Pintmaster

I just went in to Carrefour in Bali, the first superstore that I’ve seen here. It opened up in the last month and those of you in the states familiar with Wal-Mart would know what to expect. They have everything! I would say that it’s actually nicer than Wal-Mart! They have fridges, TVs, Luggage, Clothing, Food, Baked Goods, Prepared food. Pretty much anything you would need to buy for living, they have.

From a business point of view, what is interesting is the dichotomy of the two markets the store serves. How do you be all things to all (in this case some) people! As I see it, Carrefour has two distinct target demographics - Foreigners and Locals. There are items and sections of the store specifically targeted towards maybe the top 15% of urban dwelling locals, such as inexpensive toys, inexpensive plastic buckets, eels (eww), clothing etc… but they also serve the expatriate community and have a large selection of baked goods, televisions, computers, etc…

What I have to applaud them for is their assessment of the market, their range of products and their strategy to target both locals and expats. Because there are lots of inexpensive buckets etc… around, I think Im getting a good deal, and maybe the locals that shop there enjoy the new experience of everything in one place.

Wal-Mart usually has the stigma (at least in the US) of destroying mom & pop. Maybe Carrefour and its competitors over time will do the same here. However, when it seems to take 30 minutes travel time to get ANYWHERE, going to one place that has it all is great.

As far as a strategy in Bali, I think Carrefour got it largely right! The supermarket is on the top floor of a shopping center with an Apple authorized reseller (PcMax) and many other stores and food outlets. So, instead of just a supermarket, Carrefour is a destination.

As a side note, all of the PCs that Carrefour was selling seemed to be running KDE. I didn’t get a good look at what flavor of linux they were running though. Is linux big in Indonesia? Or does Carrefour have to play by the rules with software piracy and doesn’t want to raise the price of a computer with the Microsoft tax?

Other Blogs about this:

• Bali Blog
• Tropical Living

I just got milked for $1187.48

Im in Doha Airport, Qatar after my flight from London. From what I understand, Qatar Airways is aggressively pursuing business and is one of the world’s fastest growing airlines. Later this month, they are adding flights from New York and Washington to Doha. Both my parents have started flying Qatar Airlines and have silver status on their frequent flyer program. It appears they are doing a lot right. Qatar’s rate from London to Denpasar, Bali was competetive at GBP 570 (USD 1140). It was actually cheaper when I tried to book it initially, but my credit card company cleverly stopped the transaction due to “suspicious activity”. When I tried again the price had gone up!

No Consistency in Air Travel

Well, here’s something interesting to keep in mind - there is no consistency in air travel. The rules and regulations change from airport to airport… I remember seeing people in Stockholm having to dump out duty free they had purchased in Newark while going through transit to Kuala Lumpur, but that is another story.

Read on to find out how I got screwed!
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Report: 70 Percent Of All Praise Sarcastic

Here’s a clip from The Onion. Please note, this is a joke, and not serious news.

Let’s face it, you don’t run a Boeing 747 on regular unleaded*. The damn thing wouldn’t fly! You don’t run an entrepreneur on McDonald’s either. You just can’t get the energy from a greasy burger, fries and soda to build a new company.

Eating Right

You can save money on office supplies, clothing, drinking, women, but don’t skimp on fresh food!

When at the supermarket, your best bet is to buy lots of fruits and vegetables and make your own meals. If you can’t cook (you should learn), try and stay away from the frozen food that is heavy in potatoes, pasta and other starchy carbs. Smart Ones has many options that skip the starch for green veggies. Also, try different things out to see how they make you feel. Personally, I feel better when I substitute rice for wheat. Accordingly, I prefer to eat rice cakes instead of bread. I substitute oatmeal instead of a wheat based cereal. Quinoa is another great alternative grain to have with meals. It’s higher in protein than wheat and has a balanced set of amino acids! Now that your belly is full, we’re moving on to jump-starting your mind.

