Entrepreneurship Development

1 December 2011
I have been approached by a local University to be a part-time lecturer in Entrepreneurship Development last September . Hence, I started doing so in November 2011. My job is to motivate the students to start up business, particularly in the Kindergarten and Early Childhood Education sector. Entrepreneurship development is vital to our Malaysian economy, The future of our economy lies in the small and medium scale business, and encouraging small and business entrepreneurs is of the utmost challenge for me. As Bill Rancic (of Donald Trump's Reality Show Apprentice fame) once said, "Fear is the greatest hurdle in small business". I totally believe this....nobody wants to loose money, which businessman like to see their investment go down the drain without any ROI. In the business world, everybody wants to profit.
Hence, my job of nurturing the impressionable minds of the youthful students is a challenging one indeed. How do I tell the students not too make too much profit out of their kindergarten charges when prices of educational toys, food and other services are escalating. This is where business ethics exercised by the kindergarten owners play an important role in operations of the centre.
Our religion Islam taught us to be fair to our customers. Excessive profits is not the practice in Islam. Muslims around the world believed there is Life after Death, unlike other religion whose followers lived only for this world. Therefore, their business ethics differ totally - they are out to make a good profit and fast. It is now or never!
I just hope my approach is acceptable to the students, comprising 99% and 1% Christian.