11:43:00.000-07:00

Hand tremors and shaking may or may not indicate an onset of Parkinson Disease. Read more about it. In the meantime, this is my hypothesis which may not be acceptable to you. But I can try to ask you to change your mindset and lifestyle.

Your lifestyle has had been highly stressful (studies and obsession with online gaming). Your nutrition has had been of poor quality (not much vegetables but lots of processed and junk food).

What has online gaming to do with your hand tremors? These is my analysis.

1. Poor sitting position. Repetitive wrist injury over the years due to keyboard punching non-stop for hours over midnight. Tendons get strained over the past 5 years of gaming.

2. Insufficient rest. Less than 8 hours of sleep per day. Sleep at 3 am. Wake up at 9 am to go to lectures. The brain has not much time to get into deep sleep and the brain cells have no deep sleep to purge much inputs, recover and repair.

3. The fear and flight hormones are produced at maximal levels as you fight the virtual demons to grab the virtual rewards and be "master of the universe" over the past years. These have adverse effects on the hormonal pathways involving your pituitary-hypothalamus-adrenal glands. There is just no respite for these organs. It is like a compulsive gambler. He just has to have his fix and starts to beg, scam and steal to get his dough for gambling.

4. At your age of around 20 years, your brain is still "developing". The brain nerves are constantly hammered by your relentless online-gaming instincts. Your eyes focus on bright spots on the computer screen for many hours, causing stress to the visual cortex.

5. As a result of cumulative stresses over at least 5 years, your brain centres involving co-ordination starts to slightly malfunction. Poor nutrition does not provide the necessary multivitamins for the brain. Insufficient rest and stressful undergraduate studies impair its ability to recuperate. The first sign now is just hand shaking and tremors. This is an early warning to you to scale back on your obsession and do something that does not involve repetitive stress to your hand tendons, brain and eyesight for hours.

6. There are similar nervous situations in some people whose eyelids keep blinking involuntary. This can be embarrassing if a woman you converse with thinks you are trying to be "funny" with her and taking liberties. In the latter situation, a lack of rest and insufficient sleep is said to be the cause. I did have such a situation once and it was not good for me when a lady client with her dog consulted me. Fortunately, these involuntary winks are no more after I ensure that I have sufficient rest.

7. In conclusion, you will most likely disregard my hypothesis as cock and bull since I don't have brain medical specialist qualifications. As a young man in your 20s, you feel "top of the world" and "invincible".

On the other hand, if you accept my hypothesis, here are my solutions.

Cease online gaming for 3 months. Let vegetables and fruits take up 50% of your food intake. Get a rice-cooker and cook your rice. Add fresh meat with no preservatives and eat 3 eggs a week. No more fatty chicken wings and fried meat. Just sleep early as you have to attend lectures. Your studies are stressful enough but you need to pass your exams. Much is at stake for your future. Many undergraduates have financial stress, personal health problems and family health stresses. You are fortunate in not having such burdens on your mind. Be wise and change your lifestyle. Practise yoga. Read about yoga and meditation.

Recently I met a bachelor of 62 years old who is comfortably off in his retirement as his CPF savings and annuities were sufficient. He was in perfect health as he had retired from the stresses of his own bookshop business for the past 3 years. He had free regular check ups and was certified healthy by his doctor friend. He saw me taking pictures of bougainvillea flowers at 9.30 am and spoke to me. He liked talking to strangers as he loved sales and marketing. And what does he do with his health? Smoking cigarettes and drinking whisky. His rationale was that the doctor friend had certified him healthy every year. So, he continued his lifestyle of smoking and drinking. "How about women?" I asked him. "I am not interested in them," he said. Otherwise, he would be leading a lifestyle of wine, women and song. I mean, wine, women and smoke.

There are such people who take good health for granted. They don't connect healthy living and nutrition with good health till they are older and need to pop at least 3 pills per day to control their high blood pressure and diabetes.

As for you, you decide. You can consult the specialist who may diagnose Parkinson Disease and prescribe you drugs. But in the end, what stresses you give your mind and body cannot be cured by the specialist's drugs.

You have to take 3 months off intensive multi-role online gaming for your brain to recover. But will you?

Give yourself 3 months of a new lifestyle. If there is no more hand tremor or shaking at the end of 3 months, you will be the happiest young adult in the world. If you continue with your lifestyle, you may not have a second chance as brain damage is hard to reverse.

With recovery of good health, the world is your oyster. Then you can go back to burn and slash all the online demons in the world. Till another hand tremor surfaces....

Tips for the first-time Bond Investor

2010-03-11T13:34:00.000-08:00

March 12, 2010
Tips for the passive retiree investor
FTIF-GLOBAL BOND FUND

I had never invested in bonds or bond funds till one day in 2006 when the POSB told me that I had to put up $5,000 if I wanted to rent its safe deposit box in POSB Bras Basah Road. Around 2008, the POSB told me that they would charge safe deposit fees instead. I was unhappy as I thought I had lost my capital as the recession had come in. In 2009, the POSB wrote that the Bras Basah branch would close down and I had to clear out my safe deposit box. I had not bothered to do research and thought that I had lost my capital since it was still recession in Singapore.

Surprisingly, Patricia, a POSB officer took the trouble to phone me to say that I had made some money instead of losing my capital of $5,000.

So, I sold off the bond in Dec 2009. I got $6,396.69. Therefore, I made around $1,400. $1,400/$5,000 = 28% interest in 3 years. Therefore, the POSB's compulsory purchase of the Fund enabled me to earn an interest of around 9% per year. The POSB pays a savings deposit of 0.125% and a fixed deposit of 0.45% (for people <55 years) and 0.55% (for people >55 years). Therefore 9% interest is a considerable amount of return for a person who does not invest in unit trusts, bonds or shares for the past 10 years.
I provide some tips on bond fund investments as contrasted to investing in shares:
1. Do your research as to how your money is invested. Franklin Templeton Fixed Income Strategy's is to invest in Coupon Income (It means buying bonds from governments and earning fixed interest income per year), Active Currency Management (It means they buy and sell currencies of various countries to make money) and Capital Appreciation (It means your share values go up over the years, see table below).

2. Some funds are well respected and rated highly (being given awards).

3. Historical results of making money such as the above at 9% are just a guide but past good performance is important for the passive investor.

4. Invest only in money you can afford to lose.

5. Buy low and sell high. Bonds are meant to be a mid to long term investment of 3 to >5 years, rather than making a fast buck as in speculative share or forex trading.

6. Every year, you need to pay a "sales charge" of maybe 1 to 3%, lowering your profits.

7. Know what is NAV (Net Asset Value). In simple terms, it is the money you will get if you sell the fund. The POSB girl defined it as Sum Invested - Sales Charge divided by unit price. The Sales Charge in 2006 was 3% when I invested. In March 2009, it is 1%. It is tempting to invest when the sales charge is now 1%. The annual charge is said to be 1% too. In the final analysis, it is the results that count, rather than think of the sales charge of 3% or 1%.

