Been not feeling well....

I think I'll blog every alternate days. Then again...maybe not. See how it goes.

Haven't been going online for the past 2 days coz haven't been feeling too well. Been vomitting and been having terrible giddiness and backache since wednesday evening. Mum says maybe its food poisoning or maybe coz my time of the month is coming soon. I think it's the time of month coming soon...top up with stress. Since the start of this year these are the symptoms I have just before my time of the month comes. Felt so terrible last few days. But still have to work. No choice. Last few days everyone say I look pale. I am ok today.

Yeah....I can go for cg later . I thought I won't be able to go to both cg and svc after my parents found out that I've been giving to building fund. But it seems not. They just disallow me to "donate" to church. I was intending to stretch it for another month but looks like I won't be able to fulfil my pledge for this building fund. :(

Parents found out about building fund

I am feeling so tired and having a terrible headache. Stressed up. Stressed about the shop. Also my parents found out about me giving to church's building fund and are very angry about it. They say I don't know what is hard earned money. Of course I know what it is. They are also holding onto the worldly thoughts about giving to church such as "churches are all the same, all cheating people of their money", "City Havest already so rich...how can they squeeze money out of young people like this" and so on.

They also found out about the previous building fund just when it was coming to an end. I was hesistant to give to this building fund initially coz I knew they will object, but on the other hand I was challenged to do so. So decided to go ahead with it despite it. But just when this building fund is about to come to an end, they found out about it. I told them I gave willingly. But they say I am being brainwashed in church. No....I am not! I know what I am doing.

Can't I do things on my own free will and make my own decisions. I am already almost 26, still before I make a decision I would have to go through them first. Why are they so controlling? Don't they know psychologically speaking, this is not good for the person concerned.

San Street 1st Anniversary

Yesterday went to expo for service. Pst Kim SungHae (the wife of Pst Yonggi Cho) from Yoido Full Gospel Church in Korea (the world's largest protestant church) came to minister to us in expo services. I pray that CHC will have the same anointing as Yoida Full Gospel Church and our church will grow from 23,000 members to 30,000 members then to 50,000 members......... Amen!

Went back to suntec after service and lunch with cgm. Sales yesterday in suntec was quite good. Haven't had such sales for a long time. At times there were a sudden surge of people coming into the shop and at other times it's very quiet. Though business was good, I did a stupid mistake. One of my previous staff made that same mistake before and was made to pay back. I was aware that I shouldn't make such a stupid mistake but think coz there were too many people I kan chiong abit and I made that mistake I know I shouldn't be making. The mistake is of a bigger amount as compared to the amount of the mistake my previous staff made. I've to come out with that amount from my own pocket. $100++ leh...."Xin Dong Ah"!!! What an expensive lesson. Next time must be careful so as not to make the same mistake.

Today's the 1st anniversary of San Street. It's been one year already. How time flies. How long more is it going to take us to start making profits? Got to continue perserve.

Got a unit in Far East

I wonder if anyone's reading my blog. But I'll blog anyways. Get it out of my system.

Yesterday's cgm was good. There wasn't any Word, just a time of worship and prayer. Never realised that I am actually that stressed. So many things to managed. Doing business is very challenging. Very stressful and tiring.

We've place an offer to buy a unit in Far East. Yet to get a response. Hopefully they will accept our offer. If they do accept our offer, we will be leasing out the unit in QW and shifting to Far East. All this going to take some time. Maybe a couple of months. As for suntec, most probably we are staying put. But most probably going to let out 1 or 2 units and do some renovation. But that will be at a later time.

Our store room in suntec is taking up too much space. That space can be used to display more merchanise. Our whole shop (excluding our circular unit) is constitute of 4 units and 1 unit out of the 4 is taken up by just 2 fitting rooms and a store room. Can you imagine paying 1/4 of our rental just for fitting rooms and a store room? So wasted right? We have a lot of window space at the back of our shop (which is now all covered up) which we initally thought of using as storage area (like what our neighbours are doing). When we proposed this to our renovator (then), he said it cannot be done. If it really cannot be done, then why are the other shops able to do so?

