Finally things have managed to slow down a little (just a little) and I sneaked back up here to do a little posting to record down my thoughts and what has been happening the past 2 weeks.

Vicki has been following the AWARE saga quite closely while I was away in Hong Kong / Guangzhou then just as I came back to Singapore, they held an EGM that particular night where she was following on Twitter. Someone mentioned that it’s a good idea to put the quips on the tees and voila. The tees were born. She uploaded on cafepress – got a pretty good response and it was only till around 11plus  when she saw me online (I just reached home from Guangzhou like few hours before) and she said, hey why not put it on Printeet.

We worked till 4am to get the stuff online and the rest is history.

I’m still pretty amazed cause things have been moving so fast and furious. We have this running joke between the both of us that she forced Printeet into production. We pretty much were almost done researching our tees but this AWARE event really accelerated the whole process.

Check out the tees here: http://www.printeet.com/bioniccreative

shutup and sit down

Some of the greatest things that I’ve learnt is really about speed, efficiency and listening to what the people really want and have to say. I think I’ve finally found a way to work around the family business structure and come up with a viable way to marry technology with brick and mortar type businesses.

It is almost like you need balls of steel and hides of thick rubber to insulate the blows that come your way, almost on a daily basis.

Ouch!

And life goes on. Ah well…

Remark 1
A fellow entrepreneur takes a jab at my business:

Your chatbox on your site adds a nice personal touch to your website, but honestly, it makes you seem like such a mom and pop shop. One man show. Not like ours.

What’s he really trying to say: A back handed insult to bring you down to his level so that you’ll give him a better deal.

Remark 2
Another one comes and say:

We like to work with companies that have huge potential for growth and sizeable market share. Hence, we cannot promise anything to you right now. We just want you to try out our service.

What’s he really trying to say: You are too small for us to consider you as a real customer, but then again, we don’t have enough customers, why don’t you come support us. See, I already came to your office just to talk to you. Even though you’re so small, but we still came, just that we don’t consider you as a real customer.

Remark 3:

Honestly speaking, though this might not land too well on you. You should just come under us.  There’s seriously, no potential for growth for your business.

What’s he trying to say: Since you can’t beat us like EVER in the next 50 years of your existence, you should join us.

Sometimes this is what I really want to do to the meanies...

I mean, we all take pride in the things we do. At least I do. I acknowledge that in these couple of years of growing up, I took one too many decisions that were not too wise, lost money in the process and had to restart the business from scratch, resulting in the online front looking like a one man show. I am working very hard right now to shift the business around and adopt a new model and this time, I think it will work. The “one man show” is only temporary while we shift our internal operations and fully utilise the 10 people that we have in the company. It is painful to hear these comments and still smile and take them in graciously when you know that you’re past your boiling point inside.

While I am pissed at the mean comments that have been thrown my way, it is also a reflection of the holes that I need to plug. I am present to the intensifying need to strike a balance between fun, professionalism and having a personal touch. So, let me try to figure that equation out.

I love the service that I am providing, and I want for everyone who uses our services to walk away happy. I’m in the business of making somebody else smile. I am never selling a product, I am selling an experience, that is what Printeet has been built upon.

It is tough being an entrepreneur, even tougher if you’re a lady, and toughest when you try to run an online business and you belong to techie based social networks where it is predominantly male. There are a whole lot more interesting stories to share

Hope this entry serves as a little piece to share with everyone some insights on what goes on in my life as a lady entrepreneur in Singapore.