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The Hot Seat: Elim Chew (Part 2)
February 5, 2007
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Last week in The Hot Seat, Elim Chew from 77th Street answered questions from Singapore’s tertiary students.
“In the last few years I’ve seen many people change because money starts to increase or money becomes available and you can see people start to change because the purpose and intentions for the money will reveal the owner’s personality and character.”
In this last installment of the program, Elim returns to satisfy the curiosity of these students who are fascinated by the rise of this fashion entrepreneur and her connection with Singapore’s youth.
Ginna Divya: What inspired you to start this range of 77th Street stores?
Elim Chew: What inspired me? I think it was the things that I couldn’t find, things that I wanted but I couldn’t find it. I had returned from London after having lived there for three years as a professional hair stylist. Life there was really fun for me, there were all these different clothes there, we had the retro clothes, we had the punk wear, we had all the spikes and platform shoes that weren’t available in Singapore. Even colored hair was very unique in Singapore back then. So when I came back here I found that certain things were missing, I couldn’t find the things I really wanted in the shops so I decided to import all the things from London. Instead of sitting back and complaining that I don’t have this and I don’t have that, I decided to do something and I asked myself how I could import all these things in and make use of the situation around me (as a hairstylist) to sell these products, to sell the things that I brought in. So what I did was to wear the things that I was bringing in and at the same time and at the same time I was cutting hair for the customers. Then they would notice and say ‘Hey, I like what you’re wearing, where did you get it from?’ Then I would tell them that I got it from London and this was how much it was. So people started buying off what I was wearing and so it started from there. Then profit started coming in and that got me thinking how I could make more profit. If you make more money, you’ll be able to bring in more products and that kept the interest going. But of course I also had set backs where some of the things I brought in just wouldn’t sell. Then that would be a loss and I had to start all over again. So I think you must have enough passion to keep you going and that became a momentum which I started to enjoy. So that’s how I started 77th Street from a very small shop. But for the first seven to ten years of 77th Street, I was paying a lot of expenses for the shop from my hairdressing salon. So I made my money from hairdressing and used it to pay for 77th Street’s expenses. So for those wanting to go into entrepreneurship, remember that things don’t happen overnight; it took me more than seven years to earn a profit which means I was breaking even or losing money at some point, but I was paying for this from my other business which is my hair salon.
Benjamin Chan: Having set up the Young Entrepreneur Mastery, what is your take on the subject that youths these days do not have the entrepreneurial mindset, that they are scared of failure and that they are not widely exposed to the hardships in life because Singapore has provided a very comfortable life for the youths, and they have not experienced enough to know what the world is like?
Elim Chew: Well, yes, it’s true that Singapore is very comfortable, it’s one of the best places to be at. Every thing is very well done in the sense that if you want to start a business, you just have to go onto the Internet to start it up. You have a one-stop location where you just have to go online to register your new business. It also has details on how start a business, so basically everything is on the Internet. But there is good and bad to this since everything is done for you and set before you; you tend to take these things for granted and not search for it yourself. A lot of people have written to me telling me that they would like to start a business but then they ask me what business to start, how do I start it, where do I get the money? And I always laugh because if I knew where to start, what to start and how to start, I would have started it myself. So you must come to me with an idea and say ‘Hey, this is what I want to do and this is something I want to sell. And you must source it all out, you must come up with the budget, the cash flow, the vision, you must come out with everything, then I’m able to help you. But if you come to me with a blank piece of paper and say ‘OK, you fill it,’ I won’t be able to fill it for you because it is your passion. So if I fill it then it is my passion. You have to be the driver behind your thought process, you have to be the driver behind what you want to do. So I was very impressed, though a bit worried, by this girl who came to me and said that she has these computer bags that are made in Cambodia. I was very impressed with her as she got the bags sewn and put together in Cambodia. She was from one of the Polytechnics and she showed me her ideas. There was an order that was given to her but the client wanted to have names of individual persons on the bags. Since the factory was in Cambodia, the people making the bags don’t speak English, so the bags arriving in Singapore had the names spelt wrongly. So this girl wanted to fly there and get the job done properly because it was a promise to a company that she would have it done. I advised her not to go because being a girl and going to an unfamiliar country might not be safe; I was worried for her. None the less, it did not stop her because I met her a month later and she told me that she took a flight there and she was there for a week to ensure that everything was done correctly, that the names were spelt correctly and the order was carried out properly. But she said it was the hardest moment of her time, that one week in Cambodia, and she cried. But then again, she got something done. I’m happy for her but most importantly, she came back safe. That was something where the circumstances didn’t stop her from going ahead. I think that if there is enough passion in each person, nothing will stop you; you will just go for it.
