Are we ready to wrestle with inflation? (courtesy of Alexis Foundation)
“Inflation is when you pay fifteen dollars for the ten-dollar haircut you used to get for five dollars when you had hair.” – Sam Ewing
Inflation. The sheer mention of the word brings forth shudders.
“What we have done for ourselves alone die with us; what we have done for others and the world remains and is immortal” – Albert Pike
Entrepreneurship is one of the most challenging ways to make a living. Done right, however, it can be the most rewarding, allowing one to fulfill one’s dream, vision, purpose, and mission.
27 year old Melvin Ong (above) has a vision. And that is to be the king of fries in Singapore.
Together with his partner Steve Tan (also 27), Melvin owns and operates What The Fries! – a snack food outlet located at the basement of J Cube Mall. With the cheeky acronym WTF, the stall has been in operation slightly over a year (it opened on 2 Apr 2012). It serves savoury snacks like Golden Nuggets, Mexicali Wings, Roasted Drumlets, Sunny Hunny Wings, and lots of fries.
Small businesses need to learn to be like David when fighting against Goliath (source of image)
What can Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) and independent free lancers do to build their reputations, enhance their businesses, and strengthen their reach? With limited resources and finances, how can these entities carve a space for themselves in an increasingly crowded market with competitors possessing deeper pockets, greater resources and fuller teams?
To stand a chance of winning the hearts and minds of consumers, small businesses need to take advantage of their nimbleness, flexibility and agility to outwit and outmaneuver the bigger boys. Competing along the same dimensions will only result in a sorry ending.
Source of Image
What can small businesses, start-ups, free-lancers and other budding entrepreneurs do to build their reach? How can they compete against bigger companies with deeper pockets, greater resources and fuller teams?
In general, the clue is to look at what big conglomerates are doing, and then try to do the opposite – in a customer pleasing fashion of course. Clueless where to start? Well, here are five ideas to begin with.