The Instant Entrepreneur: 10 Surefire Strategies to Guarantee Your Startup's Success

Copyright © 2014 by Ranford Neo.

ISBN:      Hardcover      978-1-4828-2697-5

                Softcover         978-1-4828-2696-8

                eBook              978-1-4828-2698-2

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

Acknowledgements

Introduction

Prologue

My Story

PART 1: WHAT IS ENTREPRENEURSHIP

The Difference Between Entrepreneurs And Business Owners

Welcome To The Information Age

Doing Business In The 21st Century

PART 2: 10 STRATEGIES THAT WILL TRANSFORM YOU INTO AN INSTANT ENTREPRENEUR

Strategy 1: How To Make Money With No Money

Strategy 2: It’s Not What You Know; It’s Who You Know

Strategy 3: Time – The Most Precious Commodity On The Planet

Strategy 4: The Concept Of Now

Strategy 5: The Best Way To Train Your Mind’s Eye To Spot Opportunities

Strategy 6: Finding And Building Your Million-Dollar Idea

Strategy 7: Find Your You-Niqueness

Strategy 8: Everything Is Difficult Before It Becomes Easy

Strategy 9: Overcoming A Risk-Adverse Mentality

Strategy 10: Conquering The Fear Of Failure

PART 3: THREE KEY FACTORS TO BE SUCCESSFUL IN ANY VENTURE (AND LIFE FOR THAT MATTER)

Your Head The Greatest Assest You Have Is The Think Between Your Ears!

Your Hands Work With Great Diligence And You Will Reap Your Reward In Due Cost

Your Heart As The Old Saying Goes, The Bigger The Why, The Easier The How

Afterword

About The Author

This book, The Instant Entrepreneur, 10 Surefire Strategies to Guarantee your Startup’s Success has been confirmed as the work of the author, Ranford Neo. It is copyrighted under Entrepreneurship Hub Pte Ltd. As such, no unauthorized use, copying or publication of all or any part of this book will be allowed in any form including electronic, audio and print media without written permission from the author.

DISCLAIMER:

While all of the information supplied in this book is designed to be helpful to an individual or group, there are no express warranties attached to this work. The author, publisher and copyright holder accept no liabilities for any misuse, misappropriation or abuse of the tools, advice in this book, nor do they make any claim to any specific promises offered or implied. This book is intended to promote a greater understanding of how to succeed as an entrepreneur, and should only be used as a guide, rather than a directive. No specific results or achievements are guaranteed or implied in connection with the tools in this book and no responsibility will be taken for any problems (personal, financial, work related or otherwise) that may result from applying any of the tips or advice in this book.

© Ranford Neo, MMXIV, under Entrepreneurship Hub Pte Ltd

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Advance Praises for The Instant Entrepreneur

Immediately useful information, practical tips and inspiration for entrepreneurs.

- Deborah Torres Patel, Director, Expressing You Pte Ltd

The inspiration you need to start a profitable business in this new economy. Ranford is a genius!

- KC Tan, Founder, WebSprout Academy

Bold. Daring. Relentless. Ranford is one man you have to meet!

- Reshveen, Director, InvestingChamps PTE LTD

Ranford is a dynamic young serial entrepreneur set to take the business stage by storm, a must read for anybody who wants to chase the dream, and not the competition!

- Clinton Zheng, Managing Director and Co-Founder,

Le Chevalier Pte Ltd/The Modern Outfitters Pte Ltd/Intercontinental, Fashionpreneur & Professional Retailer.

A young man who inspires many with his massive action.

- Kevin Khoo, Stock & Option Trainer,

Master Mind Academy Pte. Ltd., Financially Free at 29

An enterprising young man with a huge dream and vision…

- Shermaine Phang, Operations Director,

JPS Consultancy Pte. Ltd.

A young man with a bold vision and enterprising spirit…

Francis Ho, Director, DAS Certification Singapore,

Certification Body for ISO Management Systems

This book is dedicated to:

God.

This is my FIRST book and

I surrender my FIRST fruits to You.

My Family.

Mum and Dad; Kelly and Royston,

My Siblings; Randyne, Keryn and Kasie

Our Family Dog, DD

– all of you have been there for me,

throughout my journey, supporting me all the way.

Church.

Pastor How, Pastor Lia & the entire leadership team of

Heart of God Church

– it was because you first believed in me,

that is why I can be who I am today.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I want to thank God for giving me this amazing opportunity to be where I am today, to be who I am today. He is the One who provides me with the direction and discernment to make any decisions, be it business or personal. Next, I want to thank my parents. From a young age they have given me the space to grow as an individual and as a result, I can be a confident and mature person who knows what he wants in life.

I want to thank Pastor How and Pastor Lia for believing in us youths and building Heart of God Church. Your constant encouragement that youths are not the leaders of tomorrow but the leaders of today has greatly inspired and motivated me to continue doing with I am doing, to make a change in today’s society.

Thank you Gerry Robert, James MacNeil, Jean-Guy Francoeur and the entire Black Card Marketing Group team. It was exactly one year ago where I sat in your Publish a Book & Grow Rich event and was inspired to write a book of my own. The journey of publishing my own book was amazing and words cannot describe how this has impacted my life. I am truly grateful.

I also want to thank all the friends and business associates I’ve met over the years. All of you have been great sources of inspiration. Your friendship and input in my life has shaped a part of who I am today.

