Money Tells Stories

MANAGING CASH FLOW EFFECTIVELY

2011-12-27T15:00:00.000-08:00

Dear friends,

How many of you have heard of the phrase "Cash is King"? I believe many of have. Why is cash King? This is because cash is the lifeblood of any company. It reflects the financial health of your business. The in and out of your cash flow will be the determining factor on how you manage your finances. If the inflow of money is not sufficient to cater for the needs of the business, it may somehow affect the viability of the company. Hence, cash flow is a key element of the success of any business. Without cash flow, the profits are meaningless.

Some profitable business may even end up in bankruptcy or be wound up, should the amount of money flowing out is not comparative to the amount of money flowing in. Companies that has no good management of cash flow may not be able to make the investments necessary to compete, or may be forced to pay more in its loan activity.

Because of its crucial importance, I would like to share some tips with you on how to manage the cash flow effectively:

1. Make a projection of cash flow over a periodic of time.

Always determine how much the inflow before determining the future cash to be spent. Pay accordingly to the priority especially if there is a heavy penalty fee imposed should you not settle on or before its due date. Interest and overdue charges may be very expensive and this is an added expense for your business.

2. Cash collection needed to be reviewed and improved constantly.

To encourage your clients to pay on time or earlier is a wise move. Alternatively, you may request some down payments for ordered purchases, if applicable. Review and monitor receivables regularly and identify those that are about to become due.

3. Try not to pay debts earlier than due date even if there is cash available for you to do so, always on due date.

Establishing a good pay master track record with your suppliers will help you build goodwill for your company. This will assist you in obtaining more flexible and better payment terms and conditions.

4. You may make good use of the surplus funds at any period of time to earn some interest income by placing them into the money market. The quantum of interest income generated is very much dependent on the period of the available surplus fund and the interest regime at that particular time.

Therefore, it is very rewarding for anyone who is willing to work hard and smart to accomplish strong cash flow. To do so, you are required to analyze and manage your cash flow more effectively and fruitfully.

By now, you are able to see how cash flow will determine failure and success of any business. Sometimes one will have to a pay heavy price for just stretching the payment terms.

James Oh

FOCUSED FINANCIAL PLAN

2011-12-19T04:34:00.001-08:00

MONEY IS ENERGY

2011-12-17T04:24:00.001-08:00

Respect the life energy you are putting into your job. Money is simply something you trade your life energy for. Trade it with purpose and integrity for increased earnings. Ask yourself: Am I making a living or making a dying?

— Joe Dominguez and Vicki Robin, Your Money or Your Life

left and right brain education

2011-12-13T05:21:00.001-08:00

HOW TO ACHIEVE SUSTAINABLE BUSINESS GROWTH

2011-11-24T05:14:00.001-08:00

A very warm welcome to this talk.

How many of you have difficulties in sustaining your business? Pause.

Everyone knows how easy it is to start a business. The REAL Challenge is to sustain it and making big profits.

Today I am going to share with you some Proven Tips on how to sustain business growth and make real profits.

To proceed further, I like to use this UNIQUE tea port to illustrate the following 4 points.

a) Design
b) Message
c) Trade Mark
d) Something New

Point 1. It is obviously clear that this tea pot was created for far more than its intended functions and features. Because its design is so Amazingly Beautiful, it makes it suitable to be as a decorative item after use.

This illustrates the point that we can't afford to ignore Design should we desire to sustain this business growth.

Again, Apple is using this Proven tip to create an ultra thin and wide screen for its iPhone to get its product noticed. Thus, it has successfully created and added value in the users' perspective.

Point 2. By incorporating a popular quotation at the surface of this pot, the people may connect it with the creator whenever they see the tea pot and hence have a high tendency to form a long lasting memory of the creator in their minds.

Therefore, the purpose of crafting a satisfying narrative is to get the message in sustaining this business.

In this connection, Apple is sending a clear message of simplicity as its identity seen consistently throughout all its products.

Point 3. The trade mark at the bottom of this pot, not only reflects the creator's identity in term of its specialty, uniqueness, and other talents, but also serves as an attractive power for people to unearth its underlying story.

Similar concept also has been employed by all the long successful corporations. Apple for instance, has been successful in creating an Impression of high quality for its products, apart from its simplicity as its identity.

Point 4. With the above smart strategies, its creator has indirectly enhance its new usage. This tea port is also used as a hedging tool against inflation amongst its collectors. Hence, it stays significantly relevant at all times and continuously enjoy long and lasting business growth over many centuries. In short, it is obviously creating not only new demand but remains a significant contributor in the global economy.

Such strategies employed by Apple for the introduction of its new products such as iPad, which is far more superior than iPhone and Laptop. Hence, it delivers SOMETHING that we do NOT EVEN KNOW THAT we ARE MISSING by Combining email, internet browser and social network into something new.

With this, a new product is born by combining 3 devices into 1 device. I repeat, it is not 3 separate devices, but 1 device.

With the above 4 points, I am very sure that you will find them useful when you plan your future business to ensure that it can sustain the business and make REAL profit.

In conclusion, it is critically important to remember that starting business is very easy, the real challenge is how we can sustain the business for the real long term profit.

With my 4 points explained earlier, you can use it wisely and diligently to ensure your success in sustaining any business of your choice. With this, I wish you all the best of luck.

James Oh

http://my.linkedin.com/pub/oh-james/12/a11/29b

http://www.facebook.com/people/James-Oh/706849667

http://www.facebook.com/people/James-Oh/706849667#!/pages/Lift-You-Up-Always-there-for-You/176685462397920

Skype me at james.oh18

E-COMMERCE CONTENT AND WHY WE ARE SUITABLE FOR THIS CREATIVE FUNCTION

2011-11-02T19:42:00.000-07:00

Web shop product pages can be very wideeffective powerful marketing tools, if they are appropriately dressed withappealing and interesting lively contexts. However, it is sad to see manyhave neglected their pages on the Web due to several reasons best known tothem. Too often, small shop owners are inclined to offer only basicdetails about an item on product pages. This does not give potential andbusy prospects much help. As such, great potential businessesmay be lost.

With keen competition like today's technologyworld, a basic e-commerce product description that includes only size and colorchoices and a product image is just not sufficiently enough. This is becausethis will not do as well in Google searches as you potentiallycould. Obviously, brief descriptions do not always provide enoughinformation to lead shoppers to make a purchase.

To be effective, every product page on your siteshould not only be unique, compelling and contain your very best salescopy. A product description should not only incorporate your searchengine keywords, but also be persuasive to convince the prospects to act.

Now, you can vividly see the importance ofthe E-commerce contents which play a crucial role to convert leads into sales,and they are very much dependent on their writer. The writer will be the artistwho not only knows the prospects' needs, but also will be able to stir theiremotions so as to conclude the deals. As such, the writer is able to make theproduct description as an appetizer: use it to give customers atantalizing taste of your product with a creative description so as tocreate Good E-commerce Products Page Descriptions that ranks well,according to the Google index system.

In this connection, web shop owners shouldengage a blogger if they cannot write an original descriptions for theirproduct pages. This is because they need to give their customers freshcontent that stands out from the rest of hundreds of other small Web shopsselling the same merchandise if they want to have extra ordinary resultsfor themselves.

To achieve this effective end, the writerneeds to conduct proper research on the product and decide which characteristicsmost appeal to consumers. When writing this desired e-commerce content,the particulars on how the product works needs to be included. Suggestions toconsumers on how the item can address their problems or needsshould be emphasised. For instance, give consumers' ideas on how the itemcan fit into their lifestyle or home or enhance their value.

When writing your product description, alwaysremember to write for your intended audiences' perspective. For instance, ifyour site sells toys and games, you will then need to mention thingslike skills children would apply in using the game. Here, you would talk aboutthe benefit in a tone suited to the parent and not the child because often, itis the parent or other adults making the purchase decision.

Incorporate Keywords and Product Reviews

Apart from the above, you also need torework and include content that is search-engine friendly and helpful toyour shoppers. To do so, you need to edit the product description toinclude your keywords. Therefore, the goal is to be selected consistentlywhen important keywords are used and at the same time it grammaticallymakes sense as well.

Forexample, if your keyword phrase is “hunting knife” don’t refer to the item as“knife” in your product description. You would use something like this: “Thishunting knife is rugged and durable…”

You can also give search engine extra content tocrawl by offering user-generated product reviews right on the individual itempage. Customers who have purchased the product may describe usefulness andother features you don’t mention in your own product description. The otherbenefit is that positive product reviews can help the customers make thepurchase decision.

Add Call-to-Action to your Product Page

Another beneficial change you can make on yourproduct page is to link related products within the product description. For instance, if the item is part of a set of products, creating a link tothose related product pages will be very helpful to boost your sales.

You can also link to other relevant products.For example, if you own a tea shop, you can mention and link to the matchingtea utensils or accessories from accessories page. This makes it easier forcustomers to see related items and encourages them to buy more.

Call-to-action statements are important and notto be neglected. A call-to-action sales statement that engages customers andcreates a sense of urgency to encourage them to make the purchase. You desireto push customers to check it out now and not later.

Manye-retailers place these statements on their main Web shop or main categorypages, but they should also include the call-to-action right on product pagenear the “add to cart” or “check-out” buttons.

Some of call-to-action statements may be used;“10 per cent discount till a certain day", "Free shipping ends inthree days,” or “Free membership for a year."

Grammar and Spelling Count

Grammar and spelling are very important so as togive a professional look that can create good impression from yourprospects. Grammar and well-written e-commerce content plays crucial roleson how customers perceive you. This will build customer trust; they will feellike they’re dealing with a professional individual or business.

Once you have your e-commerce content written,continue to proof read and edit until it is perfect. It is often difficult tospot your own mistakes, so find an articulate friend to read the e-commercecopy for you. Better still you may hire a professional freelancer who willensure that you offer excellent, content throughout your e-commerce site.

To hire such a blogger with the abovecompetency and required skills should not be overlooked andthe efforts can be very greatly rewarded.

From the above discussion, a blogger also needto know the topics with passion, then he can write in creative andeffective ways to give your e-commerce page the desired results you want. Assuch, this well deserves your serious consideration and evaluation.

In this connection, I am glad to tell you that I fit well into the abovecriteria and will be able to meet your expectation.

James Oh

Skype me at james.oh18

SUCCESS; HOW TO ACHEIVE PERPETUAL

2011-10-30T19:43:00.000-07:00

Very happy day to you,

On behalf of MONEY TELLS STORIES, we warmly welcome you to our website. Your visit toour site indicates your interest to seek improvement that can really make adifference to you, your loved ones and your people. As such, we, at this blog, areconstantly trying our best to fulfill your and our dreams to make a better tomorrow.

Today, we are going todwell on something very useful with the intention you too will be lifted up atthe end of the day. Permit me to bring in my preceding article, Success is sopredictable which you may refresh yourself by clicking the link below.

To enhance its understanding further, our discussion today on how to achieveperpetual success should be view as a supplementary to this already populartopic and we hope you reap the maximum benefits out of it.

In order to achieve its end, there are the steps we need to go throughthoroughly with you as follow:-

1. BELIEVE INIT

First, we must recognise the truth of the power of human minds. Itmakes us distinguish distinctly from animals and make us the Kings in thisplanet. When we can conceive and believe in it, we can make it. As such, it isof paramount important that we are able to align our belief system into whatbelieve. Believing that it works will drive our mind to search for solutions tomake it happen. In one of my preceding articles, I do encourage you to replacethe word "I'm Possible" to "impossible". By doing so, youwill remove the top most obstacle in your mind. Thereafter, you may ask further:-How to make it happen?

2. DO NOT LETTRADITION PARALYSE OUR MINDS

Many of us; knowingly and unknowingly; are in a way conditioningour minds by the surroundings events we are exposed to. In a way, we are alsoinfluenced by such circumstances. If left un-check, we will be drag into thebeliefs of the majority who aimed to please the society we are living in. As aresult, we are also ingrained with such behaviour and are hesitant to change.Sad to say that only changes can bring us progress.

Conversely, we need to be receptive to new ideas, so to speak. Be experimentingwith new ideas and do learn from your mistakes. Never be afraid of makingmistakes. Mistake actually shows us the right path to our discovery. ThomasEdison made 5,000 mistakes before he invented a light bulb. As such, I like tosay that there is no failure in itself. Mistake indicates that this is not theright path to Success. You see now that failure is a small success in itself becauseyou have discovered that this is not the right path. Try other path, this isall about. Hope I have not confused you. If I do, please continue to read. Youmay be clearer by the end of the article. If not, give it a deep thought.

3. BE CREATIVE

Just by believingin it will not bring you success, unless you put it into action. Then, how canCreativity come into play? Please share with us your thoughts. To me, it comesin many ways:- it not only helps us to find an intelligent short cut to solveour problems in hand; it may also give us solutions to overcome the constraintswe are currently facing such as compliance to the legal requirements; resourcesand etc. It may also prompt us to re-look into other possibilities such as theprocesses involved. Here, you may reinvent the wheel or re-engineer theprocesses involved or the methods such as automation and etc.

Creativity offersus ways to solve our problems. Be mindful that if you want to stand out in thecrowd, then creativity is one of the possible ways. Another thing I need you torealise is that creativity is crucially required in all professionals namely Law;Accountancy; Architects etc..

In view of the keen competitive marketing environment, creativityand innovation play a very important role in the business especially for thoselooking for a sustainable growth model.

4. CONSTANTLYREVIEW AND INCREASE YOUR CAPACITY

Feeling is a stateof mind, so is Capacity. Frequently asking yourself to increase your capacitywill open doors to your minds to look for intelligent shortcuts. As some of youmay be aware that I started to work at a very young age, in order to find timefor my study. I learn to search for intelligent shortcut namely multi-taskingwhich I learn from my mum to save time. To achieve perpetual success inanything, you need to do better (in term of its processes, control) ; andincrease the output ( in term of quality and quantity of its output.) In short,To do less and get more.

5. CONSTANTLY IMPROVING

To achieve perpetual success is to constantly asking yourself todo better than yesterday. Be mindful that self improvement has no limit. Listento its answer in echo. Ask and you will get it.

No surprise that life learning is inevitable.

6. CONSTANTLYVIGILANT

Be observant at all times. Ask and listen whenever you can so asto ensure that you make sound decisions. Listen more and speak less so that youdo not miss out on any opportunity. Observe and learn from those successfulpeople, which were well advocated in Napoleon Hill's book, Think and GrowRich. If you have not read, please do yourself a favour and get it now.

7. STRETCH OURMINDS TO ITS MAXIMUM

To achievethis end, you need to constantly stimulate your mind. I learn from theMathematics stimulation that there is always a solution where you can find atthe optimum point of anything and everything exactly like those parametersexpressed in Mathematics problem. In real life, we always facing several issues(parameters) and at the same time we need to resolve these issues withconstraints and yet we obtained the best solution out of all possiblesolutions. Therefore, you may need this Mathematics equation to work out thebest solution for your problems in hand.

Trust theabove article is very worth your times and effort. If yes, please help us tospread to others who may need it. Thank you so much.

