Biz 101 Archives - Page 2 of 3

Oh the site is down again !

Truth is, the online shop you see today is our third generation. The previous version was being attacked by spammers, viruses and other malicious malware (a name we had recently acquired). Obviously we were spazzing out during the attack, our frantic calls to the given cell phone (or any phones) and emails were unanswered we were beginning to think the firm may actually be out of business !!! At long last, the very first reply we received from them was “we are not liable for the attack, and it will take about 2 weeks to fix the problem”.

Marketing in the Era of Social Media Boom

We have today, the Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, WeChat, Line, LinkedIn, Pinterest, WhatsApp, Youtube and a million other apps to stay connected. Everyday we would come in to the office, turn on the computer, scan through each socially connected site to see what’s what. By the time we have finished “staying connected”, half a day would have gone by and half the emails are unanswered.

HK’s Retail sector, August 2015

Monthly rent of HK$ 7millions !! WOW !!! It’s good to be a landlord in HK !!

Start up failures

Our business partner in Macau has decided to cease its operation. We had called the Macau Shop as our second shop so as to show our support to him, but in reality the shop was completely independent to Annie Barton.

So where did it go wrong? Anything to everything that could possibly go wrong, did in fact go wrong !!

The incident serves as a rude awakening for us and put us into a new perspective. In addition to the regular business planning and what nots, we have learned a few more new things

Valuation of a firm !!

The question that mesmerizes us is, how do we valuate a company? by discounted Cash Flow? or use the PE ratio and multiplying it according to the industry norm ?? If done so, we would be paying the investor instead, and where is the logic in that? Goodwill valuation seems less damaging and its definition includes “pays more than the fair market value of the net assets” !! Getting more than a fair share is good, greed is very good, and we like the smell of the green !! We are beginning to sound like a desperate idiot 🙂

Killer Inventory

We don’t like inventory !! It’s fair to assume all companies do not like inventory, and all SME retailers are horrid with inventory. Yet the lack of inventory would also result in a loss of sale ! Oh it’s wonderful to be a business operator, we get to play the balancing act everyday !! 🙂

Online Shop

The internet is, in fact, a wild west ! And the defenders of our sanity are keeping us with wild guesses !! The reality for us, is therefore, the site is down !! And we don’t have a clue of what is going on !!

Retailing the Panerai Straps

Vintage Military design: The last couple of years had be stagnant, there just wasn’t any significant change in style in the outlook of a strap ! From our observation, Vintage and military are two most popular descriptions for a Panerai strap ! Repeat business seems unlikely when your first strap has a No.74 on it, and the “new design” strap has the 73 but with everything identical ! We suspect the term “vintage” is outdated.

A new Project 2015

We are not sure how the whole thing would go !! But it’s a very very exciting new project. The project is slightly complex for our standard, mostly due to the organization skill needed among various parties in various locations.

The New Ecosystem

Looking at things on a smaller scale, our neighbourhood, the Kau U Fong of Central, has been booming and evolving into a new shopping district. Unlike the conventional malls, Kau U Fong focuses on promoting niche lifestyle, a rare breed of neighbourhood in Hong Kong.