Julie Roberts' Lucky Clovers

Company:

JULIE ROBERTS' LUCKY FOUR LEAF CLOVERS

Address:

5 Koek Road, Cuppage Plaza, #01-19

Website:

www.julieroberts.com.sg

Interview with Mr. Robert Tan

by Grace Koh on 09-Jun-2008.

Business Profile:

Ever heard of the original lucky four-leaf clover known as the Trifolium Repens? If you did, you would be pleased to know that other than the rest of the 300 clover species, Julie Robert's clover species is the very same species that originates from Ireland where the legend began. The mystique of the four-leaf clover continues up till today. Finding a real four leaf clover is still a rare occurrence and remains as an omen of good luck. This legend seems to have materialized in Singapore as many of their customers have returned with good news of success in health, love, education, business, work and money. To date even 50 customers wishing for babies had their wish fulfilled.

Interviewer's Comments:

'Warm, sincere and friendly' as well as 'carpe diem'; these are the phrases that one would use to describe Robert and his wife, Julie, when you first meet them. These words are apt descriptions as this couple is more than willing to contribute to the society and to seize the day to spread the blessings they received. This is just like how the 4-leaf clover gave its blessings without qualms. The 4-leaf clover - a 'miracle clover' as what some call it, indeed does brings faith, hope, love and luck to the world.

1. What is the nature of your business?

We specialize in gift items and accessories and our signature product is the Lucky 4-leaf clover, a valued item in the west and an internationally well known good luck charm. At the moment, I am improving and coming up with new designs for the clover products. This 4-leaf clover originated from Ireland and the Irish believe that the 4-leaf clover brings luck. Usually, the clovers grow only 3 leaves (called the Shamrock). However, out of every 10,000 3-leaf clovers, only 1 of them sprouts a 4-leaf clover. I considered selling these clovers as a blessing because 4-leaf clover signifies faith, hope, love and luck. In Ireland, they believe that the clover is a gift from God.

Inspired by my customers’ testimonials about the clover, my wife and I had also composed a poem which goes like this:

 “Faith, hope, love and luck. That is what the clover is all about.

 Miracles happen with our clovers. Many find joy, some even find lovers.

 Share your love with everyone. Have faith in God and in yourself.

Have hope that your wishes do come true.

 With determination, the lucky clover can work for you.”

We emphasize to our customers that miracles don’t happen out of nowhere. What is important is that you must first of all have faith in God and in yourself. This will bring hope and with love for fellow mankind and sheer hard work, one can fulfill one’s dream with the ‘gift of the lucky clover’.

2. When and why did you decide to become an entrepreneur / take over your family business? NOTE: If it is not a family business, ask: Do your parents have their own businesses too? Have they inspired you in one way or another? (Select appropriate question according to the entrepreneur being interviewed.)

In fact, when I was in army, there were 3 to 4 times when I wanted to leave the army to set up my business; however I did not have the opportunity. This thought of being an entrepreneur remained with me, even after I left the army in February 2004.

When I was in Boracay in The Philippines in 2002, I bought two model ships. I named one of them after my wife Julie and the other ship was named, Julie Roberts- the combination of my name and my wife’s. This is a name that I had in mind for my future shop back then. Thus, you could see that the thought of opening up a shop has always been a lingering thought in my head.

I had the advantage of having my last SAF posting in Manila before I retired. During the 3 years in Manila, I was exposed to many people at social functions, even at trade shows and fairs. I noted that Filipinos have a flair for creativity and their products are unique and beautiful. As such, I brought back quite a number of their gifts and handicraft items. I also attended international fairs to get new ideas and at one such fair, I chanced upon the clover without knowing that it is the lucky clover from the west. I liked the beauty of the leaf and brought it back to Singapore, to supplement the Filipino gifts and handicrafts items that I subsequently sold.