To our success in making a better tomorrow,

James Oh

Skype me at james.oh18

TAX INCENTIVES FOR BUILDINGS OF GBI

2011-10-11T01:01:00.000-07:00

Happy reading to all of you.

Today, I write to draw your immediate attention and action to thisparticular above mentioned tax incentives.

Here, we are pleased to inform you that the Government of Malaysiahas launched the Green Building Index (GBI) on May 21, 2009 to encourage usageof green technology. GBI is a green rating index on environmental friendlybuildings. This index is based on certain criteria listed as follows:-

a. energy and water efficiency;

b. indoor environment quality;

c. sustainable management and planning of building sites inrespect of pollution control and facilities for workers;

d. usage of recyclable and environmental friendly materials andresources; and

e. adoption of new green technologies

As such, owners of buildings awarded the GBI certificate shall begiven tax exemption equivalent to 100% of the additional capital expenditureincurred to obtain the GBI certificate which can be set-off against 100% of thestatutory income for each year of assessment. The incentive is applicable fornew buildings and upgrading of existing buildings. The incentive is given onlyfor the first GBI certificate issued in respect of the building. Effective forbuildings awarded with GBI certificates from 24 October 2009 until 31 December2014.

In addition to the above, incentives such as stamp duty exemptionon instruments of transfer of ownership of such buildings in respect ofadditional cost incurred to obtain the GBI certificate for purchasers of thebuildings and residential properties from real property developers which areawarded with GBI certificate. Effective for sales and purchase agreementexecuted from the same period mentioned above.

Trust the above is helpful to you. Please direct your circle offriends to this blog should you find it useful. Thank you so much.

Look forward to seeing you again,

James Oh

CREATIVE WORKSHOP

2011-10-03T22:11:00.002-07:00

A happy day to you!

On behalf of Money Tells Stories, Iwarmly welcome you to our website. Your visit to our site indicates yourinterest to seek something that can really make a difference to you AND yourloved ones.

Today, we specially bring to you the creative training of highcontent, activities based and result-driven workshop. They are the resultsof over 20 years of local and international research, study and trainingexperience. Since 1994, thousands people from all walks of lifehave benefited from their proven training programmes from 14 countries aroundthe world.

Confucius says"Give you a fish, it will last you for a meal but teach you fishing, itwill last for the rest of your life." Here, I believe that every parentintend to offer the best gifts to their young ones. You will find this anideal and best for your child. This shall be your last stop and thus,search no more. As from here you will see the unlimited resources, unlimited possibilities and unlimited potentials.

Getting children excitedabout learning is every teacher's top most challenge apart from getting theirattention, participation, and retention. The workshopincorporating creative teaching techniques is the most effective way tospice up their lessons and make it much easier to instill the love for learningamong young children.

Thus, you can be rest assured to count on them to reach their ends through themost unlikely, yet captivating method ie. through MAGIC! This proven and tested method makes learning FUN and enjoyable which some ofyou would not have thought possible. Needless to say that the children whoparticipate will be motivated to learn.

The trainerappears regularly on TV, radio, magazines and newspapers to share herexperiences and she is no other than Teoh Poh Yew. She has also authoredthree books on mathematical magic. She is an inspiring educator that advocates the right attitudes towards learning, in line withConfucius saying, "I see I forget, I read I remember and I do Iunderstand." As such, she has taken teaching and learning to anotherlevel - the magical level.

As such, all educators and parents areencouraged to attend her workshop to make learning fun and meaningful.

Poh Yew’s forthcoming Workshops that will transform the way wedevelop our children

Venue : Tiara Intan Seminar Room,Hotel Singgahsana Petaling Jaya

Time : Workshop 1 – The Art of Effective Teaching

22 October 2011 09:00am –05:00pm

Workshop 2 – Helping Children to Love Maths TheFun & Magical Way

23 October 2011 09:00am – 05:00pm

For more information,

please call Sheila or Tracy at 03-56366223

or email - sheila@kolejdika.com.my

click at the link below for the preceding article:-

MY PERSPECTIVE ON HOW TO HANDLE GLOBAL RECESSION

2011-09-30T19:44:00.000-07:00

Very welcome to money telling blog,

Globally, everywhere is flooded with all the bad news, according to the most of the newspapers, magazines and almost all the media. Therefore, it is hard not to be affected by this news one way or the other. How we are going to deal with it? Here, you may want to share some of your success stories here. Please be reminded that you are always more than welcome to communicate with us. As we have stated before and do not mind to repeat that it is always our intention to make this uplifting blog as a platform to engage with our readers and visitors.

Before I proceed further, I like to share with you the old joke about hard times, which some of you may have heard. It began like this - when your friends are unemployed, it is recession. When you are unemployed, it is depression. Well, you have a choice, either to believe it or reject it.

However it is sad to see people normally get stuck in their beliefs about economy. The issue here is if we worry that there will be inflation or deflation, our attitudes will somewhat cause us to have difficulty because of recession or inflation. Hence, lots of energies are not only wasted, but it may even affect your health. Ask those who had gone through recession or deflation or inflation, how they overcame these? Perhaps some of you like to say something on this.

We must say here - no matter how tough things get, you just can't let them get to you. Be mindful that tough times never last, but tough people do. We hope you get what we mean here. You may click the link below to read our preceding article on this.

Please be reminded that you have got to program yourself to keep expecting and generating boom times. If you keep this healthy attitude, you will soon be booming. We know you may want to tell us that it is not easy, which we do agree with you. However, we must be aware that our minds and imaginations can help us to ride out, to rise above and even prosper in times of both recession and inflation. Trust us, this is not what we said only, but it is a well accepted proven recipe by all the world class motivation gurus. Moreover, it is also accepted truth that our minds cannot differentiate between real and unreal.

One good example is that Delta Airlines doubled the number of airplanes they owned during recession. They told their employees, "We're going to keep all of you working.” The employees were so thankful they helped Delta pay for the planes! Similarly, the word 'Crisis' is well reflected in the Chinese character as opportunity or threat, depending on its beholders.

Therefore, it is safe to say that hard times are just nothing more than a state of mind. Change your state of mind and it will change everything you see. Once you do so, you can change the quality of your life, no matter what happens to the economy.

So, we shall throw the ball to your court and let you give the above discussion a deep thought. Please let us have your feedback thereafter. Choice is yours and we share with you in the hope that you are in a way prepared for this, you will then ride the wave of the tide as it comes.

We have done everything possible to lift you up and if anything else you can think of, please do let us know. As you are well aware the purpose of this blog is always explore the best possible mean to lift our readers up in whatsoever situation they are caught in.

Please do help us to achieve our objectives. Let the logo below shine on us so that we all stay shining at all seasons, like the sun.

Thanks and do stay on reading the articles which are in the pipeline so as to further strengthen us together to face the greater challenge in the near future.

Seeing you again.

James Oh

MISS BUS STOP CONTEST

2011-09-28T02:00:00.000-07:00

Very welcome to this Money Telling Stories Blog,

Life is full of fun and excitement and it can happen everywhere and anywhere. The question is whether you realise it or not.

Congratulation to those who agree with this statement because you truly enjoy the beauty of this world. For those have not, please continue to read this article. Give us a chance to transform you so that you too be able to align your view into this direction.

Today, we decided to call for a MISS BUS STOP contest here. We run this contest with the intention to let our readers be a judge and choose the most beautiful bus stop in the world. Secondly, to give valuable feedback to the service providers to upgrade it to the readers' expectation. Thirdly to treat BUS STOP as more than part of their service, but also as a decoration for the public's viewing, or to reflect our ARTS & CULTURE into our society as a whole.

IN OTHER WORDS MAKE OUR CITY AS PART OF OUR ARTS AND CULTURE - A LEGACY OF OUR VALUES.

Before we proceed further, we like to hear from you your view on BUS STOPS. As far as I am concerned, I used to take bus and train to and from my office when I was working in Singapore. Surprisingly I enjoy the journey very much because I have more opportunities to talk with strangers and share our experiences. I am very fortunate and at times people just give me coins when I run short off of small change during the rush hour especially at MRT station. All these sweet and wonderful experience always registered in my mind as how wonderful human beings are despite Ibeing a foreigner in their country.

Here, may I present you the participants from various countries all over the world. PLEASE SEND US YOUR REPRESENTATIVE IF YOU HAVE ANY IN MIND AND I HAD NOT INCLUDED IN THE CONTEST YET. PLEASE SEND US THE APPROPRIATE FORMAT SO THAT WE CAN ATTACH IT IN OUR BLOGS.

Please welcome the first 9 representatives as follow:-

1. Miss California
2. Miss England
3. Miss Japan
4. Miss Russia
5. Miss France
6. Miss Finland
7. Miss Holland
8. Miss Dubai
9. Miss Italy

California

England

Japan

Russia

France

Finland

Holland

Dubai - Air Condition

Italy

Please send in your candidate via comment column provided below SOONEST POSSIBLE. So, please give your votes to the candidates accordingly to the preference of your choices, No. 1 to 9. Each reader has THREE votes ACCORDING TO YOUR ORDER OF PREFERENCE and you may direct your circle of friends to give vote to your selected candidates.

The next question arises in the event of stalemate situation. How should we resolve it ? Please forward your views. To kick start this discussion, I suggest that we have extra time, extend 3 more days from its official closing time till 11.11.2011 Malaysian time.

Thank you and please vote now and get your supporters to join in. The winners for all best three candidates, ( same order) will be given the best gifts, announced from time to time, from sponsors of this competition.

THE DECISION IS FINAL ONCE THE ANNOUNCEMENT IS MADE VIA THIS BLOG.

We at LIFT YOU UP, decided to give away a book, with our Founder cum CEO's signature, "THE MAGIC OF THINKING BIG" by DAVID J. SCHWARTZ , Ph. D.

To apprehend the value of his signature, please read the link below:-

http://liftyouup.blogspot.com/2011/09/underlying-story-behind-my-signature.html

ALL PRIZES SHALL BE ANNOUNCED IN THIS POST. SO, WE SUGGEST THAT YOU EARMARK THIS PAGE SO AS TO BE UPDATED WITH THE LATEST DEVELOPMENT. ALL THESE PRIZES WILL EVENTUALLY BE DISTRIBUTED OUT BASED ON THE VOTES CLOSEST TO THE WINNER OF THE TOP THREE CANDIDATES.

To our success,

Your Chief Servant

James Oh

http://liftyouup.blogspot.com

To read other related articles, please go to Topic and select Relationship. Thanks and happy reading.

SUCCESS IS SO PREDICTABLE

2011-09-27T03:05:00.000-07:00

Very warm welcome to this uplifting blog,

Today, we decided to write an article on Success, which we believe it isa well sought after topic. The title of this article may cause confusion tosome of you. But sit back and relax. Continue to read it especially those whodisagree with it.

If you find the title is accurate, congratulations to you and you are onyour way there. Some may wonder why I say so, yet so few really attain it. Thisis because you need to acquire the skill to see the invisible, so to speak. Iam not here to confuse you, but to share with you with the intention tomake you better and stronger.

To make thing clear, firstly we need to clearly understand its precise definitionof SUCCESS.

DEFINITION OF SUCCESS

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Success might mean, but is not limited to:

- a level of Social Status

- achievement of an objective/ goal

- the opposite of failure

To me, Success is a journey (means) rather than destination (end). REAL Success is unstoppable and involves the process of progressive realisationof our Ultimate Goal. This ultimate goal is closely tied with the purpose ofour life. Here, we must be able to distinguish 2 type of success - temporaryand perpetual in nature. Therefore, it involves three type of learningprocesses namely -learning, unlearning and relearning; regardless whetherknowingly or unknowingly.

It is equally true to say that it is very subjective in nature and onlyyou will know whether you are heading towards/ departure from your ultimategoal. Sad to say that often we are so indulge in our daily challenges thatfrequently cause us to distract our minds from staying focus on our goals, buton the obstacles instead. In short, stay focus on your goal, SUCCESS is yours.Similarly, stay focus on Obstacles, WORRY is yours.

To achieve your goal, the top most important intellectual faculties youneed to use are visualisation and will. Napoleon Hill in his famous book; Thinkand Grow Rich; says that anything your mind can conceive and believe, you canachieve. So, everything around us was once a picture in someone's mind. Inshort, everything and anything is actually created twice:- first in our mindbefore its physical or intangible forms.

VISUALISATION POWER

To illustrate the power of visualisation; an very excellent example tocite is of those fantastic inventions throughout mankind history such astelephone, radio, television, computer and millions more. Unfortunately, notmany people are using this powerful tool to work toward achieving theirSuccess. That's the underlying cause that a small fraction of people achieveSuccess.

LIMITED BELIEF

Many of us are paralysed by "limited belief", as aresult of the process of conditioning from a very young age, by this tyranny.To achieve this Success, you must do yourself a great favour to embraceunlimited belief. Read more at the link below:-

RECONDITIONING

To break away from the limited belief, you need to recondition yourselfwith unlimited belief, as a way to unlearn what you have learned and relearnwhat unlimited belief allabout. Through time and persistence, you will be able to allow this new beliefpenetrate into your mindset, just exactly like the sea waves consistentlyhitting rocks at the beach till the rocks give in eventually.

TO KEEP UP WITH YOUR GOAL

PLEASE READ MY PRECEDING ARTICLE ON HOW TO KEEP UP WITH GOAL.

Before I end my discussion, I like to make you aware that you must relyon all the six intellectual faculties: memory, perception, imagination, reason,intuition, and will; you have in order to get most from your life especially ifyou truly want to change your results and achieve real success. Thus, you then haveto begin by internalising your desires and bring your dreams(Success/Goal) intoreality.

This is not something new, but it is a proven Success recipe where itspattern is not normal to the sight of the ordinary people. However, it is verylogical to the Successful people as they know that to achieve somethingextraordinary, you need to prescribe not the normal path as the saying "To know the path ahead, you need to ask those who returned."

Now, I believe that I have done every possible means to share with youthe path I have taken that brings me the outcome I wanted. I do it to repayback those who have shown me the right way to crawl out from my dark world.Today, it is my turn to do the same to others who may be caught in the similarsituation, like I was and do not know the way out.

If you find this article helpful, please direct your circle of friendsto this blog so that they will benefit and most important to us is that theyare eventually lifted up as the theme of this blog suggests.

Thanks and looking forward to seeing you again,

James Oh

Skype me at james.oh18

CREATIVE TEACHING

2011-09-25T01:24:00.000-07:00

To know more about this international speaker, please click the link at your website.

http://www.creativewizard.com.my

Please stay tuned and our James Oh will tell you more about this world class trainer.

Look forward to seeing you again,

James Ohhttp://www.creativewizard.com.my/

TAX RELIEF FOR COMPUTER

2011-09-24T03:11:00.000-07:00

Very warm welcome to money tells stories blog,

As usual, I received all sorts of mails both locally and internationallydaily and I will read through them and respond to them accordingly. In regardto the mail below, I write to the draw the attention of INDIVIDUAL MALAYSIANTAX PAYERS in regard to APPLE iPad.

APPEND BELOW PLEASE FIND SELF EXPLANTORY NOTES FROM a writer INREGARDS TO THE APPLE IPAD FOR YOUR REFERENCE AND ACTION, IF APPLICABLE.

