Doing Business In Asia: Don’t Reinvent The Wheel, Model What Works

One successful business attracting the admiration of people in Southeast Asia, if not the whole of Asia, may be Air Asia, the no-frills budget airlines revolutionsing air travel for millions in this region. Founder and former accountant Tony Fernandes went on a trip to the UK, came across the concept of budget airlines, and considered it, he says, a “no brainer”.

And so he started Air Asia, by providing a seat on a plane for any person at minimal prices, and basing the company in Malaysia, between China and India and Indonesia (3 of the 4 most populous nations on this planet.

As the slogan of his budget airlines puts it, “Now Everyone Can Fly”. More importantly for the entrepeneurs’ perspective, by always selling enough tickets to his planes and acquiring his first plane for a dollar from Malaysian Airlines, he says Air Asia has made money from day one.

Air Asia may serve as a template for anyone wishing to do business in this region. A number of lessons can be drawn from this.

In particular, Air Asia is one of many examples one may notice that simply re-models the product or service of another company in the likes of the UK or the US, and brings it to the Asian region where such a business has yet to be provided. Air Asia brought in no-frills aviation personnel with the relevant experience from Europe, and let them provide the expertise and details for effecting what is a proven formula somewhere else.

As some may put it, don’t reinvent the wheel.

That is not to say quite a bit of adaption needs to be done in the local market. Tony himself has said he had to go all the way to the Prime Minister of Malaysia of the day to lobby for liberalisation of aviation routes away from the national carrier, Malaysia Airlines. The right destinations still had to be chosen and Air Asia had to concede control of its Indonesia and Thailand subsidiaries to Indonesian and Thai nationals respectively to obtain landing rights in these countries and to comply with local laws. Not the kind of issues prevalent in Europe perhaps.

But besides admiring Air Asia as vibrant business that is not only making money but is changing the way people lead their lives in this region, the lesson to learn regarding doing business in this region may simply be this: don’t reinvent the wheel, just use what works. A degree of adaptation may be required to make the business work in its local environment, but essentially someone has made most of the mistakes for you somewhere else, and human needs and wants worldwide are all the same.

Air Asia may win your admiration, but it could even teach one a lesson or two about making your business work.

Service Contracts: The Best Business Model For Consulting

Service contracts are key for the busy computer consultant. They will help you to manage your time when you have many clients all needing service at once. By setting up computer service contracts you will be able to maximize your utilization rate while still having enough time to deal with client emergencies when they crop up.

When you have a bunch of clients who all have an emergency of some sort you can't be everywhere at once. To deal with this you need to narrow down the list of who you are obligated to respond to emergencies for. You do this by creating computer service contracts.

A service contract business model is so important because what you are doing is forcing the people you service to make a decision. Are you in or are you out? Your service contract model weeds out those who are just testing the waters. Without a computer service contract it is you who decides if you can handle their emergency or not.

By using computer service contracts you can manage everyone's expectations effectively. Those who have a service contract know they are top priority. Those who don't, know that you have clients with service contracts and that they are the ones who are dealt with first.

The Bottom Line on Service Contracts

Service contracts keep expectations in a nice neat package. You don't have to stress about trying to be everything to everyone. You can concentrate on providing top quality service to those clients you have a service contract with. The rest will simply have to wait in line.

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The Pay per Click Business Model and How It's Changing

There are currently many discussions in the webmaster forums on contextual advertising programs and the changes they are going through. Which program currently has the most ‘publisher friendly' terms of service? Which company values it's publisher's more? Which will pay me more? Which will be better in the long term...

And the most common, simple question: "Which one is best"?

Is there a solid answer to this question? Here are some of my thoughts on the subject.

The internet is an evolving creature by nature. It is not the same creature that it was ten years ago, or even ten days ago. It's ALWAYS changing. Every single day, hour, minute, and second, something new is added to it. Someone is uploading their own personal creation at this very moment, helping to forge the web's overall shape.

So if it's always changing, then to survive in it's environment we must be VERY flexible and evolve with it.

