I then checked online and found lots of other bloggers alrealy discovered this and posted about it. In any case, if this is the first you're hearing about it, here's what you have to do :

1. Log into your PayPal account.
2. Click "My Account" then "Withdraw".
3. You'll see that there is a new option to "Withdraw to your bank account".

4. When you click this option, you will be prompted to add a Malaysian bank account if you haven't already done so. The process is pretty much like adding a debit card to your account for withdrawals.
5. I was stumped when they asked for the Bank Routing Number but PayPal is pretty proactive and provided a list of codes. They made the process easy peasy.
6. After adding your account, you can then make your withdrawal.

I initially wanted to withdraw $500, but I'm always careful with first transactions, so I changed it to $20. I'll wait and see if the transaction goes through. There's a RM3 charge for withdrawals below $USD400, but it's a small price to pay for peace of mind. With this new service, I don't have to keep my Public Bank Debit Card which charges an annual service fee.

I have to say I looooooooove making money online!

Well, time seems to be slipping through my fingers lately. Been so busy with our home based catering business and backend work on my other sites that I missed a really big piece of news.

It would seem that Clickbank now accepts Malaysian accounts.

I was browsing some local sites when I happened to scroll over a banner. Usually, I ignore ads, but I happened to like this banner and rolled over it. What surprised me was that the affiliate link was a clickbank hop link.

I thought to myself, "Now that can't be right... This guy is a local fella. How come he has a Clickbank account?"

I surfed more local sites and started to notice more and more Clickbank hoplinks.

So I moseyed along to Clickbank site and tried to register and "Wahlo! Malaysia appears in the drop down box!!!!"

So I went... "Well Duhhhhhh.... you're late again Andrew"

This is really fantabulous news!

I've always been dissapointed that we Malaysians could not register with Clickbank. They are after all the world biggest marketplace for buying and selling online products. I believe Malaysia was previously on their list of high risk countries, but obviously things have changed. Thanks to whoever helped make that change.

I'd rate this new at #3 after Paypal allowing withdrawals to Malaysian Visa Debit Cards and Adsense allowing withdrawals to Malaysia via Western Union.

So how can Clickbank make a difference to making money online?

Well for starters, any additional revenue stream is always welcome because it's never ever a good thing to rely on only one revenue stream (for most folks it's Adsense).

Second, with Clickbank you get to offer your visitors lots more options in terms of products and information.

Third, we can go full force into affiliate marketing and create websites based on clickbank products, where we were limited to building websites around Adsense and contextual ad revenue model.

I'm going to make time to see what brilliant money making ventures Clickbank offers me....

How the fuel price increase affects our business
As far as our catering business is concerned, we are expecting prices from our suppliers to shoot up this week. An estimate of 40% increase is not out of the question. The question is how do we act responsibly and increase our price without chasing away our customers. We've come up with an approach that might work.

From day one of starting our home catering biz to 31 December 2007, we maintained our price at RM200 per pax per month. Expecting a fuel increase this year, we increased our price to RM220 for new customers who joined us from 01 January 2008 onwards. We maintained our old price for old customers (those who joined before 01 Jan 2007).

Now it looks like our new price of RM220 may not be sufficient to cover the huge increase in fuel price. So, we've decided to increase out price to RM240 per pax per month. This is for 3 dishes (one meat, one veggie and one side dish). However, this increase may be too drastic for some of our fixed income customers, so we've also decided to offer a budget package from July 01 onwards which will consist of one meat, one veggie and one soup at RM200 per pax per month. In effect, this means that if customers choose to pay the old price, they will have to settle for less. We're still not soo sure if our new pricing will work out, because it might take about one month for suppliers to increase their prices.

How the fuel price increase affects our family budget
Obviously, there is going to be cost cutting. Thankfully, since my wife and I work full time at home, we have full control over household expenses. The fuel price increase should see our petrol bill go up RM150 per month and our electricity bill by about RM50. We haven't taken into account other stuff that will obviously be affected by the fuel price increase. So what we've decided to do :

• Pay off our remaining credit card debt of about RM4K as soon as possible. Thankfully, if all goes according to the government's plan, I should be one of the first to receive my fuel subsidy because my road tax is up for renewal on 02 July 2008. I also have a motorbike that has been sitting and collecting dust for about 3 years now that I will sell. This should bring in an additional RM1K - RM1.5K. We'll then bite the bullet and increase our monthly credit card payment to around RM700 per month. If all goes according to plan, we will clear this our credit card debt in about 4 months.
• Repair, service or clean all our electrical equipment. Clogged fans and refrigerators that aren't running at optimum performance will be power-guzzlers that eat into our family budget.
• Cut our weekend trips to KL/PJ malls to once per week instead of the current 2-3 times. This should save us around RM100 - RM150 per month in petrol, toll and parking fees.
• Spend more of our evenings doing family things instead of going to the mall. I like enjoying the free aircond at the mall, but this is going to cost more from now on, so better to strip half naked and enjoy a noisy game of badminton with my kids from now on. Or jump into the kiddie pool with them or maybe finally start jogging to lose weight. All in all, those nightly trips to the mall always end up with us spending more on snacks and impulse buying.
• More meals at home. Making sure the family fills up our stomachs at dinner time instead of half-full and then having an excuse to go for supper. Thank God we are in the food business so there is ALWAYS left over from catering that is more than enough to feed us.
• Cut all unnecessary expenses like newspapers (can read it online), weekly trips to the arcade for the kids and soft drinks when we eat out.

