We launched NSjobz.com last week and were pleasantly surprised by the user response. Despite the fact that we are in a relatively stagnant economy, we found that more employers than potential new hires clicked over to have a look at the new site. This is very encouraging for two reasons, the first and most obvious is because we get paid for “premium” job posts (the first post is free), but more importantly for everyone else, is that there are quality jobs to be had.
At NextStep we like to partner with companies providing outstanding services. We have been talking about building a job website from scratch since the beginning back in 2007, but in this case partnering with CareerEngine made more business sense. A pool of 50,000+ resumes, and a network of sites taking postings across multiple geographic areas in China; it is the perfect fit for delivering a quality service to the NextStep community.
If you haven’t been, go check it out. If you are looking for a job, go check it out. If you are looking to hire, go post a job, and give us your feedback here or at info@nsjobz.com
And if you are wondering why we chose a “z” instead of an “s”, very simple NSjobs wasn’t available, and we wanted to stay under 6 characters, since all of our other websites are incredibly long at 16 characters. We weren’t trying to be trendy and cool, it was just the least expensive option at GoDaddy.
So as the war rages on in the United States to fix the most broken health care system in the developed world, two American educated entrepreneurs steam ahead building the Expedia of health care portals for China, Meiloo.com. With 280,000 unique visitors just last month, Meiloo is marching to a new tune for getting the most out of the health care system.
Currently focused on elective treatments, Meiloo.com has solid revenue models through percentages of all surgeries and consultations booked through their platform. Obviously there are some potential holes here, but a good start in a $9billion a year business in China.
So the question we have to ask ourselves, will the answer to our health care issues in China, the US and across the world be answered by the best and brightest entrepreneurs who seek profit by caring for the tired, the sick, and the huddled masses? Or should we not leave it in the hands of small and big business, as we have seen the shortcomings in the US over the past thirty-five years?
“Only those who will risk going too far can possibly find out how far one can go.” -T.S. Eliot
The average entrepreneur will fail several times before succeeding or simply giving up and moving back into the corporate world. Contrary to popular belief, modern day starlets like Mark Zuckerberg (founder of Facebook), did not strike it rich on their first attempt. In fact Facebook was Zuckerberg’s sixth attempt at creating a business on the web. Zuckerberg had the gut, and the time (he was still in university) to explore his ideas and business models. Unfortunately, most “entrepreneurs” do not have the gut, time, and money to wait and wait and wait until they hit it big. But, here is the thing, the luxury of time, experience, and knowledge of running a business is essential to success. There is no “Cliff’s Notes” (abbreviated readings of a novel) that can give you the tools you need from day one.
As one of the co-founders of NextStep I get an interesting perspective on the entrepreneurial drive of expatriates and a growing number of Chinese in Shanghai. There is something about China, and Shanghai in particular that drives many individuals into seeking out what it means, and more importantly what it takes to be a successful entrepreneur.
You can learn how to open a business, manage a business, and even keep great books for a business, but the most basic skills that come along with being an entrepreneur are instinctual. There are one million great ideas conjured up every second, but 999,999 will most likely never make it to market, or will simply fail. The entrepreneur in the most pure sense has a gut instinct for what will and won’t work. Entrepreneurs are the drivers of change. Entrepreneurs cannot predict the future, but they help shape it. But, because we as entrepreneurs, and more broadly as human beings, cannot see into future, and if we are cognizant of the fact that the past is not a predictor of the future, than why do some entrepreneurs win, and some lose? Could it be luck?
Sometimes people do get lucky, and entrepreneurs get lucky too. Before counting on luck, a sound business must be created — the right team, business model, and market analysis needs to be made. Yet, even when the most diligent of efforts are made to capture a market, create a team, and build a go-to-market strategy are planned companies have, still do, and will continue to fail. This is where luck may be coming into play.
When I speak of luck, I am using it in a specific context, “a combination of circumstances and events operating by chance to bring good or ill to a person”. This is where we as human beings, unable to predict the future, are left unable to control what happens around us as business owners. Circumstances that are out of our control have a huge effect on what will happen to us and our businesses. It is absolutely necessary to be aware of what we don’t know, and what may or may not happen in the future. This may come across as being vague, but it is meant to be, because there is no clear cut answer.
