‘Work’ To The Nines

The day before ‘that’ Wednesday, I was feeling a little anxious and really suspicious of how the day that I was most looking forward to would turn out. I reached home as usual, had my dinner and gave myself an update with the newspaper. When I was done, I should have gone straight to bed just like any other day but I went to the study room instead and sifted through some work papers because I thought my level of anxiety would not allow me to sleep.

When I finally went to bed, deep sleep took over as usual and when I woke up on the day that I most looking forward to – I felt nothing! I mean, there was no extraordinary feeling, no extra excitement, absolutely nothing and I felt just like any other day! Yes, the day was Wednesday and the date was 090909, a day we will only live to see once. I went through the usual routine on that day except there was this anniversary party that my colleagues had planned for months.

September 9 has always meant a lot to me. That’s the date when I started my business. I am not a superstitious person but I do have my preference for numbers. That’s why I chose September 9 for the official opening of my business. In Chinese, nine means longevity. I wish my business can be around forever and I want the business to serve the good of the SME community for ever and ever.

September 9 this year was even more meaningful for several reasons. Firstly, it fell on the year of 2009 which means such a date only happens once in my life time. That date marked the fourth year of our company anniversary but most importantly, it is the day that I always wondered how the business would turn out when I started it four years ago.

I have always been convinced of an unverified source that it takes three years for SME start-ups to establish their business and most failed new businesses wind-up in the first three years. Hence, it should be dawning on you now exactly why September 9, 2009 meant so much to me. Since we need to have purpose in life and we need to have an aim, when I started this business, I used this day as some kind of destiny for my business journey.

Now that the day has passed, it wasn’t ‘destiny’ and no miracle happened for my business. It was just another progress in the journey. In fact, I feel that there is even more work and responsibilities on my shoulder since I have more colleagues to look after and more clients to serve.

Me aside, 2009 is also a significant year for all entrepreneurs due to the credit meltdown of the world’s largest economy. We have witnessed the worst recession in the United State since the 1930s Great Depression. At the beginning of this credit crunch, many worried about the impact it would have on our economy. The uncertainty was huge and there were many predictions on recovery time and then the shape of the economy’s recovery.

Some think it might be an ‘U’, some say a ‘V’ and even after our Central Bank announced that the economy is on the road to recovery recently, some still think that it could be a ‘W’. Whatever the shape may be, I must say that we are better prepared to face this crisis than the one in 1997 due to our strong and creditable banking system. The financial guarantee scheme introduced by the Government for the SMEs had also enabled SMEs to navigate through the current crisis.

Credit must also be given to the SMEs, after having learned from the previous crisis in 1997 many have built a more solid business foundation and were ready to face the worst in current crisis. I think a ‘U’, ‘V’ or ‘W’ does not seem to really bother SMEs to a great extent. Many continue to work hard on their businesses and there are many who have even managed to register healthy grow for their business.

I am not an economist and I am not good at it either but from an ordinary SME entrepreneur’s point of view, I would rather see the economy an ‘M’ shape. If we have benefited during the good times, we ought to prepare to navigate the bad. I do think that whatever goes up, will come down and it is entirely up to us to build a strong foundation for our business. One that’s as good as ‘Nike’ in order for us to enjoy the shape of ‘√’.

Having just been through our fourth year anniversary on 090909 with more responsibilities on my shoulder, I have embarked on a new five-year business plan. As usual for me, the focus is always on ‘9’, not ‘U’, not ‘V’, not ‘W’ and if you are familiar with the phrase ‘dressed to the nines’, I have fine-tuned it and used it as my personal business theme as I feel that I should work flamboyantly or smartly in whatever economy shape until we celebrate our 9th year anniversary.

New goal, new aim with the same new journey and definitely there won’t be destiny!

God bless SMEs!