There are lots more ways we can cut costs. No we don't need to go drastic, but we figured it's a good way to get to grips with the crazy increases we will soon experience all around us. It's time to "ikat perut" guys. I hope all goes well for you.

I run a home based catering business, manage more websites than I can handle in addition to being a driver cum homemaker to my kids... and what do I go and do? I set up an online store... that's what.

Something had to give while I was scrounging for time to set up my online store, so it was HomeWithAndrew, then my other websites. When I first started working from home, starting an online store was always on the cards. I just never got enough motivation to get myself off off my ass and do it. Bad example to set for a work-at-home Dad. Yeah.

If I had kept to the schedule I set five years ago, I would have already set up 3 online stores. But who can predict the future. I never knew that running the catering business would take up soooo much of my time. It's a vicious cycle of sorts. The more my catering business grows, the more time I have to put in, which means I spend less time on my online money making. But the original plan was to build my online network to a level where we would NOT have to depend on the catering business.

So why would I go and set up and online store when I already have too much on my plate? Well, it's part of my strategy to NEVER depend on only ONE or TWO sources of income. My online store is a long-term plan to always diversify.

CoolCat t-shirts is a culmination of everything that I love : art, designing, web development, coding and t-shirts. I'm still learning the ropes, managing my store, but CoolCat t-shirts has brought me full circle. Ever since I was a small boy, I loved drawing on my old t-shirts. When I became a teenager, I would make simple templates and printed one-color designs on t-shirts. I experimented with all sorts of t-shirt printing techniques - even potato prints and t-shirt crayons! Then when I was in secondary school, I learnt the art of making silk-screen blocks, which was so addictive that I started a small t-shirt printing biz with a friend after school. The business didn't fly. My partner had other plans and she was the one running the business side of things. So my t-shirt dreams were put on hold. Now almost twenty years later, the wonder of the Internet is making me salivate.

From my research, the secret to Cafepress success is patience. That, I have lots of experience. It's took many years of patient building before my websites started to make substantial money. I plan to set up a few more stores and will probably pass on the designing tasks to my wife and daughter who thankfully share my passion for designing.

Anyway... I'd like to invite you to visit my new online store :

So here I am with my plate overflowing and I'm piling on more. And people say I'm so lucky I don't have to work so hard. Yeah. Right.

The first year we were in business - when we didn't really have a lot of money coming in from my websites - we were on the verge of panic. It was the first time we really felt the effects of the balik kampung exodus. That year, we were left with less than ten customers during the Chinese New Year month. Thank God we were still holding on to our day jobs - albeit part-time.

After 5 years in the home catering business, we've come to accept the CNY month income drop as part and parcel of our business. That's why we're thankful that our online income keeps things stable.

From day one of being full-time work-at-homers, we decided that we would NOT rely on our online income to sustain our family. There are just too many variables that can swing against your website(s) which will ultimately affect your income. So we work hard and make sure that our home catering business pays the bills and keeps food on the table. Our catering business is also a heck of a lot more predictable than search engine mood swings and their ever changing algorithms. So despite receiving a healthy income from my websites, we ONLY dip into our Google Piggy Bank for the extras during low months like Chinese New Year. Thankfully, December's Adsense payout was a fat one and came in via Western Union just in time for our CNY shopping.

So like it or not, Google has been putting the "Happy" in "Chinese New Year" for our family the last five years. So I guess what I'm trying to say is this - unless you are prepared for the erratic ups and downs of earning an online income, I strongly suggest you keep your day job and save your income from Adsense, Kontera etc for those rainy days (especially if you have a family).

Since returning from the hilltop, I've been extremely busy catching up with my websites and more importantly, meeting a few mall management people about the possibility of setting up a store - either a stall in a food court or kiosk selling merchandise. We're also exploring the possibility of selling food at a couple of our local coffee shops.

Our home catering business has been good to us. Without it, we would surely have sunk into the depths of despair and discouragement during our employment crisis nearly five years ago. The truth is, even though the money is good, we find ourselves being tied down to a really fixed and uncompromising schedule. Sure, we can play around with our time, but it boils down to this - our home catering business is a totally hands on money maker. It only makes money when we work. If we take a break, not only do we NOT make money, but we have to give our customers a refund. Not exactly what you'd call passive, residual income.

Another problem is that with me being so tied to our home catering business, I don't have the time to devote to building my online income (not to mention this blog). My websites also require my attention. SEO just doesn't happen. Not only am I in very competitive categories, but I also have to handle marketing and content building. The good thing about making money online is that I can leave my sites for a while and they would still generate income. It's just that Google is an unpredictable beast and if you want to play the SERP (Search Engine Results Pages) game, you've got to keep up to date not only with changes to their algos, but with hundreds of competitors looking to take your spot in the SERPs. To put it simply, I am plain lucky to hold on to my page one positions given the low number of hours I am putting in. But the bubble will surely burst sooner or later.