Apple iPad is entitled to LHDN personal income tax relief but not Samsung Galaxy Tab

1digg

In reference to Paragraph 46(1)(j) of Malaysian Income Tax Act 1967, an amount limited to a maximum of RM3,000 is deductible in respect of the purchase of non-business use personal computer for individual tax payer.

This deduction is allowed once in 3 years, but no deduction will be granted if the computer is used for business purpose.

Now, the question: are tablet computers such as Apple iPad, Samsung Galaxy Tab, Viewsonic ViewPad 7, Toshiba Folio 100, CSL Spice Mi700 DroidPad, Blackberry Playbook, ZTE V9, etc. entitled for this personal income tax relief?

I have asked this question to LHDN, and the official answer is: if the tablet computer only have computer features and is for home and family use only, then it will be treated as "computer" and is entitled to the personal income tax relief of up to RM3,000, claimable once in 3 years.

This will be the case for Apple iPad, Toshiba Folio 100 and Blackberry Playbook. Let's say you purchased an Apple iPad 64GB with Wifi+3G at the price of RM2,599 in year 2010, and your tax rate is 24%, when you file your 2010 personal income tax now, you can claim back RM2,599 tax relief, which is equivalent to a saving of RM623.76 in your income tax. (If you have any family member or friend or colleague who purchased Apple iPad recently, please forward this good news to them using the "Share" button below.)

However, if the tablet computers also have hand phone features in addition to computer features, which mean you can make phone calls and also send SMS/MMS using the telco service with the tablet, then it will be treated as a "phone" and is not entitled to personal income tax relief. This is the case for Samsung Galaxy Tab, Viewsonic ViewPad 7, CSL Spice Mi700 DroidPad, ZTE V9, etc. Bad news.

If you need to verify this information, can make a call to LHDN at 1300-88-3010 or email to callcentre@hasil.gov.my.

AS FAR AS I AM (FREELANCE QUALIFIED ACCOUNTANT) CONCERNED, THE ACT ISAPPLICABLE TO PURCHASING OF NON-BUSINESS USE COMPUTER. HERE, THE ISSUE ISCENTRAL ON THE DEFINITION OF NON BUSINESS USE COMPUTER.

Generally, the law on these fast changing technological devices is still farbehind time. As such, it is very likely subject to various interpretations onthe terminology and common understanding of its term, for this case is nonbusiness computer. Since the purpose of this piece of legislation is silent,therefore it is opens to more floodgates.

Thus, you may try your luck because the term is very wisely and loosely used inour society as a whole.

However, thanks should be given to the author, who has to certain extent takeninitiatives to check with IRD for some clarification. To answer his call, Idecided to blog it out so as more people can reap its benefits from what he sowed.

Please direct your circle of friends should you find this blog useful, so thatothers can also reap the values we intended for this blog. Thank you inadvance.

Before we ended, kindly revert to us, via comment provided below, shouldyou encounter such similar incidents. Please do brief us of your case andits outcome, regardless if it is the same / different consequence from what wehave blogged out from time to time.

Thank you and looking forward to hearing from you,

James Oh

PROFILE OF OUR FOUNDER CUM GROUP CEO

2011-09-21T21:04:00.000-07:00

MR. JAMES OH had served as Financial Controller of publicly listed companies, both locally and in Singapore. He has broad exposure and experience in Finance, Treasury, Accounting, Secretarial, Legal and Corporate Finance. He had worked with numerous companies such as IJM Bhd., Hong Leong Group Bhd., Transmile Group Bhd. and Scorpio East Holdings Ltd.

He is an avid reader of the Bible, Management, Economics, History, Finance, Law and Political books and he brings a unique perspective and style to his writings and talks. He has the remarkable ability to capture and hold audience attention with combination of stories, examples, humor and concrete, practical ideas that deliver results. He intends to become one of the leading authorities on the development of human potential and personal effectiveness. He is an energised person with a wonderful ability to inspire readers of his blogs toward peak performance and high levels of achievement.

He is currently working in various capacities such as Freelance Accountant, Technoprenuer, Socialprenuer, Environmentalist, Trainer and Articles Writer.

He obtained a Bachelor of Laws (Hons.) degree from the University of London in 2003 and a Bachelor of Accounting (Hons.) degree from the National University of
Malaysia in 1987. He became a registered professional Accountant in 1991 and he was accepted as a Full Member of Singapore Institute of Directors in 2008.

James Oh

EPICURE MALAYSIA 2011

2011-09-14T20:09:00.000-07:00

Very welcome to this money tells story's blog,

We are pleased to inform you that Epicure Malaysia 2011 will be held at Sime Darby Convention Centre, 16 -18 September 2011. It will be officially opened by the KL Mayor Tan Sri Ahmad Faud Ismail, on 3:00 pm Friday 16, September 2011.

Come to the Fair!

Your opportunity to catch up on the world’s latest tastes, creations and ideas in a whole wide range of lifestyle products and services, from gourmet foods, fine wines and cigars to home décor, appointments and appliances, to health and wellness, fitness and spa.

Admission is free, and so are the many samples of fine wines, spirits, cheeses, gourmet chocolates, and an abundance of other mouth-watering delicacies.

Plus, you'll find lots of great deals and offers ranging from gourmet foods, household items and premium lifestyle products from all corners of the globe.

Bring the whole family - after all, there's literally something for everyone: a whole host of exhibits, informative workshops, exciting stage shows, amazing lucky draws, dips and discounts!

So don't miss out - make a date now to be at the Fair on Friday 16th, Saturday 17th and Sunday 18th of September, at the Sime Darby Convention Centre. Remember, admission is free, parking is free, and access is easy, wherever you live in KL. Come along and enjoy the finer things in life - you're worth it!

In conjunction with this event, our founder, James Oh, will give a PREVIEW on Blogging for Pleasure and Profit on Sunday, Sep 18, 2011. Time 3:00 - 4:30 pm at Rafflesia 2.

To read more information, please click at the following link:-

http://www.epicure.com.my/workshops-1809.php

Look forward to seeing you there.

Your continuously support is very much appreciated.

James Oh

019-2133728

http://www.epicure.com.my/workshops-1809.php

A GOOD LESSON TO BE LEARNT FROM TRANSMILE GROUP BHD

2011-09-03T19:38:00.000-07:00

Very warm welcome to this money telling blog,

This is an update from my preceding article on Transmile Group Berhad, which was made many months ago. You may refresh yourself by clicking the link below.

http://liftyouup.blogspot.com/2010/05/transmile-group-typical-case-of-not.html

We, at this blog, write to express our deepest disappointment with its latest news that Transmile Group Berhad has been delisted from the KLSE couple of months ago. Very unfortunate for me that my offer to work with them to turn around the company, made in the preceding two Annual General Meetings (AGM) ago, was declined by the existing Chief Eexecutive Officer (CEO). I recalled vividly that at that AGM, they not even put this main program of turning around the company in their agenda and that annoyed me. When I raised this issue at that time, they answered me politely that the CEO will answer my question privately after the AGM. This raised my doubts and wondered why they are so secretive.

Sidelining the main issue in the Agenda, may be due to their misplaced importance or other reason best known to them. If it is in the former case, then they should express their interest and relook at this key issue. To save their faces, they made an empty promise to answer me after the meeting privately, which never took place. Not to my surprise that they even declined my offer and were not even willing to listen to it.

As a result, it raised my doubts at that time that they intended to turn the company around, from the way they present the case to the company shareholders. That’s drove me to write and blog the article subsequently. As far as I am concern, I have tried every possible means to work with them with the hope of turning it around, which I believe it is possible. I remembered vividly that I even contacted them through phone calls after failing to hear any reply from them despite the fact that I have left my call cards with them much earlier. At that time, what struck my mind is that they might feel shame to contact me. Unfortunately my efforts were in vain. Not matter of what’s the outcome of it, I still wish them all the best and hope for the best from them.

Despite all the above had taken place, today’s outcome turn out to be in favour of my initial prediction. After I discovered that the Company had even failed to forward its financial regularisation plan to the Authorities which led them to make a painful decision to delist it from the KLSE, I was deeply hurt in my heart. No doubt, this has proven me right. But what is the point that I can’t even help them to save the company, which I have a small share in it.

Their regrettable attitude of refusing to seek appropriate help and pretending to know everything had misled the investors that they had really put their interest in the first place, that is my personal view.

Here, I felt deeply disappointed with this unfortunate outcome, which could have been avoided. Surprising to me that the Chief Financial Officer (CFO) even reassured us that there is no adverse financial impact as a result of the above decision of delisting its status from the KLSE, when one of the investors seek her clarification to her statement. I, at that time, sat silently and chose not to waste my efforts to participate in this unfruitful discussion, knowing the fact that they are not listening at all. Furthermore, the majority of the investors are in favour of the management. My contentious point here is that how could they derived their conclusion that there is no worth to its listing status. Hence, I decided to not to comment further, but with felt great disappointment silently and hope they stay awake.

To me, what is the most critical point here is to ensure the company expands its wings further so as to keep its staff and make the country’s economy prosper. With it being delisted, to make access to the public funds is no longer feasible, provided it makes a return into any Stock Exchange worldwide.

And last but least I hope they too learn from this expensive lesson, not to miss the big picture, and keep working smart and put their best efforts again to strengthen its financial footing, as expected by all investors of the Company. In this regard, I sincerely urge them to prove me wrong so as to revive the company. It is never my intention of having them to prove me right in the first place. Another great weakness I noted is in regard of lacking of confidence and belief, which needs to be eliminated from its key management teams should it seek to succeed.

Thanks and hope this serve as a good lesson for us.

James Oh

HOW TO CREATE A PARTNERSHIP AGREEMENT

2011-08-30T08:42:00.000-07:00

HI EVERYONE,

It is a common belief that if you and your partners do not spell out your rights and responsibilities in a written partnership agreement, the chances that you will be ill-equipped to settle conflicts when they arise are high. At times, even a minor misunderstanding may erupt out of proportion and become full-blown disputes.

Generally, your state’s law will govern many aspects of your business affairs if there is not any written agreement saying otherwise.

If it is the case, then the next question arises is how you create a partnership to avoid such dispute. Any sharing of experience both good and bad is always welcome here.

I) How a partnership agreement helps your business

Normally, partnership agreement allows both contract parties to structure their relationship with each other in a way that suits their business. They usually lay down the shares of profits or losses among them, the roles and responsibilities of each party, what will happen in the event that one party decided to leave and other important terms and conditions.

i) Partnership Act

This statute normally establishes the basic legal rules that govern many aspects of partnership unless they agreed otherwise.

Due to its generality, the rules sometimes may not be suitable for your particular situation. As such, it is advisable to incorporate all your the points you and your partners have agreed upon.

ii) What need to be included in

A list of the significant issues that need to be included, are discussed below:-

a) Name of the partnership.

A name needs to adopted for the partnership. You may use your first name or fictitious business name such as AAA Home Renovations.

b) Contribution from each partner

It is important that each party's contribution in term of cash, property or services to the business before it opens and what's the ownership percentage of each partner will have. Disagreements over contributions have doomed many promising businesses.

c) Proportion of profits and losses

Several questions arise, as follow, will arise:-

i) How will the profits and losses be allocated in proportion to each party in the business?

ii) Will each partner be entitled to a regular withdrawal of allocated profits from the business?

iii) Will all profits be distributed at the end of each year?

You and your partners may have different ideas about how the money should be divided up and distributed, and each of you will have different financial needs, so this is an area to which you should pay particular attention.

• Partners’ authority.

Without an agreement to the contrary, every partner can bind the partnership without the consent of the other partners. As such, you must spell it out clearly in you partnership agreement should you want otherwise.

• Decision-making.

No doubts there is no magic formula or language for this area among all involved parties, you will, at least, head off a lot of trouble should you work it out beforehand. You may want to require a unanimous vote for all the involved parties for every business decision regardless of the amount involved. Alternatively you may require a unanimous vote for major decisions, subject to certain amount, and allow each party to make minor decisions on their own. As such, your partnership agreement will have to describe and define what constitutes a major or minor decision. Hence, it is always advisable to think carefully all these issues when setting up the decision-making process for your business.

• Management duties.

It is always encouraged to have some guidelines on some key management details in advance. For example, who will responsible to deal with customers? Supervise employees? Negotiate with suppliers? Give it a deep thought the management needs of your partnership and be sure you have covered those critical areas.

• Admitting new partners.

New partners may be brought due to the expansion of the business or other needs arise. As such, agreeing on a procedure for admitting new partners will make your lives much easier when this need arises.

• Withdrawal or death of a partner.

The rules for admitting new partners to the business may be used as the rules for handling the departure of a partner. Furthermore, it is also advisable to incorporate a reasonable buyout scheme in your partnership agreement.

• Resolving disputes.

It might benefit everyone involved if the partnership agreement provides for alternative dispute resolution, such as mediation or arbitration in the event of the deadlock on a certain dispute. Going to court may be a costly issue comparative to the former.

NOTE THAT the above lists are not exhaustive, but it is a guide for creating a partnership agreement. You may include in other issues, especially those issues which are critical to your business due to its nature and complexity of your partnerships.

Trust you find it useful and helpful, as our normal ways of rewarding our readers.

Seeing you again and more exciting articles are in the pipelines for your discovery.

James Oh

HEALTH IS KEY TO WEALTH

2011-08-24T21:50:00.000-07:00

Hi Folks,

It is an undeniable truth that HEALTH is our greatest wealth and asset. No matter how much Money, Fame and Success we have it means nothing without our health. Ironically, you often see people spend more efforts and times on their assets such as car than their body and mind. I must admit my past mistake of sending my car regularly for service as per the recommended service manual rather than paying attention to my body and mind.

One of the frequently asked questions I received is how I stay so healthy all the time. The simple truth is that I spend a lot of money and time on being healthy. I never regret and always consider it to be one of my wisest investments. I have learned that I must be fair to my body and take good care of it so that my body can support me and create vitality, energy, and good health for me! Similarly, it also slows down my aging process, which I consider another bonus and great motivator to me.

As you may be well aware, I believe that prevention is always better than cure. As such, the hard truth is I have to invest in myself, no matter what. I must ensure that I am in good shape before I can help others, in line with the safety announcement made in the flight. You may think it is a selfish act, which I did initially. After my second serious thought, it makes lots of sense to me now. Choice is always yours. You can either choose to spend money; on good body maintenance and prevention now or use your money later, trying to recover from ill health. You will reap what you sow according to the natural law.

Regardless of what your current state of health is at this moment, you have the power to improve it if you choose and believe so. Every day we come in contact with millions of bacteria, allergens, viruses, and fungi and sad to say that only the tiniest fraction of these may lead to disease. This is a reality, which we cannot avoid it, but we can do something to prevent it.

It is interesting to note that people who consider themselves “too busy to get sick” are known to have above average health, while those who worry excessively about disease fall into poor health more often. Likewise, I have often said and don't mind repeating here 'worry does not solve problem but worsen the problem'. So why worry? That is my question.

Never too late and start NOW and be good to yourself. Do something of great favour to your body, regardless of whether it’s getting more sleep, some exercise, healthy food, or some fun time! Equally important is while you are taking better care of your body you could also be feeding your mind with positive uplifting information. One of it is reading the materials in this blog, which is written from time to time with the main objective to lift you up, as its name suggests.

