With the housing market booming like nobody’s business these days, I am sure that couples getting their first flat from HDB or if they are buying from the private market is all eager to start renovating their dream home. I mean, who wouldn’t? You have paid a lot of money for that new home and I am sure you want it to be the best. The problem nowadays is that there are a lot of contractors and renovators whom are there just to make a quick buck. They want to ride the housing boom and are not there to help you create your dream home. But luckily, in Singapore, we do have a lot of competition among contractors. However, you will have to make the extra effort to find them in the midst of so many contractors. I would recommend getting established renovators but avoid big ones as they might not give you the same concentration as they do for their bigger clients (unless of course if you are a major client).
And getting the right contractor can really save you a lot of headaches and heartaches down the road. I have read tons of horror stories from first timers who were tricked or hoodwinked by contractors. Poor quality materials, wrong type of materials, poor workmanship, late delivery, wrong colour of painting and worst, those contractors who overcharge their customers. In Singapore, you will not get any help from the authorities, so it is better for you to help yourself. First of all, get information from your friends or relatives who have done renovations before. Look for the pitfalls of getting contractors. See what your friends and relative recommend. Go visit showrooms and the contractors themselves, especially those flats or houses that they have done before. It gives you a good idea of what type of quality they provide. The next would be budget. Find quotes yourself. It is not difficult to do so. Most civil supply shops also sell to individuals. And now we have the Internet to help you along. Next, discuss things carefully with your contractor. Do not “assume”. Get everything down in writing and make sure the quotations they give you are in detail. Talk with their subcontractors as well.
Of course, using a interior designer would be more costly, but sometimes it can really help. I would recommend first timers to go for a professional interior designer but make sure you know what are all the processes and on-goings. As mentioned, interior designers are not mind readers, make sure you tell them exactly what you want and approve all designs yourself. It requires some effort on your part, but it is sure worth it. And finally, good quality products cost more. So be prepared to pay more if you want a higher quality workmanship and result.
If you are interested, please take a look at list of Singapore Interior Designers and Contractors. At the same time, try out our listing of Singapore Furniture Retailers. You might be surprised to see what you could find.
I think having a pet is good. However, I am sure that there are a lot of people who disagree with me. They say that it is troublesome or expensive or that it is dirty. Or they lack space in their small flats. Yes, it is true that having a pet can be troublesome, can be expensive and if you don’t take care, it can get all dirty and so on. But all-in-all, it depends on the individual. Some people take very good care of their car, going for regular maintenance and check-up, some even upgrade or tune their cars, change the rims and tyres and so on. These cost money too. This is the exact same thing as having a pet. And, you get a companion – a living, breathing companion. I mean, if you can’t afford a pet, of course you shouldn’t get a pet. But if you like pets, I think you should keep an open mind about having pets. And pets do not really have to be expensive. Having a small aquarium setup is relative cheap. I don’t think it will exceed more than a few hundred dollars. I used to keep hamsters when I was younger and it wasn’t expensive – just a cage and some accessories, plus food. Don’t need that much space either.
Yes, we all know that it can be a hassle. Food, bath, clean-up, going to see the veterinary…… But just think of the benefits of having a pet whom you love and sometimes even for life. They can also give you a peace of mind which no car or iphone can give you. I have a friend who keeps fish. And he told me that whenever he feels stressed out, he would sit next to the fish tank and look at his fishes swimming around. This helps to keep him calm and level-headed. Pets are a great companion, especially if you like animals. Dogs are great for kids. Raising dogs allows kids to understand more about life itself. And training these beautiful beasts can also help kids learn about discipline and behaviour. I doubt that we can find such lessons in life anywhere else. Kids can also learn to appreciate life if they have a pet. And we do have a lot of choices in Singapore. I know a lot of bird keepers in my area. My next door neighbour has two dogs whom she love like her own children.
So, if you are interested in getting a pet, please check out our directory listing at Singapore Pets. I wish you all the best in finding the perfect pet. Hope that you will love and cherish them.
