Next to our shop is a mobile book store. The boss is a PR from China, he married to a Singaporean wife. They sell mainly Chinese books from Mainland China. This boss employs 4 women whom main duty are accompany their children study in Singapore. Their operating hour is from 10am to 9.30pm (11.5 hours/day). They are paid hour rate, IE S$4/hour. They work almost every day, hence, they have average S$46/day or S$1380/month. It is enough to cover their living hood in Singapore. I think they are happy with the arrangement, hence, they are staying in the job for more than 1 year. People's Park Centre is the most stable outlet. The other 3-4 outlets, are mostly short term like 7-14 days at one place, White Sand, Ang Mo Kio, Toa Payah.........they will move around from time to time. Their books usually priced between S$10- S$18/-.
Some time, when I bored, I like to talk to them. They are all decent women who really want their children to have a bright future.
Some times, they ask me to watch out their stores so that they can go toilet or buy food. You will be surprised, there are books lover who doesn't want to pay for the book, but they want to own the book! There was one incident, there were a few customers browsing the books at the same time, the storekeeper particularly took note of one book because that book was high price, which cost about S$46/-. After she attended one customer at one end, when she return, the expensive book was gone, but the guy who just now browsing the book was still standing there, did not move away. This storekeeper screamed what happen to the missing book, that guy pretended he was innocent and he did not know any things. The storekeeper has no choice, she informed the boss accordingly. They were arranged to watch the video recording in the security office from People's Park Centre. What actually happen was revealed. This guy who pretended to be innocent was not innocent at all, he had a company. This guy used newspaper as cover up by putting the newspaper on top of the book they wanted. When the storekeeper was busy, he quickly passed the book in the newspaper to his friend who stood next to him. He would stay and not move away. The next day, the lady went to see the guy who was working at one of the shop here and told him, "We have seen the VCD recording, and you are the culprit. We just want our book money back! otherwise, we will report to the police." In such situation, the evident was vivid, that guy has a great chance to became a jail bird. Without second thought, he paid the amounts accordingly. Out of curiosity, I asked what is the title of the stolen book. She could not tell the actual title, she said it is about Christianity. What the hell?
I think this boss is running a profitable operation because he has done the following things right.
1) His account is clear and updated every day. This is an important but boring task that most people ignore. He insisted his staff report to him all the items sold every night after the store closed. The informations included the title, the ISBN reference no and the price sold through SMS using hand phone despite they already recorded.
2) They always has new books arrival.
3) One of the most important factor, the boss wife never ever interfere their business. Nobody know much about the wife. A lot of small enterprise, the boss's wife usually like to bossy around. A lot people thinking of changing their job not because they are not happy with the job itself, but they are not happy with the human relationship in the job environment. His workforce is stable.
Got the ideas already? Good luck.
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