Not all students were focused on the fashion elements of Elim’s business. Some, like Gao Zheng, were more intrigued by Elim’s combination of philanthropy and enterprise in her retail chain.
Gao Zheng: From my accent I believe you can tell I’m not a local. I’m from Shanghai, China. I first heard of you a few years back from your investment in Shanghai. I got to know you from a project where I did research on youths. Along the way I found out that you’re a very successful entrepreneur where you own a fashion chain. I have some questions which came about in doing my research. I heard that you have a non-profit project called My Voice. I heard that it’s about a book where youths record down their secrets and thought. I believe this initiative is to give youths a chance to speak out, but may I ask if this project also helps your business, since your fashion wear relates to all the youths. If so, in what way does it help?
Elim Chew: Yes, the My Voice project is part of the social entrepreneur project as well. My Voice was started as a small idea and it was that we wanted young people to express what they go through, what they feel, since nobody would understand them and the things which are eating them up inside. These are things they wanted to tell their friends, their parents, their grandparents, what they are going through and which they don’t dare to open their mouth to talk about. So this book allowed them to voice it out on a piece of paper. I realized that I started getting a lot of these voices coming in so I compiled them into a book. I’m very excited because I’ve just been sharing my new plans about My Voice with a lot people or a few good friends and they think this is going to grow into a very big idea. So I think if we’re going to generate income to create a bigger concept for this, I think we can reach out to millions out there. But if it does not gain profit, then everything will just be from my pocket. And if you don’t have enough money to print a book, if you don’t have enough money to get things going, then you can’t get it done, you’ll never be able to get it done. So through 77th Street, I’m able to make profit, I’m then able to take part of the profits into doing My Voice. So I think the out-of-school youths who don’t fall into the academic system (some of which are in this book), they are actually the ones with the most strength and the most endurance, the most perseverance. They do the alternative by coming up with new ideas to approach things. They are actually the most ideal people for entrepreneurship because they dare to step out and do things differently. The only set-back is that they are not interested in books. But then I was never interested in books until now. I read a lot more now so that I can understand and know more about how to do things. So I believe that there are two groups of people. One has people who are willing to do things first, they will ride the bicycle and then learn all about the bicycle later. They will then go back to the books, in fact, they will be able to write the book on how to ride a bicycle. Then the other group will first learn all about the bicycle before they ride it so it will actually take time for them to learn to ride the bicycle or even to balance on the bicycle. It is the first group that goes out there and rides the bicycle, gets experience although they fall and get cuts, bruised and injured, who ultimately will be able to step into anything in the world to gain that kind of experience. So in the end, they can become very successful. But the academic ones (the ones who read up on bicycles before attempting to cycle) are probably the ones who will help you sustain the company, they will be the ones who will help you manage the company, they will be the ones who will help you create the systems for your company. So if you can put the two groups of people together, they can form a big, global company.
Elim Chew has come a long way from her budget days of balancing her hairdressing career and maintaining her hip fashion store.
She is an inspiration to many students, just like Khoo Swee Chiow, KF Seetoh and Dr. Woffles Wu, our other personalities featured in The Hot Seat.
I’m Justin Teo, join me next week on Radio Singapore International as The Asian Journal returns.
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