Personal Excellence » Media & Interviews

We Are Featured in Today’s Sun-Herald and The Sunday Age! (Oct 9, 2011)

Celes — Sun, 09 Oct 2011 10:07:07 +0000

I’m happy to announce that we’re featured in Australia’s The Sun-Herald (newspaper in Sydney, published every Sunday) and The Age (Melbourne’s daily newspaper) today!

Just last month, I was invited to write an article for The Sunday Life (a supplement that’s distributed as part of The Sun-Herald and The Age) on how to live a more productive life. The article below is the result!

*Click for larger version. Special thanks to reader Charles for buying a copy and helping to scan it! Also special thanks to other readers in Australia for buying a copy and offering to help scan too! You guys are all my angels! ♥

For readers in Australia, you can find the article can be found in the “Life” supplement in The Sun-Herald (for those in Sydney) and The Sunday Age (for those in Melbourne), page 27 (out of 40 pages).

The Sun-Herald has a readership of 1,159,000 (as of December 2009), while The Sunday Age has a readership of 695,000, so that’s nearly 2 million people in total! Its target audience is generally more educated and affluent readers, so it’s definitely in line with the readers we want to reach out with PE. So a special thank you to The Sunday Life for this opportunity!

For the new readers who are visiting the blog after reading the article, welcome! This is Personal Excellence, dedicated for individuals who are passionate about achieving excellence in life. Please visit Start section to get started on using the blog. Feel free to add me on Facebook and Twitter if you’d like to connect with me personally. Look forward to knowing you guys better in the upcoming period.

Be sure to check 8 Habits of Highly Productive People - a timeless Personal Excellence classic I wrote in 2010, which is a site hit as well.

Check out the media section for a list of our past media coverages. Thanks to all media outlets for the publicity!

I’m Going to Europe!

Celes — Sat, 11 Jun 2011 17:27:02 +0000

Quick note: I’ve been quoted in CNN, Business Insider and CBS Business Network in the past month for my articles! Check them out: How To Stand Up to Rude Co-Worker (CNN) | How To Handle Rejection like a Pro (Business Insider) | Being Rejection Proof (CBS Business Network) | Learning to Say No (Business Insider).

I’ve also recently contributed to an article for the August issue of Simply Her magazine (if I’m not wrong), so check it out when it hits the stores next month. The article is on maintaining one’s sanity in the workplace.

Ok, I’ve been keeping this under wraps for a while as I wanted to wait till everything is confirmed before I announce anything.

As of this coming Sunday (19 Jun), I’ll be traveling to Europe! Holland, Amsterdam to be specific. And I’ll be traveling around for 3 months, after which I may go over to UK for a few more months, as I’m eligible to stay in UK for 6 months without a visa. *Starts cheering and throwing party poppers*

It’s really exciting for me because this is the first time I’ve been to the Western part of the world. Some of you may recall from my Vision Board video that Europe is next on my travel list (it’s on my bucket list as well). And it’s now finally coming true!

The truth is, I’ve always wanted to experience life overseas for an extended period of time, ever since I was a student, to experience life in a different country and immerse in the local culture. When I was in university, I planned to go overseas for exchange, but didn’t get to do so as I skipped my honors year and graduated a year earlier than expected. NUS, or universities for that matter, don’t allow students to go on exchange in their last year, so this goal of mine never got to fruition.

Yet, it remained a lingering intention to be fulfilled one day.

Ever since I graduated from university, I’ve traveled around Asia Pacific, largely the Greater China and ASEAN region, thanks to my previous job. I feel like I’ve seen a good breadth of countries in Asia region, and have been eager to check out the Western part of the world.

This year, I decided to put this goal into action. After 2 years of working on my business, I feel I’m in the perfect place to do that. One, I have steady streams of passive income (from my ebook sales and advertising). Two, I’m not geographically bounded with my work – by deliberate design, too. Meaning, I don’t need to be at a particular location to perform my work. I can blog from anywhere in the world, just as I can do my 1-1 coaching anywhere, as long as I have my laptop and an internet connection.

I used to have ongoing speaking engagements and coaching work that required me to be in Singapore, but I’ve been ending those arrangements in the past few months as I didn’t want to be geographically bounded. I wanted to be able to do my work and pursue my personal goals at the same time.

So finally, it has come to the point where I’m ready to realize my personal goal to travel overseas. Originally my intention was to travel to New York sometime in June-July and stay there for a few months. I was even preparing to apply for a US visa earlier this year.

As fate would have it, I was recently invited to speak at a Learning Conference in Holland, Amsterdam by de Baak (a renowned training institute). The engagement is taking place on 21 June and all expenses will be graciously paid for by de Baak. (Thanks Wouter and Harry!)

Since I’m going to Holland now, I thought I might as well shift my travel plans there – to be frank, either place works perfectly for me, since I have never been to Europe nor America before. After the conference ends, I’ll be extending my stay in ~~Holland~~ Europe for 11 weeks, since that’s the maximum period I can stay in EU without a visa (it’s too late to apply for a visa now).

I’ve not checked if my return flight is changeable – if it is, I might shift it out by a few more months and make a visit to UK, where I’m eligible to stay for 6 months on a Singapore passport without a visa. Either way, I’ll definitely be in Europe for the next 3 months in baseline scenario.

So that’s it – hello to Europe, and bye to Singapore for now! I’m not sure if there are any readers in Europe – if you are, please come and say hello in the forums or on Facebook. Feel free to share any tips on staying in Europe – I’m all ears.

What am I planning to do in the 3 months there? It’ll mainly be to experience and immerse in the local culture in Europe. I’m not a backpacker style traveler and I’m not all that interested to comb through X countries in X days either – I don’t find any fun in rushing through a travel. I’m the sort who prefers to just stay put in a place and immerse in what it has to offer.

I’ll check out Holland in the first few weeks, after which I may take weekend trips to neighboring countries if I get bored while I’m there (namely France, Germany, and possibly Italy). But this is just a back-up plan right now. My main plan is just to hang out in Holland and enjoy the place.

Will I be blogging about the trip? It depends. If there are any personal growth lessons I pick up along the way, I’ll surely be writing about them. I don’t think I’ll be explicitly writing about the trip, though I certainly will share an experience or two, where relevant. After all, Personal Excellence is about sharing the lessons I learn in life through what I experience.

Right now I’m just really excited about what’s up. I haven’t packed my luggage nor done any major preparations yet, though I imagine it’s going to get really busy in the next week before I fly off.

Jun 14, ’11: All your responses have been overwhelming! Thank you so much for your well wishes!

Since the post went online 2 days ago, I’ve received numerous emails and recommendations from EU readers and past EU coaching clients. Because of that, my itinerary is also rapidly changing as well. After high recommendations on Germany from all of you, I’m planning for a multi-stop trip – first in Holland for a month, then Germany (possibly a month), and next either to another country or back to Amsterdam, depending on how the trip goes.

Jul 1 ’11: Check out the 7-part Holland Travel Series. It shares my tips on how to travel to Holland, the dutch culture, dutch lifestyle, dutch environment and essential things to know about the country. I’ll be going to Germany next. Join my Facebook Page for daily updates and pictures on my trip!

Nov 7 ’11: I’ve finished my Europe travels, and I ended up staying in Holland, Germany, France/Paris, Spain and London in the past 4.5 months. Even had 2 London meet-ups with PE readers while I was there! (Meet-up #1, Meet-up #2). It’s been a great ride, and I really enjoyed my stay there. I’ve made many wonderful connections during my time there and I’m sure this isn’t the last time I’ll be here. For now, I’m off to US – will see what adventures await there.

Jan 25 ’12: I’m finally back in Singapore after my almost 3-month long travels in US – covering east coast (Philadelphia, Washington DC, New York City, Boston) and west coast (Los Angeles, San Francisco). I also did a speaking engagement with Wharton Business School while I was there. It has been a great 7-month long travel – for now I foresee myself staying put in SG for a while. Here’s to a tropical climate, consistently (warm) weather and nice, predictable routines.

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Interview: Brownice – Vegan Ice Cream Like No Other

Celes — Fri, 10 Jun 2011 21:24:25 +0000

This is part of the Successful Businesses Interview Series, where I feature successful businesses that are making a difference in others’ lives.

The 8th and last interview in our Successful Businesses Interview Series features Brownice, the vegan ice cream like no other. Brownice is the first vegan ice cream brand in Singapore and is well known among the local veg*n community.

I love Brownice. It’s my favorite ice cream. When I decided to turn vegan, I was totally okay with not having ice cream for the rest of my life. Then my veg*n friends kept telling me about Brownice, a vegan brand ice cream which tastes just like normal ice cream, if not better.

I thought “Okay”, but didn’t think much about it. After all, if I’m already okay with not eating ice cream at all, it doesn’t matter if vegan ice cream exists out there. I’m just not going to have ice cream. As simple as that.

One day (sometime March this year), I finally got to try Brownice while I was out with some vegetarian friends. Boy was I amazed. It tasted just as nice, if not better, than regular dairy ice cream. (IMO, it’s far better than dairy ice cream – the taste of cow’s milk turns me off now that I’m vegan.) I finally understood what my friends were raving about. It’s that good!

Fast forward a couple of months later, when I started the Successful Businesses Interview Series. I brainstormed on a list of businesses to feature for the series, and reached out to Brownice as it had touched my life. From there, I got to know Denise (Lim), owner and creator of the amazing ice cream. We met up for dinner one day, instantly connected, and today we’re great friends!

Even though Denise and I haven’t known each other for long (in terms of length of time), I felt like she’s an “old soul”, like someone I’ve known for a while and can say anything to, and she’d be able to know where I’m coming from. Both of us come from dissimilar backgrounds yet share so many similar beliefs, which make for great conversation. Our first meetup was filled with thought-provoking conversation, where we openly shared our thoughts and our views on life with one another.

Denise has gone all out to make vegan ice cream that’s not only tasty, but also healthier. Some people may naturally associate vegan food as healthy, but it’s not necessarily true.

For example, there’s a local Singapore vegan fast food restaurant that positions itself as being healthy, but it isn’t – it serves deep fried food that’s highly unhealthy; fruit juices are concentrates rather than fresh juices; even the soup seems to be processed food served from a can, stripped of the taste of its original ingredients. Basically junk food in vegan form. I had it before and it was pretty gross – I have not had it ever since. Such isn’t the highest form of what veganism is about.

Brownice, on the other hand, is a healthier option compared to conventional ice cream. Apart from not using dairy or eggs, it does not use artificial flavouring and colouring, is low fat, all-natural and is made with organic brown rice, fruits and nuts. As a bonus – Because of the natural and healthier ingredients used, the ice cream tends to be lower in calories compared to its dairy counterparts.

Denise’s vision is to create healthier desserts for vegans and non-vegans alike. She once came across a child who was lactose-intolerant and couldn’t have any ice cream (not the conventional kind anyway; and not when almost all mainstream ice cream uses dairy). Her world changed she saw him happily enjoying her vegan ice cream. From then on, she strove to create the best vegan delights so that everyone in the world can enjoy his/her cake and ice cream too.

Denise creates all the ice cream herself, using her own recipe. Today, she has created over 20 flavors, with about 10 of the flavors being mainstays. I’m always in awe of chefs/cooks, because it’s an art to whip up dishes/meals that taste better than the sum of their parts. For the same reason, I’m amazed by Denise and how she creates such amazing, mouth-watering ice cream, without conventional, commercial ingredients.

Brownice, Dann’s Daily and Delcie’s Desserts strike a chord in me in that I can taste the organic quality in the food, and the warmth of the creators’ hearts when I consume their creations. It’s not like mass manufactured products, which taste empty and bland. IMO, it takes true creativity, talent and passion to create ice cream that tastes so great.

