The Man Behind the Mask…

(of the Brunei’s SME website)

Google SME Brunei, and you will find on the top of your list a personal blog of Bobby aka. Mohamad Fadhilullah, Livewire Counsellor, with scores of business activities, advice and updates about SMEs in Brunei. The website is neither endorsed by any private nor government organisation, however the passion and attention falls nothing short of professional. The blogger has been quietly servicing the business community in Brunei without giving credit to his name on the website.

We attempted to find out more about Bobby in this interview; Walk us through how and why you started SME Brunei Blog?

I wrote my first business plan in 2003 for the LiveWIRE Business Awards, on creating a technology magazine. I did not follow through as I later found out about the expensive license requirement for a magazine publication in Brunei. The Head of EDC, Effandi later approached me with the idea of writing about the SMEs in July 2009. I was interested to do it, but the timing was not right too. The idea stuck with me ever since. I always believe that it would be great to have a publication with information about start-up and running a business centred on Brunei. It was when BEDB opened up a tender on a “Buy Brunei” Portal that I had the idea of getting the domain name http://www.smebrunei.com, just in case some one would be interested to buy from me. But as soon as I bought it, everything came back to me. Even though I was already well educated in IT and active in social networking, I did not realize until that time that I could easily create an online magazine, so I did!

What can one expect when they visit your website?

Simple information related to SME and Businesses in Brunei. In terms of Events, Business Strategies, Issues in creating a business and so on. I would accept any invitation to cover any business related functions if I were available on that day. Or to cover any business topics that readers are curious about.

How do you determine what to, and what not to include in your blog?

Generally, I post whatever I think would be interesting in terms of starting and succeeding in Business. For any exclusive events that not everyone can attend, I try to summarize the content so that others may benefit.

What business opportunities do you see in Brunei?

There a lot of opportunities in Brunei, to me it doesn’t really matter what type of business it is. A good business idea, and therefore a good business is one that can help a lot of people, and make money at the same time. A good business should have at least 3 things; The passion of a musician, The skill of a technician, and The nose for profit of a entrepreneur.

How do you get http://www.smebrunei.com to the top of Google search?

Lucky I guess. But the domain name of the website is http://www.smebrunei. com, the title is SME Brunei. so if anyone was to search the terms SME and Brunei, the website will come up. Additionally, I did research on how Google does searches, and found that Google basically will put a website higher in the list, if it is referenced by other websites or blogs. Google also searches on key words used in blogs called metatags. I am working on getting on top of the search terms Business and Brunei.