We're coming up to Singapore

With two new associates starting in Singapore and many more coming on line soon, we have successfully established the True Friends group there. My friend and business partner Sireen Sharqawi is travelling there shortly to interview a number of prospective associates there.

If you are looking for a home based business opportunity in Singapore, contact us now. To find out more about the business, download Virend Singh's new e-book. Use the following details to read the book: Username: Prosperity, Password: 211496448

Home Based Business Opportunities I'd Recommend

Here is a unique home based business opportunity available in Singapore. Also you can participate in intellectual distribution or just simply work from home in Singapore.

Starting A Business In Singapore

If you are moving from a job to working from home in Singapore, you must first register as a sole trader.
The Singaporean Government has well designed business sites to help you through the process. The best place to start is the Enterprise One Register a Sole-Proprietorship or Partnership page

Here you will find a flow-chart of the requirements for starting your business and the times taken for approval. This would probably be the best designed government information site I have ever seen as far as ease of navigation and quality of information provided.

Can you legitimately base your office in your home in Singapore?
Under the Singapore Home Office Scheme (HO), you can operate your business from your home or flat, provided you are the owner, tenant or legal occupier of the dwelling.

There are certain regulations, relating to disturbance to other residents, for instance, You can't run business where you have large numbers of people visiting to attend seminars, dance tuition etc. See the complete list of excluded businesses.

If the residential property is in a Housing & Development Board (HDB) flat, you need to apply to HDB, While If the residential property is in a private home, then you need to apply to the Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA). There is a non-refundable registration fee of $20(inclusive of GST) is required when you register the HO use with URA.

It is quite possible that if you plan to run a Network Marketing or Intellectual Distribution business, you do not need to apply for this scheme as this type of business meets the following guidelines:

Small Business Guidelines

The Small Business Guidelines apply to all residential premises including residential zones. Under these guidelines, certain non-residential activities could be allowed where the change of use is not considered as material.

These activities are to be of small scale in operation and should not materially affect the use of the premises as a residential unit. The residential amenity of the surrounding area should not be adversely affected.To ensure this, the activities that can be allowed should meet all the following criteria:

1. no person outside the household is to be employed
2. no external advertisement/business signboard is to be displayed
3. no extraneous traffic is introduced to the site
4. no noise, smoke, smell, effluent or dust nuisances or danger should be posed to the surrounding residents
5. no loading and unloading of goods by vans and trucks
6. the activities must comply with the rules and regulations of other authorities e.g. NEA
   HDB flats address cannot be used for business registration. The use of private residential premises address for business registration does not require planning permission provided there is no material change of use of the residential premises.

Before you set up your business, however it would be advisable to check with the relevant authorities.

Finally, check the frequently asked questions page on the Home Office Scheme.

Network Marketing And The Law In Singapore

For many years, legitimate network marketing companies and illegal pyramid schemes were grouped together and frowned on by authorities in Singapore. This has changed in recent years and many companies are now moving into the lucrative Singapore market.

In countries like Australia, the main difference in the eyes of the law is that for a business to be legitimate, the income must come from the sale of products and not simply from recruiting people. So it must be a real network of distribution - a way of distributing products or services and not just a scheme of recruiting.

As a method of distributing products or services it is very powerful and extremely attractive to manufacturers. Consider the comparison between the financial outlay for a company to put their products in a supermarket chain, compared with the outlay to introduce products to a Network Marketing group. Instead of the company having to outlay millions of dollars in advertising before they sell a single product, they have a team of dedicated people who use the product promoting it for them - and they don't pay out a cent in commissions until they have sales!

So how do Singapore authorities now view this distribution method?

In Singapore, Direct Selling practices come under The Multi-Level Marketing and Pyramid Selling (Prohibition) (Amendment) Act 2000, which came into operation on June 1, 2000. An Exclusion Order was made at the same time that the Act was amended. Under the Order, there are classes of schemes that are automatically allowed to operate.

Any company could, on the strength of the legal advice they presumably sought and received, make the case that they are excluded by the Order, as long as they fulfill the criteria for one of the excluded classes of schemes. There is no application for approval required for any of these excluded schemes.

The following are criteria that a company might be looking at when evaluating whether they can operate in Singapore. Note that the onus of making sure a compensation plan complies with the Exclusion Order lies with the company.