My favorite Brownice flavor by far is peanut butter caramel. French chocolate is second, followed by hazelnut. :drool:

Brownice ice cream. Flavors here: Green tea and Tropicana (Mixture of fruits). Unfortunately, there’s no picture of Peanut butter caramel. If it helps, it’s cream colored with caramel mixed into the ice cream. Heavenly. ♥

Strawberry, Tropicana, Green Tea

Denise also creates ice cream cakes on a made-to-order basis. The above is her mud pie creation – Mudvelicious. It consists of 3 layers: Brown rice crisp at the bottom, followed by a thick layer of French chocolate, and a layer of Hazelnut chocolate. The mud pie is topped off with dark chocolate syrup and sprinkled with almond nuts. I had it a few weeks ago. It was delicious! :drool:

The very kind, warm-hearted Denise and me!

Denise started making her self-made vegan ice cream 2 years ago, about June 2009. As she gradually built up a cult-following to her ice cream, she eventually named it Brownice in Jul ’10. The rest became history.

I now present to you, Denise Lim, founder and owner of Brownice Ice Cream:

Q1) Tell us more about you Denise – Who are you and what are your passions in life?

I’m Denise Lim, 33 this year, founder and owner of Brownice.

I have always loved desserts, this passion for desserts started since young and it has not stopped till today. I would have ice-cream almost daily when I was little. And as my affection for desserts grow with age, I started experimenting with vegan desserts, especially when I realized there are many people who are lactose-intolerant and can’t have their piece of cake and ice-cream! We need to sweeten our lives as much as we spice them up!

I am essentially a homely person, I love staying home to read and experiment with new dessert recipes. Before Brownice, I worked as an engineer for 5 years after my graduation from NUS in Electrical Engineering. I adore animals so my life’s always filled with at least one, and they gave me really good company (they still do!) especially when I am the only child.

(Celes: Denise really loves animals – she shared with me pictures of her 2 bunnies, which are the loveliest and most adorable creatures I’ve ever seen (alongside Brooklyn ♥)! Denise has hamsters as well, and often speaks of them affectionately as part of her family.)

Q2) What is Brownice and who do you target?

Many tasty treats are never healthy – they’re either high in fat, sugar, artificial ingredients or all of the above. Brownice provides healthier, guilt-free, low-fat delights to people who want better options. My target audience is everyone. Even when we insist on having our ice-cream vegan, free from artificial flavourings, additives etc, it does not mean we should compromise on the taste.

Q3) When did you first start your company?

Jul 2010. Since we started, till now, we have experienced a healthy 70% growth in revenue. The increasing demand in alternative food and desserts has certainly helped. So has the awareness we have been receiving, whether through word-of-mouth or events and media, as well as pure hard work.

(Celes: Jul ’10 is considered the official start date for the company as it was when the ice cream was given its name, Brownice. Before that, Denise has long been practicing her craft and selling ice cream to a growing base of satisfied customers via a friend’s organic shop, since about Dec ’09. The 70% growth is its sales today (Jun ’11) relative to Jul ’10, so that’s quite a huge jump in just 11 months!)

Q4) You studied engineering in NUS and worked in engineering for 5 years. What made you decide to quit your engineering job at the 5th year?

That was my first job and I remember wondering if it would be my only job. Things were going well, too comfortably well. I had good bosses, fun colleagues and in fact, I had a promotion to ‘senior engineer’.

The promotion set me thinking about my future and the prospects of climbing the corporate ladder didn’t exactly thrill me. I was (still am) a workaholic. I figured since I spend most of my time working, I should do something I really love. So I left, for fear that the job sets me in such comfortable state that I dare not leave. I wanted to experience more, before I can discover my real passion.

Q5) What did you do after you quit your engineering job?

I joined an American MNC dealing with industrial tape as a business development manager for Asia Pacific. But traveling and business weren’t my calling. I was so drained I left without a job, and wanted to spend some time to ‘discover my passion‘. I dabbled with art and teaching after I left.

I would say teaching did become my passion. My students gave me precious memories I wouldn’t give up for anything. However, it became very comfortable too and I craved for personal growth. I started learning many things from knitting (yup, the woolly stuff), to food and nutrition (I took a part-time course), to baking and cooking.

This was the time I started to work part-time at a friend’s organic shop. (Celes: More on this in next question.)

Q6) How did you first come up with the idea for Brownice?

In Jul ’09, I was working full-time in an International School as a teacher. At that time, my friend set up a bakery shop. I began to work there on a part-time basis over the weekends, baking and making desserts, while still teaching full-time. This allowed me to pursue my passion in baking and desserts.

As time passed, I got to meet many people with lactose intolerance, so I started creating desserts which these people could enjoy too, and it was very encouraging to receive positive response from those who had tried. It was very motivating and that kind of satisfaction was just beyond words.

A particular incident really changed me when I met a child who was lactose-intolerant and could not enjoy most desserts and had never tried an ice-cream, so I was even more determined to create more vegan desserts, especially ice-cream. When I saw how happy the child was, enjoying his ice-cream, that marked a turning point for me.

(Celes: This marked the point where the niche for Brownice was carved, where Denise identified the unmet consumer need for vegan-friendly, healthier desserts. She was only able to arrive at this point by first pursuing her passion in desserts.

It was the same for Delcie too, who discovered her niche in creating vegan desserts after pursuing her passion in bakery. Likewise for Derek, who discovered CD Baby after first acting on his instinct to sell his music, then helping his friends sell theirs. As with Carol, who founded Citrusox because she was acting on her entrepreneurial instincts.

Inspiration doesn’t come to you just by sitting around and waiting for it to hit you; it only makes it way to people who are already acting and pursuing their path. Is there something you’re interested to pursue but you’re holding back on? If so, perhaps you should start acting on that first, even in the littlest of ways, vs. waiting for inspiration to strike. Because the latter only happens after the former is in place, and not the other way round.)

Q7) After you came up with the idea, how did you get started? Please walk us through what the first 1 year of your journey was like.

I started selling my vegan ice cream at my friend’s store around Dec ’09, as they had an NEA-approved kitchen (Celes: NEA = National Environmental Agency. In Singapore, you need to have an NEA-approved kitchen to sell food items.) As I saw more demand, I adjourned to take part in events, weekend markets and farmer’s market. I must say, word-of-mouth helps a great deal.

For the first few months, things were taking off slowly and steadily as I did not seek opportunities aggressively. I was more focused in perfecting the ice-cream and creating more flavors.

On Jun ’10, I took part at a bazaar at Orchard Central weekend market and sold my ice cream there. It was after the bazaar that I tasted sweet success. The response was really good, so I decided to quit both my full-time teaching job and my part-time job at my friend’s organic shop and work on my business full-time.

Jul ’10 was the date we named the ice-cream Brownice. But we officially launched the Brownice brand (which included marketing materials, shop decor) in stages. Being a humble start-up, we didn’t have a big official launch like a party or open-house.

(Celes: Brownice had built its audience base before it was even officially launched with its brand name and shop space in Jul ’10. It broke even 6 months after it was launched in Jul ’10 - Similar to Dann’s, Citrusox and Udders. The rest was history.

The most important thing about starting your business is to create your product and get it out there to the consumers. As other business owners in the interview series and I have repeatedly alluded to, there’s no need to overthink the process of starting your business. All it does is just prevent others from benefiting from your work. How fair are you being to them?)

Q8) How long did it take (after starting) before you experienced the first signs of success? What were those signs of success?

About 7 months after I first began selling my ice cream at my friend’s store – During the Orchard bazaar in Jun ’10. As for signs of success, there was a sudden surge of demand and orders.

Q9) At which point did you know with certainty that it had taken off?

After the success Brownice experienced from Orchard Central weekend market, many corporate organizations called to enquire about our vegan ice-cream and invited us to their offices, and we have customers who will go all out to promote our vegan ice-cream to their friends, colleagues and family members. They are really our best publicity, and we appreciate their kind gesture very much.

(Celes: Like the other businesses in the interview series, the point where Denise knew that Brownice had taken off was when she received requests from all fronts. If you start getting more demand than you can handle, you know for sure you’re on the right track. Keep working in that direction.)

Q10) What would you say are the biggest drivers of your success today?

Love. Passion. Excitement. In this modern world, many feel stressed going to work, but I look forward to start a new chapter everyday, the excitement of changing people’s mindset of ‘healthier desserts will not taste good’ just spurs me on to more and better creations. I love the challenge of debunking the myth of healthier desserts do not taste good.

(Celes: Work without passion is meaningless. Whoever says that work is not meant to be enjoyable is full of cr*p. If you don’t enjoy what you’re doing, then what’s the whole point of it all? Remember, it’s not about passion or money – it’s passion AND money.)

Q11) Looking back, what were the biggest obstacles you faced in your entrepreneurship journey to date? How did you overcome them?

1) Insufficient human traffic at first shop space. My first shop space (in Jul ’10) did not garner sufficient human traffic to sustain a healthy business, that was quite an obstacle.

How it was addressed: That did not deter me from moving forward. I started taking steps of reaching out to people through other means such as taking part in bazaars, weekend markets etc.

2) Neglecting branding and business planning. I was so into ice-cream making, I focused all my energy into perfecting the ice-cream and . That was a big lesson for me.

When we first started selling vegan ice-cream at the organic shop, there was no name (not to mention branding) and packaging was a transparent plastic cup (leftover salad dressing holders in the shop). At Orchard Central, we must have looked equally clueless, with a plain white freezer. We were provided with a table and had no idea what to do with it. So we put lots of soft toys, and people thought we were selling toys… :|

How it was addressed: My friends have helped me a lot in these aspects, they saw the ‘problem’ and lent a helping hand. In the shop, my colleague, Jaye, was literally the walking and talking advertisement. She passionately told EVERY customer about the ice-cream, offered samples, typed the ingredients list, collected feedback and so on. If we say the ice-cream is made with love, then she has certainly conveyed this love to the customers. I drew a lot of strength from her belief in me.

At Orchard Central, my friend/volunteer worker, Ruzhan, who is an engineer, sold the ice-cream with so much enthusiasm, he surprised both himself and me. I remember he told me after the first day of selling, that he never knew he could sell. It didn’t matter how our booth looked, because passers-by would see his big smile and enthusiasm in offering samples. Most people could not resist his sincerity and many would buy after sampling.

Passion and Sincerity kept Brownice going in our early days.

Q12) What are the biggest lessons you’ve learned in this journey?

This journey has certainly honed my skills in business management. Even till today, I have not stopped learning about running a business of my own. Everyday, I learn something new. When I first started, I was focusing primarily on making ice-cream and did not look too much into the business aspect. But as the brand and business grow, I have to start being aware of the business aspects of Brownice, including public relations and marketing.

(Celes: I think Denise did a fantastic job in caring for Brownice as a business. Rather than handle all aspects of business management herself, she focused on what she does best, which is the creation of the product – ice cream, and engaged specialist agencies to handle other aspects of the business, such as branding and PR/advertising. Nothing wrong though if you choose to handle all aspects of your business internally – there are pros/cons for each path and it’s really up to what you’re most comfortable with.)

Q13) For someone who is starting a new business for the first time, what are the top 3 things you’ll advise him to do/focus on, and why?

1) Take time to perfect the product. Get as much feedback as you can and work on it. Be confident enough to know negative feedback on the product is not reflective of your abilities. Just because you made a cake that didn’t turn out well doesn’t make you a poor baker. This confidence will allow customers to give you their honest feedback, without fearing they’ll hurt your feelings.

2) Since you’re reading PE, you probably embrace learning and self-improvement, so I guess I don’t have to elaborate. I’ll still list it because it’s really my personal mantra. ”Open your mind and learn everyday.”

