April 2016 – Rich Money Habits

I just finished packing for our upcoming trip to Singapore, but I am so excited about this discovery I want to share it with you before I go on with my trip. I’ve been to Singapore many times already. At least 4 times when I was still working in Malaysia, friends and family would visit me and my wife and we would accompany them to visit Singapore for a couple of days.

When I shifted my career from IT to entrepreneurship, I now visit Singapore for business. The first one was to celebrate one of my friends’ promotion to one of the leadership positions in our company. During my short stay, I got the chance to meet and share my story to OFWs who were also aspiring to become entrepreneurs. The last time I was in Singapore was around this same time last year when we received an award as one of the Top 25 Highest Income Growth Earners in the whole Pacific Region for our company.

This time we are going to Singapore once again. We opted to stay for a little longer to enjoy and have fun in Singapore. I’m also excited because one of those I met in through this blog 5 years ago are going to be awarded on stage this week. They have completed their project of earning $2,000 (USD) per week for 4 consecutive weeks. It’s going to be 7 days of fun and excitment being with my friends and teammates.

A lot has changed in the last 5 years. If I hadn’t gone into business, most probably it would be an uphill battle to get approval for vacation leave for my 7-day Singapore trip considering that I have 2 or more week-long trips again in the next coming months. Here’s our team’s group picture in Universal Studios Singapore last year.

One thing that excites me about travelling abroad is I get to meet people from different countries. During the week I will be attending our company’s Asia Pacific Convention. It is another chance to meet and greet old friends as well as meet new ones from other countries like Korea, Japan, Hong Kong, Australia, New Zealand, Malaysia, Hong Kong and more. Last year, one of my friends from Australia, a Gen Y leader himself, shared this amazing comparison on what excites people from different generations: Baby Boomers vs Gen Y/Gen Z (Millenials?).

This is an interesting comparison on what excites different generations. Baby boomers are people who were born in 1946 to 1964. This is right after world war 2. The soldiers went back home after the war and there was a population explosion. One billion people in one generation. This generation, is one of the biggest and they control a third of the world’s wealth. Generation Y are people who were born mid 1970’s to 1994 while Gen Z are born 1995 to 2012. These is a contrast between old and new generations.

I can definitely relate to most of those in the list for Gen Y. Now, I can understand why people think Gen Y are lazy. The reality is that Gen Y know your brain is an asset and you should think of way to achieve the same outcome faster, cheaper, easier. That’s working smart.

I also like to travel. In fact, back in 2011 I made a goal for myself to travel to a place I’ve never been to every quarter of the year. While I have travelled a lot over the years, this is something that I would like to experience more of in the future. It’s always a good idea to find a job where you would enjoy doing instead of slowly losing your passion for living in a job you don’t like just for the sake of earning more money. It’s also a big plus to be working in a business where you have the flexibility and control of your own time. No need to file for leaves. No need to hurry getting back to a pile of workload. With how the system works, I sometimes experience earning even more while I am on vacation. 🙂

One of the reasons I shifted my career to business was because I no longer feel that I was growing in my job. I felt like I was just going to the office, put my 8 hours and then go home. Nothing to look forward to. Nothing to be excited about. I was slowly losing my soul.

The first few years in my job, I was very excited to learn. After 9 years of doing the same thing over and over again, I felt bored. The pay was good, but I felt like I wanted more out of life than merely earning an income. I felt there’s an exciting world out there. There are so many things to explore.

Exploring entrepreneurship felt like an exciting new frontier for me. Everyday was a learning experience. New people to meet. New ideas to master. New books to read. New places to go to. It’s been a wonderful experience being in business. It’s not without challenges, but I can never say it is boring. 🙂 Everyday is a chance to learn something new.

I am a LEARNER by heart. I love to tinker with things. I love to explore and learn as much as I can. That’s what excites me every day. That’s why one of the things I loved doing in the past was reading other blogs about money. That’s why I was delighted to learn this amazing news a few weeks ago.

