Stievan's view of life

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2011-04-13T15:22:00.001+07:00

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Being an Entrepreneur is not easy part 2

2011-03-30T19:15:00.000+07:00

Ola, sorry for the not so often updates,

Abis simulasi kemarin, g ud yakin banget tuh "ini bisa jalan!" Nah keluar d PO gue ke si bule, invoice keluar, bayar (iyeh gak bisa ngutang doeloe), trus konfirmasi, ok katanya sebelom akhir taun dikirim. ud dong gue tenang aje.

Eh mendadak ud akhir taun, berhubung gue juga lage ribet di kerjaan, g pikir ya sudahlah, namanya christmas en bule, kan dosa kalo gak dirayain. tunggu2, tau2 januari ud 2 minggu belon sampe juga. kuampret sia, g email lha ke si bule, doi bales "iyeh, g kirim sekarang", gak lama dibales tuh kode pengirimannya. ehhhh 2 hari kemudia g cek masi belon ada kodenye. g email lage sambil ngoceh2 kali ini. g tanya, "mana barangmya? gue gak bisa trace di EMS, loe kapan kirimnya?", besoknye dibales, isinye list orang2 yg pernah nanya soal tu produk in the past few years. ya ngamuk dong gue, GPL langsung email isinye "g gak perlu list nama orang, yg gue perlu barangnye. loe bisa kirim gak tu barang!?".

Mungkin si bule bingung juga jawabnye, 2 hari tuh baru di jawab isinye cuma pemberitahuan "loe ud bisa trace di EMS website". g kagak jawab. tiap ari tuh gue ngecek ud ampe mane. lama yah dari eropa kesini, takes more than a week. Hurrah! sampe juga akhirnye awal feb (menurut websitenye)
.
monyet, yg gue dapet taunye tagihan dari pos indo. g mo ngoceh kan, i mean, kan ud g bayar ongkos pengirimannye! eh bis g baca tu surat, isinye bea masuk, PPN ma PPh. wua kampret anjeng kurap, g mo ngamuk ma pos indo, tp mending tanya doeloe yg pengalaman kali yah. *tanya tanya* ternyata bener, kudu bayar pajek masuk, en tinggi gara2 HS codenya (buat yg gak tau, HS code tuh kode bea masuk.) bayangin aje, g kena 36% dari total barang gue, monyet2 jadi mahal barangnye. pa boleh buat dah namanye pertaman kali, ongkos belajar. mo gak mao juga, tebuslah gue itu barang.

Pos indonesia tu ternyata gede pisan, trus kudu muter2 ngambilnye. pertama ke loket pengambilan barang doeloe di bawah, cek barangnye bener gak, kelengkapan, dsb dsb. kalo ud ok, dibikinin invoice lage ma doi, trus keatas bayar, eh pas gue mo bayar itung2annye salah kata mbak yg jaga (total yg harus dibayarnya) trus gak bisa digantiin ma doi, jadi lha gue ke bawah lagi minta betulin. balik lage ke atas. bayar, kudu cash pula. jadi kena ke ATM yg posisinye jauh beuttttttt. baru balik lagi bayar cash, fotokopi KTP buat ambil, balik ke tempat pengambilan barang, baru bisa gue ambil. ngeselin juga, inget ye guys, laen kali pake DHL aje, save your time, a lot. kalo diitung2 sama aje harganye, beda dikittttt doang. tp gak pake ribet en dianter mpe rumah.

OK, barang udah sampe, saatnye jualan.

to be continued kawan, pegel ngetiknye.............. hehehehehehe

Being an Entrepreneur is not easy part 1

2010-12-06T16:48:00.000+07:00

Ola, welcome to my blog. today g mo ngomong soal being an entrepreneur. seperti biasa, dimulai dengan definisi:

An entrepreneur is a person who has possession of a new enterprise, venture or idea and assumes significant accountability for the inherent risks and the outcome.The term is originally a loanword from French and was first defined by the Irish-French economist Richard Cantillon. Entrepreneur in English is a term applied to the type of personality who is willing to take upon himself a new venture or enterprise and accepts full responsibility for the outcome. Jean-Baptiste Say, a French economist, is believed to have coined the word "entrepreneur" first in about 1800. He said an entrepreneur is "one who undertakes an enterprise, especially a contractor, acting as intermediatory between capital and labour."

So basically, entrepreneur eta pemilik dr suatu usaha. Entah itu duitnye, ato idenye, yg pasti doi betanggung jawab pul thd hasil usahanya itu.