As I mentioned in my previous post, SgSmallBiz.com had undergone a design change and some major upgrades and finally everything is done. Our web directory have been upgraded to the latest version and hopefully all the bugs has been corrected. Don’t you just hate having a script that keeps giving you problems? At the very least, the script developers are rather fast in correcting any bugs present. And it is indeed usable. But sometimes, it is still a big headache to keep on checking and correcting such bugs. I guess this will be the norm, as script developers nowadays have to keep up with the pace and demands for new features. Looks like webmasters will always be shooting themselves in the legs eh?
If you have been to my local business directory these few days, you would have seen the changes. First, the colour scheme has been changed significantly. I had changed to the dark grey and dark blue. All pretty neutral colours. Business directories are not meant to be flashy or funky in anyway. Our logo has changed, as I think that the horse logo is just a bit weird for a business directory. Need something less dramatic. As for the layout, I have added a side bar to the right and hopefully, this will make it easy to navigate when users are browsing the categories in the directory. In the past, users had to return back to the main page to navigate to other categories. Well, this is my attempt to make it more user-friendly. For the submit page (that is why people submit their business sites for approval into the directory), I have added the option to upload logo and photos of the products and services for featured listings. I am hoping that users who want a better exposure on the directory can opt for the featured listing. Of course, a small fee is required for the added service. For the business details page, there will be more sites listed at the bottom which are related to that particular site. So users can easily browse to other sites which are related. And oh, I have added a screenshot preview as well. Users can also leave feedback and comments from now on, but they are subjected to moderation by our editors.
However, the pricing of submissions still remains free. I have no intention of charging for free listings, so don’t worry. Hopefully, this will continue to attract people to submit their business sites to us, which in turn helps to enhance the value of the directory. The more sites we have, the more content we have. I mean, the main reason why visitors visit our directory is because they are looking for something. For example, if they are looking for businesses selling beauty products but if they are greeted with just one or two listings, they will leave disappointed. We are not in the habit of making our visitors leave disappointed. We are continuously looking for ways to improve and enhance our directory. So if you have any suggestion or comments, please do not hesitate to contact us in the contact page.
Oh, our business directory is Singapore Small Business.
Yes, the holidays are coming very soon. I am sure that a lot of us are very eager to go off to our dream vacation, especially considering that it had been a very tough year for most of us – the economic crisis and all. In Singapore, we are all just so stressed out with everything. From work to our family, there seems to be a neverending assault of problems for us to try and solve. I am not saying that people in other countries have it easy but from the looks of it, Singapore seemed to be affected the most. Too bad our country wasn’t prepared for it and I guess most of us were surprised by the financial meltdown that happened. I know, since I lost quite a lot of my savings and CPF in Unit Trust investing. Well, live and learn I guess. Now, I am not so naive to believe that just because some financial planner shows you a chart that looks like everything is going up and up, means that it will happen in the future.
Oh, as usual I am going off-track. I am not here to tell you about my life problems and you are certainly not here to hear them. I am here to talk about the holidays. And that is the best time to rest and get the weight off your shoulders. In fact, I think it is a necessity for most, as our jobs nowadays are very stressful indeed. The best way to do that is to go overseas. I am sure most of us are very keen to leave Singapore. Leave all the stress behind and enjoy the new environment, meet new people and see new things. I have never met any Singaporean who would not want a chance to go overseas, especially when it is on holiday! And if you are planning to go overseas, why not plan early? Or do you want to wait till the last moment when things can easily screw up? Even if you do not have any concrete plans now, there is no harm in going around to travel agents and have a look at what they are offering. You might be surprised to find some very interesting destinations and even offers as well. Early planning saves you time, headaches and even money. Furthermore, you don’t have to push and shove your way through the crowds during the travel shows or at the travel agency. In addition, if you wait too long, you might end up disappointed if everything is fully booked and you are left stranded in Singapore. So, it is always a good idea to plan early.
I have kept quite a lot of vacation leave just for this coming holiday. Yes, I am planning to go overseas. For me, the problem isn’t my family or whether I have enough leave, but money. Lol, I am not making alot of money, definitely not enough to go for long trips to faraway places. And I tend to spend quite a large portion of my salary on food nowadays, leaving very little for everything else. That can’t be helped – my health is very important. But I think I am still able to save enough money to Hong Kong or even Korea. Well, I can only keep my fingers cross and hope that it is so.
