EFFORT TO START MY ONLINE BUSINESS

I very obsess to cloth and hijab.  So, I think I need to make cloths and hijabs. Starting I wear my own handmade hijabs and cloths which is jubah, my friends really likes that material I use and the style or design for my dressing. At that time, my friends want to buy it and I was though what if I sell that jubah and hijabs so that I can earn some money to cover my education loans. I made jubah and hijabs for a few designs and colours because it just for a few customers. Day by day, my jubah and hijabs was people talking which they are like my design and the material that I use.  They asked me to made several types, design and colours. At that moment, my close friend give some advise and guide line to me to build up online business. At that same time, I was busy for final examination and my parent does not suggest me to make online business. But, I promise to them that I start my online business when semester break. I sing up Instagram for my Ig shop and I upload my jubah and hijabs. Month by month, my signature jubah and hijabs had increasing in sales especially when Ramadhan. Every people prepared for buy new cloth. I was hired my friend to handle whatsapp, telegram, website and instagram. Based on my experienced, having an online business is a great moment in my life. 

 

3 WAYS TO STAY MOTIVATED TO LEAD YOUR BUSINESS

Richard Branson, founder of Virgin Group, has said in interviews, “My biggest motivation? Just to keep challenging myself.” 

Long after the thrill of starting a business is gone and you are immersed in the daily challenges of being an entrepreneur, it is easy to lose the motivation to keep going. Being a business owner has its indisputable benefits, but it is a grind and you constantly need to remind yourself why you decided to become an entrepreneur.

Related: Psychological Momentum Doesn't Just Help Sports Team, It Works for Entrepreneurs, Too

Long-established business mogul Branson may have it easier than most entrepreneurs, but here are three ways to keep yourself motivated, regardless of the size of your company:

1. Remind yourself of your desire to achieve. 

A successful entrepreneur’s number-one asset is perseverance. When I asked around to learn about what keeps entrepreneurs motivated, ambition and perseverance are two words that kept coming up. The need to achieve and succeed prevented them from giving up after every failure and fueled their drive more than any other factor. 

If you find it challenging to maintain your morale in the long run, look around you and identify the people who make up your success team. Whether it’s an older mentor who keeps you in line with your goals, or a younger entrepreneur who inspires you and fuels your energy, surrounding yourself with business cheerleaders helps turn every setback into a lesson, not a disappointment.

2. Set realistic goals. 

If you are running a startup and your goal is to make a million dollars this year, then you might be setting yourself up for disappointment. Instead, set several smaller, measurable milestones so that you can track your progress.

Related: 5 Reasons Heartbreak Is Good for Entrepreneurs

Create a big-picture strategy for your company, and set realistic business goals on how to achieve them. Everything from creating useful partnerships, networking, marketing, ramping up your social media, or even hiring good employees takes time. Establish a plan and be prepared to tackle it one day at a time. 

When you achieve the smaller goals, pat yourself on the back.

3. Take care of yourself. 

Yes, having your own business means you’re invested 24/7, but invested and overworked are two different things. There is nothing more daunting than spending your day alone in your home office. Make time to take care of yourself.

Business owner Sharon Middendorf says what keeps her motivated is "ambition, exercise and meditation. This inspires and guides me through the days."

Set regular times during the week to unplug, hang out with family and friends, sign up for a gym, take walks, read or watch TV. If possible, take a vacation! This gives your brain time to rest, recalibrate and be ready to run a successful business.

Related: 5 Ways to Remind Yourself How Powerful You Really Are

3 KEY QUESTIONS SMALL BUSINESS OWNERS MUST ANSWER, OR RISK FAILURE

Whether you’re running a pole-dancing fitness business or an online Etsy store, all your management efforts and sleepless nights really come down to three crucial questions about your business -- and the three crucial documents that help you answer them:

Related: How Long Do You Really Need to Keep Your Financial Documents?

1. Are you making a profit? (Consult your net income statement.)

Profits are measured in one place: your net income statement. "Net revenue," which is usually the same thing as net sales, doesn’t give the whole story because it doesn’t account for all the direct and indirect expenses needed to run your business. For example: If you’ve paid bills lately, you know that rent, utilities, insurance, accounting fees, web and tech-support all cost money. So, profit is what you have after you deduct expenses from net sales. 

