Introduction
When we talk about business, most people want it. We love to have our own business. We want to be the boss. We want to be rich because of the businesses we have started.
Starting a business is not too difficult, but keeping it alive is not easy. And making it successful is the hardest point. Anyway, don’t really think that it’s impossible! No matter who you are or where you come from, you can try it. Whether you are poor or rich is not the problem now, but your ideas for starting matter the most.
Have you ever thought of making $1,000,000? If you used to have this dream, I would say congratulations. But in what way can you reach it? You cannot work the rest of your life to save this amount of money; it’s too difficult. But business can help you; it can help you reach out to it and even more, somehow.
I love to reveal the secrets behind successful people...! How do they think? How do they act? And the most important one is: how do they start? All the answers will be shown in this book. I’ll give you plenty of practical ideas that can help you get out of your comfort zone and start an interesting story soon.
Contents
About Prince Book
Acknowledgements
Introduction
I. The Life of Business
II. What Kind of Business Fits You?
1. Make
a business that can be big in the future
III. How I Built My Empire From Scratch
1. The
early starting point
2. Moving point
IV. Ten Questions to Prepare Yourself Before Starting
a Business
1. What
are you good at?
2. Does
the market need it? Why?
3. Who
are going to be your customers?
4. Who
are your competitors?
5. Why
do they buy your products, not your competitors’?
6. What
is your business model – revenue stream?
7. How big
the market is?
8. What
are your resources to start?
9. How
to start?
-How could you find money to start your
business?
10.
How to spread your product information to the
market?
- How to make the first million dollars?
V. Three Things You Must Master After Your Business
Passes the Early Stage
1. The
ability to raise capital to survive your business
- Raising money without
selling
company shares
- Raising money by selling
company
shares
2. The
ability to delegate the tasks to potential people
3. The
ability to scale your business
VI. How to Stay Focused and 100% Fight for
Your Big Goal
About the Author
|
The Life of Business |
HOW DO YOU THINK ABOUT WHAT I MEAN IN
THIS PATH? What is the life of a business? It’s not very deep! I just want to
say that people will always need business. We need to buy and sell – BUY
&SELL – in our real lives. Every day, how many times do you buy products
from the market (physical stores and online stores)? There are many, right? So
what is this kind of activity? We called ‘BUSINESS’, right? Thus, wherever
people arrive, it must need business! The life of business comes from us
(people).
Now you know that we can’t live without business. So why don’t you start your
own business? And if you already have it, why don’t you do it smarter? In this
digital age, traditional businesses will soon be difficult to keep alive. We
need to upgrade to digital business. In the past few decades, if we wanted to
buy cloth, we normally went to the market. But now, 50% of people prefer to buy
online. Even food, we love to order online. I don’t mean traditional businesses
will die, but they will if they don’t have online support.
Let me give you an example: if you used to have 10 people come to buy products
from your store, you will lose 5 of them because they prefer online shopping.
Your competitors will catch the opportunity. For this example, it’s really easy
to solve. Your store still opens, but you just learn to sell and promote your
products on digital platforms such as Facebook, YouTube, TikTok, Instagram, and
so on. Many people benefit a lot from this digital era. I hope you do so. But
even if not, after you finish reading this book, you will have ideas for where
to start.
What Kind of Business Fits You? |
I
DON’T EXACTLY KNOW WHAT IS IN YOUR MIND NOW. But the thing I’m clear about you
is that you also want to run a successful business.
Let me tell you this! Some people have many kinds of business ideas in their
brains; if you ask them to present, they will speak as raining. But if you ask
them about the ideas to start, they will be stuck. Why? Because these business
ideas don’t really come from their talents. Sometimes they got those ideas from
other people or from somewhere they used to hear about. These kinds of guys
rarely have businesses in their hands in reality. But for those who can’t
answer your question immediately, they’re normally skillful at something.
Remember that they will ask you back if they have the real skill: WHAT SHOULD
THEY DO? For you too, the first thing that you need to care about now is what
you are good at! Think about the business of your skill. Don’t use your head to
think about other people’s dreams. If someone comes to you and says, "Oh,
this kind of business is great; it produces high income in very short time,
etc.," DON’T DO THAT! If you do, you will waste your time and money. You
may get some experiences from it, but you may catch a big lost. If you have a
lot of money, prepare to fail; it’s okay! But if not, you’ll be in trouble. The
better way is, 'Don’t try it.' I want you to try, but not on that. Please try
on a business you’re skillful at. Even if you fail the first step, you will
have a big chance to start again. When you love that kind of stuff, you must
not think that it is a failure; it will be a great lesson learned for you. Next
chance, you will be smarter than before. You may find a better way to reach
your goal. Don’t think you make more businesses and you’ll earn more money!
