Although online boutiques grow like mushroom lately, not many have made the cut, except for one distinctive boutique – Irenelim Fashion. Founded in late 2008, Irenelim Fashion is known for its glamorous and trendy apparels for women, not forgetting accessories such as necklace and bracelets sometimes, making it one of the most favorite online boutiques by many fashionistas.

The screenshot taken from Irenelim Fashion online boutique shows the happy customers in the beautiful outfits they bought from Irenelim Fashion.

In an interview with the founder, Irene, she recalled that it all started with her blog. While she was not much of an active blogger before, she was surprised at how well-received her blog was and how it has managed to connect her with her family and friends, not forgetting, her readers at that time.

Talk about the power of online presence.

Being a visionary person that she is, she saw almost immediately how powerful having an online presence is and how it could change her life forever. Seeing this as a glimmer of opportunity, she knew she should be taking advantage of this wonderful fate and turned her blog – irenelim.com/blog – into an online boutique, while retaining her life tell-tales in the same blog. Needless to say, her blog now became her lifeline to her business and the need to keep her blog updated from time to time became a necessity from then on.

Blessed with a very good relationship with her clothes suppliers, Irene’s quality apparels come from a wide range of dealers, which varies from local and some even all the way from Hong Kong, Taiwan, and China. Good quality of stock coupled with love, passion and excellent customer support have made her the successful person as we see her today with her website being one of the most sought-after online boutiques in town – in just a year!

However, life is not always rainbows and butterflies, and like any other successful entrepreneurs, Irene too has a dilemma of her own. In an interview with her, she quoted having a challenging time balancing her full-time job, family-time and her online-boutique business. And although finding good and reliable suppliers, not forgetting, the best hosting provider – for the website to be able to operate brilliantly – is quite a challenge, she is lucky to have found some trusted suppliers and Exabytes as her hosting provider of choice to help her gain even more customers. Although the dilemmas keep getting tougher, the optimistic entrepreneur added that her key to overcome her setbacks was to deal with one hitch at a time and move on for the better.

It started out with a corner in the utility room. Now Irenelim’s clothing have blossomed into two rooms, and even with racks and shelves so as to ease herself in sorting them out.

When asked how important having an online business is to everyone as we all make our way into the web 2.0 era, Irene, who has an eye for detail for each and every clothes she put up for sale, definitely has something to say. Let’s find out what:

1. Do you think having an online presence could contribute to the success of someone’s business?
   Definitely. In fact, although I wouldn’t say I am that successful, but thanks to online business, I am where I am today, running my own online boutique, and gaining more and more businesses each day.

2. Did you start off your business with the presence of a website?
   No, we started with a small corner in our house. Selling mostly to family members and close friends.

3. What makes you choose to want to have an online presence (website)?
   I graduated in IT and I am working as a software engineer, so I have been using a computer for decades and I grew up on the Internet! I understand the importance of an online presence and the potential of a website to reach out to the whole world. Oh, another reason at the time was I couldn’t afford to have a brick and mortar store at Damansara!

4. How different is it now that you are selling your products online as compared to last time, when you had to sell them in person? Please describe.
   When I first started, my sales were very slow as I rely almost completely on words of mouth from my family members and friends. Also, my customers were mostly from Klang Valley as they would drop by my house to look at the apparel and hand pick them.Now, selling online, I can reach out to the whole world, not only limited to customers from Klang Valley. In addition to Malaysian customers, I have customers from countries such as Singapore, Australia, US, and even from the Dubai city!

5. How many pieces do you approximately manage to sell in a month, now that you are selling online, as compared to last time, when you had to sell it in person?
   The challenge now is to manage my sales and accounting in a proper and more efficient way. I haven’t been keeping track of how many pieces I can manage to sell in a month now. Maybe smart readers can help me to do a rough estimate based on the comments and remarks on the website. Haha.

6. How much do you think you would have to spend in order for you to open and run a concrete store, as opposed to having an online store now?
   For a start, I think I would need about RM150k to open a brick and mortar store. You will need to spend a huge sum of that for the renovation, furniture, racks, hangers, mannequins, electrical fixtures, and all the other stuff. You will also need to pay for expensive rentals, utilities, staff salaries and other overheads.

