Caught up with Jaclyn for dinner last night. She has opened a little video rental outlet inside Aeon Cybercafe on William Street (near Cakes Unlimited). Neat setup that she got going there and very entrepreneurial of her too. Somehow, the idea of having a video rental stall inside an Internet cafe just works.

Her overheads are low and so is the initial capital – the main costs are the DVDs and VCDs, and a video-rental software to manage it all. The only downside is the long hours. Though she’s sharing the staff with the boss of the cybercafe who happens to be her friend, so she doesn’t have to be there all the time.

Besides the long hours, there’s also the constant thinking and planning. As a former small business owner, I told her that it’s normal. Even on your day off, you would be thinking about your business because it is your own money that you are playing with.

She rents out Chinese movies and TV serials – Mandarin and Cantonese ones predominantly from Hong Kong and Taiwan, and also Korean and Japanese movies and TV serials. Prices are $2.50 per DVD or $1.50 per VCD, and you get one night per disc up to a maximum of 7 nights. Tell her you heard about her shop from me and you might get a freebie or two.

Yes this was a plug.