Brain enhancing drugs

We all need to perk up and switch our brains on now and then. For an alternative to coffee, try Yerba Mate. Mate is a great alternative to coffee that doesn’t make your breath or pee strange. I usually drink it with honey and milk. My colleague Ryan seems to drink a lot of sugar free red bull, but that makes me feel a little too wired. If you do opt for coffee, I saw on the today show that unfiltered coffee (aka the expensive stuff) causes high cholesterol.

Eating out

This is the hard one to do well. Generally, it is hard to eat balanced on the cheap when eating out. Generally, I try and avoid eating out because of it. My budget for a meal out is generally $10 a head or less (which is also what I would be willing to spend on a good meal at home). Occasionally, we go out for a nice dinner. You can take a look at the places I like to go on my Yelp! profile. Also, to see where I head when Im too lazy to cook, check out my Cheap Eats list for boston!

*Speaking of flying, I just got in to London this morning and was met by my dad and good friend Shawn at the airport. We grabbed some breakfast at the airport and it was then proven to me that it is STILL possible to get bad food in England. It was one of these british chains - the name slips my memory. I got the traditional english breakfast - fried egg, bacon, sausage, tomato, mushrooms (It was terrible). So, the point is - do as I say, not as I do!

Social networking is not just about pretending you’re a lesbian on myspace. There are many good reasons to stay networked. Dunbar’s number (which for the record is 150), is the “maximum number of individuals with whom a set of people can maintain a social relationship”.

Relationships take time and energy. With the internet, we can maintain relationships with friends across the far reaches of the globe. Centralized social networks such as facebook, myspace and linked-in allow you to keep large groups of people connected to you. Your friends can read about your interactions with other friends and keep up to date with your goings on. Blogs, such as this one take that connection to the next level. In this blog, I share my thoughts, feelings and ideas with a large audience. Through my blog, you know me. If you read other peoples blogs, that’s a great way to meet others with similar interests. Check out a couple of my comments on other blogs. These have both sparked personal responses, and potential new relationships to add to my network!

So, keep reading, whether on my facebook feed or on this blog! I look forward to learning about what you’re doing and hope that we can help each other in the future.

Money is the root of all my stresses

• Because of my lack of money, I can’t justify getting in a long term lease which means I have to endure the stress of moving around a lot. (I’m trying to get that fixed by September 1st.)
• Because of my lack of money, Im screwed if something in my house in Houston breaks, and I need to find new tenants!
• Because of my lack of money, Im constantly having to figure out how to move around funds to make sure my bills get paid
• Because of my lack of money, I have to spend time doing less convenient things to avoid spending more.
• Because of my lack of money, Im distracted from doing what I really need to be doing.

I can’t stress to everyone out there enough, that if you decide to bootstrap, pay off everything first… and I mean everything. What you have to realize is that once you leave your job, your cash-flow shrinks to a crawl. When I was working, I was buying things for the company, going on business lunches. My income was somewhere around $4000 a month, but my revolving balance on my credit card was more like $5000 a month on average… I always had a lot of cash coming in and going out which meant that when I had a bill to pay, I more than likely would have that cash. Now, I’ve got 0 (or close to that) coming in every month, so if I get an unexpected bill (like an old $300 dentist bill from 2006 that my insurance didnt pay), it means I have to spend a lot of time figuring out how to move money around to pay it.

You’ll always have old dentist bills and the like creep up on you. I really can’t stress it enough: Don’t try to be clever and move debt to zero percent (for one full year) credit cards like I did, just pay the stuff off before you leave your job. Bootstrap first, then quit.

Lesson learned.

Too many people and too many companies out there over promise and underdeliver!

Property debacle

Im exploring the possibility of doing property development in Boston and whenever I am doing something new, I like to tap my network to seek advice from those with more knowledge than me.

In chatting with one of my friends, she told me her boyfriend does property development in Boston and to speak with him. Fantastic! I talked with him on the phone and asked him if he could recommend people to help me in my search. I told him what I was looking for and he said he would ask his realtor to pull up the matching properties.