3) Work hard. If you need convincing, read Malcolm Gladwell’s Outliers, Chapter 2 – The 10,000 hour rule. Hard work has many names: Passion, dedication, sincerity, thoughfulness, good service, efficiency, leading by example…

I’d like to state specific things like finding the right location etc. But these are not applicable to everyone. It then dawned on me that every business is different and every owner will have his/her lessons to learn. The consistent thing is, if we keep an open and humble mind, we’ll learn what we need to. And if we keep that perseverance going, we’ll get there.

Q14) What’s next in your plans?

I would like to expand so that more people get to enjoy vegan ice-cream without guilt! This involves ’parking’ more Brownice kiosks to make ourselves more accessible to everyone and creating more guilt-free vegan indulgence.

Special thanks to Denise for this interview! Denise is the founder and owner of Brownice, the amazing vegan ice cream that’s low-fat, all-natural and free of artificial flavouring and coloring. To find out more about Brownice, visit www.Brownice.com.

This is part of the Successful Businesses Interview Series, where I feature successful businesses that are making a difference in others’ lives.

Interview: Groupon Singapore – Acquired for $24 Million in Less than 1 Year

Celes — Wed, 08 Jun 2011 04:50:26 +0000

This is part of the Successful Businesses Interview Series, where I feature successful businesses that are making a difference in others’ lives.

The 7th interview in our Successful Businesses Interview Series features Groupon Singapore, the most popular deal-of-the-day website in Singapore, and part of Groupon conglomerate worldwide.

If you’ve not heard of Groupon, it’s taking the consumer market by storm. Launched only 3 years ago (2008), Groupon now serves more than 150 markets in North America and 100 markets in Europe, Asia and South America and has amassed 35 million registered users! (Wiki)

So how does Groupon work? Firstly, they negotiate with a merchant for a sizable discount on their product/service (usually 50% and above). Then, they promote the merchant’s product/service on their site Groupon.com, where consumers gets to purchase that item at that discounted price, on that day.

The deal is valid for 24 hours – When the day is over, the deal is over as well. The deal is only confirmed if a minimum number of purchases is reached. If the minimum quota is not met, the deal is called off. The consumers don’t get the deal and the merchants don’t sell anything. Hence, collective buying power is the key driving force behind Groupon’s concept (i.e. group coupon).

The next day, a new deal is promoted on Groupon’s site. The cycle then repeats.

The model works very well because (1) For the merchants, they get to (a) clear excess inventory (b) drive quick awareness of their business and quick sales (2) For the consumers (us), we get a large discount – one we’d never have gotten if we were to purchase individually. We benefit from the collective buying power. Both merchants and the consumers get value from having Groupon as the middleman.

I’ve checked out some of Groupon’s deals, and some of them are massive. Discounts are almost always 50% and above, and there is a wide coverage, from restaurant meals, spa treatments, vacation holiday packages, ice cream, concert tickets, magazine subscriptions, to even dance lessons. Each country has its own set of Groupon deals – if you live in Chicago, you’ll get access to Chicago deals, while people in Singapore get access to the Singapore deals, and so on.

An example of a Groupon Deal. This is a $20 dining coupon for Swensen’s, sold at Groupon for $10. You get to save $10. That’s 50% off!

One watch out on using Groupon or any deal-of-the-day service for that matter is to ensure you truly have a use for the product/service before purchasing. The last thing you want to do is to buy something because there’s a discount and it’s a time-sensitive offer, and not because you need it. That’s just consumerism at work. As long as you do that, then you’ll find Groupon a perfect way to save money.

I had the extreme pleasure of interviewing Karl and Christopher Chong, who are brothers and owners of Groupon Singapore. I first met Chris on Channel News Asia’s Blog TV last Dec – we were guests on the episode on bucket lists. As with David from Udders, we didn’t get to speak much then as we were rushing to get ready for the program, but kept in touch after that. So when I started the successful businesses interview series, I immediately thought to approach Chris/Karl!

While Groupon Singapore is HUGE today (it’s the top 100 site in Singapore!), it was only 1 year ago (May ’10) when Karl and Chris first started it! Can you believe that? Imagine you can start something today and have it blow up into mega proportions in just 1 year from now, with the right attitude, smarts and know-how. Are you going to keep waiting or are you going to get started right away?

At that time, Karl had long been on the lookout for an opportunity to start an internet company, because he saw the potential in new media. One day while working in NYC, he came across an idea which he thought would gain traction – A group buying site, where consumers get together to purchase a product/service at a discount from a merchant. At that time, the trend of group buying sites was rising in US.

He did his research and decided it was now or never. He quit his very lucrative job in investment banking in US, and contacted his brother, Chris, who was studying law in Australia, to join him in this endeavor. Chris then deferred his studies, came to Singapore. With that, both of them launched their company called Beeconomic (Be-Economic) in 2010, with the deal-of-the-day concept I described above.

As the concept was new in Singapore, the brothers had to educate the local businesses and convince them of its merits. There were a lot of resistance from merchants to sign on. But the brothers persisted and pushed through, focusing on the potential and value of the concept. As Chris put it, they had to “knock on the doors of businesses and convince them to work with us”. By no means was easy – It was a lot of hard work, a lot of learning on how to handle rejections, a lot of business savviness, and a lot of smart planning involved.

With their extreme, hard work, it wasn’t too long before their efforts finally paid off and the concept gained some traction in the local market. In Dec ’10 (less than a year after it was launched), Chicago-based Groupon got wind of their business, and decided to acquire it in the same month for $24 million USD. Beeconomic then became rebranded as Groupon Singapore, and today Karl and Chris are the owners of Groupon Singapore, now a ubiquitous brand name locally.

In this interview, Karl and Chris openly share their story, the obstacles they faced in starting Beeconomic, how they came to be known and acquired by Groupon, and their experience in their entrepreneurial journey so far. I hope you enjoy this feature.

I now bring to you, Karl and Chris Chong from Groupon Singapore/Beeconomic:

Q1) Tell us more about you, Karl and Chris – Who are you and what are your passions in life?

Hey-we are Karl and Chris Chong, co-founders of Groupon Singapore. Currently we are working with our team on building Groupon Singapore into a household name- primarily through offering a smorgasbord of great deals with cool businesses. We’re excited to be part of Forbes Magazine’s World’s Fastest Growing Company and the last year has been has been nothing short of what our passions are in life-learning, meeting and working with great people and providing a service that keeps our customers happy.

Q2) What is Groupon?

Groupon is a deal-of-the-day website that features discounted gift certificates usable at local or national companies. We started in 2010 as a group buying site that offered daily discounts of up to 90% on everything from spas, to restaurants, to activities, even Resort World Sentosa shows.

(Celes: Resort World Sentosa is a new casino resort in Singapore offering attractions, hotels, spa, casino and meeting venues.)

Q3) Who do you target?

Our customers are working professionals, eager to uncover new businesses but wary of traditional advertising. Instead of leafing through brochures and pamphlets, Groupon sends you one email each morning with a list of deals for different types of businesses-rock climbing, or a massage.

Many Groupon customers check the website daily, and because of the variety of the deals – whether it’s photography or scuba classes or international cuisine – each customer is bound to find something that interests them.

Q4) When did you start your business?

May 2010. We gained a first mover advantage being the first to start up in Singapore, allowing us to build relationships with premium businesses. Locals enjoyed our “sweet deals” and our subscriber base grew at hundreds per a day., thanks to our $5 referral program.

(Celes: Their referral program has now been upped to $10 per referral. So if you recommend a deal to a friend via Facebook/Twitter/Email, you’ll get $10. Great way to drive quick awareness and volume for their business)

Q5) How did you first come up with the idea for Beeconomic?

Karl: I had been on the lookout for some sort of entrepreneurial opportunity for a long time. As part of the new media generation, my hopes centred on establishing an internet company.

The idea to start a group buying site came to me when I stumbled on a website selling discount vouchers for a month of indoor climbing while working in New York City. This was during the recent global economic downturn a few years back, when group selling websites offering discount vouchers started to surface in the U.S. I bought the climbing voucher and was sufficiently moved to think about whether this was a trend that would gain traction not only in NYC and the U.S. but overseas as well.

Though born in Malaysia and now an Australian, I have strong roots in Singapore through his parents, and wondered if I could bring the group buying site business model to Singapore. I did online research from my desk in NYC, focusing on Singapore’s demographics, internet penetration and the extent of credit card transactions online. I also looked for possible competitors in the city-state as the barriers to entry into the group buying site space are rather low.

After my research, I concluded that Singapore would be an ideal launch pad for a group buying site because, Singaporeans are always looking for a bargain. I felt that I could capitalise on what was close to a first-mover advantage. Still, I couldn’t do it alone. I roped in my brother, Christopher from Australia, convincing him to forego plans that he had to travel for an extended period.

Beeconomic.com was subsequently launched in May 2010.

(Celes: A lot of times it’s not about creating that next big idea – it’s about recognizing ideas that are already working and capitalizing on them. Salad Stop is such a success today because Adrien and Daniel saw that the concept of salad bars is thriving in the Western regions, recognized the trend towards healthy living catching on in Singapore, and quickly capitalized on that. Karl saw the group buying model gaining traction in US, saw the potential for it to sky rocket in Singapore, and decided to take it over.

There are a lot of great ideas around that aren’t being maximized. Rather than worry about that next big idea, think about the consumers and what they need, then look at what’s going to address the voids. Originality and planning can be quite overrated in business development – Execution is what the consumers see ultimately. If you don’t ever launch your business, your consumers are never going to experience what you have to offer.)

Q6) After you came up with the idea, how did you get started? Please walk us through how the first 6 months of your journey was like.

Chris: Starting Beeconomic was like having a baby with Karl-we’d constantly be working on it together even throughout the night. We could never leave it and it needed our 100% attention. Karl primarily worked on business development, ensuring all facets of the business would be ready in time for launch. 20% of our time was spent on the backend – Ensuring our website worked, improving the customer experience, making sure we could afford our next month’s rent, while 80% was concentrated on signing partnerships with businesses, creating buzz on our Facebook page, and trying to build a solid pipeline of good businesses.

At the beginning, it was difficult signing businesses because the model was new to Singapore – In the beginning, we had to knock on the doors of businesses and convince them to work with us. I remember reciting powerpoint slides to at least 3 business owners per a day for the first six months.

It was a steep learning curve for someone fresh out of university, but with Karl working so hard on other parts of the business I had to learn and adapt quickly. When we launched the website a huge weight had been lifted from our shoulders, people were responding positively to our website and most importantly people were buying from us. That was the biggest reward for all the hard work. After that, it was all about growing our business, our team, and subscriber base.

Since the Groupon acquisition in November the growth has been phenomenal and 2011 is going to be a big year for us.

(Celes: How far are you willing to go to achieve your dreams? This is one question you have to ask yourself. People are constantly treading in fear of X and Y, and because of that they don’t accomplish anything.

For Chris and Karl, they literally put everything out there for their goals, and that’s why they’ve become so successful. Karl gave up his high paying job in an investment bank, while Chris deferred his studies. Both put their lives on hold (Karl was living in US; Chris in Australia) and came all the way to Singapore to launch their start-up. In the first months, they rented a cheap apartment, started their business from scratch, and basically pushed their way through whatever obstacles laid in their way. Such commitment and perseverance are the key to success.)

Q7) How long did it take (after starting) before you experienced the first signs of success? What were those signs of success?

It took about 7 days (probably the most nervous 7 days in my life) after launch before we started seeing more and more subscribers and facebook fans signing up. Our deal with Bliss Spa was the first deal that sold in the 100s and that’s when we knew we were onto something.

Q8) At which point did you know with certainty that it had taken off?

Chris: I always believed in the business model, and growing up with Karl I knew if anyone could start Groupon in Singapore he could do it. However, you never really know how successful your business will be by internalising your thoughts. For me the gauge is always measured by the market or the public. My first feeling of success through Beeconomic was signing my first merchant Fika (a Swedish restaurant). That was a good day.