Nah, dulu g memutuskan buat buka usaha. setelah 2 tahun sejak first encounter baru tuh g follow up penawaran doi. tau tau harga naek 50%..... puyeng. seharian g pikir lagi gimana caranye, mana modal minim, masa minta suntik dana seh?? gak keren amat. setelah berpikir lama (sumpah lama bgt) tiba2 g tersadar! rokok g abis jo, langsung g liat jem astaga ud mo terang neh hari. i sat 5 hours cuma buat ngakalin beginian. setelah tidur dan bolos gawe, siang itu g putusin buat nyoba pasar doeloe. yah iseng2 berhadiah d. at least kalo buang duit gak puyeng. kontek lha gue si bule itu buat nyari sample.....

Ternyata kalo belanja ma bule teh enak bros, cepet geraknye, gak kalah d ma medan lang (no offence guys). itungan menit email gue dibales. setelah beberapa email tanya2, g fill form, en doi kirim proforma invoices. voila, timbul sudah hutang di neraca gue. puyeng....

OK, masalah barang sample ud kelar, sekarang gimana nentuin market (anjrit telat bgt ya gue, ud beli br puyeng market), nyontek d di buku kuliah gue jaman term 3, crafting strategy, campur buku marketing dikit ma rokok entah brp banyak, g putusin ambil niche market, soalnye gue liat niche market agak lebih gampang dimasukin soalnye it seems ini product cuma bisa dimengerti oleh pengguna. puyeng juga. iya d masa g beli sampel gak dijadiin duit. ngelist d gue lokasi2 potensial, cetting kiri kanan, tanya2 segala macem, walhasil dptnye lumayan, cukup banyak jg. begitu g pikir "cari makan ahhhh" nengok jem ud jem 9 lage aje. kuampret, g belom keluar kamar semenjak siang.

Makan..... bis makan? ngitung donggggggg. mo jokul berape ye ni barang??? segala macem rumus g pake, dr rumus mo kaya mpe rumus saudagar miskin. dibeginiin jadi begonmo, dibegonoin jadi begini, puter2, puyeng sendiri. ternyata emang yg feasible teh yg murah2. susah g masuknye... sempet down karena rasanye "kok segini doang....?? mending gue kerja. (curhat.com)

Tp emang curhat tu penting banget bagi seorang entrepreneur, karena pas lage down, doi bakalan butuh "new perspective" yg kadang2 temen curhat kita itu juga gak ada maksud kasi perspective tapi karena emang ud niat kali yeh, dapet aje ide dr potongan2 kata itu. sembari gombes2 dikit dah. buakakakakakakka. singkat kata g say "tengkyu, you've just light my world" en tutup telepon, mikir mode on, laloe?? beli rokok doeloe dong, sembari kena angin, kali2 dpt inspirasi tambahan.

Oia, word of advice, jgn mikir sambil jalan, g tersadar g ud di tengah jalan raya. kalo gak ditereakin satpam pasti ngelengos aje lenggang kangkung. bagus malem2, mobil jarang. klo nggak gak bakalan g nulis ni blog sekarang.

Lalu, abis beli rokok, jalan pulang, kunci *skip skip skip*. g balik ke meja kerja gue. sambil nungguin downloadan snow leopard gue, excel mulai beraksi. implementasiin inspirasi gue, sama rumus mo kaya. ternyata bisa sodara2. g gak untung tipis2 mepet cust jg pasti merasa nggak dirugikan. ada gunanye juga gue kuliah tinggi2. buakakakakaka. skr, tahap selanjutnye, simulasi.... *jeng jeng jeng jenggggggg*

*to be continued*

The Players

2010-10-04T04:16:00.000+07:00

ola, akhirnya gue kembali setelah beberapa lama gak update. been lazy guys, maapin aje yeh ^^.

Kali ini mari kita bahas yg namanye "player" di dunia dating. some call them playboy, playgirl, etc, etc, u name it. ini sudah jadi momok bagi orang-orang yg terlibat dalam dunia percintaan. Padahal kalo dipikir2, we all players karena gamenya cinta, but yg jago mainnya malah yg disebut players. kenapa juga bukan "pro players"? Ikut arus aje dah gue, buakakakakaka.

Guys (believe it or not) banyak yg iri sama para pemain ini. emangnye kenapa sih? apa gara2 doi menarik? apa gara2 doi bisa dapet pasangan gampang banget? or is it because they can get sex whenever they want? I dunno, tp g coba tulis soal pemain2 ini dr sudut pandang gue nyak.

