The Ultimate, Step-by-Step Guide to Becoming an Entrepreneur in Singapore

Dreaming of owning your company?

Starting a new venture can be confusing and complicated. Many budding entrepreneurs approach us for answers to these questions… and instead of writing to them one by one, we thought it would be good to produce a comprehensive guide to starting your own business in Singapore.

Fulfilling? Yes.

Worth it? A big, resounding YES!

If you’re still here, then jump on board. You’re now ready to start learning.  Be ready for a challenging time ahead!

Content:

–           Hosting 101
–           Setting up your website
–           Registering your business & corporate services
–           Startup Grants in Singapore
–           Finding freelancers in the market
–           Finding interns to grow your company
–           Networking groups
–           Social media and what you should use

Hosting 101

Hosting is a server that connects you continuously on the internet. It makes your website available online, 24/7.

Many often confuse hosting from the domain. Here’s the difference: a domain is an address for your location on the internet (i.e. username.blogspot.com) while hosting allows domains to be online on the World Wide Web.

They’re both important for a fully-functional website.

• Free Hosting

There are free hosting sites on the internet. The most popular ones include WordPress, LiveJournal, and BlogSpot. You can use them to create your site.

Good news: Free.

Bad news: Your domain name will be named after them, such as yourname.livejournal.com or yourname.blogspot.com.

• Paid Hosting

Paid hosting gives you more control over your domain name (i.e. yourname.com) for better credibility.

Think about it, which sounds more professional to you: yourname.blogspot.com or yourname.com? Sites with customized domains are more trusted by visitors. They sound more professional and authoritative compared to borrowed domains.

Free hosting servers can be unreliable. In the event the server goes down, your site will most probably be down too. Usually, you are unable to change most of their features, so you will have to live with you’re the predesigned template.

Pop-up ads will appear on your site. This is mostly inadvisable for Google, and they like removing them as fast as they change their algorithms. Don’t be surprised when your site is penalized for Search Engine Optimisation (SEO).

Paid hosting, on the other hand, gives you more control over your site. You won’t have ads and banners cluttering your site. You can even install software, forums, and scripts to add better security. And the best part? You can now change your font colour to Winter Green if you like.

Hosting Service Providers

We can’t stress enough how important proper hosting is to the success of your business. Here are three hosting services to help you get started:

1. Vodien

If you are in Singapore, Vodien provides a hosting platform that is efficient and reliable. Vodien has a SuperSupport service to add a personal touch to their clients. With 24/7 SuperSupport provided through various platforms, the Vodien SuperSupport team is reachable, responsive, and ready to resolve any issues faced by our clients.

Vodien’s clients include Infocomm Authority of Singapore, XiaXue, and LadyIronChef among others. If they are good enough for the top bloggers in our Lion City, it is good enough for you.

Note: This is not an advertisement. We are paying clients of Vodien. I have to add that we have been immensely impressed by the quality of their customer service. I have nothing but praises for them. While we have met with some technical issues which were frustrating, I can personally attest that their service is top-notch. They were patient, understanding and issues were resolved swiftly.

2. Hostgator

Hostgator covers a huge ground on global internet users. It captures around 0.34% of market share today. Think of it this way: The largest market shared by a single hosting company is 0.39%. Hostgator trails .05 points behind. Impressive, isn’t it?

The best thing about Hostgator is you can create your custom scripts, designs, and various software packages. Now you have more freedom to tinker around and be creative.

3. Bluehost

Bluehost has a strong online presence, with over 1.9 million domains in its hosting servers. WordPress endorses Bluehost as its premier hosting company.

Bluehost is great because it’s cheaper. The only downside is that there is a maximum cap of 100GB in disk space for its most affordable plan, the Bluehost Starter. Hostgator’s affordable Baby Plan offers unlimited disk space.

4. GoDaddy

GoDaddy also hosts domains for its users. What’s more, it also sells domains for your business. More on that in the later segment.

5. Others 

Here is an article on more hosting service providers and their reviews: Web Hosting Reviews by Cloudwards

5 Easy Steps on How to Set Up Your Website

Setting up a website isn’t as difficult as you think. In fact, it can be very easy with the right hosting and third-party software.