Happy reading and work toward achieving your great health and wealth.

James Oh

PS YOU MAY OTHER RELATED ARTICLES BY FOLLOWING THE LINKS BELOW:-

EBOOK FORMATS; POPULAR ONES

2011-08-21T23:23:00.000-07:00

Dear Readers,

In our preceding article on Ebook, which you may refresh your memory by clicking at the title of this article.

With the recent collapse of the world's largest high street book chains Penguin USA, resulted to the dramatic industry shifts to Ebook program. As such, we foresee this offer a great opportunity for Ebook.

Our discussion today will be specifically on Ebook formats. We decided to focus our discussion on the four most popular Ebook formats as we find that trying to get into every possible format is not practical and effective.

Before we proceed further, let us touch a little bit of its history. Ebooks have already been in existence for a while. In its early days, people tried numerous means of publishing Ebooks, this includes bundling text files into an EXE file. These Ebooks typically ran on an application similar to an internet browser where readers click on the buttons of forwards and backwards to navigate them through the book.

However, downloading of such EXE files poses a significant adverse security risk to the users' computers. As a result, this format lost its popularity speedily especially when people realised the EXE files' risks and exposure to computer viruses. Better formats were then developed without much surprise in just a matter of time.

After some research, we have decided to employ the following four principal formats for our future ebooks:-

1) Kindle Format (AZW)

2) Portable Document Format (PDF)

3) Mobipocket Format (MOBI, PRC)

4) Epub Format (EPUB)

We shall take a brief on these formats before we look at the comparison table, that reflect on how these formats correlate to the most popular Ebook reading devices for our better understanding.

1) Amazon’s Kindle Format (AZW)

It is Amazon’s proprietary Ebook format based on the Mobipocket format, when Amazon bought it in 2005, with a different serial number scheme. Books sold in the Kindle Store then are delivered in this format and carried the extension .azw

2) Portable Document Format (PDF)

Adobe Systems created this PDF in 1993 as a standard format for document exchange. It was basically an image of the original document when a document was converted to PDF. One of its great benefits is that almost all computing devices have the capability to read PDFs and it has been widely accepted as one of the preferred methods of providing documents on the Internet today.

However, we began to carry around smaller devices with technology advancement. First it was laptops and then smaller devices such as Palm, Blackberries, and Iphones.

3) Mobipocket (MOBI, PRC)

Its format uses XHTML and also known as the Open Ebook standard. Mobipocket books not only can be read on the Amazon Kindle, but also several other devices that support this format that include Mobipocket Reader, a free application from Mobipocket. Its files have the extensions .mobi and .prc. This format is particularly useful especially when you need to convert a document from other formats into a format that are readable on Kindle.

4) Epub Format (EPUB)

Its name derived from the meaning of “electronic publication”. Epub is a free and also open standard for formatting ebooks.in September 2007 after it became an official standard of the International Digital Publishing Forum, superseding the Open Ebook standard. It is widely used by majority ebook stroes, with the exception of Amazon Kindle Store as menioned in point 1 above.

Ebooks in this format, with the extension .epub, are read able on most Ebook readers such as the Barnes & Noble Nook, Kobo Reader, Sony Reader, Apple iOS and Android devices.

Sad to say that Kindle users currently are not able to read ebooks in the ePub format. To make it readable, they need to convert the Ebook from ePub format to mobi format which the Kindle can read.

We hope the above discussion has somewhere give you an insight of the Ebook publishing. One interesting point to note is that now some PDF documents can also be re-flowed to fit into smaller screens.

Trust the above discussion had somewhat enlightened you to the publishing industry and we hope you can make use of it for your advancement, with an ultimate objective to lift you up in whatever endavour you undertake.

We will also write other relevant articles on Ebook so as to be more complete on this topic of our discussion.

Seeing you again and your continuous support is always greatly appreciated.

Your Chief Servant,

James Oh

FIVE WAYS WE HAVE EMPLOYED TO INCREASE OUR WEBSITES

2011-08-16T21:02:00.000-07:00

Dear Readers,

This webiste of mine is approaching its third year and we have achieved satisfactory results, because of your continuous support. We had a constant increase of followers, readers’ comments and more wider links through numerous social network which we have added in from time to time.

Here, we recognised that websites have become increasingly important for an individual or a business compared to a few years ago. Today, they have become the company's or the individual's online presence. As such, many of your goals and deadlines are very much dependent on the traffic of your website. This becomes the issue of our discussion today.

Here are 5 ways which we have employed to increase traffic to our website, which may be of assistance to you. For easy understanding, we list down in the bullet points as stated below:-

1.0 Article Marketing:

We found that Article marketing is one of the cheapest ways to propagate our website, and we have the passion to write on anything that we found interesting and beneficial to our blog readers. In the true sense, Article Marketing simply means that we submit original and factual content about our website and product to the various Article Marketing sites with a short link to our website. We discovered that this type of internet marketing has been proven to bear excellent fruits for us. These links, also known as link backs in the Web 2.0 parlance, will also increase our neighborhood connections and thereby working well for our Search Engine Website.

2.0 As a Platform to Advertise:

Initially, we had taken painstaking process to tie up with affiliates and looked at various marketing options available to us. For those who have followed us long enough you may have noticed our efforts and actions. Of course, this had helped to increase traffic to our website. Hence, we found it very rewarding and fruitful.

3.0 Search Engine Optimization:

We acknowledged and recognised the importance of the Search Engine Optimization. This is because it is an excellent way of drawing the traffic to our websites. The statistics showed that more than eighty percent of web users today land up on websites via some search engine or the other, and the balance are still not having a respectable browser. Therefore, search engine traffic plays a very significant role in terms of traffic to our websites. To make our websites' search engine optimal, is a complex process, and we have not able to find any search engine optimizer yet.

However, we made our website search engine friendly by doing away with anything that makes it heavy. Secondly, we also eliminate all those parts of our website which are not search engine friendly and cannot be read by the search engine crawlers such as Flash and Graphics. We will try to get a description of the graphic display into our website.

4.0 Index and Sitemap:

Everyone likes a system, and Search Engine Optimizers actually love any site with a sitemap. Also, having a sitemap makes it simpler for the user to access and move around on our website. We must admit that we have not done much on this area. This will surely increase our chances of being remembered by the web user who came across our websites. Thus, it will play a vitally important part in any changes to our web traffic, be it good or bad.

5.0 Upgrade and Enhance:

We have constantly added something new since Day one of our websites launch. Luckily this does not pose much problem to us as we always keep learning to keep ourselves progressing.

Trust you find our experience mentioned above useful and rewarding much more than the time and effort you spent reading our articles. Look forward to hearing from you,

James Oh

PS TO READ OTHER RELATED ARTICLES, PLEASE CLICK AT THE FOLLWOING LINKS:-

http://moneytellsstories.blogspot.com/2011/08/our-social-marketing-success-story.html

OUR SOCIAL MARKETING SUCCESS" STORY

2011-08-10T00:27:00.000-07:00

Hi Readers.

It's a known fact that social media marketing is a powerful TOOL and we must admit that we have employed it to promote our website and business via social media channels such as Facebook; Plaxo ; Twitter and etc.

These have help us to build stronger traffic, brand awareness and user-generated content. As such, social media marketing is an cost effective marketing tool that will easily generate you large numbers of visitors, should you have solid and relevant information on your website to sustain its growth.

When used properly, its result is overwhelming surpassing its traditional means. Below please find some easy guidelines for making social media marketing pay off:

1. Appropriate network

We found Facebook; Twitter and LinkedIn working well for us. They fit well with our business, industry and target audience that are most beneficial for our business.When it comes to choosing the right social media platform for your business, we found research is the key to our success. As such, it is vitally important to find the appropriate platform to achieve your marketing goals.

2. Content is King

The above phrase is well known and proven recipe for those who seek success. Your web content should be updated regularly, if not daily, we also need to make it relevant to our business or industry, and provide valuable information that are beneficial to the readers. That's the gist of what social media is all about.

3. Blog

The blog we engaged become our most powerful marketing weapon in our arsenal, which some of you may notice. We also organize our articles into categories and allow readers to browse by topic, group or interests. Our blog is also well-linked to other blogs, which earn our blog more weight from Google, MSN and Yahoo.

4. Online community

Our strong online community encourages our visitors to engage, interact, subscribe to RSS feeds and comment on our blog posts. In this aspect, we are making our presence in other communities. We also reinforce our message throughout our websites.

5. Commitment

We always endavour our best efforts to update our profiles and other development regularly. We also address questions and inquiries promptly as practicable as possible. We always maintain our relationship with our audience.

We strongly believe that social media marketing has a great potential to make our site profitable with time. As such, our businesses that create vital content and do effective website promotion through social media channels have reaped many benefits and rewards:

6. Traffic

We are benefited from two main sources of traffic - primary and secondary. Primary traffic is geenrated from the visitors who come directly from social media websites. Secondary traffic is referral traffic from websites that are link to our posts and send us visitors, which we have built from time to time, after they come across our content through those websites.

7. Back linking

Links, also known as back link, which help us to translate into a better search engine rankings. Our websites received a number of natural, permanent links from trusted domains, as a result they develop authority. We were told that search engines trust them. If we truly optimize our ‘link bait’ ( used to attract links from high quality and ranking sites to our site) and our website structure properly, we can easily start ranking for competitive keywords, which, in turn, will bring in search engine visitors. When maintained, we believe that our search traffic will undoubtedly increase, which is in our next course of action.

Trust the above will help you make your Social Media a Success and please feel free to share your success stories here. We are more than happy to learn from you,

James Oh

To read other related article, please click the links below:-

http://liftyouup.blogspot.com/2011/07/facebook-page.html

http://liftyouup.blogspot.com/2011/07/five-ways-we-have-emplyed-to-increase.html

FACEBOOK PAGE

2011-08-06T05:46:00.000-07:00

Very happy day to you, friend.

I am pleased to announce that we have created our Facebook Page, liftyouup, to reflect the theme of my main blog - " that is to inspire and get inspired'. The main purpose of this FP is to serve as an one-page meeting place, with information, links, message forum box and RSS. Anyone who wants to use these features must have a Facebook account. So, for those who have not done so, please proceed to open an account with FB before you are left behind.

These days, it seems like everyone and everything is important and one obvious question that struck my mind is "how do I get one for myself?" and "what this resource is all about?"

Facebook Pages are important for a few reasons as listed below:-

a) They have been showing up high in search engine positions.

b) The user can get unlimited "fans" for his Facebook Page, unlike the limit of 5,000 friends that your regular Facebook Profile is capped at. They're visible to search engines and visitors, too. It's almost like a social networking mailing list that you can reach out to at any time! Amazingly wonderful features that make life more interesting and colourful.

I constantly employ all these new features so as to stay connected with all my blog readers and networking partners. I make this announcement in the hope that you too will join in and grab all the benefits from it. This is the way we reward our blog readers. For those who like to share more about FP, please do so because as you are always encouraged to do so.

Thanks and look forward to hearing from you.

James Oh

Skype me at james.oh18

BUILD A NICHE AND MAKE MONEY QUICKLY

2011-08-01T20:26:00.000-07:00

BUILD A NICHE AND MAKE MONEY QUICKLY

Hi! readers,

It is very normal for blogger to feel completely lost for topics to blog about, however on certain days they are filled with so many ideas. This happens to most of us, regardless whether you are experienced in your niche. So, do not feel sad about it.

Today, I write to share with you some of my ways which I prescribe below, which really helped me to get those ideas quickly to blog:

• Lately I use GOOGLE ADWORDS KEYWORD TOOL to find the most popular keywords according to my niche. This would in turn help me to draw more traffic to my blog postings, due to the popularity related to those keywords on search engines. This is not what I said only, but also from those SEO experts.

• I make it a good practice by jotting down whatsoever ideas,that flow into your mind, on to a scribbling pad or notebook file or on to a cell phone or ipad before I forget when I am offline especially I am on the move.

• Occasionally, I visit and read other blogs and articles with similar interest. You may try this out and you will be surprise of its outcomes. Thereafter, I will either note it down or at least bookmark the site for future reference. Alternatively, I may add the link to my blogroll, which you can find them at the bottom of each of my blog.

• Another effective way to obtain ideas, is when you read comments on blog posts of mine and other members. In many useful comments, I would have noticed visitors asking queries or giving suggestions regarding a subject. So, I will make use of them for my blog posting in the near future.

• I may either switch on the TV or read the newspaper especially when I get bored sitting in front of my computer for long hours. However my subconscious mind is still working to explore new and fresh ideas for my writings and blogs. Once I spot them, I immediately jot them down.

• You may noticed that I used to spend a lot of time on social networks. I find it is another great place to get ideas for my blogging? Indeed it has been very helpful to me, in finding new topics for blogging as well for writing articles.

Please try it out yourself, and tell us your feeling. So, when you run short of fresh blogging topics, please try out one or more of the above tips. I believe that the above will help in making your blogging experience more lively and enjoyable.

James Oh

WHY I LOVE WRITING

2011-07-24T04:12:00.000-07:00

Hi Everyone,

Today I write to share with you my passion, and the benefits I have enjoyed all this while. This will not only inspire you but also provide you with a fulfilling life while doing so.

I love writing because it brings me into my dream garden where I can just let my imagination run wild. Once I am there, I feel so much freedom. I believe some of you here who have done so have had the same experience, in this sense please feel free to share your feelings. We will love to hear from you.

To me, this is where I can tap into my inspiration and creativity to its fullest. I truly enjoy this journey of discovery, though it may cause misunderstanding. Here, I want you to understand that and you should not blame them for misunderstanding you. Instead we should appreciate what they have done because it is their honest feedback arising from different perspectives that cause different outcome. Just think, how can it be possible to arrive at the same outcome if both parties view things differently? One good example is in the court room where two counsels representing different parties involve in the same case, arguing the case differently so as to achieve different outcome for the best interest of their respective clients. Alternatively, you may use the definition of insanity - Expecting different outcome by doing things in the same manner and refusal to change anything.

In the above scenario, they have a good basis to form their views which may not be in the doer's favour. It is alright. This is because it serves as an affirmation to the doer's action that is not the normal way which the doer intends. Here, tell me why the doer gets angry if he wants honest answers from the bystanders. What is more important here is that we are ready to accept the different views from others because the doer chose to be different. As such, you can see vividly as to how it can be reconciled.

However, after having said the above, you may choose to think otherwise and we should feel it is fine with us. This is because as the doer, he should respect other's contradicting view. It may be because others may have not reach the level where the doer can see vividly. As such, the doer should recognise and realise this healthy response from other parties, though conflicting, because both parties chose to view the thing at different perspectives. As such, it is very normal and logical to reach different conclusion. Thus, it is crucial to recognise that conflicts/different opinions are healthy because both parties see the same thing with different perspectives or levels of understanding.

Now, let us think it rationally and thoroughly and we will then be able to explain why two parties have the same goal yet they may disagree with each other. This is because one party may have yet to see the Big of the Big picture of their agreed goal. Secondly, it may also be due to the words used that cause different meaning to both parties. In short, words lack mathematical precision.