8. Dividends are given in my fund as shares and not as money.

In Dec 2009, the NAV (Net Asset Value) of my Fund was S$11.26 when I sold it. As at Mar 9, 2010, it was S$11.59, the young POSB financial officer pointed out to me. Well, I should not have sold the fund on hindsight. However, the funds are not guaranteed by banks and they may lose value (depending on when you sell).
I sold it because no financial officer in the POSB bothered to advise me. The young financial officers come and go in the POSB branches and therefore there is no after-sales services or creation of loyalty or retention of old customers.

People like Patricia are gems and are very rare in the Singapore banking industry. She has an excellent memory and could remember me at Toa Payoh when she saw me talking to her colleague. She took the trouble to offer me and her colleague (the young POSB Financial Adviser) who was making presentations on the FTIB bond, a cup of mineral water branded by POSB. No young financial officer in the POSB I encountered bothered to do this. In any case, the young man I spoke to had disappeared and this girl had taken his desk. The young financial investment officers of various banks do not seem to be trained or motivated to create a connection with the customer as they know they don't stay long in their desk. That is why I write that Patricia, in her late 30s, is a real gem for a business that is looking for top people-service personnel.

Excellent client service comes naturally to Patricia (offering water for me and her colleague to drink). She was able to recognise me though she saw me only a few times in Bras Basah Road long ago. Probably something outstanding about me made her remember me. I had complained to her that the POSB made me lose money by forcing me to buy the fund in order to rent their safe deposit box. And she had actually phoned me back to tell me I was mistaken and that I made good money of over $1,000.

The Bras Basah branch had closed down in 2009 and she was posted out without knowledge of where she would be going. She does not have name cards when I asked her. So her own customers whom she provided exceptional services had a hard time locating her since she did not know where she would be posted. Some managed to find her in Toa Payoh. Others like me was found by her! Other banks and corporations would do well to poach her if they want to improve their bottom-line.
POSB (Post Office Savings Bank), Singapore markets a FTIF-Global Bond Fund (as in their letter to me). After going to the web to do some research, the actual name of this fixed investment should be FTIF Templeton Global Fund A (MDIS) SGD as there are 2 others, viz: FTIF Templeton Global Fund A (MDIS) SGD-H (hedged) and FTIF Templeton Global Fund A (MDIS) USD. This is what I mean by doing your own research.

The other 2 funds have NAV of $12.00 and $19.00 respectively. Surprisingly, there is no relevant information about my ex-fund on the internet. The following information regarding my ex-fund (now referred to as FTIF SGD or FTIF in this report) was from the young POSB financial officer I met on Mar 11, 2010. She compared it to the Global Equities Index (GEI) from JP Morgan. Singaporeans love to buy shares. So, the GEI is a smart and relevant benchmark rather than using the bond index. The table is as follows:

FTIF SGD (one bond investment) %
GEI (various share investment) %
2004-2007
Bull market
+37
+76
Jun 2007 - Dec 2008
Sub-prime crisis
+13
-41
Jan 1 - Oct 16, 2009

+17
+33
2004 - Oct 2009
+67
+68

She showed that FTIF did not lose the capital and even earn dividends during 2004 to 2009 while the GEI dropped below normal and shot up, indicating high volatility.

In practical terms, this means that if you had sold FTIF at any time during 2004 to 2009, you would not lose your capital and even earn some profits. However, you would lose a lot of capital if you had sold shares in the sub-prime crisis. You would lose around 41% while you would gain 17% if you sold the FTIF (see table above).

If you keep the shares or bond till Oct 2009, you would not lose your capital and would make some money based on my analysis below. Therefore, timing is so important when you sell. For the passive investor who has no time to monitor or speculate, diversify and don't keep all your money in the POSB savings or fixed deposit account as they really earn miserable income for you.

Buy, for example, $5,000 high quality bonds and keep them for more than 3 years or sell when the recession is over. I have no more interest in bonds but the FTIF-Global Fund seems to be a reasonably high quality investment for the passive investor based on my short research. I just don't spare time for bond research as I have no interest in bond investments. However, for the passive retiree investor, high quality bond investment may be important to ensure that inflation does not shrink the spending power of your savings. Do your research and talk to the financial officer. Successful past historical performance does not guarantee no risk to your capital as the bonds are not guaranteed by banks or the Singapore government. You will lose money if you sell during a recession unlike your savings deposit.
From the above table from the young POSB girl, you can see how I got around 30% profit from buying the FTIF in 2006 and selling in 2009. You add 13%+17%. This is equal to 30% in 3 years. I got back around $1,400 out of $5,000 invested. So, it worked out that I had a return of 28% in simple calculations. I have to thank the POSB for renting me the safe deposit box in 2006 and earning around 9% interest per annum. I would have put the $5,000 in the savings accounts, earning a miserable 0.125% per year! I recommend my friend, Julia to buy $5,000 of the FTIF as it seems to be a good passive investment for her. She was talking about putting her money in fixed deposits. The interest rate from POSB for people over 55 years is 0.55%. But she never has time to actually do it and now earns 0.15% from her savings account. You need to spend time to research if you want to build wealth yourself. Financial officers may advise but you need to know what risks you will encounter when you are buying into shares and bonds as you will be competing with professional gamblers who can manipulate the markets.

P.S. goto
http://www.kongyuensing.com/laws/20100194Bond_investment_tips_ToaPayohVets.htm
as I don't know why blogger.com cannot reproduce the table from my downloading of MS Frontpage info to blogger.com

10 Share trading tips for the beginner trader

2010-03-09T12:23:00.000-08:00

There are numerous books on investments in shares. Buying good shares do increase your wealth as savings deposits in Singapore give you only 0.5% interest per year. So, your $100 earns you $5.00 after one year. But inflation in Singapore is conservatively for this study, 10% per annum. So, your $100 is worth $90.00 at the end of one year if you don't invest in good shares. You don't lose money too as your shares may drop 50 - 100% of its value due to poor management and fraud by the corporations.

WHICH SHARES TO BUY?
1. Read widely all financial and political news including Financial Times, Business Times and online reports of various industries and their characteristics and fraudulent dealings of directors.

2. Learn the technical jargon of share investment and know how to apply this knowledge. For example, P/E (price earnings) ratio, EPS (earnings/share), NAV (Net Asset Value), Dividends.

3. Every day, spend time reading and reviewing the few shares you have adopted. Just invest up to 5 corporations as a beginner. You need to be hands-on. You will make mistakes as you are a beginner.

