Have you heard, because of the economic boom, asking rents for some offices or shop space have shot up 50-100%? Imagine, if you were running a business out of an office and your landlord tells you the rent will double up at the next lease renewal. Some businesses have had no choice but to relocate, incurring painful additional costs in the process. Many businesses have also had to pay more just to keep their workers. My lawyer friend who runs his own little firm recently told me fresh graduates nowadays cost more than S$4,000 a month, and they may not even be good enough for the job!
This situation was captured in the Upfront column of The Straits Times on Wednesday, July 25th, under the headline, Boom time doesn't come cheap for businesses.
The writer Erica Tay wrote of Marcus Ng, owner of an interior furnishings company, who was told by his landlord that the rent for his business premises in a MacPherson industrial estate will be raised by more than 30% when it comes up for renewal in three months. Business has been good, but he is not ready to stomach such a steep rental rise. "If I can't bargain for a lower hike, I will move elsewhere."
Then there is VS Kumar, MD of a 100-strong courier company Network Express. His drivers are clamouring for pay rises. "With the current salary you are giving us, our families can't afford to buy the same things anymore," they tell Mr Kumar. The company has no choice but to review salary packages.
The good times have put a squeeze on the supply of commercial space as well as labour, leading to higher rentals and wages. The higher rentals also apply to rents on accomodation, with expatriates asking for higher housing allowances.
When I read about how many businesses stand to suffer as much in good times as they do in bad times, I am glad and thankful for the unique, hassle-free, home-based business that I own. For me, like many other businesses in good times, business has been better so far this year. However, unlike traditional businesses facing the usual headaches and cost pressures, I get to keep all of the extra income.
Nobody gets to tell me to pay more for my rent for I operate out of my office at own home!
I'm sure the rent for our new shop and corporate showcase at the new location in HDB Hub Mall #02-06 is higher than the rent at the previous location. But that's the responsibility and burden of my corporate partner, not me nor my associates.
Wages must have gone up too for the good corporate staff that serve us, but that again is the corporate side's responsibility.
Nobody in my organization ever comes up to me to ask for more money because inflation is pricing things out of their reach. Like me, they get to write their own cheques. If we want more, we just work harder and smarter. It all depends on our own effort and success.
So, good times or bad times, we are fine.
I remember one clever line Eddy Tan, the most successful of Unicity networkers in this part of the world, is fond of using:
"In good times, they eat; in bad times, they do. For us, either way will do" :)
Wednesday, July 25, 2007
S$300,000 to learn to "listen well"!
I read in The Straits Times on Tuesday, July 24th, that 46 UBS wealth management trainees are in Singapore to attend a one-year, S$300,000 course on how to be a very good listener - one of the key attributes of a successful private banker.
This select bunch were handpicked from a massive field of 2,800 applicants. They include a former top-ranked Hongkong professional tennis player, a programme manager with the World Economic Forum in Geneva and a super-geek from Singapore, who gave up a S$150,000 a year job developing electronic payment systems to join the programme.
As part of their training, they will receive both classroom and on-the-job training in empathy (YES, EMPATHY), product knowledge and leadership skills in financial hubs such as Singapore and Switzerland. The cost of the course, fully paid by UBS, covers trainees' salaries accomodation, travel expenses and course fees.
According to UBS global wealth management chairman Raoul Weil, who was in Singapore to meet the trainees, successful private bankers must have both "a high emotional quotient (EQ) to relate effectively to the client and the IQ to offer him the best investment options".
The news article was headlined: Want to be a successful private banker? Listen well ..."
My guess is that if you want to be a successful anything, we need to listen well :)
So, it's great that bankers and businesses are picking up on this, and investing in it.
One of these days, some of us are going to make a lot of money simply teaching people how to listen well. Indeed, some of us already are, although indirectly ;)
This select bunch were handpicked from a massive field of 2,800 applicants. They include a former top-ranked Hongkong professional tennis player, a programme manager with the World Economic Forum in Geneva and a super-geek from Singapore, who gave up a S$150,000 a year job developing electronic payment systems to join the programme.
As part of their training, they will receive both classroom and on-the-job training in empathy (YES, EMPATHY), product knowledge and leadership skills in financial hubs such as Singapore and Switzerland. The cost of the course, fully paid by UBS, covers trainees' salaries accomodation, travel expenses and course fees.