Under Exclusion Order 2 (1) (c), any scheme or arrangement, or any class of such scheme or arrangement, must satisfy the following conditions:

(I) any benefit received by any promoter or participant in the scheme or arrangement accrues as a result of the sale, lease, license or other distribution of a commodity to any other person, and not as a result of the recruitment of one or more persons to be additional participants in the scheme or arrangement;

(ii) the promoter of the scheme or arrangement shall not knowingly make, or cause to be made:

(A) any representation relating to the scheme or arrangement, or relating to the commodity, which is false or misleading; or

(B) any omission in a material particular relating to the scheme or arrangement, or relating to the commodity;

(iii) the promoter of the scheme or arrangement shall not make, or cause to be made, any representation to any person that benefits will accrue under the scheme or arrangement in a manner other than as specified in sub-paragraph (i); and(iv) the commodity shall be distributed with a refund or buy-back guarantee that is exercised on reasonable commercial terms, and every participant in the scheme or arrangement and every consumer of the commodity shall be informed of the existence of the guarantee and the manner in which it can be exercised.

The Asian Market Is Set To Boom

The wellness industry is booming in the west, largely because the generation of 'baby boomers' are begining to reach a point in their lives where health is and aging is becoming an issue.

The Asian market is somewhat different. As Western companies continue to "offshore" jobs to the region, it is increased prosperity that is driving the demand for wellness products there.

People in Singapore and in the rest of the region have a traditional acceptance of natural products and as their discressionary income grows, so does their spending on wellness products.

And Singapore is a great place to be based as it is central to several large markets and has solid infrastructure and good communications. They are predicting that this industry will create 10 million new millionaires in the US and there will be many more created in the Asian region in the next decade.

Yes, it is a great time to look at a work from home alternative in Singapore today.

Fair Rewards, Flexibility and Team Building!

There are so many different compensation plans around for work from home businesses in Singapore - How do you pick the best one?

Last week we spoke about the balance a company must have, pricing their products fairly, making a profit, putting money into R & D and compensating their distributors fairly.This week, we'll talk about how the money is shared among the distributors - The Compensation Plan.

There are many different plans in existence with names like "the stair step breakaway", "the hybrid", "the matrix" and "the binary" - and understanding them can become quite confusing when you're starting out - So what should you look for in a compensation plan?

The main thing is that you want to be rewarded fairly for your effort. You want to be able to see rewards when you get results, even early in the business. You also want to be able to develop a comfortable residual income over time.

A compensation plan must have flexibility. A good plan will allow you to make money either by sponsoring other Associates or by retailing product or both. It should give you the option to buy products in small bulk lots for a cheaper price (and lower point value), allowing a good profit margin for retail.

Finally, a good compensation plan should encourage team-building. When you start a new associate in your business, you should be able to put them with one of your team members, so that your team member also benefits - without losing money yourself.

A good compensation plan will allow you to build a team, rather than placing people in competition with one another.

When looking at a compensation plan for your work from home in Singapore business, consider fair rewards, flexibility and team building.

What kind of company do you want to keep?

When you set out to work from home in Singapore with your own business, you are effectively partnering with a company for decades or life.

If you are genuinely interested in building a business, so you can enjoy residual income for years to come - you will want to look closely at the company you partner with.

Here are a few questions to ask:

How long has the company been in business? Many companies providing work-from-home opportunities fail within the first 5 years - so unless you know a lot about the industry or have inside information, it's better to be safe and choose a company with a track record.

Exercise caution when approached by 'Industry Leaders' promoting a brand new opportunity. You have to ask yourself why they left their team and their last company - They often have an 'exit strategy' - they profit from the initial growth and then move on to something else.

Is it a public or private company?A public company is listed on the stock market and has a much greater level of transpanancy than a private company - You will have more reliable information on its performance.

Was the company founded by a visionary or a marketer? Companies founded by visionaries tend to be the market leaders. Look at the company founded by that great visionary of early last century, Henry Ford. What happened to all those other manufacturers of that era - The ones founded by marketing people?

As a final check, go to a search engine like Google and research claims against the company. See how they have conducted themselves over the past years.

When you work from home in Singapore, be very fussy about the company you keep!