Q9) What went through your mind when Groupon approached you to acquire Beeconomic? What did you consider before eventually deciding to proceed with the acquisition?

We were extremely excited when Groupon contacted us, but nervous at the same time. We knew they were going to acquire one site in Singapore and we weren’t sure it was going to be Beeconomic. But after meeting with Groupon, they liked our management team and quality of deals and brands, so they shook our hands.

There were three differentiating factors that drew Groupon to Beeconomic.com – our company had a good management team; it had proven that it offered the best customer service; and it had exclusive partnerships with well-known brands in Singapore, such as Resorts World, Jitterbugs, Bliss Spa and Climb Asia. This exclusivity means that the brands cannot feature in other group buying sites.

Before deciding to proceed with the acquisition, we considered several things. We looked at the culture that Groupon has and whether it was a good match for our team. We visited the Groupon Tokyo office and discovered that both Beeconomic and Groupon have a very young, driven and entrepreneurial workforce, and a culture that’s very similar – we take our work seriously but we don’t take ourselves seriously. We also considered what else Groupon could bring to the table, other than financial backing, and the most important were knowledge and exclusive partnerships with international brands including GAP, Starbucks and Starwood Hotels and Resorts.

(Celes: If your business is ever presented with a proposal for acquisition, be sure to evaluate the terms of the deal. Look at (a) your business vision, whether this move matches that vision, (b) whether it lets you serve your consumers better, and (c) whether it’s a win-win-win proposition for the acquiring company, you, and your customers. These are important things to consider before you take on a deal.)

Q10) What would you say are the biggest drivers of your success today?

Chris: In business, I would advise people to work hard and learn to sacrifice. When Karl and I started Beeconomic, we focused on it with our full energy. There was nothing more important then building the business. We learnt that from our parents, who showed us the merits of hard work as they built their printing business throughout our childhood.

My second largest priority is People-being kind to everyone and giving them your care and time.

Q11) Looking back, what were the biggest obstacles you faced in your entrepreneurship journey in the past year? How did you overcome them?

Chris: My biggest obstacle over the last year has been self-doubt. I think at some point in any entrepreneur’s journey you’ll come to question whether you’re doing a good job or whether you could improve in any way. There were times where I lacked the confidence to embrace the risk side of entrepreneurship in the same way my brother has. It’s definitely easier learning from someone who has the guts to just go out there and risk it all.

Q12) What are the biggest lessons you’ve learned in this journey?

Chris: Kindness goes a long way. When you’re operating at a speed of growth where you’re hiring 5 new people per a week, you have to remember people are people. They each have backgrounds, they respond to kindness, they should be given your time and effort. As Karl and I grow Groupon Singapore, we want to ensure we build the right sense of business philosophy. One where kindness is given precedence, where results are rewarded accordingly and where we view our customers as one of our most important company assets.

(Celes: Whether you’re a sole proprietor or overseeing a team of people, in the end we’re all working with people. Our consumers are people; our clients are people; our team members/employees/contractors (if any) are people too. Recognize that and respect them as individuals, and you’ll go a long way in not just your entrepreneurial journey, but your journey in life too.)

Q13) If you are to start all over again, what are the top 3 things you’d do as you start your business?

Chris: Firstly I’d put myself in the customer’s shoes. From my life learnings, what do I like, what do I not like, what works for me and what doesn’t. For example we worked extremely hard to keep Beeconomic’s website design very simple, based on our frustration with annoyingly complicated websites.

Secondly, make your product or service the best in the market (even if that means spending more). We continually strive to improve our customer service to the highest standard, for example our Groupon Promise allows customers to seek a full refund if they aren’t happy with any Groupon experience.

Thirdly, spread the word. Learn how to market your business in the smartest most effective way, whether through SEO or a Groupon deal.

Q14) How would you advise someone who is just starting his/her business and wants to bring it to the million-dollar mark and beyond?

Be prepared to work extremely hard and make personal sacrifices. Be passionate about what you’re selling, and don’t sell anything you wouldn’t buy yourself. You will always face some form of rejection at the start, so you need to really believe in your product and keep on trying. If you want to make millions, you’ll need to invest heavily into marketing and be able to scale up your business quickly.

Q15) What’s next in your plans?

We want Groupon.sg to become the premier City Guide that people can rely on to find the best food, spas and fun activities Singapore has to offer.

Special thanks to Chris and Karl for this interview! Chris and Karl Chong are the co-founders and owners of Groupon Singapore. To find out more about Groupon and check out its latest deal for today, visit www.Groupon.sg.

This is part of the Successful Businesses Interview Series, where I feature successful businesses that are making a difference in others’ lives.

Interview: Millionaire Entrepreneur Derek Sivers of CD Baby Fame

Celes — Mon, 06 Jun 2011 19:44:38 +0000

This is part of the Successful Businesses Interview Series, where I feature successful businesses that are making a difference in others’ lives.

The 6th interview in our Successful Businesses Interview Series features CD Baby – the largest online distributor of independent music. If you’re a musician, you’d most probably have heard of CD Baby. It’s one of the top 8,000 websites globally (Alexa). To date, it has brought in over $100M in sales for over 150,000 musicians around the world!

CD Baby is a company run by musicians, for musicians. There are no distributors or major labels involved – it sells only music that musicians sends them directly. Where in a regular record deal or distribution deal, musicians only make $1-$2 per album (if they’re ever lucky enough to get paid at all).

With CD Baby though, musicians get to make $6-$12 per album and get paid weekly. More reason to create and sell music independently, in a world where technology and internet are making it easier for new artists to get their music out there without a label (think Youtube and iTunes).

CD Baby was started by accident by Derek Sivers in 1998, when he was selling his own CD on his website, and friends asked if he could sell theirs, too. For those who don’t know Derek, he’s a renowned entrepreneur, regular speaker at TED and a professional musician. His past TED talks include Keep Your Goals To Yourself and How To Start a Movement. He even has his own wiki page.

10 years later in 2008, Derek sold CD Baby to focus on other ventures to help more musicians. Derek is also known as the $22 million-dollar man, as that’s the amount he sold CD Baby for (though he doesn’t talk about it much nor does he care about it if you ask me). The most amazing thing is long before he sold it, he had automated himself out of the operations. The business was running by itself, without him having to be involved in the day-to-day work.

If you ask me, that’s the true mark of a successful business owner, because that’s when you are managing the business outside of it vs. being in the business. As I mentioned in Million Dollar Tip #4 on Scalability, “If you’re the major “cog” in the machine, then you’re automatically the major “clog” in the machine” (T Harv Eker’s SpeedWealth). Being an essential part of the business operations makes you a cog/clog. On the other hand, if the business can run without you, you’re no longer a clog.

Derek recently relocated to Singapore after traveling all over the world in the past few decades (yes!), and we’ve met up several times since. He’s one of the nicest and most down to earth people I know, and same for his wife, Saj, too. They recently adopted the cutest little kitten on earth which they’ve named Brooklyn (that’s where Derek and Saj first met!).

Derek and Me

Me and Saj, Derek’s lovely wife!

The happy family! They’re one of the sweetest couples I’ve ever met.

Me and Brooklyn ♥. She’s playing with my ribbon right there!

I had the honor of interviewing Derek on his success story with CD Baby, and he has been extremely forthcoming in sharing all the lessons he had learned along the way. Like other interviews, I’ve included commentary where appropriate.

I now bring to you, Derek Siver, founder and former president of CD Baby:

Q1) Tell us more about you Derek – Who are you and what are your passions in life?

Born in California, I’m like a stereotypical Silicon Valley American. Very optimistic, individualistic, ambitious, rebellious, confident, and creative. I’m also very much an introvert, which shapes a lot of my preferences. I really prefer to be alone, thinking and creating, or in a good deep one-on-one conversation with someone.

I like building systems to help musicians. Web programming and business design. I also like writing, because I learn a lot and try to share what I learn.

Those are my passions, too. I’ve only ever done what I’m passionate about. I don’t believe people should ever do anything just for the money. You should find what you love to do, and find a way to make money doing it.

Q2) You founded CD Baby, a multi-million dollar company, in 1998. What is CD Baby about, who do you target, and what do you do for your customers?

CD Baby sells music for independent musicians. When I started, it was just an online CD store. Then when the iTunes Music Store launched, we started distributing digital audio to the big online sellers of digital music. So we became both a store and a distributor. But only for independent musicians. No Madonna or Miles Davis. Only musicians who are putting out their own music directly, without a record label.

Q3) You sold CD Baby to Disc Makers (leading CD and DVD manufacturer) in 2008. How much revenue was CD Baby generating a month when you sold it?

I never measure revenue – only profit. A lot of businesses measure revenue, like, “We brought in over $1 million last month.” But if you’re spending $1.1 million then you shouldn’t be bragging. Instead I only ever measured the profit that was leftover after all expenses. And CD Baby was making about $250,000 (USD) a month net profit by 2008.

Q4) How long did it take to achieve this monthly revenue?

Ten years. The business really just slowly grew and grew and grew over ten years. For example: a full year after I started it, it was only making $2000 a month. Then a year later, $5000 a month. A year later, $10,000 a month. A year later, $20,000 a month. It was only after year 8-9 that it got to $250,000 a month.

(Celes: Very rarely do people start a business and strike it rich right away. In fact, such cases are more flukes than anything. Look at Citrusox, which Carol took almost a decade to build it to a million dollar brand today; Delcie’s, which Delcie took 2+ years before the brand became known in the local veg*n community; and Udders, which David spent 4 years (and 6 months of pre-launch preparation) to build it to a popular local ice cream parlor with 5 outlets. Sheer, hard work over time is the consistent formula to success.)

Q5) How did you first come up with the idea for CD Baby?

I was just selling my own CD. Then my other musician friends asked if I could sell theirs, too. That’s all there was to it! I just said yes!

Q6) After you came up with the idea, how did you get started with the business? Please walk us through how the first 1 year of your journey was like.

First, you have to understand that I wasn’t trying to start a business. I was really just helping friends as a favor, because I had built this thing for myself that they wanted to use, too.

Imagine if you had a car, and your friends keep asking for rides, then eventually you charge a little money for rides, and later someone asks you how you got your taxi business off the ground.

It’s not like I had a great plan or strategy. People kept asking me to help so I just said yes.

The first year, I was just selling up friends’ CDs on my website in my spare time. I’d only sell a few a week, so I’d ship them in my spare time. Eventually this became a part-time job.

By the end of the first year, I had hired a local guy to help me with shipping and emails, while I spent more time doing the back-end programming to improve the site, to add more features.

All of this was just run out of my bedroom. By the end of the first year the CDs had filled my bedroom and living room. In the second year, I moved them into the garage.

(Celes: One of the biggest clues when you’ve stumbled upon something great is when people keep requesting for it. For Delcie’s, Delcie realized the opportunity to start a vegan bakery brand when her customers kept requesting for more vegetarian desserts/pastries. For Citrusox, Carol realized she should focus on socks and legwear when she noticed socks contributed to almost 50% of the sales for her initial pushcart business.

By the way, check out this page for pictures of CD Baby when they first started. No fancy offices, elaborate set-ups, or anything like that – just purely delivering the best value for the customers! Reminds me of how Google started in a students’ dorm room, and how Apple started in a garage. )

Q7) How long did it take before you experienced the first signs of success? What were those signs of success?

In a way, success was felt right away because everyone really loved this idea, friends told friends about it, and strangers kept coming to it, even though I was doing no work to promote it.

Big money didn’t come until four years later, but some money and enthusiasm came right away – so I knew I was on to something that could be big.

Q8) At which point did you know with certainty that the business had taken off?

There was no big moment. You just keep slowly doing what you’re doing, solving problems, helping people, managing growth. About four years into it, I visited Los Angeles, and everybody treated me like I was famous. So I realized that my little thing must be successful.