What divides a successful entrepreneur from a failed one is his/her ability to make the right decision at the right time. Making the right decision comes from both careful analysis, and equally important, a “gut” call to implement a plan or strategy. The right timing also comes down to careful planning, but also relies heavily on chance. The question you must ask yourself is, do you have what it takes? Do you honestly believe you have the instincts and the skills to be a successful entrepreneur? If you do, welcome to the game. If you don’t, then it may be best to walk away while you are still ahead. Recall what I said at the beginning, it is only those who risk going beyond what others are willing to do that they gain the potential to see what may await them.
There will be no conclusions made here, this was simply designed to encourage discussion, please comment.
It was only a matter of time before the authorities decided to crack down on Facebook. Finally they have also become tired of the never ending event notifications, status updates discussing your “friend’s” decision to go to M1NT or Bar Rouge this weekend, and the random friend requests. In all seriousness the authorities control over the “web waves” is a cause for concern. But, let’s be honest, it is more of an annoyance than anything. Stack it on top of the typical day of blazing internet speeds, and it is sure to upset expat web users.
This is not meant to be a political post, as an outsider I do not want to delve into the internal political decisions of a soveriegn nation.
I use Facebook and Twitter everyday for both work and personal use. I try not to be “spammy” on either. Some friends take me aside and ask me not to post so much, but honestly I tell them I am posting interesting current events and business articles they should be looking at. Granted most of the people that are taking me aside, don’t really understand how to use Facebook and Twitter to effectively “share” information, but they are coming around.
Yes I do post NextStep event information, but they are good informational events, not another party on the Bund. The majority of my postings point people to great current events like this article, this article and this article (oh, wait I cannot pull the links from my Facebook profile to share with you right now…I need to start bookmarking them again on my Webdexer.com)
Celine Le Cotonnec, SYB Project Coordinator, gave a terrific presentation explaining all the legal issues that they faced and are still facing while bringing this project together.
After the event we received a very good feedback of their presentation, but what was most important to us was to know that we brought something to the Shanghai Young Bakers who had a dozen of interesting leads.
One month after the start of their training program in traditional French bakery for under-privileged Chinese young adults; Shanghai Young Bakers charity project was offered the opportunity to showcase at NEXTSTEP’s last event the hard work the team of 12 French volunteers has accomplished in the past 18 months to make this dream come true.
The number of difficulties you will have to go through and the time and energy you will have to spend when considering setting up a charity program in China as a foreign organization, especially when it comes to education matters are totally unforeseeable and countless. You can get a rough idea yes, but still whatever you enterprise you always have this feeling to progress in a grey area.
This is really really embarrassing. Today at the NextStep offices we had six US university interns brainstorming over different feature sets for the NextStep Directory. One of the key value added attributes of the NSD are the company profiles and surveys. NONE OF THE INTERNS KNEW THE COMPANY SURVEYS EXISTED! There reasoning is that after clicking on a category, the information displayed looked like most other directories so they didn’t realize they could click on each company to find out all the additional information. I was left speechless when Joe told me and asked the interns myself to make sure. This is a clear case of the ‘Curse of Knowledge’ and why its so important to get outside opinions. Hopefully, someone will read this and avoid making the same mistake.
A confusing turn of events over the past week that now has the Hong Kong American Chamber of Commerce spearheading the movement to get the US a pavillion at the 2010 World Expo. Am I the only one wondering why the HK Amcham is taking the lead on this matter? I know the Shanghai Amhcam has been working on this in coordination with the Beijing chamber for the past year, but to no avail. This really is a matter of American corporations coming together for the mutual good of our future face as business managers and owners in the China landscape. It will be an embarasment if we do not have a pavillion. This is now the second time I am petitioning for all American business owners to write your Senators and Reps, get them to make an initiative from the states. I don’t need to pull out a calculator to tell you that the money needed for the pavilion project is peanuts compared to the financial meltdown war chest that has been opened over the past 5-1/2 months. If you are reading this and you are American and you are a business owner, and you have not yet written your officials in Washington, then open your mailbox and get writing today! See a previous post for a quick copy and paste email text body.