1^st Step: Establish a domain and hosting site.

You need two things: a working domain and hosting site. Once you have both, you can proceed to the next step.

2^nd Step: Decide on a platform.

There are two platforms you can choose from Flash or HTML / CSS (if you’re good at coding). You can also choose a plug-and-play platform like WordPress.

Plug-and-play platforms take out all the guesswork from the equation. It’s easy to use, manage and understand, even for beginner users.

3^rd Step: Decide on a domain and hosting.

Domains are names of websites, such as www.thenewsavvy.com. It comes with various extensions, ranging from the traditional .com, .net, and .org, to the most unusual ones like .xyz and .pizza.

You can easily find a domain name on websites like NameCheap.com or Flippa.com.

Here’s a tip: if you plan to write personal blog posts, just use your name, such as yourname.com.

Domains for businesses are a different matter. Make sure to ask these questions before you make your choice:

Is it a marketable brand name?

Choose names that are relevant to your business.

It only requires a bit of common sense here. Don’t choose puppy-eyes-lover.com when your website is about Forex. If your site is about books, then pick domain names that are related to books. Are you selling flowers? Then freshflowers.com might be the right choice for you.

Is it catchy?

People remember eye-popping images and catchy jingles. And while it can be difficult to think of a name or rhyme that suits your website, don’t give up!

Is it memorable?

People remember a short name. If your domain is long-winded or spelt weirdly, people may not remember it at all.

The best ones to use are the traditional ones in the following order: .com, .org, or .net. The golden rule is to get a domain ending with .com.

These are the safest choices and are most easily remembered by readers who wish to return to your site. And unless you plan to sell pizza or a product that’s named XYZ, don’t choose unusual suffixes like .pizza or .xyz. They might be seen as a spam site, so avoid them whenever possible.

Several websites that sell domain names are available online.

Here are our recommended sites that sell domain names:

1. GoDaddy

We’ve mentioned earlier that GoDaddy has a sizeable presence in the domain name sphere online.

It’s also easy to buy a domain name here. Simply type in the search bar for your company name and they’ll give you some suggestions on which domain name is available to use.

The great thing about GoDaddy is that it frequently offers domain sales, so you have to be quick to grab your desired name!

2. NameCheap

NameCheap is another domain registration website that’s commonly used throughout the world. We love how its pages look very clean and easy to use — even for first-time buyers.

This site also gives freebies and tools for your domain for a more customized site.

3. DomainName

DomainName is also similar to the first two, but it also offers email hosting, such as [email protected].

What’s more, it contains an online site builder and hosting service, so you can get your website up and running in no time at all.

4^th Step: Set up your website’s content management system.

There are many of them out there, but we like to use WordPress because it has a very easy-to-use interface for beginners. Highly versatile, it even allows you to add 3rd party software without breaking a sweat.

Here’s how to use WordPress:

1. Simply log in to your hosting account.
2. Access the control panel and find the ‘1-click install’ button. The icon looks like a giant W.
3. Choose the domain name that you want to install it to.
4. Click ‘Install Now’.

Pretty simple, isn’t it? You now have a functional website with an entirely customizable content management system.

There are occasions when your hosting company doesn’t have a 1-click install function. Or it might not be working for reasons we don’t know. What you can do is install WordPress manually. The hosting company should provide instructions on how to install it.

5^th Step: Select your website’s theme.

Most of the hard work is over. Now, you can start having fun by customizing how you want your site to look.

There are thousands of professionally designed themes that you can choose from, and they come in both paid and free versions.

You’ll find that the WordPress admin page is easily accessible. Explore it; the user interface is extremely friendly and straightforward to navigate.

You can get to work by adding content to your site. Or you can create new pages to fit into different categories and topics for discussion. Do you need a static front page that people see first when they visit your website? You can also do that using WordPress.

Are you done? Then congratulations! You now have a fully functioning website that’s ready to be built upon.

Registering Your Business

You need to register your business with the Singapore Government if your company (1) provides services or products to the market, or (2) bids a contract with the government.