Q9) Why did you eventually decide to sell your business in 2008? How has your life changed since selling it?

I really sold for personal reasons, not for money. I just felt done with it. Like a painting after a painter puts the final brush stroke on it, I just felt I had nothing more to add. The business did everything I wanted it to do, and I had no more vision for it. I realized I was doing my clients a disservice by remaining the leader of something when I didn’t want it to grow anymore, so I sold it to a company that felt it had a long way to go.

Since selling, I’ve spent the last three years kind of going back to school. Instead of a university, though, I created my own school by diligently reading educational books about business, psychology, investing, health, happiness, and philosophy – things that I really want to know well for the next stage of my life. It also helps me learn some lessons about all the things I did wrong in the last stage of my life.

Instead of just reading, I’ve been taking detailed notes for retention. And I’ve been making sure to actively apply what I’ve learned.

My life is less busy, but I’m learning a lot more.

(Celes: Derek sold his business as he felt done with it. It was time for him to move on to something else. As the business owner, the potential of your business lies in your vision, and your passion for it. If you ever outgrow that passion one day, the best way to continue its growth is to hand it over to someone who is more passionate about the cause than you are. Otherwise, you’re not being fair to yourself, the business, nor your customers.)

Q10) What would you say were your biggest success drivers in building CD Baby as a business?

A lot of it was just luck. I built this thing at a time when there were no other ways for musicians to sell their music online. If I would have done it a year later, it would not have been successful.

A lot of it was my selfless focus entirely on the customer. Since I didn’t really want to start a business, I was just focused entirely on helping people however I could. I didn’t care about profit – only that I made enough to sustain, to be able to continue doing it. This kind of philosophy becomes apparent in a hundred little ways inside a company. It changes how you handle phone calls, refunds, emails, policies, and everything else.

Lastly – it was my communication style. Since I didn’t really consider it a business, I treated everyone like they were my good friend. This kind of casual warmth is what really drew a lot of people to CD Baby.

(Celes: Inherent in how Derek managed his business was how he built it around the customer. Customers’ needs came first before all else. While he wasn’t doing it with a profit-making, business-developing agenda, it was precisely this selfless focus that made CD Baby the successful brand it is today.)

Q11) Looking back, what were the biggest obstacles you faced in your entrepreneurship journey (from 1997 to today)? How did you overcome them?

There were no obstacles at the start. I was doing something that everyone wanted me to do. The doors were wide open.

But in my last few years, when I had 85 employees, it was really difficult dealing with 85 people’s personalities and needs. I’m not much of a people-person and really wanted to spend my time in deeper thinking and learning, so I hated management, and was quite bad at it.

Q12) What are the biggest lessons you’ve learned in this journey?

The biggest one is that your business, and your role in your business, can be anything you want. You can make your little utopia – and do things the way you think they should be done in a perfect world. You don’t have to do anything that any other business does. And same with your role: just because you’re the owner doesn’t mean you have to do business meetings, be a manager, or anything else. You can make your role be whatever you want it to be.

If you’re really interested, I’ve actually just finished a whole book about this subject. It should be out soon. See http://sivers.org – and it should be on the home page when available.

(Celes: As the business owner, it’s up to you to design your work using whatever mediums best resonate with you. There are no limits, literally. In a way it’s all fluid and the only structures are those you set yourself. This is why I love running my business, because I have full reign over how everything should be. There are no barriers between me and my vision, just me myself. This is where skills development and leveling up are critical.)

Q13) If you are to start all over again, what are the top 3 things you’d do as you start your business?

Test the idea on as many people as possible.
Only continue when lots of people love the idea so much they are willing to pay you to do it. (Celes: Remember that money is value. If you’re offering value, people will want to pay you for it.)
Make a working prototype as fast as possible. Don’t stay in hiding, trying to perfect anything. Launch too soon, not too late. (Celes: Speed is of the essence in the business world. Perfectionism is overrated – it’s all about experimenting, learning, and continuous tweaking. If you’re afraid to make “mistakes” and procrastinate getting started, you’ve to get over your issues, because the only person bothered about them is probably just you.)

Q14) How would you advise someone who is just starting his/her business and wants to bring it to the million-dollar mark and beyond? Feel free to elaborate as much as possible.

Do those 3 steps, first. But also: read these books:

Personal MBA by Josh Kaufman
Four Steps to the Epiphany by Steve Blank
Lean Startup by Eric Ries

- and do everything they recommend.

Remember to keep your focus entirely on helping people, not on the million dollars. If you’re just focused on the income, you’ll do stupid things that don’t actually add any value to the world, but that promise you riches. (Like all those SEO clickfarm affiliate things.)

Add value to the world. Give more than you receive. Be selfless and go over-the-top in helping people.

Lastly, to get to that million-dollar size, it has to be something that’s a system that runs while you’re asleep. If you make something that depends on you being hands-on, it can never grow to an unlimited size. You have to build a system.

(Celes: Always think about how you can scale up your work. The more you can automate, the more the business can run without you, the better it is. But first, develop mastery of your core work, so you have an intimate understanding of how things should be like. Otherwise it’s like trying to sprint before you can crawl.)

Q15) What’s next in your plans?

Building more systems to help musicians. :-) Go to sivers.org and please send me a little email to say hello, if you’d like to be involved.

Special thanks to Derek for this interview! Derek is the founder and former president of CD Baby, the largest online store for independent musicians. To find out more about CD Baby, visit www.CDBaby.com. To learn more about Derek and read his writings, visit his blog at www.Sivers.org.

This is part of the Successful Businesses Interview Series, where I feature successful businesses that are making a difference in others’ lives.

Interview: Dann’s Daily Cafe – Offering You Wholesome, Healthier Pescetarian Delights

Celes — Mon, 30 May 2011 22:57:13 +0000

This is part of the Successful Businesses Interview Series, where I feature successful businesses that are making a difference in others’ lives.

The 5th interview in our Successful Businesses Interview Series features Dann’s Daily, the only pescetarian cafe in Singapore. Pescetarian (pronounced as pes-ker-tay-rian) refers to a diet with no meat, but with seafood. Some people interested in veg*nism adopt pescetarian diets as a transition diet. Dann’s Daily prides itself at offering wholesome, healthier meal choices that are tasty at the same time.

Like Citrusox, the PR agency for Dann’s Daily contacted me for potential inclusion of Dann’s Daily in the Successful Businesses Interview Series. After checking out their website, I thought they have a wonderful concept and story behind their business, which will be great to share with all of you. And after getting their confirmation that they serve veg*n food too (it’s important to me since I’m a vegan, and I only endorse something that matches my personal philosophy), I decided to include them into the series! I’m glad I did as the owner (Christina) is such a wonderful, amazing lady. More on that later.

To acquaint me with their cafe and their creations, Chris invited me down to their cafe, near Bedok (Singapore):

Interior of the cafe

This is one of their set meals – Brown & Wild Rice Salad (steamed organic rice and organic sprouts) and Curry of the day (self-made paste, freshly pound). I’m a curry person and I really enjoyed their curry. It’s light and not too spicy – just the way I like it. You can really taste the freshness of the ingredients.

More of Chris’ special creations: Left – Steamed radish & carrot cake. Right – Brown rice nasi lemak

Chris’ signature steamed cupcakes. Left – Banana Oats. Right – Banana Caramel. I had the Banana Oats and it’s great! Nice, light and tasty.

Triangle toasties

Xing’s concoctions: Left – Teeccino Latte (Caffeine free). Right – Soy Chia Chia – a healthy drink with lots of chia seed goodness.

Me and the owners – Christina, 36, and Xing (Christina’s husband) Christina is the head chef while Xing concocts all the drinks.

The special thing about Dann’s is they create very wholesome meal options – nutritious, fresh, healthy, yet not compromising on the taste at the same time (in fact IMO they taste so much better than supposedly tasty but unhealthy junk food). Their food is created using the freshest ingredients with no MSG or additives. Their staples such as rice, sugar, bread, pasta are organic. Healthier ingredients are used in place of commercial norms, such as grapeseed oil over butter, raw sugar, organic rice, unsweetened soymilk vs. diary, etc. Cooking methods are healthier as well – Steaming is the standard preparation method, vs. frying/baking.

Chris was a wonderful host. In the 4-5 hours where we chatted over her wonderful, very tasteful and clean food (The way I like it – since my fasts, I’ve a disdain for food with additives. You can also literally taste the freshness of her dishes and its ingredients while eating), I learned a lot about the story of how the cafe started, challenges faced, how she overcame them and her latest plans for her cafe.

She shared with me about her dad, who was a great pillar of strength for her when she was young and whose love for her touched her very deeply. Unfortunately, he passed away when she was 16, due to colon cancer. This struck her because colon cancer is caused by one’s diet, and her dad was a heavy meat eater in his life, especially red meat. This proved to be one of the points where she developed a keen desire to learn about healthier diets.

She also shared with me her passion in cooking and baking, which she had developed since young. She had always dreamed of setting up her own food business – initially a muffin shop, then later evolving into a food cafe since it would give her the leeway to experiment with greater variety of dishes. Before setting up Dann’s, she has long been pursuing this passion on the side. She would cook, bake, experiment and whip up new recipes during her off-times, then bring her creations for her colleagues to try.

Finally in 2010, her long-held childhood dream came to life. She launched Dann’s Daily on 10 Sep ’10, together with her husband, Xing, who is the owner as well, and named it after their son Dann (he’s 7 this year). In the short 8 months since they’ve been around, they’ve been covered in various magazines, newspapers, and online blogs – and they they recently got covered by an episode on a TV segment which will be out in Sep this year.

I adore the wholesome living message at Dann’s Daily and I love that Chris is spreading this message via her lovely, quaint cafe, and making it ever easier for others to practice healthier living. I even love how she brings it to life through her own creations – proving to others that it’s possible to have healthy and tasty meals without the use of additives, unhealthy ingredients and conventional commercial cooking methods which may not be the healthiest.

Because Chris places such dedication in her cooking and she makes a point to create brand new, differentiated dishes from whatever’s out there (think tofu pumpkin curry, brown rice nasi lemak, steamed cupcakes), I truly consider eating her food to be like having gourmet cuisine at the price of regular food. A definite steal if you ask me.

Without further ado, let me now bring you Chris, owner and head chef at Dann’s Daily:

Q1) Tell us more about you Chris – Who are you and what are your passions in life?

Hi, I’m Chris and I’m the founder and owner of 2 businesses – a PR agency and a cafe, which is Dann’s Daily. Both represent my passion, which is creativity. I like to immerse myself in a creative environment and to keep in touch with creativity. With my agency, I get to express my creativity as a messenger, where I convey the message for my clients to the media. With my cafe, I get to convey the message of my own brand, my own voice and also make my own creations. It also allows me to express my other passion that is cooking and preparing food.

Q2) What is your business about and what does it do?

Dann’s Daily is a pescetarian cafe. We offer a more wholesome choice and balanced diet. We understand customers want healthy food but still indulge in food like curry, toast, desserts, so we make these food available to them in a wholesome manner, by ensuring high quality of the ingredients and the freshness. So they can enjoy a wholesome meal that’s nutritious as well.

Q3) Who do you target, and what do you do for your customers?

We reach out to anyone who appreciates the value of good, simple, nutritious, food. Our customers are from everywhere, from kids, teenagers, adults, elderly. We price them to be affordable for everyone, though our customers tend not to be price sensitive as they understand the importance of nutritious food. Whether you are a working executive, or just a homemaker, or a student – as long as you’re open to make a change in your lifestyle and a change in your habits, you are welcome to step in.

Q5) When did you first start your business?

We started on 10 Sep ’10.

Q6) How did you first come up with the idea for your business?