This blog, Rich Money Habits by akosiallan.com was included in the Top 40 Business Blogs of the Philippines according to apexgloballearning.com. I feel honored to be in the same list of some of the best business authorities and blogs in the Philippines like Entreprenuer, Go Negosyo, Money Sense, Pinoy Money Talk, and more.

It brought me back to where this blog started more than 5 years ago. I wrote the articles in this blog primarily to share my discoveries about money to the world.

Most of you, I will not have the chance to meet. Through the articles in this blog, I hope it will help you in your financial journey.

My dream is to hear your personal story one day, and get to share in your discoveries too. This world is a magnificent place to discover so many wonderful things.

Now, it’s time for me to explore and learn from Singapore and the whole world!

P.S. If you’re based in Singapore and you would like to meet me up in person, you can message me through my Facebook Business Page @ http://www.facebook.com/allaninocente111. See you there!

P.P.S. I’m still looking for 10 people who would like to be part of my newest project. Part-time or full-time are welcome. Earn in US dollars. 2 slots have already been taken. 8 slots left. CLICK HERE and let’s connect!

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I realized after 5 years of helping people transition from employment to business, there is ONE THING every aspiring entrepreneur needs to learn first before considering starting his or her own business.

A lot of times, people think that having money or capital is the most important thing you need to start your own business. If you ask an employee what he is going to do after retirement, a lot of the time he will answer, “go into business.” Why? Because they think that’s the only time he will have saved enough capital to put up a business. Some even rely on their retirement pay to start building their business. If you ask me, I think that’s the riskiest thing you can do at that stage in your life. What will you do if you fail? Will you still be able to get another job? Of course not! Someone younger, faster, cheaper would have replaced your skills by then.

They say, 9 out of 10 businesses fail in the first 5 years. Out of those which remained, 9 out of 10 of them will be out of business after 10 years. Why then do most businesses fail? Is it lack of capital? Yes, possibly. But there’s more to it than having capital. You see, a business has to have a proven and tested system. There are growing pains to setting up a business. That’s why FRANCHISES were invented. Banks lend you money if you put up an established franchise like McDonalds or Jollibee. Of course, you would have to satisfy certain requirements by the bank. Having a system is important, but you can leverage on an existing and proven system instead of creating your own.

There’s something even more important than having capital and a system when it comes to starting a business. You have to master this skill, otherwise, having more money can become your worst nightmare. Have you ever heard of lotto millionaires who, when they won the lottery became instant multi-millionaires, only to lose it all only after a few months or years. Some of them end up even more in debt than before they won the lottery. Do you know anyone who bought a successful franchise, then with his inexperience mismanage the business and end up getting bankrupt? Then when the business is sold to a businessman who knows what he’s doing, suddenly, the same business that was failing climbs to profitability.

The one thing you need to know before you start your own business is to LEARN FINANCIAL LITERACY. You need to know how to handle your own money. If you are in debt or don’t have any savings, I would definitely recommend you to start developing the habits of handling your money well first. Why? Because you may end up getting into BIGGER debts if you don’t know what you’re doing.

They say, money is neither good nor bad. It simply magnifies what you are. This means, if you can’t handle your little money, most probably, having more money will not help you. It might even ruin your life. Money is a HUGE magnifier. It magnifies who you are as a business person. If you are kind when you didn’t have money. More money will allow you to be kind to more people.

Contrary to what most people think, it takes a lot of upfront effort, money, time and resources to get a business off the ground to take it to a level where it makes enough money for you to live on. The reason a lot of businesses fail is because they are short of cash. Why? Because the business owner doesn’t know how to manage the cash flow. Everything is going out, nothing is coming in. They don’t even know where their money is going in the first place.

If you have been living like an employee for most of your life, realize that you’ve been “conditioned” to feel safe when you receive your monthly paycheck. In most cases this happens twice a month on the 15th and on the 30th. It takes a lot of effort and years of mind reprogramming to reverse that conditioning. So if you feel you are at this stage, know that it will take some time to shift your mindset from an employee to that of a business owner.