Why is this pertinent to PPC programs like Google's Adsense, Yahoo Publisher Network, and the truckload of other companies launching their versions? Because they know how the online world works, and have most likely planned their options far in advance. Most of these programs have a TOS (terms of service) that reflects it.

Let's take a deeper look.

In the Google Adsense TOS it clearly states:

"Google may at any time, in its sole discretion, terminate all or part of the Program, terminate this Agreement, or suspend or terminate the participation of any Site in all or part of the Program for any reason."

Any reason? In my eyes that also translates to ‘no reason' or explanation. Nothing will be due to you should they terminate your relationship. They hold a royal flush, you didn't even get dealt a single card.

At this point there are lots of readers that are nodding their heads and thinking, "that's why I went with Yahoo Publisher's Network"…. If you are, you're in for a surprise.

In the YPN TOS it states their version:

Section 15.b "We may suspend or terminate our provision of Matched Ads to you at any time, with or without notice, for any reason or no reason, with or without regard for how well Your Site or Your RSS Feed is performing, the quality of user traffic coming from Your Site or Your RSS Feed, or any other factor, in Overture's sole discretion."

The list goes on and on and on. If you read the TOS of MOST affiliate programs available to website publishers you'll find similar clauses. Clauses that YOU AGREE TO simply by clicking a little checkbox during the signup stage.

But it goes deeper. Those TOS agreements usually share another component. Almost every one of them gives the company the right to change, add, or delete any part of the TOS at any time, usually without notice to you. They also can sell your account off to another company. They can do ANYTHING they want with the terms. It's YOUR responsibility to keep checking back to see if it's been updated or changed.

They hold all the power. The reason they maintain these rights from the first moment of your participation is that they are aware of the web's constantly changing nature. They are not able to foresee what terms will be necessary in the future. So their high paid lawyers are adding and changing those TOS agreements seemingly on a daily basis, in an effort to protect their company by any means necessary.

So is the "Made For Adsense -PPC" website model still a good business plan?

In the beginning of the Adsense-PPC business model, many people earned a lot of money by focusing on just contextual advertising promotion and building sites oriented to content that generated high paying clicks. It was a gold rush. In internet time standards a really long lasting one. One that has resulted in MILLIONS of websites built with only one goal, getting paid. A wild west style run for the mines.

But similar to the demise that eventually followed the discovery at Sutter's Mill, those people that are now running to get in on the PPC gold rush are lucky to find a flake or two for their efforts.

The search engines are now clogged with junk websites, zero content websites, circle jerks, redirects, scripts that generate content based on a search, etc. The mass amount of low quality has made the advertisers that foot the bill react, and they are jumping ship at record rates.

Forcing the PPC companies to exercise their right to change or terminate their agreement, falling back on that trusty TOS that you electronically signed. Many times esulting in termination and nonpayment for the website owner. If it's a company that doesn't have a strong TOS, then it might result in the company's demise, also leaving you without compensation.

So back to the original question… Which should I choose?

My advice to you is to diversify your business plan as much as possible. Build different revenue streams for your overall web income. If you don't want to expend the time and effort to build and maintain a portfolio of sites, then consider additional affiliate programs for the site you do own or plan to build. Incorporate different affiliate programs into your site.

I started in this business a long time ago, about ten years now. An eternity in the electronic world. But even when I started, one of my mentors was fond of saying that he would rather get 100 checks for two dollars than one check for $200. His reasoning was simple. If you focus on one company for your income, and for ANY reason it dries up, you're left with nothing. The rent doesn't get paid.

If you focus on building a multifaceted business plan though, you might just make it.

You might just survive this ever changing animal we call the web.

The Many Advantages Of A Coastal Vacation Call Center Business Model

Many home based travel agents do not know the advantages of a coastal vacation call center. These entrepreneurs who operate a travel agent business rely on themselves or family members to handle sales calls and close the deals.

Many of these people lack sales or marketing experience. This lack of knowledge often contributes to the failure of many home based businesses.