Stop this belief. Your starting point: doing only one is the best. You can have
many businesses, but not now. Do one thing to be great first, and then you’ll
have enough ability to decide. My advice is that one can make you rich and even
become richer than ever you think. Focus on one business, you will have 100% of
your time sacrifice on it. Your percentage of success will also be high.
1.
Make a business that can grow big in the future
I told you earlier to start a business
with your skill or talent, but you should consider, "Can it be big in the
long run?" I mean, you can start small, but don’t just think too small.
You must know that your dream business can be big or not, and your obligation
is to make it big. Don’t tell me, "I want to start a business. I want to
open a small grocery store. And I will do it for the rest of my life." All
kinds of businesses can be compared to this example. So, don’t just have that
stuck idea; you should have a big dream. Even a grocery store, you can also do
big. How big? You can build a brand and sell franchises. Your job is to make
that business run smoothly and build a reliable system for it. And make sure
one day it can run without you. Remember this: running a business to be stable
and successful is not easy; you need to put in much effort, time, and money in
order to make it survive, so why should it be small? For most businesses, we
can make them big. It depends on the founder’s ideas and commitment. You will
learn a lot of things through this book about how to choose your dream business
and how to make it huge. Stay tuned for the next important message.
|
How I Built My Empire from Scratch |
Some of you might actually know what my business is, but
I will tell you further how I started and overcame the first-step obstacles
before WHY READ became what it is today. In 2016, I started writing my first
book, and it finished in early 2018. It was really difficult for me as a novice
writer because I had never known anyone whose career was in writing. I didn’t
know about the process of publishing books and selling them on the market. I
try to connect with many people and learn everything from them in writing
career. Finally, I could publish my first book in 2018. I went to a lot of
bookstores in order to sell my book. Some accepted, but some rejected. At that
time, I would like to thank social media (Facebook) because I could boost and
sell more than 500 copies in two and a half months. It was not a big amount,
but it was really helpful to me to continue to survive. I could spend on
printing and my daily expenses. Later on, I finished my second book, third
book, and fourth book. Before the end of 2019, I could finish my fifth book,
and it was the first English book I wrote, called Single Life.
When I had an English book, I tried to do more research about how to sell it to
the world. In early 2020, I finished another English book, ‘Smart Guy', and the
COVID pandemic also came. It didn’t have any exhibitions or events that could
sell books. Most people stayed at home. During that time, my dream of selling
the books to the world became higher and higher. Thus, I checked out many
websites to sell my books, but it seemed really difficult to meet those
websites’ requirements. Or maybe it’s because I am not a native English writer
and especially because I don’t live in a developed country; that’s why it is
hard for me to apply.
Because of that, I decided to write a
post on my Facebook profile to find someone who knows clearly about coding. I
wanted to build an app – reading app. I don’t know how to code – yes, I don't
even have experience related to that. But my passion pushed me! I wanted to
solve a problem for some writers who faced it the same as me: they have the
books but can’t spread them to the outside world. Luckily, one of my friends
saw my post, and he also knew someone who could help me with this, so he left
me the contact information of that guy, and now that guy is my developer.
I called him and explained what I had dreamed of. And he said, "Yes, I can
help you out with that, brother." Yeah, I was so happy. "And he has
owned the coding company for more than 3 years," he told me. After all he
explained, I asked him to give me the total cost of building that app. When I
knew about the fee, I also agreed to sign an agreement with him.
*For the app development fee, it depends on the tasks you ask the developers to
do. And it also depends on your country as well. You can do more research about
this in your own region, and don’t forget to negotiate in advance before
starting an agreement. And your developers should be the honest guys because
you will work with them for a very long run.
Before I tell you further, I just want to alert you that you don’t need to
follow all of my story. I don’t know how to code; that’s why I hire other
people to do those tasks for me. But if you can do coding on your own, I would
say congratulations. It is a skill that can change the world. You can be your
own developer. You can do whatever you want, whenever you are free. And it
would be easier than me.
Another way, you can form up a technical team if it’s possible. You will work
faster because they all only focus on one project – your app. But this way
requires spending a lot of money; if you can afford it, you can try that. But
if your budget is not much, please follow me; I will share the best experience
for you to start confidently. Next step, you’ll see many great mistakes that I
called the most beautiful lessons in business start-up.
1.
The Early Starting Point
In the early stages of my story, I just
went to meet him in person. It was on June 2021, I told him about the app
interface that I prefer. Honestly, the early interface looked messy, but it was
the only idea that I had at that time. I just told myself, "I need to
start first! I must improve it accordingly." At that time, if I had sought
perfection, WHY READ would not be here today. I’m the type of person who loves
to challenge, and I believe I will learn by doing. Yes, of course; everything
is really that! I could upgrade WHY READ until today, and it will become
marvelous in the future.
