Location, location, location. For some businesses, this mantra is do or die, for others not so much so. But how do you choose the ideal location for your business? There are many factors to consider but here are just a few.

What Type Of Business Are You?

Does your business require hundreds, or even thousands of people walking in or around your shop/ outlet? Does you business require this large foot traffic to sustain itself or to make sales? Examples of this type of business would be Dunkin Donuts or Starbucks.

Are you just looking for a base of operation, such as an office? If so, you would be looking for a completely different location to that of the above requirement.

I Need High Foot Traffic

If you need a lot of people to walk past or around the general vicinity as your outlet, such as a food outlet, then good choices of a location are shopping malls and shop lots that are located near office buildings.

To actually see how many people there are in an area you are interested in, you should visit the area everyday for a week. Bring a small hand counter and go to the area at the times of the day where your type of business would typically get the most business (for a food outlet, this could be during breakfast, lunch, tea time and dinner) and count how many people walk past your chosen location during that time. You can later use this number for a financial analysis of business in the area.

Also important is to make note what is the general audience in that area. Are they mostly young executives? Or are they mostly middle aged managers? Your product may be more suitable to one group than the other and you need to know this.

I Just Need An Office

If you just need an office, look for somewhere within 30 minutes from where you work, as any further would probably cost you more in toll and petrol in the long run. If you already have staff, somewhere convenient for them to get to with ample parking would be a good idea as well.

For offices in relatively good locations at a lower cost, you may want to look out for small shopping malls that aren’t frequented by large numbers of people. Some of them have annex blocks where they sell or rent office space. A good deal may be found here as not everyone knows about them.

You can discuss this further at: TheBusinessSuit.com – How To Choose A Business Location

In one of my first posts on my blog, I showed how I resigned from my job to pursue my own undertakings in an Internet business. In hindsight, there are some things I should have considered more thoroughly before jumping ship.

Financial Security

When you work, you get paid; it’s as simple as that. When you are working for yourself, you only get paid when you complete a successful sale or transaction. It could be a lot more than how much you were earning when you were working, or it could be a lot less. You don’t want to have to give up your business dream just because you ran out of money due to not saving enough before you quit your job.

Do You Have The Time?

What you have to ask yourself is if it’s possible to balance work, life as well as a side business all at the same time? Depending on your type of business, it may be completely possible (e-bay, blogging etc.) but for others, there are just not enough hours in the day to do two jobs at once. Even now, I figure that I run about a 7 to 8 hour day (although my working hours do start and stop late at night) so I probably would not have been able to balance a business and work.

Have You Got A Game Plan?

Above I mentioned that in hindsight I maybe would have stayed a little longer, but now that I have a plan, I’ve no regrets. Succeed or fail, at least I’ve got a plan to stick to which gives me the best shot of success.

But have you got a game plan? Before you resign, set aside some time and write out a 3 month plan. It could look something like this:

Month 1: Goal? E.g. have the articles for the website ready.

Week 1: Target? E.g. have prepared 7 of the 30 articles required.

Day 1 – 7: Specific Tasks? E.g. day 1, article 1, day 2 article 2 etc.

Repeat for 3 months. You need to be as specific as what to do on each day, as if you are not, you will wander aimlessly in trying to start up your business. You cannot be ambiguous in your daily goals, it has to be specific.

When you have your 3 month day by day plan (which you think you can stick to) ready, saved enough finances, consulted with your family, then go ahead, make your day. Resign from your job. But be prepared for many challenges ahead.

Most people might not know what del.icio.us is or how it works. For ease of typing, I’ll refer to it as ‘delicious’ since when you type in the word ‘delicious’ in Google, the first result is del.icio.us anyway.

This is delicious.

So what is delicious? Chocolates? No, delicious is a social bookmarks manager that allows you to bookmark any webpage using your choice of keywords to remind you of what that page was. You can access delicious from any internet browser, hence having access to your bookmarks from anywhere in the world.

The old way of keeping bookmarks of useful pages was to create a new folder in Mozilla/ IE/ Netscape etc and add bookmarks one by one to your bookmarks list. To retrieve them back you would have to 1) have access to the same computer you bookmarked with and 2) search through the bookmarks based on the website name alone.

Both are quite cumbersome things to do just to search for a website you thought would help for your article/ project as 1) you don’t have access to the same computer all the time and 2) searching through bookmarks by website name may lead you to not finding the specific page you wanted. If you did, it probably took some time.

The Delicious toolbar.