That calculation creates your business's net income number. Is it positive this month? Then you’re making money. Good deal. But did you know you could be showing a profit and still be going bankrupt? Knowing whether you’re making money is not enough; that money has to convert to cash.

2. What's your cash situation? (Consult your cash-flow statement.)

Cash is the lifeblood of your business. In a perfect world you pay bills with cash generated from operations -- not debt, if you want to maintain fiscal sanity. To pay with cash, your small business has to kick off enough of it to cover the bills. Do you have enough cash to cover expenses for at least 90 days? You’ll find out by looking at your cash-flow statement.

Remember, cash is to your business as blood is to your body; without it, your business dies. Cash comes in when clients pay you. But sometimes they don’t pay full retail price because of discounts or third parties like PayPal that take a percentage of the transaction. Just because you charge X doesn’t mean you’ll collect X when you make a sale. Sometimes, too, there’s a time lag between when you complete a project and when you get paid. This is common in some service businesses, but it needs to be carefully managed; otherwise, you’ll merely have an expensive hobby, not a business. 

Related: How to Better Manage Your Cash Flow

3. Are you building or destroying wealth? (Consult your balance sheet.)

Building terminal value is why you’re in business. Terminal value is what you could sell the business for if you decided to do so today. If you’re a small business owner, what’s the long game? Is it just about grinding through 12-to-16-hour days for decades only to retire when the doctor tells you to? Or is it about emulating the sharks on ABC’s Shark Tank who got to be so wealthy?

They built businesses that grew assets faster than liabilities -- a lot faster. In some cases they sold their businesses; in others they used the business as collateral to attract venture or seed money for new ventures. It’s an amazing system when it works. So, how about your business?

Do you have a small business you could sell eventually? Your balance sheet is crucial here. It measures your assets, liabilities and owner’s equity, or net worth of the business. It’s not the only measure of value, but it holds valuable information every banker and investor wants to know. It’s the first step in determining terminal value.

Do you know how to read your net income statement, cash-flow statement and balance sheet? In my 20 years in business, I've seen how clear it is that if you don’t understand these documents, you’re leaving tremendous profit and cash-flow potential on the table. Your small business is also probably carrying far more risk of failure than you know.

Would you drive your car with your eyes closed? No way, right? So don’t run your small business without knowing how to answer these three key questions. Finding the answers is easier than you imagine. And those answers can change your future. 

50 QUOTES ON LEADERSHIP EVERY ENTREPRENUER SHOULD FOLLOW

Every entrepreneur knows that the success of their business ultimately rests on their shoulders. Yes, the product you build and the team you hire are important, but your ability to lead is what carries your company.

With that kind of pressure, it’s easy to feel stressed, lonely and overwhelmed at times. Every great leader has faced a challenge that defined their greatness, which is why we often turn to their advice when needed.

Whether you’re an entrepreneur, business owner, or team leader, here are 50 inspirational quotes on leadership for when you need a little pep talk.

1. "A leader takes people where they want to go. A great leader takes people where they don't necessarily want to go, but ought to be." –Rosalynn Carter

2. “A leader is best when people barely know he exists, when his work is done, his aim fulfilled, they will say: we did it ourselves.” - Lao Tzu

3. "It's hard to lead a cavalry charge if you think you look funny on a horse." -  Adlai E. Stevenson II

4. "Great leaders are almost always great simplifiers, who can cut through argument, debate, and doubt to offer a solution everybody can understand." – Colin Powell

5. “The first responsibility of a leader is to define reality. The last is to say thank you. In between, the leader is a servant.” - Max DePree

6. "If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader." – John Quincy Adams

7. “A leader is a dealer in hope.” - Napoleon Bonaparte

8. "A leader...is like a shepherd. He stays behind the flock, letting the most nimble go out ahead, whereupon the others follow, not realizing that all along they are being directed from behind." - Nelson Mandela

9. “He who has never learned to obey cannot be a good commander.” -Aristotle

10. "Leadership is the art of getting someone else to do something you want done because he wants to do it." - Dwight D. Eisenhower

11. "As we look ahead into the next century, leaders will be those who empower others." – Bill Gates