4. Use % changes from previous years instead of looking at the absolute numbers like turnover. Historical information is practically no use to predict future earnings but they serve as a guide.

5. Read all about the company reports and releases (online). Attend their annual general meetings. Know about whistle-blowing. Get out if there is some mis-management or directors suddenly selling off their shares.

6. Know the industry trends and market environment. For example, Singapore bank and property shares were at rock bottom in 2008. Anybody who has the money and patience will be amply rewarded by an increase in 30% of profits at the end of 2009 if they have had bought e.g. bank shares. If they buy shipping shares or China S-chip shares, they have sunk and drowned. You can only do this by reading widely (online news nowadays are so convenient), subscribing to financial news like Business Times (for Singapore shares) etc.

7. Speculative shares are to be avoided. However in a rising market, speculative shares rise every week and you will be tempted in making easy money. You pump in more money. The big boys (including hedge fund managers and professional traders in the banks) play out the small shareholders after some time by laughing all their way to the bank.

8. Invest only in shares when you have some cash that you can afford to lose.

9. There are more than just 8 tips to be successful in share investment. I have not bought shares in the market for the past 10 years. I invested in only one company's IPO last year as I know the managing chairman and believe he has the expertise to build up the company.

10. Sometimes, working hard and smart in your profession may be the best way to sleep peacefully at night. This is because the present world is filled with many fraudulent misrepresentations by corporations, bankers and auditors as regards the corporation's turnovers and profitability. However, there are good corporations which are well managed. You need to know where they are.

P.S. One of the financial news is:

Straits Times March 2, 2010 Page B15 - Listed firms' profits inch up 5.7%. This is considered excellent as 2009 was a recession year. There were 324 gainers and 84 losers.

The top gainer was Wilmar. The others were DBS, OCBC Bank, UOB, Keppel Corp, Capital Land, Golden Agri-Resources, Noble, Jardine C&C and Sembcorp Marine.

Top 10 losers were NOL, Australand, Genting Sinapore, Singapore Land, UIC, OUE, STX Pan Ocean, PineAgritech, Huan Hsin, Sino Techfibre.

8. Forex on 5 Hours A Week - Raghee Horner 2010 book

2010-03-05T21:45:00.000-08:00

Mar 5, 2010

Forex On 5 Hours A Week
How to make money trading on your own time

The following is a summary of a book written by a home-trader, Raghee Horner. It is published by Wiley in 2010 and contains information for young people who wants to go into forex trading with no experience.

1. The author says that the Wave is a necessary software as it provides him a visual footprint of the market's trend or lack of trend. The Wave is a real-time tool to make decisions about the market cycles. It focuses you on the right and most effective chart patterns, indicators, set-ups and saves him a lot of time. However, he does not just rely on the Wave as he has to know the market environment and the prices that big boys in banks and corporations with their insider information and knowledge play the currencies market. These are professional gamblers and he acknowledges that he does not have all the insider information that they have.

2. However, most traders make two mistakes as regards not knowing the market cycles and timing.

3. Knowledge of psychology comes lst, 2nd, 3rd and in any other place makes a successful trader. You have confidence if you have knowledge that you can recognise the set-up and confirm what you recognise is working. Merely know that you can recognise a set-up is no good.

4. A successful trader knows when to use a particular strategy. The best traders keep their trading simple.

5. Canned strategy (e.g. do Step 1, Step 2, Step 3) does not make you successful in the long term as you do not consider the market environment.

6. Consider your situation. Are you a short-funded trader? 30-60 minutes a day only to find trading opportunities. Do you prefer options? You should not worry about time but about results. You should aim to be a full-time trader with part-time hours.

7. He recommends reading:

www.babypips.com ( blog. He is Queen Cleopatra in the blog)
www.meetpips.com (Facebook community of traders)
www.dailymotion.com/ez2tradesoftware
autochartist
www.ise.com/fx (forex options)

www.ragheehorner.com (he writers for www.forextraderdaily.com , www.fxsteret.com, www.tradingmarkets.com (www.patternradar.com)

www.zenhabits.net (to de-clutter your life)
www.lifehacker.com (good ideas)
www.smarterwave.org (by lifehacker - software tips)

Conclusion:
Application of a strategy. When to use a particular strategy rather than knowing how to recognise the existence of a set-up (as taught in many forex books) is what makes a forex trader successful. Results count in the final analysis.

Can some of his ideas apply to the practice of veterinary medicine and surgery? In forex trading? Results (clinical outcomes of treatment and surgery) count rather than correct diagnosis of a disease and abundant theoretical knowledge.

Failing to produce good results in a surgery and anaesthesia means the death of the pet or to the loss of confidence and therefore migration of the client to competitors.

Market cycles and time are important to the success of the forex trader. For the small animal vet, I don't know whether there is a veterinary equivalent to the "market cycles" in forex trading.

However, the timing of the surgeries and anaesthesia in emergency cases is important to his or her success. If the animal is already too ill due to the client's delay in seeking advice, the timing is not appropriate for surgery and anaesthesia. The outcome is death and the vet sometimes do get the blame. Such owners seldom blame themselves for the protracted illness or delays.

So, the best strategy may be just to pass the buck to other vets in such cases if the vet does not want high emotions, drama and bad-mouthing of him in handling high-risk anaesthetic cases which are part and parcel of the practice of veterinary medicine and surgery.

Forex Investment in a Singapore's bank

How does the principles of the above book apply to the individual? I will illustrate with one case. I don't play forex at all and so it is best for the reader to do much more research if he or she is interested in this high-risk trading.

Standard Chartered Bank at Ion Orchard has this signboard outside, saying 4.15% interest if you invest in Australian Dollar deposits. As the A$1.00 is around S$1.30, my friend Julia was interested in this advertisement.

She wanted to buy some A$ low so that she could pay her son's tuition fees if she bought low. One year ago, the A$1.00 was as low as $1.00 but now, it has appreciated 30%. Singapore banks pay 0.3% (per annum) interest for savings account and therefore, the 4.15% (per annum) in A$ investment looks very attractive. So, I got her to talk to the financial adviser in the bank. He recommended dual currency swap for her. What is a dual currency swap?

DUAL CURRENCY SWAP
Basically, this is a forex trading put option, I said to Julia. Julia would buy Australian Dollar at, for example A$1.00 to S$1.2708. 2 weeks later, at 2.30 pm, if the A$ has dropped to $$1.2580, she would make money of around S$500 based on a S$50,000 investment. In these 2 weeks, she would be paid 4.3% to 7% depending on the initial investment. At 4.3% for 2 weeks, she would get an interest of S$500 if she invested S$50,000 and if the A$1.00 has had not dropped to S$1.2580. If the A$ has dropped more than that, the bank keeps the balance of the profits. Another contract would be opened after the end of 2 weeks.

