Charles Lau dot Com

No, I am not going to talk about the difference between a business and a job.  That’s not the topic here.  I am going to talk about the supply and demand for businesses and jobs.  It is becoming clear that the economy is booming like crazy right now.  Everybody seems to be making small fortune out of it.  The properties in Singapore are selling like crazy with crazy prices.  I also start to see more and more people starting up businesses too.

Back in 2003, many people around me seems to be talking about getting a job.  They were saying that properties are at the lowest price and lowest demand when I was working as a real estate agent.  Life was really a little tough to get a sale, and it depends a lot on the more experienced agents with better selling skills to close a deal with a little difficulty… Most of the sales were from problematic backgrounds of the buyers or sellers… I remember selling a private apartment for someone who had no choice because of a huge debt incurred… Selling a property which costs almost SGD$500,000 where they bought it at $700,000 in 1997… Who would want to sell a property at that price?

And because of the low period in 2003, the number of jobs were also cut back… It’s so interesting to see how jobs were affected… Many big companies including those “rice-bowl” ones were also cutting down on employment!  It is not common to hear friends around who are out of jobs… In fact, it seems that everybody turned to become real estate agents, insurance agents and even network marketers… My idea of becoming real estate agent as my first job is to learn more about real estate so that I can invest wisely in future… And of course to make money and learn more in the working world after seeing both my hands rusting with guns and ammunitions for a long time…

Now in 2007, everything changes so suddenly… I just read from Straits Times about the “rice-bowl” company is going to give more incentives to compete with the private-sectors… Giving five figure bonus… which is actually less than $20,000… Also, last night’s news reporting that the university graduates can expect a starting pay of $2300 where back in 2003, having $1800 is already a good expectation!  And the calling is now with the job takers… They can easily move from one job to another without much difficulty because everybody is employing!  And because the demand for jobs is increasing, the price for employment increases!  The “suppliers” (potential employees) can now take their own sweet time to look for a job of their dream!

In 2007, I can see many people starting up their own businesses… It becomes a common topic nowadays… Anyway, entrepreneurship has been encouraged in Singapore for the past few years, talking in news and heavily marketed by many new-born entrepreneur training schools… Where the business-minded people are born, the demand for jobs is also increasing together… The mindset from the people in business and in job is totally different… Though both focus on making money, business mindset tends to have that adrenalin rush to go for more!