Business registrations are relatively easy in Singapore. The public can now access these business institutions online easily.

1. ACRA

ACRA is your first stop to register a business or form a new start-up.  The ACRA website offers everything you need to know, such as the different types of business entities you are planning to form (LLCs, LLPs, Sole Proprietorship, etc.) as well as various links to other government websites.

Setting up a Business Structure for Small Business in Singapore

2. EDB

EDB provides the information you need to navigate around the different business registration websites. It also provides step-by-step tutorials on the most technical aspects of business, such as taxation and business location.

3. SPRING Singapore

SPRING Singapore is a government website that nurtures startups through grants, angel investor seed fundings and various government subsidies.

It also helps Small Medium Enterprises (SMEs) extensively. These are companies that have grown significantly and is looking to dominate a greater share of the market.

This list isn’t complete. However, they are the best starting points for start-ups to use when registering their businesses.

A Complete Guide to Singapore Grants for New Businesses

Corporate Service Provider

Smaths Corporate Services offers comprehensive services for any start-ups. They waive their professional fees for the first year to ensure that you focus on achieving your business goals.

What they offer: Business Incorporation, Corporate Secretary, Annual General Meeting & Annual Returns, Book-keeping & Compilation of Financial Statements, Business Consulting & Training, Tax Computation.

Note: This is not an advertisement. The New Savvy is a paying client of Smaths. Their service has been outstanding. Most entrepreneurs hate cumbersome paperwork and Smaths have been understanding and responsible.

Corporate Bank Account

Opening A Business Bank Account in Singapore

Startup Grants in Singapore

If you’ve heard of only 1 in ten startups ever gaining traction in the market today, you’re not wrong.

Unsurprisingly, one of the core problems that all startups face is the severe lack of funding that is required to develop the prototypes into viable products or services that can help the startup take off in the economy.

Thankfully, in Singapore, there are initiatives and startup grants that are available to startup founders due to a government initiative in pushing forward local entrepreneurs to help build up the next generation economy of Singapore.

1. Sector Specific Accelerator (SSA) program

The SSA is an initiative by SPRING Singapore, a government agency that assists Singapore enterprises. It funds projects aiming at niche areas like medical and clean technologies.

Last year, the government announced that up to S$60 million (US$46 million) would be put into medical startups via the SSA program. Half of that amount will come from the state.

2. ACE Startups Grants

The Action Community for Entrepreneurship (ACE) is a former government-led organization promoting entrepreneurship in Singapore. While ACE was turned over to the private sector, the program will still be government-funded for the foreseeable future.

One of its primary programs is a startup grant which gives up to S$50,000 (US$35,400) to entrepreneurs, matched by their funds. The real downside is that quite a lot of requirements are attached to this program. While it’s not restricted to only tech startups, you need to be a first-time entrepreneur to apply, which means you must not have registered a business entity in Singapore before. If you meet these criteria, it’s one of the better ones to go for.

Ace will also match S$7 for every $3 an entrepreneur raises up to a cap of S$50,000. (Basically, you’ll have to raise about S$21,429 to get the full grant)

3. Early Stage Venture Fund (ESVF)

ESVF is a program run by the National Research Foundation (NRF), partnering with various venture capital firms to invest in startups by matching them on a one-to-one basis. The scheme targets Series A startups and above.

About S$100 million (US$70 million) has been pumped into startups so far, with the government planning to invest another S$28 million into this program.

4. Smart Nation

Perhaps one of the most widely publicized on television and social media today, the Smart Nation projects is driven by the government to use technology to benefit the residents of Singapore. This broad spectrum initiative aims to tackle areas like transportation, health care, communications, and energy.

While the private sector has also been brought in on some projects, there seems to be a lack of a proper framework to allow startups to get involved.

5. Technology Incubation Scheme (TIS)

Another initiative by the NRF, the TIS targets early-stage startups. Together with partner venture capital firms, it matches up to 85 percent of the VC’s investment, capping the maximum investment of S$500,000 (US$385,000) per company.