We met for lunch, and I further elaborated on what I was trying to do. I was confused with his willingness to help me and asked him what was in it for him if he helped. He said it was fine because I was a friend of his girlfriend. Then he asked me to pick 2 properties and he would come with me and the agent to view them. I was annoyed to limit it to 2, but then gave him the ones I was looking for. He said he would get his friend to set them up for saturday.

Saturday came and I got a text message from him at around 11 am saying that we didnt have the appointments for the places and would go on Monday. I texted him on monday, and he said realtors take the day off and we would go on tuesday. Tuesday came and he never contacted me. That was 2 weeks ago now and I have given up on him.

Prior to this, I was talking to a realtor - Paul Gramazio at Gibson Sothebys. After being let down by my friends boyfriend, I called Paul and asked him to set up appointments for the two properties I had wanted to see. Paul got the appointments and we were golden.

Needless to say, this other guy promised me something I hadn’t asked for, and when I accepted his help, he failed to deliver, setting me back two weeks!

Mediatemple

I signed up for (and had this site hosted at) Mediatemple’s Gridserver product. They promise a whopping 100 gb of storage, and up to 100 sites hosted for just $20 a month. How they claim to be able to provide this is by having a huge grid of computers to distribute the load. Well, I don’t know how well intentioned they are, but their product is oversold.

When I had this site hosted on the Gridserver, it was terribly slow. It wasn’t that it was slow sometimes and good other times, it was consistently poor. There were also large outages in the first few months. Mediatemple tried to make it OK by giving a few free months to me, but didnt address the problem! The quality of their webhosting is not even worth it for free!

A lot of people signed up for gridserver due to the irresponsibility of techcrunch’s Michael Arrington recommending it (myself included), but were severly disappointed. Upon contacting Mediatemple, they acknowledge the problems, but have not made significant headway in fixing them.

I had enough and decide to make a move. I added myself to the waiting list for Slicehost. Their pitch really resonated with me:

Oversold capacity. Slow performance. Restricted access. Misconfigured software. Who wants better hosting? You do. You’ve got websites, blogs, wikis, forums, business applications, mail servers, open source projects and custom software that needs a home. You see right through the cheap deals and 6-month contracts those other guys offer. You need a company that’s built for people who know what they want. Welcome home.

I’ve been with a few different hosts and have always been disappointed. This is my first day with Slicehost and I am extremely happy. I’d be very grateful if users could give me feedback on the speed of the site from their location. Just add a comment and say where you are and rate the speed of the site from 1 to 10 (10 being the best). If you decide that you want to sign up for slicehost, feel free to use my referral link to help me get free service. Keep in mind, slicehost is VPS hosting so it requires extra work!

The message

Im sure you’ve had situations where people have made promises without following through. As much as you want to do the same, don’t! Promise them the bare minimum to get the deal, or earn their trust. When it comes to deliver, first do the minimum, and then some! Pleasant surprise is always better than mild disappointment.

I just bought a Dymo Labelwriter 400 as part of a strategy to implement David Allen’s Getting Things Done (GTD) in my life and work. It’s a great little tool that I picked up at Amazon for just under $100 .

What it’s good for

It’s great for getting your folders looking great. Psychologically, there is a big impact when the labels on your folders are not big scribbles. This helps your brain to process a bunch of folders at once and makes it easier to keep everything alphabetized. One of the major advantages with this over a large sheet of labels in your printer is that you can do labels one at a time, which makes it a lot easier to just label one folder.

Included Software

All in all, it takes about 30 seconds to create a label from the time you need a new folder label to the time you have one! The software works on both windows and mac and you can print from your office applications aswell. The labelwriter is also a great tool for creating the labels for all the letters you need to mail! For that, you may want the Twin Turbo to be able to print more than one type of label at a time.

Why It’s worth it

It’s hard to quantify a purchase like a labelwriter for $100 (or less). It doesn’t save you money immediately but it is another tool in your arsenal to make you more efficient and organized. Over the long run, you will spend fewer hours rummaging through your files for the one scrap of paper you need!