Personally, I have the Mozilla Del.icio.us toolbar installed on the computers that I use regularly for research. At a click of a button, you can add a bookmark, along with all the tags you need to help you find that website again at a future date. The toolbar will automatically update your online account (which is FREE) and update your bookmark database.

You can then access you bookmarks from any other computer with the toolbar installed, or just go to the del.icio.us website.

Hope this tip saves you time and effort when you are doing you future business research. It sure helped me.

The first option you have is to register your business online through the government portal and the SSM website. However as you can see from my previous post about registering a business online, this can be quite a time consuming and ultimately frustrating thing.

If you would prefer to do it quickly (but not any less frustrating I might add) then all you need to do is head over to the SSM building located at ‘The Mall’ in KL city.

Registering your business can be done at their main counter. However, you have to be wary of all the offices located directly outside the SSM business registration counter. They have ’sales men’ standing right outside their offices shouting at you to “come register with us! we do it damn quickly” and it sounds almost like a market place.

“Mari mari! mari mari!”

Although they may seem dodgy, if you want to spend a little extra cash minus all the hassle, you can ask one of them to register your business name for you. They’ll charge around RM20 plus to sign up and submit your forms for you.

If not, just walk right past them and go to the information counter. They’ll tell you exactly where to go to sign up your business. And if you’re not sure, just ask around, someone will surely know what they’re doing.

Here’s a list of SSM offices around Malaysia you can go to if you can’t get to the KL office.

It costs exactly the same as registering online which is about RM60 per business name with additional fees for signing up partners and branches.

The SSM information counter is located on the ground floor of the mall, on the opposite side of the shopping mall as the department store. Just follow the signs and listen for the people shouting!

I’ve been looking around for a virtual office recently, just so that when I print out business cards, at least it will look more professional.

My original idea was to rent a PO Box from the post office, but who would take you seriously if you had a PO Box address as your office address?

A virtual office provides services at different costs, depending on your needs. The most expensive of these costs is when you have a serviced office which you can use to conduct meetings with clients. The virtual office business will charge you an hourly rate for the use of the meeting room and you will have to book in advance.

The other services you can pay for are mail forwarding, secretary service (someone will actually answer your call and can be taught to answer basic questions about your business, product or service) and fax/ telephone services.

The benefits of using a virtual office in Malaysia are:

• You can register your business address as theirs and use it on your business card. (You can even register their business address with SSM)
• Your business will have an address in good location. (This helps build credibility and prospects may take you more seriously. Virtual offices usually are located in good locations in KL and PJ)
• You don’t need to pay rent. (You can hire the serviced office on a pay as you go basis)
• You have a fax/ telephone number that clients can contact. (Faxes can be forwarded automatically to your email, but if you use their telephone number, you’ll have to pay for the secretary services as well.)
• You can work from home but no one will know… haha.

The cons of a virtual office are:

• You think you have an office, but you actually DON’T. (But hopefully if you start making money in your business, then you can go buy or rent a REAL office… oh how we dream)

Depending on your budget, there are plenty of serviced/ virtual office services you can pay for in Malaysia. Some are more affordable than others, but they should all offer a professional service.

[Update January 2009 - By far the easiest way to register a business is actually by doing it manually. The SSM website has changed, is not very user friendly and takes up to 1 week to process.

Going to SSM and registering yourself will take no more than 2 hours.]

[Update August 2008: Additionally, you can download all the steps I have listed below in an easy to read .pdf file that I took the time to create. And yes, it's FREE! Click here.]

Here are all the steps required to register your business as a sole proprietor in Malaysia. And the best thing about it is it’s online!

Bookmark this post, tell all your friends and family and forward everyone you know this link. Now no one can use the excuse, ‘I don’t know how to register a business, so I won’t start one’ anymore!

Step 1 – Warning

Use Internet Explorer, as there’s a problem with Mozilla in the later stages of the application process and you won’t be able to use some important sections of the e – gov pages.

Although the government sites claim to be available 24 hours a day, I found that the payment pages didn’t work on the weekend and also outside of business hours. Whether or not the system was down for maintenance, I don’t know, but it won’t tell you that the site is down, it’ll just refuse to accept payment.

So I would suggest registering your business name on weekdays and during working hours.

Also, please be prepared to click through ALOT of links, as the process flow of the government portal SUCKS. Just be calm, be Zen and everything should go smoothly for you if you follow my instructions. (Now if only I had some instructions to follow)

Alternatively, you could do all this manually at The Mall opposite PWTC, but I refuse to.

Step 2 – Create an account with ‘mygovernment’

Go to the registration page for the ‘mygovernment’ web page and select your category. Mine was ‘Malaysian citizen’.

