New Grants Keep Cropping Up In Malaysia

With so many grants available provided by the good government of Malaysia, I was hardpressed to choose which ones to go for.

I mean, the most basic grants would be from SMIDEC - they offer fundings and reimbursements for new start-ups, office renovation, advertising and promotion, website development. All we need to do is simply fill up their forms, submit, and wait for the cheques!

And there is the Cradle Investment Programme - a whopping RM150,000 for individuals who can come up with a feasible commercial idea, leveraging on ICT and multimedia technologies. Think "ikan air tawar" + "e-content portal" = "increased tourism revenue", and you might as well pocket RM150,000 from Cradle.

Or, similar example of the "ikan air tawar" (clear water fish, for the uninitiated) + "e-content portal" + "mobile devices distribution" = "increased use in 3G technologies", and you can apply from the Malaysia Multimedia and Communications Commission (MCMC) for a whopper catch of RM1,500,000!!!

And not to mention MDeC's RnD Grant (MGS) for MSC status companies with unlimited funding (which Designel Media Sdn Bhd, as an MSC status company, is going to adamantly pursue to enhance the effectiveness of the teaching and learning of Islamic content).

Ah... for individuals they have the MDeC PreSeed fund - RM150,000 + a new MSC Status company for teams who can come up with an idea that (yet again) leverage on ICT and Multimedia technologies to bring the Malaysian economy another notch up.

(Btw, 2 of our Eilham friends got the MDeC PreSeed fund - an animated feature, and a mobile video ringtones development).

In addition, MDeC just launched another grant scheme dubbed "ICON" (Integrated Content Development Programme) for individuals who already has something ready to be commercialized. There's ICONity (for social networking enthusiasts), ICONedu (for e-content owners and e-learning practitioners), ICONex (for online service providers) and ICONapps (an internship programme for students and the unemployed). The grant is up to RM100,000 for each subcategory (excluding ICONapps)!!!

Whoa!

How come people still go to Alongs (or Sharks, if you wanna continue the fishy metaphor)?

Sheesh. For those who have missed my posting on the available fundings in Malaysia, you may download a list of grants and funders for FREE over at www.eilmu.com/senarai.

Then, if you have the flimsiest of ideas (like compiled salon hair in a woman's stockings), you are welcome to check with me to see if they can be explored further.

I am Eilham. Try me.

Digital Gaming

Dear Malaysians,

With all the grants the government is issuing, can't we just be Blizzard? Or at least die trying?

World War

Hahahah... I really like this 3D animation short clip!

Hey, you guys have any ideas like this short clip, we can go and apply an MDeC or Cradle grant.

(If you need some guidance, head to my guide).

Money Given Out By The Government - But Not Many Know About It

There are a lot of grants, funds, soft loans and financial assisstance given by the Malaysian government to help us in our initiative.

And to those who knows about these money our government is giving away, many thought that its for businesses only.

Dear guys and gals,

The Malaysian government offers money to SMEs, AND INDIVIDUALS ALSO.

For SMEs (or businesses), you can get a lot of grants under SMIDEC and MATRADE.

For individuals, you can appy for a potentially commericial business idea from Cradle and MDeC (I've gotten 3 Cradle Grants thus far - the 4th has been submitted as an application last Monday). You can get up to RM150,000.00, and no need to pay it back.

I've prepared a list of 23 organizations in Malaysia that has money to give, plus a list of the various grants that they offer, as well as their contact information for your benefit.

Get the list FREE - click here to get one.

Get Funding For Your Ideas - RM50,000 ++

A lot of people have come up to me and threw me their ideas. Great ideas, most of them, and have great market potential. However, many of them, if not all, are stuck when it comes to writing the business proposal.

And although I can write the proposals on behalf, I may never be able to do presentations on the ideas - the owner of the idea must do it him or herself.