There are times when desperation gets the better of you and the emotions of GREED and FEAR starts to kick in. FEAR of not being able to pay your bills. FEAR of not having money to pay for your family’s needs. Those are real fears. GREED comes into play when you want SOMETHING for NOTHING. Some peole ask me, “will I still be able to earn in business even without doing anything?” Sometimes, I want to answer back, “can you try not showing up to your work for months and expect to get paid a monthly salary?” Unless you’re on maternity leave or the son of the owner, more often than not, the answer to that question is simply NO. It’s when I hear these types of questions that I realize the person is not ready to get into business. Unfortunately, the same people are most vulnerable to GET-RICH-QUICK-SCHEMES. Why? Because that’s what get rich quick schemes give you, a promise to earn something without doing anything. But we all know promises are made to be broken, so a lot of the time, you end up having nothing 🙂

Unfortunately, some people are just plain lazy and stupid. They don’t want to learn. They blindly give their money, hoping that it will grow when someone else will handle it for them. Unfortunately, “hope” is not a good business strategy. Hoping that one day your financial life will change while doing the same thing over and over again, according to Albert Einstein, is simply called INSANITY.

The thing that worries me sometimes is when people having a tough time financially, become too close to the problem that they fail to see the bigger picture. For example, someone without any business skill gets started in business and gets excited of the thought that his financial worries will soon go away. Two things can happen. One, due to sheer strength of will, hardwork, determination and tenacity, he learns everything he needs to learn in mindset and skills from books, seminars or a mentor, and after some time he eventually earns enough to get his business off the ground and succeed. The other thing that can happen is, he fails to learn and listen, insisting on his own ideas, never willing to learn anything new, never wanting to listen from someone who has been to where he wants to go, and listening to people who failed in business, soon he ends up failing miserably and eventually quitting after the first sign of discouragement. He ends up blaming everything except himself. He becomes cynical, not realizing that shifting from employment to business is different from jumping from job to job. There’s a whole wide world of difference.

Becoming an entrepreneur is a lot like riding a bike. On your first try, you will most probably fail. A lot. Then you get back up. You try again. You fail. Try again. Then finally you didn’t realize you already developed the skills enough to get you to an amateur level. If you want to compete and decide to become a professional, you may need to put in more time and money to study and master it. That’s what PROFESSIONALS do. That’s what Olympians and world-class athletes do. Remember, people pay top dollar for top value. If you bring in lots of value, people will gladly pay you for it. But if you turn in mediocre performance, the market will make sure you get the necessary feedback. You’ll fail.

One of the hardest things you will learn in building your business is this. Your results reveal the value you are creating in the market place. Numbers don’t lie. It may hurt your ego to be earning less than what you deserve, but the reality is VALUE is non-transferrable. You may be highly valuable to your job, but in business you need to create value into that particular business before you earn what you deserve.

That’s why I recommend you continue working on your job, but start to build a part-time business on the side. Having a steady flow of cash from your full-time job, will help you whether through the storm. At the same time, you can learn the necessary skills and mindset needed in order to shift your career from employment to business at your own pace. There’s a learning curve to everything. You have to learn how to think differently. Think like an entrepreneur. You have to learn the skills of marketing, sales and management. You need to learn how to manage your money, your time and your other resources to make your business work. You also need to learn how to work with people, how to lead a team and more.

The good news is, as you start earning from your part-time business, you will have developed an additional stream of income for you and your family. As I would always say, it’s better to add additional income than to remove one. Once your side business gets going, it will allow you the flexibility to learn the ropes without worrying about what to eat. When the time comes that your part-time “thing” matches the income from your full-time job, you will have the option to quit your daytime job or stay where you are. Jim Rohn said, “wages make you a living, profits make you a fortune”. Once your business takes off, you can end up surprising even yourself and make yourself a fortune.

P.S. Hi friends, I have a new project and I need your help. I am looking for people who want to do part time or full time, can earn US dollars and can be done home based. I am sure you will enjoy this so for those who are interested please reply to this email or message me at http://www.facebook.com/allaninocente111 🙂 I can only work with 10 people this month, 2 slots are already taken. Thanks friend! 🙂