12. “A good leader is a person who takes a little more than his share of the blame and a little less than his share of the credit." - John Maxwell

13. “Become the kind of leader that people would follow voluntarily; even if you had no title or position.” - Brian Tracy

14. "The leaders who offer blood, toil, tears and sweat always get more out of their followers than those who offer safety and a good time. When it comes to the pinch, human beings are heroic." – George Orwell

15. “I start each day by telling myself what a positive influence I am on this world.” - Peter Daisyme

16. “Earn your leadership every day." - Michael Jordan

17. "Before you are a leader, success is all about growing yourself. When you become a leader, success is all about growing others." –Jack Welch

18. “Leadership is lifting a person’s vision to high sights, the raising of a person’s performance to a higher standard, the building of a personality beyond its normal limitations.” - Peter Drucker

19. "My job is not to be easy on people. My job is to take these great people we have and to push them and make them even better." - Steve Jobs

20. "The led must not be compelled. They must be able to choose their own leader." – Albert Einstein

21. “Great leaders find ways to connect with their people and help them fulfill their potential.” - Steven J. Stowell

22. "To have long-term success as a coach or in any position of leadership, you have to be obsessed in some way." - Pat Riley

23. "If you think you are leading and turn around to see no one following, then you are just taking a walk." – Benjamin Hooks

24. “The challenge of leadership is to be strong, but not rude; be kind, but not weak; be bold, but not bully; be thoughtful, but not lazy; be humble, but not timid; be proud, but not arrogant; have humor, but without folly.” - Jim Rohn

25. "A man who wants to lead the orchestra must turn his back on the crowd." - Max Lucado

26. “To do great things is difficult; but to command great things is more difficult.” - Friedrich Nietzsche

27. "It is absolutely necessary...for me to have persons that can think for me, as well as execute orders." - George Washington

28. "Leaders aren’t born, they are made. And they are made just like anything else, through hard work." - Vince Lombardi

29. “A cowardly leader is the most dangerous of men.”  - Stephen King

30. "A man always has two reasons for doing anything: a good reason and the real reason."- J.P. Morgan

31. “Not the cry, but the flight of a wild duck, leads the flock to fly and follow.” - Chinese Proverb

32. "The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy." - Martin Luther King, Jr.

33. “No man will make a great leader who wants to do it all himself, or to get all the credit for doing it.”  - Andrew Carnegie

34. "Average leaders raise the bar on themselves; good leaders raise the bar for others; great leaders inspire others to raise their own bar." -Orrin Woodward

35. "Those who try to lead the people can only do so by following the mob." – Oscar Wilde

36. “Outstanding leaders go out of their way to boost the self-esteem of their personnel. If people believe in themselves, it’s amazing what they can accomplish.” - Sam Walton

37. “Example is not the main thing in influencing others. It is the only thing.” -  Albert Schweitzer

38. “If your actions create a legacy that inspires others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, then, you are an excellent leader.” - Dolly Parton

39. “I am reminded how hollow the label of leadership sometimes is and how heroic followership can be.” - Warren Bennis

40. “In this world a man must either be an anvil or hammer.” -  Henry W. Longfellow

41. “It is absurd that a man should rule others, who cannot rule himself. (Absurdum est ut alios regat, qui seipsum regere nescit.)” - Latin Proverb

42. “The history of the world is but the biography of great men.” -  Thomas Carlyle

43. “A ruler should be slow to punish and swift to reward.” - Ovid

44. “You don’t have to hold a position in order to be a leader” - Henry Ford

45. “Rely on your own strength of body and soul. Take for your star self-reliance, faith, honesty, and industry. Don't take too much advice — keep at the helm and steer your own ship, and remember that the great art of commanding is to take a fair share of the work. Fire above the mark you intend to hit. Energy, invincible determination with the right motive, are the levers that move the world.” - Noah Porter

46. "Don't blow off another's candle for it won't make yours shine brighter." Jaachynma N.E. Agu

47. “I cannot give you the formula for success, but I can give you the formula for failure, which is: Try to please everybody.”  - Herbert Swope

48. “He who has learned how to obey will know how to command.”  -Solon

49. “If one is lucky, a solitary fantasy can totally transform one million realities.” - Maya Angelou

50. “The best executive is the one who has sense enough to pick good men to do what he wants done, and self-restraint to keep from meddling with them while they do it.” - Theodore Roosevelt

Bonus:

“Screw it, let’s just do it.” - Richard Branson

 

SUCCESSFUL ENTREPRENUER

Malaysia also have inspiring entrepreneurs who are currently making their stands, at par with renown entrepreneurs as well.  I would like to talk about  Malaysian entrepreneurs that I admire and lessons that I’ve learn from each of them. I hope this can maybe can inspire you as well.