"You get $500 for $50,000 after 2 weeks if the put option is not exercised. I asked the gentleman to state the interest in this deal rather than stating $500 profit. He said it is 2.5% for 2 weeks. Is this correct? It sounds too good to be true. There will be risks.

What are the risks? At the worst scenario, $50,000 will be lost if Standard Chartered Bank goes bankrupt. This has happened to Lehman Brothers, a very famous old bank in 2009. The Singapore Government does not guarantee investment accounts. Savings accounts are protected up to $20,000 so far.

Lots of small investors in Singapore lost substantial savings when Lehman Brothers closed down in 2009. Many people don't make money when they invest in unit trusts with their CPF (Central Provident Fund) monies at the wrong time. Timing is still everything but the investment bank is nowadays less than reliable as the bankers create high-risk derivatives and investment plans to make money for themselves out of money from the small investor. They pay themselves extremely well, even when their banks fail and have to be bailed out by the tax-payer's money.

So, is it worthwhile for Julia to take this investment route? It is a personal decision. In my opinion, it is best not to take this risk as $50,000 is a large amount for Julia. 2.5% interest in 2 weeks is a very great temptation. This works out to be 5% per month or 60% per year in simple calculations. For Standard Chartered Bank, I have no doubt it will return Julia's capital. For scam people who proposed such returns, don't part with your money. I have just heard of a scam whereby the "investor" offered 2% per week and deposit some "gold" worth more than the market value as security. The only problem is that the real value of the "gold" is unknown.

Julia has no interest in financial and market news at all and $50,000 was her retirement savings as well as money for her son's tuition fees. She earned a salary. It would be better to be keep her savings rather invest in forex trading and funds unless she can afford to lose the money.

Appreciating the visual arts

2009-06-24T14:25:00.000-07:00

June 24, 2009

"Go out and see the painting," the salesgirl said after I had spent a few minutes viewing several paintings displayed on the wall behind her small desk. Mrs Aung's eyes widened as she thought that this young salesgirl was being rude to me.

As I was asking her questions about a big painting of a golden pagoda by an artist named Di Pa hanging behind her counter, I thought she wanted me to view this painting from outside her small art gallery of around 150 sq. ft. I could not view this painting as she was sitting down and her desk was between the painting on the wall behind her and me in front of her. The door was just behind my back since this was a very small art gallery. The only one in Peninsula Plaza which is a famous meeting point for all Burmese in Singapore and has various business specialising in Burmese matters.

Mrs Aung thought she was being rude to an old man (namely me). There was no reason for her to be rude. She was trying to tell me something. What was it? Why did she ask me to go out of her office? The oil painting by Di Pa was not that big. In fact, she should have asked me to go behind her desk to appreciate the fine painting.

This personable salesgirl was a Myanmar National and she was probably telling to communicate with me something. But what was she trying to tell me? I don't blame her for not communicating well in English. English is a difficult language to master and unless she had the opportunity to speak English more, she could not be fluent in this language.

As her gallery was so small, I thought that she might want me to view more paintings behind the glass wall of the front of her office.

I exited her gallery in 1 second. It was a 150 sq. ft gallery and so it took 1 second to go out. I was correct in my interpretation of her good intentions. Two very big paintings of the Pao (pronounced as Pa - O) Market occupying nearly 1/3 of the front glass window captured my attention due to its size and composition of people in a market. In one painting, I could see the "KWK" signature. Now, I knew about KWK because I had seen her other vivid paintings. I did not know that KWK did market scenes till now.

"This is the type of painting I appreciate," I said to Mrs Aung. "But it is very big painting and would take up 80% of the wall in my reception room at Toa Payoh Vets.

Mrs Aung had no interest in paintings. Once she said to me that I must be too free or too rich to look at paintings. Many people are struggling to earn a livelihood in this time of severe economic recession.

Mrs Aung said: "All paintings are original as the artist must create them. It is only the quality of paint and the canvas that affects the painting that must be considered."

I ha taken Mrs Aung to see a small painting of a market scene in the Shan State in another office in Peninsula Plaza before we came to see Di Pa's painting at this small art gallery. I loved this Shan State market painting very much. It connected to me instantly. It was also the right size to put in my small reception room of 50 sq ft at Toa Payoh Vets. It looked as if the painter wanted to show a young and pretty rich man's mistress buying flowers from the flower girl at the market.

"It is not the original painting," I lamented. "It is a photocopied painting." I don't want to display photocopied paintings as I don't appreciate them.

Mrs Aung strongly disagreed. "All paintings are original. The artist has to paint them. So how could there be copies?"

It was difficult to educate Mrs Aung as I did not have any other examples to show her. Seeing is believing. "Well," I said. "All paintings of Mona Lisa are copies, except for the original one in a French Museum".

Mrs Aung stared at me. Mona Lisa can be the most famous painting in the world but to Mrs Aung, I was talking Greek to her. She had never heard of Mona Lisa in her 40 plus years of living.

The salesgirl smiled at my mention of Mona Lisa copies. This girl knew her business of Art. She assured me: "All paintings here are certified." The salesgirl showed me a small brochure with descriptions of painting by Di Pa and KWK. I did not know what she meant but I presumed she meant the paintings were not copies. They were originals.

Art education takes a long time. It will be some time before Mrs Aung would be able to tell the differences between original, copies and reproduced versions of art. If she had interest, she could learn fast. Then she could pick up great paintings at low prices in Myanmar. Being a businesswoman, she would have one additional product to sell to people who are "too free or too rich" and make money. To her, art would be a commodity for trading rather than a source of appreciation. However, to be able to sell successfully, she would need to be motivated to know more about the business of art.

A little painting by KWK

2009-06-16T15:28:00.001-07:00

I'll pay you $50 for your artwork," I said to Mrs Htay. She had asked me to attend an opening reception of a Burmese Artist hosted by a Art Gallery on a hot Saturday afternoon. Her husband was the guest of honour. He was presented with a small painting signed with the 3 initials "KWK" and he gave this token of appreciation to his wife. I had never met KWK but I saw her paintings at the Art Gallery. I appreciated her type of painting of the Burmese countryside as I love paintings of nature, natives and animals.

That small painting given to Mrs Htay measured around 0.5 foot x 0.5 foot. It was a small painting of 1/4 sq. ft framed by little bamboo sticks. It was a painting that would bring back good memories of my attendance at this Art Gallery. It would bring back memories of Mr Htay who was the guest of honour and Mrs Aung, another Burmese lady who did not want to attend this opening reception but obliged when I asked her. She had told me frequently that art had no appeal to her at all and she just would spend her time on other matters. But most important of all, this small painting by KWK would hang nicely in the very small waiting area at Toa Payoh Vets.

"No, no, no!" Mrs Htay raised her voice as if she sounded insulted. "I want $500". Was she serious or joking?

