Hijrah in business December 30, 2008

Trading Tuesday: Hijrah in Business

I am always thankful that I was brought up with this concept that people can always change or ‘hijrah‘ for the better. Due to the yearly Maal Hijrah nasheed and reminder, I am secure in knowing that whatever it is that I don’t like about myself; I can change. I can ‘hijrah‘ for the better.

When I started setting up my own businesses, I faced many challenges too. Running a business is similar with running your own life. You will always have weaknesses, you will always do mistakes – but you can also, always, always change it for the better.

For example, I am not really satisfied with my sales this year. I have planned a lot, but applied little. Hence, I think I only achieve 10% of my sales goal.

But I also know that I can change that! Therefore, in this 1430 and coming 2009, I aim to manage my sales better.

Using the formula taken from the excellent book ‘What Self-Made Millionaires Really Think, Know and Do’ by Richard Dobbins and Barrie O. Pettman-

no. of customers X average sale X frequency of purchase/visit = sales income

Also taken from the book, we can always think of 20 ways to improve on all factors above. 2o ways to increase customer base. 20 ways to increase average sale, and 20 ways to increase the frequency of order.

Combined all ways – 20 X 20 X 20 - we actually have 8000 routes to increase sales!

Exciting isn’t it?

Now is a good time to do a ‘business muhasabah‘ or a post-mortem of what we did right and what we did wrong this year. Let us all aim and work smarter to improve our businesses (or career, or life) with simple formula, and a mindset of ‘hijrah’!

2 New Years! December 28, 2008

Happy New Islamic Calendar Year everybody!

It’s an interesting coincidence that the Hijri calendar also start at an almost similar time as the Gregorian calendar for 1430 and 2009. In these 2 new years, I would like to start scheduling my plans according to both Hijri and Gregorian calendar. I have always wanted to do that, especially after I have learned some really wonderful benefits of following the lunar calendar!

For more information about the benefit of lunar (Hijri) calendar, checkout these article titled ‘The Blessings of The Lunar Calendar’ at Everymuslim.net!

Until the second new year, Happy New Year Awal Muharram!

My Wedding Dress December 25, 2008

Trendy Thursday: My Wedding Dress

Inspired by the cute colourful wedding gown’s entry in The Hijabblog, I decided to do my own wedding dress entry for this week’s Trendy Thursday. Yesterday, was my 2 years wedding anniversary and today I went rummaging into my folders for my wedding pictures from the last 2 year.

I really enjoyed looking at the pictures, but choosing the perfect one for this entry is quite challenging. Apparently I do not have that many good close up pictures of the dress. Anyway, here it comes!

This off-white lace beaded ‘kebaya’ (a Malay women style dress) is what I wore for the aqad ceremony. It is common for Muslim Malay ladies to wear white-coloured dress for the ceremony. Can you see those tiara thing on my head? I truly feel like a princess!

This pastel pink lace ‘kebaya’ is worn for my (bride’s side) reception ceremony. I really like the design of the dress. It is a long kebaya with an A-line skirt in light pink lace. I accessorise it with a gold necklace,a  gold earrings and a gold tiara-like head accessories. (I am afraid you can’t really see it in this picture)

This lavender beaded light songket kebaya is the dress that I wore for the groom’s reception. The songket that I wore is from a Malay traditional design. It is rare to find a pastel-coloured songket, so when we found this colour on this fabric – we immediately gave it a thumb’s up!

In a traditional Malay wedding, brighter colour is more commonly chosen. Reason being, it will look much more ’striking’ in photo. However, since both of us do not like the idea of bright striking colour over-powering us on our big day, we opt for a more subtle and sweet romantic colour.

Hijab-wearing ladies in Malaysia are spoilt with choices when it comes to wedding hijab style or wedding dress/gowns. We also don’t shy away in playing with colours (hence the ’striking’ colour issue mentioned above).

That’s all for the wedding entry today

Year 2 December 24, 2008

Wonderful Wednesday: Year 2

Year 2 was a great one, alhamdulillah. While Year 1 was crazy and noisy, Year 2 was much calmer and quieter? ehehe.

I feel very blessed that Almighty has given us 2 beautiful years together. 2 years of learning together. 2 years of sharing love (and food, and bed, and toothpastes!). 2 years of petty quarrelings (but the dramas has been reduced tremendously, pat pat on the back naziehah ). 2 years of always being there for each other. 2 years of support and understanding.

We’ve grown so much in these 2 years!

On our 2nd wedding anniversary, I pray that may Almighty bless us with many more peaceful, loving and fruitful years, ameen.

Fill that gap December 23, 2008

Trading Tuesday: Fill that Gap

One of the true purposes of entrepreneur is to ‘fill that gap’. In a market there’s always an unfilled demand. No one consumer is alike so chances are there are many consumer’s need that are not fulfilled by the existing market. Especially now, when consumers are becoming more sophisticated, more discerning – the opportunities are opening left, right and everywhere!

For example, in my Elwarda Dance business, I am filling the gap of the need for fun and gentle exercise for women. Since Middle Eastern Dance/Belly Dancing is a low-impact exercise, women with low level of fitness and women of all ages can easily enjoy the acitivity. When I taught  in a gym/fitness centres before, I saw that  most of the classes were mainly geared to the young and fit. Therefore, by me offering a Middle Eastern Dance/Belly dancing class to women, I am fulfilling the need for fun and low impact exercise for women.