Our margin for our franchisers products are too low. We can't give a lot of discounts like what other shops on level 2 are doing during their promotion period esp on GSS. This is causing us to lose out. Really can't depend on franchisers' products. We are going to to carry our own brand - San Street. Going to source for more items and come out with our own designs. We already have a designer and a manufacturer who are working with us to produce our San Street products. They have started work already. Things are still in the progress. Stay tuned to find out more. Hehe....

In short, a lot of changes are to be taken place. God strengthen me and enlarge the capacity within me. I need more of you.

Tired....

I am freaking tired. Pst Tan mentioned in a previous service that 6-7 hrs of sleep is suffient for a person as statistics show that those getting 6-7 hrs of sleep a day lives longer than those with less than 4 hrs or more than 8 hrs of sleep a day. I do get about 6-7 hrs of sleep everyday. Should be sufficient what. Why am I still feeling so tired? Maybe it's stress.

Another staff have left. There has been some misunderstanding. She may think we are mean. But we actually meant well. Note, all staffs have to go through 3 months of confirmation period when they start working for us. She's was still in her 3 months confirmation (been working for us for about 2+ mths - 10 weeks & 1 day to be exact) yet she has already taken quite a number of MCs/unpaid leave on top of her normal off days. There are also days she wanted to take unpaid leave but wasn't allowed to. None of our previous staffs ever taken a single MC/leave during that confirmation period. How can we confirm her like that? No matter which company you are working for, if you keep taking MCs/leave, sooner or later you will ask to leave the company. It doesn't matter how long you have been working in the company. But we knew her condition and close one eye about it. After some discussion, we feel that it's better for her to work part-time so as to have some time to rest. So decided to convert her to work part-time instead. If she really needs the money and wants to work full time, she would have to do so somewhere else (we already have a full-timer and her pay is much lower. we couldn't afford another one since business is still bad). But she got angry and scolded my mum with some nasty words. No matter how unhappy you are with your boss, you are not to scold him/her (unless you are prepared to go). Like that how are we to keep her even if it's only to work part time.

One thing about Singaporeans is that they can only work part time or full time for a temporary period (6 mths the most). Then we've the problem of having to look for new staffs and retrain them. We can't keep retraining people every few mths. We've got more important things to do. Even if they can work permanently full time, they are either going on MCs regularly or having to take a few days leave. As such we have no choice but to employ a foreigner (from china) to work full-time (moreover their basic pay is lower) and a couple of part-timers.

Left with me and the somewhat new staff from china (she told us she can come to work everyday, don't have to take any day off since she has nothing else to do). Though it's just 2 of us, we can handle. After all 2 in the shop is already enough, 3 is too many.

That irritating woman is at it again. Complained about our music and us doing promotion (our 1st anniversary promotion). As if our promotion is affecting her. We are not even competitors since we are selling different things. Our music is not even that loud. No one's complaining except her. Some even ask us to turn the volume up. She doesn't (more like dare not) come to tell us directly but call and complain to the suntec mgmt and ask them to send someone to tell us. At least the mgmt staff who came down is very friendly and tried to explain herself. The other time, one of the mgmt staff just shouted at me and then walked off. What kind of attitude is that? Can't she even say it nicely. Getting tired with that stupid irritating woman and all her complaining. Don't she ever get tired? We are tired of her and can't even be bothered anymore.

Forget about those uneventful things.

As I said earlier, we are currently doing promotion. But there's no crowd, what's the use of having promotion. Think everyone is waiting for the GSS period to buy things. Have to wait about another month i guess. And bear with the quietness for now.

"Magazine Day"

10th April 2008 is what i term "magazine day". LOL! Why? It's because 2 different magazine companies, namely Choices and Cleo, came down to our suntec outlet today to loan some items for their magazines. Both magazines together loaned a total of 20 items from us. If they are actual items being sold. We will be so so happy. With the 2 magazine representative coming down here one after another, it seems as if we are very busy. But as a matter of fact it is as usually quiet.

We are advertising in 3 issues of Choices magazines at our own expense (part sponsorship from our franchiser). 1 issue is out now. Another 2 issues to go. Whereas, Cleo was called down by Suntec to do an advertisemen for the tenants in My.PlayGround. They didn't go to all the shops though. Guess it is just selected shops.