The investor can have the option to buy back the stake in the company after three years from the NRF. As the name implies, TIS prefers startups with a high-tech focus.

Finding the right freelancers for your company

Freelancers help keep startups afloat in a sea of giant companies and endless monopolies.

Cheaper than a full-time staff, yet with more flexible hours, they are the crucial link between having a startup that thrives (due to lower hiring expenses) or fails (due to paying more people to work in the company).

This is particularly the case for cash-strapped, tightly-budgeted startups with gazillion things to do each day.

It used to be difficult finding freelancers. Thankfully, modern technology has made it easier to find them. And the best places to start are online sites that offer these freelancing services.

We’ve taken the time to analyze and review a few of these websites. We hope you’ll have a great experience finding your first few freelancers!

1. Upwork

Upwork is a product of two giants merging: eLance and oDesk. It has close to 2 million clients today, with a wide base of freelancers already and willing to work for you. The skillsets on Upwork vary and can range from simple data entry and transcription up to constructing complex CAD models.

You can customize the kind of experience, salary range, location, and skillset that you’re looking for in a freelancer, and Upwork filters them out for you. What’s more, you can hire them on a temporary or full-time basis, with the option of paying them on an hourly or fixed price basis.

Upwork is great if you’re just starting out and looking for a relatively low-priced service that offers good results.

2. Toptal

Toptal is also an online freelancing platform like Upwork, but that’s where their similarities end. Upwork offers a mix of entry-level and top-rated freelancers on their site, while Toptal only consists of seasoned, top-rated freelancers.

This means that this group is very specialized and exclusive. You can expect that they will produce top-notch, high-quality work for you, but you will have to pay more since their rates are much higher compared to Upwork freelancers.

If you have funds to spare, browse through Toptal ‘s site, and you might find someone who can create everything you need at an affordable rate. This doesn’t happen often, but you never know!

3. Freelancer

Freelancer also deals in online freelancing like Upwork, and their network reach is almost similar, with Freelancer having around 17 million registered users to date.

This should give you an idea of how huge the talent pool you can tap into if you sign up on both Upwork and Freelancer.

This site usually allows its freelancers to compete, allowing the “winner” to draw more clients than the rest. This feature is beneficial for customers since they can use it to filter the top freelancers when they do their searches.

4. Guru

Guru allows freelancers to show their past work offers, earnings, and work experiences. This is valuable when you’re skimming through an extensive list of freelancers.

Guru also has 1.5 million freelancers, boasting of skills that range from software development to admin support, translation, and even legal services!

5. 99designs

99 designs are unique because they ask you to bid on competing works of freelance designers. Usually, these designers compete in a contest, and you get to choose which of their designs you like best.

Once you pick the winner, you have two options:

(1) work on the designer’s original work or
(2) create a new one and have the designer improve it for you.

The best thing about 99 designs is that it filters out the best from the mediocre ones. And with many bidders going for your brief, then you’re assured that only quality work will catch your eye.

6. Freelancezone

Feel like hiring someone a little closer to home? Then look no further than Freelancezone, a freelancing site for Singaporeans.

7. Startup Jobs Asia

Startup Jobs Asia is a hybrid between a freelancer platform and a jobseeker’s board and is considered one of South East Asia’s more prominent sites for new startup owners looking to hire the right talent. This is a useful site if you ever need someone to fill in an ongoing role in your company.

Startup Jos Asia places greater emphasis on mostly software-based skill sets, such as developers, software administrators, and coders in general.  It also maintains a modest field of skillsets for anything that startup owners need for their business, like designers and marketers.

8. Hubstaff Talent

Hubstaff Talent is a free directory for the world’s top freelancers and is quickly growing in popularity each day. Hubstaff Talent sets itself apart from other freelance marketplaces by being completely free, with no markups and no fees for both the freelancer or business owner.

Hubstaff Talent has two primary objectives,

8. 8. 1. To help business find great freelancers.
         Hubstaff Talent has top quality freelancers creating profiles every single day. They understand the importance of finding and retaining talented creatives, one of the main ways to do this is by keeping their services free.
      2. To help remote agencies show their services to the world.
         Hubstaff has thousands of clients that use their time to track services on a daily basis, many of which have service-based businesses and are amazing at what they do. Hubstaff Talent was designed as a free way to help them find more clients.

