What happened in January 2016?
So, its already the end of January 2016. I hope everyone still remember their New Years’ Resolution….NOT!!! F*** New Years Resolution. Ok, so what happened in January 2016???
- Went for volunteering at Mantanani Island (nice place to volunteer and chill)
- Decided to do 3 Startups this year: FreeCopy, Prspctiv and ParaGear.
- overcoming SSEAYPSICK
- nothing much thats all.
I really want to talk about the 3 Startups: FreeCopy, Prspctiv and ParaGear. So, this year I am going to pursue my entrepreneurship journey at full force. I decided to write down every step I took to pursue my startups. Why???So, I can track down what I did well and wrong and improve better next time. And also I hope my journey will inspire and help everyone. Plus, I hope everyone out there can help me or give advice because I really need your help. So, lets start:
FREECOPY
So, what the heck is FREECOPY? FreeCopy is a campus-based, offline & online hybrid media centered around a free-of-charge copy service. Basically, university students can get photocopying and printing services for FREE. I got this idea after a chatting session with a friend of a friend. Actually, the business is already exist in Japan and called “Tadakopi”. One of the lesson I learned for the past few years running a startup is
“you don’t need to be an inventor to run a successful startup”
Most of the successful companies today are not inventor or pioneer in their industry. Most of them are COPYCAT companies. They copy an existing business model and MAKE IT BETTER. Thats called INCREMENTAL INNOVATION. Look at Google they did not invent the search engine, look at Apple they did not invent smartphone, they INNOVATE.
So, I decided to copy this “Tadakopi” business model and implement it in Malaysia. So where do I start? I used REVERSE ENGINEERING method. I went to their website and found out everything was in Japanese. I don’t understand anything! The first challenge is to TRANSLATE everything into english. I went and approach several local translator in Malaysia. Mannn, it was expensive! They charged me thousands of ringgit to translate a document of few pages. I need to be FRUGAL. So, I look to the internet for help. Luckily, I found this site www.upwork.com. This site is great. I found a translator for less than a few hours and the price is more affordable. The translation work is completed in less than 2 days. I wish I found this site sooner. So, I overcome the 1st challenge. The next step is to read the translated documents and understand their business model.
After reading the document, I wrote a business plan. I am planning to submit it to two pitching competition in February to get initial capital so start this business. So, that is the progress so far in January.
My plan for February is:
- Submit the business plan to SUPERB and MAGIC
- Start pitching the idea to investors and potential clients
- HUSTLE, HUSTLE, HUSTLE!!!
Regarding the other two startups which is PRSPCTIV and ParaGear, not much progress happen in January. I will post about PRSPCTIV and ParaGear in another post.