Why I share all these here? This is because I have received many reaffirmations of this truth lately and they are still fresh in my mind, so I decided to record it down in my blog for my reviewing purpose and you as my blog readers may also benefit from this invaluable lessons that I have learned. Moreover, I also want this lesson to sink deeply into my mind and heart so that I feel comfortable with this sort of situation. I believe by doing so, I will not feel abnormal or uneasy to it. Stay cool and cry with Joy despite receiving such adverse remark/opinions from others. At the same time, I hope more people can see it clearly and decide which action you are going to take if such a situation arises.

Bear in mind that we can only be responsible for our own actions and not for others. I am sure you have heard of the phrase that sounds the captain of my soul and mind. So long as you are clear of your goals and you shall pursue your journey to reach your destination. Hence, you have a clear purpose to be here and achieve that mission entrusted to you, which we are more than happy to make your dream come true.

An interesting note I share with you is that I am more comfortable in the new thing/environment I am involved with. I share with you not to blow my trumpet, but one thing I must make you realise that it was not easy initially and I have conditioned myself with the appropriate thought, via writing and reading. If I can do it, I am sure you too can make it happen if you to think that it is possible. Let us think rationally how we can progress if we are always living in the comfort zone. No change No progress. We will not be comfortable with new thing, but how can we progress if we do not learn new things and adapt to the new environment. That's my argument and hope you are clear by now what I am trying to say here. Because today's world is progressing and changing speedily and I want all of us to overcome these challenges.

Same principle applied to Success. No doubts, they are so many ways to achieve Success. If you have not achieve it yet, Do not worry, one certain thing we need to do is to constantly change your approach and method till we discover the right path to take us there. We also must recognise that Success is a journey and not a destination. We constantly have to eliminate the wrong paths and discover the correct path, to seek the success we want.

Please bear in mind that there is no failure in a broader sense, because every failure is a success in itself. You may find it conflicting, but actually it is Not. Why I say so? This is because failure illustrates to us that this is not the right path to take you to your destination. Now, you have a choice either to change your goal or path. Should you decide to pursue the same goal, then you should cry out "Joy" because you have discovered the wrong path and you will then take different path with the hope that it can make you reach your destination. Of course, it may be an unknown path and no one has walked before. As such, no precedence is available for reference. That's why you need to embrace "uncertain mindset" and have the courage to do it and feel comfortable doing it. To refresh yourself, you may click at the link below:-

The more prepared you are, the better you will be to handle such a situation because the real situation may hit us anytime in our lives. That also explained why Emotional Intelligence and Adversity Intelligence are vitally important to us. Otherwise, when you are hit by such a crisis, your mind will turn blank. This is very normal to everyone of us. Therefore, it is wise to put yourself in hot soup once a while so as to get yourself used to such a situation that you will not let your emotions control you.

And last but not least, I shall commit myself to dip myself in such adverse situation occasionally so as to build a defence and immunity to such a situation. I will let my conscience lead me, and not my emotions. Hope I have made it clear to you. Please feel free to raise question here or views should you have any.

Thanks and have an awesome weekend.

James Oh

Skype me at james.oh18

BALANCE SHEET OF LIFE

2011-07-14T07:04:00.000-07:00

Our Birth is our Opening Balance !

Our Death is our Closing Balance!

Our Prejudiced Views are our Liabilities

Our Creative Ideas are our Assets

Heart is our Current Asset

Soul is our Fixed Asset

Brain is our Fixed Deposit

Thinking is our Current Account

Achievements are our Capital

Character & Morals, our Stock-in-Trade

Friends are our General Reserves

Values & Behaviour are our Goodwill

Patience is our Interest Earned

Love is our Dividend

Children are our Bonus Issues

Education is Brands / Patents

Knowledge is our Investment

Experience is our Premium Account

The Aim is to Tally the Balance Sheet Accurately.

HOW TO PUBLISH EBOOK

2011-07-10T04:08:00.000-07:00

Hi! Everyone,

Some of you may know by now I have intended to publish Ebook with some of my writings. In this connection, I have read the article with so much excitement and hope you will like it too. Who knows, you may have similar interest as mine.

Even if you do not have such an interest currently, it does not mean that you will not have it in the future. Having this in mind, I rather chose to blog it out to excite us as well. I do not have such an experience to comment on it. What I need is perhaps some feedbacks from you especially those willing to share some of their experience here.

Better still, if anyone is willing to collaborate with me to publish an Ebook on any matters which you and I have the common interests. As you know, I always love to hear from you so that we can explore all means to make the proposal feasible and beneficial to both parties.

My experience tells me that through brainstorming and discussion, we can always put the ideas to work. Through constantly shaping and polishing this idea, it will eventually shine so long as we do not give up such a hope. Let our endurance and patience complete the task. We will be able to produce a masterpiece at the end of the day.

I do hope you are by now you feel excited and are willing to give yourself a try, as I do. Please do put forward your comment should you have any other idea, proposal or experience where you like to share here. Thank you in advance.

Have a fruitful day everyday,

How to Publish an Ebook

Posted by Gary on May 2nd, 2011 / 3 Comments

How to Self-Publish Your Ebook

Every day I receive multiple requests from authors around the world who are looking for assistance or more information on how to self-publish an ebook.

And the answer today is very different than when our Publish Your Own Ebooks website started back in 2003.

Then, your best option was to get your ebook into PDF and start selling it from your own web site. While you can and should still do that today, if you want to be taken seriously as an independent author then you must also make your ebooks available at mainstream ebook stores such as Amazon Kindle Store that have emerged in recent years.

I’m very close to releasing a new ebook self-publishing guide but until it is ready I wanted to post a quick overview of the ebook self-publishing process and some of your options.

If you want to publish your own ebook then you need to consider the main online ebook stores where readers are buying and downloading ebooks. The four big stores right now are Amazon Kindle Store, Barnes & Noble Nook Books, Apple iBookstore, and Sony Reader Store. There are a few others to consider, but let’s keep this discussion to these four.

How to Get Your Ebook into these Stores?

Each of the major ebook stores has a portal for publishers to upload and manage their books. Remember as an indie author you are the author and the publisher.

You can choose to go to each store and publish your ebook directly or you can go through a distributor, sometimes called an ‘aggregator’.

An aggregator typically converts your manuscript into multiple formats and distributes your ebook to one or more stores on your behalf.

Some of the ebook aggregators commonly used by authors include Smashwords, BookBaby, and LuLu. They earn their income by a combination of upfront fees and annual fees for each ebook, or a percentage of the sales revenue from your ebook.

The process for publishing directly is different for each store and many authors use a combination, publishing directly to some stores while using an aggregator for the others.

Why Use an Aggregator?

One of the main reasons to use an ebook aggregator is to get assistance with converting your manuscript into the correct format. Amazon sells ebooks in their own proprietary Kindle format, AZW while the other stores use the EPUB format. There are sometimes complications encountered while trying to convert your manuscript from Microsoft Word into the appropriate format.

You may also decide to use an aggregator because you can’t meet the requirements to submit directly. Sony encourages indie authors to submit through an aggregator. Some stores require you to have a U.S. Tax ID or U.S. bank account if you want to publish directly. And in Apple’s case you need to submit from a Mac computer. Using an aggregator is a way to work around these obstacles.

Why Publish Directly?

Generally speaking it makes sense to deal directly if you can because you will save on costs and more of the profit from your ebooks will end up in your pocket.

If you are familiar with HTML you can probably handle the necessary formatting to successfully convert your manuscript to the appropriate ebook formats.

Getting Ready to Publish

Whether you publish directly or through an aggregator you will need to gather some important information for the submission process:

• Book Title

• Book Description – you need a professional-looking book description.

• Ebook Cover – when your ebook sells in online stores it needs a cover image.

• Price – decide on the price that you will charge. Sometimes different prices result in different royalty percentages so choose carefully.

• Territories – you need to know which geographical territories you hold the rights for your ebook. If your ebook is an unpublished work then most likely you still hold rights for all territories.

• ISBN number. You need an ISBN number at some ebook stores but not at others.

ISBNs for ebooks, ebook covers and pricing are all important topics which will be covered in detail in other posts.

As I mentioned at the beginning of this post, this is only a very brief overview of the self-publishing process and some of your options. I’ll go into more detail in future posts and be sure to watch out for our new ebook self-publishing guide which will be available here soon.

Please, if you found this post helpful, take a moment to share the link to it via Twitter, Facebook or your favorite social media buttons below.

About the Author

Gary McLaren is a self-published author and the publisher of Publish Your Own Ebooks. He is also editor of Worldwide Freelance Writer a weekly email newsletter for freelance writers with around 29,000 subscribers.

James Oh

Skype me at james.oh18

COURSE ON PERSONAL LEADERSHIP WORKSHOP

2011-06-24T20:12:00.000-07:00

Hi! Friend,

I am so excited to share with you very good news. This good news is that everyone is a winner. This truth is well recognised and accepted by most of the management gurus worldwide. As such, to achieve the success that was bestowed to us, we need to understand ourselves in depth well i.e. what we are truly designed for. However, the truth of knowing ourselves is not an easy task and it is sad to say that most people do not know themselves well enough to attain the success they seek for.

That is the main reason that drives me to touch on this critical issue, the Personal Leadership workshop, with the view that you will take advantage of it for your own benefits. This workshop, as stated below, provides you a special tool to help you to discover your personality, your potential and your weaknesses. This is critically important for you to know more of yourself so that you have the right mix so as to stretch yourself to your fullest potential. When you know more of yourself, you can position yourself to a much better position to deal with all the relevant elements more effectively so as to produce maximum outputs at all times.

The details of the above course AND the trainers, as stated below, for your reference and action.

Personal leadership workshop

Date – 8 July 2011 (Friday)

Time – 9 am to 5 pm

Venue – Dorsett Regency Hotel, Jalan Imbi , Kuala Lumpur

Introductory Fee – RM350 only (inclusive of a comprehensive copy of your personality and buffet lunch)

If you wish to register for the workshop, please call Alex Lee at 012-2876093 or email - alexleehumanimpact@gmail.com

The personal leadership workshop is run by Human Impact training consultancy firm

Trainer profiles are as follow

AUDRY CHAN - PRINCIPAL CONSULTANT

AUTHOR / MASTER TRAINER

Audry Chan is a firm believer and is totally committed to the development of Human Capital Potentials. Her personal vision is to build vibrant people in all walks of life with great visions, focus and set goals with good moral values in living out their lives. She strongly believes that every individual is capable of maximizing his/her own abilities and talents that when laid into actions will contribute towards the growth of his / her organization, nation building and oneself, in achieving personal victories, living out a balanced life. The individual can and shall become Man and Woman of Excellence, having integrity, living lives with full filled commitments, accountabilities, and responsibilities with strong leadership qualities.

Audry holds degrees in Behavioral Science, Hotel Management and a Diploma in Human Resource Management. Audry is also an NLP and Time Line Practitioner. Audry started her career in the hospitality industry, as human resources manager and moved on as Director of HR involved in all aspects of Training, and being posted on assignments in and around the Asia Pacific Region - Hong Kong, Australia, Vietnam. She was later as the Executive Director with MATA and served the 6 ASEAN Countries as their Secretary General for FATA (Federation of ASEAN Travel Associations.) and ASEANTA (ASEAN Tourism Associations) Audry’s last appointment was with ICC as Management Consultant, before embarking on the quest as entrepreneur in her own training establishment – Human Impact Enterprise and conducted training in the regions of Malaysia, Singapore , Philippines over the last 14 years.

ALEX LEE PRINCIPAL CONSULTANT AND PRINCIPAL TRAINER

Alex Lee have a great passion in developing an individual great potential and talent in sales and management capability in realizing their dreams and aspirations in life. He believes every individual has the capability to pursue their life purpose and dreams with the right training, coaching and leadership. His desires and strong drive of pursuing learning and excellent in job out have inspires many of his students and employees to achieve great success in life.

Alex Lee is a graduate in Economies from University of Malaya. In addition, he also qualified for Associate of Insurance Institute of Australia, Chartered Financial Consultant from American College, USA. Certified Financial Planner (CFP) from FPAM and Registered Financial Planner (RFP) from MFPC. Furthermore, he had completed the certification courses on Napoleon Hill’s science of success and PEAKS psychometric personality profiling recently.

Alex Lee has more than 25 years of senior corporate working experience in both insurance and Consumer banking in various capacities including branch and regional manager, Head of sales in life insurance and unit trust management company, Wealth management Head in a regional Bank and the last position he was held before venturing into full time training consultancy business was the consumer product head in a well established local bank. His great and well diversified experience in Sales, training, marketing and products will add value ,depth and delivery into training sales, marketing and management leaders in a very effective manner.

To read other course, please click at the title of this post.

WE LIKE TO HEAR FROM YOU

2011-06-23T00:47:00.000-07:00

A very warm welcome to you here.

Lately, I am wondering how I can take my blog further. It struck my mind to revert to you for your honest answers.

As such, I believe that it is appropriate for me to request you to review my blog in these three areas namely its content, quality and frequency. I fully acknowledged and accepted the fact that content is the highlight of the blog. It’s the reason why you visit my blog and why you keep coming back. As such it’s important for me to have consistency in both the quality of my content and the frequency in which I have been posting all this while. In this connection, your honest feedback is solicited on whether some of tips I know and share is attractive enough.

First thing first, please put a rating from 1 to 10 for the following :-

• Did my content create value. Please give the rating 1( very poor) to 10 (excellent)

Perhaps you may just use another fancy way of asking whether my content is amazingly interesting. All of my posts,which have intention to give readers a worthwhile reason for reading. In short, are you getting something back and at the end of day, are you being lifted up as the name suggested. If not, how?

• Frequently posted.

I update my blog on a regular basis to give you reason to come back to my site. The plan is to update my blog at least once or twice a week, having in mind that quality is more important than quantity. This is because I believe that taking a couple of days off between posts can help me write a better post in the long run.

• My content is readable.

I am mindful that writing a blog is much different than writing a book or paper. This is because you, as online readers, have relatively shorter attention spans and more specific needs are preferred. Here, what I am trying to say is that I never pick colors fonts that will strain the visitor’s eyes. If I do, I like to apologise for it.

I also always ensure that my writing is easy to read. I prefer short paragraphs, using lists or bullet points, bolding or underlining important text when it is appropriate for me to do so. Do you agree?

Keeping enough white space in between lines and words is my style. Most of the times, I try to avoid typing up huge walls of text. At times, images and videos are included, where appropriate, to give readers something to look at. Here, I believe prosperity through diversity and always looking at new avenues to improve it further.

At last, but not least, I never felt discouraged when I work hard on a post even though no one pays attention to it. I am aware that growing a blog takes time. No one appreciate it now, does not mean that it will not be appreciated in the future. This is because once I grow, more people will look through my older posts and will see my hard work! Alternatively it will give me a chance to improve it further.

Stay tuned and I will work on my design and with my next post, I will discuss blog networking

James Oh

Skype me at james.oh18

2011-06-11T01:24:00.000-07:00

Dear Sir/Madam,

We are pleased to inform that Malaysian Investor Relations Association (MIRA) will organise a half-day workshop on "Looking Beyond Financial Statements" from 9.00am - 1.00pm on 29 June 2011 (Wednesday) at Bursa Malaysia.