At that time, I was mending a booth in Orchard Atrium. To my surprise, I sold out my first shipment of clovers within 5 days. The western tourists actually told me about the legend of the 4-leaf clover, and this led me to do an online research on it. I discovered that it is a very valued item in the west where it is taught to all children to search for this clover. After bringing the product down to Singapore, I started experimenting and growing the clover but found out that it was impossible to grow the clovers here due to Singapore’s climate and temperature. I then decided to collaborate with my partners overseas. The 4-leaf clover is now grown in a farm and manufactured overseas and I even engaged designing expertise from the Philippines. 

In a way, my family background had a large influence for me. My grandfather was an entrepreneur in Singapore himself. In fact, there is a very famous book called, “Biographies of Prominent Chinese”. This book was produced in Shanghai in the 1920s. My grandfather, Tan Yong Tian, was one of the 200 personalities whose achievements were recorded. Initially he migrated to Singapore and worked as a building contractor. He decided to retire early. However, later he felt that his call for retirement came too soon and went into the business of extraction oil from a particular plant, and had then shipped to Europe. That is when he started becoming extremely profitable. My father then continued to run the business and when it came down to my generation, watching their success inspired me.

3. What are your reasons for choosing to do business in this particular industry?

As I like artwork and works of creativity, I decided to set up a unique gift shop. However, when I came across the clover, I began to be more practical as handicraft takes up more physical space and the sales are slower. You have to consider the fact that rental in Singapore is not cheap. In addition, some may have varying tastes and what I see as beautiful, may not be seem the same way to others. After all, beauty lies in the eyes of the beholder. In fact the Filipino handicrafts and accessories, which I sold before the clover, sold very well as people found it to be very unique, bright and very colorful. However, in this day and age, imitations of products appear really quickly. Before long, I started to see similar products originating from both Thailand and China. These products are also very much cheaper. In addition, in spite of my good sales of the Filipino accessories in my shop, the lucky clovers still occupied at least 90% of the overall sales. This statistic really amazed me. Having the confidence and reassurance from the statistics obtained, I decided to focus on the business of the sales of 4-leaf clovers.

4. How did you put together all the resources needed to start your business? For example: getting the start-up capital, hiring staff, doing sales and marketing, advertising, etc.

As I have retired from the SAF, the capital which was required to start my business was funded with my pension received. However, even with a sizable pension, I was very careful with spending money. Initially, I opened a small booth to test the market before proceeding to expand into a pushcart stall. When I was in Plaza Singapura, I was offered a shop for a rental of about $5000. It was a little shop at a corner but I deliberated and thought against the idea, as I wanted a place which has visibility. Eventually, I took up a cart which was situated at the base of the escalator which had high human volume. The cart was also nicely done up by Plaza Singapura.

From a business perspective, I kept my business costs low. This is part of the reasons why I shifted to Concourse, Beach Road. I wanted to experiment and promote my product as one which has value. After all, Singapore is small so if I succeed in planting the fact that my product is valuable in the minds of customers through effective marketing, and with blessings, people will still come no matter how far and remote I am. It worked! For the first year, word spread like wildfire, I did not even have to advertise. This was in the first year of operations. Reporters came from all over to ask about my clovers and they featured me in the news.

As the business progressed, we decided to further promote the brand name through advertising. When I asked my wife last year how much we spent on advertising, I was shocked. We had spent $220,000 in total. This was a vast difference from when we first started. However, this money set aside for advertisements was meant for branding purposes and it has been so successful that if you ask people about Julie Roberts’™ clovers, people would know the brand and product. It is important to never neglect your marketing, as well as your advertising and promotion. Even now after 4 years, I still made efforts to keep reminding the people of the brand, and in addition, it keeps them updated with new ideas and new designs.

5. What are some interesting stories you have about your first few customers/first few years in business?

My first customer gave me a very good testimonial. Her name is Annie. She came back to the shop happily, telling me that she found love. She called it the miracle clover. I have had many fantastic testimonials ever since.

