5 psychological savings tips

 End of the month again, why my wallet getting more and more "skinny"?. In this era of rapid inflation, I believe that lack of money is a common problem among youngster nowadays. Once they get their salary, they will spend it unconsciously. If you wanna accumulate your wealth, first you have to know how to save your money, control your purchase habits then only you have enough money to invest. Today I wanna share 5 psychological savings tips that can help you to control your income, avoid purchases traps and achieve financial freedom.

• Use paper money

Don't underestimated this tip. We can have feeling with something which is touchable, so when you are giving out your hard-earned money you will feel a sense of reluctance. By using paper money, it can help to control our purchase desire because paper money are something which is touchable and visible compared to using credit card and online payment. Consequently, you will think twice before you purchase somethings. If you use credit card or online banking to make payment, usually you won't think twice and can't control your purchase desire because if you use credit card or online banking to make payment, it is just a change of number and it won't let you feel any sense of reluctance. If you're a fresh graduate or a student, you can set a withdraw limit per week. For example, set RM250 withdraw limit per week and withdraw RM250 from your account first then told yourself that you only can spend RM250 this week. This way could be effective in control your purchase behaviour.

• Use credit card in a right way

Most of the fresh graduate they will apply for a credit card after a period of working time. Credit card is also one of the factor that increasing your expenses. This is because credit card will give you various type of reward such as points, cashback, dining voucher and these all will keep affecting our purchase decision. For example, you might buy something that is unnecessary just because you wanna get the reward. Although credit card could increase our expenses but if you use it in a right way, it could help you to earn money as well. Before you apply credit card, you have to make sure that where are your money spending to and which type of credit card is the most suitable one. For example if you always buy things via online then choose a credit card that provide online shopping discount and cashback. Furthermore, credit card also can help to build your credit score. Most of the time we fail to get housing loan and car loan is because we have a poor credit score and bank don't approve is because they don't know whether we are able to pay off or not.  If you always use credit card it can help you to build a good credit score but you have to ensure that you pay it back monthly. Consequently, you will be more easily in applying your loan in the future.

• Monthly statement

If you can't measure your cashflow then you also can't manage it. Most of youngster have a tendency that is don't know where their money spend to because they don't manage their money. So we are encouraged to record our daily expenses. Once you record your expenses, you will know what you spend for and also you will know what kind of unexpected expenses you have such as petrol fees, accident and so on. After you record all the expenses, you can review your spending habits every month and you also can check and see which aspect you spend the most. Actually, you can record expenses by using certain application and it is more convenient because the app will help you to visualize the data into chart and you can extract more useful info from that. In addition, the application also can help in reminding your spending habits.

• Ignore promotion

We can see promotion almost everyday whether in television, online or shopping mall and we will feel likes almost everyday the products are doing promotion. Some of the people will easily affected by these all promotion. So we have to avoid watching advertisements and stick to our purchase list only. When you reduce the frequency of watching advertisements, you can avoid yourself in impulse purchase. Thus, before we purchase we have to list out all the necessary thing we want to buy and stick to the list and avoid buying  unnecessary things. For example buy chewing gum when you pay at counter or buy an addition coffee that is not in your list. Maybe you will think "Doesn't matter, just one or two addition things only" but this kind of idea will increase the unnecessary expenses. With each passing day, it will become a large amount. Hence, when we are purchasing, we are encouraged to stick to the list and avoid buying unnecessary things that are not in your purchase list.

• Income distribution

You can distribute your income by using JARS system. By using JARS system,  you can distribute your income into 6 jars these are investment, contribution, savings, play, education and expenses. In this system, we are encourage to distribute 50% of our income to expenses jars. If you realize that 50% of your income is not enough to cover the life expenses then you have to check and see your spending habits to find out the main reason. The rest of the 50%, you can distribute to investment, contribution, savings, play, education by 10% each jar. The money you distribute to investment jar is used to invest in assets such as stock, real estate, business and so on. The purpose of this jar is to help you in achieving financial freedom by investing. For education jar, it is used to upgrade yourself by short course, seminar or bootcamp. Play account is used to reward yourself such as date night, massages, weekend getaways. We also have to budgeting to play not only for save. For the savings jar, we save it in order to spent in the near future. It could be used as down payment on a house, a car, a vacation or anything else you think will be important in the coming years. And for contribution account, we used it to do something that is contributing to the society such as donate to church. Actually, the distribution ratio is flexible you can change it based on your current situation. Most of the people fail to save money because they don't make any plan for their income distribution. If you don't make any plan then you won't know about your cashflow.

These are the five psychological savings tips that I wanna share today. Before I conclude, let me repeat these five tips. First, use paper money because you will feel a sense of reluctance. Second, use credit card in the right way to build your credit score. Third, adopt the habits of making monthly statement in order to know your cashflow. Fourth, ignore promotion, avoid watching advertisement and stick to the purchase list. Last, income distribution to control your cashflow and manage your income systematically. Hope these five tips could be helpful to you!!!

Faktor Kejayaan Seimbang (JERI)

Pada masa kini, hampir semua orang sibuk mengejar kekayaan dengan menyumbankan semua masa dalam pekerjaannya dan tidak meluangkan masa untuk perkara yang lain. Keinginan untuk berjaya dalam kehidupan bukan sesuatu perkara yang negatif tetapi dalam proses mencapaikan matlamatnya kita perlu sentiasa mengekalkan satu keseimbangan. Keseimbangan ini merujuk kepada masa yang kita gunakan untuk mencapai kejayaan perlu diagihkan secara seimbang iaitu bukan menyumbangkan semua masa dalam pekerjaan sahaja sebaliknya kita juga meluangkan masa untuk meningkatkan aspek jasmani, emosi, rohani dan intelek kita. Hal ini kerana selain daripada pekerjaan, aspek jasmani, emosi, rohani dan intelek juga boleh mamainkan peranan yang penting dalam menentukan kejayaan. Jadi, hari ini saya ingin berkongsi tentang apa itu faktor kejayaan seimbang (JERI) dan bagaimana kita boleh meningkatkan tahap JERI.

• Jasmani

Jasmani merujuk kepada aspek fizikal iaitu tubuh badan kita. Cuba kita bayangkan seseorang individu yang mempunyai aspek fizikal yang lemah bolehkah dia memberi prestasi yang terbaik dan meningkatkan produktiviti kerja? Jawapannya adalah tidak. Hal ini kerana masalah kesihatan akan mempengaruhi prestasi dan produktiviti kita. Untuk menjaga aspek fizikal kita, kita mesti melakukan senaman yang berterusan, menjaga pemakanan seimbang seperti piramid makanan dan mengamalkan gaya hidup yang sihat. Seseorang individu yang mempunyai fizikal yang baik mampu memberikan prestasi kerja yang cemerlang. Selain itu, kita juga perlu melakukan pemeriksaan kesihatan sekurang-kurangnya setahun sekali. Hal ini kerana sekirannya kita didapati bahawa menghidap apa-apa penyakit kita boleh melakukan rawatan dengan lebih awal. Apakah makna sekiranya kita mempunyai kekayaan yang banyak tetapi mempunyai tubuh badan yang lemah? Sebab kita sibuk mengejar kekayaan adalah untuk meningkatkan kualiti kehidupan kita maka semasa kita sibuk mengejar kekayaan kita juga perlu memastikan bahawa kita mempunyai tubuh badan yang sihat kerana ia adalah kekayaan dalaman.

