The cyber cafe that hubby bought over needs more desktop computers. The previous owner only placed 10 computers in the CC. Out of the 10, I think 3-4 of them is not fit to use anymore. We are currently waiting for desktop computers sale to get a good bargain on the desktop computers. In the meantime, we just reformatted those computers and hope it will last till we get new ones.

Hubby and another church member bought over an internet cafe. As you all know, we do not have any savings besides our gold investment account. To get the capital to start the business, we were planning tosell gold at goldfellow.com. I was kind of reluctant to sell my gold because they are our children’s education fund and the price of gold keeps on increasing each year. The percentage of increase is more than the bank loan interest. And yet at the same time, we do not want to borrow from the bank. Thank God I have a retired dad who is quite spendthrift. I managed to loan from him some cash. I still have to sell my gold but not so much anymore lar.

Hubby has a law degree from University Malaya. He is currently doing his 2nd degree. I can’t remember the name of the degree; something to do with mission work. I hope he graduate this year; it has been more than 6 years already. It is a correspondence degree so he is taking his own sweet time to study! He plans to take up another degree after he has completed this. Since he is in an cyber cafe business, he wants to take up the it degree so that he will have more knowledge about IT and later to expand his business to more than just cyber cafe.

Starhawk used to be hubby’s online nickname which has became the name of his internet cafe when he started the business a few years ago. The name Starhawk is very unique. I think we should register Starhawk so that no one else can use the same name.

We have lots of franchises around but is there any internet cafe franchise here? We hope that one day, Starhawk Internet Cafe will be so famous that people would want to use the name and we could franchise it.

Yesterday, we bought 14 18.5″ LCD monitor for the CC. These monitor comes with a free gift that is a bluetooth that can be used as a earphone of the pc too. I told hubby that it is not a good idea to let the customer use bluetooth as an earphone because the chances that they will go into the customers pocket is very high because it is small. Even the samsung phone batteries can go missing if the staff are busy with other customers. So, what to do with 14 sets of bluetooth? We managed to persuade the supplier to buy from us because he can sell it to his other customers.

At Starhawk Internet Cafe, we try to provide as many services as possible for the convenience of our customers. We started with just internet, printing and document scanning. When we have more students coming to use our computers to do their assignments, we provide binding, laminating, photocopying and also typing services. We also do computer repairs. We hope to sell computer parts/accessories to make our shop as a one stop centre for our customers but as always finance is the set back.

2011 is here. No travel plan this year though. Last year’s travel plans did not materialize because of hubby’s busyness with work. Business is not that busy. It is just that we do not have staff to cover for hubby when he is away. Maybe we will try to go some where near and new with the help of BIL’s portable gps this year. It will really be a challenge to travel with so many kids. I can’t wait for the day when we can leave all the kids behind and go for our 2nd honeymoon. This year we are going to celebrate our 10th wedding anniversary but we will be stuck at home minding our beautiful children.

Hubby is willing to let go of his cyber cafe business at RM150k if there is a buyer. Why so expensive, a potential buyer asked. After hubby told him the average daily sales, he just nodded and did not ask further.

Since the sales is good, why sell the business; you may be wondering. We don’t plan to spend the money at Orlando vacations even if we could. It is just that our time is up. Hubby plans to go back into ministry and with a business to manage he can’t do that unless he can get a good and honest manager for his shop.

So, if you know of anyone who would like to buy a CC, let me know ya.

A welding machine is quite costly (at least to us) but we need to use it to fix the broken chairs at hubby’s shop. So, what hubby did was to share the cost of buying one with one of his brothers. So they take turn to use the welding machine since we don’t have broken chairs every day. The only item that hubby has not buy is the bifocal safety glasses. It will make his job so much faster with the “magnifying glass”. I wonder whether his brother wanna share to buy this one too.

Quite a number of customers have been asking whether we have a coloured photocopier. So, we went to look for price. The xerox machine is affordable but the price of the phaser 8560 is quite costly. One page of mistake will cost us a dollar and the ink has shelf life too. If I am not mistaken, one container can only last for 3 mths. So it is not cost effective to buy a coloured xerox machine for the shop yet.

Praise God that after 4 years, our business is finally stable and making money. But hubby is restless now. He wanted to buy over another CC to experience again the challenges is building up the business. Since we do not have any capital to buy over another CC, hubby is thinking to sell his! You see lar, can faint or not? Like what we the Baba Nyonya likes to quote, “Takda penyakit, cari penyakit!” If he wants challenges in go look for a finance job or resume practicing law; sure everyday got challenges and sure everyday got headache also!

