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The story that two garbage cleaners in New York were fined and forced to retire after being caught accepting a tip of $ 5 caught my eye.  Not for the reason you might think. This story would provoke hoots of laughter in my country where nothing happens in the public service without a gratuity.  Even in NY, this must be an incredulous story - every man and a dog demands tips shamelessly for just existing in the same space as you. But the real reason this story has prompted this post was buried somewhere in the middle.   The two garbage men apparently netted $100,000 each, including overtime. Granted that they had put in long years of service. Granted that they probably earned lots of overtime. But still a wage of $ 100,000 for a garbage collector shows everything that is wrong about the United States. No wonder they lose jobs by the droves to India and China. No wonder unemployment is a stubborn problem.   But this post is not to highlight the completely unrealistic pricing for labour

What is common between a park demolition and a raise in bus fares. Well, something profound , I believe. Because in the last one month, I dare suggest that these were the two most important events in the world (NSA be damned ; as if that was a surprise) The park issue was the first and it happened in Istanbul, Turkey.  The government had planned to demolish the Taksim Gezi Park and use the space to reconstruct the historic Taksim military barracks. About 50 environmentalists occupied the Park in protest. The police , predictably evicted them. That snowballed into massive nationwide protests and a huge Occupy Taksim Square movement started.  The issue of demolition of the Park has now given way to a protest against all sorts of unrelated issues and drawing crowds numbering in the tens of thousands. It is now an anti government protest without a coherent theme or leaders. A big section of the population is just protesting without a clear understanding of what they are protesting against

TOPICS THIS WEEK: Surrounding yourself with people who won't let you fail Liz Strauss is a remarkable lady. She has touched the lives of many and helped them to improve their businesses and their quality of life. She's maybe best known on this podcast as one of the people behind SOBCon, a series of deep-dive online business conferences. Liz has been ill. Those four words barely capture the hardship she's endured over the last year. In addition to ravaging her body, her illness has left her unable to work in the face of mounting medical bills. What happened next is quite remarkable. Listen to find out. The video Here is the video of the Google+ hangout recorded during the recording of this week's podcast episode: Links to people and things we mention Liz Strauss Fundraiser Liz's website New rallying point You are a big part of the story of this podcast. We'd like you to be an even bigger part of it. To help with that, and to help us have discussions about being

TOPICS THIS WEEK: Being authentic as a marketing tool Authenticity is a big buzzword in content marketing at the moment. The question is, how authentic should you be? A second issue concerns how much you push your successes over your failures. Some of us are only really comfortable presenting a facade of wild success to the outside world. Yet in doing so we run the risk of not connecting properly with our audience. Nobody only experiences good things in their lives. Often revealing some setbacks or missteps make us seem more human and accessible. On the flipside, revealing business struggles can put off clients. Plenty of connundrums there. The video Here is the video of the Google+ hangout recorded during the recording of this week's podcast episode: Links to people and things we mention We didn't mention anyone this week. But do go here: Liz Strauss Fundraiser New rallying point You are a big part of the story of this podcast. We'd like you to be an even bigger part of it

Bank of China has launched a Fixed Deposit promotion from 19th June.  This new FD is now slightly better than ICICI/CIMB/Maybank's FD which offer 1.10%.  The minimum deposit amount for BOC FD is S$50,000. This promotion is valid for customers with fresh funds only, meaning it is not applicable for money transferred from existing BOC accounts. There are few branches of BOC in Singapore: 1. Battery Road (BOC Building), 2. Chinatown branch (Furama Hotel), 3. Katong branch (188-192 East Coast Road), 4. Middle Road (BOC Plaza), 5. Maxwell Road (Maxwell House). According to BOC's website, this promotion is for a limited period only. Promotion Details:   SGD Time Deposits Promotional Interest Rates % p.a. 3-Month 6-Month 9-Month 12-Month S$50,000 and above 0.55% 0.85% 0.95% 1.15%

Join us as we wish a Felix Dies Natalis to two of our regular businessmen, Sean Keane and Bucky Sinister! Watch the aging process IN LIVE ACTION!   Marvel at how their youth slips away into the ether of time, JUST AS YOURS WILL!!   THRILL at the palpable mortality! Plus guests! It wouldn’t be a party without Kevin O’Shea. Established in 1984 following the mergers of Steven and Cathy O’Shea, Kevin O’Shea has been one of San Francisco’s leading manufactures of mirth, laughter, hilarity and all around good times! Kevin has been commonly described as clever, absurd, awkward but in a funny way and too smart for his own good. He has been seen on the Independent Film Chanel and ComedyCentral.com. He is a favorite of comedy festivals such as: The SF Sketch Fest and the Bridgetown Comedy Festival. Go see him now as his 4 th  quarter productivity has never been higher! New to our stage, but not to our hearts, Land Smith! Land “The Wreckingball” Smith, the pitbull of comedy, is becoming a real f