The Player

ada beberapa definisi player di dunia maya sana, here's one that I like:

"A male who is skilled at manipulating ("playing") others, and especially at seducing women by pretending to care about them, when in reality they are only interested in sex. Possibly derived from the phrases "play him for a fool", or "play him like a violin". The term was popularized by hip-hop culture, but was commonly recognized among urban American blacks by the 1970s. A certain class of low-rent, slack-jawed fuckups has decided that backstabbing and misogyny are totally radical, so the word is sometimes used as a compliment or term of endearment between male friends, as in the greeting "what's up, player?"" - Urban Dictionary

Definisi diatas gak sepenuhnya g terima karena player gak cuma lelaki (walau banyakan lelaki si) perempuan juga ada bos. setelah dikasi revisi diatas, jadi pengertian gue adalah bahwa a player adalah seseorang yg memiliki kemampuan dalam memanipulasi perasaan lawan jenis dengan tujuan mendapatkan sex.

Kenapa juga kudu2nya perasaan yg dimainkan? well, according to me, perasaan adalah kunci utama dalam sifat manusia, if you can shape the feelings of a man / woman towards you, basically you can have anything you want from them including sex, yes. because sex menurut jaman feodal tempoe doeloe harus dilandaskan cinta. en masi dibawa sampe abad 21. it might be true though, because konon katanya sex tanpa perasaan rasanya hambar. en jangan lupa, cinta or napsu itu itungannye perasaan lho ^^.

Traits of A Player
Pemain pemain ini, biasanya ganteng / cantik pol. ada juga se yg tipe tajir, hobi pamer kekayaan bapak emaknye, en girls like rich boys. tp gue gak bahas yg model begitu, buat gue kalo punya uang, semua juga bisa. balik ke yang tipe pertama.

Dari luar, banyakan si tampan / cantik / manis, jarang yang buluk. auranye kek magnet bro, bisa bikin orang nengok kalo papasan di jalan. Pengetahuan biasanya banyak walau gak dalem, trus mulutnye lacur abeees. pokoknye enak diajak ngobrol, nyambung, tutur kata manis, en rasanya kita orang paling diperhatiin di dunia klo lage ma doi. Lalu doi biasanya ud kebal ma yg namanya penolakan. ditolak bukan hal baru buat mereka. and believe me they have their share of rejections. Terakhir mereka punya rasa percaya diri yang tinggi, en sekali lage, karena pengalaman mereka ud banyak.

oh iya, jgn samain pemain ma tukang tipu yah. player will not use trickery or some sort buat pickup women, they are trained to always move to the right direction. buat gue itu teh sekilll sob. nggak bisa didapet cuman modal baca buku, kudu dipractice-practice and practice.that's why I admire them, they actually commited enough to become what they are.

Nahhh, hati2 kawan, the most dangerous part of a player is his/her skill to manipulate the feelings. mereka tau bagaimana cara lawan jenis mereka berpikir and they can make us do what they ask. kayak disihir gitu lho. kita bisa ngerjain apa yg dia minta soalnye dia bisa bikin kita demen setengah mampoes ma doi. and ketika sudah di kondisi demikian, we can only hope that he / she come to their senses and stop what they're doing. love's a bitch bros, it makes us stupid.

Notes:

well, if you guys like to read, sebenernya sifat dasar manusia teh ada penjelasannya di buku2 psikologi, atopun di dunia maya. sifat2 ini ada yg dikelompok2an menurut karakter,ada yg menurut bentuk wajah, banyak dah versinya. Percaya apa nggak, horoskop / shio juga bisa jadi acuan lho (menurut gue yeh). but only for general knowledge. kalo ud baca (teori) tinggal analisanya aja d, sama rajin2 aplikasi dilapangan, gagal, review, adjust, coba lagi, gagal lagi, review lage, adjust lage, until you succeded, try it.

Why do Players Play?

Nah ini bagian yg g masi abu2, buat gue sang pelajar, it's for the sake of understanding women, i learned about them for many years and still fail to understand them. and coba bayangin kalo loe2 pada bisa mengerti, bukannya gak mungkin bisa jadi the ultimate lover, and what do high quality items do to the price? they go uppppppppp, dicari orang lage. hahahahahaha.

Bisa juga buat aktualisasi diri, pengen buktiin bahwa "gue bisa!". karena bosen ma current partner, cari tantangan baru mungkin? ato mencari pasangan ideal yg bisa keep up sama doi? intinye si pengen buktiin diri bahwa "g adalah high quality lover".

klo g tulis begini apakah pasangan ideal bagi players adalah playerettes? (hueahhehehaha bisa2an gue aje si istilahnye.)

Trivia: Do Players Ever Fail?

Yes, they do, many times actually. banyak temen2 g yg ditolak mentah2 pas pickup phase, ato yg tiba2 ditabok / dibanjur pas lage ngobrol. ato yg pertamanya cuma mo have fun malah pacaran, en believe me, it is amazing how orang yg kita liat biasa ngerjain sesuatu tiba2 gagal, miracle do happens. Hallelujah.