The details of the workshop are as stated below and in the brochure attached.

--------------------------------
Speaker - Mr. James Oh

James Oh had served as Financial Controller of publicly listed companies both locally and in Singapore. He has broad exposure and experience in Finance, Treasury, Accounting, Secretarial and Corporate Finance. He had worked with numerous companies including IJM Bhd., Hong Leong Group Bhd., Transmile Group Bhd. and Scorpio East Holdings Ltd. James has more than 20 years working experience and he constantly seeks improvement and advancement to make himself unique and relevant. He currently works as Consultant, Technoprenuer, Socialprenuer, Environmentalist and Trainer.
James obtained a Bachelor of Laws (Hons.) degree from the University of London in 2003 and a Bachelor of Accounting (Hons.) degree from the National University of Malaysia in 1987. He became a registered professional Accountant in 1991 and he was accepted as a Full Member of Singapore Institute of Directors in 2008.

Topic outline

· The importance of Financial Statements

· How to have a quick view on the Financial Statements

· Main components of Financial Statements

· Financial Ratios

· Key Performance Indicators

· Other relevant factors

Venue
Theatrette, Lower Ground Floor, Bursa Malaysia Bhd, Exchange Square, Bukit Kewangan, 50200 Kuala Lumpur
Fees
MIRA member : RM300.00 (redeemable via MIRA vouchers)
Non-MIRA member : RM450.00 (Payable to Malaysian Investor Relations Association)
Members of affiliated professional bodies : RM405.00 (Payable to Malaysian Investor Relations Association)
--------------------------------------------

We look forward to seeing you at our above workshop.

The closing date for registration is 24 June 2011. Please contact the undersigned or Pn. Zulaika Salleh (tel. :             +603-2034 7415      , email : zulaika@bursamalaysia.com) should you need further information about the workshop.

Thank you and kind regards,

Alex Lee
Senior Manager

MALAYSIAN INVESTOR RELATIONS ASSOCIATION
Annexe Building, Bursa Malaysia Bhd
Exchange Square, Bukit Kewangan
50200 Kuala Lumpur
Malaysia

Tel :             +603 - 2034 7677       / 7415
D/L :             +603 - 2034 7491
Fax : +603 - 2732 0771
Mobile :             +6012 - 232 2222
E-mail : alexlee@bursamalaysia.com

DISCLAIMER:

LOOKING BEYOND FINANCIAL STATEMENTS (MODULE 1)

2011-05-05T05:15:00.000-07:00

HOW WILL THIS COURSE BENEFIT YOU?

BY ATTENDING THIS TRAINING, YOU WILL :
- understand your own company's financial statements better to prepare and strategise your messages to an ever discerning/demanding stakeholders' audience.
- know the need to build the "extra edge" as a result of the changes of the investing landscape (i.e. capital markets are very competitive today and investment managers require high calibre information)
- learn to deliver more convincing messages by letting your financial figures and facts speak for you
- be able to prepare in advance in addressing the financial queries and concerns more objectively before you are being asked.
- have a clearer picture as to how your company is navigated towards its operating and strategic goals

WHO SHOULD ATTEND

ALL NON FINANCIAL EXECUTIVES IN THE COMPANY WHO ARE INVOLVED IN FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT, INCLUDING :

CEOs
COOs
Investor Relations Executives/Managers
PR Executives/ Managers
CorpComms Managers
Non Finance Managers
Course outline

This course highlights the essentials of the financial skills so as to build an 'extra edge' to the ever increasing demand of the stakeholders as a result of the increasing competition for funds in the capital markets. As such, all companies need to equip their teams with solid and practical financial knowledge so as to address their information needs and concerns. This training will give the participants a practical insight of better handling these challenges in looking beyond financial statements. Unlike a large-scale conference, this workshop capacity is deliberately kept to a manageable classroom size to facilitate effective learning and meaningful discussion.

PROGRAM OUTLINE

THE IMPORTANCE OF THE FINANCIAL STATEMENTS

No matter what size the company and nature of its business, it is essential to acknowledge and recognise the importance of its financial statements as a mean to understand its performance and financial health.

The question arises here is whether understanding the financial statements is sufficient.

HOW TO HAVE A QUICK VIEW ON THE FINANCIAL STATEMENTS
- 9 pointers
- what are they
- why they are important

It is important to have a helicopter view of the company so as not to lose sight of their core objectives in the course of running their day-to-day operations, often losing battles not of knowledge but of the minds of both senior management and the investing community.

MAIN COMPONENTS OF FINANCIAL STATEMENTS
- what are they
- you can not read them in isolation, but in integral parts
- let your financial figures and facts speak for you
- their relevance and limitations
- the key messages they are telling you

Understand each component of the financial statements; their usefulness and limitations. What is more important is the key message they are telling you.

FINANCIAL RATIOS
- serve as measuring tools, monitoring, comparing and bench marking
- objective assessment
- 7 main types
- the underlying factors/ causes

Understand each type of ratios; their relevance and limitations. What are the convincing messages and the concerns you need to address so as to achieve both of your operating and strategic goals.

KEY PERFORMANCE INDICATORS

- definition
- characteristics
- why it is important

This is vitally important for you to stay focus on these key indicators to ensure that you are working towards your goals.

OTHER FACTORS

- Industry outlook
- trend analysis
- the operating environment

Understand the external changes that will have implications on your company and the mitigation factors. Their risks and opportunities. Be vigilant to these changes and responsive effectively.

FINANCIAL PROJECTIONS AND THEIR KEY ASSUMPTIONS

To give a foreseeable outcome based on the reliable and objective assumptions

The likely scenario based on their reliable and consistent key assumptions in a forseeable operating environment so as to gain confidence from the financial community and trust ultimately.

P.S To make access to the date and venue of this course, please click at the title of this article.

To read other course/workshop, please click at the link below:-
http://moneytellsstories.blogspot.com/2011/06/course-on-personal-leadership-workshop.html

KEY PERFORMANCE INDICATORS

2011-05-02T18:32:00.000-07:00

Dear everyone,

Key Performance Indicators, also known as KPI or Key Success Indicators (KSI), is used significantly to present or identify a few factors that organisations should focus on to be successful. This is because they serve as a powerful and meaningful tool to define and measure the progress of their pre-set goals. As such, the key impetus for using KPI was the notion that factors which get measured are more likely to be achieved versus factors which are not measured. Hence, I decided to bring it into our today's discussion, with the hope that you too equip yourself with this tool.

A) Definitioni) What Does Key Performance Indicators (KPI )Mean?

A set of quantifiable measures that a company or industry uses to gauge or compare performance in terms of meeting their strategic and operational goals. KPIs vary between companies and industries, depending on their priorities or performance criteria.

ii) Investopedia explains Key Performance Indicators

A company must establish its Strategic and Operational goals and then choose the KPIs which best reflect those goals.

For example, if a software company's goal is to be the fastest growing company in its industry, its main performance indicator may be the measure of annual revenue growth. You may find some KPIs in some annual reports. Also, KPIs are often refer to as the Industrial Standards, in that particular sector.

As usual, once an organization has formed its mission, identified all its stakeholders, and defined its goals, a useful tool to measure its progress toward those goals is required. And Key Performance Indicators come in to the picture, to play the role like measuring tapes.

B) CharacteristicsThe Key Performance Indicators selected must best reflect the organization's goals, they must be key to its success,and they must be quantifiable (measurable). Key Performance Indicators usually are long-term considerations.

I will discuss these three main issues in more depth:-

a)Key Performance Indicators must be in quantifiable measurements.
An organisation may have chosen the percentage of its income that comes from return customers as KPI. A school may focus its Key Performance Indicators on graduation rates of its students.

b) Reflect The Organizational Goals

A company has one of its goals "to be the most profitable company in our industry" will have Key Performance Indicators such as "Pre-tax Profit" and "Shareholder Equity" that measure its profit.

On the other hand, a school which is not concerned of making profit, will chose different Key Performance Indicators. KPIs like "Graduation Rate" and "Success In Finding Employment After Graduation", precisely reflect the school's mission and goal.

c) Must Be Quantifiable and Measurable

In order for it to function, Key Performance Indicator must be translated into meaningful ratios or percentage or value, which accurately define its goal, that can be quantifiable and measurable. To make this point clearer, just take an example of a KPI such as "Be The Most Popular Company". You can see it is not clear and very subjective because there is no way to measure the company's popularity or compare it to others.

Another good example we can look at, is a general goal such as "Generate More Repeated Customers", is meaningless because it does not distinguish between new and repeat customers.

Once the Key Performance Indicators is defined, it is good to use them constantly throughout the years so that you can measure them over a longer period. To make it more meaningful, you may consider whether to breakdown into KPI components. For example a KPI of "Increase Sales", you need to consider whether to break down into units sold or dollar value of sales.

Further considerations, as append below, may need to be considered on Good Returns or discount

i) whether it needs to be deducted from sales in the month of the sales or the month of the returns?

ii) whether sales needs to be recorded at list price or at the actual sales price?

It is also a good practice to use your pre- set targets, as your benchmark, for each Key Performance Indicator.

d) Must be Key To Organizational Success

KPIs must be slected from those Critical Factors that are essential to the organization reaching its goals. It may be good to keep the number of KPIs small so as to keep everyone's attention focused on achieving the same KPIs. KPIs should not be easily achievable,

It must be stressed that what is important here is that the KPIs must help the company to meet its overall objective.

Trust the above discussion have given you a good understanding of its concept and application.

Please feel free to share your view/ thought in this issue. Thanks and look forward to hearing from you.

Skype me at james.oh18

James Oh

7 MAIN CATOGARIES FINANCIAL RATIOS

2011-03-26T07:15:00.000-07:00

7 MAIN CATOGARIES FINANCIAL RATIOS

Good day, everyone,

To compare and measure the financial health relationship of an organisation, the financial ratios are developed and used as a yardstick to ascertain its financial condition and performance.Here, I will only discuss on what are the financial ratios and its meaning.

1. LEVERAGE FINANCIAL RATIOS

Reflect the percentage of a company’s capital structure that is made up on debt or liabilities owed to external parties, other than shareholders. It tells you the relationship between the internal fund and external debts. This ratio is computed by simply dividing the total debts of the firm by its net worth or total assets.

2. Liquidity Financial Ratios

Are used to judge a firm's ability to meet short term obligations, without disposing its long term assets. The higher this ratio, the greater the ability of the firm to pay its bills. The general and frequent used of these ratios are as follow:-

a. Current Ratio = Current Assets / Current liabilities

b. Acid-Test Ratio = Current assets less Inventories / Current liabilities

3. Operating Financial Ratios

Reflect the efficiency of the company’s operations in utilizing its resources. This comprise of Inventory Turnover (in term of days); Accounts Receivable Turnover (in term of days); Accounts Payable Turnover (in term of days) and Cash Conversion cycle etc.

4. Profitability In Relation To Sales Financial Ratios

Tells us the profit of the firm relative to sales after deducting the cost of Cost of Good Sold. Here, it indicates the efficiency of operations. Generally, a firm with high gross profit margin is much easier to survive when its operating environment change to its disfavour comparative to those who have razor-thin margins.

5. Profitability In Relation To Investment

Relates to investments. One of these measures is the rate of return on common stock equity. This ratio is computed by simply dividing the Net profit after taxes less Preferred stock dividend by its net worth less Par value of preferred stock.

6. Coverage Ratios

Are designed to relate the financial charges of a firm to its ability to service them. One of the most traditional of the coverage ratios is the interest coverage ratio, that is the ratio of earnings before interest and taxes for a particular period to the amount of interest charges for the same period.

7. Solvency Financial Ratios

These financial ratios indicate the chances of a company going bankrupt. The main purpose of this exercise is to ensure that a company is not in danger of going under anytime soon.

Note that the above yardsticks are frequently used as a ratio, or index, relating two pieces of financial data to each other. You may compare a present ratio with past and expected future ratio for the same company.By doing so, you can determine whether there is an improvement or a deterioration in the firm's financial condition and performance over time.

Trust the above discussion has given you a clear understanding of today's topic.

Look forward to seeing you again,

James Oh

Skype me at james.oh18

HOW TO HAVE QUICK VIEW OF THE FINANCIAL STATEMENT

2011-03-23T18:32:00.000-07:00

Hi Folks,

This article is written with the intention to give a guide as how to have a quick view of a company’s Financial Statements. This will make it easy to discuss with the Financial communities on the financial issues of a company.

When we talk about Financial Statements, what we are referring to is the Company’s Report and Accounts, usually found on the website of listed public companies.

1. The Auditors Report

– should be the first quick check.

This is usually found at the front of the Accounts and it has been drawn up in accordance with Generally Accepted Accounting Policies so as to give a 'true and fair' view of its financial performance. Watch out for any ‘qualifications’ which could highlight any financial problems

2. Principal Activities

Take a quick look at the Directors' report as what are the company's principal activities and the industry it is involved in. This gives you an overall view of the company and its industry where you should focus on.

4. Sales – or Turnover, Revenue.

Reflected on the Income Statement. Note its historical trend and any significant fluctuation; and the cause, if applicable.

5. Profitability

The Gross Profit and Operating Profit, both before and after tax, will suggest whether they are selling above their costs. Whereas the percentages against their sales will give you the idea whether its profitability is increasing or declining. As such, the trend analysis may give you a good basis to predict its forecast. However, bear in mind that the historical trend will not guarantee its future performance.

6. Return on Capital Employed (ROCE)

Suggesting the return from what the company have invested in. The Capital Employed basically made up of Shareholders Funds (Share Capital plus Reserves such as retained profits or less Accumulated Loss whichever is applicable).

ROCE is found by dividing the Operating Profit by the Total Capital Employed or Total Assets or Net Assets. This percentage indicates to you whether its return is lower or above the interest rate.

7. Working capital position

Take a quick look of its ratio by dividing its current assets against liabilities. This will give us its liquidity position or the overall situation, i.e. stock, debtors and creditors. Its historical trends will suggest to you whether its liquidity position is improving or declining, an idea of its management efficiency to a certain extent. Above all, its cash flow and whether it able to pay its bills when due.

8. Retained profits / Accumulative Loss

The cumulative bottom line. Retained profits will be the surplus to its shareholders' fund whereas the accumulative loss will reduce its shareholders' fund. The former will allow the company to distribute out through dividend or bonus share and not the latter. In short, it represents a company's cumulative profits after dividends from the time of its inception. In this sense, it is a residual.

9. Gearing

The gearing ratio reflect the relationship of its debt to equity or total capital employed or total assets. It indicates to you as how many times of its debts against the capital and also the interest expense the company has to bear. As such, it give rise to the situation that it will have adverse impact should the interest rate is on the increasing trend. If the ratio is at high side, they will be answerable to the lenders. However, if it is at the low side, the question arises whether they should borrow more to invest.