My developers spent around 4 months
getting the first launch on Google Play (Play Store) and the App Store. During
those 4 months, I tried so hard to prepare my documents (books) to upload
inside the app, improving the fonts and sizes for all books. After the app was
launched on the Play Store and App Store, I just uploaded the books and stories
one by one into it. The problem is that the fonts inside my books were too
small, so I rearranged them again and again and tested uploading them more than
10 times before this present font was launched. Frankly, I had no one to guide
me on that task; I just tested again and again. Some days, I couldn’t even
sleep! I tried to research and test, and I can actually do it. For the
development process, I usually updated because I always figured out some small
improvements that needed to be changed. And during the early process, I almost
always met many different kinds of people – my friends, colleagues, teachers,
and new friends every day. In all my conversations, I always asked people I met
two important questions:
1. How do you think about my business?
2. How do you think about my app's development?
Yes,
I got plenty of different types of ideas – negative, positive, and blank
answers –but they made me so strong until now.
+
Negative Ideas:
- The book business? It’s terrible! No profit!
- It can’t be successful.
- No customers to use!
- You’re so small; you cannot compete with the big
companies.
- People don’t like reading, especially in our country.
- People prefer hard-copy books than e-books.
- You don’t know how to code! You can’t be big.
- You don’t have money to start!
- You can’t survive it for long.
- Your development is not good enough.
- Your app seems bad!
- You don’t have high-end technology!
- Your app is bad-looking!
- You have nothing to start.
- You are doing the wrong thing! No one uses it!
- Stop that shit idea; you can’t do it!
- Please stop! Go to work; you’re going to make a living,... etc.
+ Positive
ideas:
- I believe in you!
- I believe in you!
- I believe in you!
+
Blank answers:
- I don’t know what that is!
- I don’t understand what you do!
- I can’t have any ideas!
You see, in negative ideas, there are a lot, and it means nothing in blank answers. Anyway, there is only one answer to the positive point. Yeah, I got a terrible feeling when I heard many negative ideas from people around me, but I had 100% hope in one sentence. At least a few people believe in me. And the most important thing is that I fully believe myself and always believe.
The haft-end 2021, I tried so hard on this business, but
I earned nothing. I built a Facebook page and tried to promote it, but not many
people cared about it – even my relatives and old friends. I used to tell
myself, "I will quickly make my app more professional and popular!"
But I didn’t actually. Everything didn’t meet my expectations. I didn’t have
enough money to make it greater (I spent out of my capital!). I felt really
overwhelmed and hopeless. And during the whole of 2022, I did nothing about it.
My business seemed quiet. I tried to work to earn money for my living and
support my family. And I focused on selling my books (hard-copy) at every event
in the city and provinces.
Yes, I saved some money, and at the end of 2022, I was
back to thinking about my business again. I tried to borrow some money from my
relatives and got some money by paying back some interest to them monthly. I
could collect around 20,000 USD from them and continue my dream – making the
best reading app in the world.
2.
Moving Point
I tried to do further research about the
reading app business, and I found out that my app wasn’t really good.
- The font size inside the books is not good to read.
- The reading background is still white.
- The app interface is not interesting and is messy.
Thus, I tried to research for the best font that can be
easy to read and attractive. And I tested for a greater background that can be
similar to reading real books. I spent time around one week and I finally found
them. So, my job was to change all the books to the same format. Luckily, I
only had around 100 books at that time, so I just spent around one more week to
complete them. And then I made an appointment with my developers to ask them to
help develop my app further as I needed.
From early 2023 on, I spent most of my time on my
business. I started handling the Facebook page again and tried to be active
every day. I always posted at least 3-5 important messages to my audience
daily. And I changed myself to learn about designing and video editing. I
almost produced an educational video and posted it on my Facebook page daily. I
didn’t care about how people were interacting – like, share, or not – I just
tried to do what was valuable for people. After around two weeks, my page seemed
active; I had built my own audience. The followers increased every day.
And
I also created my own blog, www.whyreadapp.blogspot.com, and later on, I bought a domain name, www.whyreadapp.com (I tried so much to research and learn about the blog
building and promoting; you can also research and do it; a lot of information
and ways to start are available on Google and YouTube). I spent much time
writing free articles on it. After a month, the blog seemed active, and some
people from around the world went into it and read those articles. And I always
put the app link inside the articles I wrote, so I always got a few new
downloads every day. Day by day, my app had some active users who used it
daily, and some people wanted to buy the books, but the way to pay in the app
was not easy. The big problem was that users outside of Cambodia could not buy
books at all – no payment getaway. Actually, I also had some foreign users at
that time; they messaged and asked how to buy and pay for the books. So, what I
can do is just tell them, "I’m in the process of building the payment
getaway. Please wait for a short period of time." After telling them about
that, I met and asked many people if they had any ideas about payment getaways.
I spent around one month trying to get the answer. I got the idea from my
friend to meet a banker to further discuss that.