The Players VS The Player hater

Seperti semua permainan, Para pemain ini punya saingan yg namanye player hater, Player hater ini sifatnya ngerem players karena mereka deligent enough to research mengenai orang yg dicap ma doi player and begitu ketemu belangnye langsung di broadcast ke orang2 yg dia kenal ('g tau doi, pacarnye dimane2, trus loe tau gak....") en mereka bisa dengan mudah bikin list kejelekan dan why players should extinc.dan parahnya, they spread like wild fire! yah gak heran juga se, seiring kenaikan jumlah player didunia, yg disakiti hatinya pasti juga banyak, belom yg kena sampe 2-3 kali...

well menurut gue si player hater eta cuma orang2 yg cuma menyalahkan nasib kenapa mereka kayak diri mereka sekarang, gak punya keberanian untuk coba ngerubah en everybody must be like him / her.

I 'm not saying jadi player itu baik, tp player hater is worse. lame banget seh???? Don't hate the players, hate the game.

Brand Equity

2009-09-12T12:50:00.004+07:00

What is brand equity?

Brand Equity refers to marketing effects or outcome that accrue to a product with its brand name compared with those that would accrue if the same product did not have the brand name. (www.wikipedia.org)

Brand Equity is the combined measure of brand strengh and consist of knowledge, preferences and financial considerations. (www.brandingstrategyinsider.com)

Brand equity is created through aggressive mass marketing campaigns. Good examples of companies with strong brand equity are corporations such as Nike and Coca-Cola, whose corporate logos are recognized worldwide. (investopedia)

Ekuitas merek adalah seperangkat aset dan liabilitas merek yang berkaitan dengan suatu merek, nama dan simbolnya, yang menambah atau mengurangi nilai yang diberikan oleh suatu barang atau jasa kepada perusahaan atau pelanggan (Susanto dan Wijanarko, 2004)

translated: Brand equity is a set of assets and liabilities of a brand connected with brand, name or its symbols, which add or subtract the value perceived by a product or services towards comsumer.

Brand equity is the positive differential effect that knowing the brand name has on customer response to the product or service (Kotler dan Armstrong, 2004)

my conclusion:
brand equity is the power of a brand (Names, logos, symbols) which affected the products or services value towards the consumer.

So why we need brand equity?

according to my knowledge, a brand is the face of a product (or services). So If a brand doesn't sound familiar / new to the market, it won't sell as good as established products. confused? lemme give an example, if wanted to buy home speakers, and you have the money, what would you choose? a set of "Onkyo" or "JBL"? the answres may varies, but i'm sure there will be a lot that answers "JBL", ok, now choose between "JBL" with "Infinity", i'm also sure there will still be a lot that answers "JBL". strange huh? why's that happenend? "infinity"'s quality is superior to JBL.

Because of JBL's brand equity.

By having a great positive brand equity, you will create:

Brand awareness
People knows your products.

Brand loyalty
Compared apple to apple, people will choose a product which they familiar with (ex: creative instead of Juli@).

Perceived quality
with a good brand, people tend to believe that that product/services is better than other brand (has standards they will always get) (ex: DHL vs TIKI)

Brand associations
if you have the ultimate brand (already around for enough time, rarely get complained, etc2 all the good stuff), people will associate a product/services with your brand. (ex 1: in indonesia: aqua - people often ask for aqua instead of air putih even if product says "fit", "aquaria", "2 tang" (all of mineral water products) people will not complain. ex2: in Indonesia: Sanyo, still a lot of people associates water pump with sanyo, so when you want to buy a water pump for your house, go to a pump store and say "I want to buy Sanyo" and people will understand, seriously)

OK, I'm interested now, tell me how to get that brand equity

to be continued, suddenly I feel lazy.
c ya around.

E-commerce Strategy reviewed

2009-04-15T14:07:00.011+07:00

According to my book of E-commerce (E-Business and E-Commerce Management, by Dave Chaffey), there are six key decision in creating E-commerce Strategies. I would like to share the knowledge but I don't want to make you sleep reading this. so I took an example website www.bhinneka.com

Bhinneka.com is a website that sells tons of computer stuff. It is popular in Indonesia. Kinda pricey though, but still, if you're looking for product info bhinneka is still the most updated place you can see.

It has been up and running for about 9 years, It has its downtime, but yet still standing till now. Visit the site, and maybe you'll know why.

