After BizAsia Entrepreneurship Development in Singapore

This session was the first in a week-long series of seminars under the BizAsia exchange programme. Correspondingly, the very first seminar that kick-started the week centered on entrepreneurship in Singapore. The organizers brought Mr Sim Choon Siong, Deputy Director of Entrepreneurship Division of SPRING Singapore and Mr Andy Ong, Group CEO of ERC Holdings Pte Ltd to speak to the crowd that consisted of students from Singapore, China, Philippines and other ASEAN countries.

Choon Siong went first and his talk was an overview of the challenges for Singapore entrepreneurs and also gave an overview of the Singapore government financing schemes.

Business challenges

(1) Manpower

Talent is always an issue, especially in this innovation based economy. But manpower challenge doesn’t end at attracting talent, a Singapore entrepreneur must know how to retain that talent too.

(2) Markets

Singapore is a small market, we can’t help it. So Choon Siong encourages people to go abroad and not just think of selling to Ang Mo Kio. To be successful, a Singapore entrepreneur needs to think global from day one. One could think of how to penetrate new markets like China, India, Latin America and the Middle East.

To help local entrepreneurs, the government has tried to make it easy to start a business in Singapore. One could be a business owner in less than a day here. Furthermore, Singapore has Free Trade Agreements with many countries.

“Don’t just think of selling to Ang Mo Kio.”

Calling himself an accidental entrepreneur, second speaker, Mr Andy Ong was forced onto the entrepreneurial route after he was fired from his job at 26. Since then, he has gone on to start and mentor many businesses and is currently Group CEO of ERC Holdings Pte Ltd.

How to start a business

You must always have objectives when you do something and you must always meet these end objectives. An entrepreneur just got to believe that the thing you’re doing is the right thing in life.

80% Luck

While some might say that a business is 99% hard work and 1% luck, Andy only puts a paltry 20% to right business opportunities, right mentors, passion and enthusiasm. For him, the most important factor is luck.

But, to qualify that, he went on to explain that for him luck can be created. The harder you work, the luckier you get.

“The harder you work, the luckier you get.”

Risk management

In relation to the qualities needed to be a successful entrepreneur, Andy emphasizes the importance of risk management and cautions all to not be too enamored by opportunity. You need to always protect your down side and manage the risks there. Once you do that, the up side will come.

When do you decide enough is enough, and call it quits?

A member of the audience asked Andy if a business isn’t making money, when should the entrepreneur decide to stop and pull out? Andy used this opportunity to emphasize his personal business philosophy: the number one priority in business is to make money.

This is practical because an entrepreneur has to always remember that there are opportunity costs when you do a business. You could be earning a few thousand working in a job somewhere else. If you’re losing money in a business, you’re paying to do it.

So for Andy, in terms of the two priorities: money and passion. Money is ranked higher than passion. He makes the point that no matter how much passion you have, if there is no money, you’ve got to give it up.

“The number one priority in business is to make money.”

About The Author

Gwendolyn Regina T - Co-Founder and Editor-in-Chief

Apart from SGE, Gwen is also a Partner at Thymos Capital, where she focuses on early stage investments in technology firms. She has had two exits out of her investments via the firm, one of which is iHipo. A frequent judge for business competitions both locally and overseas, she graduated from the National University of Singapore. Gwen also spent some time in Silicon Valley and studied in Stanford University under the NUS Overseas College programme. Gwen is a mentor at Spanish incubator Tetuan Valley, Polish incubator Gamma Rebels, the Singapore Ambassador for the Sandbox network and the Singapore curator for StartupDigest. She enjoys languages, travelling, dance and adventure sports. Gwen can be found on LinkedIn and Twitter.

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