As such, I thought it may be a good start to put what I know in simple writing, with clear guidelines and examples, to help you put your business idea into a basic proposal. In doing so, you may have a clearer vision of where your idea(s) can lead to - should you pursue it? Do you have to reconsider certain aspects of your idea? There are a lot of considerations before flying guns-ablaze with your business idea - lest, you'd find yourself in a muck too deep for you to retrace your steps.

I've written a guide to write a business proposal - based on my proposal writing experience since I was a consultant in Meteor way back in 2003, to this day. Recently, my team has managed to secure 2 Cradle Investment Program funding - Bulletpages (RM113,000) and Lagenda Aurellia (RM150,000), with another one Bulletlive (not sure how much yet).

For the majority's benefit, I've written it in Malay.

You can get it here: Portal Eilmu Anda

Setara Vista Flash Header

Just did a friend a favor - flash header at http://www.setaravista.com/.

For an engineer, I think my friend Nizam is one cool php programmer. Kudos!

If you haven't already - visit my gallery at http://www.eilham.net/.

Things Are Cooking Now Because I Decided To Cook Before

On almost a daily basis, my wife always call me sometime mid-morning to know whether I'm having lunch at home. She always nags at me if I suddenly appear through the door at lunch hour with a rumbling stomach (or worse, with a shaking and numbing self - a common occurrence in me when sugar is low in my system), because meals are not instant! Even Magee needs more than 2 minutes, considering the need to boil water before putting the mee into the pot!

I understand my wife's concern. She needs time to prepare the ingredients, take out frozen food from the fridge to thaw it before she can cooks them. Lunch is never instant, no matter how instant we are told it is.

I guess same goes for business - its rewards are never instant. I had to seek businesses out before I can have a business. I have to close deals before I can expect revenues. 

And then, I will reap the rewards. As I did before. As usual.

But as usual, people only notice my rewards - seldom they see the hardships behind it. Yeah, I make good money, and I'm proud that I get to spend more time with my wife and children than a majority of other men. Others wish they can have a life like mine.

But they seldom wants to do the things I do to get this life I have.

Looking at my business pot at the moment, I'm glad that it's cooking some significant projects now. It has been months of going into the market, shopping for resources, and putting recipes together. 

Today's business had not been instant. As it was never before. As usual. The recipe is to prepare for it in advance, cook it and then eat it.

So what are you cooking?

Flash Programmer Wanted

Hi all,

I am in need of a flash programmer urgently to simulate the Ti84 Graphing Calculator:

For those who are interested, please e-mail me at webmaster@eilham.com to express your interest.

The expected delivery of this simulation is within 2 weeks time. I am willing to pay RM1,500++ for any who can deliver.

Self Made Webpreneur

New Straits Time
Tech & U
04 June 2009

Hi guys,

Just sharing with you the article I was featured in: "Self Made Webpreneur".

Web Designer Magazine Issue 156

Oh so sweet....

The Web Designer Magazine Issue 156 is on sale now in Malaysia - find it at MPH, MyNews.com, etc.

Find me on page 101!

Find me on www.eilham.net!

Zahir's Webworks At www.eilham.net

Sometimes I get bored. Sometimes I need to do something for myself.

Sometimes I come up with something quirky. Like my recently uploaded Zahir's Webworks.

Hope you like it. Maybe you'll find some use to it.

Lagenda Aurellia - Early Sketch

Here's a hint of what to expect - the sketch above is a possible character in Lagenda Aurellia. She might not look too Nusantara now, but one could write a story for her background to say she is Keira who comes from "Kampung Warna Melor" and that she's one of the Penghulu's assassin.

She does look a little bit Malay, don't you think?

Sneek Peek - Lagenda Aurellia

My next project is about revitalizing the Malaysian history, culture and folklore.

The working title is "Lagenda Aurellia" - LA for short.

This project is my passion since I was a little boy living somewhere in Ipoh.

Finally, I get to do it. And hopefully, you'll get to enjoy it.

www.trianglesphere.com

Hey, just a quick one:

I've just designed my aunt's website at www.trianglesphere.com

Feel free to visit, and drop me a comment or two here.

