From the straits times.
AUG 22, 2003
Student bosses
By Jill Alphonso
Young Singaporeans have been told that they need to be enterprising
and think out of the box if they and the country are to survive and
thrive. Many are taking the advice seriously.
Instead of just going the tried-and-tested way - working in
fast-food restaurants and giving tuition - to earn pocket money,
some are juggling grades with a business.
Mr Laurence Kim, 21, for instance, was featured in The Straits
Times on Wednesday. He started a printing company before even
entering the Singapore Polytechnic three years ago to study banking
and financial services. He is now registering an annual turnover of
$250,000.
Student businesses range from exotic gifts to comic shops, and
bring in from $300 to $3,000 a month. Money does not seem to be the
ultimate goal as starting a business is more about putting what
they have learnt in school to practical use.
Mr Geoffrey Dasilva, course manager for marketing at the
polytechnic, says about 20 per cent of its students are venturing
into business. 'We encourage this because entrepreneurship is a
life-long skill and it's better to learn it early,' he adds.
On this page and next, Life! profiles four businesses.
Comic relief, at last
When Mr Bernard Ang, 25, started G&B Comics four years ago in
Bras Basah Road, he had just enrolled at the Nanyang Technological
University to pursue a degree in mechanical engineering.
He had been interested in comics ever since he was a child, and he
decided to make money from it.
With advice on running a business from relatives and friends, he
has since embarked on his own trial-and-error journey.
He opened his shop with blessings and monetary support from his
parents. 'I had to borrow more than $5,000 from them,' he
says.
'My grades fell in the first year of school but I learnt to manage
my time by the second year,' says Mr Ang, who did not think of
giving up the business, even when things were tough in the first
year.
'School was still the priority. I spent less time in the shop if I
had big projects and exams,' says Mr Ang, who graduated in
July.
'But I thought if I could do something that would be profitable in
the long run, I might as well sacrifice my leisure time now.'
Opening hours in the first year were flexible as he was the only
staff member. Operating hours would change every six months to suit
his new school schedule.
Business picked up steadily and he now has two employees who keep
the shop in Bras Basah Complex open every day.
With the recent popularity of comic-book stories being made into
movies (Spider-Man, The League Of Extraordinary Gentlemen), Mr Ang
says business has picked up 'considerably'.
Declining to reveal figures, he adds: 'I'm making a steady profit.
If it goes on like this over the next three to four years, I should
be completely stable.'
He has no plans yet to join the workforce on the strength of his
degree qualifications, but wants to see where the market in comics
will take him.
G&B Comics carries American titles such as Marvel, and has
1,000 regular customers.
Candle in the wind
Ngee Ann Polytechnic student Yachicko Masda, 22, also runs Gift
Licious, a six-month-old online business selling ethnic gifts (
www.giftlicious.com ).
Concentrating on candle-holders and gift boxes from South-east
Asia, she says she set up the company to earn pocket money. It
reaps a turnover of $2,000 to $3,000 every three months.
'I saved $1,000 to start it,' says the business and marketing
student. 'My mother lent me about $2,000.'
She does her buying when she travels every few months to Thailand
and Indonesia, her home country. She sources for other products
through her friends.
Her grades are unaffected since she takes care of business only in
her leisure time. 'I'd encourage others to start their own
businesses while they're young. Every businessman fails once or
twice, and it's easier to recover from failure when you're
young.'
She plans to start a wedding planner firm when she graduates with a
diploma next year.
logos in stitches
Samuel Lim, 22, Don Lui, 24, and Desmond See, 23, are the partners
in Porcupine Design, a T-shirt printing and embroidery
business.
The company, which has its office in Beach Road, was set up at a
cost of $50,000 last year. They borrowed from their parents and
relatives.
Mr Lui was studying shipbuilding at Ngee Ann Polytechnic then and
now mans the shop full-time.
Mr Lim and Mr See are pursuing their degrees in arts and social
sciences at the National University of Singapore. They expect to
graduate in 2005.
Mr Lui was already in the embroidery and printing business for five
months when the other two asked him to become partners and
expand.
They bought a new embroidery machine and Porcupine Design was born.
The 10-month-old business focuses on T-shirt design and printing.
Their work involves logo-printing on T-shirts.
'Even motorcycle groups have ordered from us,' says Mr Lim.
Working hours are not fixed. 'Don opens the shop,' says Mr Lim.
'And when our classes are over, Desmond and I rush down to help,
and Don can leave if he wants to.'
They each take home about $1,000 per month after accounting for
expenses, including $2,400 in rent.
Mr Lim says: 'Studies to us is not everything. There are things we
learnt in this business that books could never teach.'
They get about 20 orders per month, which works out to selling
about 800 T-shirts per month.
t for three
One-year-old streetwear company 065 Clothing takes its name from
Singapore's telephone country code and is run by three
students.
Lucius Young, 19, and brother Daniel, 17, study interactive media
design and media production at Temasek Polytechnic while their pal
Linus Koh, 17, is completing his N levels at Chai Chee Secondary
School.
The three in-line skaters met through their sport and have a 'crew'
of 11 friends.
'We initially wanted to do T-shirts just for our crew,' says
Lucius. 'But we found that it was expensive, so we thought setting
up a company would make the expense worthwhile.'
The three friends pooled together $1,800 to start the venture
without any help from their parents.
'Our parents are supportive but we wanted the company to be
completely our own,' says Lucius.
School and business seem to go hand in hand for the three. They are
largely self-taught in fashion design but Lucius' training in media
production at Temasek Polytechnic has come in handy to finetune
their creations.
'Our grades don't slip because there are three of us,' says
Lucius.
Koh adds: 'If one of us has exams, the others will pick up the
slack.'
The 065 range is sold at Fresh, a shop in Queensway Shopping Centre
which caters to the skater community, and their website.
The company takes in between $300 and $400 a month, which they pump
back into the business.
Last month, they supplied 30 T-shirts to Fresh, and 20 have been
sold so far.
To build goodwill, 065 Clothing sponsored four of their T-shirts as
prizes for an in-line skating competition this year.
Asked if they want to expand their business overseas, Lucius says:
'The smart thing to do right now is to concentrate on Singapore and
build on the market here.'
They plan to branch out into caps and accessories.
Copyright @ 2003 Singapore Press Holdings. All rights reserved.