The next page will ask for your details, such as age, sex, IC number, address etc. Fill in all the details on the page.

Apparently, if you’re not sure what sex you are, you may select the option ‘doubt’. If you don’t believe me try signing up and clicking the ‘gender’ tab.

Be warned that there are bugs in the form, such as when I tried to check if my user name was available. It gave me the following page. I suggest just choose a user name and fill in the rest of the details first. When you click next, it’ll tell you if the name is being used or not anyway.

Once all the details are filled, you will get to the ‘registration successful’ page. You now have to wait for them to send a confirmation e-mail to your registered e-mail address, saying that you have been added to the system.

It didn’t take too long for me, about a half hour… but I’m sure times will vary, just be patient.

Once the e-mail arrives, congratulations! You’re now registered with ‘mygovernment’.

Step 3 – Become Frustrated

OK, at this point, you’ve registered with the ‘mygovernment’ website. However, you will need to register an account on ANOTHER government body site, called ‘Suruhanjaya Syarikat Malaysia’ or ‘Companies Commission of Malaysia’.

I don’t know why they have to complicate things like this, but hey, that’s how things work in Malaysia.

After a lot of digging through on my own and to cut a long story short, the next step is to register with SSM. (Click the link)

At the bottom of the page, select ‘ROB‘ and click ‘open form‘. The next page it opens is the personal information that you input when you registered with ‘mygovernment’ in step 2. Make sure it’s correct and click ‘finish‘.

Once it saves, it will take you back to the original page (shown above). Click ‘submit‘ to continue.

Unfortunately, nothing in life is free. The next page will ask for payment.

It’s a RM5 subscription fee (yearly i think). I used my credit card to pay. Just enter your credit card details and click ‘pay‘. The box labeled ‘security code‘ is the 3 digit number on the back of your credit card, or sometimes referred to as a CVS number.

You will then be issued an online receipt. Print out a copy and keep this aside in case of future needs.

You will need to renew your SSM membership one year from the day you joined, in case you want to sign up any more business names.

Click ‘close‘ to proceed to the next step.

Step 4 – Application of business name approval (ROB)

OK now you have to apply for your business name to be approved. This step is because there are certain business names that you can’t use due to certain words being gazetted. Please see the gazetted (ie prohibited) words and the registration guide for a business name. For example, naming a restaurant King of Kings would probably not be allowed.

Firstly, go to the SSM- Application For Business Name Approval (ROB) and scroll to the bottom of the page. You may have to login again.

Click ‘Open Form‘ and fill in all the details of your business.
At this point it’ll be good to point out that they can refuse your business name if it is misleading to the nature of your business. So don’t go applying for business names like ‘Make Money for Free Enterprise’ or something like that. It’ll just get refused.

I was refused the business name ‘Inside the Box’ several times until I got fed up and chose the name ‘Inside the Box Web Services’. The previous name was refused several times due to a ‘misleading nature’ of the business name as deemed by SSM.

Once all the information is filled in, click ‘finish‘ and it will take you back to the main page again. Scroll to the bottom and click ‘submit‘ it will ask you if you are sure. Click ‘yes‘.

Print out a copy of the transaction and then you’ll have to wait for them to approve the use of your chosen business name. Once they do they will send you an e-mail, after you get approval proceed to step 5 below.

Step 5- Online Registration of Business (ROB)

Now that you’ve completed all the frustrating steps above, you can now register your business using your approved business name.

First, go to the link SSM – Online Registration of Business (ROB) and login again if they ask you to.

Scroll to the bottom of the page where it says ‘step 1‘ and click ‘open form A‘.

Page 2

Fill in all the details that you see. (Page 1 is just details about yourself. Page 2 asks you to select your business type and verify your details.)

The very first line, ‘Name approval No.’ is the reference number of your ROB name approval from step 4 above. It will be in the subject heading of the e-mail you will receive from SSM approving the use of your business name.

Click ‘Verify Name Approval No.‘ and it will automatically fill in the box labelled ‘business name‘ if the name was approved.

click ‘next‘ when you’re done and proceed to page 2.

On page 2, click the link ‘object code table‘ and type in the type of business you will be operating. So I typed in ‘Internet‘ and it gave me 2 choices, internet cafe or internet services. I chose internet services.

After verifying the details, click ‘finish‘ and it will bring you back to the original screen. Scroll down and click ‘Open form branch info (new form)‘ under ‘step 2‘.

Fill in all the details that you see and click ‘finish‘ again.