"Mrs Htay, $50 is a very good price," I said. "It is a very small painting. I value it as $50 per 1/4 sq. ft . It sells at $200 per sq. ft. For $500, the painting must be bigger. Bigger paintings take a longer time to paint and therefore cost more."

Mrs Htay was silent or maybe she was furious. It is hard to know what the female species of the human race think. Females of the homo sapiens are inherently more emotional in their business interactions and I knew intuitively that I had offended Mrs Htay.

"Please accept my offer," I persisted. Mrs Aung who was with me on the day after the visit to the Art Gallery looked at me incredulously as if I had got tick-borne fever. She was surprised that I had offered $50 for that small painting by KWK. She would consider that small painting was not worth the canvas it was painted on.

Mrs Htay must be fuming mad internally as she remained silent. This was my speculation judging from her mannerism.

"Mrs Htay, I don't even know whether KWK, the artist is famous or not and therefore I offer you $50." Paintings can be an excellent investment as well as an object of appreciation but you must buy one from a famous artist.

"Dr Sing, the painting is worth $500" Mrs Htay was adamant but could not support her valuation to justify her selling price. She was not in the art of business and knew nothing much about art. Except as another commodity to sell and get a commission.

"Dr Sing is a miser," she probably thought of me but she was too polite to say so in my face. She would let Mrs Aung know later and Mrs Aung would let me know accordingly. This offer was an easy $50 since the cost to Mrs Htay was zero. She did not know how to do the business of art. So, there was no counter-offer from Mrs Htay. It was $500 or nothing.

Now, Mrs Htay was a very good sales person in her startup tourism business. She had the gift of the gap, sociable and very tenacious in closing sales. She followed up and networked. She faced rejections and was tired out. Yet she persevered and succeeded despite cut-throat competition. She would be persistent, sought out prospect and befriended everybody thus increasing her network and closing some sales out of the hundreds of people she met. This type of outgoing personality is rarely present in many people as rejections are hard to stomach.

Mrs Htay was the type of salesperson all companies would love to employ as she was hardworking and able to close sales.

The only quirky part of her personality was that she would bad-mouth a person without a thought and words would come back to the person affected. I knew this because one Burmese businessman phoned me to tell me to be careful of "people" who would talk bad things about me behind my back. It was unfortunately a part of her personality, a weakness she was not aware of. Part of her extrovert personality and probably nobody had ever confronted her about it.

You could see that she even managed to persuade me to attend an art reception at an Art Gallery on a Saturday afternoon. Saturday is my day off and I treasure it as I work all the other days of the year.

An offer of $50 for a small painting by KWK was in Mrs Htay's hand but she remained silent. I was quite surprised that she did not give a counter offer. That is part and parcel of good salesmanship. The lowest offer may not be the final offer.

If she had countered with "$400", there would be progress in the negotiations. Part of good salesmanship is to counter-offer to close the deal. Negotiate to obtain a win-win solution rather being silent. Most likely she was unhappy that I had the temerity to offer $50 for the small painting by KWK. Maybe she knew something that I did not - the small painting by KWK would be worth much more than $500 if she did not sell it. Maybe I have better do some research before I offer any amount to Mrs Htay.

NOTE: 1 pictures of big paintings by KWK are shown in this picture. Unfortunately for me, I did not take a picture of her small painting. Any reader interested in viewing paintings by KWK, e-mail judy@toapayohvets.com or tel +65 9668-6468.

5. Veterinary Technicians/Nurses Wanted By Toa Payoh Vets

2009-06-01T14:48:00.000-07:00

Jun 2, 2009. Veterinary Technician and Nurses for Toa Payoh Vets, Singapore.

Part-time or Full-time. Young adults.
Must love working with animals - first requirement.
Minimum qualifications are: "O" levels/polytechnic diploma with good academic results. Myanmar Veterinary Graduates proficient in English can apply.
Dogs and Cats veterinary nursing experience preferred.

Grooming experience and knowledge of Excel, Access, Photoshop and Outlook an advantage. Able to work some weekends and evenings and speak English and some Mandarin. Lives near Toa Payoh e.g. Bishan, Ang Mo Kio, Novena.

Able to provide 2 character testimonials. State salary previously paid and required in this position.

E-mail resume with details of hours available to work if part-time to judy@toapayohvets.com. No attached files in your e-mailed resume - use copy and paste your resume into e-mail. Short-listed applicants will be notified for interviews.

If you require >45 minutes of bus travel to Toa Payoh, it is not practical for you to work in Toa Payoh as there are evening shifts. Salary from $1,300 depending on experience.

Info about Toa Payoh Vets, goto at www.toapayohvets.com

4. Create a solution - breach of tenancy agreement

2009-03-28T16:13:00.000-07:00

April 3, 2009
Tips For first-time Singapore Tenants
Case Studies by asiahomes.com
Dr Sing Kong Yuen, Founder, Asia USA Realty (Singapore) asiahomes.com Pte Ltd
asiahomes.com

THE SUBLETTING OF AN HDB APARTMENT

The Tenant had breached the tenancy agreement by subletting. The Tenant's friends had told her that she had done nothing wrong as the HDB (Housing and Development Board) regulations permit 6 occupants for a 3-bedroom apartment. Therefore, her friends encouraged her to hold her ground. Such well meaning acquaintances who know nothing about the laws of real estate contract cause more harm than good to the first-time foreigner tenant whose culture of sub-letting may be a common practice at home.

The Tenant's Agent was Juliet working under my real estate agency. Juliet could not resolve the Tenant's problems during discussions with the Landlord's Agent who also phoned me to ask the Tenant to get rid of the Sub-Tenants in 3 days' time.

One agent to handle the problem. I had told Juliet that there should be one agent from the same company handling this problem to avoid conflicts and misunderstandings. Juliet wanted to help her as she could communicate with the Tenant in her same language. But she could not resolve the problem over this issue of illegal subletting. The Landlord's Agent managed to get the names of the Sub-Tenants from the Tenant's son. She said she would give them to the Landlord so as to "get approval" from the Housing Board Development (HDB) which regulates rentals of the HDB apartments in Singapore.

In retrospect, this was actually a clever way of collecting evidence of subletting if you see it from my angle. The Tenant's son had provided the evidence to the Landlord's Agent as he could speak some English and believed that giving the Landlord's Agent's the names of the Sub-Tenants would help to his mother to live with peace of mind.

"Look here, Juliet," I was getting impatient with several of Juliet's phone-calls to me regarding the intractable complaints of the Tenant. "If you insist on putting your fingers into the pie, be my guest. Go ahead and deal with the Tenant's problems yourself. Too much emotions and conflicting advices from two rental agents from the same company would not be useful to the Tenant. The Landlord's Agent also phoned me to arrange for the Landlord to meet the Tenant urgently. Please do not involve me if you want to be kind and helpful to your country-woman."

