Achieve profitable from Day 1 — Running a for-profit business is challenging. This is especially so when we are just embarking on our startup journey. Every kickass entrepreneur knows the famous profit formula. My 8-year nephew intuitively understands that contributing $0.10 to his pink piggy means capping his expenditure at $0.90 of his $1 allowance. Understanding…

Clients are concerned with their problems. If you want them to buy your stuff, you need to solve their problems FIRST. — Many clients and prospects are obsessed with their own problems. We are no different. We want to talk to people to sell our products and services. All is fair in life. That is not the case for the customer-facing roles (such as marketing and sales). I have key-performance metrics that…

Time is not our limitation. Energy is. Energy allows us to be at our best in our day job, and in our side-hustles. — Contrary to popular belief, I think energy is more important than time. You can have all the time in the world to do great things, but if you have nothing left in the tank, nothing gets accomplished. This is especially true for side-hustlers, creative folks, and basically, everyone working at…

From the glitter and glamorous to the downright frustrating — Entrepreneurship is an arduous journey. And sometimes, we assume that position because we have to. Circumstances drive transitions. Here’s what happened to me at the start of the year. The corporate downsizing exercise started on Oct 2022. The APAC marketing director was asked to leave in Oct 2022. The APAC…

Here’s what we can do to get back on track. — I used to have a running coach. I wanted a pair of watchful eyes on my workouts so I could make progress in long-distance running. And he threw lazy bombs at me daily. “Aldric, you are too lazy! Why can’t you follow the training plan?” “Why did you miss the…

Investing our effort where it counts — I have a lot of respect for my Chief Revenue Officer (CRO). Here’s why. He leads a global sales team of 15. He has always been the top salesperson. The second in sales revenue is at least 30% away from his figures. He is calm, composed, always willing to coach…

Life experience is underrated. Career ambitions are overrated. — Up, down, up, down. This is our career. We work hard, promote, lead a team, promote again, got retrenched, got hired, and reach the C-level position. No one tells us that the journey upward involves unexpected big falls. This is the thing. People around us shared their advice based on…

Work with what you have before spending any money — Let me say this from the get-go. I am a big believer in self-improvement and self-education. They help me become a better online writer, consultant, sales professional, and investor day by day. I have no qualms about buying a $400 book on investment. Or materials on sales. But not everyone…