1) Dato’ Maznah Hamid 

- When an almost bankrupt security company was offered to her, Maznah and her husband, who were eager to change their ordinary life, took the plunge and sacrificed RM5,000 of their saving. Only then she realized that apart from managing the operation, she also had to be a manager, a clerk, an accountant and an a receptionist. To grow their business, they had to sell their house and moved to a slum that came without electricity. But she persevered. What a phenomenal woman malay entrepreneur she is. Today, it’s difficult to find someone who has never heard of Securiforce, a company which now been securing transportation of money, jewelry, VIPs and what not. She has now grown to venture in many other industries such as the hospitality, training, healthcare and so on. Securiforce has also expanded its logistics business in Singapore, Thailand, Korea, China, Turkey and Germany. 

- I choose Dato' Maznah Hamid because of she very hardwork to grow her business until she had to moved out from her home and also she sacrificed for her busniess. Besides that, she very strenghful women to be an women entreprenuer in Malaysia.

2) Datuk Mokhzani Mahathir

- Mokhzani is the second son of Former Prime Minister of Malaysia Tun Dr. Mahathir Mohamad. He began his career as a Wellsite Operations Engineer with Sarawak Shell Berhad in 1987. Not following his father’s political footsteps after having played parts of his life in the United Malays National Organization(UMNO), he ventured to a more challenging entrepreneurial life. He later joined Tongkah Holdings Berhad in 1989 and was appointed as the Group Managing Director, a post he held till 2001. He was also the Chairman and Group CEO of Pantai Holdings Berhad till 2001. He now sits on the Board of Opcom Holdings Berhad, Sime Darby Auto Performance Sdn Bhd, KCSB and Several private limited companies. He is also the Chairman ofSepang International Circuit Sdn Bhd, a post he had held since 2003. Mokhzani Mahatir is now15th richest in Malaysia, valued at US$980 million. 

3) Tan Sri Syed Mokhtar al-Bukhary 

A humble entrepreneur, often shying away from publicity and media. Tan Sri Syed Mokhtar al-Bukhary is the richest Malay Entrepreneur at US$2.75 Billion and bumiputra in Malaysia, and has continued to hold the status for a long time. In his childhood, he found difficulties to do school revision because of the inadequate house facilities and small space. But that did not stop him from achieving his current status. Syed Mokhtar is a great giver; his very first salary received during his youth was divided by 2 halves – one for him, and another for charity. Companies that Syed Mokhtar al-Bukhary are affiliated with are MMC (utility, engineering, infrastructure, and logistics group), DRB-HICOM (automotive manufacturing, assembly and distribution), Tradewinds (plantation, agro-based and property sectors), Puncak Semangat (Telecommunications-4G) and many more which covers from Ports, Postal services, Banking.

4)  Tan Sri Dato’ Mustapha Kamal 

Tan Sri Datuk Mustapha Kamal is the co-founder of MK Land (an associate company of Emkay Group), which started as a small company and eventually grew to become one of  the property icons in Malaysia. At the height of its prominence, the company was picked as one of the major developers of Cyberjaya, Malaysia’s very own cyber city. Among other successful developments carried out by MK Land are Bukit Merah Laketown, Damansara Perdana and Bukit Raya Beruntung. 

5)  Datuk Wan Mohammad Sani Salleh

Wan Mohammad Sani Salleh is known among the young malay entrepreneurs as a great success due to his persistence of being a self made millionaire. He runs a network of buses under a company named Sani United Sdn Bhd. At age 35, he has received many awards such as the young entrepreneurs award from the Association of Young Malay Traders and Entrepreneurs and often referred to as an new generation icon.