A Love That Will Last - Wai Mun & Sharon

I love to cook and as much as that, I love to watch those cooking programs on the television! Off lately I got so inspired after watching this show and it makes me think about this! 

Western Cooking Show vs. Eastern Cooking Show

1. Western Cooking like Jamie Oliver or Martha Stewart and the list goes on is always that simple to follow! One thing I notice is that they are very casual! You end up getting really pumped up to cook after watching them, always thinking "Hey I can do that too" whereas for Chinese cooking show they are usually so dressy and the setting will always be at a studio instead of home based or simple kitchen, making us feel like we are just watching when we finished the whole 30 minutes cooking with who and who.
2. Chinese cooking show always have all the up to date weighing machines, baking, stirring equipment and the list goes on, making me feel like I need to shop more than I need to cook after watching but for those "ang-mohs" cooking shows, I always end up wanting to cook more and show hubby something that I have learn from it.
3. I love how simple the cutting the English cooking shows are! They don't mind about crude cutting of their potato or anything like that! We usually are never good cutters and my potatoes are cut this way and that way! Usually it is not so for the Chinese cooking series! Do you ever wonder how their potatoes, carrots and etc are all strip and cube in the same diameters? I wonder!
4. Tasting! Don't we do tasting when we cook? Well I love how the English cook usually just dip their spoon into the pot and done! The food is tasted! So here we go.... Now you know why I always feel really motivated when I finish watching a series! Plus with the knowledge you get from watching cooking shows are priceless! You learn new tricks and I just love them! So here we are doing extra cooking with newly acquire knowledge. 

Life little enjoyment is when you get surprises... Hubby bought me the latest Ultrabook by Dell to cheer me on for my little business 2 months anniversary! Well its really nice to have it.. Thanks hubby... Love Love Love! 

Maybe I am not supposed to mention the company's name as it is an established corporation BUT this is just my opinion and they are all true! (Not made up or pretense!) I never give two hoots about Groupon and its deals! Eventhough their updates illegally find their way into my mail box everyday! I deliberately click delete as they come in with a glance or sometimes without! I always believed that there is no good thing, in cheap thing & Groupon has to go and prove to me it is TRUE!!

From a Buyer's Point of View :

1. From my personal experience : There was this really good steamboat place we used to go before they discovered Groupon and its deals! The moment they started advertising on Groupon, the customers came in by truckload BUT the quality of their food and services dwindled by a 100%. To make up for the cheap price they are offering, the eat-all-you-can steamboat place cut their crabs, small lobsters prawn and white squid to name some! Their vegetables choices went down to a few cheap vegetables and the quality is just bad! We never went back ever since we "the normal price paying customers" were made to hear they got too many customers because a lot of donkeys from Groupon did not called up and make appointment before dropping in! "Do I care?!? Tell it to them!!! So Goodbye! We are not coming back"
2. From my own experience : Well out of the blue, I am feeling smurfified and went online and bought the iPhone set for what they claimed to be cheap! I later found out that it was just overprice! But I consoled myself that at least I get to choose the color! Because if I were to buy it from the mall at MYR9 cheaper I get only white color!  Before I bought the deal, I asked the seller when can I received the item? He replied that once the deal end, delivery will commenced! The deal ends before Raya which is at 17th August 2012. I should have received my item already BUT little did I know there is clause that says "If we ran out of stock, it will take another 2 more weeks to get our stocks and therefore your item will arrive 2 weeks later!"(Well fine! I add on the Raya week as free! And now I am still waiting for my goods! I checked only 50 people bought the deal! Does that means you do not have enough stock?!?)
3. From worldwide news : I wouldn't want to mention our well loved fast food chain! What happened when they advertised on Groupon? They learned their gravest lesson and set a head-start example to all fast food restaurants out there, to never ever ever spoilt their already established reputation by tarnishing them on Groupon!