• Emosi

Emosi berkaitan dengan aspek psikologi seseorang individu iaitu aspek dalaman yang melibatkan perasaan, cara interaksi dan rasa empati. Memang tidak dapat dinafikan bahawa emosi yang stabil juga boleh meyumbang kepada peningktan prestasi kerja seseorang. Sekiranya seseorang tidak mempunyai emosi yang stabil maka dia tidak dapat fokus dengan kerjanya sebab emosi yang tidak stabil akan menyebabkan dia berfikir secara berlebihan atau negatif. Individu yang berjaya ialah individu yang berupaya mengawal emosinya dan juga emosi orang lain. Hal ini disebabkan dari perspektif yang rasional, kita yang mengawal emosi kita sebaliknya bukan emosi yang mengawal kita. Jadi, kita boleh mengekalkan emosi yang stabil dengan cara menyertai kaunseling dan program pengurusan stres. Tambahan pula, kita juga boleh berkongi kebimbangan kita dengan kawan atau ahli keluarga bagi mengurangkan tekanan jiwa. Selain daripada kecerdasan intelektual, kecerdasan emosi juga amat diperlukan dalam memcapaikan kejayaan.

• Rohani

Rohani merujuk kepada aspek dalaman yang berkaitan dengan jiwa, kepercayaan dan pegangan kita. Kita digalakkan mendekatkan diri kepada tuhan, berpegang kuat pada agama dengan melakukan ibadah yang dituntut oleh agama. Hal ini kerana pegangan agama yang kuat dapat menyemaikan nilai-nilai murni dan sifat-sifat terpuji dalam jiwa kita seperti kejujuran, kerajinan, rasional dan sebagainya. Jadi, seseorang individu yang menpunyai pegangan agama yang kuat sebagai panduan maka dia dapat mengelakkan diri daripada melakukan perkara-perkara yang negatif seperti rasuah, penyelewengan, menipu, mencuri dan sebagainya. Selain itu, rohoni yang positif dapat membantu memberi ketenangan dan kegembiraan sebenar dalam kehidupan kita. Kita boleh membangunkan rohani dengan cara melakukan meditasi, menerima nasihat pakar motivasi, kaunseling, mengikuti pengajian agama dan melakukan ibadah. 

• Intelek

Intelek merupakan perkara yang berkatian dengan minda atau mental seseorang individu. Iaitu melibatkan ilmu pengetahuan, kemahiran atau pengalaman yang dimiliki oleh seseorang individu. Kebanyakan kita mengetahui intelek sebab ia adalah faktor utama yang boleh membantu kita mencapaikan kejayaan kita dan juga kita menggunakan sepanjang masa untuk memperolehnya. Intelek juga boleh merujuk kepada kepakaran yang dimiliki oleh kita dan ia membolehkan kita melakukan sesuatu perkara. Sebagai contohnya, ilmu pengetahuan tentang perakuanan amat penting untuk seorang akauntan kerana ia membolehkan akauntan melakukan kerja dengan baik seperti memahami masalah dan keperluan syarikat. Tanpa ilmu pengetahuan kita tidak dapat melakukan kerja dengan lancar dan tidak dapat meningkatkan produktiviti. Seseorang individu boleh meningkatkan tahap inteleknya dengan memperbanyakkan pembacaan, menyertai kursus, seminar, bengkel dan latihan. Individu yang menguasai pengetahuan atau kemahiran dapat membuat keputusan lebih baik dan bertindak lebih matang. 

Jadi, kita tahu bahawa selain daripada intelek, jasmani, emosi dan rohani juga penting dalam menentukan kejayaan seseorang. Kita perlu agihkan masa secara imbang bagi meningkatkan tahap JERI dan bukan sahaja fokus pada satu. 

5 Steps to wake up early

I believe that everyone wanna be successful as Jack Ma, Bil Gates, Warren Buffet , wanna use all the potential we have to be a better person. But except the busy of working life, we may have to social interact with our colleague and clients in dinner and even have to take care of our family. In our life, there are always some obstacles that could resist us to change ourselves and you even can't spare out some time for learning and exercising. If you also think that you don't have any time for learning and exercising, why not you try to wake up 1-2 hours earlier than before? If you try to wake up 1-2 hours earlier everyday then you will realize that you will have extra time. Don't underestimate extra time of 1 hours because you will have extra 7 hours weekly, 28 hours monthly and even extra 365 hours yearly. Today I wanna share a book with you guys that is (The Miracle Morning). The author of this book is Hal Elrod. In this book, he use himself as a example to promote the habit of waking up early and combine his SAVERS plan to help others to adopt the habit of waking up early and this habit enable others to earn more money, get fitter, gain better networking and so on. By the way, SAVERS plan means Silence, Affirmation, Visualisation, Exercise, Reading  and Scribing.

I believe that most of us will think wake up early is not that easy especially for those who sleep at 11-12 o'clock. They will think like they can't perform well in their job due to the lack of sleep. Exactly, you are not alone because not everyone can wake up early as others. Before I read this book, I am also a person who tend to sleep until 11-12pm. After that, I feel like this is a waste of time and time is really precious. Once you waste it, you can't get it back. So, here are the 5 steps that can help you to adopt the habit of waking up early. The first step is give a hint to yourself before you sleep. If I ask you usually how many hours should a person sleep? Undoubtedly, you guys will says 7-8 hours right? But the scientist state that how many hours should a person sleep is depend on themselves, it could be 5 hours, it could be 6 hours. For example the difference of gender, age and health condition will prompt the difference of time needed. Generally speaking, there is no a standard way to determine how many hours should a person sleep. This is the reason why others can perform well in their job just by sleeping 5 hours whereas others need to sleep 8 hours. The author said that the effect of the sleep to our body is depend on we believe how many hours should we sleep. In other word, if you think that a person should sleep as least 8 hours in order to have enough stamina but you only have left 6 hours to sleep. For sure you will think that you will feel very tired when you wake up at tomorrow morning. At this moment, you have already made a hint to yourself and until tomorrow morning when the alarm ring, you will realize that you feel tired and wanna to sleep again, don't want to wake up. Consequently, you will make a conclusion that is I feel tired really because the lack of sleep. So, the author advise us to make a hint to ourselves said that even we only have 6 hours to sleep but I believe this 6 hours is enough. The second step is put the alarm far from your bed. If we put alarm beside our bed then we can switch it off easily and continue to sleep. This is the reason why author advise us to put the alarm far from our bed because this will compel us to leave the bed and once you move your body, you will become more awake. The third step is brush you teeth and wash your face. Even we have waked up from our bed but we may feel tired as well. So the third step is to help removing the feeling of tired. Fourth step is drink a cup of water to refresh our mind. After several hours of sleeping, our body will in the state of dehydration so after we brushed our teeth and washed our face we are encourage to drink a cup of water to start our engine inside our body. The last step is morning exercise. Morning exercise can maximize our spirit and stamina to energize our body. After morning exercise, we can have a bath. For sure, your brain will have already prepared to start working. 

Okay, this are the five step that can help you adopt the habit of wake up early. So after wake up in the morning, what can we do? And I think this is really depend on yourself but the author advise that the first thing we can do is meditation. After finish shower, we can choose a silent place to meditate. For example you can choose to meditate in study room. Daily 10 minutes of meditation will give us lot of positive change. Furthermore, you can choose to eat breakfast. Compare to before you have to finish your breakfast quickly then go to work but now you don't have to rush and just relax. Apart form that, there are many things you can do just depend on yourself. Lastly, I wanna remind you that the five steps that could help you adopt the habit of waking up early. First step is give yourself a hint before you sleep, second is put alarm far from your bed, third is brush your teeth and wash your face, fourth is drink a cup of water and last is morning exercise.