Well, if you have plans to go overseas for your holiday, please take a look at my listing of Singapore Tour/Travel Agencies. Hopefully, you can make your plans from there. Good luck to all of us!
Are you planning to cater food for your upcoming party? Perhaps you have a house-warming party to prepare? Or you are planning a birthday party for your kids? I am sure that most of us have faced the problem of catering food for an event or party and found that we just don’t have the options available in time. However, most likely problem is we just don’t have the time to source for a catering company. Or that we are just too lazy or tired to do so. So we choose the easiest way out – anyone will do. Most catering companies will provide you with a menu with several options to choose from and you pick. That’s about it. Life can sometimes be as simple as that.
Of course indeed there will be a problem – you have no idea whether the quality of the food they served is good. Your guest might leave unsatisfied or worst, with a bad taste in their mouths. Definitely not something which you want, right? Some catering service offers dining accessories like napkins, decorations, chairs and so on, some don’t. You will need to know in order to prepare for your party or event. Some of them do offer the service of a butler or a waiter, some don’t. And for certain seasons/occassions, they offer a different menu, for example Christmas menu, Chinese New Year menu or Hari Raya menu. If your party is a themed party, it is important to have a themed dining experience as well. It might not be appropriate to serve certain kinds of food at certain events. How about the prices? With nothing to compare to, you don’t really know whether the prices are reasonable. What I mean is that if you don’t look at what other catering companies are offering, you lose out.
And searching on the Internet can be very daunting. Even search engines can be very picky and confusing. The best would be a business listing for catering companies. This provides you with a list of food catering companies which you can enquire about their various menus and prices. But then this leaves you with the same problem – you will have to call them and get their prices and this can take a lot of your valuable time. The best option would be an online business listing – convenience at your fingertips. So if you want to get more information about a certain catering company, then just browse to their website. Any enquiries can also be done through email. You don’t have to waste time calling and calling. A lot of catering companies now reply to emails fast as sending menus through email is convenient and practical.
So if you are looking for a catering company, please visit our business directory. Here you can find our comprehensive listings of food catering companies in Singapore. All our listings have links to the company website.
Well, after about 1 year, I think that it is about time SgSmallBiz.com has a make-over. And of course, during this design change, I will be upgrading the script to the latest version as well as adding some new functions and features into the directory. As you guys know, SgSmallBiz.com is a local business directory and its main focus is on small and medium size Singapore companies. We started this directory way in 2006 when there wasn’t really a strong market for business listings on the Internet and have built it into a major site for Singapore businesses. Of course, nowadays we do see a lot of other competitors coming into the market. But we believe none of them have the same comprehensive listings in the different categories like we do. Most business directories seek businesses to input their website information for their listings. We do it differently. Our editors continuously add business listings when they find it. Thus our business directory probably contain more quality listings than most other local business directories. And that has been our business focus all these while. We do not wait for others to add business listings, we add the listings ourselves!
Anyway,we are designing our directory so that not only will it be visually appealing but the content will be presented to our visitors in a neater and clearer way. That means finding information(aka listings) easier. We understand that when our visitors come to our site, they don’t want to be bombarded with advertisements nor do they want to have to navigate through a maze to find what they want. And that is what we are hoping that the new design will give to our visitors. That is actually the main aim of our directory.
However, we have been in the business directory market for more than 3 years and for normal listings, we have not been charging a fee for submissions. We are now thinking of charging for submissions soon. The idea behind this is to ensure that the listings we get are actual businesses and they are at least of some quality. We do get submissions that are not up to standard or are not businesses or are for oversea businesses. Although we have editors to filter out such sites, we do get a lot of submissions per day and it is getting difficult for us to filter them all. Hopefully, charging a fee will help improve the standard of our directory. But not to worry, the fee will just be a token sum and most likely the fee charge will be for lifetime submission. Yes, the featured listing will remain the same.