Something for all business owners to think about is how they position themselves in the marketplace. I am not talking strictly from a branding and marketing point of view, but I am talking about your physical location. A great for instance is an old project of mine,Lucky Greens Mini Golf (yes back in the day I thought I could become the mini golf king of the Middle Kingdom).
Here was the problem, we knew that our first wave of customers, our low hanging fruit would be expat families, but we also knew that our second wave of customers would come from the growing middle class families of Shanghai. If you are keen to the Shanghai geography and demographic layout, you will quickly identify the dilemma we faced. Where to place the mini golf facility?
Well, we opted for the monstrous Cloud Nine Mall adjacent to Zhong Shan Park. This was to become the “new center” of Shanghai. For long term growth it was brilliant. It was at the intersection of three major metro lines, over twenty bus lines, and dozens of apartment complexes within a ten minute walk. But, it wasn’t convenient for our low hanging fruits. The expats were living far off in the hinterlands of MinHang or JinQiao in Pudong. We heard it from day one from these customers, “if you had just put it out by our home in JiQiao we would come every weekend”, “why did you put it here?”
So we were stuck between a rock and hard place. We had already put all of our investment into this location with the intention of opening the second location in one of these expat compounds. Where we went wrong was creating a “destination-location” that could not easily be accessed by our first wave of customers, the expat-base. We closed up shop on Valentines Day 2007.
I see the same mistakes being made over and over again. Let’s have a look at Dunkin’ Donuts recent entry into Shanghai. Dowtown locations, perfect for the business crowd. But the locations they have chosen are just out of that 5-10min walking radius most office workers are willing to forgoe during lunch-breaks or smoke breaks. There business is most definitely not flourishing like they had presumed. Some of you may remeber “Frankies Italian Restuarant” on Fenyang Lu. One block off of Nanjing or Beijing Lu, but a million miles away from walk-by traffic.
Then there are places like “Pier 39″, just below my office on JinXian Lu (probably never heard of this small street), but the business is booming in this mini-cafe, becuase it sits on a street with a mix of dining and shopping experiences. It is a “known” destination, and gets considerable walk-by traffic. After two or so months of operation, you cannot reserve a table on Friday and Saturday nights.
Moral to this story is NOT location, location, location. But, IS first learn what type of location your business needs to be in, and then seek out the real estate to assist your business in becoming that location.
I don’t want to be singing the bad news bears here, but it is reality people. Watch this video, and think about what it will mean for China. RMB holders beware, there is a perfect storm aligning, and at the center of it is a banking system built like a house of playing cards. A slight breeze will send everything crumbling, and we are talking Typhoon force winds are not in our distant future.
Wen Jia Bao and his closest advisers are in Davos, and by all accounts it sounds as if some in media are beginning to take a more relaxed stance on China. To be honest it speaks of the times we now live in. If one day you condone the actions of a nation state, and the following you pride them for their economic achievements so that you may benefit, it makes you as a profession or nation look quite pathetic. If you have a stance and belief, keep it, please don’t peddle a flip-flopping opinions that are delivered as fact. For too long the western media and government has and still remains to look negatively upon China, and rightfully so on many levels, but what they have so conveniently left out of the stories in recent years is how they have benefited from China’s monumental rise.
Look at the facts of information decemination. It is only in the past eighteen months that media has latched onto the debt obligations the US now holds with the Near East. When times got rough and it was no longer to our (US and European) advantage to continue selling our debt at the rapid rate we had no problem with at the onset of this decade, the media and US government started speaking up. We got ourselves into this situation, and it will take a community effort to etract ourselves from this mountain of debt and trade imbalance. The answer is not confrontation and protectionist policies. The answer lies in cooperation between China-US-UK-Euro to fix what has gone so wrong.
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