To those who are actively involved in making this book project work; the featured entrepreneurs – thank you for believing in the vision of this book and believing in me. My writer – Vogue Ads, Editors – Fatemah and Martin, Designer – Organikku Studio and of course, Partridge Publishing.

Without all of you, this project would have never been possible. From the bottom of my heart, I would like to thank each and every single one of you for your hard work, dedication and commitment. You have played an integral part in the success of this book.

Lastly, I want to thank all who have purchased a copy of this book to read. Seeing our readers succeed in their personal or business venture makes what we do truly worthwhile.

INTRODUCTION

I have always found the word entrepreneurship fascinating because even though it is just one word, it is defined in many different ways by different people. To some, it means taking risks and doing something that hasn’t been done before. For others, entrepreneurship is a last resort. When all else fails, they will then look into entrepreneurship as their last option for survival.

On the other hand, entrepreneurship can be one of the most feared words in the dictionary for some people. This word can mean leaving your comfort zone, risking everything you have and stepping up to take the lead. To some, the idea of entrepreneurship shakes their sense of safety, security and stability, which are the three words that lead their lives.

Most of the people I know fall into this category. They have never even considered becoming an entrepreneur and the thought of pursuing entrepreneurship seems crazy to them. According to 2011 Gallup World Poll research, less than 16% of Singapore’s residents have admitted to ever thinking about starting a business, compared to 40% in Hong Kong, and 33% in Taiwan. This low percentage is despite the fact that Singapore has been rated number one by The World Bank out of 183 economies in its Ease of Doing Business rankings and is fourth in the world for Starting a Business, with anyone being able to get a business registered within just three days¹.

Every day, I hear statements like, I’m not a ‘business’ type of person, I’m not good in sales, I can’t talk very well, I want to get a good job to have a stable income and working for people in my ‘dream job’ is my passion.

The fear that people have towards entrepreneurship has driven me to shed some light on what entrepreneurship is really about, once and for all, and has motivated me to write this book.

According to SPRING Singapore, an agency under the Ministry of Trade and Industry, 99% of all enterprises in Singapore are Small Medium Enterprises (SME) and employ seven out of every ten workers, and contribute to nearly half of Singapore’s GDP². As Singaporeans, we should be responsible for setting up more of these local SME’s to ensure the continuity and sustainability of our nation’s economy.

Additional studies have shown that the superpower economies of Korea, Japan and the United States³ are always at the forefront of business and entrepreneurship. For example, Kia and Samsung in Korea are two names that have managed to penetrate almost every household in every country around the world. Japanese car manufacturers such as Honda, Toyota and Suzuki are also big names worldwide. America, well known for being a leader in entrepreneurship, has global brand names such as Facebook, Apple and Microsoft as their international flagships. These products and services have revolutionized the way people all over the world do things today, and give us a noteworthy reason to take a closer look at entrepreneurship.

Knowledge is power, and with power comes responsibility. In the fast-paced society that we live in, we constantly face economic uncertainty⁴. The Global Financial Crisis of 2008, the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression, is a good example of the position we are in today. In a statement released by the International Labour Organisation (ILO), about 50 million jobs were lost and BBC News reported that figures could even be as high as 51 million.

In a recent article We’ve Entered the Volatile Postnormal Stage Of History Stowe Boyd, a futurist and the lead researcher for social business and the future of work at GigaOM Research, mentioned that volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity are at an all-time high, and established analytical approaches and planning are increasingly ineffective⁵.

Take a look at the 2013 Singapore Budget and the Wage Credit Scheme (WCS), a recently passed labour law⁶. Even though these types of policies are passed in order to ensure higher paying jobs in Singapore, it is foreign labour restrictions like this that cause many Multi-National Companies (MNC) to move to other developing countries from Singapore, where labour costs are much lower, with increased productivity. An American Chamber of Commerce survey conducted late last year in Singapore found that 15 percent of American business chamber members were considering moving operations out of the country, while five percent had already done so⁷.

For Singaporean employees, this means that even if they can secure a job, they could eventually lose it due to offshoring. Offshoring is defined as "a type of outsourcing that involves the relocation of a company’s business process or processes to a foreign country⁸". The National Association of Software & Service Companies (NASSCOM) reported that almost half of all Fortune 500 companies choose to outsource software development to outsourcing firms and that 80% of European and American outsourcing firms ranked India as their number one outsourcing destination⁹. Isn’t it a scary thought to know that job security does not exist anymore?

If this is the case, then how can we overcome this problem? I believe that creativity and innovation should be the force behind a country’s economy, in the good times and especially in the bad. Entrepreneurship is the best way to execute creative and innovative strategies in the marketplace. This book has been created in order to educate, equip and empower you with the knowledge, skills and expertise necessary for you to become an entrepreneur.

An article written by Toss Gascoigne, CHASS Executive Director, describes exactly how this is possible:

Arthur Koestler defined creativity as ‘the defeat of habit by originality’. This definition clearly links creativity to innovation – the generation of new ideas, and their take-up by people. In a global economic environment where ideas, knowledge and skills have taken over from agricultural produce and minerals as the most valuable commodities, creativity clearly is a prerequisite for economic growth¹⁰…

PROLOGUE

Have you ever been struck by a great idea and immediately went to share it with a few of your close friends, thinking that they will encourage you, but you only got mocked? How did that make you feel?

Having that idea grow on you, you attempt to execute the idea despite what your