Decided that blogspot was too yesteryear.
Using a new one now at elapx.wordpress.com
See you there!
Monday, March 12, 2012
Wednesday, January 11, 2012
Starting small...
So some of you know that I'm trying out a small experiment to get started thinking about business...
Before that, a little background:
- My mum, J, makes amazing chocolate walnut cakes, but she only ever does it once every Lunar New Year, reason being that it takes too much effort just to bake 1 cake at a time (i.e. take out everything, unwrap all the plastic covering (she's crazy about keeping stuff spotless), bake 1x cake, wash everything, and then rewrap and re-store...
So she only does it the week before CNY, where she bakes up a storm, making at least 10 large cakes to all our relatives and colleagues at 1 go. Ever the dutiful son, I have been assisting her to bake all this while, and of course, learning the various techniques and formulas to make the one great slice.
One of my colleagues actually asked to buy an entire cake last year, and we were so paisehz, coz we didn't know how to sell the cake, how to price the cake (he was a colleague after all), and so just 意识意识 sold him at cost (ingredients only).
This year, at we were ramping up to CNY again, on a whim, I approached said colleague and asked if he was interested to buy again. He immediately responded and added that for the right price, being the foodie among his friends, he could scrounge up enough interest to make it interesting. But before he could 推销 to his kakis, he needed some photographic proof that the cakes were attractive.
Immediately I went back and checked my old photo stash, just in case I had any to show him upfront. No luck! So we had to bake a whole new cake to take photos. I figured, why just email him when I can post it online and show potential clients, accessible by a wordpress blog.
The blog is here: chocolatewalnutcake.wordpress.com
Thereafter, we had to start considering the entire business feasibility (how much to sell), supply constraints (how to get best-source ingredients), marketing strategy (apart from CNY, when would one want to eat super delicious, moist chocolate walnut cake), viral advertising (social media / FB), how to ensure repeat business via word-of-mouth (if someone eats and likes the cake, where can he/she make a quick order), & multiple selections (what if someone wants a smaller sized /heart-shaped cake), even vision (to walk in the footsteps of Awfully Chocolate).
So as it stands, everything is up in the air, and that we are learning as we go along. Definitely we won't make money this year, but that's not the point. What I can say is that it's a small experiment in starting and operating a business, hopefully imbuing me with the right training for when I do a 'proper' start-up.
Plus, it goes a long way to make my mum busy and proud of her baking...
This weekend we'll be extremely busy trying to fill the orders, and if there's anyone who wants to order, please email cakesjoyce@gmail.com or call 9450-4195.
Before that, a little background:
- My mum, J, makes amazing chocolate walnut cakes, but she only ever does it once every Lunar New Year, reason being that it takes too much effort just to bake 1 cake at a time (i.e. take out everything, unwrap all the plastic covering (she's crazy about keeping stuff spotless), bake 1x cake, wash everything, and then rewrap and re-store...
So she only does it the week before CNY, where she bakes up a storm, making at least 10 large cakes to all our relatives and colleagues at 1 go. Ever the dutiful son, I have been assisting her to bake all this while, and of course, learning the various techniques and formulas to make the one great slice.
One of my colleagues actually asked to buy an entire cake last year, and we were so paisehz, coz we didn't know how to sell the cake, how to price the cake (he was a colleague after all), and so just 意识意识 sold him at cost (ingredients only).
This year, at we were ramping up to CNY again, on a whim, I approached said colleague and asked if he was interested to buy again. He immediately responded and added that for the right price, being the foodie among his friends, he could scrounge up enough interest to make it interesting. But before he could 推销 to his kakis, he needed some photographic proof that the cakes were attractive.
Immediately I went back and checked my old photo stash, just in case I had any to show him upfront. No luck! So we had to bake a whole new cake to take photos. I figured, why just email him when I can post it online and show potential clients, accessible by a wordpress blog.
The blog is here: chocolatewalnutcake.wordpress.com
Thereafter, we had to start considering the entire business feasibility (how much to sell), supply constraints (how to get best-source ingredients), marketing strategy (apart from CNY, when would one want to eat super delicious, moist chocolate walnut cake), viral advertising (social media / FB), how to ensure repeat business via word-of-mouth (if someone eats and likes the cake, where can he/she make a quick order), & multiple selections (what if someone wants a smaller sized /heart-shaped cake), even vision (to walk in the footsteps of Awfully Chocolate).
So as it stands, everything is up in the air, and that we are learning as we go along. Definitely we won't make money this year, but that's not the point. What I can say is that it's a small experiment in starting and operating a business, hopefully imbuing me with the right training for when I do a 'proper' start-up.