I’ve always had a passion in cooking since young. It’s always been a dream have a shop of my own, where I get to showcase this passion. However, I didn’t do it in my earlier years as I thought such things need money, and I needed time to save up. In my mind, this was something I’d pursue when I had enough money and the time was right.

So while I was working in the weekdays (while I was still an employee), during the off-days such as weekends, I’d make my own creations, such as pineapple tarts, cookies, cakes, muffins, and more. I’d bring them to office for my colleagues to try the next day. They liked them so much that they’d even pay me money to make the tarts, such as during Chinese New Year! This was something I did on an ongoing basis.

I’ve also been passionate about overall health and wellness for a while. As a kid, I was very fat, up until I was secondary 1. A that time, I was 166cm and 58kg. In my first week of school, I had to wear my primary school uniform (instead of my secondary school’s) because the school did not have available sizes for me! I was laughed at by my school mates. It made me really feel hurt, and as a result I became more conscious of my weight. That year, I started to lose weight through increased activity and a healthier diet.

When I was 16, while I was in sec 4, my dad passed away due to colon cancer. It struck me and got me thinking, because colon cancer is caused by the type of food you eat. My dad used to eat a lot of red meat such as beef. He had poor digestion and would suffer from constipation. This made me further conscious of the importance of healthy eating.

Over time, I educated myself more on healthy eating. At the same time, I ate more healthily too. I slowly cut meat (chicken, pork, beef) out of my diet, and gradually adopted a pescetarian diet, together with my husband, Xing (who used to be a heavy meat eater himself and was quite heavy – he subsequently lost weight when he switched to a healthier diet). We wish to share with people that the long-lasting benefits of living well and eating well starts from young.

Around this time, my desire to have a food business grew stronger. I decided it was about time we put this into action. So last year, I told my husband, Xing, to start looking for spaces to rent, in preparation for our food cafe.

Q7) After you came up with the idea, how did you get started? Please walk us through what the first few months of your journey were like.

One day in July ’10, Xing chanced upon this place that was up for rent. We found the rental was affordable (about $4-5k SGD/$3-4k USD per month) – it’s hard to match this price for retail spaces. So we met the agent, looked at the space, and decided to get it – all within a week!

At the time we confirmed the shop space, we did not know what concept we wanted to have nor that it was going to be pescetarian. We just knew we wanted a food cafe and it would be called Dann’s Daily. It was when we signed on the dotted line that it hit me that we had to come up with the cafe concept and menu items, and we were on a timeline to launch the cafe and open for business. We decided to make it a pescetarian cafe, since our family is on a pescetarian diet.

Everything happened very fast after that. We got a few contractors to quote on costing. The renovations took place in August. We came up with our menu. And on 10th Sept ’10, we were open for business.

The first few months were really tiring, physically and emotionally. I had to run the new cafe, manage my other business and find time for my son. At home, my son would cry and ask for attention. At my other business, we lost a few clients as some clients insisted on dealing directly with me but I couldn’t be around to work with them.

I had no off days, not even weekends. At the cafe, we open at 9am, we close at 9pm (now 10pm). Every morning, I had to wake up early to go to the market to buy fresh ingredients. At the cafe, I had to run the cafe, prepare food and serve the customers. When I return home, I would just sleep through the night and had difficulties getting up in the morning.

At one point, I even asked Xing – Did we do the wrong thing? Should we sell this concept to other people? Should we just give up?

But no sooner after I asked these questions did I pick myself up and quickly changed my thinking from negative to positive. I addressed the challenges. (Celes: More on these in Q12) The first few months was a lot of fine tuning as it was my first time running a retail business. Things started settling in at the 4th month.

I found that as I got more positive, good things started to happen. Results at Dann’s Daily got better. We closed new clients for my other business. Things got back on track.

(Celes: The story of how Dann’s started is different from how most businesses start. Basically as Chris shared above, it was a spontaneous decision, made after they saw the space up for rent. From there, everything fell into place, one after another. Or rather, because Chris and Xing took action there and then, they allowed the wheels of fate to shift into motion, and promptly sped ahead for the ride.

Action paralysis is one of the biggest things that prevent people from ever starting their businesses. If you have a strong passion for your craft, and you know this is something that truly makes you happy, you should just go for it, whilst managing your current responsibilities. Things aren’t going to be lined up perfectly all the time, and if you only wait till such a situation before taking action, it may well never happen. It’s about making things happen, rather than waiting for them to take place.)

Q8) How did you get your first customers?

When we first opened, we did not pitch to the media right away as we were not ready. We wouldn’t know how to handle if the response was too big. Hence, our first customers were walk-ins. People willing to try new things. These were mainly foreigners – expats, Caucasians, Japanese – who then became our loyal customers.

In Oct (1 month after the cafe started), we pitched to the media. The reception was very good, because of several reasons: (1) Unique concept (2) It’s a new brand on the map (3) Unique cooking methods. For example, steamed vs. baked cupcakes. Use of alkaline water to wash the rice. We got quite a number of exposures on print and online.

After the media coverages, we got quite a lot of walk-ins. Some customers have never heard of steamed cupcakes. Some saw our signature drinks like Teeccino and got curious to try. For the customers who tried the food, they found it to be unique, high quality (can taste the freshness of the food) and with a reasonable price. This led them to tell their friends about it.

(Celes: The top priority for any start-up is to drive awareness of its business first. Since Dann’s is located outside of the city, the human traffic is not high where they operate. It was tough to rely on natural human traffic to get business, unlike Citrusox. Hence, it was important for Dann’s to get the word out via other means. In this case, pitches to media, primarily food columns in magazines and newspapers. The PR coverages helped to drive quick awareness, and subsequently brought in a new wave of customers. This would then lead to WOM (see first driver above) when the customers realize the fine quality of the food.)

Q9) How long did it take (after starting) before you experienced the first signs of success? What were those signs of success?

About the first month. Though we just started then, I observed some customers coming back almost every other day, with our most loyal ones coming every day. After a while, some customers even told us this is like their second home! We had customers telling us the food is great and we cannot shut down our business.

There were other signs too, such as positive feedback on the food. A lot of them really enjoy the food. For example, our brown rice. Our customers told us that they usually don’t like to eat brown rice because the texture is either too hard or too wet. However, they feel the texture of our brown rice is just nice and chewy.

Another example is the steamed cupcake. Once, there was a very grouchy lady customer who refused to try anything on the menu (she came with her daughter). After I convinced her to try the cupcake, she gave it a go. She was won over and even scrapped every last bit of the cupcake in the paper cup. Moments like this give me a sense of achievement as a chef.

Yet another sign was how our customers advocated the cafe to their friends. The ones who came to try the food and like it would often return with their friends. This then created a positive cycle of word of mouth.

There was a time (in the cafe) when I overheard one of my customers’ friend (after dining) sincerely telling her: “Hey, thanks for telling me about this cafe”. As a cafe and owner, I felt so good hearing that, because it indicated that we’re doing something right.

Q10) At which point did you know with certainty that it had taken off?

As we are running a business, at the end of the day it’s about the numbers and making it financially sustainable. I’d say the point it was when we broke even, after 6 months.

Q11) What would you say are the biggest drivers of your success today?

1. Word of mouth. We really have to thank our customers today for the cafe’s success to date.

(Celes: When talking to Chris, I noticed both Xing and her knew the customers personally – down to their stories and backgrounds. This goes beyond a usual customer-shop owner relationship, and is undoubtedly part of the charm of the cafe. Such an emotional connection cannot be feigned nor replicated. Customers who feel connected to your brand will want to return day-after-day and advocate what you do to everyone else, on their own accord.

As a business owner, you should strive to create such bonds with your customers – if you are able to do so, you’d have established a group of true, loyal fans that will go all out to help you succeed, because they genuinely care for you and your success, just as you care for them as well.)

2. Media pitching. It helped the mass public to know about our cafe and triggered them to drop by and try.

3. Food quality. Our food speaks for itself. We use only quality, fresh ingredients and our customers can tell the difference. Besides quality, there’s also the creativity, the uniqueness of our dishes.

(Celes: All dishes and recipes are invented by Chris herself, so you can’t find them anywhere else. For cupcakes alone, I was looking through her past creations and she has probably created over 40 different flavors to date, including Kiwi, Mango Yoghurt, Pumpkin Coconut, Peanut Butter Banana, Chocolate Strawberry, Blueberry Maple, Durian, and more! Talk about never-ending flow of ideas! While others can copy concepts, they can never replicate a chef’s creativity.

Chris also mentioned how she would whip up new items, based on her mood, then bring them to her other business for her colleagues to try. She has been doing this almost every day/week, even before she started Dann’s. This is truly 10,000 hours at work here – when you keep utilizing your skills, you’ll become a master in it in no time. For Chris, coming up with new recipes, cooking, preparing meals are all natural habits in her everyday life now, and virtually effortless.

Q12) Looking back, what were the biggest obstacles you faced in your journey to date? How did you overcome them?

1. Overcoming customer pre-set beliefs. At first, it was challenging to get people to take the first step into the cafe. People would stand outside in curiosity but not step in. When they saw the word “pescetarian”, they didn’t know what it meant. Some even thought we were a cafe for pets as the shop beside us sells pets! Then when we stepped out to welcome them, they would quickly walk away.

For those who decided to step in and check out the menu, there was the second challenge – getting them to try the food. They would resist and say “I don’t take brown rice or wholemeal”. (Celes: Since Dann’s offers wholesome meal options, it uses brown rice and wholemeal for staples.) Some thought our items were too healthy and hence wouldn’t be tasty.

How it was addressed: I learned to turn the situations to my advantage. For the first group, we just let them be as we didn’t want to go the hard sell route. We noticed they would eventually walk in after standing outside and observing it for a while.

(Celes: While I was at the cafe, I noticed they plastered their media coverages on the entrance glass panels. It’s visible/readable right outside the cafe, without walking. This definitely helps address initial doubts customers may have on what exactly pescetarian is or whether this cafe serves good food.)

For the second group, I learned to observe, understand people’s mindsets, then adapt to suit them. For example, for customers who refuse to try an item, I’d suggest them to give it a try. For customers who say they don’t take wholemeal, I’d tell them that it doesn’t taste like wholemeal after toasted, but more like white bread. After tasting it, they’d realize that it’s really true.

2. Finding a way to cooperate with my husband

Initially, it was quite a challenge to work so closely with Xing every day, in the same restaurant, same kitchen, same space. We fought a lot, almost every day. It could be over littlest of things, such as pricing of the dishes or organization of food in the fridge.

In the end, we realized this wasn’t sustainable, so we had a good chat after we calmed down. It’s not healthy to quarrel all the time. Not just for the business, but it also spoils our mood, and in turn, quality of food prepared. After talking, we came to a compromise.

How it was addressed: We identified clear roles and boundaries for one another. For example, I would have complete ownership over the cooking, while Xing would own the drinks. We agreed not to disrupt each other during our preparation nor question what we were doing in our areas. I also became more organized, such as with my cooking and organization of food in the fridge, so it would be easier for others to find the ingredients.

3. Managing my agency. When I started out the cafe, I had to devote my time here. Hence, I asked my team to handle my older clients at my agency (when I’d normally handle them). This resulted in some difficulties as the clients were used to working with me, and wanted to deal directly with me. Things snowballed from there, and I lost a few clients as a result.

It was very challenging for me. Financially, I had lost a huge chunk of revenue, but I still had to sustain the agency. I didn’t want to cut any staff. I was very stressed during that period of time. But I didn’t want to give up.

How it was addressed: I took action and sought new clients. I worked weekends and nights, with no break. From there, I closed 2 new clients for my agency, which brought in new revenue streams and stabilized the situation.

4. Time management. It was a challenge to find time for my son, for my family, for myself, for the cafe and for my agency.

