Saturday, August 30, 2008

Want to BBQ Fish anytime anywhere??

Do you ever have crave for food, especially BBQ fish in the middle of the day and not knowing how to have them, see the below. You can have your bbq fish anytime and anywhere.

Wonder when they will add the prawns or crabs, as they are my favourite.

Bedroom Furniture in a box???

Does moving new house and getting new furnitures worries you and create much anxiety? But with the following furnitures, moving house can be easy, as you can pack all furnitures for a bedroom into a box.

Any takers???




Thursday, August 28, 2008

Business Ideas (Financial Services)

Private Banking by Shoebox
Website: www.insinger.com/shoebox

Saw this on a weekly free newsletter online publication and find this a very innovative ideas. You can check out http://www.springwise.com/ for more.

Realizing that many of its wealthy clients lack the time or patience to deal with their personal finances, Amsterdam-based private bank Insinger de Beaufort launched a new service that takes finances back to the basics: a shoebox.

After sitting down with their private banker to discuss financial planning, Insinger's clients are sent a big shoebox by courier every month. They drop anything admin-related into the box: bills to be paid, bank statements, receipts, tax returns, speeding tickets, insurance documents, etc. At the end of the month, Insinger sends a courier to pick up the box, and then processes its contents.

Clients are sent a complete overview of actions and transactions within three business days, after which the bank takes care of the entire follow-up process, including paying bills, filing tax returns and processing business expenses.

Every quarter, clients are sent a financial report, detailing spending categories, asset growth, etc, and once a year, they meet with their private banker to evaluate new developments and adjust their financial planning as needed. Sensing a gap in the market, Insinger de Beaufort offers its shoebox service to clients at other banks, too. The concept is of course entirely focused on convenience, saving (valuable) clients the time and hassle of dealing with the minutiae of their personal finances. While other banks provide their high-end clients with similar add-on services, the shoebox approach is undeniably elegant in its no-tech simplicity.

Monday, August 25, 2008

Article "Property subsales - who wins and who loses"

'The fact is that longer holding periods allow for larger gains, shorter holding
periods for smaller gains. This is consistent with the fact that real estate is
a long-term investment. Investors with short exit time frames should look for
alternative instruments,' said......

I have to disagree with what this director of marketing says about real estate that longer holding periods is equivalent to larger gains. I believe the more possible answer for those who is making large gains in subsales are those who purchased at the timing when property is just picking. Like what the seasoned property consultant said at the end of the article, it all comes to the entry price.

(Article is published on The Business Times on 26 August 2008.)

Business Ideas (Merchandise)


I have seen it on on-flight magazine about 4 years ago and till now I have not seen anything similar items being sold in Singapore.
Wonder if any kind soul would like to take this up and bring the products to Singapore.

Sunday, August 24, 2008

Business Ideas (FnB)

Saw this on Taiwan variety show before and find that this is a very innovative ideas. It is interesting how great imagination can transform something which is so common to something interestingly new and attractive.

Hope that this can come to Singapore someday.

Friday, August 22, 2008

High Staff Turnover Rate = Bad Management Team?

I wonder if any top management team ever wonders why they have high turnover rates? Or they just dun want to admit that there is a problem?

Anyway I just find out it's really abnormal for so many staff to leave at a short period of time. Can it be that all these staff all have problems, then something must be wrong with their hiring procedure. Either way, it does not look good on the management team.

Maybe staff turnover rate can be a measurement guide on the management team?

Thursday, August 21, 2008

Companies should disclose non-financial information: PwC

This article is published on The Business Times, 22 August 2008.

For the benefits of investors in public listed companies, i agree with Ms Kok that these companies should not only reports on past financial performance but also valuable information on current projects to allow investors to evaluate the prospects of the company.

Past financial performance is not able to give investors the clear indication how well the company is going to perform in the future, instead what is important is the current activities or projects that they are engaging in that gives a clear indication of the direction of the company.

However even with non-financial reporting, it can not also prove that that company has better corporate governance as there may be selective information being released, or their budget projection and balance sheet may not have been done professionally that does not truly reflect the viability of the project. Moreover company will justify this as trade secrets and not disclosable.