15 Nov Global Entrepreneurship Week 2022 [Part 1]
It’s Global Entrepreneurship Week (14 November – 20 November 2022), and we would like to take this opportunity to celebrate and shine the spotlight on the entrepreneurs around us. We hear from some entrepreneurs as they share with us what motivated them in their entrepreneurship journey and the challenges they’ve faced.
Neekhern Chee of New Dawn Company
Q: What encouraged you to take your first step in becoming an entrepreneur?
Neekhern Chee (NC): When I was working in Google, I was pushing to get Brunei to be included and be part of their targeted market. It didn’t come to any success as Brunei’s market was not in the million figures. However, since I had a Marketing major, I thought to myself – with the knowledge that I have learned and gained, I could use both my business academic and working experience to bring Google to Brunei, instead of the other way around.
I became the first Google ads certified individual in Brunei; offering Google Ads services here, and that was the beginning of my entrepreneurial journey, followed by expanding to the online marketing ecosystem through collaboration with advertisers and creative agencies.
Q: What was one challenge you’ve faced in your entrepreneurship journey?
NC: The first thing I had to overcome as an entrepreneur was to overcome my introversion. Having the background and experience was not enough to “sell” the product. I needed to be out in person, networking. In this challenge, I started to realise that networking and socialising was not just an extroversion personality trait but a soft skill that could be acquired. I would not say I have mastered this skill, but it is something that can be practice and applied.
Interested to learn more about New Dawn Company? Visit their website – www.newdawn.company, or follow them on Instagram – @newdawn.co
Eunice Lo of Lane Microbakery & Coffee
Q: What was one challenge you’ve faced in your entrepreneurship journey?
Eunice Lo (EL): When I first started this business, I only slept 4 hours a day. I had so many hats to wear; being an entrepreneur, I had to be involved in everything and anything, from the operations to management; accounting, HR, inventory, customer service, marketing, and the list goes on.
However moving forward, I received a lot of help from people around me especially my family and delegated a lot of tasks to them and also hired new employees to help out. Being able to delegate is definitely very important, which is why a HR department is important. Without it, the business will not be able to grow and I would probably be stuck with the many roles I started off with and that is unhealthy, physically and mentally, and also stunts the growth of the business.
Q: What’s one misconception you feel people might have about entrepreneurship, and what do you have to say to them?
EL: “Entrepreneurs are making lots of money because of their expensive selling price.” But what people might not see is the hard work that goes behind, and there is also inflation too; they have tremendous amount of bills, rental and wages to pay off.
This misconception does not apply to all but only those who are ignorant about how labour intensive food & beverage businnesses can be and those who are only able to see the outward image our brand pulls off. (e.g., They see a lot of people queueing for you pastry, but they don’t realise it doesn’t happen every single day.) We are commited to use the best quality of ingredients for our products, no compromises, so we are definitely working on tight profit margin especially during these times of inflation.
Interested to learn more about Lane Microbakery & Coffee? Follow them on Instagram – @lanemicrobakery
Yapp Giem Eing of Kitsu Models Hobby Shop
Q: What encouraged you to take your first step in becoming an entrepreneur?
Giem Eing (GE): I have always loved miniatures; it has given me many fond memories in my childhood! It was a mix of an opportunity presenting itself and me thinking “wonder if this would work” that I actually took action and satisfied my curiosity; thus, starting my entrepreneurship journey.
Q: What’s one misconception you feel people might have about entrepreneurship, and what do you have to say to them?
GE: There is a misconception that every business owner is successful. “Be your own boss”, they said; “work whenever you want,” they said. Well I say, “I hated my 9-to-5 so I became a business owner. Now I work 24/7!”
Interested to learn more about Kitsu Model Hobby Shop? Visit their website – www.kitsumodels.com, or follow them on Instagram – @kitsumodels (or follow Yapp Giem Eing on Instagram – @ge_yapp)
A huge thank you to all the entrepreneurs who took time to share with us about their journey. Look out for more sharing coming up throughout this week!