5 level of listener

 If talking is a kind of art then listening gonna be a kind of knowledge. I believe that everyone of us have a kind of feeling before that is while you're excited to share something with your friends but you feel likes they're not listening to you or they're not interested and even ignore you. We as a human have a tendency that is prefer talking about something that we're interested, if we have some bosom friend willing listen to us and this gonna be something good. On the contrary, if we realize our friends just ignoring what we're talking  about. For sure, we will feel sad or unhappy. The lack of serious listening is also the leading factor that cause the family problem, couple problem and so on. So today I wanna share with you guys about 5 level of listener that you can use to distinguish whether others are interested in what we're talking or not interested. In other word, you also can use these ways to show others that you're listening seriously to them. I will start from the fifth level until first level.

Fifth level refers to listener who totally ignoring or totally not listening to you and even don't give you any respond. This kind of listener is the easiest to realize because them don't have any eye contact with you. Although they stay beside you but their soul is in other planet and all the respond they give are irrelevant. For example you ask your friends about what is your favorite Marvel character then he answer you Pikachu. The fourth level is acting kind of listener. This kind of listener will act like they're listening to you, sometime they will node their head or look at you. But actually they're not listen to you or thinking other matters. They have such features like fake smile, always node their head but don't give any respond, always ask you to repeat. The third level is selective listener. This kind of listener won't listen all the things you say but they will filter it and just listen the things that they interested. For example, if you talk with your friends who have the same favorite celebrity with you. Definitely they will listen to you and they are willing to respond. But if you shift to another celebrity maybe they will lose interest and start ignoring you. The second level is serious listener. This kind of listener will listen all the things you say and also they will try to give the real opinion from the questions you ask. But the only downside for serious listener is lack of empathy. For instance, today you complain with your boyfriend about your employer or director blames you in front of others colleague and this make you feel very embarrassed. At that time, your boyfriend he really listen to you seriously but he says that " This really is your fault, next time you have to be more careful to avoid the same mistake. You should  do ......". Even your boyfriend give his sincere advise to you but usually you won't feel happy instead you will feel annoying and wanna throttle him. XD Gentlemen please don't make this mistake again!!! XD Instead, the correct way to respond is " Aiya babe, how can your employer blame you in front of others colleague? It is not the correct way. Later I bring you to have your favorite food okay?" When your girlfriend complain with you about something, actually she need your comfort instead of teaching her what to do. So if you don't adjust your empathy to think from her view then it is hard to maintain the relationship. The first level is considerate listener and this kind of listener is the most friendly ones. They won't refute you whereas they try to feel everything you say based on your angle. For example, when you are talking something which is sad, they will try to feel your mood. Instead, if you are talking about something which is happy, they will also feel happy for you.

Thus, next time when you chat with your friends, the most important thing is try to feel their heart and mood instead of giving them life principles or advise what should they do. In addition, if you have learned this kind of listening skill you will be more open-minded which means knowing how to think from many angle instead of one. That's all I wanna share today, the five level of listener. Similarly, you also can use these way to train yourself to become a good listener. 

Introduction to Maslow motivational theory

All of us have our own goal to achieve in our life and goal can be categorized into several type such as life goal, financial goal, educational goal and so on. In order to achieve our goal, we as a human need something as a support to make it. Undoubtedly, it is motivation. Motivation is something that can energize and inspire us to go the extra mile in finding solution to solve the difficulties. So today I wanna introduce a motivational theory that usually used by big company to inspire their employee to work harder. It is Maslow motivation theory. This theory mention that manager or director should try to understand the needs of employee and try to meet their need in order to motivate them to work harder.

The needs of the employee can be divided into 5 category:

• Physiological needs

Physiological needs refer to the basic needs of human such as food, cloth, accommodation that need to be meet in order to survive. Exactly, try to imagine that could employee increase their efficiency if they don't have enough nutrition and protein. Obviously, the answer is no right? And I think this is the main reason why all of us need to work is to meet our basic needs. For directors, they can give sufficient salary or extra bonus to employee in order to ensure they don't have any problem in meeting their basic needs. Apart from that, directors also can provide accommodation to employee who live far from the company. This can shorten the travel distances between employee and company and this will lessen the financial burden of employee.

• Safety needs

Safety needs refer to the needs of protecting themselves from the injuries, accident, job security and future. The safety could be personal security, financial security, good health and protection from harm. I am convinced that all of us want to work in the environment which is safe, peaceful and clean instead of hazardous, noisy and dirty right? As a director, they can make sure the working place is always clean by hiring several cleaner and also they have to maintain the peace of the working place. Moreover, they also have to make sure that all the employees are given the insurance protection, secure compensation and job security, especially in in a bad economy.

• Social needs

Social needs also define as love and belongingness needs and it refer to the personal needs of accepted by others and cared by others in the working place. Everyone of us need several true friends who know and care about us and this is the reason why social needs is very important for us. We all know that depression and stress are unavoidable in working and this is the reason why we need friend because we can speak out the problem that we have and could be helped by others. It also help to decrease our psychological burden. As a director, they can allocate employees into several group to make sure they work as a team in doing their task and this will enhance the spirit of teamwork in employees. Furthermore, director should be fair and square in assigning task and jobs to employees in order to avoid conflict happens among employees.

• Esteem needs

Esteem needs refer to the needs of being cherished, respected and given status by others depend on the effort that employees have payed off. How will you feel if your employer didn't recognize your effort even though you have worked hard. Undoubtedly, we will feel disappointed right? All of us need to be praised and respected because human need to sense that they are valued and by others and feel that they are making contribution to the world. So director and manager they can offer praise and recognition to the employees who did well. Besides that, they can also offer promotion and additional responsibility to employees to show their belief in employees. Or maybe they can provide learning opportunity to employees who want to further their study in respective field.

• Self-actualization needs

Self-actualization needs refer to the needs of using all the potential they have to achieve their goals. This needs also related to the desire to accomplish everything they can by using their own potential and creativity. According to Maslow, self-actualization also described as the full use and exploitation of talents, capability and potentialities. So, as a director or manager they can provide some challenging task to employee and give the right and flexibility to employee in solving the task without any limitation. In additional, they also can invite employee to participate in in decision making in a project and try to accept the idea that provided by them.

Thus, these are the five needs that mention in Maslow motivation theory. Actually, except from Maslow motivation theory there are still other theory used by company in motivating their stuff such as Herzberg motivation theory, McGregor motivation theory and McClelland motivation theory. Each of these four theory describe different kind of motivation needed by employee. If you are interested maybe I could share in next blog. So it is important to remind that don't forget to find your own motivation whether it is internal or external before we start hustling.

What is SWOT Analysis ?

In this era of rapid development, everything seem to be changing rapidly. Every business is try to find the best and effective strategy to meet clients' needs in order to maximize their profit. Most of the company make their strategy based on the analysis of current situation and future trend and there are many approach can be used in analyzing. So, today I wanna share something about SWOT analysis because this technique is a simple and powerful tool that could help you to develop your business strategy. Through SWOT analysis, you can have a better understanding about the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats of your business. Besides that, you can also know what are the internal and external factors that effecting the growth of your business.