Housing Agents don't get paid for doing this after-sales service unlike in some countries like Australia. Time is what realtors has and he or she gets paid for closing a case. They don't earn a fixed salary and therefore time is money to any housing agent. Juliet stopped handling the case. To handle this situation, the following must be done:

What does the Landlord want? The Landlord wants the Tenant to adhere to the Rental Agreement which does not permit subletting. The Tenant had signed the Agreement listing herself and her son as Occupants. Therefore, if the Tenant does not get rid of the Sub-Tenants, the Landlord thinks of throwing her belongings outside the apartment and lock her out.

What does the Tenant Want? According to the Landlord, the Tenant felt that she was doing "nothing wrong" in subletting.

The Tenant's Offer to Resolve This Problem. "Why don't you just give her one month's notice and return her the one month's deposit at the end of one month?" I forwarded to the Landlord the Tenant's offer to resolve this problem. One month is needed for her to find another place.

"No," the Landlord said. "Unless the Tenant compensates me for the shortfall in the rental revenue for the remaining term of the lease." The worldwide economic recession has got worse in Singapore. It is unlikely that the Landlord will get a replacement Tenant who will pay the S$3,000 for this 3-bedroom HDB apartment.

The Landlord's concerns. "I do not wish to distress the child by evicting the mother and child from the apartment," the Landlord phoned me after Juliet had stopped handling the case. I had told the Landlord's Agent to get the Landlord to phone me direct since the Landlord's Agent could not resolve the problem after giving the Tenant's Offer to vacate the premises with one month's notice and return of the one month's deposit at the end of the rental.

The Landlord continued speaking over the phone, "I do not wish to be jailed for harboring illegal occupants." In Singapore, there is a law that jails any owner who is caught renting out to illegals. I felt sorry for one poor pastor who was jailed for this offence.

I said, "There is a breach of tenancy agreement. Your agent had given you the names of the subtenants. Can you approve them as the HDB permits 2 tenants per room and the number of 6 occupants in this 3-bedroom HDB apartment? Six occupants are within HDB's rules and regulations for 3-bedroom apartments."

A letter in black and white. Before this direct phone call from the Landlord, I had asked the Landlord's Agent to get the Landlord to give me a letter in writing as to what he proposes to do in this breach of tenancy agreement. He would not write the letter and so he phoned me wanting to meet the Tenant in one evening immediately. He has lawyers on stand-by if I don't arrange a meeting.

The reason I wanted the Landlord to put his resolution to the problem in writing is that the tenant does not understand English. Talk is cheap. It is important that the Landlord's Agent does not serve as an interpreter during the proposed meeting as many comments can be mis-construed during interpretation.

It would not be a half-hour amicable chat as the Landlord's Agent told me when she asked me to arrange this meeting prior to the Landlord phoning me. To me, there seems to be only one demand from the Landlord. To get rid of the Sub-tenants or get evicted. As simple as that. The Tenant had offered to get the Rental Agreement amended to include the names of the Sub-Tenants or vacate the premises with one month's notice and return of the one month's deposit.

No room for negotiation. "No sub-letting is permitted," The Landlord spoke to me over the phone. "The apartment was rented due to the fact that the Occupants will be the mother and child. Otherwise, I could have leased it to other parties who had proposed more than 2 Occupants." The Landlord had preferred this Tenant over the others. I had emphasized the "no subletting" condition in the Tenancy Agreement to the Tenant during the signing with Juliet and the Tenant had apparently nodded her head in agreement. She liked the apartment and had paid a premium high rental unheard of in HDB apartments.

The Landlord's point of view. I understand the Landlord's concerns - too many occupants lead to greater wear and tear of the residence. So, the Tenant's Offer of including the names of the Sub-Tenants and to vacate the premises with one month's notice was rejected.

Where do we proceed from this situation? "I am not siding with the Tenant," I spoke to the Landlord over the phone. "There is a breach of tenancy agreement. The Tenant's uncle who is proficient in English will be coming to Singapore in 4 days' time."

"I cannot wait that long," the Landlord said over the phone. "I want to meet the Tenant this evening."

The problem is that the Tenant can't understand English very well. Her child who had just come to Singapore to study could speak English but not proficiently. Now, I feel that it is not morally right for the child of 12 years of age to be an English language interpreter for the mother during the proposed meeting with the Landlord. There will be misunderstandings and no resolutions to the Tenant's problems. I was also worried that the mind of the child cannot match an adult mind of the Landlord in the ways of the world. It is just unfair to the child or any interpreter to resolve this problem.

From my telephone conversation, what Mr Lee wanted was to get rid of the subtenants or get compensated for loss of rental income for the remaining term of the lease when the tenancy is terminated. There was no consideration that the economic recession had gripped Singapore firmly now. Otherwise, the Landlord would be confident of getting a replacement Tenant according to his specifications and at higher rentals.

Back to the present, how should I resolve this problem? I don't speak the foreign language. I don't want the Tenant's child or Juliet to be involved in interpretation as they would not be able to do it satisfactorily. A lot of time will be wasted. The Tenant would be very angry with Juliet for mis-communications. The Landlord was fixed in getting his ounce of flesh due to the breach of tenancy agreement.

How to resolve this problem? Is there a solution? There was one solution actually. There was the uncle who was proficient in English and coming to Singapore in 4 days' time. I asked the Landlord for his telephone number. I phoned the uncle in his country. I ensured that he phoned the Landlord by following up with a call. The uncle did phone the Landlord.

Well, the problem is resolved as far as I am concerned. I know that the subtenants are not illegals. 4 days will not be too long. This was a very a stressful case for the Landlord's Agent and Juliet as there was no negotiations. The meeting 4 days later will be the correct thing to do.

There is a limit to what housing agents can do after the signing of the Rental Agreement. The law of real estate contract binds both the Tenant and the Landlord when the terms and conditions of the lease are breached. The uncle came to Singapore and he met the Landlord directly.

"Housing agents are useless" Juliet said to me regarding this episode. There was a great interest of the friends of the Tenant to know which agency was handling her case. When there are problems, the housing agents are black-listed as in this case. Housing agents cannot resolve the Tenant's and Landlord's problems if both parties could not negotiate to get a win-win situation after a breach of the law of real estate. In this case, housing agents had spent a lot of time trying to get both parties to negotiate and earn nothing for their time spent in being helpful.

Some Singapore Landlords do not mind sub-letting but this need to be negotiated early prior to the signing of the Tenancy Agreement. The number of Occupants is of great importance to some Landlords as more residents wear and tear the apartment faster.