1. People who advertise in Groupon are basically cutting profit to 0% when they do so! Why sell when you are not making?!? It might be easier to get customers this way BUT by selling your items close to cost price or at cost price is NOT the way to get customers! In such a way you would have kill other sellers who are "just doing our business" the normal way!
2. By selling at cheap cheap prices! One is actually doing a brand a big damage, including good brands! Last I checked when I was buying "my item" online! They are selling a TV at half price? Why would Samsung do that? (Ok maybe after losing its tele-communication patent law-suit to its competitor, they need to!)
3. By selling on Groupon as well one's company reputation may take a big hit, as you gain too many customers too soon! Although one of the clauses in advertising in Groupon requires us, sellers to get an extra employee to run the errand BUT how many of us will do? With profit cut up to half or more, is there an allocated budget for another employee? Think about it? 
4. Groupon requires a certain stock level before you start advertising with them! For small business, the amount is quite overwhelming! What if the sales vouchers total up to less than the stock amount? We are forced to swallow the remaining inventory ourselves when the deal ends! It will ran the business to ground if this is the case!
5. Plus keep in mind, deal hungry customers are all over the Internet! They will want the best of all quality and yet pay less so as a seller we couldn't actually satisfy that isnt it? So we are forced to shut most of the customers up and then what happened to our customers based? End up in nothing at all! Sad but true! 
6. The list goes on and one and I can think of them as we go... Just that now is dinner time so I shall stop!

I am proud to introduce the new division to Glamorously Instyle. It is the Tupperware Hampers division. Has gotten my mom to take charge of the Tupperware despatching, that I have a little bit more time to get creative about what I should do next. Although business is fairly good! I have customers every single day now! Praise be to God! I would like to innovate and to add in more variety to this complex & competitive Internet Fashion world, with Zalora going all out to garner business with their big giveaways and advertising, we need to innovate and improvise!

So here we are - I'm proud to announce that Glamorously Instyle has a new division - Tupperware Hampers for all occasion. In fact I already done my first customer and these are the result of it... Raya Gift... I have always love arts and craft but turning them into business, like I always said is "God-Possible" Now all I need to do is to wait for my new laptop to come onboard and we are rolling the new advertisement out! 

Anyone having company dinners, customers meet-up for festive seasons, birthday and anything that needed doorgifts can now contact me to get their quotation and further pictures.

This has got to be the most interesting topic in itself. God is indeed creative when it comes to creating characters in people and also to see how far people can transform based on the basic characteristic that was instill in them since birth. Being in this business has made me see so many different types of people. Some makes me laugh, some makes me smile but there are also others who makes me angry and frustrate me by their selfish motives and attitude.

I encountered some funny characters, one of them is I call "can't trust people" type. They wanted to purchase something online BUT once they transfer the payment (even though their amount is just MYR55) they will keep checking in and asking time and again "when will they be getting their item" I have had this a few times BUT I realize that dealing with this people needs a lot patience and all I need to do is to make sure they are at ease, these people need the seller presence at all time. 

There are also some that makes my stomach churned, they are called the "bargain hungry" type. Whatever prices that I put up, I have given great consideration to it and to ensure I have a profit margin and it is up to the market competitiveness YET this people (especially chinese auntie! Sorry to have said this) try to bargain with me pressing my price to as low as possible and if I couldn't do it, they abandon the item without any updates and then try again with some other products until they are satisfy! At the end they only purchase one Salt N Pepper holder from me worth MYR19. (Well positively better than nothing)

Then there is also those joy-askers / bidders type. I have encounter these more than any types of people add together. Maybe they think that doing trade through an Internet, they are somehow protected from any absurd reaction during any face to face transactions. I have people confirming and giving me their full details promising bank ins and it never happen. There are also those who agreed on buying and yet never get contacted! So many hope crushers! I am not some 'everyday-do-for-profit-sellers! That do not care about my customers and raise my price sky high! So I tend to get a little hurt from this kind of people BUT then like hubby always comforted me, just take it easy and do not let these things overwhelm me! Forgive these people and our life would be a lot easier! Well easy said than done when what I felt is hurt and not anger ;)

I know at times I tend to get ahead of myself, maybe because I put a lot of effort into it and would love to see it grow and flourish into something. There are a lot of things that I have learn from doing this business and I thank God for that, everything is immeasurable and it makes me a lot wiser than I could be! I thank God for his strength daily and I thank God for sending at least one customers each day to purchase Tupperware from me. I am glad to have His blessing and I do hope that sales with bags, wallets, accessories would be as good as well. Amen! 

A good computer / laptop is one that can startup, has a mouse, a keyboard and can play Cafe World.... The rest are just add ons......