So, my wife and I have decided that we need to specialize - with each handling our own business. She will look to diversify by setting up one or more food stalls where we will employ staff to handle the day to day running. I am already looking into setting up an online store. As we do this, we will still carry on with our home catering business. We've given ourselves 2 years to get our food stalls and online store profitable enough so that we can decide whether or not to let go of our home catering business. If all goes according to plans, we will still be busy - counting money that is and hopefully enjoying loads more free time. At the very least, we will have more streams of income (online and offline).

Five years ago, I thought working at home would be free and easy. Yeah.... right.

It hasn't been a bed of roses I can tell you. Being my own boss calls for lots to sweat (literally) and grit. If we want to make money, we have to literally work hard.

As a full time work at home Dad, there is :

• no more automatic salary banked in at the end of the month.
• no more paid annual leave.
• no more medical benefits.
• no more annual increments.
• no more executive benefits.
• no more free broadband.

But what I do get is :

• More time with my family - literally. I'm at home ALL the time - which is good for me since I'm really a home-body!
• Peace of mind. With my wife and me running the show, there's no chance we'll retrench each other.
• Full stomach. In our line of business, there is NO way we won't have food to eat... and with my role as senior quality control, I must say the job is very satisfying!
• Freedom to set my own schedule. This is really crucial. Although I'm really like a cartoon Monday to Friday trying to juggle business, family and web needs, I love NOT having a boss and deadlines.
• Stress that translates directly to money. Don't kid yourself. Running a home based business and my websites is no piece of cake. However... all that stress pays off in the end by money flowing into our bank account!

But as they say... life begins at forty. And I can feel it in my bones - I have just begun to paaaarrrteeeey!

You see, unknown to even her closest colleagues, Alice already has a small money making venture going on. Alice has turned her passion for food - puffs and pastries to be specific - into a nice little money maker. During the weekends, she would make frozen curry puffs and other pastries and distribute them to the shops near her home. Not a big business, but big enough for her to need a small 4-foot freezer to store her products and a small commercial oven. Both pieces of equipment are second hand units, bought with money earned from her little side business. With her income from her weekend business, she would still have enough to meet her basic needs. Alice planned on keeping this income for her rainy days and it looks like they're here.

The upside of her recent predicament is that with more time on her hands, Alice gets to test her entrepreneurial skills and see if she can expand her frozen curry puff and pastry business. She's going to meet more grocery stores and mini market owners to find out if they'd be interested in selling her tasty treats. She's not making any concrete plans for the immediate future although she's been offered a higher paying job in a competitor's restaurant. So Alice is pretty excited about her future right now. Even though she would be "out of a job", she knows she's been given a golden opportunity to be her own boss.

I'm telling you Alice's story to encourage and inspire you. Many of us work long hours making someone else rich, while struggling to meet our family's financial and emotional needs. Alice took the bold (and logical) step of making money doing something that she loves. I believe that you can too. Even though she didn't plan on her part-time business being anything more than just that, life sometimes decides things for us.

Everyone has a hobby or skill that can be turned into a part-time business to make extra money. Think about what makes you special. Do your friends always ask you to cook for them? Do you have a wide network of friends? Do you love playing the guitar, singing or acting? Only you and you alone have YOUR combination of skills and talents. All you need to do is find a way to make money with them. If you do something that you love, it doesn't become a part-time chore just to make money, but an opportunity to indulge in your passion while getting paid for it!

Statistics say that up to 95% of working adults will experience the effects of down-sizing or job loss directly or indirectly at some point in their working lives. When that happens, having a part-time income can give you full-time peace of mind. Even if you don't intend to make it a full-time activity, your part-time money maker can tide you over tough times when you need it and that means a lot if you have a family to support. Think about it.

Here's a resource full of ideas to help you make money.

1. Breaking Free Of Your Dead-end Job
2. Getting The Money To Start Your Own Business
3. Making The Time For Your Business
4. Getting The Experience To Run A Home Based Business

Finding the experience to run your own home based business won't come without some sort of sacrifice. However, if you are caught in a (dead-end) job that gives you NO opportunity to develop business management skills, you HAVE to find that experience yourself. There is no other way but to break into unfamiliar territory. Very often, it means moving out of your comfort zone. There are workarounds to this problem :

1. Work part-time during weekends or moonlight in the evenings helping out in the industry that you're targetting. If you're thinking of starting a food business, work in a restaurant or open a small stall in your local flea market. While you're making a little extra money, you're learning and getting a feel of the business. Sure, you're going to have to put in extra time and effort, but you DO get the benefit of keeping your day job if you decide your target niche isn't for you. If that DOES happen, don't give up on your dreams. Look for other opportunities. You never know when you will strike gold.
2. Convert to part-time status in your day job and on your business. This may be a better option than the first one, especially if your day job needs you to put in long hours. You have to remember though, that you will likely lose lots of benefits if you choose to be a part-timer. Do this only if you have enough funds to meet your family and financial commitments for whatever length of time you need to build on your experience. Go into your business full-time whenever you're confident.
3. Find a job in a fast-growing company or one that's in a fast-growing industry. Ideally, you should have a strong interest in the industry. Being passionate about your niche is one of the surest ways to succeed. Make sure you learn all that you can about the company and how it operates. While you're doing this, look for opportunities that are directly associated or indirectly contributing to the industry. Starting a franchise of your own might be one option or perhaps if your company getting supplies from someone and you think you could supply those items at a lower cost, ask if your management would consider getting their supplies from you if you had a similar set-up.

