Business networking – should start from your own immediate family.

A business network can be described as a group of people that have some kind of commercial relationship which can take place outside of traditional business environments. This can take place in anywhere including public places such as coffee shops, gyms or shopping malls. Business networks provide opportunities to make new business contacts thus good for business especially in marketing your products.

Sometimes we tend to forget that our immediate family can be a good platform for our business network. Be it our own parents, siblings or cousins, they are the one who definitely will give a good ‘words of mouth’ to our profile. As entrepreneur, always remember to built up and maintain your market anytime or anywhere including with your immediate and extended family. Okay, for this 'Hari Raya' or 'Eid Fitri' celebration, dont forget to bring along your adequate suppy of business cards and start cultivate your network.

This morning my brother, Ghazali, gave me a short message invitation for ‘buka puasa’ (breaking fast) at his house in Vista Commonwealth, Kuala Lumpur. Also invited were my eldest sister and her family and also my younger sister and her family. Who can resist my sister in law’s authentic home cook food? Well, everybody turn up right before time to break our fast except my younger sister and her family (having other appointment).

The menu – ‘Nasi Ambang’, an original Johor recipe, chicken ‘rendang’, delicious ‘otak-otak’, for dessert - lip smacking ‘kuih kochi’ and ice cream served with chocolate syrup. After consuming the entire lovely dishes I barely able to stand-up, that’s ok, I am going to burn all out at the gym tomorrow anyway. Thank you to my brother and sister in-law for the invitation and wonderful meal.

Cya.
Love
Hanafi.

Ps: thats Adam, my nephew, I was as cute as him at that age....hmmm maybe cuter.

Bizcom as a centre for entrepreneurs.

Dear readers.
Before I start with my new topic, let me apologize for the long absence from my last post until today. I was busy handling my business and personal stuff; however I will try to post as frequent as possible if time permits.

Ok, let’s face it, our majority of Bumiputera entrepreneurs are still lacking in ‘Information Technology’ in practice and in skill. I have been training our entrepreneurs for quite many years for Majlis Amanah Rakyat (MARA) and have seen so many of us without even any basic knowledge of IT. It’s a pity when advances in the computer world are not going parallel with our entrepreneurs’ knowledge in the area.

How can we promote e-commerce when most of us do not know internet application or without an e-mail account? How do we optimize the benefit of the search function in the internet for business purposes when we do not know what is Google or Wikipedia? Nevertheless, I firmly believe things will change in the future when Government agencies, individuals or private sectors make a non-stop effort to promote IT among Bumi entrepreneurs.

One such effort is from Bizcom that actually is promoting business networking among Bumi entrepreneurs using internet technology. Even though still relatively new (up until today there are only about 24,559 visitors to their portal), the concept promises a great leap in business networking among Bumi entrepreneurs if prosecuted properly and supported by Bumi entrepreneurs in Malaysia as a whole.

If you walk to the main entrance of MARA headquarters in Jalan Raja Laut, Kuala Lumpur, you hardly can avoid seeing a reception counter of Bizcom with an office like setup or kiosk as they call it at the back of the reception counter itself. That kiosk is one of the many kiosks of Bizcom that are and will be all over Malaysia. You can use the kiosk's facilities like high speed internet, PCs, meeting room for free if you register with them (also free for first year) at the counter or online.

Among benefits for members (Bumiputera only) are:-
1. Cheaper SMS broadcasting.
2. Cheaper ICT application rates.
3. Bizcom kiosks and centre points (I found it handy when meeting with clients outside my own office premise).
4. Counseling counters.
5. Reference centres.
6. P.O Box and address. Etc. Please refer to their portal/website www.bizcom.net.my


Overall, I think Bizcom is a commendable effort by Bumi entrepreneur for Bumi entrepreneurs. There might be rooms for improvement like having a notice board at the kiosk or incorporating multi communication functions inside the portal, however, cheers for the informative reception staff, En Tahren for being entrepreneur friendly and blogger friendly too. Keep up the good work.

PS: I just bought a new camera 'canon powershot S5IS, 8 megapixels and 12x optical zoom but I forgot to raise the flash when I took the above shots. Still need to learn a lot in photography.