Employees of a coastal vacation call center train to assist customers seeking great deals on family vacation packages. The employees speak to customers refereed by the owner of the travel agent business.

The employees answer any questions, handle objections and close the sale for the owner of the travel agent business.

Some who own a travel agent business do not use a coastal vacation call center because they fear the call center representatives will steal their business. The sales representatives at the coastal vacation call center sign a non-compete agreement. Their salary depends on making sales for the home based travel agent.

The coastal vacation call center offers many other services. The center tracks the leads from as placed by the home based travel agent business. This information helps the travel agent identify key demographics and characteristics of the customers.

The travel agent uses this information in his or her marketing plan when looking for areas to grow the business.

The employees of the coastal vacation call center do not call or telemarket customers. The employees call people referred by the owner of the home based travel agent business. The employees work regular hours five days a week.

Owners of a travel agent business cannot use the coastal vacation call center as an excuse not to work hard. New competitors enter the travel industry everyday and many of the competitors open home based travel agencies. Many of these travel agents offer coastal vacations and cheap family vacation packages.

The owner of a home based travel agent business organizes, markets and presents the business. Just because they choose to use a coastal vacation call center does not mean they relax and let the call center handle the business.

Home based business owners work long hours establishing a customer base and planning how to reach more customers.

Using a coastal vacation call center gives the owner of a travel agent business more time to prospect for new customers. Coastal vacation call center employees do not seek out customers for the owner of the travel agent business.

By taking the time to close the sales for the travel agent, the agent receives more time to prospect for the new business.

Different people take vacations at different time so the owner of a travel agent business must constantly search for new clients. Using a coastal vacation call center gives the owner more time to complete tasks that will increase sales.

The customers look for professionalism and knowledge when planning their vacation. Employees of the coastal vacation call center provide exceptional service backed by extensive training on costal vacations.

The owner of a travel agent business relies on this knowledge and customer service when using a coastal vacation call center.

Disadvantages Of An MLM Business Model

Most Multi-level Marketing (MLM) business models involve selling to close family, friends & business colleagues and recruiting them in your downline. You pay a small sum of money to join and then make money both from your own sales and the sales of the people that you have recruited.

Initially your friends will humour you and take time out to listen but in the longer term they will slowly start to keep their distance or even become downright intolerant of your attempts to treat them as a cash cow.

What happens when you do manage to persuade a close friend to join your MLM programme? Most of the time that person will have no business experience and chances are that they will fail; up to 80% of new start-ups fail within the first five years. This could lead to you losing your best friend.

Another problem with the MLM business model (which is legal) is that it is hard to distinguish from a pyramid scheme that is illegal.

The main difference between a legitimate MLM business model and a pyramid scheme is that in MLM, real products are being sold to real people whilst in a pyramid scheme you make all of your money from the people that you recruit; your downline.

What has happened is that because pyramid schemes have been outlawed, many have come back disguised as MLM. This has created an intense feeling of distaste and hatred due to the fact that so many people have now lost money participating in such programmes.

In reality most MLM programmes are just pyramid schemes in disguise. When you attend the initial seminar you are presented with a picture of huge potential based on your downline. In reality only the people at the top of the pyramid stand a chance of making any serious money. The rest will pay their joining fee to find that there is no market for their products and be faced with trying to either enrol new recruits or lose their joining fee.

If you remove the product from an MLM scheme all you are left with is a pyramid business model which is definitely going to collapse at some point leaving only the very few that joined in the beginning with any chance of making money.

Let us examine the mathematics of a downline. Say I am at the top and I recruit 5 people. Each of those 5 people recruit 5 more. The new 5 then recruit 5 more. This is classified as 3 levels deep.

How many levels can the entire population of the UK sustain? By the time you reach 12 levels… the entire population of the UK is now involved in the pyramid scheme! This is never going to happen in reality but you can see that if there are only 3 or 4 people above you in your upline, then chances are that you are now entering at the very point of collapse.

Be very wary of any scheme whereby you make most of your money from recruiting other people. If you do not understand the mathematics speak to someone that does.