If you can't swing any of the three suggestions above, you could always learn from others.

• The Internet is chock full of good advice. Look for forums and entrepreneurial support groups that help new entrepreneurs. Many seasoned entrepreneurs offer great support and advice to newbies simply because they know the struggles every entrepreneur goes through and they just want to help.
• Join an entrepreneurial support group forum. You'll find that many of them charge an annual fee to be a member. This is simply because they offer their members quality advice from seasoned professionals and valuable resource materials. It's sort of like finding a mentor, except you have many of them and they're online.
• One of the best ways you can help yourself is to find a mentor - someone you can trust to help guide you. It could be your boss, your ex-boss or a business owner - someone who can answer your questions and guide you through the many pitfalls of a starting a new business. Not every boss would feel threatened if you tell them you're planning to start your own business. My last boss was someone who truly encouraged his staff to explore self-employment. Running a business is a life-long learning process and even if you don't establish a formal mentor - mentee relationship with anyone, nothing beats learning from the experiences of other business owners.

The biggest teacher though, is running your business day-to-day. When my wife and I started our home based catering business, we had the ONE critical skill that was needed - cooking - and pretty much nothing else. We had to learn as we went along. We made lots of mistakes. A LOT of mistakes, but the secret is to learn from those mistakes. We asked questions. We asked everyone we came into contact with - suppliers, customers, shopkeepers, supermarket staff, coffee shop cooks etc. Many times, these folks say something that helps us like where to find the cheapest veggie, the best equipment and cooking techniques. Best of all, as we get to know people and they get to know we run a catering business, they're more likely to refer us to their friends and family!

Well, that's it then... I hope this series has been helpful in motivating you to break free of your dead end job. I think it all boild down to this - if you want to know how a flavor of ice-cream tastes like, you're going to have to take a bite. Just like running your own business. Big or small, there's just no other way but to jump right in!

In this series :

1. Breaking Free Of Your Dead-end Job
2. Getting The Money To Start Your Own Business
3. Making The Time For Your Business
4. Getting The Experience To Run A Home Based Business

1. Breaking Free Of Your Dead-end Job
2. Getting The Money To Start Your Own Business
3. Making The Time For Your Business
4. Getting The Experience To Run A Home Based Business

I hate to start off a post with bitter medicine but here goes - if you don't make the time to work on starting your own business, you will NOT have time left. Procrastination is the number one killer of dreams. Yeah right, I was a BIG lazy bum too once upon a time. These days, I even have to limit my quiet time in the loo! But looking back, if that big disaster didn't happen four years ago, I'd still be on my backside, killing time surfing from one website to another - doing "research".

I don't like to use the "time management" phrase, but basically, if you don't prioritize your life and get things in order, you will never have time to dream about being your own boss let alone making it a reality. I have to practise "time management" if I want do everything I have to - from taking the kids to school in the morning, to chopping chicken and washing veggie, to lunching with my kids, tucking them in for the nap, to delivering the food on time right down to playing UNO and Pictionary with them.

The same goes for you if you are serious about starting your own business. The planning stage is critical. You NEED time to learn about your niche, to meet suppliers, to talk with your spouse, to plan your budget, to... well you get the idea. Before you can make time to work on your business, you have to WANT your own business (or at least to work at home).

I can hear you screaming at me "BUT I DON'T HAVE THE TIME!" .

Okay, okay, I hear ya... but there ARE ways to make time...

1. Delegate. Believe it or not, there are lots of things that your staff at work can do without you being involved. If you're not the boss, refer to No. 2. You might be surprised that you actually cut your working hours by up to 2 hours. That's 2 hours you can be at home planning your business or actually working at your business.
2. Prioritize.Prioritize.Prioritize. There is a difference between knowing what is "URGENT" and what is "IMPORTANT".
3. Stay at home more. Most families make regular trips to the mall or entertainment outlets out of habit. Time out with family is important, but time at home with family is just as good if not better.
4. Routine-ize your life. Set a routine for your work and family. When you get into a routine, you can basically predict when you will have time to work on your business.
5. Get a job closer to home. Not easy I know, but most folks spend up to 4 hours daily in a sardine packed bus or traffic jam doing nothing. That's time you could use to hustle for you business.
6. Get a job with flexi hours. Again, not easy I know.

When my wife and I started our catering biz, workload was low, so my wife continued working in the kindergarten in the mornings while I delivered food after work. Then when we were more of less ready to fly, she worked on the business full time while I cleared it with my boss to work as a part-timer in the mornings. I took about two and a half years before both of us began working full time on our home based business. Now, we're going to apply the same system as we think about moving from our catering biz to other less labour intensive income streams and to increase my online income.

So if a less than bright guy like me can do it, I don't see why you can't!