How it was addressed: Xing and I spoke to Dann to make him understand we were not neglecting him. It took us a few months to make him feel good. We then got him to the cafe during the weekends, where he started making friends with customers at the cafe. It also helped in that it gets him exposure to different people. There was once he sat on the customer’s lap. There are even times when customers asked if they could bring him home!

My mom and my younger sister also stepped in to help. My mom took care of Dann’s basic needs such as ferrying him to school, while my sister helped with Dann’s homework. With my PR agency, I worked late at night to take care of the work. I didn’t fall sick during this time but instead became stronger.

Most recently, my other sister Justina quit her job to join the cafe full-time, as the manager of the cafe. She will be helping me with the operations and accounting.

Q13) What are the biggest lessons you’ve learned in this journey?

1. Cost management. As the chef, I think more about the end product – whether the food tastes good and whether people like it. Hence, I’m blind to the price tag and buy whatever is needed to create the dish. Unfortunately, it has resulted in situations where I sold products for less than cost price! This isn’t good for the business.

I learned to be conscious of the costs of the ingredients. Even though I’m running Dann’s because it’s my passion, this is still a business and it needs to be sustainable. I’ve started to take dedicate the buying of ingredients to others so they can note down the price. I’m also learning to price the items more appropriately. We’ll be doing a cost-management exercise soon for each dish to make sure that we’re not selling it at a loss.

2. Time management. I’ve learned to give time to myself, as well as the family, my other business, and my cafe.

3. Staying positive. Always try to think positively. When you keep a positive mind, good things will just happen. Your mind is very powerful. When you think negatively, you’ll attract the negative things to you. I noticed as I got more positive, the results at Dann’s got better. Good things started to happen. For example, with my PR agency, new clients came to us without us looking for them, and these turned out to be nice clients too. Recently, we got a surprise invitation to be featured on a TV program, which will be out in Sep this year.

Q14) Let’s say you can start all over again. What are 3 things you would do differently?

Plan menu more carefully, in line with the customers’ needs. I was too impulsive and did not plan carefully in terms of menu offering. This led to several menu changes (they’re planning for their third menu change now and it’s been 8 months since launch). The first menu was just offering people things I like to eat, but I did not consider these may not be things others like to eat. I’d find out what customers like to eat and design around that.
Understand the population in the location, such as demographics. Since I just jumped on the opportunity because the space was up for rent, I did not take time to understand the background. I did not care about who live there, or the food they like. I only learned this as I went along. It can be quite a painful process to adjust and readjust, so the first few months was quite a struggle.
Have a larger kitchen space. After several months of cooking, I’m starting to feel the kitchen is a bit small.

(Celes: All the above points to the importance of planning. When starting your business, it’s important to ride on inspiration and take immediate action. At the same time, take time to do research. Understand your customers and their needs. Talk to people who’ve set up similar businesses before. This way, you can learn from their mistakes, which makes for a faster trip up the learning curve.)

Q15) Again, assuming you can start all over again: What are 3 biggest things you’d focus on?

Location. I’ll look at the location, to ensure there’s enough human traffic. Constant traffic flow is very important. The location we have now is a bit quiet. There are times when it’s very busy, and times when it’s very quiet. If I could choose, I wouldn’t take up a space like this.
Business plan. I will have a proper business plan, with planned budget, ingredients, set-up, expansion plan, PR plan, etc. Whereas for Dann’s, because we started on impulse, there was no proper planning at the start. We booked the space and had to rush to renovate and start the cafe for business thereafter.
PR/Marketing plan. I’d play equal attention to PR/Marketing and operations. I feel I have neglected the former as I’ve been too immersed in the latter.

Q16) How would you advise someone who is just starting his/her business and wants to bring it to success?

Originality. Being original is very important. I find a lot of entrepreneurs like to copy other people’s concepts. Everything out there looks the same today and it’s so boring. I think if you like to be an entrepreneur and a successful one, one of the key values is originality. Really create things that you can call your own creation, that no one has done before.
Always inspire yourself. This might include doing certain activities such as exercising. For example, I force myself to wake up early in the morning to go jogging. I know by exercising, my ideas come. Do whatever activities you need to open up your mind for more ideas. Otherwise, your business will become a machine. There’s no excitement, no spice to it. You should go to work every day feeling inspired and excited.
Positive attitude. Being positive very important. While someone can be a very driven person, if you think in the negative side, you have to drive yourself harder just to overcome the negativity. This becomes a torture for yourself and people around you.

Q17) What’s next in your plans?

Short term:

Launch new menu that fits customer’s needs better
Have an official launch party for regular customers to thank them for their support. I’ll also let them try the new dishes. I may invite a few media down or have a separate media launch party.
Go to more bazaars. Whether corporate offices, or schools. The reason why I started this cafe, and have all this junk, is because kids do not know. Kids just follow whatever the parents are eating. Hope to be able to influence, get the message to the younger generation. Have to do it bit by bit.

Long-term: Open more outlets around Singapore. I dream of having outlets overseas one day, but have not thought that long ahead yet. It might even be via franchising – we’ll see!

Special thanks to Christina for accepting this interview! Chris is the founder and owner of Dann’s Daily, the only pescetarian cafe in Singapore. To find out more about Dann’s, visit www.DannDaily.com.

This is part of the Successful Businesses Interview Series, where I feature successful businesses that are making a difference in others’ lives.

Interview: Citrusox – Trendy Legwear that’s Fashionable, Comfortable and Affordable

Celes — Sat, 28 May 2011 14:34:00 +0000

This is part of the Successful Businesses Interview Series, where I feature successful businesses that are making a difference in others’ lives.

The forth interview in our Successful Businesses Interview Series features Citrusox, the largest trendy legwear brand in Singapore. It’s a legwear haven for ladies and teenagers who are into fashionable legwear from stockings, leggings to knee high socks and socks.

I met Lena and Carol, the owners of Citrusox, 2 weeks ago, for the interview series. I was initially contacted by their PR agency after I kicked off the Successful Businesses Interview Series for potential inclusion in the series too. After checking out the Citrusox website, I thought it would be a great addition to what I’ve lined up for the series. Hence, I agreed and they then invited me down to their biggest outlet (in Bishan, Junction 8, #01-28)!

When I reached there, I was pleasantly surprised – the outlet is large, very spacious (easy for browsing), and their selection of legwear is larger than any other place I know:

The Citrusox Outlet. They have 4 outlets right now (2 retail stores and 2 pushcarts) and will be opening a fifth outlet soon.

A glimpse of their in-store collection

More socks

Leggings

Carol (the founder of Citrusox and co-owner), Me and Lena (co-owner of Citrusox). Both of them are 32 this year.They are very chill, low key and friendly individuals.

Carol and Lena were kind enough to give me a few pairs of leggings for my own use. Here, I’m wearing their open-toe leggings – it’s dark purple, if you can see from the picture.

Their latest sheer leggings

When I met Carol and Lena, the co-owners, what stuck me the most is that they’re very down to earth and very personable. Despite being the owners of such a successful business today, they don’t put on any airs at all.

This is a far cry to some of the businesses I’ve approached – there was one local business which was actually scheduled to be featured in the interview series, but I took them out in the end because the poor way the PR conducted herself. I believe humility and remaining approachable and positive are important not just in business, but also in life.

Back Story on Citrusox

I love Carol and Lena’s story on how they started Citrusox – it’s probably one of the best rags-to-riches stories you can ever hear. When I was chatting with them, I couldn’t help but think how much of an inspiration their story would be for all of you out there who are planning to start your own business.

For Carol, she has always been interested to sew ever since young. Her inspiration for sewing came from her mom – every time she saw her mom sew, she would want to do so herself. The spirit of entrepreneurship can be seen budding ever since she was young too. When she was in primary school, she would sew different things, like 5 stones (5 stones is a really popular childhood game with 5 little bags of beads – see picture), then sell them in school for some extra cash.

When she entered secondary school, her dad passed away. She was only 13 then. Rather than weep and moan about how unfair life was, Carol stepped up to the plate and started working while studying to relieve the financial burn for the family and to provide for herself. This began her endless venture into part-time jobs, including A&W and MOS Burger. This continued on all the way till she graduated from Polytechnic.

Carol knew Lena in secondary 3, where they were in the same class. While they went to different polys after that, they remained in touch, and as good friends too.

While Carol was in Poly, she started going to flea markets over the weekend to sell stuff, as a way to earn extra cash. She would sew things like bags, pouches, socks and hair pins with beads, and sell them at a small kiosk. Lena would help out as well. They even offered customization too. This would occupy their weekends for majority of their poly years.

After poly, Carol went straight to workforce, while Lena went on to university. After working for 2 years, Carol decided this was it – it was time to step out. She didn’t want to be in an environment where she would be forever controlled by others – it wasn’t what she saw herself doing for the rest of her life. She decide it was time to start her business and be her own boss.

In 2001, Carol started Citrusox as a pushcart in Bishan. A pushcart is a small retail space commonly found in local shopping malls. It’s a choice option for people who want to start their business but don’t want to invest heavily into a full store (which requires a straight-on 3-year lease). See below:

Examples of pushcarts in Singapore. This is in Bugis Junction. (Image Source)

At that time, she sold an array of different items, such as socks, bras, panties, tube tops, pouches, and so on. She had not specialized in legwear then.

It wasn’t easy. Carol was pregnant when she started the business, making it even more challenging. She had to manage difficulties such as running the business herself (Lena came in as a co-owner 4 years later), moving to different locations every 2-3 months (that’s the maximum lease allowed for pushcarts here), facing tight cashflow (since fixed costs were very high with the steep rental and stocks), and of course, her pregnancy. In order to tide over the difficult times, borrowing money from friends was a constant occurrence in the first few years because of the cashflow issue.

But Carol knew she had to make this work out. It was either she moved forward or she gave up on the business, and she chose to move forward. Day after day, she managed the pushcart. Day after day, she oversaw the different aspects of her business. Day after day, she attended to different customers and sold one item after another. And her persistence paid off.

In 2003, the mall management at Bishan Junction 8 invited her to take up an official retail store, seeing the strong performance of her pushcart business. Knowing how difficult it is to secure a store space, she took up this opportunity, and everything built on from there. That year, she launched the first store specializing in legwear (that’s the one you saw in the pictures above), which subsequently became the flagship store for the brand. Lena joined in as a co-owner in 2005, after she graduated from university.

The next few years saw the brand’s expansion as they leased more pushcarts and launched more outlets. In 2006, they were awarded 3rd for Best Decorated Store out of 170 stores in Bishan Junction 8.

Today, Citrusox is a million-dollar business. Their monthly revenue is about $90k SGD / $72k USD, which is a lot for any local start-up.

I now bring you my interview with Carol and Lena:

Q1) Tell us more about you, Carol and Lena – What do you do at Citrusox?

Lena: Hi, I’m Lena. I’m the co-owner of Citrusox and the Operations Manager. Carol roped me in after I finished my studies to help her in the expansion of the business. I run the back office, which includes barcoding, staff training, ordering of stocks from suppliers, and so on.

Carol: I’m Carol, and I’m the founder and co-owner of Citrusox. While Lena manages the operations, I’m in charge of the buying of the stocks as well as business development. Every 2-3 months, I’ll take a trip overseas to see the fashion trends out there, then look for new, fashionable pieces to add to our collection.

Q2) What is Citrusox?

Citrusox is the largest trendy legwear brand in Singapore. Our aim is to provide legwear that’s fashionable and comfortable. Our legwear includes knee high socks, regular socks, ankle socks, non-slips, stockings, leggings, tights, etc that are both . Our best sellers are our socks and leggings.

Besides legwear, we also sell accessories, such as handphone MP3 socks, shoe laces and pouches.