   
   Compare this to an online store; we need much less expenditure than that, perhaps RM20k for a start. You will need to allocate some budget to get a professional company to design and put up the website. Make sure they are good in SEO and provide you with a user friendly control panel so you can edit and change your products easily. Don’t go for cheap web design packages that can’t deliver. Oh, since you are selling online, do make sure you get the best webhosting company to host your website. Trust me, this is ultra important, as any downtime means loss of business. As for us, Exabytes is our trusted hosting provider of choice.
   

7. How does having a website make any difference in helping you run your daily business?
   The website is where I get almost all of my businesses.

8. How much do you utilize your website in your daily operations?
   A whole lot, I stay online almost 24 hours a day! Whenever Streamyx gets moody, I get moody as well!

9. Do you think not having a website now will affect the success of your business? Why or why not?
   Haha. I don’t have a physical boutique – all my businesses are from online. So yes, I believe it will.

10. If there were entrepreneurs out there thinking of starting up a business, would you encourage them to get a website for their business? Why or why not?
    Definitely yes. Now people tend to ask for website address, email addresses and Facebook IDs!

11. If given a chance, would you like to try other things than what you are doing now? If yes, what business/field would it be?
    No, I like what I am doing now.

When asked for her advice for new startups who dream to have their own business and yet find it hard to make the leap, she commented, “In a few words; have great passion and dedication in what you are doing.”

The Irenelim Fashion’s founder, Irene, in her elegant black dinner dress.

This story reveals how powerful the Internet is as a tool. There is no need for solid, classy mortar boutique for Irene’s business to bloom with increasing customers every day. With online business, anything is possible. Irenelim Fashion has done it. It’s time you make your move too.

For more of Irenelim’s outfits, please visit her official website at Irenelim Fashion.

It was such great fun and honour to interview Kiah Kiean who is the owner of kakidesign.com.

In this interview, we will reveal how he founded his company and how online business helped him achieve success. Find out what problems they have and how he deals with them and more in this fun interview!

1. Please describe what your business is all about?
   KaKi Creative is a design studio base in Penang, providing graphic design services and creative visual solutions.

2. Tell us how you first started your business.
   I started my very first design project in year 2002 with a desktop which was assembled by my cousin Chan Kee Siak (now the CEO of Exabytes).

3. What encouraged/inspired you into starting this business?
   Simple, I love design. That’s why I call my studio KaKi Creative.

4. What are the differences between kakidesign, kakicreative and kakicreation?
   KaKi Design is the first sole proprietor company started in 2002. In year 2007 some partners joined the team and we changed the company name to KaKi Creative. KaKi Creation is a future project where I started to develop Penang’s artist and designer products. I also have a personal artist website, kiahkiean.com which showcases my sketches work.

5. Have you always wanted to do what you are doing since you were a child?
   Yes, I am a lucky person, I do what I like and what I dreamt when I was a child.

6. What are, in your opinion, the three most important things that make you successful?
   Love, Passion & Luck!

7. Have you received any awards or acknowledgements so far? Please mention if there is any.
   Not at the moment.

8. How long did it take you to get this far?
   5 years and I think there is still a long road to go.

9. What were the biggest challenges did you have to go through to get this far?
   Design managements and learning from mistakes.

10. What is the best part about being an entrepreneur for you?
    When I hear “I like your work!” from my clients.

11. Did you start off your business with the presence of a website?
    Yes

12. What makes you choose to want to have an online presence (website)?
    As a designer, I do not need to bring my heavy portfolio bag anymore. People can just view my works online. It’s really convenient to have a website.

13. How does having a website make any difference in helping you run your daily business?
    Communication becomes much easier for me. I also use the ftp service by Exabytes to transfer big files to clients far away, for example, in Singapore and other parts of the world.

14. How much do you utilize your website and email usage in your daily operations?
    Almost 100% for emails.

15. Do you think having an online presence contributed to the success of your business in some way? Why or why not?
    Yes, visual presentation become easier, people know what you are doing and can review your quality of works.

16. Do you think not having a website now will affect the success of your business? Why or why not?
    Yes, in this rapid changing world, fast information and communication become very important. With a website, it’s possible.

