This is Me....Then - Jeny's Closet Makeover

Thank you Jenny from the Block,

 

I don't come from an IT background. I never did learn about HTML and codings in school or was I ever taught. This blog, everything from its buttons to its link, images and plugins are self learned and self taught. 

I don't claim to be an expert.

I just asked Google. (Like a lot!)

And in my journey of self discovery trying to manage this blog, now yes, I do consider myself an expert in my own right. There are ways to have a customized, easy-to-maintain blog at no cost at all. But be forewarned, it does have its fair share of hair pulling moments.

 

I can almost hear techie fan boys, blogging experts snigger BUT I'm not writing this for you guys. I am sharing this for all the rookies who bored of free templates for their own sites/blogs but don't know where to begin and who thinks you have to pay for premium services. *snigger* I feel like I am letting out a trade secret.

 

Jeny's Closet then....

I apologize for the image. I should have captured a screenshot of it before my HTML experiments. I don't know that I was going to be successful on a first attempt with the template change.

What I like about the old...

There is an authentic rookie feel and it has that honest, homely feel to it. Besides Brasticks, I can promote cupcakes and pies and it will still be 'appropriate'.

What I don't like about the old...

It looks like most personal blogs out there and I was craving for a different look.

 

Jeny's Closet now...

It is still a work-in-progress. There are bits of fonts I wanted to change but as a whole it is pretty much 90% complete. 

 

What I like about the new...

It has my favourite colour, purple as a signature look. I love that the plugins and sidebar are now much neater and framed. Plus, the Twitter and RSS icons are part of the CSS rather than a script. If you are not familiar with the jargons it is ok....you will eventually understand them the more you spend your time working and managing your sites and blog.

What I don't like about the new...

First, the image part does irritate me a little but it does add a more interesting look to the blog. I have to replace those damn shopping girls cos Jeny's Closet is not just about fashion or shopping. Second, it looks a little too professional. I will probably add in more cartoony buttons to make it look more friendly.

So what do you think? Do you like the new layout? Post idea eureka moment - I may write a 'How To' post so please subscribe, in the meantime you can always ask me or comment on how I made the switch.

 

SOS!

If you know of any great simple tricks on how I can customize my fonts, please comment. I would really appreciate it.

 

J.

 

 

Read more »

Posted in: Entrepreneurship

Why I am not too excited about the Singapore Elections

I am sharing what I think are the general sentiments of the public and myself.

 

Ministers are currently drawing $1.2m a year which divided by 12 is about $100,000 per month. How does it compare with the average person?

According to the Report on the Labour Force in Singapore 2006, the median gross monthly income of workers in full-time employment is $2,170. In other words, a worker takes a month to earn what a Minister earns in half a day! For university graduates, the median gross monthly income is $4,450. This would take the Minister one day to earn.

 

 “Who are we trying to kid? Before we start talking about dying for Singapore, let us look at our leaders. We are told that we cannot get good leaders unless we pay top dollar, so why expect more from the rest of us”?

 

If we are seriously unable to interest good people into public office, we must ask why other countries can do it and we cannot. Is it just money, or the fact that we have not invested in creating a culture of high public-spiritedness?

 

In some countries, there are young people aspire to hold public office. SM Goh had previously said that we could not expect to behave like people in other countries because we are a young nation and people still see things in material terms. How sad. After 41 years of nationhood, national service and national day parades, what do we teach our children? Do we judge a person’s worth by his salary? If so, we have wasted millions of tax dollars on these nation-building efforts, which have truly been in vain!

 

 

- www.entrepreneur.com.sg

 

 

 

In summary, mono-polytics no more, hear us - your own country people born and bred in Singapore and giving us money nearing to elections is just another way of bribing/paying for votes.

 

And of course, the classic arguement by Sylvia Lim in April 2007,

.....very timely especially in view of the upcoming elections, and the recent pay rise of the President to $4.2mill... If he had $1 mill less, would he perform less well? 

 

 

Full transcripts here

 

J.

Read more »

Posted in: Entrepreneurship,Nomad Philosophy,Random Thoughts and Expressions

If You've Never Failed, You've Never Lived

Dedicated to my father who never gives up. Even though sometimes he can be quite the stubborn old man I am still my father's daughter. I love you, Ayah.

Essentially, anyone who decides to get ahead in life will have their fair share of tumbling stories and those who persist despite the rejections or humiliations will reap what they sow in the end. I hope people do not perceive such individuals to be doing it out of greed but a mere attempt to escape from corporate slavery, better education for their children, being there for their family which I believe are indeed noble reasons.
Stumbled upon this from Anna William who shared this video in her post, thank you Anna.

Sucess is most often at the other side of failure and when you want something really badly, the whole world will conspire to get it for you.

Enjoy,
J.

Read more »

Posted in: Entrepreneurship,Random Thoughts and Expressions

Out of Stocks - Brasticks

Due to an unexpected overwhelming demand, Brastick is temporarily out of stock. We've just ordered more and waiting for its arrival. You may still continue to purchase Brasticks but please note that you will receive them on 11 April 2011 onwards. Obviously if stocks come in earlier, we'll mail them out to you immediately.

Otherwise, stay tuned to this page or subscribe to get updated.


J. - 30 March 2011

Read more »

Posted in: Entrepreneurship

How to Source for your First Product Online

[This is the 3rd article of the online business series. Read the first article here.]