Be warned that the system is not the most stable in the world. You may have to re-save or re-finish Form A before it lets you move on to the next form. If on the main page there is a red * next to the form buttons, it means you have to go back to the form and re-submit some data or there was an error in your submission.

Next select ‘Open Form Branch Info (New Form)‘. Fill in the details about your branch location. Click ‘Finish‘ when done.

Next click ‘print form A and Branch info‘ and print yourself a copy of your forms.

Click the ‘back’ button on your browser to go back to the main screen when you’re done printing.

Scroll down to ’step 3′ and click the small link of the number 1 that you see under the sentence ‘please fill in all the required information’.

Why is this step so weird? I don’t know, that’s how I had to do it.

Now although it looks like there are more steps to complete (ie step 4 and step 5) after much frustration and through calling SSM, I found out that unless you have a business partner, you don’t have to upload any supporting documents.

So click ‘submit‘ and proceed to payment.

It will cost you RM60 for each year that you register as well as RM5 for each branch of your business that you register. Again I am going to pay with my credit card. Select the payment method that you wish and click ‘pay‘.

Fill in the details and click ‘pay’ again. Print yourself a copy of your receipt and you’re done!

They will e-mail you a copy of your business details in .pdf format. Print one to file away.

The email will also instruct you (in Malay again) to print out one copy and keep it on display at your place of business (which for me is the wall attached to my room).

It will take 24 hours to process your documents. If you can find your business name at SSM Registration and Business Search application, then:

Congratulations! You are now the proud owner of your very own business (well business name anyway.)

Now go make some money you BUM!

I recently read a very interesting article about how to start a startup. The essay was written all the way back in 2005 by Paul Graham, the creator of a number of successful web applications including the back bone for the ‘Yahoo Store’ application, Yahoo’s answer to e-Bay.

Although he writes the essay from the point of view of a web programmer, a lot of what he says has relevance no matter what field of business you are in.

The original essay can be found here.

He breaks it down into 3 key points.

1) The Idea

He states that you need to MAKE SOMETHING PEOPLE ACTUALLY WANT.

He points out that you need not have a brilliant idea to start a business, just offer people something better than they have now. This may be in the form of technology or just offering a better service.

In his words, more often than not, what is available sucks and all YOU have to do is provide something to them which doesn’t suck. Overly simplistic perhaps, but true.

And adding my 2 cents worth, if you make something based wholly on the amount of money you can make from it, more often than not you’ll probably lose focus and stop listening to what your customers are saying. So focus on your customers, in the end they’re the ones paying for your product/ service anyway.

Keep working hard at it and the money will surely come.

2) The people

He has quite a good rule for choosing the best people for his company. His rule is, could you describe a person as an animal? Like for example, if you really need to get a web page designed fast and of the highest quality, would this guy work like an animal to get it done?

Would he stay till 4a.m every night of the last week making sure the website works? If so, you’ve found your man/ woman.

From my point of view, I’ve realized that I don’t think I’ll be able to design and run my website all by myself (although I’ve tried) and I’ve finally decided that I need help. The best help comes from your friends, so I’m gonna see if 1 of my friends this weekend wants to come on board.

Although most people (including myself) has the greatest urge to keep something they’ve created to themselves, in reality that doesn’t happen.

I remember when I went to the YouthMalaysia.com conference, one of the speakers was talking about how reluctant people are about sharing their business with a VC. But he makes a good point in saying,

“There’s no point in having a business all to yourself if it doesn’t see the light of day.”

3) Spending As Little As Possible

In his article, Paul describes that he had to raise funds to develop his software. When you actually get these funds, there’s a perverse thought that you are actually rich. But you’re not.

If you started off poor and ask for money to develop something, that money has a purpose. Which means you are still poor.

He explains that in the 1997 internet bubble burst, what happened was that alot of startups were given loads of money when they were floated on the stock market. At this point, it seemed like the companies were rich and what do big rich companies do? They hire people.

And that’s what they did. Hire and spend and hire and spend forgetting that the money was raised to develop a product in the first place.

So if you do manage to raise some VC or angel funds for your business, keep in mind that you’re still poor but have a chance to make something of your business with the money you’ve been lent.

Boot strap as much as possible, that’s what I’ve been trying to do this whole time.

Hence designing my site myself and trying to do as many things as possible at the lowest cost.

Even my home office was as cheap as I could make it.

I suggest you give the original article a read through as it is quite enlightening. It enlightened me that I can’t do everything myself no matter how hard I try. Be inspired from it, learn something new and who knows? You may even want to start your own business.

On a side note, the process for registering my business name is slowly slowly coming along. Will post a really long post on how I did it soon. (I hope.)

Cheers!