Here's a picture of my team mates and I at a Christmas Bazaar, held at the Pandan Valley Condominims: One of the oldest and largest Condominium estates in Singapore. Thanks to Eng Hai, who was the chairman of the estate management council, we managed to secure a spot in the bazaar, selling caffeine-reduced, Bio Reishi Coffee and our favorite, refreshing green drink, Super Chlorophyll.

It was alot of fun, and I had the chance to meet lots of business-minded people who seem to have no problem selling their wares boldly to the crowd walking past them. So when the guest of honor, Mayor Teo Ho Pin was walking around the bazaar grounds and talking to the stall owners, I imagine he had to wade through countless sales pitches asking him to buy their wares, still wearing the amiable, friendly smile that's expected of his presence as the guest of honor. What a feat!

The mayor had some small talk with the various stall owners. One stall in particular, who were promoting a new weight loss program, had told him that business was really bad, and no one was coming to their stall and buy stuff.

I thought that was odd, because if the mayor had asked me how business was, I'd say that it was pretty good! All day long, we had lots of people walking past our stalls. We offered free samples of our healthy coffee and Super Chlorophyll drink to the passerbys, and some people came over to check out our stall. Some of them even left with a few boxes of coffee and tubs of Super Chlorophyll.

On top of that, being Networkers, we had a field day getting in touch with the other stall holders, whom we were pleased to find were entrepreneurship material: just right for our business. We were kept pretty busy throughout the day.

On the other hand, I've seen the other stall in action: they stayed seated behind their stall tables, waiting for the passerbys to notice their bright, colorful banners and flyers. I think people hardly stopped by to look, save for one or two, who happened to be at the right spot and took note of their banners. One of the ladies from the booth was scowling, and even shot us a dirty look as we were serving the customers free coffee samples.

We were both in the same bazaar grounds, so why the difference in activity?
I was happy to say that my team mates and I were very positive and proactive. Sunny, my fellow Team Rich partner, was very impressive in getting friendly with just about anyone, and having them try our beverages. Even Christina, a member of my team, who was normally shy and reserved, had a friendly smile that day, which seemed to attract customers to our booth. Twice, she sold her customers our healthy coffee in boxes of 3 at a time. I thought that was so impressive!

When a team has a generally positive attitude about itself, its members would perform in kind.
For a bazaar stall, we ended our 2 days stint with about $350 worth of sales! Not quite big business, but definitely a fun one :)

I can't be sure of how the other stall fared though. As we packed our stuff, the weight management booth had a generally beaten atmosphere around it.

So here's a good business operating guideline I walked away with that day: Be Positive and Proactive.