In this series :

1. Breaking Free Of Your Dead-end Job
2. Getting The Money To Start Your Own Business
3. Making The Time For Your Business
4. Getting The Experience To Run A Home Based Business

1. Breaking Free Of Your Dead-end Job
2. Getting The Money To Start Your Own Business
3. Making The Time For Your Business
4. Getting The Experience To Run A Home Based Business

For many potential home business owners, their biggest worry isn't about getting enough money to start thier business and but about not making enough money to replace the income and benefits from a full-time job.

However, you've got to start from somewhere first, so I'm going to say something that you've heard a million times - You have GOT to save money! There are a thousand and one reasons to save, but for now, let's talk about saving for the purpose of venturing into your own business.

Many people tend to think too big when they start up a business. They think that they MUST have a five or six figure budget to go into business. The truth is that success doesn't depend on the size of your startup capital. You can have a million dollar budget for fancy office furniture and equipment, a dozen staff and the flashy marketing campaigns but the BIGGEST INVESTMENT you can make in your new business is yourself - your time, your effort, your talents and your dreams.

My wife and I were fortunate because when we started our home catering biz, we only needed less than RM100 to print and distribute flyers. Operating from home also meant we did not carry any overhead costs. In our type of business, customers pay up front for the month's catering. This means that we already have our costs covered AND our profits realized from day one.

If you can't find a business with the same payment model, you MUST start saving at least 10% or more of your income for your startup costs. If you are starting late (let's say age 30, then you need to increase that figure to at least 20%. Even then, you may only be able to cover your backup needs and will still need to rely on a bank loan. This means your dream of being your own boss may not materialize immediately which is a good thing. It may take you anywhere from 2 to 5 years to save, but you can use that time to dream, plan and learn about your future business.

But what if your budget just cannot include saving? It's not so easy, but you have lots of options :

1. Get a weekend job and save the money earned from that or both husband and wife may have to work for a while to earn more. Remember that this is supposed to be a temporary arrangement to raise funds for your home business startup. Don't put ALL your time and effort without considering time and emotional commitments to family first.
2. Budget. It's really amazing how much you can save if you tighten your pursestrings. Go ahead. I dare you to prove me wrong. Instead of your daily Starbucks, make it a regular coffee in a nice coffeeshop. Ride a bicycle to the shop instead of driving. Switch off all the lights in the house that you don't need. Car pool. Use your air conditioner sparingly. If you keep a strict eye on your spending habits, you WILL find lots of extra cash at the end of the month to add to your home business startup fund
3. Sell stuff that you don't need. You'd be surprised how much you can raise - that old motorcycle collecting dust, those power tools you don't use, your time share, your underutilized second car etc. You could hold a garage sale, sell your stuff to a second hand store or better still, auction then off on eBay. I am constantly amazed at the crazy stuff people are selling on eBay - and the money they're getting for it. In fact, if you get good at this, selling on eBay could even become your home based business!
4. Put your money to work. Use the money you raised from working your part-time job, profits from the sales of your stuff and your savings. Putting your money in a savings account gives you very little in return. Find ways to safely invest with higher returns. If you're on a 3 to 5 years plan to raise funds for your home business, then you can use invest in stocks, mutual funds and IPOs. Remember to seek advice if you don't know how to invest. Don't be rash and go for high risk investments that can just as soon burn all your money instead of multiplying it.
5. Get a business partner with the cash. This requires very careful consideration. Many businesses have run aground NOT from financial problems but from the inability of the partners to see eye-to-eye on the nitty-gritty of running the business. You don't want to find yourself in a situation where you are a minority shareholder and your partner wants out.
6. Borrow money from family and friends. I don't encourage this unless you have a very, very supportive and tight family. Remember, you have to live with family for a long time and you probably want to stay friends with your friends for a long time too - but nothing breaks down a relationship faster than borrowing money and not being able to pay back. So before you borrow money from family and friends, make sure you have a solid business plan and done your research about your intended business. You have to ask yourself whether those relationships are strong enough to weather the storms of running a business - which may mean late repayments of the loan. If you do manage to pay back the loans on time, remember to include interest. You want your family and friends to benefit from your business too.
7. Refinance your car or home loan. Make sure you do your calculations so that you don't end up with more debt than you can handle. Very often, all you need to do is to just keep a tight rein on your spending for a year or two and you won't have to refinance your car and home loan
8. Borrow money from a bank. For some business ventures, this is the only alternative. Make sure you seek financial counsel from more experienced professionals before committing to long term loans. You need to understand all the terms and conditions to to loan and whether there are any hidden costs involved. You also need to calculate how the loan repayments will affect your personal and businss budget.
9. Apply for micro loans from Government or Entrepreneurial support agencies. If you can put up with tedious red tape, then thes types of micro loans are really a great way to fund your home based business.
10. Use your credit card. I really don't think this is a good option, but sometimes the amount you need doesn't justify the hassles of a bank loan. If you're considering this, consider 1 & 2 first.

Long list... but even longer list of things to consider for each option. Remember... "NO pain, No gain". Getting over the money hurdle is the first step toward being the boss of your own business. Generally all it takes is prudent spending and common-sense money management to save money.