Strengths refer to the organization internal factor or resources that can help in developing one's company. It could be the advantages or capabilities that held by a company and this can improve the competitive strength of a company. Example:

• Skillful, efficient and positive attitude employees
• Sufficient capitals to pay off the short term debt
• Advanced technology equipment
• Reputation for quality

Weaknesses refer to the organization internal factor or resources that will cause damage to development of a company. Weaknesses could be something intangible as well. Undoubtedly, most of us don't like to acknowledge the weaknesses we have but be honesty. We have to be realistic and face any unpleasant truth when we using SWOT. After we found out our weaknesses, we have to find the effective way to solve it because weaknesses are something we can change and control compared to something we can't. Example:

• Limited raw material
• High cost of production
• Poor quality products
• Lack of professional employees

Opportunities refer to organization external factor that could help company to achieve their goals. Opportunities are different from the strengths because strengths refer to something that we can change or control whereas opportunities refer to something that effected by others so we can't change or control. We have to realize what opportunities exist in the market or the environment that we can benefit from. If we are able to discover the opportunities then it will make a huge difference to company's ability to compete in the market. Example:

• The increasing demand for company's products or services
• Few competitors in markets
• New technology
• New market

Threats refer to organization external factor that could give negative effect and slow down the development of a company. Think about what are the obstacles you face in getting your product into market and selling. It is vital to figure out these all threats and take action to solve it before you fall victim. After figure out the threats, you should think about whether to change the organization's emphasis to meet the challenge or not. Example:

• Economic slowdown
• Emerging competitors
• Adverse government policy 
• Changing needs of customer 

SWOT analysis is a simple and useful tool to analyze your organization's strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. When you carry out your analysis, be honesty and realistic. Apply it in the right way to avoid gaining wrong information from it. Although SWOT analysis is simple and useful but it also have its limits. The analysis may not include all relevant factors for all four element and it only captures factors at a particular time. Therefore, this analysis technique has its pros and cons. So we have to ensure that we use it in a right way.

Pengenalan kepada gaya kepimpinan

Setiap syarikat atau firma memerlukan pekerja yang mencukupi untuk memastikan operasi perniagaan dapat djalankan dengan lancar. Jadi, dalam satu syarikat atau firma mungkin mempunyai beberapa jabatan seperti pengeluaran, pemasaran, kewangan, sumber manusia dan sebagainya. Setiap jabatan akan mengandungi bilangan pekerja yang banyak dan ini bergantung kepada saiz firma. Dalam setiap jabatan mesti menpunyai pengurus dan pemimpin serta mereka memain peranan yang berbeza. Pengurus merujuk kepada seseorang yang diiktiraf oleh orang lain dan boleh menggunakan kuasa formal untuk merancang, melaksana dan mengawal semua aktiviti untuk mencapaikan matlamat organisasi manakala pemimpin merujuk kepada seseorang yang menggunakan kuasa formal dan kuasa tidak formal dalam mempengaruhi pekerjanya bagi mencapaikan matlamat yang ditetapkan. Pemimpin berperanan sebagai mentor, pendorong, penyelesai masalah, perunding dan sebagainya. Setiap pemimpin dan pengurus akan menggunakan jenis kepimpinan dan gaya kepimpinan yang berbeza dalam organisasinya dan ini bergantung kepada keperluan organisasi dan ciri-ciri mereka. Hari ini saya ingin berkongsi dengan anda tentang empat gaya kepimpinan yang biasa digunakan oleh pemimpin dan pengurus dalam organisasinya.

• Autokratik

Gaya kepimpinan autokratik merujuk kepada semua keputusan adalah dibuat oleh pengurus sahaja tanpa perlu bertanya atau berbincang dengan pekerja. Gaya kepimpinan ini tidak melibatkan pekerja bawahan secara langsung dalam proses membuat keputusan kerana cadangan mereka tidak akan diambil kira. Pekerja hanya menunggu arahan daripada pemimpin sahaja. Pengurus menggunakan kuasa yang ada padanya seperti kuasa sah, kuasa desakan, autoriti untuk mengarah pekerja melaksanakan keputusan yang telah dibuat oleh beliau. Gaya kepimpinan ini sesuai digunakan untuk pekerja bawahan seperti pekerja kontrak, buruh binaan, pekerja pengeluaran dan sebagainya kerana mereka hanya menjalankan keputusan yang dimaklumkan. Gaya ini sesuai bagi organisasi yang menghadapi masalah yang serius, mempunyai pekerja yang baharu, tidak bermotivasi, kurang kemahiran dan tiada pengalaman ataupun mempunyai ramai pekerja bawahan.

• Demokratik

Gaya ini merujuk kepada pengurus memberi kebebasan kepada pekerja bawahan untuk memberikan idea dan berbincang dalam proses membuat keputusan tetapi keputusan akhir masih terletak dalam tangan pengurus. Penglibatan pekerja dalam proses membuat keputusan bergantung kepada masalah yang dihadapi oleh organisasi sama ada serius atau tidak. Kejayaan atau kegagalan sesebuah organisasi bergantung kepada prestasi pengurus dan pekerja dalam membuat keputusan. Jadi, pekerja adalah digalakkan untuk menyumbangkan idea dan pandangannya. Selain itu, pekerja akan berasa mereka dihargai oleh organisasi kerana digalakkan menyumbang idea dalam proses membuat keputusan dan mereka akan lebih komited dengan tugas yang diberi. Sebagai kesannya, pekerja akan bersungguh-sungguh meningkatkan produktiviti bagi mencapaikan matlamat syarikat. Gaya ini sesuai digunakan kepada penyelia jualan, penyelia kilang, pengurus pengeluaran dan sebagainya.

• Laissez-faire

Laissez-faire merujuk kepada kuasa membuat keputusan dan mengambil tindakan diserahkan sepenuhnya kepada pekerja bawahan yang bebas menggunakan kemahiran dan kepakaran yang ada padanya. Pekerja perlu membuat pertimbangan sendiri dalam membuat keputusan bagi menyelesaikan sesuatu masalah begi mencapaikan matlamat syarikat. Keputusan yang dibuat adalah berdasarkan lingkungan had tertentu yang dibenarkan oleh pengurus. Berbanding dengan demokratik, Laissez-faire lebih mampu membangkitkan dan memotivasikan  pekerja bawahan sebab mereka diberikan kuasa untuk membuat keputusan dalam meneyelesaikan tugas. Untuk menunjukkkan prestasi yang baik maka pekerja akan menyelesaikan tugas yang diberi dengan bersungguh-sungguh supaya dia boleh diserahkan lebih banyak tugas daripada ketuanya. Gaya ini adalah berkesan sekiranya pekerja menpunyai kemahiran, motivasi dan kebolehan yang tinggi untuk bekerja sendiri. Contohnya, doktor, peguam, akauntan, pensyarah dan lain-lain pekerjaan profesional.

• Kontingensi

Gaya kepimpinan ini merujuk kepada penggunaan gaya kepimpinan oleh pengurus adalah fleksibel. Dalam erti kata lain, gaya yang digunakan adalah bergantung kepada keadaan dan situasi dengan melihat kepada elemen-elemen persekitaran dalaman dan luaran organisasi. Sebelum memilih gaya kepimpinan yang sesuai, pengurus perlu memahami situasi sebenar yang berlaku dalam organisasi seperti situasi jenis pekerja dan persekitaran kerja. Sebagai contohnya, pengurus boleh menggunakan kepimpinan autokratik apabila dia menghadapi krisis yang perlu diperbetulkan dengan segera dan pada masa yang sama pengurus juga menggunakan gaya kepimpinan demokratik apabila dia memerlukan cadangan yang bernas daripada pekerja bagi menambah baik operasi perniagaan. Cadangan daripada pekerja amat diperlukan dalam meningkatkan operasi perniagaan sebab mereka adalah orang yang menjalankan keputusan dan mereka memahami situasi sebenar serta masalah yang dihadapi.

Setiap jabatan memerlukan pengurus dan pemimpin bagi memastikan pekerja menjalankan tugas yang diberi dengan bersungguh-sungguh bagi mencapaikan matlamat organisasi. Gaya kepimpinan yang sesuai amat penting dalam menentukan kejayaan sesebuah organisasi sebab gaya kepimpinan yang digunakan oleh pengurus akan mempengaruhi prestasi pekerja. Jadi, pengurus perlu memilih gaya kepimpinan yang sesuai mengikut keperluan organisasi atau persekitaran kerja supaya dapat memotivasikan pekerja dalam menjalankan tugas. Ini adalah empat gaya kepimpinan yang saya ingin berkongsi dengan anda semua. Harap blog ini dapat membantu anda!