Welcome back J,

That’s me talking to myself after disappearing for months for the lack of ideas, inspiration, suffering from the occasional (in my case forever) writer’s block, a little depression, a little anxiety, panic attacks etc etc etc… As humans we all face it from time to time.

Brasticks sales has been slow which was expected  but I surprise myself when I decided to do a total sales report last night.*Drum roll* and it turns out I did pretty good for a newbie (pat on back!) . Brasticks by Jeny’s Closet launched in November 2010 as complementary product to the dresses has brought in $472.01. That is an average of $94 monthly in just about 5 months.

Is it enough to make me quit my job and be the next millionaire online entrepreneur?No. 

Is it a success story?I would like to think it is. 

Am I happy?Yes. Estatic.

For someone who hasn’t make a dollar online before to making $472 purely online, it is nothing short of a miracle. I am not a genius who knows the art of making money online by magic. I stumbled way my through with trials and errors and sifting out useful information from the tons of information I have read or heard about with real time practicality.

I’ve mentioned this before in my previous post. Online business is as similar as any traditional business out there. You gain success through dedication and effort. An overnight success though not impossible maybe a  case of ‘as quick as they come and gone just as quickly’.

 No one would know Jeny’s Closet  existed if I don’t constantly ‘market’ myself insanely through the various social networks like Facebook. I don’t do it aggressively but I still have to do it. Would I earn more if I do market it aggressively? Maybe. 

In a span of 5 months, I educate myself with online jargons such as ‘SEO Optimization’, ‘Keyword Research’ , ‘Page Rank’, ‘Backlinks’ etc. Was it overwhelming? Absolutely. So overwhelming sometimes, like recently,  I took a 3 months break from writing. Just so I can clear my head.

Most online gurus out there would have you think that earning an income online is easy breezy. It most often is but sometimes it may not be.  Allow me be the first to tell you that once the motivation and the excitement wears off, you will as I did, find yourself staring at the computer wondering what on earth are you going to write, or sell or how to get your services known out there, increase traffic and it goes on. It is normal. I am not online full time. At least not yet.  I will be lucky if I get enough sleep at the end of the day or have enough time with my love ones and family after a long exhausting day from the office. 

How do you start getting a product at wholesale from the gazillion ‘wholesalers’ of the online universe at a relatively small capital? If you start with Google you will find the likes of online scammers who claim they dropship gazillions of product for you to sell and profit. If you are anything like me, you get confused with the tons of information flooding your email everyday as you signed up for every free reports, tips, newsletter imaginable.

You started reading them conscientiously for the first week and then find these are informations being repeated over and over again, while some may be helpful, some are downright useless. Eventually, you’ll get tired chasing the goose all over town.

I will share with you how I got started with Jeny’s Closet from sourcing a product to selling them and answer some of the questions I’ve raise from the ‘4 ways to Make Money Online’ post. Listen up.

Do you have a product to sell? Is there a market for it?

I had struggled  to find a market and a product  I could sell online until  I saw a friend of mine who got tagged to one of the photos by Lilgummerz Collezione which was selling dresses on Facebook. I had no idea that people were selling stuffs on Facebook at the time (call me a late bloomer) and I happen to LOVE the dresses. It was pretty, simple yet elegant and very affordable.  Isn’t Facebook brilliant? At a click of a button you can reach hundreds of your own personal friends that you are in business. People were flooding her wall to buy those dresses so I knew there was a market. I decided then that I wanted to sell the exact same dresses for Jeny’s Closet.

[Note : Don’t reinvent the wheel. Build on other people’s ideas.]

How to start an online business with very little or no capital ?

Lilgummerz Collezione couldn’t have been a retailer and as it was ran as a home business online it would not have the space to stock plenty of dresses. I bought the dress on a pre-order system which allows the seller to use the money paid upfront by the customer as capital to bring the products in.  That lessens the seller’s risk and allows them to start the business at no capital at all. I found the supplier by tracking him from the tag on the dress I bought.  A couple of emails later, I launched the first catalogue of Jeny’s Closet in Facebook.

How to find wholesalers you can trust?

It is very easy to get duped online by scammers who claims to be wholesalers but aren’t.  Faceless money transactions only meant that there is the hassle of catching a con man on the other side of the world which you may not  have the means for.  I knew I can trust my supplier because I received my dresses from Lilgummerz Collezione who has dealt with them so there is a proven track record that the supplier is legit. Another method is to be on the look out for stuffs when you travel, be sure to deal with someone who’s got excellent online facilities, speaks English and most importantly have track records of dealing with international buyers. Do your own necessary checks. This is important as you want to know that they are trustworthy. Some suppliers do not want to deal with small online home based business owners as wholesalers generally make more money with bulk purchases so in this instance you can offer on  working with the pre-order system.

While it is not impossible for you to be the first person  to introduce a new innovative or unique product to the world it will save you a lot more heartache if you lower the expectation a notch and worked with suppliers that has worked with online business owners like you. Having a supplier you can trust means that you reduce the risk of your business significantly and protects the reputation that you are starting to build.

I hope you find the above post useful and I would love to know how you would go about starting your own online business. How do you start?

Share|

Earn your first dollar online here. 

Read more »

Posted in: Entrepreneurship