The platform is easy to use for both business owners and freelancers. Business owners can quickly search for and scale a remote team for their business; they can search thousands of contractors based on skill, location or category and contact the team member they feel will be a good fit directly.

9. JobsCentral

JobsCentral is another site to look into if you’re looking for temporary or permanent employees in Singapore. This is a great place to search through a large pool of job seekers with a wide variety of skills. It’s also quite easy to ask potential hires for their CVs, making it more convenient for you to decide on who you want to hire and the how long they’ll work for you.

JobsCentral also has a smaller, youth-oriented subsidiary that contains CVs and application from Singapore’s younger population. Often, they are mostly students from secondary schools who are looking to make a bit of money during their school breaks.

JobsCentral makes this a win-win situation for both of you: you get to hire students to do simple tasks at a much cheaper rate, while you allow them to gain first-hand experience of what it’s really like working at a company.

10. Craigslist

Last but not the least is Craigslist. Sadly, this site is often overlooked due to so many more reliable freelance platforms that are available online.

While there are numerous spam postings and occasional frauds that might get inside from time to time, Craigslist is still a treasure trove of talent if you’re patient enough to sift through the postings. What’s more, Craigslist often has postings from job seekers as well, and they are often those who haven’t heard of the different platforms we’ve listed above.

Always keep in mind that the best way to hedge yourself from potentially problematic hires and contracts is to sift carefully through your list of potential candidates before you request for a Skype interview. Search for their names online, and look for potential hits that might indicate any form of deception or inappropriate behaviour from your candidates. Whenever possible, ask for some identification to ensure you’re dealing with someone legitimate and trustworthy.

Getting the Right Interns to Work for Your Company

Interns are known as one of the most critical components of any business, and maintaining a constant stream of these talented and creative individuals in a cost-effective setting can mean a company’s success or premature death.

For start-up businesses, it is always a fine balance between hiring the right people and working on an extremely tight budget.

Perhaps, one of the best things about hiring interns is that you can offer them a more permanent contract once they’ve completed their education. You’re hitting two birds with one stone here: not only you have the luxury of first observing their skills and character in action, but you’re also filling in vacant positions in your company at the same time.

The best thing in Singapore is that there are quite a good number of interns that can be found on online sites. You certainly won’t lack the suitable talent to groom for key positions in your company.

Before we give you some of our website suggestions, we’d like to give you a couple of reminders when dealing with interns.

Things to Remember About Student Interns

Keep in mind that these students come from different institutions, so their holiday timings differ from one to the other.

Students in local universities have holidays that may differ each year, but the general schedule can range from early May all the way to the end of July or the first week of August.

Therefore, the best time to request for an internship from them would be during their May vacation. Unfortunately, some of the male students might also have to serve in their reservist units, so that is something special to take note of as well.

Students in ITE often have a special arrangement with a company. Usually, the school will match your company’s profile to a student’s interests, and once they find a match, then the trainee student can be employed as a full-time staff in your company.

This has a lot of advantages; not only does the student gain on-the-job-training (OJT) skills, but they also become a valued member of your team once they’ve proven themselves on the job.

Polytechnics students experience the same process like other universities, although most student interns can do their OJT from a period of anywhere between 10 to 26 weeks. This will depend on the type of work that the intern is called to do.

Usually, the internship process starts from April, September, August, or October. You have the option of allowing the student trainee to work full-time, or have them work concurrently with their school curriculum.

The process is little more complicated when getting interns from Polytechnic compared to either ITE or University students, so it would be wiser to call the school directly to clarify what you need.

Junior college students have very similar study and holiday timeframes like secondary school students, so the best time for them to intern in your company would be during their December holidays.

Where Can I Find Interns For My Company?

Now that you’re informed about interns, we’ll now discuss our list of website suggestions. Keep in mind that new internship sites are regularly cropping up online, so this is not an exhaustive list in any case.

