“It is tiring to build a business,” says blue-collar worker.

(I posted the original article here. Thanks to Lufeng for the translation.)

A lot of young people want to create their own businesses. But starting a business is no easy task. A survey of local startups found that 60% of local startups found high rental as the major obstacle, while others found rising material costs (37%), maintaining competitive prices (35%) and manpower (31%) as the main challenges.

Thus, some entrepreneurs have actually gone back to being employed. Michael Cheng of 31 years is one such individual.

6 years ago, Michael was a fresh arts graduate with no paper qualifications in IT. This made it hard for him to enter the IT industry. Thus Michael embarked on the journey of entrepreneurship. He setup a web hosting company in 2002 and a web design company in 2004.

An entrepreneur may have to work everyday of the week

In the nascent stages of setting up the second company, the biggest problem faced by Michael was office space. Initially, he wanted to setup office in the city area but this was hindered by high rental. Thus he negotiated with a friend to have free office space in exchange for web design and maintenance services.

Michael had just graduated at that time, and thought that being one’s own boss meant more flexibility in time management. However, this could not be further from the truth.

“The first company was a partnership with a friend. After I left this company and setup a second company on my own, I had to shoulder all the web design and programming myself. To handle all the incoming projects, I had to work almost every day for two years without taking any holiday.”

Recalling his days as an entrepreneur, the current events manager at an MNC expressed that there was never a need to worry about a lack of business, as all his clients were his friends. However, Michael professed that having friends as clients was a double edged sword.

“They will help you to make referrals. However, some of them will ask for “friendship” prices. I did not dare to haggle over the price and could only accede to their request. The prices I had to quote were sometimes lower than the prevailing market rates, and was close to my cost price.”

Plan to Fail

As the business expanded, Michael was able to hire 3 staff and rented a new office.

“Monthly operating cost therefore increased. However, the timeliness of payment by client decreased, and some clients even had problems paying. The company faced a cashflow problem, hovering between profit and loss.”

At that time, the company was worth $20,000. Micheal estimated that the company could be in the red in 2 months. After deep thought, he decided to sell off the company in early 2006.

“It was a very painful decision. But I realised that other than financial issues, I had work endlessly for two years, often feeling isolated and helpless, as well as mental and physical fatigue.”

Some may view Michael who failed as an entrepreneur. But having a contingency for failure makes it easier to let go and make a courages and rational decision, without affecting existing customers.

Michael said, “Every entrepreneur would hope that their company can be successful. But reality and ambition can clash. If the business cannot perform, there is a need to consider the next step, whether to persevere, or to stop the company from bleeding, and start anew?”

Being a boss is harder than being an employee

Micheal’s tiring of life as an entrepreneur, and subsequently becoming an employee, is mirrored in Zhang Hui Qing of 30 years.

Hui Qing started 2 fashion accessories store with a good friend from 2004 to 2007. The first shop was situated at Beach Road. Due to low rental, they were able to break even within 6 months.

Prior to being an entrepreneur, Hui Qing was a civil servant. She worked 7 days a week and often felt burnt out. But she frankly felt that being an entrepreneur was even more tiring.

“Many people think that doing business is less tiring, but that can’t be further from the truth…… We have to stay for long hours in the store, and sometimes have to arrange goods till 4am in the morning. Even when we are not in the store, our mind is constantly thinking about the business.

“But those 3 years were fulfilling, and we learnt a lot of new things, so we have no regrets. But I realised that running a business reduced the time I have to spend with my family. My family also made a lot of sacrifices for me. So I think it is time that I make the sacrifice for them.”

Eventually, Hui Qing and her business partner sold the business and return to their 9 to 5 working lives.

Entrepreneurship relies on passion and a great team

Even though Michael and Hui Qing are currently employees, both unanimously said that they may return to entrepreneurship in the future.

Both of them have learnt valuable lessons during their stint as entrepreneurs. Hui Qing advised aspiring young entrepreneurs, “If you are passionate and have faith in what you want to do, then have the courage to try.”

Besides passion, Michael also emphasized that an outstanding team was important for a startup.