Pengenalan kepada jenis inflasi

Adakah anda perasan tak bahawa harga barang semakin naik dan kos sara hidup kita semakin bertambah? Sebagai contohnya, pada tahun 1980 sekeping roti canai dijual pada harga RM0.40 manakala harga sekeping roti canai pada masa kini adalah RM1.20. Situasi ini merupakan satu fenomena yang biasa dalam kehidupan kita dan situasi ini boleh dikenali sebagai inflasi. Saya percaya bahawa kamu semua mengetahui apa itu inflasi sebab isu inflasi ini sering dilaporkan di media massa dan kita tidak didorong untuk menabungkan semua duit dalam bank, sebaliknya mengambil sebahagian daripadanya untuk melabur dalam produk yang boleh memberi keuntungan yang lebih tinggi seperti saham, barang emas dan sebagainya. Kebanyakan orang membeli saham, bon, barang emas untuk mengelakkan penurunan nilai wang kerana meraka mengetahui keburukan inflasi tetapi kebanyakan kita tidak tahun apakah sebab berlaku inflasi dan jenis inflasi. Sememangnya, inflasi mempunyai tiga jenis iaitu inflasi tarikan permintaan, inflasi diimport dan inflasi tarikan kos. Mari kita lihat setiap satu jenis inflasi. 

• Inflasi tarikan permintaan

Inflasi tarikan permintaan merupakan inflasi yang berlaku akibat pertambahan permintaan agregat(AD) apabila ekonomi telah mencapai guna tenaga penuh. Pertambahan permintaan agregat pada tingkat guna tenaga penuh akan menyebabkan berlaku lebihan permintaan dan kekurangan penawaran agregat. Kekurangan stok akan mendorong harga umum meningkat. Faktor yang menyebabkannya ialah pertambahan perbelanjaan agregat(AE). Pertambahan perbelanjaan agregat pada tingkat guna tenaga penuh akan mewujudkan lebihan permintaan akibat pengeluaran tidak dapat ditambahkan lagi. Jadi, kekurangan penawaran ini akan menyebabkan tingkat harga umum naik. Selain itu, pertambahan bekalan wang juga merupakan salah satu faktor yang menyebabkan inflasi tarikan permintaan berlaku. Hal ini kerana pertambahan bekalan wang dalam pasaran wang akan menyebabkan kadar bunga jatuh akibat penawaran wang melebihi permintaan wang. Apabila kadar bunga turun maka kos pinjam juga berkurang dan ini telah menggalakkan orang ramai meminjam. Sebagai kesannya, aktiviti pelaburan dapat dirangsangkan dan AE bertambah kerana pelaburan merupakan salah satu komponen yang diambil kira dalam AE. Sama seperti atas yang telah terangkan bahawa pertambahan AE akan menambahkan AD dan pertambahan AD ini tidak dapat ditampung oleh pengeluar serta wujud lebihan permintaan. Akhirnya, harga barang naik dan berlaku inflasi tarikan permintaan. Faktor ketiga adalah penurunan cukai pendapatan. Pendapatan boleh guna merupakan pendapatan yang boleh kita gunakan selepas menolak cukai. Penurunan cukai pendapatan akan menambahkan pendapatan boleh guna rakyat dan kuasa beli juga meningkat. Peningkatan kuasa beli pengguna akan menambahkan perbelanjaan penggunaa dan perbelanjaan penggunaan ini juga merupakan komponen yang diambil kira dalam AE. Kesannya, AE akan bertambah dan wujud lebihan permintaan. Selepas itu, harga barang naik dan inflasi tarikkan permintaan berlaku. Sesungguhnya, inflasi ini berlaku akibat pertambahan AD dan AD ini dipengaruhi oleh AE. Maksudnya, bila AE naik maka AD akan naik juga dan sebaliknya. Dalam erti kata yang lain, perubahan komponen AE seperti perbelanjaan penggunaa(C), pelaburan(I) dan perbelanjaan kerajaan(G) juga akan mempengaruhi AD.

• Inflasi diimport

Inflasi diimport merupakan inflasi yang berlaku akibat peningkatan kos atau harga barang input atau bahan mentah yang diimport dari luar negara. Faktor pertama yang menyebabkan inflasi diimport adalah kenaikan harga barang import. Terdapat sebahagian firma yang menggunakan bahan mentah yang diimport dari luar negara dalam proses penghasilan produknya. Antara sebab firma menggunakan bahan mentah yang diimport ialah kekurangan bahan mentah yang diperlukan dalam negara tempatan, harga barang imput yang murah, kualiti barang input terjamin dan sebagainya. Apabila pembekal luar negara menaikkan harga bahan mentahnya, firma tempatan terpaksa menanggung kos yang lebih tinggi berbanding dengan sebelumnya dan kos penghasilan produk akan meningkat. Dengan tujuan untuk mengekalkan keuntungan, firma akan mengalihkan sebahagian beban kos dengan menaikkan harga keluaran. Sebagai kesannya, harga barang akan meningkat dan berlakunya inflasi diimport. Selain itu, kejatuhan nilai mata wang tempatan juga akan menyebabkan inflasi diimport. Kejatuhan nilai mata wang tempatan telah menyebabkan kuasa beli firma tempatan menurun kerana terpaksa membeli barang input dengan harga yang lebih banyak. Impaknya, kos firma bertambah dan penawaran berkurang serta kenaikan harga keluaran firma. Inflasi diimport ini lebih kepada luar negara sebab kos pengeluaran firma dipengaruhi oleh pembekalnya bukan faktor tempatan. Jadi, bagi firma tempatan yang menggunakan bahan mentah yang diimport perlu peka terhadap situasi luar negara seperti ekonomi, politik, dasar dan sebagainya.

• Inflasi tarikan kos

Inflasi tarikan kos merupakan inflasi yang berlaku akibat kenaikan kos firma seperti kenaikan upah buruh atau harga bahan mentah yang menyebabkan penawaran berkurangan dan harga umum meningkat. Faktor utama yang menyebabkan inflasi tarikan kos adalah peningkatan kos firma. Kenaikan kos seperti upah buruh, bahan mentah, sewa premis, utiliti yang terlibat dalam proses penghasilan produk akan menambahkan kos penghasilan produk. Untuk mengekalkan keuntungan, firma akan menaikkan harga jualan produk bagi mengurangkan beban kosnya. Kesannya, harga barang naik dan berlaku inflasi tarikan kos. Di samping itu, tuntutan daripada kesatuan sekerja untuk menaikkan upah buruh atau elaun juga akan meningkatkan kos firma. Firma terpaksa bersetuju dengan tuntutan kesatuan sekerja sebab firma tidak dapat mencari buruh yang mencukupi dalam masa yang singkat. Walaupun firma dapat cari buruh yang mencukupi tapi dia perlukan masa untuk melatih pekerja baru berbanding dengan pekerja yang telah mahir dalam proses penghasilannya. Selain itu, dasar kerajaan yang berkaitan dengan kenaikan cukai dan pengurangan subsidi juga boleh mempengaruhi kos firma. Sekiranya kerajaan menaikkan cukai dan mengurangkan pemberian subsidi kepada firma maka firma perlu membayar cukai yang lebih tinggi dan juga perlu menanggung kos penghasilan produk yang lebih banyak. Sebagai implikasinya, penawaran agregat akan berkurang dan wujud lebihan permintaan. Akhirnya, harga barang naik juga dan berlaku inflasi tarikan kos.