Once there is sub-letting breaching the Tenancy Agreement, the Landlord can evict the Tenant, forfeit the rental deposit and claim for the short-fall in the loss of rental income for the duration of the lease after eviction or premature termination of the lease. Obviously, if the Landlord gets a higher rent after getting rid of the incumbent Tenant, the ex-Tenant gets nothing from him or her. The only beneficiary in a breach of the Tenancy Agreement is the lawyer in the final analysis as both parties need to pay as much as a thousand dollars or more for services rendered.

Community Education Case Study
Tips For first-time Singapore Tenants
is sponsored by asiahomes.com
e-mail judy@asiahomes.com tel 9758-7551, 9668-6468

3. Belief, Passion, Drive & Perseverance

2009-03-27T16:29:00.000-07:00

Oceanus Group Limited Singapore
AGM on Mar 27, 2009

Knowing what other successful industries or person do to succeed in this dog-eat-dog world can provide new ideas to my present small animal practice, real estate and travel agency practice. This is one reason I attended the AGM of Oceanus Group Limited. I am a very small shareholder. These are the only shares I own as I have stopped buying shares for the last decades as I believe most of the shares were speculative gambling.

Oceanus Group Limited's Annual Report 2008 had provided detailed information showing high growth in acquiring more farm land and in production. Profit After Income Tax had shot up to RMB 339 million for FY2008 compared to RMB 181 million for FY2007. Yet the share prices are today S$0.13 per share, with the lowest being S$0.10. The highest was over S$0.40 in 2008 while the issued share was S$0.20. The world-wide economic recession has adversely reduced share prices of blue chip companies by as much as 50% and therefore Oceanus' share price drop is not unexpected.

Should I sell the shares at a loss or should I hold on to them? Should I buy more shares now to average up when the world recession recovers and become more prosperous?

None of the estimated 300 shareholders at the AGM which started at 3 p.m, raised any questions or objected to the proposals. Before I could warm my seat, the AGM was over. My watch showed 3.07 pm. At the end of the AGM, there was the free buffet of some fried finger food. A few shareholders asked Dr Ng some questions privately. I stood nearby hoping to catch their concerns. The following was a pertinent question:

1. Thefts
Lady Shareholder: "Won't the Chinese workers steal abalone from the tanks?"
Dr Ng: "There are strict checks on the numbers farmed by each team at the end of the day. Auditors do their checks too. If the abalones die in the tank, shells must be produced."
Lady shareholder:"The workers can bring some shells from outside." I presumed she meant that the thief ate the abalones and bring back the shells.
Dr Ng: "Abalones are reared in cages. It will not be so easy to steal the cages as they are very heavy. Come and visit the farms to see yourself. Pay your airfare and accommodation and the company will bring you on a tour of the farms. With free meals provided to shareholders."

Another query from a male shareholder
Male shareholder: "Do you add extra ingredients to make the abalone grow faster and bigger?"
Dr Ng: "No. Abalones are fed sea weeds which are available from the sea."

2. Farm tours
Some shareholders had requested free hotel and airfare to visit the abalone farms in China. This suggestion was not reasonable and therefore denied.

In 2008, I did visit 3 farms at my own expense by paying my hotel and airfare. The tour of Oceanus farms took more than 5 hours to visit as the 3 farms are in the countryside of Xiamen, China and are large farms. Some of these farms are bigger than more than 100 football fields.

Sea water from the ocean is pumped into the abalone tanks after it is filtered through the sand. I note that the water in the tanks looks very clear. Sea weed is fed to the abalones. Abalones are reared in cages after the juveniles which are attached to ceramic plates have grown to a certain size. I think it is 6 months. It takes 5 years to get an abalone to grown past 100 mm in shell length and such old abalones are most valuable. Slow growing ones are checked and sold early as one or two year olds. Company executives travel regularly to check on the production inventory while the independent directors travel to do their due diligence as Oceanus acquires new farms.

4. Innovative Retail Idea. There are many interesting factors ensuring the success of Oceanus in being a premier high quality affordable abalone for the middle class in China and all over the world. Its recent joint-venture with the famous Ah Yat abalone restaurant to set up an abalone food outlet in Shanghai, China had been very successful with large crowds. This retail concept of bringing affordable high quality Japanese abalones to the masses may lead to "McDonald's-like" chains and franchises all over China and the world. If this takes off, Oceanus will be rolling in the money and laughing its way to the bank.

5. Belief, Passion, Drive & Perseverance. The success of Oceanus depends on the belief, passion, drive and perseverance of the Executive Chairman who is a veterinarian by qualification. He has the four factors.

There is the one more factor - the experiences of doing businesses during the last 20 years in China. Dr Ng has this business management background in working for multi-national corporations in marketing and sales. One important factor to consider is that the company has zero debt as at December 31, 2008 while other companies are failing due to high debts.

Making Oceanus profitable in 2008 means that he has applied the knowledge of global business by integrating production, processing, retailing and starting abalone burger cafe restaurants (said to be targeted to be 100 cafes in China) to create new customers and sell his increased production directly abalones at affordable prices. The burger is now sold in one cafe in Shanghai and one website reported that it sell at around S$18.00 per burger containing one 2-year-old abalone. At the AGM, I was told by one officer that there were large demands for this burger. Abalone is traditionally affordable for the top 1% of the population in China as it is very expensive.

Dr Ng has the veterinary training which is now very useful as the training gave him the theories of animal diseases, prevention, treatment, quarantine and husbandry.

An example is the insurance of the abalone against disease for Oceanus. Many abalone farms in China, Taiwan, Australia and other countries have shut down production due to the spread of viral diseases and become bankrupted. As Dr Ng is a veterinarian by training, he understands the importance of using sea sand to filter the water reaching the abalone tanks daily against water pollution. Using sand which is available in the sea is much cheaper, thereby reducing overheads and increasing profits in the long term.

If Oceanus can sell abalone set at the anticipated 40 yuan, more than 1% of the population and the middle class in China will consume this highly priced shellfish which now sells at high priced restaurants at 300 yuan.

This means the extra production of abalones can be sold to meet the demand if the retail joint venture opens up 100 cafe restaurants. Stock analysts have expressed concerns about over production and the possible lack of consumers during this recession. Oceanus has had aggressively acquired more farms and increase tank and abalone production in 2008. Many abalone farmers have difficulty finding buyers in the past as their sales prices are high due to high production costs.

IDEAS ARISING FROM THIS AGM ATTENDANCE
1. Farm Tours. This is an opportunity for my travel agency to specialise in abalone farm tours for Oceanus. After all, niche marketing is more sustainable and profitable as a business than mass tourism with its rampant under-pricing. Expanding this concept, tomato farm tours can be set up for Lake Inle travel in Myanmar to educate young children living in urbanised Singapore about where their food comes from. It is surprising that some Singapore children think that their food comes from the supermarket.