GTWay35 - Your Affordable E-Commerce Portal

For those of you who have ever wanted to venture into e-commerce and thought that it would be rather expensive to have a secure online transaction facilities, fret no more! GTWay35 is a new e-commerce designed and built by Malaysian Bumis whose objective is to accelerate Malaysians to take up e-commerce.

GTWay35 is a marketplace of products for you to use - for RM35.00 a year, you get to post unlimited products and accept online payment from Visa/Mastercard, Maybank2u, RHB Bank, Public Bank, MEPS FPX, etc. as it utilizes Malaysia's own payment processor NBePay, and your transactions are managed by a registered company in Malaysia (Multigrow Elite Sdn Bhd) that has our MOF certificates for IT and trading (among others) to ensure safe-trade for both buyer and seller.

In summary, with GTWay35, you can have your own online store with which you can accept online payments. It's RM35.00 per year - that's less than 10 cents per day!

In addition, GTWay35 rewards you for referring other people to become GTWay35 Merchants (people who pay RM35.00 per year) - for every of your direct referral who becomes a GTWay35 Merchant, GTway35 will give you a RM10.00 incentive!

Of course, the moment you sell an item for a profit of more than RM35.00 within the next 12 months, you'd cover your GTWay35 registration fee already!

Hey, don't let me ramble more. Just let the site do the talking! Just head on to GTWay35, and see if it can be your vehicle to success!

From Malaysia To The World

Last night an e-mail got me an adrenalin rush. The e-mail was from Steven Jenkins, an editor at the Web Designer Magazine (www.webdesignermag.co.uk), and he told me in the e-mail that the magazine would like to feature Designel Media in Web Designer Magazine Issue 156, which will be out on sale 09 April 2009. 

Out of the hundreds of thousands sites submitted to the magazine, Designel Media's caught the international publisher's eyes.

More importantly for us all, a Malaysian design firm, a team from Perak, Pahang and Terengganu, has met the international standards. 

I assure you, this accomplishment is not by Designel Media alone. Without the projects forwarded by Eilham members, we would not have anything to work with, and therefore no visuals to showcase in our galleries. 

Thank you, Eilham Technopreneurs. Thanks a zillion.

On this note, I would like to invite you to the much awaited Eilham workshop:

Date: 

21 Feb 2009

Time: 

2.30pm - 4.00pm

Venue: 

MITEC Lab, MSC Technology Commercialisation Centre,Multimedia University, 63100, Cyberjaya, Selangor Darul Ehsan

The Eilham team is going to showcase MyResume2009, a product by an Eilham Technopreneur, and introduce to you how this service can make that extra cash you need to pay your bills. I'd recommend that you register yourself at www.mcv.me for the event, as space is limited.

Seriously, I can't wait for more of your ideas. Your Eilham.

Malaysia Boleh!

Designel Media Galleries

By popular demand, Designel Media's website at http://www.designelmedia.com.my/ now includes galleries on Print, Web and E-Learning. Go take a look.

You might enjoy it more than you think. :)

A Thank You Note To En Kamal of the National Entrepreneurs Development Centre (NEDC)

En Kamal,

It was a pleasure to have met you. I sincerely thank you to have taken some time off your precious time to join me and En Hazrul at the Station Kopitiam, Jalan Tuanku Abdul Rahman this evening. Our discussion had somewhat renewed my vigor towards helping others reach their better potential. It is not everyday that I meet someone who shares our passion and vision, but we very well know that if we look hard enough, we will find a compatible soul.

I would very much like to thank the person who introduced to you the Eilham Technopreneurs Development Programme - En Hambami. And I would very much like to thank Ms Dyana, who had flown to the north to meet En Hambami and explained to him about Eilham. Without the effort from the two Eilham members, you and I might have been faceless names on the vast Internet. Without the networking platform that is Eilham and your NEDC, we would not have met.