Ini adalah tiga jenis inflasi yang sering berlaku dalam kehidupan kita. Selepas membaca blog ini, saya percaya bahawa anda akan memahami inflasi dengan lebih terperinci. Inflasi merupakan satu situasi yang tidak boleh diubah dan dielakkan oleh kita maka kita hanya boleh mencari jalan bagi memastikan nilai wang kita tidak turun dengan banyak. Antara caranya mungkin membeli saham, bon, barang emas, ASNB dan sebagainya. Kita digalakkan melabur dalam produk yang mempunyai pulangan yang lebih tinggi daripada penurunan nilai wang akibat inflasi. Walaupun produk pelaburan mempunyai pulangan yang lebih tinggi tapi ia juga mempunyai risikonya. Jadi, sebelum kita melabur dalam sesuatu produk perlu pastikan kita memang faham tentang produk itu bagi mengelakkan kerugian. 

4 Common stock indicator

 In this era of rapid development, the increasing number of demand have prompted all the goods and services are getting more and more expensive. In order to cover the increasing life expenses, we have to work hard and find others way to increase our income. There are many ways to increase your income such as: take up a part time job, run a business and invest. Investing means allocate your resources(money) into certain asset with the expectation of generating an additional income or profit. For example: you can choose to invest in stocks, real estate, a business or commodity. There are many preparations you have to do before you invest your hard-earned money into the assets just to avoid losses. The preparations may be fundamentals analysis, technical analysis, strategy, risk management and so on. So today I wanna share about four stocks indicator that usually be used by investor in choosing their stocks.

4 common stocks indicator :

• Earning per share ( EPS)
  

The formula for earning per share is net income minus preferred dividends and divide by number of common share and the answer will be value form. EPS will show the profitability of a company which means how much money a company make for each share of its stock. So that's mean if the company has a high EPS then it is profitable instead a low EPS then it is less profitable. So, to make it clear, below is an example:

So, to calculate the EPS we have to use the format above $1000000 - $250000 = $750000 (net income minus preferred dividends) and use $750000 divide by 11000000 (total shares outstanding) equals to $0.068 and we have to round it off so the value gonna be $0.07 and this mean company has made $0.07 net profit for each of the shareholder.

• Return on equity (ROE)

Return on equity is computed by using the net income divide by shareholder's equity and the answer will be in percentage form. ROE is used to measure the efficiency of a company in using their assets to generate income or profits. So a high percentage of  ROE show that the company is efficient in using their assets to create income instead a low ROE show less efficient. Here is an example for ROE: 

So the picture above show the net income and the shareholder's equity of two company. For company A, use $5000 divide $20000 equals to 0.25 and times 100 it will be 25%. For company B, use $5000 divide $12000 equals to 0.4167 and times 100 it will be 41.67%. After we have calculated ROE for both company and we know that company B is more efficient in using assets to create profits compared to company A because company B has the higher ROE (41.67%) compared to company A (25%).

• Price to earing ratio (P/E ratio) 

The formula for price to earning ratio is current price per share/market price per share divide by earning per share and the answer will be ratio base. P/E ratio will show the relationship between a company's share price with it's earning per share and P/E ratio also give us a better understanding of the value of a company. Moreover, P/E ratio also indicate the expectation of the market and it is the price you pay for one unit of the current earning. If a company have a high P/E ratio and this may means company's stock is over-valued or the investors are expecting high growth rates from the company in the future. Example:

Here are some information about company IBM and Cognizant. For company IBM, use $139.46 divide $9.52 and we will get 14.65. For company Cognizant, use $72.23 divide $3.6 and it will be 20.07. From here we know that IBM has the lower P/E ratio than the Cognizant which means in order to get $1 profit from IBM, investors are willing to pay $14.65. For Cognizant, investors are willing to pay $20.07 to get $1 profit. Yes, exactly IBM share price ($139.46) is higher than Cognizant share price ($72.25) but IBM has a higher EPS ($9.52) whereas Cognizant has a lower EPS ($3.60). A share price won't give us meaningful information instead we have to use share price divide earning per share to get the P/E ratio. Thus, Cognizant's stock is more expensive to buy compared to IBM's stock even though IBM share price is higher than Cognizant share price.

• Dividend per share (DPS)

We as an investor and we would like to know how much dividend will we get from the total dividend, so we can use DPS to calculated it. DPS is computed by using the total dividends issued by company divide with total number of share and it will be value base. For instance, here are two company: company A and company B. The total dividend issued by company A is $20000 and $30000 for company B. The total number of shares for company A is 5500 and 10000 for company B. Therefore we will know the DPS for company A is $3.64/share and DPS for company B is $3/share. So we know that company A has the higher DPS than company B but doesn't mean company A is better than B, it just mean company A is more suitable cashflow investor. Apart from the cashflow, we also can get profit via stock growth which means the value of stock keep increasing. Hence, DPS is usually used by investor who want to increase their cashflow. 

So, these are the four common stock indicator that I wanna share to you. After you guys have known these indicators and I think you all will wonder where should I find these all information? Actually, we can find these all information from website, newspaper and certain application. Furthermore, we don't have to calculate these all indicators cause it have been calculated by the system and what we need to do is just refer to the indicators only. Apart from these four indicators there are still many useful information we can get from some application. So it is better to download certain application like KLSE screener, investing.com to explore more. All the best in investing !!!

The wisdom of wolves

 

Halo guys, today I am going to share some point that I have learn from a book with you all. And I hope it may be useful for you in your real life. First of all, let me make a simple introduction of this book then only we proceed to the content part. The picture above show the book was in chinese edition but actually this book was wrote by an American who call Jim Dutcher. Jim Dutcher was a American naturalist, cinematographer, director and author and he has written 8 books such as : A Friend for Lakota, Running with Wolves, The Hidden Life of Wolves and so on. The book that I wanna share today is call The Wisdom of Wolves as you can see it's chinese name (狼道) , the content of the book is about how we can implement the attitude, spirit, strategy of wolves in order to archive our goals. 

The Spirit of Wolves:

• Face difficulties with positive attitude

Basically, there are some small and weak wolves inside the group. Sometimes, they may have not enough food or their foods be grabbed by others due to the weaker strength they have. Although theirs foods be grabbed, but they didn't give up whereas they face it with positive attitude and start training everyday. With each passing day, they become more and more stronger until no one can grab their foods. So we are encouraged to learn from the wolves when we face difficulties in our real life. Exactly, we can't change any problem we face, but we can choose which attitude to use when we face the problem whether positive or negative. Positive attitude such as: optimism, resilience, consciousness, acceptance will energize our body and mind to solve the difficulties.

•  Be initiative

We as an employee in an organization can't be too passive. Passive meaning that we just done the job or duty that given by our employer. Instead, we have to be proactive in doing our job and after we done our job we can ask for more duty from our director. Do you think sheep will automatically go in front of wolves and be caught by it? For sure the answer is no, right? And this is the reason why wolves are initiative in finding their foods because they know sheep won't come automatically moreover lion and leopard will come and grab with them. In workplace, there are some people always get promotion but the others they don't. Maybe we would wonder why and we want to know what are the differences between them. The answer is the difference between being initiative or being passive.