Suntec is "getting rid" of those tenants who are paying their rental by commission basis and not fixed rental (Suntec termed them as insincere tenants because whether or not they have business doesn't matter to them. They are after all only paying their rent based on commission). Also suntec knows that if we get out of suntec, they will have problems renting out our units. So they are also trying to keep us here. Afterall, we are their major tenant in My.PlayGround. They are willing to give us rental reduction ON CONDITION that we extend our contract for another year (Our previous contract was 3 yrs and we've already been here for almost 1 yr. Suntec can scrap the previous contract we have if we accept this new offer).

There's 1 irritating woman in My.PlayGround (also a fellow tenant). One of our neighbours in fact. Even b4 she even did renovation for her shop, my 1st impression of her was already ruined. Just a small lil thing and she shouted at me as if I owe her something. We just put a stand in front of the lounge suntec set up for customers to sit in. We even had the permission of suntec mgmt to put it there. It's not even her shop. Who does she think she is to shout at me like that. She's a.k.a. My.PlayGround's complain queen. Everything also complain. Music complain. Performers performing or people doing promotion at the event area in front of her shop also complain (what's the events area for if no one is allowed to use it). But suntec ppl don't care her. It's afterall an event area.

We already very very considerate already. She say music loud. We lower it. Still not enough. She wants the music to be very very soft. How to hear like that. Already no ppl, no music isn't it more boring. We turn the music on loud is also to attract pple at the outside corridor in. If they do walk in, isn't it better for her also? I have customers telling me "if not for your music, I don't know there's more shop inside". Mind you, not just 1 customer. Many customers told me that before. See music helps. Still wants us to lower. Then how to attract customers. Last time our music was even louder. The shops at the outside corridor can even hear our music. Now can't even hear a thing coming from our shop from outside.

We've been here for almost 1 year and no one ever complained about our music. She been here for like what??? 3 mths or even less? and she complaining about everyone and everything. Trying to find trouble with us and others in My.PlayGround. Isn't fellow tenants supposed to help one another. Last time when mum and her were on talking terms, she say she's how rich how rich. Stay what kind of house. Drive what kind of car. Have how many shops. Rich people don't tell people how rich they are. What a proud woman.

When we have customers, she will stare at us. When she sees other shops have customers and she don't, she stare at them too. Think she's plain jealous. I smile at her. She will pull her long face and stare at me then turn away. What did I do? Everyday pull that long face of hers. No wonder she has no business. Everyone knows what's she's like and can't stand her. Also she opens her shop everyday as and when she wants (sometimes come as late as 2+ and closes as early as 6+). Sometimes we wonder if she's paying any rental at all.

Argh....don't want to talk about her already. Makes my blood boil.

We are still looking at other SC. Some we are looking at are Far East (not going to give up on that place), Haji Lane (but that's not for now. future maybe), and the new mall that is coming up at Clementi Central. We most probably going to get a shop in Far East and give up on Queensway SC. What you all think? The sales in Queensway getting from bad to worse. Crowd is getting lesser. Even lesser than suntec. Last mth sales there was horrible. Also there's so many cliques there gossipping about one another. Everytime I go there, I'll see one clique here and one clique there. Really don't like the environment there. And the way people ask for discounts there...really too much. Some even fight (verbally) with you for discounts. Want to get out of there.

Lost my hp. More training needed for new girl.

It's already April - the month San Street was officially opened. It's been almost 1 year already. 21st of this mth will mark our 1st anniversary.

I lost my phone on fri. Dad got a new one for me - Nokia 6500 - on sun. Mum, sis and her bf went to m'sia & bkk on sun. Dad left for m'sia too this morning. They most probably coming back tomorrow night. So it's one night home alone for me (other than our maid). Not really home alone la. Still got baby yogi with me. Also got to be in the shop in the day time. By the time I get home it's abt 10++ already. Poor lonely baby yogi. He seems so sad these few days. Think he misses mummy.

Still got to train up the new china girl. She still can't communicate in english. Serving chinese-speaking people is not a problem for her. It's just the ang moh and non-chinese speaking people whom she can't really serve. She also can't really communicate with my malay staff (language barrier). Speaks fast a lil, she goes blur. Currently my suntec malay staff is on a few days leave (for her wedding. yes...she's getting married). So it's just down to me and the new china girl. Think it's better this way to train her up. Let her serve all the customers and i just help her out when she faces a difficulty.