In this series :

1. Breaking Free Of Your Dead-end Job
2. Getting The Money To Start Your Own Business
3. Making The Time For Your Business
4. Getting The Experience To Run A Home Based Business

I really understand if you find yourself so dependent on your job that you end up in a vicious cycle, unable to explore other opportunities. Although most of the obstacles you face when you consider being your own boss are usually just your imagination acting up as you move beyond your comfort zone, there ARE real problems that you will face :

• You have no money.
  Starting a business takes money whether its a couple hundred bucks or tens of thousands, you need capital.
• You have no time.
  How could you? The boss expects you to be on-the-job ON TIME and for most folks that means leaving the house before sunrise and if you're lucky, you get home before your kids are in bed!
• You have no experience.
  You need to know what you're doing if you want to succeed in your own business. Unfortunately, most of us work at a job that is totally boring and unrelated to our passion in life.

These are real problems. They're not problems that can be solved by simply wishing them away or buying yourself an e-book that guarantees you financial freedom. The solutions to these problems will take time and conscious effort on your part, but if you're really serious about breaking free of your "dead end job", you will overcome them bit by bit, day by day.

There are many, many people I know who would be good examples for me to write about, but I'll use the best case study I know - myself. You can name any fear, any insecurity, any mental obstacle that you're facing as you consider being your own boss and I will be able to emphatize with you. I went through it ALL because I was once the world's worst scaredy-cat. Nothing would budge me from my comfort zone. Nothing. But life always has surprises in store for us. Join me in my next few posts as we discover solutions to the 3 main obstacles to breaking free of your dead-end job.

In this series :

1. Breaking Free Of Your Dead-end Job
2. Getting The Money To Start Your Own Business
3. Making The Time For Your Business
4. Getting The Experience To Run A Home Based Business

• Number of customers who join
• Number of customers who stopped
• Total number of customers
• Total expenses
• Total profit

I also keep track of my online income by charting the various figures available to me for example for Adsense :

• Monthly Impressions
• Total earnings
• CTR
• eCPM
• Earnings per click

I don't use expensive software - just Microsoft Excel. I've got to admit it - I love seeing making colorful charts and looking at them (must be the creative genes in me) - but even keeping simple statistics can reveal a lot about your business.

For example, the stats for my home based catering business reveal an increase in customers stopping every September followed by a another dip in November and December every year. The first two years, it was quite unsettling to see this happen. Then as we continued to track the numbers we saw the same pattern every year. The many public holidays and long school break at the end of the year is probably the time families go for their vacations and don't need our catering service. We prepare ourselves for this annual 15 to 20 percent dip by setting aside additional savings each month. That way, we can still enjoy our annual family year-end holiday and not have to worry about the slide in revenue, because we know that it's a seasonal thing.

Then as the new year begins, we see a rise in business which usually peaks in July. Why? Well, we asked a couple of customers who used our service only for these 2 months and confirmed our suspicions - ladies just don't like going to the market or slaving in a stuffy, humid kitchen during these hot months, so they cater food from us. So we learnt that hot weather causes a nice upward trend in our earnings and customer count chart!

It also makes good sense to keep track of your statistics so you can see how your business is growing (or not). Whether it's our catering or online income, it's easy to get discouraged (and panicky) when you look at the daily/weekly fluctuations in earnings. But if you keep your stats long enough, you will have enough data to show you whether you are trending upwards(growing), downwards (shrinking or losing ground) or flatlining (no change). We know that our customer base has grown substantially from when we first started, but it's really an encouragement every time we see that growth represented in a chart. And like the example I gave you, your stats will show you seasonal trends so that you can prepare yourself and your business.

Running a business from home can be more stressful than your day job. Income and expenses will fluctuate everyday. Some days you win and some days you lose but if you lose sight of the big picture, it can drive you nuts, so I highly recommend that you keep statistics to preserve your sanity.

I found one success guru who teaches us by example. He's an adorable fella and he's got lots of gumption to reach his one and only passion in the world. You know him too, but I'll figure you never thought you could learn the secret to success from him. Well you can....

If Scrat were a real, human he'd be a great home business owner. He faces a multitude of obstacles and challenges that stand in the way of his one true passion in life - nuts.

Like any true hero in life, he stares each challenge in the eye and never backs down with fear. He focuses on what needs to be done, and he does it. Sure he miscalculates and falls flat on his face many a time, but does he give up? Nope... he bounces back with even more oomph.

I remember one snippet where Scrat slides down a looooong hill to take off into the air and grab his prized target - a nut of course - only to land in iced cold water filled with prehistoric piranha. He fights of the piranha with incredible Kung Fu moves to protect his hard earned nut.

That scene translates nicely into what every (home) business owner faces. He meticulously plans and calculates his moves to successfully launch his dream business. Then he finds there are piranhas (of the two legged species) all around him, waiting to tear him and his business to shreds. In the business world, we call these two-legged piranhas competitors and it takes all the smarts and savvy moves we can muster (Kung Fu included if necessary) to beat their attacks.

And that's the way we should ALL be... whether you're planning to work full-time at home, starting your own small business or working your regular full-time job.

Scrat teaches us in this video the secret to success is to focus on what you want, to be determined, to do whatever it takes to reach that dream and to never, ever give up.

This post also teaches us that Andrew is an overgrown baby who still loves to watch cartoons. Long live Scrat!

P.S. For more Scrat videos, visit this link.

So over the weekend, I tidied up a bit and took a couple of shots of my wok station. View my wok station after the jump...