Plus, it goes a long way to make my mum busy and proud of her baking...
This weekend we'll be extremely busy trying to fill the orders, and if there's anyone who wants to order, please email cakesjoyce@gmail.com or call 9450-4195.
Thursday, January 05, 2012
2012
Wow! In a blink of an eye, 2012 is here.
This is hopefully my first (of many) posts in 2012 where I'll try to kickstart my writing process all over again.
Things I will blog about:
- My job in the Venture Capital World
- My readings
- My various dabbles in coding
- My attempts at starting up
- My life goals and how I'm achieving them this year
- My hobbies and interests.
That should keep it interesting...
Anyone out there still reading, perchance?
This is hopefully my first (of many) posts in 2012 where I'll try to kickstart my writing process all over again.
Things I will blog about:
- My job in the Venture Capital World
- My readings
- My various dabbles in coding
- My attempts at starting up
- My life goals and how I'm achieving them this year
- My hobbies and interests.
That should keep it interesting...
Anyone out there still reading, perchance?
Wednesday, May 18, 2011
Whenever I can't sleep...
I blog.
I write to give the many swirling thoughts in my head a physical, logical, permanent location, its own place in the world. When it takes physical shape, meaning, it becomes powerful, autonomous, with a mind of its own.
It's amazing how millions of letters can be crammed in my tiny brain. Without the skill and years of training, I can only get a tiny fraction of it out, and the rest of the 99.99999% of my thoughts fizzle away into emptiness, nothingness...
Like one's existence, what truly happens once he/she stops existing? When you go from a living, breathing human person to becoming a cold,stiff, rotting carcass, where does your eternal soul gets placed? Is it truly that 21grams that constitutes your soul just disappears forever? Then your time on Earth, what is it really? A tiny asterisk pointing to a footnote hidden within an appendix buried in an obscure reference?
But I digress.
My thoughts, myriad in its actualization, probably can fill up the Encyclopaedia Britannica. Heck, it may be enough to deck out Wikipedia. Hah, did you know that there's a Wiki entry about Britannica? Maybe one day, someone will edit the wiki entry to talk about the demise of Britannica. After all, doesn't the victors rewrite history? Sure, the bards will sing the tales of how you valiantly fought with your very last breath, but surely, they won't be saying anything about how the winner double-crossed and stabbed them in the back. At least not while the victors (and their direct descendants) are still alive.
Ok, I think I have done a sufficiently lengthy memory dump. My head feels much lighter, clearer, and ready for bed. My thoughts feel particularly heavy in my head, perhaps they can actually be weighed one day. Has any physicist / biologist considered that before? Then again, if a thought is might up of electrical impulses jumping through the synapses in the brain, having a lot of thoughts = a lot of electrical impulses. Since an electrical impulse is a particle transmitting electromagnetic waves, it's a form of energy. Energy = mass x acceleration, therefore the more thoughts I have, the heavier I become.
Wow.
Is that worthy of a Nobel?
I write to give the many swirling thoughts in my head a physical, logical, permanent location, its own place in the world. When it takes physical shape, meaning, it becomes powerful, autonomous, with a mind of its own.
It's amazing how millions of letters can be crammed in my tiny brain. Without the skill and years of training, I can only get a tiny fraction of it out, and the rest of the 99.99999% of my thoughts fizzle away into emptiness, nothingness...
Like one's existence, what truly happens once he/she stops existing? When you go from a living, breathing human person to becoming a cold,stiff, rotting carcass, where does your eternal soul gets placed? Is it truly that 21grams that constitutes your soul just disappears forever? Then your time on Earth, what is it really? A tiny asterisk pointing to a footnote hidden within an appendix buried in an obscure reference?
But I digress.
My thoughts, myriad in its actualization, probably can fill up the Encyclopaedia Britannica. Heck, it may be enough to deck out Wikipedia. Hah, did you know that there's a Wiki entry about Britannica? Maybe one day, someone will edit the wiki entry to talk about the demise of Britannica. After all, doesn't the victors rewrite history? Sure, the bards will sing the tales of how you valiantly fought with your very last breath, but surely, they won't be saying anything about how the winner double-crossed and stabbed them in the back. At least not while the victors (and their direct descendants) are still alive.