However, this should be enough for growing companies to use as their starting ground when growing their business:

1. Startup Jobs Asia

Startup Jobs Asia attracts not only a lot of graduates looking for a job but also interns looking to fit into startup companies to learn and guarantee placement in a company. Whatever the case, this site is a great place to go to if you’re looking for highly motivated people who are willing to work as interns.

2. Gradconnection

Gradconnection is another great place to find good talent for your business. This is where a lot of internship seekers and graduate students go to when looking for work, and as of 2016, the number of registered users stand at around 10,000 from universities, polytechnics, and ITEs.

Keep in mind that it’s more challenging to find interns on this site because there are very large, brand-name companies who already partner with them (such as Microsoft, DBS, Merrill Lynch, and much more). However, it’s still worth a shot, as there will always be interns who are looking for opportunities to work for small or start-up companies.

3. InternSG

Do you want to rub shoulders with big names like LucasFilms or Starbucks? Then InternSG is the place to go to. This site is dedicated to promoting internships and is backed up by big, powerful companies that are looking for the right person to fill in their positions. Joining this website as a partner will increase your odds of finding great interns for your company.

Now here’s the downside: you need to pay $95 or more to post your advertisement on their exclusive portal.  However, it does open your company to a large pool of critical talent that you need to keep your company growing and thriving, so those extra dollars you spend are truly worth it.

4. Glints

Glints is a relatively new website that’s also a hybrid between job-seeking graduates and internship finders. You can post on their job board for free, but you will have to pay a finder’s fee once you’ve confirmed a placement for the intern you’ve chosen.

This site has more than 12,000 people who are looking for work, with more than 80 student group partnerships on 12 different campuses alone. Therefore, it wouldn’t be too hard for you to find individuals who are willing to work as interns for your company.

5. Stroff

Also another platform with part-time, full-time jobs, internship opportunities and everything in between, Stroff aims to bridge the gap between opportunity with the demand for internships and jobs that many people today want.

Interestingly, Stroff has openings from all walks of life – from photography assistants to webmasters and the occasional full-stack developers and even marketing executives. So Stroff is also a place that you can use to begin your search for both freelancers and interns, or even full-time staff if you feel your company is ready to start hiring full-timers.

6. Tertiary institutions and junior college

Tertiary institutions in Singapore are perhaps one of the best places to find the best interns around, directly bypassing the costs of posting advertisements online, as well as finder’s fees.

Of course, to be able to find these students are much harder without the help of the websites listed above.

A simpler way to find such interns would be to liaise directly with the institutions in question, granting you access directly to those who either apply to your company, or you could just pick off a few resumes that the institutions send out to all employers.

To liaise with these schools, it would be wise to head on over to their career offices for more information as well as getting their contacts. Try to get in touch with the career offices of each school and inquire about working with them to provide students with opportunities within your company>

Benefit: You will have access to a large pool of fresh talents that can further improve and grow your company.

Note:  For internships – these students all come from different institutions, so their holiday timings also differ vastly.

• University Students Internships
  

For university students in local universities, the best time to request an internship from them would be during their May holidays. The timings differ with each year, but the general schedule for their holidays range from early May, all the way to the end of July or the first week of August. Unfortunately, some of the male students might also have to serve in their reservist units, so that is something special to take note of as well.

Singapore Management University
National University of Singapore 
Nanyang Technological University

• ITE Students Internship

For students in ITE, there’s a special arrangement – usually, the trainee student is employed as a full-time staff in your company, where the school will match your company’s profile to the trainee’s interest.

This means that if you have heavy industrial equipment that needs to be operated well, they’ll be able to do it well too. This allows the trainee to gain not only On-The-Job Training (OJT) but also a chance to become a valued member of your team!

Institute of Technical Education

• Polytechnics Students Internships

For Polytechnics, the process is similar to the university process, but with a slight difference – the period the student interns can range anywhere from 10 weeks to 26 weeks, depending on the type of work the intern is called to do. You can choose to allow the student to be a full-time intern or to have it concurrent with their school curriculum. So, the internship process can usually start from April, September, August, or October.

