Tag: entrepreneurship
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Street cart vendors in Bali
We’ll head into the streets of Bali where migration, money, and makanan (food) all mix into a life in motion. This story is not about street food, but the people behind it: the street sellers. The majority of small businesses die within 3 years. Each stall that you walk past is run by a brilliant…
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Jakarta: Making a living at home.
I was strolling through a neighbourhood in Jakarta, and observed that people’s homes were also doubling up as shops. Each family seemed to offer a service from dentistry, tailoring, fresh vegetables, and more! Commercial life weaved casually into the community, and it looked like every household had found a way to participate in the economy…
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A shophouse in the alley
Srey, determined to support her parents, made the courageous decision to leave her rural Cambodian village and move to the city. She joined her older brother, his wife, and their son, who had moved to the city much earlier. All 4 of them live in a small room that doubles as both their private home…
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Hanging by a thread
While I was browsing the Night Market, Chamroeun invited me to explore her collection of clothes. I was struck by her impeccable command of English, learning that she was not only an enterprising seller, but a Literature teacher. She balances her time by hawking good from 6:00pm to 11:00pm every night, and rises early in…
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“If the stock is stuck, our cash is stuck.”
Two book lovers named Shannon and Mike fell in love with the idea of starting a bookshop together in 2009— and they did it. Ten years later, their shop is an iconic destination for other book lovers, and they even started a second brand. Shannon walks us through the life of a business owner in…
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Angry Birds don’t like advice
Angry Birds needs no introduction, and neither does Peter Vesterbacka, the creator of the massively popular game from the Finnish company Rovio Entertainment. I had a chance to attend a power-packed conference called InnovFest unBound that featured all-star speakers sharing concrete insights from their numerous touchpoints with entrepreneurship. Peter Vesterbacka is an incredibly approachable and friendly guy (how can you…
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Please don’t stop the music!
In downtown Bogotá, you can find plenty of music stores where music lovers can find whatever quirky tastes they have in music. These places, where fancyness is not an issue, resemble little garages that have been rearranged to serve as a music store. The man in the picture is Mr. Jose Beltrán. He has devoted…
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Practical tips to your first 10,000 users
Like a bright-eyed child sprinting around gleefully and exclaiming – “Look at this! Look at this!” – entrepreneurs who design something cool naturally want to tell it (and sell it) to the world. And then begins the long gruelling journey of discovering that not everyone cares, and embarking on the path of improving your proposition…
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Doll Me Up (Chapter 5): Family Life
People living in the Arctic region have about a thousand words for “snow” because they are sensitive to the quality of snow for everyday decisions like sledding, catching seals, building houses, and so on. Meanwhile, Singaporeans have a colourful package of words to describe the weather such as “damn hot” “super hot” “so hot cannot take it”…
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Doll Me Up (Chapter 4): Growing the business
It come as no surprise to learn that businesses are constantly reinventing themselves to stay relevant, where “brick-and-mortars” are becoming “click-and-mortars” and fresh strategies are needed to remain valuable. Those who cling stubbornly to routines from the past are quick to go extinct. A prominent businessman in Singapore, Dr Theyvandran, put it bluntly. “A business cannot stay stagnant.…
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Doll Me Up (Chapter 3): Marketing
Nazlin Hilal, founder of Doll Me Up Cosmetics, shares some strategies that she uses to ‘put wheels on her business’ and sustain spectacular standards of service. Nazlin has a warm and affectionate personality, so it’s easy to see why people like her: she is sincere about providing value to her customers, and has a lovely way of…
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Doll Me Up (Chapter 2): Creating a product and brand
The peril of neglecting branding: don’t let others define you Nazlin Hilal realised quite early that she needed a “brand” to propel her growth in the cosmetic business. When we imagine a brand, we usually imagine a giant household name such as Nike. However, small businesses can also create a brand, even if the brand…
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Doll Me Up (Chapter 1): Starting a business
We wish it were easier, but there is no zipline to our dreams. Our reality is a messy terrain of endless adaptation, and we have to zig-zag through a world riddled with risk. The adventure of starting your own business seems daunting, but it beckons flirtatiously to those with patience in the journey. The journey…
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Doll Me Up: Introducing Nazlin Hilal
I’m sitting across the table and watching Nazlin handle one of the toughest negotiators in her studio. “Danish. You need to listen to this.” Danish eyes her confidently, and does not relent. I watch as he ponders his next strategic move, peering from the back of her chair where she cannot see him. “Oh Danish, I’m in the middle…
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Little Red Dot
Get ready for Singapore! An island, a city, a state, a nation. When the nation was mocked for being a “little red dot” because you can hardly see its territory on the global map, Singaporeans took this mockery in stride and transformed the moniker into a fashionable brand name: “Little Red Dot”. One might even…
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It never hurts to ask
It never hurts to ask! When Lou Flemming was a 17-year-old teenager in Baltimore, he spotted the owner of Faidley’s Seafood running a food stand at a festival. There was a long and winding line of customers waiting for their crab cakes, so Leo walked over to the owner, Bill Devine, and asked him whether he needed…
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Everyday is a new day
Nova is a shopkeeper at Lexington Market in Baltimore. He shares his advice for dealing with the vagaries of business. “Every day is a new day! Don’t be discouraged. Just because something didn’t go right one day doesn’t mean it won’t go right tomorrow. Come back, and try again.”
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Food Stamps
Many stalls at Lexington Market (Baltimore, USA) display bright signs declaring that they accept “Food Stamps” (or the “Independence Card” — visible in the earlier post with the butcher.) Misconceptions about social welfare float loosely in public conversations: who receives welfare, why they receive welfare, should they receive it, and how much. About 1 in 7 Americans…
Shopkeeper Stories 