OK, here's the review:

E-Business Channel Priorities
Explained:
Like Gurati and Garino (2000) said, "Getting the right mix of bricks and clicks". What is it? Bricks refer to the actual stores, and clicks refer to the website.The mix is the combination of selling products/services via website and via actual stores. Now getting the right mix is is not that simple, as you must find "the right person, at the right time, using the right communication channel, with a relevant offer/products or message"... well that confused me.

Translated:
How you choose you preferred selling channel, if you sell products you might want to priorities your stores to sell and website to promote, if you sell services, you might switch to website to handle all your orders. But of course, you gotta find the right "mix".

Implemented:
Bhinneka's priorities are their stores, their website is almost purely for promotional only, only little buys online. Is it worth it? the price maintaining the website are hugeeeeeee. yes I think it's worth it. for someone who dares to pay for convinience, Bhinneka.com is just like ACE, a helpful place. They even got good services. and if you come to their head office, damn, those receptionists are cute.

Organizational Restructuring and Capabilities
Explained:
It is a decision on how the company should restructure or chage its capabilities in order to achieve the priorities set for e-business. commonly there are several ways:

In House Division
Joint Venture
Strategic Partnership
Spin Off

You search the meaning yourself.

Translated:
How you want your e-commerce be, run it yourself, pay someone to run it for you, partner with someone (they have website, you sell your products in that site), or you make another business to support your website(same with partnership, but this time, you partner with yourself.

Implemented:
Bhinneka made its own division for maintaining their website.

Business, Services, adn Revenue Model
Explained:
Evaluating new models and approaches is important since if company do not review opportunities and innovate, others will. A willingnest to test and experiment with new business model is required.

Translated:
You cannot stay with current situation. you have to continuously improve your website. like a famous saying "only the paranoid survive", you must not feel safe on where you are now. Consider your cost on improving as an investment, and it will pays off.

Implemented:
check out bhineka's backstage, it shows change that happens in www.bhinneka.com. they always improve their website. cause if they don't, somebody else will.

Marketplace Restructuring
Explained:
A related issues to reviewing new business and revenue models is to consider the options created through disintermediation and reintermediation within a marketplace.For all options tactics will be needed to manage the channel conflicts that may occur as a result of restructuring.

Translated:
Disintermediation is a way of bypassing distributors (you once buy/sell through distributor, now you buy/sell directly to supplier/end user). Reintermediation is the opposite, you add distibutors to your business process. this intermediation stuff can create troubles, you must prepare for the worst.

Implemented:
Bhinneka have all their products supplied from distributors (most of them is sole distributors), what if they decided to buy directly from suppliers? like buying Asus products directly from Taiwan? will it be cheaper? will it not create trouble with Astrindo? Prepare you mortals, prepareeeeeee.

Market and Product Development Strategies
Explained:
Deciding on which market to target is a key strategic consideration for internet marketing strategy . The decision is a balance between the fear of do-nothing option and fear of poor return on investment for strategies that fail.

Translated:
It is a matter of how you want to sell you products/services. is it new? or is it an existing products? maybe you want to expand to another market segment? How can you use internet to grab the market and win the competition? it's a marketing plan mates, just add "using internet".

Implemented:
Bhinneka is selling new and existing computer products, how they promote new brands or gadget? They post them on bhinekka's homepage, so people will get notice. how they want to try winning the competition? they increase their product range (from just computer peripherals, and now, they even added handphones, cameras, etc), they write reviews about the products available. They try to create costumer loyalty by providing additional services, etc. point is, they planned all this. not by coincidences, they make marketing plan.

Positioning and Differentiation Strategies
Explained:
Companies can position their products relative to competitors according to 4 main variables: product quality, services quality, price, and fulfillment price. Strategies should review the extend to which increase in product and services quality can be matched by decrease in prices and time.

Translated:
Position yourself, what do you sell? most of us sell same products usage. some sells Altec's speakers, some sell Sonic gear's speakers. Different prices, same products usage, different product quality. There are also who sells same altec's speaker but different prices, do their services the same? what variable prevails? ohh you get the point. Focus, if you like selling cheap better, customer will mind the services, if you want to sell higher, add services. it's a matter of your image.

Implemented:
Bhinneka sell their products a bit higher that market price, they compensate it with good services and better delivery time. What do their company image looked like? Profesionals...

Conclusion: Strategies are important aspect of business, let alone E-Commerce. Hope this post's helps.

E-Commerce for Retailers, Website Creation and The Issues

2009-04-08T11:56:00.012+07:00

Retail business is a business that sells products / services in which have been value added to fulfill end-user needs (personal, family, etc). Value added stuff in retail business covers : assortment, breaking bulk, holding inventory, and providing services.