2. Newsletters to shareholders. I was surprised that Dr Ng mentioned that newsletters may be a means to communicate with shareholders the progress of the company. Not all shareholders bother to go to Oceanus website to read the reports. In any case, I had not been able to access the website today, Saturday Mar 28 at 7am as the server appeared to be down.

Printed newsletters are good for shareholders and enhance investor relationships. Many companies and non-profits have given up on sending printed newsletters to members to save money and to save on trees. This idea may be relevant to my small animal practice to provide new information on small animal health and promotions of health care to my clients and retain them by posting to clients printed newsletters. Holding a newsletter to read is much more effective for the average busy pet owner than having to access the website for news.

In conclusion, should I sell my shares at a loss? No. One analyst recommends $0.19/share to buy in 2009. The market is down. Should I buy more shares to average up when the market recovers? If only I can afford them.

2. Making a connection - marketing yourself

2008-11-20T13:12:00.001-08:00

Marketing yourself to get what you want. How do you do it? Basically it boils down to what is the interest of the other party you are marketing to.

1. First impressions.
If you really wish to get the house you like and has a chance to talk to the Landlord, you have one foot at the door. In this case, first impressions count. Obviously, if you dress in dirty clothing, you are out of the game.

2. Be Prepared.
If you bring along your testimonials and character references to let the Landlord view them, it will be great. No doubt, the Australian Landlord leaves it to the realtor to view your papers and do the necessary check up. You assume all realtors are professionals and honest. Like all service providers, there are black sheep and laggards. Therefore, if the Landlord has viewed your papers and if the realtor said bad things about you owing to various reasons, the Landlord will notice the discrepancies.

I have Singapore students e-mailing to me wanting to see practice in Toa Payoh Vets without saying much about why I should welcome them. I am surprised that many of them don't even bother to send in their resume or character reference. One girl from a top JC even told me that she had not started her "resume-writing" course yet and therefore did not have a resume. Some applicants come without bringing in any educational certificates for the interview. Some mothers accompany the girl or two girls come at the same time.

3. Know what the Landlord likes to talk about. At the first meeting, both of you will talk about the rental house. It does not stop you from chatting about the Landlord's profession, hobbies and families. Although such matters may seem invasion of privacy, you may not want to talk about such topics in case the Landlord gets offended. If you don't try, how do you know? If the Landlord says he loves Bali, you can carry on the conversation about Bali (if you have read widely). What is Bali famous for? Why is it so attractive to Australians? Culture, Nature, Beaches, Business, Dances, Arts.....................................

As you engage the Landlord in his favourite topic, he remembers you. All other students usually talk about terms and conditions and yet you are able to carry on a conversation of interest to him. Obviously, you must be well read to be able to do it. But if you can do it, I can say that 99% of the time, the Landlord will favour you as his tenant.

4. Follow-up. If you read about successful people, many of them do follow-up.

In conclusion, making a connection to the prospective customer/landlord is what will enable you to be more successful in closing the deal.

1. What should I create?

2008-11-09T14:28:00.000-08:00

Create something. Don't waste your spare time consuming especially spending long hours on online gaming till you become bleary eyed at 4 a.m before they sleep. Night becomes day and day becomes night for the addicted online gaming youths.

I often advise young people who consulted me at the veterinary surgery regarding their pet's health to create (some products or services) so that they don't become poor when they are retrenched. I advise them not just surviving day to day by earning a livelihood as an employee. After work, they spend money on consumer goods and waste their youth enjoying.

How do you do it? I wish I have the answer for you.

As I watched the youths strumming their guitars and beating the drums intensively gazing on the LED screen to the songs in the Guitar Hero World Tour games, I remembered reading about the founders of Guitar Hero. They were two undergraduates (I think) who had created this concept and made it work. They must be very rich now as Guitar Hero games are reported to have sold 23 million units and earn US$1.6 billion in retail. As you can from the pictures, Guitar Hero resonates with the young as they become instant rock guitarists, drummers and singers without having to take lessons.

Create based on their strengths and the needs of the Singapore or global market. See how you can make use of the internet to create your product or services.

I can only provide some examples from my reading of the successes of other people.

Translation services. An English literature graduate in Singapore with a sound knowledge of the Korean language will research into what are needed by the Korean and Singapore consumers. As an example, there are successful people who provide a translation service online successfully.

Real estate services. As an agent, there is little capital involved unlike a real estate investor. Some months ago, I had an old house in Yio Chu Kang. I had this concept of renting it out short term to Myanmar nationals who come to Singapore for jobs and want cheap rentals. It would be too expensive to renovate to compete with the new condos and houses. I spoke to a Myanmar lady who wanted to start her own business and get away from being a salaried veterinary technician working for a Singapore vet.

"No Myanmar people will rent the house as it is too far from the subway," she knew it took about 30 minutes to walk to the subway. "They rent HDB rooms near the subway."

Since she had no better business, I proposed collaboration. She did not need to pay rentals or anything to me. She was to manage and market the property to her country men and we split the net profits in the middle. Some 6 months later, Shirley has more clients than she could accommodate and her net income was around $2,000 to $3,000. To Singaporeans, this amount might mean peanuts. When you consider that the graduate in Myanmar earns less than $300 per month, this amount is large.

"You and your husband must have thought I was nuts when I talked to you about the concept," I asked them yesterday. They nodded their head. Two of their friends started the same business but even with this sub-prime mortgage crisis, Shirley still has tenants keeping her busy.

Then I spoke about another business concept appropriate for her. There were a handful of tour agencies marketing Myanmar tourism in Singapore.

Why not market Myanmar tourism to Buddhists, Singaporean families and young people? What did she say? She said: "No Singaporean will want to visit Myanmar. The Singapore Tourist Promotion Board wants a $100,000 start-up capital. There will be no business. You will lose money."

Yet there is a trend in more and more Singaporeans taking holidays. Myanmar is nearby and the costs are relatively low compared to going to Australia with its very high airport tax. So, I can see a high probability of a small success in this venture as she has her Myanmarese contacts at Yangon and in the other states. I went on an exploratory expedition to Myanmar in October 1, 2008 and took 3 Singaporeans as "guinea pigs." Did the guinea pigs enjoy the tour? I did.

One swallow does not make a summer. Shirley is not convinced 100% of the viability of my concept. Belief, Passion, Drive and Perseverance. Shirley has the perseverance if she is convinced that there is money to be made. Yet, without belief, passion and drive, success is limited.

CREATE NOT CONSUME

Well, I will let you know some months later the end of the story if I am able to instill belief, passion and drive in Shirley.

Create, not consume young people. Obviously, you can't be successful in every nutty project you think of. You must be hands on and be prepared to fail. Failure is the mother of success. Provided you don't get knocked out, hands on experience in your project will create small successes for you.