According to UBS global wealth management chairman Raoul Weil, who was in Singapore to meet the trainees, successful private bankers must have both "a high emotional quotient (EQ) to relate effectively to the client and the IQ to offer him the best investment options".
The news article was headlined: Want to be a successful private banker? Listen well ..."
My guess is that if you want to be a successful anything, we need to listen well :)
So, it's great that bankers and businesses are picking up on this, and investing in it.
One of these days, some of us are going to make a lot of money simply teaching people how to listen well. Indeed, some of us already are, although indirectly ;)
Saturday, July 07, 2007
Hello! Who's listening?
Yesterday, in a private coaching session with an apprentice on how to become exceptionally popular and make friends in a social setting, we reviewed a common scenario.
Imagine five friends catching up socially over a coffee. A few have known each other for some time; the others more recently acquianted and inducted into the informal get-together.
Someone starts talking about a pet peeve. He barely finishes what he wants to say. Someone else jumps in with his take on the same subject, believing that he is contributing to the conversation and staying with the flow. Then, another jumps in with her own story. Now, we have three excited people trying to talk at the same time.
The other two, being relatively new to the group or not so adept at speaking up or breaking into an animated conversation, couldn't get a word in. They drift away, find companionship in each other's sense of not quite fitting in, and enter into their own little chat.
Hello, who's listening?
The party ends later and everyone goes home, with dry throats and hollowed hearts.
Now, what if one of the two left out of the conversation, instead of drifting away, listens in closely? He makes a connection with one of the talkers and what he's trying to say. He realizes that there is an interesting story that was unfinished because it was interrupted. So, he speaks up, saying, "Excuse me, just now, what you said about ...., I find that so interesting. Can you please tell me more about that?"
The guy with the unfinished story beams, pleasantly surprised someone was actually listening in to what he had to say, and even wanted to hear the rest of his story. So, he continues with his interrupted story. Now, the polite and interested listener gets the others listening in too.
Do you think this party will end differently?
Do you think there will be at least one person in the party who felt really listened to? And do you think someone in the party of five will leave a good impression of himself on the others and possibly win for himself a deeper bond or friendship than before the evening started out?
The moral of the story? In this world where speaking is over-rated and listening is under-appreciated, it doesn't take much to make a difference and to leave a mark. Let's not worry about speaking up or speaking well so as to impress for the moment. Instead, why not focus on listening well so as to leave a more lasting and favourable impression?
Imagine five friends catching up socially over a coffee. A few have known each other for some time; the others more recently acquianted and inducted into the informal get-together.
Someone starts talking about a pet peeve. He barely finishes what he wants to say. Someone else jumps in with his take on the same subject, believing that he is contributing to the conversation and staying with the flow. Then, another jumps in with her own story. Now, we have three excited people trying to talk at the same time.
The other two, being relatively new to the group or not so adept at speaking up or breaking into an animated conversation, couldn't get a word in. They drift away, find companionship in each other's sense of not quite fitting in, and enter into their own little chat.
Hello, who's listening?
The party ends later and everyone goes home, with dry throats and hollowed hearts.
Now, what if one of the two left out of the conversation, instead of drifting away, listens in closely? He makes a connection with one of the talkers and what he's trying to say. He realizes that there is an interesting story that was unfinished because it was interrupted. So, he speaks up, saying, "Excuse me, just now, what you said about ...., I find that so interesting. Can you please tell me more about that?"
The guy with the unfinished story beams, pleasantly surprised someone was actually listening in to what he had to say, and even wanted to hear the rest of his story. So, he continues with his interrupted story. Now, the polite and interested listener gets the others listening in too.
Do you think this party will end differently?
Do you think there will be at least one person in the party who felt really listened to? And do you think someone in the party of five will leave a good impression of himself on the others and possibly win for himself a deeper bond or friendship than before the evening started out?
The moral of the story? In this world where speaking is over-rated and listening is under-appreciated, it doesn't take much to make a difference and to leave a mark. Let's not worry about speaking up or speaking well so as to impress for the moment. Instead, why not focus on listening well so as to leave a more lasting and favourable impression?
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