Website holds the key role in E commerce. Without one, how do you do E commerce? even placing ads needs a website. (doh..). So how do we create one? simple way is paying for the services. But still you need to know something such as: why do you need a website?, where will you place you site, etc.

What do websites have to do with retailing business? Hey I am talking about e-commerce here, without a website how can you display your goods? mailing list? forum posting? Yea, they can do ya good, but having a website makes you more "accountable".
OK, to enlighten you guys, here's some tip to create a website

Planning
Designing
Developing
Testing
Implementing

Planning
In planning, like every planning, you need the 5W1H. Ask yourself this questions:
Why do you need a website?
Who will be your target customers?
What will your website contains?
Where will you place your website
When will you launch your website
How do you plan to make your website?

After you answered this questions, if you still confused about your goal, re-ask again, this time in details such as: Why do you need a website? to sell my products., why do you need to sell those products? who needs that products, what is that products? etc, you get the idea.

Designing
Now that the planning stage is out of the way it's time to get onto the more exciting stuff, Designing your web site. This section aims to cover some of the basics of web page design and layout using text and graphics.

If you jump straight in and start creating a web site straight away chances are that the site is going to be badly structured, look dull, and not achieve it's full potential.

Website design covers:

Page design
Navigation rules and options
Page sizes
Text layout
Images

There are no written rules to creating a web site and the information I provided is just a simple guide lines. For more inspiration visit here, or here.
Developing
Developing your websites requires knowledge in information technology, especially coding. in this development stages, you turn your design to something real. coding stuff and configuring tools often needed.

Testing
Like its name, you test your website for faults, error, flaws. Hey if you develop you own website, you ought to know the flaws mate.
Implementing
You publish your website and have it accessible for public.

Extra: Operational and maintenance stages
In this stages, you already have your website up and running, now you have to maintain and improve the site it self. Maintaining means: updating site content, answer customers questions, etc. and improving means: collecting information from site visitors, see statistic data of your website, etc. If you do this continuously at the very least your customers knows that you're "around", you'll know what products they ussually buys, what products don't sells, and stuff

The Management Issues

How much will it cost?
Depends, if you have the capabilities to develop an attractive looking website, I suggest you make it your own. It's cheaper and more fun. and if you're not, there are plenty of companies offers the services, some are cheap, some don't. Depending on you website complexity, more complex means more price. And like the advertisement on TV, I quote "Harga gak bohong".

Who will maintain?
OK, I assume you're a relatively small retailers. I suggest you maintain it yourself. learn how to maintain if you confused. This way, in time, you'll have that "sense" about your customers, and you also can have the idea of improving your website (with question like :"Why your website doesn't have paypal?", "Does your website encrypted?" and any other weird questions of course.).

When to improve??
I can't say when, but here's some thought, "when demand keeps rising". So if you get repeat demand from you customers, it's a good time to improve your site.

That's all from me. Cheers.
created from various site.

PS: for those who confused with the jargon --> ask google, they know everything.

Is E-Commerce fit for construction business??

2009-04-01T14:40:00.009+07:00

E-commerce as I explained in my previous post is a wonderful terms for companies seeking to expand their market with low cost. For this entry I will try to examine how E-commerce can help the construction companies.

As you all know constructions business are mainly dealing with drawings, contracts and other legal documents. this type of documents are sensitive and definitely can't be sent by emails nor faxes coz they contain approval signatures and here in Indonesia we need every documents hard copied (too many fraud here, can't do no soft copy). And most importantly, Trust.

So maybe we just forget about doing construction business deals by internet . However the internet can be used as a promotion media. Clients ussually know about construction companies by yellow pages or word of mouth, since they can't know for sure if company A is good and company B is less good. By using the internet, these companies can introduce themselves to a whole lots of prospetus clients, even if they are in the other side of the world.

Therefore, in order to promote themselves using the internet, minimum the company's got to have a website containing it's company profile, and contact address/number,some work examples to be showed off. and if applicable you can add clients testimonials for your work.

Here in Indonesia, only several construction companies have a website such as PP, WIKA, Jakarta Property. These are the big players, also known as Main Contractor / MainCon. How about their sub contractors (construction companies but a lot smaller in size)? there are hundreds of them and just admit it, we don't know their names. Oh you know? name 3 of them.

My main point is that by using the internet these smaller companies can introduce themselves. Get more jobs, suppliers, join projects, maybe even be choosen a the Main Contractor if they can make the clients believed that they can do the same job with less cost (yes, smaller companies won't charge you for their names ^^).

The drawback is again, security issues. You can be contacted by fake clients, maybe received prank request for Quotation, language problem, Etc.