What? Oh you thought I made a typo and you wanted to see my WORK station. No can do. My website and blogging workstation is in a perpetual messssss . Right now, there's even a barbie doll on it and a couple of chinese paper lanterns. And if you look under the monitor, there's a few lollipop wrappers (courtesy of my ever messy seven year old).

Sooooo... I thought.... what better pics to show you than a WOK station of a full-time home based catering business Dad! And and like everyone else who gave their equipment specs, I'd like to give you mine :

• One 25 inch wok (big enough to cook for 50 customers)
• One 23 inch wok (because we couldn't find another 25 incher)
• One regular 16 inch work (to fry eggs when I get peckish)
• 3 non-stick saucepans (for everything else)
• 1 mini non-stick saucepan
• 2 big burner stoves (one is not in pic)
• 1 regular family stove
• 2 family sized 3-door refridgerators
• 1 four-foot meat freezer
• 2 deep fryers and a stainless steel deep fry prep table
• 1 four-foot stainless steel prep table
• 2 seven-foot high stainless steel racks for stuff
• 1 Customized Stove Rack made by our family...
• and lots and lots of appliances and utensils!

Funny... when you put everything in writing, it seems like such a long list. I suppose we've accumulated lots of equipment over these last 4 years. We always put aside a portion of our profits for equipment maintenance and upgrade. Good equipment reeeeeally makes food preparation easier and faster.

So thanks for taking a peek into part of my kitchen, where I spend up to a quarter of my day. It's also the place where I get to do the BESTEST job in the whole entire world - tasting (testing) the food. Hey... it's a tough job but someone's got to do it right?

A little late, but my wife, the ever ingenious chef, has been bitten by the mooncake bug. We've always been on the lookout for ways to make extra cash. More importantly, we're looking for a money making idea that we can turn into a part-time business. And since we're in the Mid Autumn Festival a friend of hers invited her to a mooncake making lesson. I'd say it was money well spent (only RM10) because she came back full of ideas and itchy fingers. Went straight to the kitchen and tried her hand at making mooncakes.

3 hours and free smells later, she came out with a batch of mooncakes. If I had to give her first batch a rating, it would be a 6 . Not bad when you consider she's never made a mooncake before and we don't have a proper baking oven. In any case this was a learning experiment. Surprisingly, making mooncakes is not a tedious as it was a decade ago, thanks to ready made fillings (that come in all sorts of flavors) and modern appliances.

Okay... so the first batch was a success and gave us lots of ideas, but even more exciting was that Sam and Sara had loads of fun making little piggys with the pastry. Please excuse the distinct lack of photographic skills.

Top left : Sara's cookie version of a caterpillar.
Top middle : Squirt... the baby turtle from the movie "Nemo"
Bottom left : My poor Sam started out all excited trying to make Optimus Prime, got frustrated and ended up with a cookie rendition of his father.
Bottom middle : He finally decided Mickey Mouse required only 3 blobs of pastry...
Right : Mum's 3 mini mooncakes.

Our little fish piggy's turned out quite nice though and they tasted just as good as the ones from the stores, so you know what that means... I get to eat double for half the price!

We're giving away our mini mooncakes to our catering customers (read that as : we're using them as guinea pigs). If non of them expire - our customers, not the mooncakes - then next year, we'll see if we can take small orders. And if that works out well, then we'll take it from these and see if we can turn it into a yearly money making venture. No need to compete with the mooncake big boys, but if we can get our own slice of the mooncake business why not?

And what would a post about mooncakes be without some recipes?

Cocoa Ping Pei Mooncake
Coconut Mooncake (Yeh yoong mooncake)
Dragon Fruit Jelly Mooncake
Durian Jelly Mooncake
Green Tea Luo Han Guo Jelly Mooncake
Jade Mooncake (Fei Chui Yuet Paeng)
Lotus Paste
Lotus Paste Jelly Mooncake
Lotus Paste Mooncake
Making of Mooncakes
Mini Shanghai Mooncake
Mixed Nuts Mooncake (Ng ngan mooncake)
Mooncake skin
Pastry for Lotus Paste Mooncake
Ping Pei Cheese Mooncake with Lotus Filling

Happy Mid Autumn Festival everyone... and happy playing lanterns.

• Our competitor was operating from a shop-lot and his rental was high. I'd guess this was why he was charging a premium for his service.
• I'd drive past his shop on my delivery rounds and always think to myself that his location wasn't great. In fact it sucked. Situated in the last row of shop lots, his shop was hidden from view and it was a bit difficult to find the entry road into that row of shops.
• He was employing about five workers, but I'd guess that because of his location, he couldn't get a steady stream of customers so no money coming in means he couldn't keep paying his workers.
• His cooking area was not clean and I would often see his customers tiffins left on the bare floor - definitely a no-no by any health and food handling standards and I'd often see his delivery man smoking while sending food to his customers homes.

There are a number of important lessons to be learnt here and made us realize how fortunate we are and how much better off we are running our business just the way we are :

• First, rental cost is a very big factor in determining profitabililty. We've always known this and in the food business where there are at least 3 eateries in every block of 20 shops, competition is more than stiff - it's cut-throat. So that reason alone is enough to run a business from home. We're glad we do. No rental means no increased overhead and no need to pass the cost to customers.