The process for getting a polytechnic intern is a little more complicated than either ITE or University students, so it would be wiser if you were to give the schools a call directly to better clarify what you need.

Ngee Ann Polytechnic

Republic Polytechnic

Nanyang Polytechnic

Singapore Polytechnic

Temasek Polytechnic

• Junior College Students Internships
  

Junior college students are still students with very similar study and holiday timeframes as secondary school students, so the best time to find any junior college students for internships would be over their December holidays, but even then it isn’t a long period for them (perhaps 1 to 2 months only).

7. MBA Students Internships

MBA students are perhaps the most expensive interns to get, and rightly so – they will be the ones with heavy responsibilities placed upon them in the future, being both a key fixture and pillar in your fast-growing company.

Why get MBA students as interns? Simply put, MBA students (and in the future, MBA holders) will be the ones who will manage your company in various ways and thus will be the main component of your company who will either grow it or ruin it.

That said, if you know that your company is growing fast and feel that you potentially may need an MBA intern who can fit into your company either for the moment or the long term, here are some useful websites for you to consider:

1. LinkedIn

No surprise that LinkedIn is one of the top few places to find great MBA interns. Employers also have the added benefit of being located in a group where MBA students will flock to for internship opportunities.

Of course, being a recruiter would also mean that there will be some transactional fees involved when posting a job or when you receive resumes from MBA hopefuls.

2. CareerJet

One of the few websites that cater to graduate students in general, it is also here that many MBA students will flock to in hopes of finding a company to intern with.

Fortunately, CareerJet isn’t too pricey when it comes to advertisements for your company: at only SGD$0.10 per click on your job posting, you’d probably be happy to pay that amount to receive a significant number of great, hopeful MBA students who may fit into your company’s master plan.

3. Recruit

The last place on the list would be Recruit. This is a relatively easy website for employers to use, as the MBA interns would usually upload their CVs so that employers can browse their CVs and contact them directly if need be.

In a way, despite the small fee involved, it is one of the easier ways for you to find these interns too.

Interestingly, all 3 websites listed above are international internet sites. However, you can narrow down your search to just Singaporean MBA interns if so you choose.

If not, there are also thousands of MBA hopefuls from overseas who would be just as willing to work for you as well!

Joining Networking Groups In Singapore

“Your network is your net worth” – Porter Gale

No man is an island. Every one of them – even Warren Buffett, Melinda Gates, and Mark Zuckerberg –

has their team of advisors and networks that they go to for advice. They also consult with other people first before they decide on a solution.

Why? Because no one knows everything. And they need ideas. You never know what ideas may be worth pursuing — it might turn out to be the next unicorn.

*Networking Groups for Start-ups in Singapore

• Aspiring Entrepreneur Venture (AEV) Night
• Startup Grind Singapore
• Singapore Entrepreneurs Network (SEN)
• The Hub Singapore
• CoFoundersLab Matchup Singapore
• Founders Drinks
• TiE
• Drink Entrepreneurs Singapore

For more information about each of them, head over to networking groups in Singapore.

Savvy Specialists is designed for you to network and gain support or advice from experts. It is a comprehensive list of domain experts that The New Savvy team had screened.

For female entrepreneurs, you can also join the Networking Communities for Female Entrepreneurs in Singapore. Check it out!

Why Network?

They offer a place where like-minded people flock together.

Birds of a feather flock together. And the world of start-ups and business ventures also do.

It’s empowering when you’re in the presence of like-minded people. It’s where energies are pooled together, and fresh ideas spring forth from the unlikeliest of sources. Having a collective pool of like-minded energy and motivation can mean the difference between a good start-up or a great one.

And networking allows these things to happen.

It’s a place where your ideas will be (constructively) criticized.

Your business networks (especially the start-up founders) can tell which ideas might work for your business – or not. They can also give you ideas about possible solutions that could remedy your product’s shortcomings.

This is far better compared to non-startup networks who merely say it won’t work.

It’s a place of growth.

Jim Rohn once noted that “You’re the average of the five people you spend the most time with.”