Well, I will keep you guys updated on the development of the website. Please take a look at our website – Singapore Business Directory.
Are you planning to go on tour this coming holiday? I am sure that most of you are. Of course, the economy is bad, but you have been working your ass off for the past few months and all the stress has gotten into you. You will need to relax. In Singapore, we are all just so stressed out everyday with work, family, relatives and other “stuff” that taking a break is a must. Or most of us will go crazy with the huge load on our shoulders. And please, there is no harm planning early. Planning early makes everything goes “smoother”. Sure, there will always be hiccups even with the best planning, but you will find that last minute tour plans are terrible. In fact, I would highly recommend you to start planning where you want to go, for how long, who is going with you and your travel plans NOW. Furthermore, everyone hates the crowd (with prams and noisy little kids) at the travel operator’s showroom during peak periods or at the NATAS Travel fair. I know I do.
First of all, you should try checking out what packages travel agencies have. Just visit the travel agencies’ offices and take a few brochures. Or visit them online to see what they are offering, even if you are not going overseas anytime soon. This way, you can get at least an idea on what you should be expecting. And you can plan from there. If you are planning to go without any tour guide (aka free and easy packages), you should also try to find out what they offer and what you need to get yourself (like transportation, food and even lodging).Those brochures can also be very helpful when you are planning which destination to go to.
If you are planning to go on a tour group, then the reputation of the tour agency is doubly important. Getting the right travel agency will ensure that your trip is enjoyable and stress free. Although I am sure that there will be things going wrong no matter what, a good travel agency will help reduce the chances and will ensure that things will be resolved faster.
Then plan your budget.Probably the hardest thing to do. Remember to leave a little more just in case. Especially for those going “free and easy”, I would highly recommend travelers to add in a little more. You will never know what will happen during the actual trip. Going for budget is good, to a certain point. Hey, you are going on holiday to relax and enjoy yourself, not to suffer with overcrowded buses or trains or even planes, or sleep in dirty and unhygienic places, or eat crappy food. If you want to do all those, might as well stay in Singapore right? But however, not everything enjoyable is expensive. You can still find good value for money deals out there if you look hard enough. I myself got a great deal during my Hong Kong (and during the peak school holidays) trip on lodging – half price!
Next, you will figure out how long your overseas trip will be. You need to take leave for the duration, correct? Not all of us are bosses what. However, remember, if you are planning to have a long holiday, remember to add one more day for you to unwind and unpack your luggage and your tons of overseas purchases. It can really be tiring if you have return immediately to work the next day. Of course, if you are bringing your family (like your spouse) along, they might too need to take leave or make necessary arrangements. Not all of us can just leave everything and go off like nobody’s business what.
Well, after all that and if you are still interested in going for a holiday, please take a look at my list of Singapore Travel Agencies.
Not in this blog of course but for my business directory. What do yo guys think of having a classifieds section for my business directory? Sure, it will not be like those big names classifieds like St701 or Mocca, but I am thinking of setting it up like Craigslist, which allows people to freely post ads online without the hassle of registering and so on. Of course, then there is Craigslist Singapore, which would offer the same thing to their users. I guess in order to compete with Craigslist, I will have to do a lot of Search Engine Optimization, some advertising and promotion along the way. By the way, my business directory, I did a ton load of Search Engine Optimization and it has good ranking for certain categories, some of which are pretty popular in Singapore.
The main reason why I am thinking of setting up the classifieds section is because I don’t think that just a business directory is useful for my visitors. It is just too static and to a point, very boring. There isn’t anything to keep visitors coming back, unlike classifieds where visitors come to look for new or better deals and to post ads. And businesses usually don’t update their websites, which would mean that if they have any promotions or special offers, nobody knows if they just visit their websites. Adding a classifieds section would really help businesses increase their exposure online and enhance business opportunities. Furthermore, there are quite a number of people out there doing business without a website. Since the classifieds doesn’t require them to have a actual website, they can still post their company information, products and services online. It is actually a very flexible option for small businesses.