17. How did you find yourself during this recession time and how does having an online presence help you gain business (if any)?
    Most of our clients are regular clients.

18. If there were entrepreneurs out there thinking of starting up a business, would you encourage them to get a website for their business? Why or why not?
    Yes, it is important to let others know what you are doing and also the principle and concept behind.

19. If given a chance, would you like to try other things than what you are doing now? If yes, what business/field would it be?
    Nah, I still dream of being a fulltime artist and running an art gallery.

20. What advice do you have for new startups who dream to have their own business and yet find it hard to make the leap?
    Don’t be afraid to go for your dreams.

21. Is there any artworks that you’re proud of that you would like to share with our readers out there?
    Definitely! For more of my artworks, please visit http://kiahkiean.com/v02/kkart/sketches_01.htm and for more of my design works, please visit http://www.kakicreative.com/v02/kakicreative/work.htm . Have a pleasant stay!
    

And before we close the curtain, ladies & gentlemen, meet Kiah Kiean, The Gifted Artist!

More than just your average ranting blog, hongkiat.com is one of the most talked-about blogs in town. Started back in 2007 by local mover and shaker Lim Hong Kiat, a famous Malaysian blogger, web designer also developer, hongkiat.com is more of an online-bible than a blog for readers with passion in design and tech. From content to tips, hongkiat.com is all about helping readers with useful design resources and tech tips.

It all started with his strong love for writing and the urge for keeping up with the start-blogging-already trend that was overpowering the cyberspace then. Being the generous lad that he is, he simply thought of sharing the abundant tips and knowledge that he has in designing and updating his peers with the latest technology updates – just for fun-reading. Somehow words about his useful blog content travelled across the blog community fast like fire, and what started off as a hobby has now turned into almost a full time profession. Since then, hongkiat.com has been growing rapidly, attracting millions of readers of all kinds in the world, and has even been dubbed as one of the most high-trafficked weblog on technology and design in Malaysia, and perhaps Asia.

Lim Hong Kiat having what looks like yummylicious hainan chicken rice!

Hard work coupled with determination, passions and belief have earned him the professional-blogger title, and his blog, hongkiat.com is reported to attract 67,000+ of pageviews on a given day of which the majority of traffic comes from search engines such as Google, and Yahoo. The fact that people know him through his blog and actually read his writings amazes him. He sees now how powerful having an online presence is and how he should be taking advantage of this wonderful opportunity. Then, came a blistering idea – advertising! Seeing how well his blog is performing, he started to provide a space for people to advertise in his blog – at a cost of course. He also takes full advantage of the social media outlets like StumbleUpon, Delicious, Digg, Facebook, Reddit and Twitter to build some of his traffic.  This squeezed-out brilliant thought has allowed him to earn a pretty decent living with steady line of income thru his blog.

Of course, life is not always a bed full of roses and like any other entrepreneurs, he too does not escape from challenges. The biggest challenge that he has to face as a blogger was to come up with new topics and articles every week. It may be a challenge quite demanding, but so far he has managed to sail through them all calmly with the support of his friends, peers and community. Setbacks and obstacles come once in a while too, especially during this recession time, although it has not made any dramatic impact on his revenue – thanks to the advantage of online business.

A peek inside hongkiat.com blog site.

Truth to be told, having an online presence has not only helped him in terms of business, but also in networking with other people and peers in a way that he has never expected before. In an interview with him, he mentioned that having an online presence is vital for everyone nowadays, especially when everyone is moving into the social media age these days. He quoted a simple example where people do not ask for A/S/L (Age/Sex/Location) anymore in chats, instead they ask, “do you facebook?”. He also mentioned it is important to have a good website because having a good or a bad website will affect the presentation and image of a business, especially if your revenue comes from the Internet.

When asked for his advice for new startups who dream to have their own business and yet find it hard to make the leap, he commented, “You’ll really have to believe that your idea will get big, and your contribution will not only make money but also benefit a community. Simply creating a startup with just making money as goal usually do not work for the long run, at least not for me,”

This story reveals how powerful the Internet is as a tool. A tool to help a community to stay connected and come together when it really counts.