We tend to copy the mannerisms of those closest to us.

And the more similar you are in your start-up group, the faster you’ll learn from each other.

Interacting with your networks can help you learn effective business skills. What’s more, it can help you to listen and communicate better in the process.

Staying within the community also creates strong bonds that last a lifetime. In fact, it’s common to see people in the group start dating and getting married as well!

It’s a place of community.

There is nothing that binds people together more than mutual love and support of each other. And your network group can also act as a support group when times get a little rough and hard to handle.

When you’re sad, you can count on friends and family to help see you through, right? It goes the same way with your group. When someone does well, everyone rejoices; when someone is down in the dumps, everyone lends out a helping hand.

To make sure you know the lingo of the start-up world, here’s a crash course: Startup Terms Every Entrepreneur Should Know

Getting the Most from Social Media: Tips and Guidelines

Social Media has a way of making your world a little bit bigger.

And it doesn’t matter where you are. From the person you meet online to your Dad’s favourite pizza joint, or even to the prospective investor you’ve been trying to reach for months, you’re sure to meet someone, discover places, or learn something when you connect through social media.

Let’s face it: we can’t live without it today.

Social media can give you unlimited power to the network, to build your business, and become popular online. And if you play your cards right, it can even help you achieve your goals.

There are four social media sites we highly recommend for businesses: Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, and Twitter.

Facebook

Facebook is currently the largest social media platform in the world. It lists around 1.59 BILLION registered users as of 2015, and the numbers are set to grow even more in 2016.

Obviously, that staggering amount of user base makes it a great networking site. Facebook is the best place when you like to connect with like-minded individuals or promote your business.

Even small businesses can now utilize the power of Facebook advertising and marketing to lure more visitors to their site!

It’s also a great tool for job hunters.

In How To Get A Job Using Social Media, we discussed how companies hire based on their impressions of you and your Facebook account.

Of course, your resume counts too, but don’t forget to make your Facebook account look attractive and professional. You never know who’s lurking there, and it just might be someone who has the power to help you land your dream job.

There are quite a few ways to make sure your feed is clean and impressive. For instance, you can post pictures of you having a drink or two with friends, but excessive photos of you drinking or clubbing on your profile is a definite no-no.

This can potentially turn off a hiring manager who thinks of you as a possible candidate!

On the other hand, you can also use Facebook to check out a company you’re interested in. You can also have a better idea if you fit in with their culture and values just by going through their profile, pictures, and posts.

That’s the beauty of Facebook — it levels out the playing field for both the employer and the (potential) employees alike.

LinkedIn

Another great tool to help you land a job is LinkedIn. Similar to Facebook, it’s perhaps the premier business-oriented social network on the internet today. The number of users on LinkedIn currently stands at 414 million, with approximately 2 new users created every second.

One of the great things about this site is the sheer number of people that are online every day. Statistics show that 40% of its users check their accounts daily.

Companies also use LinkedIn to check out information about their applicants. Make sure your LinkedIn account contains everything an employer needs to know about your skills and achievements.

Instagram

Instagram is a social media app designed to share photos and short videos. It’s a great tool to use for anyone who wants to share little snippets of their lives online.

There are many cases where companies contact popular Instagram accounts to advertise their products or services (in exchange for money or freebies). This is a good way to earn a little bit of money on the side.

Twitter

And lastly, there’s Twitter. It only allows 140-characters per tweet, so people get creative trying to fit in everything they need to say.

Twitter is usually used by celebrities who like to share their day-to-day activities online.

Similar to Instagram, it can also be used to share short videos and photos, but the difference is in the speed. Twitter allows you to respond immediately to someone’s tweets so that you can get intimate with some of your followers.

Those with strong Twitter footprints can also use it to earn money. Just like Instagram, companies can promote their brands or products in exchange for freebies or money.

Being an entrepreneur will probably be one of the hardest things that you’ll ever do in your life, bar none. Your path will be a constant uphill battle against time, lack of capital, and a severe lack of sleep.

Nonetheless, it’ll be incredibly fun and satisfying. Enjoy the journey and share the love! x

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