It is such a shame that curently in indonesia, internet usage is not well known. only about 10% of the population use the internet (yes i read the slide). and in that 10%, how many percent actually understand E-Commerce?. But, hey. The good news is that 10% is going to increase, slowly but surely. Thanks to better educations.

So, according to my vantage point, Using E-Commerce in construction business is very risky because if the clients are not the real clients, we could lose time and money (hey, price seeking is a time consuming job, not mentioning the phone bills ^_~). But , if there are supporting aspects (suppliers got E-Commerce, Client's aren't "gaptek", not many fakers, people believed digital signatures, better internet connections) yes E-Commerce can be applied to this business. and the prospects are still very good. But then again, it's only my view.

Drop me some comment guys.

E-Commerce??

2009-03-30T23:07:00.005+07:00

It's been a while since I wrote my last blog. So now I got this assigment to write a blog, about e-commerce though. It shouldn't be so though.. heheheheh

OK, let's start with the word e-commerce itself.

What is E-Commerce??

E-COMMERCE / Electronic commerce which is a form of trading. Consist of the buying or selling of products or services over electronic systems such as the internet and other computer networks. (wikipedia)

E-commerce (electronic commerce or EC) is the buying and selling of goods and services on the Internet, especially the World Wide Web. (SearchCIO)

eCommerce (electronic commerce) is the buying and selling of goods and services on the Internet, especially the World Wide Web (mariosalexandrou)

So by those definition, I would say that E-Commerce is a form of buying and selling of goods or services using the internet.

Why E-commerce?
Because using the Internet as your media of selling will give you several advantage such as:

Bigger market to introduce your goods or services (practically the world) compared to brick and mortar shops.
Cheap! (Compare that to marketing budget of a company)
Easier to show your goods / services (Most people are scared to ask, although sometimes the prices are scarier ^^)
You can update your "catalog" faster and less hassle. (yes, you can always use emails to inform you customers about your updates. Faster, hassle free, and it's free).
You are open 24 x 7. No more missed prospect.

There are also disadvantages of E-Commerce:

You can't really touch the goods, you can only see it and sometimes, pictures are misleading (Imagine face book, most of girls only post their best pictures, duh..)
Delivery time are not always punctual and sometimes we don't know who's selling us this stuff , despite the fact that sometimes the goods nor services are fake.
Security and privacy issues, your personal information can leak, so does your credit cards. and there is currently no laws (or none that I heard) about this issue in Indonesia.
Less personal services. When you're a regular, everyone in the shop knows who you are and how you want to be treated, not in E-Commerce, everybody is the same. Although some are trying to personalized their services, they are only dealing with data and most of us don't like to be asked too much.
Reputation dependent, It is hard for you to sell if you are not well known.

as a conclusion, to do or not do E-commerce has it's own benefit. Although E-Commerce may be the future of trades, brick and mortar shops and traditional marketing may still be more effective, for now.

A Happy Relationship is Based on Lies

2009-01-21T11:24:00.010+07:00

Truth

Truth is a judgment, proposition, or idea that is true or accepted as true (www.Merriam-webster.com)

Truth is a metaphor to opening your eyes and learning for yourself. (some blog i read)

Kebenaran adalah persesuaian antara pengetahuan dan obyek (id.wikipedia.og)

Based on statement above I'd say that truth is an idea of true and its harmony with reality.

OK, here's some statement I heard:
"honesty is the most important thing in a relationship"

Honesty is tightly connected with truth. and relationship is connected with love. Now, the question is, do we really need to be completely honest in a love relationship? because the idea of true is different to every person. Therefore The truth is is not always true to both party. So why do most women demand truths eventhough they are not sure if they can handle the truth?

According my experience in the department a good relationship is when both party know when to speak up, when to shut up. They say it's "understanding", I say it's "tolerance". To my observation, a happy relationship is based on lies (i lied about what i liked, you lied about not being jealous with my girl-friends). Yes it'a a lie, however this lies makes relationship more interesting.

How Interesting It can be?

It depends on you. If you lied about how you enjoyed her precense everytime you went clubbing, you'll enjoy the after party (no no no, not what you thingking, think future oportunities "ow he's just having fun, maybe I'll let him go alone today, I'm not in the mood". If you lied about that 3rd person in your relationship, make sure you won't get caught or it'll be a living hell. Yes, hell.

The Danger of Lie

No, not the fact that if you get caught you'll be in trouble, we call that consequence. The danger is if you keep telling lies, at some point you'll accept that lies as the truth, so does your mate, so does everyone else around you. When it comes, sometime you will feel bad about yourself, you lose your identity (EA: You're a fake).