TOPICS THIS WEEK: When Big Corporates Chicken Out While Small People Dream Big and Achieve Greatness, Four Birds Aboating, Ewan McGregor, Charley Boorman, AJ and Melissa Leon One way to be attractive in business is to help others achieve their goals. The bigger and crazier the ambition, the more appealing you can become by helping to achieve it. Or do you? While everyone wants to be associated with success, what are the pitfalls of associating yourself with an endeavour that fails? Is that good for a business? Does that make it genuinely attractive or the opposite? We explore these questions in this episode of Business Jazz. The video Here is the video of the Google+ hangout recorded during the recording of this week's podcast episode: Links to people and things we mention Four Birds Aboating Misfits/AJ & Melissa Leon Long Way Round (Charley Boorman and Ewan McGregor) Podio Go To Meeting New rallying point You are a big part of the story of this podcast. We'd like you to be

Some businesses I can completely relate to. Most businesses I understand,. But there are some that completely fox me . Take the case of the quaintly named company,  Lululemon. I was, of course, blissfully unaware of its existence until I read a news item that its CEO was leaving (polite term for being fired). Naturally, with a name like that, I couldn't but help read up. Apparently this Vancouver based company is  in the business of "yoga inspired" athletic gear , whatever that means. They are fast growing , but reportedly had a product problem recently which led to the CEO's exit. The "product problem" made further interesting reading, Apparently, their Luon range of black Yoga pants was getting too many customer complaints - the product was too sheer and ,er, "showed too much" ! A particularly sensitive topic when when doing yoga which involves stretching and contortions !! The outcry was so much that they had to pull the product from the shelve

The last two years, through my friends and cold calls from some sales agents, I came across some alternative investments that guaranteed or assured crazy returns.   Some of them are: - Hong Kong Land Asset Acquisition, 100 to 200% returns in 5-7 years - Brazil Opportunity investment, assured 64% return in 36 months - German Government Listed Building Projects, 24% return in 24 months - Brazil Global Forestry Investments,  Fixed 10%-12.5% yearly returns with assured 5% capital appreciation on exit in 36 months - Detroit Exit Strategy (house flipping), Fixed 15% in 12 months - Canada Crude oil, assured 3% continual payout every 3 months for 24 months - Phuket Nikki Beach  (Buy-to-let hotel investment) - 5% Fixed returns annually I have attended one of the seminars and I have serious doubts on these investments: - most of the companies offering these investments are new and have no proven track record - why these Brazilian, US, German, Canadian, etc, come all the way to Singapore and pay

On the recent volatility of the stock market, one of my friends asked me whether to liquidate all the stock holdings?  Actually, the stock market is just back to the level at beginning of 2013; and the sentiment back then was good and people were rushing in. After the experience of the CLOB shares, my money in the stock market are excess money that I do not need in the short time horizon, and I sleep well in this recent stock market correction. On curiosity's sake, I ran a calculation on the break even price on my holdings, taking into consideration of all the dividends collected and the commission chargeable.  In general, except a few holdings in red, the rest are in very good shape. No. Stock Name Lots Portfolio% Avg Cost$ Breakeven$ 1 Starhub 5 19.58 3.22 2.92 2 SPH 4 16.68 3.98 3.68 3 SGX 2 14.45 2.68 0.97 4 CapitaLand 2 6.76 3.91 3.69 5 CapitaMall Trust 3 6.30 1.71 1.24 6 CDL HTrust 3 5.39 1.66 1.22 7 Starhill Global 6 5.10 0.71 0.58 8 Suntec Reit 3 5.05 1.52 1.21 9 Si

TOPICS THIS WEEK: Customer Service: Good and Bad The biggest threat we used to be able to make when we received bad service was to write a letter. That was utterly ineffectual in most cases. The letter was conveniently filed in the bin. Things have changed a bit. These days we can publicise our anger (or our delight) online. But have companies woken up to this? Many haven't. Social media is a great opportunity for businesses to engage with dissatisfied and satisfied customers alike. The latter is especially overlooked. Many companies are missing a fantastic marketing opportunity by not encouraging pleased customers to use social media. In this episode, we run through some stories of good and bad service, and how the companies involved responded. The video Here is the video of the Google+ hangout recorded during the recording of this week's podcast episode: Links to people and things we mention David Bailey Cherry Host Phil Sorrell New rallying point You are a big part of the st