Ok, I think I have done a sufficiently lengthy memory dump. My head feels much lighter, clearer, and ready for bed. My thoughts feel particularly heavy in my head, perhaps they can actually be weighed one day. Has any physicist / biologist considered that before? Then again, if a thought is might up of electrical impulses jumping through the synapses in the brain, having a lot of thoughts = a lot of electrical impulses. Since an electrical impulse is a particle transmitting electromagnetic waves, it's a form of energy. Energy = mass x acceleration, therefore the more thoughts I have, the heavier I become.
Wow.
Is that worthy of a Nobel?
Monday, May 02, 2011
Sunday, May 01, 2011
Wow I'm old
Wow, it's really been a very long time since I last blogged, back in July 2010. Guess one could say that since then I became very busy at work, at life, everywhere. And suddenly I have hit upon another life milestone, a moment to reflect on the past year.
There has been many changes since my last entry.
1) Changed jobs
I'm now in a new subsidiary that looks into equity investments as well as industry promotion. The learning curve has been fairly steep, and I found myself learning new skills that tested my ability to adapt and grow. The best of this job is that I am now fully based locally and can actively seek out my other interests, see No. 2
2) In a relationship
I'm with BJ, a simply wonderful girl who has shown me the better part of what living can be. Without realizing it, my last 30 years was a scowling nightmare. I avoided pictures, afraid of immortalizing the mirror image I saw but didn't want to. She, with all her cheerfulness and joy, has taught me how to smile and believe.
3) I'm studying
In between juggling 1) and 2), I've embarked on something new. I've started studying for a certification course, designed to help me career-wise post-slavery. This has led to many sleepless nights, blurred mornings, and frenzied studying binges.
What hasn't changed
1) Weight
Since dropping significantly in 2010, my weight has reached a plateau. I still target to lose another 10kg to reach my desired weight, and I will do it by end of this year. This I will have to do with 1), 2), and 3) in perspective.
2) Procrastination / Laziness
That still hasn't changed. As I was clearing out some of the books cluttering my shelf today, I chanced upon "The Procrastinator's Guide to Success" and smiled. If only reading a book can solve a problem, but even so, procrastinators won't ever flip to the last page. This is something that needs to change as well, if I want to achieve further personal growth.
3) Lack of Planning
For too long, I have been counting upon good luck, serendipity to get through life. Somehow, amazingly enough, I have lived well enough. But it's stupid to believe that I can still do this in the next phase in my life. I *need* to be a planner, because if I have goals but not a way to achieve them, then I'm just a dreamer.
Let this blog entry serve as a reminder to myself to change. 31 years late, but it's never to late to start *now*.
Wish me luck!
There has been many changes since my last entry.
1) Changed jobs
I'm now in a new subsidiary that looks into equity investments as well as industry promotion. The learning curve has been fairly steep, and I found myself learning new skills that tested my ability to adapt and grow. The best of this job is that I am now fully based locally and can actively seek out my other interests, see No. 2
2) In a relationship
I'm with BJ, a simply wonderful girl who has shown me the better part of what living can be. Without realizing it, my last 30 years was a scowling nightmare. I avoided pictures, afraid of immortalizing the mirror image I saw but didn't want to. She, with all her cheerfulness and joy, has taught me how to smile and believe.
3) I'm studying
In between juggling 1) and 2), I've embarked on something new. I've started studying for a certification course, designed to help me career-wise post-slavery. This has led to many sleepless nights, blurred mornings, and frenzied studying binges.
What hasn't changed
1) Weight
Since dropping significantly in 2010, my weight has reached a plateau. I still target to lose another 10kg to reach my desired weight, and I will do it by end of this year. This I will have to do with 1), 2), and 3) in perspective.
2) Procrastination / Laziness
That still hasn't changed. As I was clearing out some of the books cluttering my shelf today, I chanced upon "The Procrastinator's Guide to Success" and smiled. If only reading a book can solve a problem, but even so, procrastinators won't ever flip to the last page. This is something that needs to change as well, if I want to achieve further personal growth.
3) Lack of Planning
For too long, I have been counting upon good luck, serendipity to get through life. Somehow, amazingly enough, I have lived well enough. But it's stupid to believe that I can still do this in the next phase in my life. I *need* to be a planner, because if I have goals but not a way to achieve them, then I'm just a dreamer.
Let this blog entry serve as a reminder to myself to change. 31 years late, but it's never to late to start *now*.
Wish me luck!
Wednesday, July 14, 2010
Why is it always a struggle?
Why is it always so hard?
Do I really not want it?
Why doesn't it get easier after such a long time?
Sigh...
Do I really not want it?
Why doesn't it get easier after such a long time?
Sigh...
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