• Keep fighting

Please don't misunderstanding, the fighting that I mention in here is not the action of  violence. It is a kind of spirit and also a form of life philosophy. In workplace, fighting spirit also can turn into a motivation to inspire us to perform well and achieve our targets. Because of the battle, we have to always improve ourselves regardless of whenever and wherever you are. We can improve ourselves by many ways such as: attending a course, read a book, find mentor and so on. Life is becoming more and more wonderful when we keep upgrade ourselves and overcome every obstacles. Time is precious, we do not have much time to waste instead we should spend our time in doing something meaningful, change all the unnecessary habits and adopt all the positive habits in order to make ourselves better. Thus, we should have the fighting spirit of wolves, use every time we have to strengthen ourselves.

•  Being mentally strong 

Being mentally strong is a kind of perseverance when you face with difficulties which means when you face failure, you won't give up or disappointed unless you have achieved your goal. In reality, we tend to be mentally weak and always hope someone could help us but one thing we should know there is no one will always help us, the only person who can help us is our own. So we have to be mentally strong like persistent, always believe in what you do will make you success no matter how others judge you. Second is solve the problem by your own instead of complain. Someone with strong mentality will always find the solution to solve the problem because they know complain won't help. Third is learn form someone who is better than them, they always find the opportunity to learn from those who are successful cause they wanna upgrade themselves. On the contrary, if we learn from those who are worse than us will slow down our progress.

• Underestimate the difficulties and obstacles

Difficulties and obstacles are unavoidable in our life and it is in everywhere, we are force to realize it and try to solve it. The seriousness of a problem is not depend on the problem itself instead it is depend on how we regard it. It could be extremely serious and also it could be extremely trivial. Difficulties itself won't affect the consequence, the consequence is affected by our reaction. Sometime, we have to learn from wolves, calm to accept the difficulties and try to find the solution. Every difficulties we face it also accompany with the opportunities and we are encourage to figure out the opportunities. So we have to think positively when we face the problem and try not to view the problem from one angle instead from various angle in order to figure out the opportunity. Hence, always underestimate the problem and believe in ourselves that we can overcome it all.

 After I have read this book and I feel likes this book really inspire me and I am excited to apply these knowledge in my life. Actually, there are many chapters inside this book but I just wanna share some of it because there are too long to write in this blog but if you are interested I could try to write another blog for it. That's all I wanna share with you guys todays and I do hope these knowledge is useful for you guys. Thank you!

Pengenalan kepada kitaran hayat produk

 Adakah anda pernah berasa bahawa sesuatu produk yang anda suka telah menjadi sesuatu produk yang tidak dapat dicari dalam pasaran? Memang tidak dapat dinafikan bahawa situasi ini sering berlaku dalam kehidupan kita. Sebagai contohnya, telefon bimbit Iphone 6 yang diperkenalkan pada tahun 2015 telah menjadi produk yang tidak dapat dicarikan dalam pasaran telefon bimbit. Contoh yang lain, kasut berjenama vans old school yang pernah saya suka sekarang telah tidak dapat dicari di mana-mana kedai kasut. Situasi ini berlaku akibat setiap perniagaan sering memperkenalkan produk baharunya dalam masa yang singkat dan perbuatan ini telah menyebabkan cita rasa pengguna berubah dengan cepat. Situasi ini boleh dikenali sebagai kitaran hayat produk. Kitaran hayat produk merujuk kepada peringkat-peringkat yang perlu dilalui oleh setiap produk baharu seperti peringkat pengenalan, peringkat pertumbuhan, peringkat kematangan dan peringkat kemerosotan.

Rajah di atas menunjukan kitaran hayat sesuatu produk. Paksi X menunjukkan masa manakala paksi Y menunjukkan kuantiti jualan dan keuntungan. Garis merah mewakili jualan perniagaan manakala garis hijau mewakili keuntungan perniagaan. 

Dalam Peringkat Pengenalan, selepas syarikat menghasilkan sesautu produk baharu mereka akan memperkenalkan produk tersebut kepada pengguna dan mula mengagihkan produk baharunya dalam pasaran. Jualan produk adalah sedikit sahaja kerana pengguna masih tidak mengetahui kewujudan produk ini ataupun sebahagian pengguna telah mengetahui kewujudannya tetapi tidak mengenali produk tersebut secara mendalam. Kadar pertumbuhan jualan yang perlahan dapat ditunjukkan melalui garis merah dalam gambar rajah. Disebabkan produk baru diperkenalkan dalam pasaran maka syer pasaran bagi produk tersebut juga adalah sedikit sahaja. Syarikat akan memperoleh keuntungan yang rendah ataupun mengalami kerugian pada peringkat tersebut dan situasi ini boleh ditunjukkan melalui garis hijau. Hal ini disebabkan oleh jualan produk yang sedikit dan perbelanjaan promosi serta pengagihan yang tinggi. Persaingan adalah rendah kerana permintaan yang rendah. Disebabkan permintaan produk yang rendah, syarikat tidak dapat menghasilkan produk secara besar-besaran maka ekonomi bidangan dalaman tidak dapat dicapai dan kos seunit produk adalah tinggi. Jadi, promosi yang efektif perlu dijalankan secara besar-besaran bagi memperkenalkan produk kepada pengguna dan meningkatkan permintaan produk.

Dalam Peringkat Pertumbuhan pula, jualan produk meningkat dengan cepat kerana produk telah mula diterima umum dan dibeli oleh ramai pengguna. Kadar pertumbuhan jualan yang cepat dapat ditunjukkan melalui garis merah dalam rajah. Syer pasaran juga meningkat kerana pertambahan permintaan produk. Syarikat menikmati keuntungan yang semakin banyak akibat pertambahan jualan yang pesat dan ini ditunjukkan melalui garis hijau. Permintaan produk yang banyak telah membolehkan syarikat menghasilkan produk secara besar-besaran dan ekonomi bidangan dalaman dicapai serta kos seunit produk juga menurun. Walaupun syarikat menikmati keuntungan yang banyak tetapi syarikat juga menghadapi cabaran yang baharu iaitu semakin banyak pesaing mamasuki pasaran akibat peluang keuntungan yang baik. Pesaing juga mula memperkenalkan produk yang sama tetapi dengan jenama yang berbeza dan tambahan ciri yang baharu. Jadi, untuk mengekalkan keuntungan yang banyak maka syarikat perlu melakukan pembaharuan dan pengubahsuaian terhadap produk bagi meningkatkan daya saing produk dalam persaingan yang sengit. Selain itu, syarikat juga perlu menambahkan promosi bagi meningkatkan jualan dan mengekalkan syer pasaran produk yang sedia ada.

Pada Peringkat Kematangan, produk syarikat semakin dikenali ramai. Kadar pertumbuhan jualan produk meningkat dengan perlahan dan kemudian mula menurun. Hal ini kerana semakin banyak pesaing memasuki pasaran dengan menghasilkan pelbagai produk pengganti. Syer pasaran mencapai tahap maksimum. Jadi, syarikat akan mengurangkan harga jualan produk dan menambahkan aktiviti pengiklanan serta promosi jualan. Walaupun syarikat menambahkan aktiviti promosi tetapi pertambahan ini tidak begitu banyak berbanding dengan aktiviti promosi yang diadakan pada peringkat pertumbuhan dan pertambahan aktiviti promosi pada peringkat ini adalah untuk mengekalkan kesetiaan pelanggan. Sebagai kesannya, keuntungan syarikat akan mula menurun di sepanjang peringkat ini. Syarikat lain yang tidak dapat bersaing dalam pasaran ini akan meninggal. Kos seunit produk berada pada tahap minimum. Untuk mempertahankan produk syarikat, mereka perlu menambahbaikkan dan mengubahsuaikan produk dan strategi pemasaran.