10. Notes to the Financial Statements

Usually find at the back of the statement, It is rewarding and revealing to take a quick look at its Significant Accounting Policies. Look exactly at what type and nature of assets the company has, both fixed and current ; long and short term liabilities as well. Directors Remuneration is of interest and other key mandatory expenses will also be found here. All these notes will usually reference to the items in the respective Income Statement and Balance Sheets.
Trust the above discussion may be used as a good checklist or guide as how to have quick view/ Bird eye's view of any Financial Statements.

Please share your feedback so as to make it better. Thanks and stay tune as I going to discuss in more depth.
James Oh

Skype me at james.oh18

5 WONDERFUL BENEFITS OF NETWORKING

2011-03-14T23:41:00.000-07:00

5 WONDERFUL BENEFITS OF NETWORKING

Further to my previous article, NETWORKING IS WEALTH, today I am going to dwell with its concept and its benefits in more details. To read it, click at the title of this article.The most fundamental question arises here is "What is Networking?" Networking is the practice of making contacts and exchanging information with other people, groups or institutions. Usually, networking occurs with other people who have interests in similar areas. The goal of the networking relationship may be to further your personal employment opportunities or to cultivate new clients or the expansion of business relationships.

Obviously, Networking is always in conjunction with your career or business. Below are some of the benefits which we can obtain from it:-

1.Forging beneficial relationships:

By doing this, you may pool and share your resources to a much greater extent for mutual benefits. Hence, it will enhance the relationships so as to build the trust amongst OURSELVES, SO TO SPEAK.

2. Developing and sharpening your knowledge & skills:

Interacting with new people especially in your field may help you see things in different perspective. Alternatively, you may also sharpen and polish your skills even better through interacting with each other within your network. You may learn both mistakes and successes from others.

3. Additional resources:

Networking contacts may also be from experienced professionals with wealth of knowledge that you may not have. They have, most probably different experience from you, and have different view points from you as well. In this sense, prosperity through diversity is applicable here.

By building a strong network, you automatically have people “on your side” that will help you spread good information about you and your business - Who doesn’t want this ?

4. Building and maintaining your personal brand:

In addition, Networking also may help you to establish your personal brand both online and offline. Hence, people will get to know you and trust you much earlier and more willing to look for your guidance and advice.

5. Boosting your self-esteem:

Your self-esteem will also be boosted through socialization and make you well-respected in your field. You tend to be much happier to have a network of individuals that can help you out and vice versa. Hence, make your business and brand grow further.

Trust you are able to see its benefits and work toward establishing your network. In this respect, you are always welcome to join my social network.

Please share your feedback here. We are glad to hear from you,

To your success in establishing your network,

James Oh

Skype me at james.oh18

HOW INVESTOR RELATIONS CAN ADD VALUE TO INVESTORS AND MANAGEMENT

2011-03-06T04:45:00.000-08:00

HOW INVESTOR RELATIONS CAN ADD VALUE TO INVESTORS AND MANAGEMENT

With my preceding article on the importance of investor Relations (IR), I have touched on the IR roles, function and benefits. The nature of its work is more inclined to communicate with media as well as for financial analysis.

There are many changes which, have taken place everywhere and the capital market is in no exception at all. This may be viewed as a great wonderful opportunity as it can add value to both management and investors.

Today, I am going to touch on some of the effective strategic initiatives which may be embarked by this unit, which I have laid down, in bullets point, for easy reference and understanding as appended below:-

a) Need to educate and inform investors regularly about the industry trends, material and significant things they should know and be aware of the business environment in which the company's operates. Understand how your industry is viewed. In this connection, you also need to select and analyse a peer group.

b) Sets strategy to monitor what drives value in your stock and how your company fares on those matrix.

c) Determines and assess how future initiatives affect long term shareholder value.

e) Targets investors effectively. In this sense, you need to know who is really going to influence the value of your company's stock as lead steers.

f) Monitors what drives value from the investors' perspective and constantly provide investors' insights and their decision making criteria to management and the board of Directors. In this context, you may gather insights from a representative samples of investors, gathering information among a few of the loudest and frequently heard investors that can caused the company to go down to the wrong path.

g) Needs to become part of the company's strategic planning team, which lead the future of your company. As such, you need to sit at the table with the key management teams to discuss and draw out the strategies of how you are going to communicate internally and externally. These alliances are crucial so as to ensure that everyone is speaking with one voice.

As such, trust you can see clearly how important that this unit stay proactive and interactive with investment communities so as to give them a sense of comfort, besides arming with the necessary skills and knowledge which may be market sensitive information. To build for the long haul and in a transparent manner, all information released need to be consistent with its story line so as to earn a high integrity for the company. It is critically importance to earn the investors' confidence. Bear in mind, the company cannot avoid competing for investors both locally and internationally.

As the whole country, cannot avoid competing for international investors with other countries, so if you don't play this segment well, Malaysian companies will lose out.

That's all and seeing you again for another useful article on IR.

James Oh

Skype me at james.oh18

THE IMPORTANCE OF INVESTORS RELATIONS

2011-03-04T00:16:00.000-08:00

THE IMPORTANCE OF INVESTORS RELATIONS AND ITS BENEFITS

Hi readers,

THE revised Malaysian Code on Corporate Governance which incorporated the fifth responsibility of a board - “developing and implementing an investor communications policy for the company” - should be viewed positively by all parties as a whole. This initiative has been taken by the authority to address this critical issue seriously.

With this in mind, I intend to emphasize the importance of Investors Relations,which more than often had been either overlooked or lightly taken as Corporate Public Relations, should be properly tackled by the Boards of Directors of the publicly listed companies, so as to raise the standard of Corporate Governance for which they are accountable for.

The Investors Relation's primary function is to ensure that the company's information is released in a fair and trustworthy manner. These recipients comprise of its shareholders and stakeholders such as its investors (retail and institutional, domestic and foreign), as well as the analysts and media who may analyze and comment its performance accordingly. These information also have strategic, financial and legal implications. Therefore, due care and diligence is required to handle such information.

The IR is to update its' current and prospective stakeholders about the company's long-range strategy; short and medium material events that may likely affect the company's performance. By doing so, it will only enable its shareholders to make informed decision based on their risk appetites and objectives.

Thus, it establishes a communication platform so as to regularly update and interact with its stakeholders; more than just issue occasional press release when a new product is launched, or a dividend is declared, or a senior executive moves. Hence, it serves as an additional avenue apart from relying on the normal means of communication such as AGM, the annual report and quarterly results.

An effective Investor relations need to function strategically on a proactive basis so as to give comfort to shareholders to buy and hold its shares and not only purely rely on their individual risk appetites and time horizons.

Role of the board of directors

To ensure the IR achieves its end, its board of directors need to constantly review and approve its IR strategy in line with its values and cultures. Efforts of monitoring its progress on a regular basis need to be taken seriously. As usual, the boards not only need to share the significant and material information on trends that likely to affect the company, its peers and the industry as a whole, but also need to provide regular inputs and feedback regularly so as to improve its IR programme.

Role of the audience

On the other hand, the company’s audience may provide feedback on these given strategic, financial and legal information or use this information to profile the company either positively or negatively especially the media. In return, they may then use their independent analysis to recommend to the investing community – both retail and institutional.

IR function

The IR function must act as a two-way communication channel because it has two roles. On the one hand it must analyse the ownership structure of the company to identify the characteristics of various target audiences and how they perceive the company and its actions, making sure that the information regarding strategy, finances and any legal issues are disseminated appropriately so that the target audiences can make informed decisions on material matters. On the other hand it must analyze audience feedback and update the board on how the market sees the company both in absolute and relative terms – absolute as far as decisions taken or announced are concerned; relative as far as comparing the company with its peers as a desirable investment.

IR Benefits

A successful IR programme always serve as an effective communication channel between the company, the financial community and other stakeholders resulting in fair market valuation of its' company's shares. Consequently, it enables the company to access to its required funds with a much cheaper rate from both its lenders and investors due to the lower risk premium that are demanded.

Moreover, a strong and long term relationship with its loyal retail and institutional shareholders can be easily achieved so as to ensure the stability of the company's share price especially in bad/uncertain investment's climate.

Thanks and seeing you again.

James Oh

Skype me at james.oh18

Saving is sin and spending is virtue

2010-12-30T04:44:00.000-08:00

Interesting article written by an Indian Economist

Japanese save a lot. They do not spend much. Also Japan exports far more than it imports. Has an annual trade surplus of over 100 billions. Yet Japanese economy is considered weak, even collapsing.

Americans spend, save little. Also US imports more than it exports.

Has an annual trade deficit of over $400 billion. Yet, the American economy is considered strong and trusted to get stronger.

But where from do Americans get money to spend?

They borrow from Japan , China and even India .

Virtually others save for the US to spend. Global savings are mostly invested in US, in dollars.

India itself keeps its foreign currency assets of over $50 billions in US securities. China has sunk over $160 billion in US securities.

Japan 's stakes in US securities is in trillions.

Result:

The US has taken over $5 trillion from the world. So, as the world saves for the US , Americans spend freely. Today, to keep the US consumption going, that is for the US economy to work, other countries have to remit $180 billion every quarter, which is $2 billion a day, to the US !

A Chinese economist asked a neat question. Who has invested more, US in China , or China in US? The US has invested in China less than half of what China has invested in US.

The same is the case with India . We have invested in US over $50 billion. But the US has invested less than $20 billion in India .

Why the world is after US?

The secret lies in the American spending, that they hardly save. In fact they use their credit cards to spend their future income. That the US spends is what makes it attractive to export to the US . So US imports more than what it exports year after year.

The result:

The world is dependent on US consumption for its growth. By its deepening culture of consumption, the US has habituated the world to feed on US consumption. But as the US needs money to finance its consumption, the world provides the money.

It's like a shopkeeper providing the money to a customer so that the customer keeps buying from the shop. If the customer will not buy, the shop won't have business, unless the shopkeeper funds him. The US is like the lucky customer. And the world is like the helpless shopkeeper financier.

Who is America 's biggest shopkeeper financier? Japan of course. Yet it's Japan which is regarded as weak. Modern economists complain that Japanese do not spend, so they do not grow. To force the Japanese to spend, the Japanese government exerted itself, reduced the savings rates, even charged the savers.

Even then the Japanese did not spend (habits don't change, even with taxes, do they?). Their traditional postal savings alone is over $1.2 trillions, about three times the Indian GDP. Thus, savings, far from being the strength of Japan , has become its pain.

Hence, what is the lesson?

That is, a nation cannot grow unless the people spend, not save. Not just spend, but borrow and spend.

Dr. Jagdish Bhagwati, the famous Indian-born economist in the US , told Manmohan Singh that Indians wastefully save. Ask them to spend, on imported cars and, seriously, even on cosmetics! This will put India on a growth curve. This is one of the reason for MNC's coming down to India , seeing the consumer spending.

'Saving is sin, and spending is virtue.'

But before you follow this neo economics, get some fools to save so that you can borrow from them and spend!!!

2010-12-10T05:17:00.000-08:00

Dear everyone,

Do you believe that wealth is from within you? For those who believe so, the series of posts as how to create wealth through A to Z will assist you to achieve your dream.

Just do it.

To create wealth, your belief must be aligned to the above series thoughts.

Please forward your view on this.

Stay tuned for next series. Look forward to seeing you again,

Wishing you success,

James Oh

2010-11-21T02:07:00.000-08:00

SUCCESS STORY OF SHANGHAI

Dear my friends,

Shanghai

Literally means “above sea” – no wonder it has so much to offer as

it is the city that never sleeps – exhilarating for those who seek an

active lifestyle. To facilitate its crucial function as a gateway to

China , it's integrated logistic and transportation systems manifestly

reflect this main heart of activities. Easy and excellent accessibility

by all modes of transportation, namely road, air, sea and rails is

crucial.

Not withstanding the fact that it has a super duper public

transportation system, it also has clean streets and surprisingly little

air pollution which is clearly in contrast to other major cities. The

city is also linked with thousands of bus lines apart from the

Shanghai Metro (subway) which has four lines at present. All these

facilities are made available for them to fuel demand of a highly

educated and modernized workforce. Such infrastructures are

crucially required to facilitate the movement of the labour forces

domestically as well as internationally.

Not surprisingly to note the world first of its kind, maglev railway

was erected there, from Shanghai’s Long Yang Road subway

station to Pudong International Airport. It takes only 7 minutes

to travel a 30 km journey with its maximum speed of 431 km/h.

Such an advanced and sophisticated transportation mode is

necessary in view of its huge population coupled with its

attraction as a favorite tourist destination.

This city also has two airports; namely Pudong International

airport, caters for both domestic and international flights, served

as one of the most important hubs in China. Whereas Hongqiao

Airport is mainly used for domestic flight purposes.

To supplement its function as the gateway to China, numerous

elevated roads are also added, apart from the three railways

intersections in this grand city. You may find these elevated

roads appear in expressway-like road conditions (direction

separated lanes).

These bridges/multi level highways in the centre of this great

city, featuring the Chinese character “well”, link up the flow of

traffic from every direction. This zig-zag crossing afloat and

under the elevated highways truly reflected the glory of their

local architectural designs. If you were traveling at high speed,

you may feel like traveling on a roller coaster. Tunnels and

bridges cleverly creep in to link up certain areas such as Puxi

to Pudong.

Everywhere you find big crowds of people, truly reflects its

real success as a tourists destination. Normally you may also

find parades of buses bring in and out thousands of visitors,

local and foreign, to and fro this grand city. As such, parking

problem becomes a norm here. To overcome this problem, the

drivers (locally called “Shi fu” or master) of all these tourist

coaches usually stopped their vehicles at the road side of the

main destination to drop their valued passengers. Thereafter,

they have to drive to a destined parking area, which is a walking

distance away from these tourist spots. What will happen if more

and more people, whom majority at present are still using

bicycles and scooters as their main mean of transportation,

upgrade to motor cars.

Although it has well equipped with all these sophisticated

transportation infrastructure, ironically we find some of their traffic

rules are not in harmony with the international traffic laws.

Pedestrians who are used to normal traffic rules, usually have to

ensure that both sides of the traffic where two lanes of flowing

directly opposite to each other, are clear before crossing, they

have to be extra cautious especially when crossing the road.

Pedestrians are legally obliged to give way to the motorists

as the latter are legally obliged to slow down their vehicle,

but not obliged to stop even when approaching a zebra-crossing

– contradictory to the normal traffic rules. I was told that the

local authority is looking into the matter seriously. I guess it

is due to their own uniqueness where pedestrians and cyclists

at one time form the majority far beyond when compared to

motorists. That may be the reason why they think it is more

appropriate to shift the legal burden to pedestrians, rather than

the motorists. With the present situation, the Zig-zag traffic flow

has complicated the above problem especially to the pedestrians.

Being one of its tourists’ main attraction spots, Shanghai Bund, is the

classic image of Shanghai. Here, you will find huge crowds of

tourists flooding the area day and night. It is worthwhile to note the

elegant colonial architectural buildings and the new futuristic buildings

actually blend in easy harmony, separated by the famous Huangpu river,

being the main attraction. Naturally it never failed to attract visitors,

being individual or groups to snap their photos with such wonderful and

rare background of its kind.

Taking a cruise along this famous river, which divide the majestic

buildings dating back to Shanghai’s grandest days and the latest

landmark area such as Oriental Pearl Towers and trade centre, you

may find some fun and excitement.