  Lesson : Just because your competitor is running from a shop and you're running from home doesn't necessarity mean he's better off than you.

• Location. Location. Location. Get it wrong and die... unless you deliver, which we do. When we first started out, we had almost 20 customers who picked up their food from our home, but today, there are only 5. As a home, our house is in the perfect location, but it is NOT a good business location. Fortunately for us, we deliver, so we can be located anywhere and still maintain our clientele.

  Lesson : Location. Location. Location. It can kill you if you get it wrong unless you deliver!

• One reason we have not employed additional staff is the commitment. Even though we've reached our goal of 50 customers, we find that just having both my wife and I running things is fine. It can be a bit rushed sometimes, but we've decided that we're happy with the ways things are.

  Lesson : Whenever possible, do things yourself and don't be greedy.

• We've always made it a point to keep our kitchen spotless. Just because we run a business from home doesn't mean we don't have to maintain cleanliness. We do things like wash our veggie 3 times and sanitizing our utensils with disinfectant. We believe that the quickest way to kill our business would be to have a customer fall sick because we didn't maintain strict cleanliness.

  Lesson : Never underestimate your customers. Just because customers can't see your kitchen doesn't mean they can't taste if your food is dirty or not.

We don't know how many customers we'll pick up from this competitor going out of business, but it showed us we're doing A-okay just the way we are.

Note the last para. Most of us remember Tun Mahathir as a someone who doesn't shy away from problems. He takes the bull by the horns. I believe this is a necessary trait if we are to leave the secure comforts of our office and go into business or to work full time from home. Some of us lucky souls are naturally gifted with boldness, but for most of us, it is built over time and experience.

After four years of self-employment, my mindset has changed. Not without a mighty struggle mind you. The pessimist in me continues to lurk in the dark recesses of my mind and pops out every now and then, but I've learnt that conscious effort is needed to counter your fears and doubts. No, I don't HOPE for difficulties and problems like Tun Mahathir, but where I once cringed in pathetic fear whenever problems arose, now I pause, take a step back, look at the situation and think how to solve the immediate symptoms of the problem first, then how to prevent it from recurring and finally what I can learn from the problem to make myself stronger.

Really. No kidding. This scaredy-cat has grown fangs!

"Necessity is the mother of invention" they say.
For me, "High price makes you do it yourself"!

Checking out the prices for stainless steel cook racks, most of them ranged from RM800 upwards and they were all the wrong size for our kitchen. Since I'm a Do-It-Yourself guy, I decided I'd build my own. Then I thought that it would be a nice project that my kids could also get involved with.

To cut a long story short, after 5 days (about 1 hour each evening), 2 broken drill bits (cheap brand), daily grumbling match between my kids and an accidental hammer whack on my thumb, we completed our shiny new aluminium-top stove rack. I opted for quality lumber so that the rack would last us a long time. Total cost came up to RM120.

Our finished work - a shiny new aluminium top stove rack

The final touch was to add our signature to our new stove rack. We turned the rack upside down and instead of just writing our names on the underside of the top, we each drew a picture.

Artists at work

Sam drew his favorite thing - a car. Sara, our resident artist and creative messy maker painted our house. Mum painted a rainbow heart. And Papa? Well it started off as an abstract triple 8 (the chinese word for 8 sounds like "luck") but Sam and Sara says it looks like a crazy blob made up of colorful molecules.

I'd say we completed our little family and home business project with flying colors! Saved a lot of money and got the whole family working together... but the most important thing was teaching my kids that they're never to young to contribute to the family's business (income).

2 of my most-est favorite people in the whole wide universe, Sara & Sam

After the project, we treated ourselves to a trip to McDonald's for ice cream. Okay, so now the total cost of the project came up to RM130.47. Now you know how I scrooge my way to make a profit .

The answer is, I don't know the in's and out's of making money on eBay, but I do know someone who DOES. When you visit a site or blog often enough, you can gauge whether the content you're reading is the result of personal knowledge and experience or a cut and paste job. More importantly for me, I get to know if the blogger behind those posts is just in it to make more money for themselves by faking sincerity or someone who genuinely wants to help others.

That's one of the things I like about Jenny How's eBay Tips Blog. She shares her personal experience and knowledge on being a full-time eBay seller in a simple, easily understood fashion. Jenny's thoughtful posts made me think again about trying my hand at making money on eBay although I'm probably building castles in the air.

I've flirted with the idea of being a heavy-weight eBayer before but it will probably not become a reality (although my weighing scale says I'm already a heavy-weight). My utter lack of time is to blame. With my hands full running my home catering business and my websites plus the duties of being a madly-in-love-with-my-kids-work-at-home Dad, being a big-time eBayer continues to be a dream.

However, if you are a stay at home Mom, retired Dad, your kids have left for college, just lost your job or plain tired of the rat race and you're wondering what you can do to make a little (and maybe a heck of a lot more than a little) money, I suggest you give Jenny's Blog a visit.

And if by chance Jenny sparks an interest or lights the entrepreneurial spirit in you and you DO end up making tons of money on eBay, you can buy me a coke (and Big Mac) when you make your first million (or hundred) on eBay.