Another gap is the all-women class. Some women are shy to work out in a mixed-gender gym. Therefore, there’s a gap – a need to have an all women exercise class. I also filled that gap by teaching an all-women class only!

Another gap is the need for privacy and exclusivity. Some women learn best one-to-one, and they need a personal attention which they can’t get in a group class. Therefore, I started a Personal 1-1 session at my home to fulfill this need.

There’s actually a few more gaps that I filled in operating my Elwarda Dance business. But I am thinking you already get my drift

Whatever business that you are in, or if you feel like starting a business, but you do not have any idea what to do  – think about those gaps. And go fill them up!

Don’t Quit December 22, 2008

Motivational Moday: Don’t Quit

When things go wrong, as they sometimes will,
When the road you’re trudging seems all uphill,
When the funds are low and the debts are high,
And you want to smile, but you have to sigh,
When care is pressing you down a bit
Rest if you must, but don’t you quit.

Life is queer with its twists and its turns,
As everyone of us sometimes learns,
And many a failure turns about
When they might have won, had they stuck it out.
Don’t give up though the pace seems slow,
You may succeed with another blow.

Often the struggler has given up
When he might have captured the victor’s cup;
And he learned too late when the night came down,
How close he was to the golden crown.

Success is failure turned inside out
The silver tint of the clouds of doubt
And you never can tell how close you are,
It may be near when it seems so far;
So stick to the fight when you’re hardest hit,
It’s when things seem worst that you must not quit!

I really like this poem and I have came across it quite a few times. What I didn’t know is who is it’s author. From my search, most of the source cited it as ‘anonymous’ or ‘unknown author’.

Whoever created the poem, thank you very much for giving us such beautiful inspirational words!

Enjoy the poem for Motivational Monday today

New header, again December 21, 2008

So it’s Sunday. Doing some work. Then get bored. Started working on the header again.

Still doesn’t look good. So I guess the header is going to keep changing for quite some time until I found the one that I really like.

On a different note, it’s such a nice sunny day today, Alhamdulillah! I opened all my windows to let those good stream of sunlight into the house.

My life has been pretty hectic lately. Some of the happenings was good, some was not. But both made me think a lot about myself and people and life in general.

I learnt that I need to keep myself always open for any changes and possibilities. When I let go of the illusion of control, life is actually quite good. No, life  is very, very good.  It’s not an easy process. My mind keep moving forward, then move backward, sideways and under – but I have to keep trying.

I have to always re-align my mind and myself to the true purpose why I am on earth. And all that negative feeling and negative energy are all distractions to keep myself off – track.

I hope I will always be guided and I hope that I will always have my inner peace, ameen.

Tie your camel December 19, 2008

Festive Friday: Tie your camel

One day Allah’s Messenger, sal Allahu alayhi wa sallam, noticed a
Bedouin leaving his camel without tying it. He asked the
Bedouin, “Why don’t you tie down your camel?”
The Bedouin answered, “I placed my trust in Allah.”
At that, the Prophet, sal Allahu alayhi wa sallam, said, “Tie
your camel and place your trust in Allah” – Tirmidhi

What a great hadeeth! Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) in this hadeeth has taught us that trusting in Allah doesn’t mean sitting around doing nothing. We need to take all actions necessary to ensure our success in everything we do – while all the same time putting our whole trust in Allah.

Happy Friday everybody!

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Image from here

Just what I need.. December 18, 2008

Don’t take life too seriously. You’ll never get out alive.

Bugs Bunny

(image from here)

Random personal updates December 18, 2008

1. I changed my layout (obviously). I want to have more colour in my blog(because I like colours) but not too colourful (that people will mistaken this as a kids’ blog).

2. I custom-made my own blog header. It’s not looking too good now. Bleargh. I am so bad with all this techie-picture-editing software (and this is the least complicated ones my husband can find for me).  I will change it soon, I promise. Meanwhile, just bear with the ugly header. (Another) bleargh.

3. I am still doing jala neti every other day. My nose is amazingly clear now. Alhamdulillah.

4. I am fighting this feeling that keep coming every now and then. It’s a type of negative feeling. It’s really challenging and I am doing my best to keep my head steady (but I termengamuk a bit this morning). (Third) bleargh.

5. Watched Los and Faun yesterday. It was good. But I like Sumo-lah better. I always have trouble following detective-ish kinda movie.

6. When I use bracket ( ) like above – (Third) bleargh. I don’t really know what it means and why I used it. I just use it.

7.  Maybe I am bit tired. I slept late (because of Los and Faun). I woke up early, updated blog, washed dirty clothes, did some work, sweeped and mopped and  chopped ( a rather domestic day today).

8. But my mind. It can’t stop working. While mopping the floor, I had to stop, picked up a pen and note pad, and jotted down my (manymanymany) thoughts. Then I continued to mop. It’s almot like  my brain is over-producing ideas and it spilled over and I need to catch it as soon as possible. Have anybody ever had experienced anything like that?

Ah, I am really tired. Maybe you need to see the ugly blog header for a few more days. (anybody kind enough to offer and do one for me?)