We planned to bless our part-time staff after our business loan has been paid up. We hope to be able to enjoy a decent dinner together but until today none of them can make themselves available for the occasion. I told hubby to just give them cash to replace that company dinner. But then, it is not about money. Everyone need money. We want this occasion to reflect how God has blessed the business and thank Him for His blessings.

I think we are the only Cyber Cafe in town that does not permit smoking in our premises. We have a big “No Smoking” sign on the wall and another one in the toilet because we have customers smoking in the toilet. Even that, they ignore the sign and smoke in the toilet. Even after hubby scolded him, he will still repeat it again after a while. I think arh, we must change the sign to osha signs - DANGER! No Smoking. Let them have the idea that the toilet will explode if the smoke in there.

After the 1st year of our Cyber Cafe business, we stopped operating on Sunday. We finally realised that business comes from God and we must put Him first in everything that we do. Even it means to close on the busiest day of the week to honor His day. By faith we did that and true enough, when we honor God, He blessed us! Our sales pick up since then. Halleluyah!

Anyway, even after 3 years not operating on Sunday, hubby still receives text message asking whether the shop is open or not. Most of the time by student who needs to complete their assignment, install document scanning software, or those having problems with their laptop.

I told hubby that I wanted to earn some income online. I wanted to sell something like other SAHM. But I do not know what I am capable off. I do not know my skill; special skill. I maybe into sewing now but I am not sure whether the product I sewn is good enough to sell in the market. Hubby told me to find my passion first then focus on that passion. If it is sewing, don’t go think about selling wall stickers, clothing, car accessories or koi pond supplies. Aiyo! What is my passion leh???

Halleluyah! We have finally paid up our last 1k beginning of this month. It was not easy you know. 1k may seems little to some of you but it took us 3 months to have that extra 1k in our business account. I am so glad that part of my hard earned online income is also being used to pay up the business loan. I jokingly tell hubby that half of the business is mine!

Do you know that not all wives are willing to share their income with their husband? I know a few. One of them is my ex-colleague. Her salary is hers and her hubby didn’t even know how much she has in her savings account! This is really not healthy in a marriage. I don’t understand how can a wife live her everyday life with the husband thinking that he might leave me one day for another woman. So, she must save some for her “in case” future. Where is the trust? Where is the transparency? Will the marriage survive with this kind of attitude?

After running an internet cafe for almost 4 years now, we have changed our office furniture a few times especially the cheaper chairs. I always believe that we must pay for quality but sometimes, our budget does not allow it. At that point in time, we were really in need to replace the office chair but we did not have much cash. So we settled for a cheap office chair. In less than half a year, the chair broke. Hmph! We really must set aside a small budget to replace our office furniture; must buy good quality ones this time.

I tell you why this wife cannot work at her husband’s shop.

Firstly, she will help herself with the drinks from the chiller. That’s RM1.60 - RM2.50. If she brings her kid along, doubled or tripled that amount.

When she gets bored because Farmville cannot load, she will take a packet of peanut to chew. That’s RM1.30.

She mistakenly open the wrong PC and some smart boy played at the PC discreetly without paying. That’s RM1.00 to RM2.00.

Sometimes, she photostates wrongly. That will be about RM0.10 - RM1.00.

She got bored again. She orders Maggi Goreng from the Mamak shop next door. That’s RM3.00.

If she brings her eldest daughter along that will be another RM2.00 - RM6.00 of computer usage depending how long she has to work at the shop.

So, let’s total the above.

For 3 hours of working at her husband’s shop, she spent RM15.80.

Ok lar kan? Coz he is paying his part-time staff RM4 per hour. Wife must pay more lar right.

We know the importance of knowledge and education but not all of us like to study. One of them is my dear husband. He is very smart but schooling and exams are nightmares to him. If he ever wants to take up another degree in business, I must warn him that he has to take the GMAT exam to see whether he can survive the the rigorous courses of a graduate management or business program. Well, there is always the gmat prep courses that can help him pass the exam with flying colours but I’m not sure whether he wants to go through another nightmare.

I get very irritated when one of hubby’s part-time staff wife kept telling me to increase her husband’s salary. As though hubby’s business is earning so much profit. Maybe what he saw in the daily sales worksheet shows that profit is high but those are gross profit. I think, her husband’s take home salary every month is more that hubby’s. I am sure they have savings and can afford to buy gold coins unlike us, no savings at all. I kid you not!