Of course, everything costs money. That includes webhosting, the classified script, modification cost, time and effort. So although the ads posting are free, I think I will be offering featured ads which would cost a little more. What featured listing offer to customers is increased “ad period”, random frontpage appearance, better ad formatting and perhaps more photos are allowed. I guess about S$10 per featured listing would be reasonable?
Anyway, this is just an idea. I will need to finalize the cost of setting this up. And with so much competition out there, it is an uphill task. However, from what I see, it seems to me that all those big name classifieds are merely “following the crowd” without understanding the promise of classifieds publishing. I think that classifieds should be all about the content (yes, the advertisements themselves) instead of the name of the publisher. And they can offer way more than what they are currently offering now but sadly they are not doing it. Well, wish me luck. I need to do some brainstorming first before committing my limited resources.
If you are interested, please take a look at my Singapore Business Directory.
Well, do you? If so, and if you have a website, you can submit your website to our local business directory (Singapore Small Business Directory – www.SgSmallBiz.com) and increase your company’s exposure. We have a very well optimized website in which you can find different businesses in Singapore. Yes, it is not like StreetDirectory or Singapore Business Federation type of site, but it is still what it does best – helping small and medium local businesses in Singapore gain a web presence. Merely a website will not get you noticed since in the Internet, there are millions of websites all vying for your (and your customer’s) attention.
On search engines, we rank very well too. Try searching for the terms “Singapore Small Business” or “Singapore Small Business Directory” and you will see that we are number 1!
We rank number 7 for the search terms “Singapore Food Catering” as well as number 6 for “Singapore Tuition Centres”. We are planning more search engine optimization soon which we believe will help us improve our rankings in the Search Engines. Furthermore, we are planning to advertise in traditional media like the newspapers to enhance our directory. This will definitely help improve the exposure of the listings in our directory. Furthermore, unlike most other directories and websites, we do not have huge number of flashy advertisements to distract our visitors from the actual listings. Hopefully, this concept will help the websites in our listings.
We have free listings for businesses in Singapore. We recommend anyone with a business website to submit their sites to us. You don’t have to spend money to enhance your website’s presence on the Internet. However if you would like to stand out from the rest, you can submit to our featured listing. The price is US$30 per year. We get about 2000-3000 unique visits per day, mostly from Singapore.
If you are interested, please take a look at our various categories for consideration:
So, if you have any business website, remember to submit to our directory and see the number of your visitors to your site increase.
So, the school holidays are here. School children every where are glad that the schools over and they are finally able to have some fun. You know, nowadays schools can be very stressful for kids. It is not like in the past where school is just a place for learning maths, science and language and then you return home. It is now a place for learning everything. And our brilliant expert “educationists” have recommended that our school system have more “project work” which teaches “team work” and “responsibility” , improves “creativity” and allows students to think “independently”. Basically it means that our young school children is pumped with tons of stuff to do in order for the Education Ministry to look “good”. Oh, they are telling us to help them give our children the education they deserved. I find it very sad that our children are forced by our authorities to have such a stressful time in school and even at home, when they should be enjoying life. For god’s sake, they are children, not adults and they do deserve to have some fun once in a while.
I have seen parents piling their children with schoolbooks, textbooks and what-not every day. Even during the school holidays. That frightens me. I wonder how will their children turn out? My thought is that when adults are miserable, they tend to want to inflict their misery on others. What easier victim than their own children? If you think that it is not true, you will be surprised. We are supposed to love our children, but the truth is, some of the parents do not have the best interest of their children at heart. I have seen parents complaining to schools about the lack of “homework assignments” and “projects” and I was stunned. They have already a lot of homework assignments to do! Every day, you see school children heaving a huge bag of textbooks to school and they are telling me that there is not enough homework assignments??? What gives? I know it is not in the Singaporean parents’ nature to be understanding, but it doesn’t take much of an brain to realize that there is always a limit to what can be squeezed. And if you keep on squeezing, one day your child might just break and as the parent, you will have to be responsible for the consequences. But of course, most Singaporean parents will blame someone or something else.
Oh, if this is not scaring you the slightest, then I have a listing of Singapore Tuition Centres for you to enjoy browsing through.