(Celes: Socks and leggings are the core of Citrusox’s business and they never drift away from that. Every business has a core offering – know what it is and stay true to it, and that’ll help your business to grow. When you drift away from that, that’s when your brand becomes unfocused and diluted, which results in fragmented customer base.)

Q3) Who do you target?

We target people of all ages, though our primary audience are students and ladies, since we specialize in trendy and fashionable legwear.

Q4) How much revenue (USD) is your business currently generating a month (average)?

We have 4 outlets currently – 2 stores and 2 pushcarts. Our stores bring in about $50k SGD ($40k USD)/month in revenue, while our pushcarts bring in about $20k SGD ($16k USD)/month each. That’s about $90k SGD ($72k USD)/month in total.

Celes: They broke even approximately 6 months after starting their business. At their largest, they had 7 outlets, though they realized it was not a good move, business-wise. It led to manpower issues and it was difficult for them to manage. So they scaled down to 4 outlets and things have dramatically improved since then.

Q5) How long has it taken to achieve this monthly revenue?

Our first pushcart business started in 2001, so it’s already been 10 years.

Q6) How did you first come up with the idea for your business?

Carol: I’ve always had an interest in sewing when I was young. This was inspired by my mom. Whenever I saw my mom sew something, I’d want to join in and sew something of my own too. This led me to sew little trinkets such as 5 stones in primary school to earn extra cash.

Later on when I was in Poly, I spent my weekends at flea markets with Lena, selling things I sewed, like bags, pouches, socks and hair pins. Lena also helped out with the sewing as well as the customization of the products. It was satisfying to see my own creations being purchased. Hence when I decided to branch out and set up my business in 2001 (after working for 2 years), it was a natural step to sell items I was familiar with.

Q7) After you came up with the idea, how did you get started? Please walk us through what the first years of your journey were like.

Carol: I started Citrusox via a pushcart in Bishan J8 in 2001. At that time, I sold a variety of items, from tube tops, bras, bags, pouches, panties to socks. I was not specializing in socks and legwear then.

While I originally sewed my products when selling in flea markets several years ago, I decided to source for ready stocks for the pushcart business. Reason is because the former is labor intensive – it takes considerable time to create a quality product by hand, which means limited supply to match demand. You can only price up an item to an extent before it becomes unaffordable. It is much more scalable to have a larger supply and price them at an affordable price point.

In that same period, I was pregnant with my first son and managing everything myself. It wasn’t an easy job running a one-man show. It was very laborious. I had to take care of everything, from negotiating with the mall management, running the pushcart, getting the stocks, to serving the customers.

The early years were not easy. A lot of cash was invested upfront due to the rental of the pushcart ($3k SGD / $2.4k USD per month) and getting the stocks. Hence, cashflow was very tight. Many times I didn’t even have my own salary after deducting the expenses. I would put my own salary as the last priority since the business came first. Some months, I would borrow money from friends just to tide over the period. This was promptly paid back as soon as I got the cash.

Because it was a pushcart business, it was also unpredictable. The lease for pushcart is 2-3 months only – this is standard in the industry. It can’t be extended beyond that as the mall management wants variety in their store offerings. After that, I had to approach other malls to lease a pushcart space to keep business going. Sometimes my request would get rejected; sometimes it would be accepted. Hence, the location would change once every few months, from Bishan, to Bugis, to Sengkang (Compass Point), to Tampines. I had to run all over the place. It was tiring.

Through this tough period, there were times when I thought about giving up. But I didn’t know what else I would do if I was to stop doing this. I had also invested so much of myself in the business. So I persisted and didn’t give much thought about quitting. Also, it was a very satisfying feeling when I saw myself going from one place to the next, and getting more sales each month.

Finally in 2003, the mall management at Bishan J8 offered us an official store space in the mall. This was the first big milestone. I took it up and decided to specialize in selling legwear, since legwear was the most popular item in my pushcart – it made up 50% of the sales. Things built on from there, and we leased more pushcarts and launched more stores after that. Lena joined me in 2005 after she graduated.

Q8) At which point did you know with certainty that it had taken off?

When the management at Bishan Junction 8 invited us to take up an official store space inside the mall. It’s not easy to get the attention of the mall management since retail is a highly competitive industry. There have been several times in the past when we applied for a pushcart space but got rejected as they did not buy into our product offering.

This was the first point Citrusox was on the retail map. This outlet became our flagship store. Subsequently, we leased more pushcarts and launched more outlets as business grew.

(Celes: When I asked Carol if they did any special marketing or advertising to get/increase sales, Carol said no. Sales was a natural result of the traffic at the mall, which signals the importance of location in your business planning, if you’re going into retail/F&B.)

Q9) What would you say are the biggest drivers of your success today?

Lena: Firstly, our continuous emphasis on customers. We often listen to what our customers want and meet their needs wherever we can. For example:

We know that customers like to feel the texture/elasticity of the socks/legwear before they purchase, so a lot of our items do not have external packaging. For those that do, we allow our staff to remove the packaging under the customers’ request.
Giving the option for customers to try our socks, so they can see whether it fits them or not before buying.
Not too long ago, we created this transparent ziploc bag that comes with our stockings. This made is easy for customers to store their stockings before/after use.
We place a lot of emphasis on staff product knowledge and service so customers have the best in-store service.

Carol: Secondly, maintaining consistent quality of products. I’m always sourcing for good quality stocks at reasonable prices, so we can offer the best deals for our customers. That, along with ensuring we achieve a right (profit) margin for the business’ success. At the end of the day, we are running a business, so we have to ensure that our bottom-line is protected.

Thirdly, bringing in the latest, fashionable legwear into our collection. Every 2-3 months, I’ll go on a sourcing trip overseas. Before I do, I’ll take a look at the local fashion trends. I’ll also get feedback from the staff and check what customers have been looking for. For example, if they’ve been asking for sheer leggings, or legwear of a particular color.

Then when I go on my trip, I’ll look at the trends out there. There, I’ll purchase the latest, fashionable items and add them to our Citrusox collection for the season.

Q10) Looking back, what were the biggest obstacles you faced in your entrepreneurship journey to date? How did you overcome them?

Carol & Lena: Cashflow was a real problem when we first started. Because a lot of money was paid upfront for the space rental and stocks, we had little cash to work with. We also had to ensure our staff was paid on time. Often times, we would defer our salaries just so other expenses would get settled on time.

How it was addressed: During those times, we would borrow money from others to tide us over the period. We would borrow money from friends for that month, after which we would quickly pay them back when we had cash coming in again.

(Celes: Proper business planning, tracking of accounts and positive cashflow are important for any business. Business planning helps you identify targets to reach, so you’d know when you’re on-track/off-track. Accounts tracking lets you know where the revenue is coming from and where the expenses are, so you can make future plans. Cashflow ensures you get ongoing cash to buy new stock and make payments. Here, the initial oversight was plunging straight in without planning – which led to the cashflow problem. This is also why Carol/Lena mentioned the importance of planning later on in Q11.)

Carol: Manpower was another of our largest obstacles, and still is. When I first started, I was doing everything by myself. From stocks management, to attending to the customers, to negotiating with the management. It became easier when I hired staff, but then a different challenge surfaced.

Lena: This challenge revolves around (1) ensuring our staff has the right know-how (quality) and (2) having enough people to manage our operations (quantity).

For quality, we have to ensure that they have the best product knowledge as well as proper customer service. One things I always empathize to my staff is this: “There are so many places selling socks out there. Why should customers come and buy from us instead of the others?” We must make Citrusox the place they want to visit for their legwear.

For quantity, we have to ensure sufficient staff to run our operations. People come and go in employment, especially in retail. This is even more so for our push carts, which has a 2-months fixed lease. Because of that, our staff will also leave after our lease ends. We are then faced with the challenge to get new staff for the next pushcart space we secure.

How it was addressed: Proper training is very important to equip them with proper product knowledge. We always ensure a senior staff in our flagship stores. Also, we have our senior staff teach the junior staff when they first join. I also created a small manual for them to learn about the different terms and materials for the legwear, so they can serve the customers accordingly.

On number of staff, proper planning is important, so we can have enough staff at each outlet at any point. Keeping the outlets to a manageable number has also helped. Now, we only expand when we have a strong staff base, so that the quality of our service does not get affected.

(Celes: It would seem that for retail industry, hiring the right people and maintaining a consistent staff base is a continuous challenge. This is the case for Salad Stop and Udders too. This is not surprising, given that for retail, the staff is the first touch point between the business/brand and the customers. Whatever impression the customers walks away with is dependent on the staff’s expertise. How much sales the business brings in is also a function of the staff’s capabilities as well. If you’re planning to start a retail business, it’s important you factor this accordingly.)

Carol & Lena: Getting the lease approval from the mall management was another obstacle in the beginning. Being the mall managers, they have the largest bargaining power. The only thing we could do is to submit our pushcart concept, and see what they had to say. As a new business establishing its presence in the market, it was tough.

How it was addressed: There was nothing much we could do as the mall management had the final say. We could only pitch to different malls and go with whichever mall willing to take us in. We just focused on building our business.

Gradually, this caught the attention of the Bishan J8 management, who invited us to take up an actual storefront. From there we grew bigger. Nowadays the situation is different since we’re an established brand. The different mall managements would approach us of their own accord to take up pushcarts at their malls.

(Celes: Persistency is the key. You may get rejections, but that doesn’t mean it’s impossible. Just keep doing and pressing forward. Change your strategy too while you’re at it. Sooner or later, you’re going to get a different, positive result.)

Q11) What are the biggest lessons you’ve learned in this journey?

Get the right manpower for your business – people that are both willing to learn and committed to the business.
Ensure your base operations and quality of manpower are in place before you consider expansion plans.
Proper cashflow management is very important.
Taking time to plan will save you a lot of hassles later on.

Q12) If you are to start all over again, what are the top 3 things you’d do as you start your business?

Carol: The first I’d do is to understand the full list of expectations from the mall management before signing any contract. I realized from running Citrusox there are a lot of hidden costs and restrictions which you only know later when the contract is signed and you’re running the business. This created a lot of headaches at the beginning.

Second is manpower – to find someone to start the business with, so that we can run the show together. It was not easy running the business by myself at the beginning, as there were a lot of things that had to be taken care of.

Third is to manage the cashflow properly. Know how much we’re spending and how much we’re earning, and keeping a clear record of that. We did not really keep track of this at first, and it got quite messy after a while.

Q13) How would you advise someone who is just starting his/her business and wants to bring it to the million-dollar mark and beyond?

Assuming you’re going into retail, you need to have a good amount of start-up capital. Rental is not cheap and it can quickly add up after several months. You have to be willing to forgo the money at the beginning because you may not see profits so soon.
Do proper research. Know your customer and how big this market is. Also know what your customer wants. Just because an item sells well in Korea doesn’t mean that it will do well in Singapore.
Take time to plan before you start your business. This includes getting the right manpower at the right time, managing cashflow, expansion plans, and so on.
You must be willing to put in the effort and the long hours. Are you willing to give up your public holiday and your rest? Are you willing to work while others are playing? There is a lot of work that goes on behind the scenes in a business. These are things you have to do yourself when there is no one there to pick up the slack. Even though we are the co-owners with a team of staff, there are things we do ourselves, say barcode management, packaging the socks, and so on. These are questions you have to consider before you start, or else you are going to fail.

Q14) What’s next in your plans?

At the moment, our immediate focus is to (1) train our staff to provide better customer service and product knowledge (2) continue to source for products of better quality and more varieties. We are opening a new store next month (June ’11).

Special thanks to Carol and Lena for accepting this interview! Citrusox is the leading trendy legwear brand in Singapore. To find out more about Citrusox, visit www.Citrusox.com.

This is part of the Successful Businesses Interview Series, where I feature successful businesses that are making a difference in others’ lives.

Personal Excellence » Media & Interviews

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Back Story on Citrusox

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