Alternatively, taking such a cruise at night may prove romantic

especially for young loving couples. The effect of the neon lights

from those elegant buildings along the river, may be viewed as if it

is candle lights from mighty candle stands. Just imagine you are at

that scene, staring at the beauty of the lighting while you let other

parts of body do the talking with your sweet and lovely partner –

a real romantic and joyful sensation. The breeze blowing towards

both of you, may add more sensation to their already intimate

feeling. By snapping a photo with such a memorial and sweet

moment is worth far beyond the effort.

For those who have already known of its port, being the largest in

the world as of December 2004, will not find any surprise to see

huge cargo ships frequently moving along this river. As such, taking

a photo with such unplanned cargo ship as a background would

become a norm here.

This never sleeping city brings in and out hundreds of thousands of

visitors either domestic or foreign daily. Coaches forming beelines

along the bund is a normal sight to the local people. Beggars; young

and old, able and disable, are also seen trying to take advantages of

the crowds.

Your Chief Servant,

James Oh

Founder and Group CEO

Skype me at james.oh18

http://liftyouup.blogspot.com

SIX PRINCIPLES OF LIFE

2010-11-05T04:35:00.000-07:00

PRINCIPLES OF LIFE

No point using limited life to chase unlimited money.
- No point earning so much money you cannot live to spend it.
  - Money is not yours until you spend it.
    - When you are young, you use your health to chase your wealth;when you are old, you use your wealth to buy back your health. Difference is that, it is too late.
      - How happy a man is, is not how much he has but how little he needs.
        No point working so hard to provide for the people you have no time to spend with.
        Remember this -- We come to this world with nothing, we leave this world with nothing!
        Sue Divine
        Forgiveness is the final form of love..

TGB POSITIVE RESULT FOR THE FIRST QUARTER OF 2010

2010-07-08T01:04:00.000-07:00

Hello Folks,

We are very glad to bring you the good news on Transmile, which had published its first quarter report with RM 9.8 million. For some especially those who have been following our previous articles this is welcome news.

To view it, please click at the title of this post.

Big congratulations to this management team who have been working very hard to turn it into positive zone and we sincerely hope this is a permanent one, which give hope to lots of people especially their own staff. In this instance, they need a praise as they have proved my previous perception on the team wrong. However, it affirms that this company still have profitable and viable business model. This is a good news to me despite that I was wrong in my judgment at that particular time, based on their unattractive presentation, in my view, at their Annual General Meeting. It clearly shows that we can't judge the book from its cover. What is more important now is how they should look forward and make more achievements in the year to come.

For those who are curious to look in details of their performance. I am very happy if they could share with us their findings, the strategies and action they have taken to overcome their challenges. I believe that through sharing, we all can learn from each other.

With such results couple with their strategies, I hope they are able to convince their lenders not to wind up this company. Moreover, this company still has a niche market to play. In this regard, I wish them all the very best.

That's all for this time and again big congratulation to you. At the same time, I also look forward to hearing from you,

Thanks so much for your precious time to read this article. Kindly pass it to other if you enjoy it. You can do so by clicking on FB, Twitter and other social Networking Group side bar at the left side of this post.

Your Chief Servant,

James Oh
Founder and Group CEO

Skype me at james.oh18

http://liftyouup.blogspot.com

HOW TO LIVE YOUR LIFE TO ITS FULLEST

2010-07-02T04:13:00.000-07:00

Dear Friends,

I am sure that some of you may be searching for the answer for the above question like me. This long sought after answer has driven me to blog this post because I have finally found mine, and do not know about you.

However, I prefer to share it out with you so as it will at least help you to find yours as well. Likewise, we always believe that we can only pass back our experience and knowledge to the world which we have benefit from, that is the way to express our appreciation to the world.

As far as I am concern, I would rather take the interpretation that to truly live life to its fullest, one has to truly enjoy every moment of our time. I have to adopt the right perspective so as to stay focus in enjoying every moment, regardless as to what condition, situation I am in. This is critically important that I have to choose whether to stay in control or let the events control me. In other words, if you choose to enjoy every moment, then you have to look at the event at the appropriate perspective so that it does not bring adverse emotion to yourself.

To achieve such a desirable result, you need to break your life into series of events and you have to manage every event in such manner that you stay at the peak at all times. It sounds simple yet it is not easy to manage. Here, you need to put in practice, learnt and unlearnt from it. Through practice, you can then be an expert in handling every situation.

Now, you may able to see why I chose the former. This is because practice reaffirms me and I can learn from it. It will mould myself into a better person so to speak. By constantly put it into practice, it will then become my habit and eventually become part of me. Thank God that I am able to see this clearly and He had implanted in me such a positive perspective, which enable me to see every event that happened in my situation, or people around me so naturally without getting any adverse influence from it. In this context, we must be fully aware that there are so much reported negative news everywhere; online and offline. It is so easy to be influence by it as people tend to distribute more unhealthy news rather than healthy news. Therefore, you need to stay on guard at all times so as not to be affected by such invisible harm, that can easily spiral from it, if you are not careful.

To me, to achieve the above goal you need to break your life into series of activities and you have to manage each activity, both good and bad as normal people see it, in accordance to your positive perspective. In other words, what you can control is yourself, and not the external factors. To stay in control of yourself, you have to truly discover your true self and let your inward reflection convert into your external behavior. You can't hide this inward feeling as it will leave thorns that people can see it no matter how you conceal it.

By knowing your true self coupled with the appropriate strategy, you will be able to conquer these challenges without any fear and worry. You will be totally free and live your life to its fullest. For instance, you like your favorite team, let say England to win the match against Germany in the recent World cup. However, due to the error made by the referee, as some alleged, you allow your emotion to take the lead that caused you not to enjoy the game immediately thereafter the controversial moment. As such, you feel hurt and painful not only affecting yourself at that moment, but also the rest of your time and the people around you thereafter. However, if you choose to forgive the error made by the referee, as some alleged and you also recognise the fact that no one is perfect. Then, same principle apply to the referee who has a task to decide at that particular moment. Hence, the tendency of making such a mistake is remotely high. It is fair to say that your tendency to spot an opportunity to address this issue is equally high. Do not forget the big picture that the spirit of this tournament is to improve the quality of the game and connecting the world through the ball. Which country wins the game at the end of the day is not so crucial. Hope you can understand what I am trying to raise here.

By having the right perspective, looking at the event in life is very crucial to achieve success as far as I am concerned. Firstly it will not only make you wiser, but you will have a more opened mind in the sense that you are able to look at things in various perspectives and it will eventually sharpen your evaluation and lead you to make better decisions in accordance with your pre set goals. In short, life is the sum of your choices.

Please pass this article to your circle of contacts should you find it useful. In this connection, you may share it online by clicking on the Twitter, Facebook or other social networking button which are available at the right side of this post.

Thanks so much for your precious time in reading this article. Please enjoy every moment of your time thereafter and make it to its fullest.

Wishing you a success,
Your Chief Servant,

James Oh

Founder and Group CEO

Skype me at james.oh18

To read other related article, please click at the title of this post.

SAVERS ARE LOSERS

2010-06-27T18:27:00.001-07:00

Dear Readers and Visitors,

Lots of people providing financial advice usually tell people to “save
their money” to get ahead. This have proven very true in the past,
prior to changes in 1971. However, the question arises whether this
is still true in today's context. Before we discuss further, it may be
appropriate for us to touch on the significant events in 1971, where
economic measures taken by U.S. President Richard Nixon in
unilaterally canceling the direct convertibility of the United States
dollar to gold that essentially ended the existing Bretton Woods
system of international financial exchange.

Due to the above changes, some financial advisers advocate that
Savers are Losers. Though it might sound radical, however does
it really make sense to save your money in today's economy?
The answer is yes and no.

Why we say that the answer to the question is in the affirmative
because some of you may be aware that the inflation rate is very
much higher than the savings rate you earn from fixed deposit. As
a result, it does not make sense to save in the form of deposit
except for your contingency and emergency purposes. This is
crucial for those who do not have insurance policy for their needs.

With this in mind, of course it makes more sense to hold securities
in other forms than hard cash. Consequently, people became more
incline to invest in commodities, real estate, shares and bonds as
their hedging and investment tools which they believe to generate
higher yields. This is true to some extent, if you enter and exit at the
right timing. Timing is always the issue in any form of investment.
You don't need a genius to figure it out for you.

However, when there is heavy speculation, then the price will go up.
Those who entered the market much earlier will make some profit.
That is the game. The question that arises is when will the price
reach its peak level. To have a better guage of the situation, you
need to have relevant information that has an impact on those
commodities. Your entry and exit point of your investment is crucial.
The difference will give rise to the return of your investment. This will
be the mechanism you ought to know. However, you also need to
know that if these prices keep on increasing, the appropriate
authority will have to step in so as to reflect that they are tackling the
issue. As a result, you may see the reversal trend appears on the
market. Such an unhealthy trend so called to be curbed by the policy
makers by imposing a much higher saving rate so as to reduce its
impact to the society. If this issue is not well addressed, then this will
add unnecessary burden to the lower income group especially, salary
earners. If left unchecked, it will cause chaos to society at the end of
the day.

As such, If these trends for the long term are in the upward trend, then
it makes more sense to invest on the above instruments rather than
savings. As the market is flooded with liquidity, the investors have to
turn them into other forms of instrument other than cash. Then the
above argument holds water.

However, at the accumulation stage of wealth, you may need to save
by cutting down unnecessary expenses so long as you spend on the
area where it can give you a better return in terms of health, enhance
your productivity or assets value. Here, you must be cautious of
spending on those areas that really can generate a higher yield to you.
Every cent you save must be well spent to enhance those values so
that you are either able to reduce your expenses substantially now or
in the near future. Then you are actually added value to your net worth
at the end of the day.

By now, we hope we have given you a good insight of accuracy of the
above statement so as to enhance your wealth management skills at
the end of the day. This is crucial so as to reduce your unnecessary
worries so as to lift you up in this critical aspect of life. No doubts
money will bring you unnecessary misery, but lack of it will also give
you tremendous misery as well. Of course, the former is much better
than the latter, we believe.

Please don't forget to share with us your views, both good and bad.

Thank for your time to read this article. Wishing you a great success.

WEALTH ACCUMULATION; HOW TO

2010-06-13T03:10:00.000-07:00

Dear Folks,

When we talk about wealth, it is always appropriate to begin with inner wealth as a strong footing to build and accumulate wealth. However, it is very sad to say this critical and fundamental principle is always ignored even by those who claimed to be so called wealth grandmasters.

Then the million dollars' question is what is meant by "inner wealth" in this context. My definition is more incline to attain inner peace, joy and harmony where you can stay focus on the bigger picture than just solely focus on deals with money issues. Here, this approach is more inclined to a holistic and systematic manner of attaining wealth so that the individual can live his life to its fullest, while achieving his/her pre-set goals. This approach is also not the normal method of comparing and competing with others to achieve his/her goals, as commonly seen in the city environment, or so called rat race competition. He / she choses to leverage on other's resources to achieve their mutual goals. In other words, they chose to share and pool their own resources for their mutual objectives so as to bring enhancement and betterment to the people - in a bigger picture. Here, they cooperate to maximise use of the resources for the masses of the population, rather than individual goals.

Hence, healthy living, in term of physical, mental and spiritual health is always its underlying principle to address this wealth. They allocated some funds for nurturing and building up a strong foundation in these areas regularly or on daily basis by reading healthy stuff which enter into every major components of their minds and souls. As such, they are always full of energy to undertake such noble venture with confidence and passion without any doubt.

No doubt they are constantly exercising their efforts to attain their goals. However, they remain content with whatever they achieved. They know from their hearts that by doing so, they are able to live to their fullest by stretching themselves to the maximum, but without feeling much pain. Contradictory to common misconception, they enjoy every moment of their walk as they have their missions and passions to press on toward their individual pre-set destination. Now, you can see the great difference between these two approaches.

In this connection, they stay much healthier than the former. Indirectly, they keep their medical bills at bay despite working for long hours. On the other hand, their productivity is very much higher as a result of the good and healthy stuff they feed on in a regular basis. They are less disrupted and distracted by those negative incidents. Hence they are very more focused on the big picture rather than indulge in those petty issues.

1.0 Real Estate

Having such mindset and approach, they are also able to see much clearer on how to allocate their funds to generate much higher yields from their investment in real estate besides having to curb the inflation rate which makes their wealth deteriorate. This provides passive income without requiring much labour. With rental and appreciation of their real estate, the gain they made through the investment will put them in a much better position than the return from fixed deposit in the bank. However, you may argue that it is very much depend on the location of their real estate investment. At the same time, they usually will do their homework well prior to such a heavy investment. In short, such a wise move will reduce their risks of getting their investment burned. The beauty of this type of investment is that it is always has some residue value compared to shares.

2.0 Investing

To double your wealth, another avenue which you can look into is to invest in the potentially high-performing sectors shares which you believe can give a much higher yield in term of probability such as commodities, bonds or quoted shares other than real estate. You must be aware that the latter is less liquid and not easy to turn into hard cash, compare to the former, whenever you need it. As such, you need to formulate certain percentage of your wealth which is more suitable to your circumstances and needs. Hence, this will not only reduce your risk exposure, but also enhance your gain potential.

3.0 Starting a Business

The old saying is that it takes more money to generate more money. To accelerate extra cash you may chose to venture into business, it makes more sensible opportunity for you to make unlimited wealth when compared to salary earner. However, you need certain skills to make your business venture profitable and able to grow by tapping into its own niche market depending on your product or service you are involved in.

Thanks to the internet world, which offers more viable business opportunity, which was not available in the past. For instance eBay or Web site or Blog. Now it is much easier to monetize your brilliant thoughts via a Web site or blog. Advertisers do embrace blogs as another way to advertise to target their own niche markets. Programs like Google Adsense also place relevant advertisements on your site in return for a cut of the proceeds. Here, you can write about your hobbies just like our http://teaartblog.blogspot.com, scribble reviews occasionally like what we have done on our blog at http://liftyouup.blogspot.com or any other works if you write with authority. Certain topics pay much better than others. To get a rough sense of the relative value of your topic, you may use the "View Bids" tool at Searchmarketing.Yahoo.com.

Of course, you don't need your own website to generate extra money. But you can also offer your service offline such as offering tuition services or any other service which you are good at.

4.0 To trim down your spending especially those which does not offer you any added value

To accelerate your wealth, you have to use your money wisely. Reviewing your major expenditures regularly is another wise move. In this connection, you will be surprised to see how you can reduce them substantially without any compromise to your lifestyle. Such a good example not only cuts down unnecessary expenditures, but also cultivates good habit of proper budgeting and planning. You may also make use of to do list to assist your work in a more organised and efficient manner. Thus saving you money and time. More over you may use the time saved for other healthy activities which will boost your income further. Killing two birds with one stone.

For more ways to cut costs on daily spending decisions, click here.

Thank for your time and hope that the above article gives you a better yield than before.

http://liftyouup.blogspot.com

Your Chief Servant,

James Oh

Founder and Group CEO

Skype me at james.oh18

http://liftyouup.blogspot.com