I sometimes wonder, who the real winner of the Cold War was. Traditional wisdom is that capitalism won over communism, right ? The Western world over the Soviet bloc. Freedom and liberty over authoritarianism and government control. Etc Etc. But I wonder if this is really true ? Take the capitalism versus state enterprise debate. Today capitalism is a four letter word to much of the world. The fastest growing economy in the world and the second largest, China,  is significantly  state enterprise driven. Government expenditure as a % of GDP is 53% in France (surprise surprise), 47% in the UK, 43% in Germany and in supposedly the bastion of free market capitalism, the United states, 39%. Government spending has propped up the global economy for five years now and bailed out financial institutions when they were mired in the quicksand. What about freedom and liberty. After the revelations over the last couple of days from a certain Edward Snowden, we may have to redefine the word liberty.

No. STOCK NAME LOTS PORTFOLIO% AVG COST $ 1 Starhub 5 19.58 3.22 2 SPH 4 16.68 3.98 3 SGX 2 14.45 2.68 4 CapitaLand 2 6.76 3.91 5 CapitaMall Trust 3 6.30 1.71 6 CDL HTrust 3 5.39 1.66 7 Starhill Global 6 5.10 0.71 8 Suntec Reit 3 5.05 1.52 9 SingTel 1.2 4.36 3.21 10 Hyflux 2.5 3.27 1.70 11 HPH Trust 3 2.87 0.90 12 FE Orchard 1 2.10 1.18 13 CapitaMalls Asia 1 1.87 2.12 14 AIMS AMPI Reit 1 1.61 1.70 15 CitySpring 3 1.41 0.65 16 Sing Post 1 1.28 0.875 17 FE HTrust 1 1.00 0.93 18 SP Ausnet 0.7 0.94 0 Movement in my portfolio in May:- Sold:- Yeo Hiap Seng Bought:- Suntec Reit. Dividends collected in May: $1,306.11 2013 avg dividends/month: $390.38 May was a milestone month for me.  This was the first time that my dividends harvest exceeded $1,000 in a single month.

This week’s Business is studded with precious gems.   Who are all studs. Jules Posner has been described as a comedian who, “puts the ‘b’ in subtle”. Jules started performing at various open mics around the San Francisco Bay Area in January of 2009 and has quickly established himself in the comedy community. Recently, Jules was featured on Jokes.com’s No Drink Minimum.  Mike Spiegelman grew up in New Jersey, and, like half his high school class, moved to San Francisco. He has opened for Neil Hamburger, Emo Phillips, David Cross, the late Mitch Hedberg, Robin Williams, and many more. He is a frequent host of the Darkroom Theater's "Bad Movie Night". His humor site is Luggage Tuesdays. Red Scott never saw things the same way as other kids; he thought he was cool. Born in the early 80s, he established himself as a trend-setter — fat, asthmatic, and socially inept years before Asperger’s was a syndrome or obesity an epidemic. On his way to finding the stage, Red had several

TOPICS THIS WEEK: Access and Boundaries Gary Vaynerchuk is a visionary social media expert and entrepreneur. He recently announced that he had tasked one of his staff to shadow him and produce social media content based on his comments. His thinking is that more content equals more exposure, and more exposure brings more business. In this week's episode of Business Jazz, we talk about some of the issues this raises. Specifically, we look at access and boundaries. Many businesses are wary of letting people in. They aren't comfortable lifting the veil. So how much access is good? We also look at the issue of setting boundaries for employees who are producing social media on behalf of a business. Trust and responsibility become big factors. The video Here is the video of the Google+ hangout recorded during the recording of this week's podcast episode: Links to people and things we mention David Bailey New rallying point You are a big part of the story of this podcast. We'd

The line to get into the Business was thick and sinewy that Wednesday night.   It wound its way around the block, caressing it every crevasse.   The sidewalk groaned at the line’s mass, the pressure almost unbearable.   The grey stone yearned for the sweet release it craved, it needed to feel the door open, the door of the Dark Room. The door is open for you, CUM INSIDE.    (Please do not literally cum at The Business.) But do COME, because this week’s guests are fantasy-worthy.  Baron Vaughn.   BARON VAUGHN! Baron Vaughn recently released his first album, Raised By Cable, produced by AST Records, is available at Amazon (mp3 and CD), and has debuted to a 5-star review on iTunes. Baron played Leonardo Prince, or “Leo“, on USA’s Fairly Legal, and has performed stand-up on Conan (below), Late Night with Jimmy Fallon, and has made numerous appearances on Comedy Central, including Live at Gotham and The Awkward Comedy Show (DVD and soundtrack available). He’s performed in the 2006 HBO U.S.