Changing it will be worse, if you decided to tell the truth after you feel that way, you will be "The Untrustable". You'll heard saying like "I never though you'd do this to me", "aww man, you're so fake". etc etc...... OK maybe I'm overdo it a bit. But you get the point.

Change or Don't Change

It's completely up to you, my suggestion will be "if you wanna act, act now before it's way too long" Pride can be repaired, but trust does not come in cheap. Healthy relationship (according to me) is that both of you can say whatever you want to say freely, just make sure don't fake it.

GR - Iphone

2008-12-26T13:14:00.000+07:00

Hello, this is my first blog here in Blogger.com

I'm gonna do some review in my first post here, and it's going to be the phenomenal gadget made by Apple. Yes It's the Iphone.

History

I bought My Iphone on August 2008. Been using it on daily basis till now. First time I brough it home and unpacked it, I am confused, only 1 button present on the front side and a volume button and a strange switch (which is a silent switch) on the side.

OK, how do I Insert My SIM card? damn it! I observe every inch of the damn phone and still cannot figure out where to put the SIM. Time to hit the net. I asked Google, He's my best friend, I even call it "Abang google" on my bookmarks ("abang" means older brother). He (Google) replied with several millions results. I picked the first entry on the results. Heyy there's some tutorial about iphone here. (For people in indonesia check http://www.macclubindonesia.com/, It's in local language)

I learned that Iphone has no battery door and u gotta push the small hole on top of the phone to push the SIM slot out. (in normal phones, u have to open the battery door and remove the battery to insert SIM card) Put my SIM in.....and now , The Ipong (my phone's name) is ready to use.

I kinda frustrated by this little gadget because first, u gotta unlock the phone in order to use other SIM card other that AT&T. Second: U need to tweak it before using it or else it'll get your phone bills to the roof by connecting the GPRS and suck the data it need to keep your phone "updated" (weather, emails, installer, etc), third: u gotta be carefull with this thing, coz if it's broken, there is no Apple' official service centre to fix it. After reading the net for a while, i learned that you can install third party application --> OKAY! start searching mate!... oh shit, cannot be installed by connecting it to a computer.. gotta find wifi... fast.

Break time -- see iphone first commercial: -- Break time

First thing in the morning, I head to Dunkin donuts at Harmoni, there's wifi available (and it's free - hard to find free hotspot in Jakarta). I totting the Iphone like crazy, I feel like people with authism for 2 hours. Ups, it's 8.30 gotta prepare for work... and so I went home.

After the "2 hours of authism" incident, I haven't been able to make time to tweak Ipong further. so, here comes my review so far:

The good:

Iphone is coooooolllllll, way cooler than omnia or blackberry, but somehow makes you looked like teenager by using it.

The accelerometer works fine, It's a crowd switcher, makes your photos turn as you turn your phone.

The zooming method are funny, you gotta pinch to zoom/unzoom.

A bunch of third party application, so you can costumize you Iphone to your need.

lots of theme, viva fans and geeks.

Camera is good for everyday picture, but it is hard to self potrait if you are not familiar

Got youtube player - gotta love wifi

Cover flow - OMG, I love it!!!!!

Very durable, I dropped it accidentially on a rough asphalt and it only get a minor scratches on the side and backside.

The bad:

Bluetooth is useless, I mean, it'll only comunicate with bluetooth headset, but not other phones, you can't exchange your photos, can't exchange you music (well, i understand this part), can't even send/receive business cards.

The sms is even worse, you cannot forward sms, writing sms is a living hell if you're on the car (well in Jakarta it is common to write sms while driving :))

Original accessories cost you a fortune, un-original accessories cost more than normal.

No flash for camera, not even nightmode.

If your iphone get broke, you cannot repair it in official service centre. there is none in Indonesia.

You cannot make this you communication device in a night Clubs (i ussually talk with notes when I'm in Clubs)- hard to write.

Kinda heavy and un-necklace-able without etra casing.

Conclusion:

Iphone is innovative, however it is not for everyone. If you're not a computer guy--> forget it. Iphone's only gonna make you frustrated. If you only get this phone to showoff --> I cannot say anything, it's your money dude. If you want to have normal handphone usage with some sophisticated feeling and happens to have extra Gs-->go for Iphone. For serious bussiness ussage --> No way, go for Blackberry. If you work on dirty environtment (plants, constructions, road warriors) --> better not buy Iphone. If you're not a clean person --> don't bother to buy one (your face's oil will cover the screen and it is disgusting). If you're born rich --> go for it, not everyone can afford this stuff.

PS: I live In Jakarta, Indonesia. so I don't think my review is gonna do any good outside the country.

PS#2" I'll post pictures and stuff soon.