I would like to express to you my utmost approval of your own personal effort in helping others build their lives through entrepreneurship - your website http://www.nedc.com.my/ is testament to the many that you have helped (I am deeply moved with your "Before" and "After" depictions - hopefully you can share with us that URL as I seem to have misplaced it somewhere on my hard disk). At least I know that I am not alone in my mission to create better lives for people (though sometimes there are casualties). As one of my mentors once said to me, "99% of your efforts will go down the drain, but that 1% will make it all worth your while." And with us working together, distant or not, maybe we can achieve 2% (since there are 27 million plus Malaysians, 2% can mean 540,000 Malaysians - imagine the pahala!)

And again, En Kamal, thank you for your time. May we be able to help more people by working together.

We help when we can, not when we are asked to. And no matter what, do good anyway.

Regards,

Ahmad Zahirudin Ahmad Fauzi
Eilham Technopreneur

Design - Taska Sri Intan

Hey fellas,

The Eilham team has just designed the new look and feel for Taska Sri Intan! It's not yet published, but because you subscribe to this blog, you get to preview them!

Whaddaya think?

Business Card Design:

Brochure Design:

Visit the development URL at www.eilham.net/sriintan .

Don't forget to leave your comments here!

Reflections: The Eilham Technopreneurs Development Programme

In a whiff, 2008 will leave us to make way for 2009. As December comes nigh, I cannot help but think about my 12 months journey to this day.

Back in January 2008, the Eilham Technopreneurs Development Programme wasn't even launched yet. My team and I were still busy fine tuning the programme, side-stepping the intended January 2008 launch date. Oh... we were so busy then that I had to skip many World of Warcraft sessions just so that I can focus on developing the Eilham programme.

And, finally, in March 2008, the Eilham Technopreneurs Development Programme was previewed to the public.

Since then, I had to skip a lot more World of Warcraft sessions.

The Eilham Technopreneurs Development Programme was designed to support entrepreneurs to build their business, mostly by means of IT and Multimedia. The Eilham programme also promotes the idea of people helping other people towards an end, with the intention of creating a community of values-driven entrepreneurs. We did not specify a business field or industry, to make the programme more applicable to a wider range of audience. In fact, we open the eligibility to the Eilham programme to as young as 13 year olds - designing a successful life shouldn't be restricted to adults only.

The Eilham Technopreneurs Development Programme grew itself as we had designed it.

However, though we planned it, the results are an adventure itself!

In general, the Eilham Technopreneurs Development Programme has made small business owners enjoy quality promotional materials such as business cards, brochures, letterheads, menus, etc. (hey! you should really order some for yourself to get what I mean - for example, you will only experience the full quality of our business cards when you hold them in your hands!)

On the individual level, we have had the pleasure to help some people who took the extra mile to improve their business and their lives.

One example is our friend Mr Darren Daniel Ong Abdullah - CEO of Penzpages Sdn Bhd, founder of Bulletpages.com. Since Darren had registered into the Eilham programme, we worked as a team to help him obtain the Cradle fund of RM130,000.00! On top of that, the Eilham programme had enabled him to save more than RM60,000.00 from his Cradle budget through our consultation in his Bulletpages IT and multimedia requirements.

Another example is Pn Vanida Krishna and her husband Mr Azman Shah, who had earned RM20,000.00 in sales commission for ONE e-learning job she successfully saw through. And recently, Azman managed to retire from his employment to focus on expanding his own business with the support of the Eilham programme.

Yet another example - a father and son team, Mr Ridzuan Repin and Mr Repin Ibrahim, who brought in e-learning projects from the USA, through their use of the Eilham Demo CD and Brochure 08. They have earned a total sales commission of more than USD2,000 to date.

Guess what - they only paid RM300.00 like the rest of us to join the Eilham programme.

Aah, 2009 is just around the corner. We are excited to help more people through the Eilham Technopreneurs Development Programme.

And maybe you can help us identify who's next!

Happy New Year 2009! May you find your path to success in the next 12 months.