“A team can not only share the work, but can also have more variety of ideas and opinions, as well as share weal and woe together. As a startup has limited resources, it is important to focus on the team’s expertise, and outsource other aspects of the work to other companies. If I had outsourced the accounting work, then cashflow problems in my previous company may have been avoided.”

Although i was glad to have been interviewed for this article, but i can’t help but feel a little sad that i gave up on my passion so easily. On hindsight, if i had held on for a few months more, i would have seen the light at the end of the tunnel… and i would have retained my freedom and energy level. But i guess that’s a blog post for another day. Do check back soon for more posts.

Veron’s Twitter reminded me of how bad drunkenness can be.

That got me thinking about my family. It seems that people in my household are prone to addictive behaviour. My grandfather was addicted to opium, he was a brilliant engineer who worked in the Singapore Bus Company, who smoked his inheritance and future away.

My father smokes (cigarettes) and drinks - oftentimes too much for his own good. He’ll come home drunk and slump asleep in the toilet seat - depriving us the use of our only toilet. I still can’t stand his smoking… but he’s my dad and i love him.

Myself? I have many vices - gambling, stealing, internet and work.

I remember as a secondary school kid (sec 1 or sec 2), i got into a little gambling game. We’ll each held a coin or dollar note in our clasped palms and guess how much is in the other person’s hand. The one who guessed correctly is the winner. And winner takes all.

I suspect the root of my additive behaviour was a desire to win at all cost. Winning is a very additive feeling - no one likes to lose. The prospect of winning at a guessing game drove me - staking my lunch money to pursue that feeling.

Eventually i started losing quite a lot. I remember one experience quite vividly.

I had lost quite a bit on a bout of betting. The kid i was playing against was winning all my money. I had to get it back. I staked my last 1 dollar note on the last bet. All our previous bets were in 10 cents and 20 cents denominations - never higher. So i was taking a big risk with my $1 bet.

I guessed that he was holding 50 cents in his hands. I looked straight into his eyes, anticipating a big win… he had frowned his brow in deep concentration…

“I guess…. $1 dollar!”

I couldn’t believe my ears! He won! (he only had 20 cents in his palm).

I remembered that i was close to tears. And i chased him down a corridor trying to get my dollar back. He wasn’t gonna give it back.

Life’s not like a game where we can press the “reset” button. What’s done can’t be undone.

I stopped gambling for money from that day forth.

When i was in Sec School, i had this huge crush on a girl in my class… let’s call her BQ. She’s a dancer with the Dance Society (i had a thing for dancers once)… and she was the monitor in class (i had a thing for women in authority too). Apparently my crush was so “loud” that my classmates all know about it ( i have a feeling she knew about it too).

BQ’s really sweet and all that… and probably that was why she had me under her “spell”. She’s not really pretty, just a “plain jane”. But when she puts on make-up, she’s a whole different person.

My pals often tease me about it, but somehow i never got to tell her about the feelings i had for her. I guess i was fearful of rejection… plus i had really low self-esteem back then (heh… still do to some extent, but my confidence is in Christ! Amen?). (more…)

When i was younger, maybe 5 or 6 years old, i had a very bad experience eating at KFC. It was so traumatic, that i didn’t eat KFC until primary school. Well, here’s what happened…

My aunt and cousins had come over for the weekend. Its one of those family gatherings that i look forward to as a kid. I always love visiting my cousin’s place or my maternal grandma’s house… we would just hang out with my cousins - we’d play games or i’ll just follow my cousin on errands (roadtrips - that’s another story altogether).

Anyways, this week was their turn to come over to my place. We were debating on what to eat for dinner. Grandma didn’t prepare dinner so we all decided to eat out.“How about KFC?”, suggested one of my cousins. (more…)

For 10 years when i was staying at Teban Gardens, i was best friends with my next door neighbour - Cai Shui Mu. He’s a great pal.

As our front doors were facing each other, we would sit for hours on end behind our iron grille front gates and just chat. I remember my grandma would feed me lunch or dinner at the gates while i talked to Shui Mu. We would exchange ideas and even play RPG games! (more…)