Pada Peringkat Kemerosotan, jualan produk syarikat merosot sepanjang tempoh masa akibat beberapa faktor tertentu. Antaranya adalah peningkatan persaingan dalam pasaran, kewujudan banyak produk baharu atau produk pengganti dalam pasaran dan perubahan cita rasa pengguna. Kadar pertumbuhan jualan yang menurun dapat ditunjukkan melalui garis merah dalam rajah. Disebabkan permintaan produk yang menurun maka sayrikat akan mengurangkan penghasilan produk dan ekonomi bidangan tidak dicapai serta kos seunit produk meningkat semula. Keuntungan syarikat juga menjadi negatif atau rugi kerana penurunan jualan produk dan terpaksa menghadapi persaingan yang sengit dalam pasaran. Syer pasaran menjadi sifar atau sedikit. Sebagai kesannya, syarikat terpaksa mengurangkan harga jualan produk dengan cara memberi potongan harga ataupun diskaun harga bagi menghabiskan stok. Kebanyakan syarikat meninggalkan pasaran kerana penurunan peluang keuntungan . Syarikat yang masih bertahan dalam pasaran ini akan mengurangkan kuantiti produk yang ditawarkan dan menjalankan promosi untuk menghabiskan stok. Akhirnya, syarikat akan meninggalkan pasaran yang lemah.

Jadi, ini adalah empat peringkat yang perlu dilalui oleh setiap produk baharu. Dengan gambar rajah ini, kita boleh mengetahui bahawa mengapa sesuatu produk tidak wujud lagi  dalam pasaran. Hal ini kerana setiap syarikat ingin memaksimumkan keuntungan mereka dan mereka akan pilih produk yang mempunyai peluang keuntungan yang banyak. Sebaliknya, produk yang tidak menguntungkan akan diputuskan. Jadi, setiap produk mempunyai tempoh hayatnya dan ini juga bergantung kepada cita rasa pengguna kerana syarikat menghasilkan produk baharu untuk memenuhi permintaan pengguna. 

 

3 major financial statements

Does the word 'Stock' sounds familiar to you? I am pretty sure that you guys hear this word before maybe from your friends, family, social media, mass media and so on. But anyway, let me give you a simple explain about what is stock. Stock is a form of security that indicates the holder has proportionate ownership in the issuing corporation and it is also a type of investment that represent the ownership share in company. Always hear your friends talking about how much profits they have earned form stock and you want to give it a try? Want to increase your income by investing in stock but don't know which stock should you buy? Already have a trading account but don't know how to analyze which stock have the better prospect to grow? So, today I wanna share a simple tip on how to analyze a stock by using financial statements.

3 type of financial statements :

• Income Statement

Picture above is one of the example of income statement. Actually, income statement also known as Profit and Loss statement and it has many kind of format so you may see different type of income statement because different kind of company require different format. But all the income statement show the same thing regardless of what format they use. Income statement will show the company's financial performance in term of net profit or loss over a specified period. There are two main elements inside the statement are revenue and expenses. Operating revenue is the revenue that company gains from primary activities which means the revenue achieved from the sales of product. Cost of goods sold (COGS) is the cost of producing the goods sold by company and it contain the cost of the materials and labor directly used to create the goods. We will get the gross profits after sales minus COGS and it will show how much profits a company make after deducting the entire cost of making and selling its products. Non-operating revenue is the revenue realized via secondary or non-core business activities such as: interest, rental and so on. Similarly, non-operating expenses is the expenses realized through non-core business activities like interest loan, depreciation, utilities. We will get net profit after we use gross profit plus non-operating revenue and minus non-operating expenses. Net profit is the actual profits left over after paying all working expenses. The most important thing we have to consider is the net profit of a company because it show whether the business is profitable or not. Apart from that, we also have to compare the net profit of company year by year or compare with others company to make sure our decision is correct. We also can calculate the average growth rate of profit in order to gain better understanding of company earning potential.

• Balance Sheet

 

Balance sheet is a financial statement that display a company's assets, liabilities and shareholders' equity at a specific period and it also provide information on what the company is worth from a book value perspective. The balance sheet contain three main components that are assets, liabilities and shareholders equity and all accounts will be categorized into these three component in order to show the company's financial position. The balance sheet is based on the fundamental equation: (Assets = Liabilities + Shareholders' equity). Meaning to say that, the total amount of assets must be the same with the total amount of liabilities plus shareholders' equity. This is because a company has to pay for all the things it owns by either borrowing money(liabilities) or take the money from the investors(shareholders' equity). For instance, a company take outs a five years, $5000 loan from bank, its assets(cash account) will increase $5000. Its liabilities(long term debt account) will also increase $5000, the two side must be the same amount. Assets can be divided into two types that are current assets and fixed assets. Current assets are assets that expected to be used and converted into cash within one year. Current assets are more liquidity than fixed assets cause it can be converted into cash to pay ongoing operation expenses. Example of current assets are: inventory, cash, account receivable and more. Fixed assets are long term tangible assets that a company own and uses in daily operation to generate income, it could be property, plant and equipment. Example of fixed assets are land, buildings, machine. Similarly, there are also two kind of liability. Short term liabilities(current liabilities) refer to financial obligation that have to be paid within one year such as account payable, accrued expenses. Long term liabilities(noncurrent liabilities) refer to financial obligation that won't be paid in the current year or it is a debt that is not due in within a year. Example of  long term liabilities are loans, bonds payable, pension liabilities. Shareholders equity is the amount of money that invested in a business. So, from the balance sheet we can know that whether company have enough cash to pay off the short term debts or not. And also we can know liquidity ratio, solvency ratio, market value ratio by using certain formula.

• Cash flow statement

 Cash flow statement is the financial statement that show the amount of money entering and leaving a company and it also used to measure how well a company manages its cash position. There are three main activities inside the statement: operating activities, investing activities and financing activities. Only activities that involve cash will be categorized in this statement. This statement is a bit different from income statement in recording revenue and expenses item because cash flow statement record revenue and expenses only when company receive or pay the cash whereas income statement record revenue and expenses when the service given or received regardless of company receive or pay the cash or not. For example, ABC company sold the goods to DEF company but DEF company hasn't pay to ABC company yet. So in this case, ABC company will record its revenue in income statement because the service or the obligation have done but it won't record in cash flow statement because ABC company hasn't receive cash yet. Operating activities means the amount of cash generated by the regular operating activities of a business within a specific period. For example: taxes, interest payment, sales receipts. After that, we will get the net cash flow from operating activities and it could be positive or negative value. If the value is positive which mean the business gain income(cash) after deducting all the regular activities expenses(cash). So we as an investor have to make sure that business always have positive net cash flow from operating activities to show that company is profitable in their regular operating  activities. Financing activities will show the movement of cash between a company and its owners, investors and creditor and it also show the net flow of fund used to run the company. Example of financing activities: issuing bonds, repayment of loan, sale of treasury stock and redemption of bonds. A positive number from financing activities mean more money is flowing into company than flowing out. Investing activities show the cash generated or spent to investment activities such as: purchase of fixed assets, purchase of investment stock/ securities and lending money. After we got all the net cash flow from operating, financing and investing activities then just use some simple math plus minus and we will get net cash flow of the company. For me, I think the most important thing we have to consider in cash flow statement is the net cash flow from operating activities cause it show the regular operating activities profitable or not. Apart from that, there are also many others useful information we can get inside cash flow statement.

These are the three major financial statement that usually used by investor when they wanna invest. Except these three financial statement, there are still many ways we can use when we wanna find a good stock. Maybe financial ratio, valuation, technical analysis and many more. Today I just give a simple introduction about the financial statement but if you wanna further your study in investing you can go for some short course or find a mentor. Invest in our brain first then only we invest in stock because education is indispensable in investing. Do let me remind you investing has its own risk as well, you can't always get profits from it, so please learn first before you invest.