I met a banker, and he told me that, "In order to
process the full payment getaway, you need to have a company registration and a
patent. And your company needs to launch for 3 months before being able to sign
the contract with us."
After understanding the process, what I’m going to do is
register a company, but the problem is that I knew nothing about that. I
especially didn’t know someone whose job was about that. And then I tried to do
research on Facebook; yes, I found the agents to do that task for me, and I
found many. Thus, I could have the chance to survey them about their service
fees for registering my first company. I asked some agents, and finally I chose
one to handle that task instead of me.
During the meeting with company registration agents, they
also explained to me about the kinds of companies (Tax Responsibility), and
normally we know there are 3 types:
- Small tax-paying company
- Medium tax-paying company
- Large tax-paying company
Noted:
These are the choices available in Cambodia, but they can be different in other
countries. So, before you start a new business, make sure you have someone who
is skilled at it to consult with.
So, I decided to choose the small one
first because it was the time that I needed to learn about ways of starting a
new company from scratch. I don’t need to start big. I can say that a small
boat is easy to turn over. I can also make it bigger afterward. And if I choose
the big one, I will spend much money; thus, in the early stages, I don’t need
that. It’s time for me to find the right business model.
What are the documents for registering a company?
Here
they are:
- Your Identification Card (ID) or Passport
- The company name
- The company logo
- The business activities (business model)
- The company’s phone number & email
- The contract of the house or office rental
- The company location (Google Map)
- Your 4x6 recent photos with white backgrounds.
And then I rented a small office – $100 per month to
start my journey. And I spent around 3,500 dollars to decorate and buy some
important materials, such as a meeting table, 10 office chairs, a desktop and
table, a printer, a microphone recorder, a laptop, a sofa, and some other
materials for the MOU occasion, etc. After the office operation, I asked my
wife to learn about designing and video editing. So, I could delegate this task
to her, and she also helped me with voice recording – reading all the books and
putting audio into the app. Actually, she could help me only with the Khmer
version. And I taught her how to promote our business.
- Design educational quotes and post them on Facebook page.
- Make educational videos and post them on Facebook page,
YouTube channel, TikTok, and some other social medias.
- Write blog posts, etc.
Yes, she helped me control a lot of tasks, and she is
also a writer now. During the starting time, we both worked so hard. And my wife
just delivered the baby. Normally, we couldn’t have enough sleep because my son
was just under 1 year old; we also needed to take care of him. But we still
kept trying – never quit, even though we met many obstacles at that time.
From then on, I started asking my
friends (writers) to sign MOUs with me for selling their books on the WHY READ
app. I sign a contract with a writer once a week. I got their books as
Microsoft Word and PDF files. And I arranged the books' formats one by one and
uploaded them to the app. When I finished preparing the books to upload on my
app from all my friends, I started to prepare a Facebook post and boosted to
find more writers who were willing to corporate and sell their books in my app.
Yeah, writers came to me day by day until now to sign MOUs and put their books
into WHY READ APP.
After one month, I got all the documents
from the ministries:
What are the documents you get from the ministries after a
company registration?
Here
they are:
- Certificate of Incorporation from the Ministry of
Commerce
- Sole Proprietorship Extract from the Ministry of Commerce
- Patent Tax from the Ministry of Economy and Finance
(General Department of Taxation)
- Certificate of Tax Registration (Value Added Tax – VAT)
from the Ministry of Economy and Finance (General Department of Taxation)
- Declaration of Opening the Enterprise from the Ministry
of Labour and Vocational Training
When I got the company certification and patent from the
registration agent, I went to the bank to talk about the corporation of payment
getaways. They explained the contract – terms & conditions and some other
tasks that needed to be handled. And then I agreed to sign the contract and let
my developers work with the bank's technical team. Actually, we spent much time
doing that because we got some error parts that needed to be fixed. Finally, we
did it and could process the payment getaway around the world – all people can
buy and pay for the books they want.
After all, I tried to design many posts and make plenty
of educational videos for promoting WHY READ app and I boosted them on social
media to encourage users to download the app. Moreover, I always motivated all
writers who had books selling in my app to try to promote their own branding
and let people buy their books inside the app.
Anyway, I often joined any events and bought a small booth from the event organizer to stand by to promote the reading app – WHY READ. The number of users increased every day. And I always upgraded the app interface, and the most important thing is that a number of books and educational stories were uploaded monthly. I do wish WHY READ would become one of the largest e-book libraries in the world. And WHY READ already has more than 20 staffs to support users and will have more in the future. We keep upgrading our business, and one of our most crucial tasks is finding more great books for you to read. Remember that, ‘start small but move fast’ is our WHY READ vision.
Continue Reading....
Source Book: Business Ideas in Digital Era
Author: Piseth Ngat
Read the entire book at WHY READ APP
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