The wonderful part of this clover is that it has it roots from Ireland, a Catholic country where Saint Patrick used the three-leaf clover to preach the Holy Trinity. When a 4-leaf clover was discovered, something good would happen to the person so the Catholics believed that it is a gift from God. It gradually spread to Europe, U.S., Japan, Korea, Hong Kong, Singapore and recently even India got to know about it. Since not all of these countries are Catholic, they called it the lucky clover leaf. However, Christians do not believe in luck, as such they try to distance themselves when they hear of the lucky clover. Thus, when I have curious Christian customers who pass by my shop, I talk to them from religious perspective and how the leaf originates from Saint Patrick. My view of luck is that it is something that does not come from thin air. Luck is actually a gift from Divine Power. Regardless of religion, I believe there is only one Supreme God. We, man, sees God ‘‘in our own eyes”, and all religion leads to this Supreme God. To me luck is actually blessings from God. In layman terms, we called these blessings, luck. This is why the clover represents faith, hope, love and luck. Faith, to have faith in God and yourself. This will invariably promote Hope and with love for fellow mankind, blessings or luck will follow through.

One morning I had two customers walking into my shop. One of them, a Saint from India and the other a Professor. I did not know that he was a saint and so as he came in, I explained about the clover but the Professor just laughed at me. He said that his lucky charm was actually this saint, telling me that he didn’t believe in the clover. The Saint was dressed fully in white so initially I thought that he was a priest but the Professor explained that the saint is a famous saint in his country, further giving me a bit of his background. The Saint had said nothing all this while. However, just when they were about to leave, the saint turned around and said:”You can take my picture”. He had seen all the testimonials in my shop and he turned to the professor, saying that he feels that this leaf had some powers. He told me that I could take his picture and show it to all Indians from India. Out of respect, I took his picture together with the professor but I did not use it. As a practice, I do not use religious figures for publicity purpose.

I had Catholic priests, Catholic nuns, Buddhist nuns, a Sri Lankan monk, Muslims and Indian priest who visited my shop. However, I only use laymen pictures and testimonies to share on the wonders of the lucky four-leaf clover. They all have good feel on the clover, with some expressing the ability to sense the ‘power in the clover’.

I once had an Indian priest dressed in civilian attire. He was quite curious with the leaf. After some moments, he turned to me and told me that he had a vision of my clover. I was surprised and asked him what he meant. He then explained that he had dreamt about my clover and was given directions to my shop in the dream, so he came down to see for himself. I had several experiences of this nature, meeting people who said that they have sense the power of the clover. I also had this Muslim lady who came in and told me that she studied Chakra- the aura of personality. Thus, when she stands next to the clovers, she senses that the clover has ‘special power’.

It is not only religious people who feel this. I even had normal people who will walk in and feel good about the clover. It was about one or two weeks to Christmas when I met this elderly couple. The man was in his seventies and appeared very lively but his wife however looked depressed and was silent. As they passed by the counter, they looked at the clover and the wife suddenly pointed at it, indicating to her husband that she wanted the clover so the husband bought her the clover. The next day, both of them came back to me but this time the wife was very bubbly. They both came and thanked me for the clover. The husband said that he had never seen his wife so cheerful but after buying the clover, she is able to talk actively. The wife came to thank me, saying that the clover brought her happiness. I also had an experience with another lady who was about 79 years old and was a Catholic with Irish descent. She knew what the clover is all about and had always wanted to come to my shop but she was afraid that her son would accuse her of being superstitious. However, during her birthday, when her son said that he wanted to buy her a present, she told him to bring her to Julie Roberts’. Within a week of buying the clover, she came back and told me that prior to buying her clover, she felt like dying every day as she always heads for the bed with her weak unhealthy body. However, after buying the clover, she suddenly felt healthy and full of life. As her son was not happy at work, she eventually persuaded her son to purchase one. Within two weeks, her son got transferred and he was promoted.

 I also had a Muslim customer who worked at an MNC and he went to Bali for a conference. He was to go out for dinner with his friends, but overslept by half an hour. He had never faced problems with waking up before. His friends could not wake him up. As such, they decided to cancel their restaurant reservation at Kuta beach and eat at the hotel instead. Fortunately for them, a bomb exploded at the very restaurant they had booked earlier at Kuta Beach. That incident was the Bali bombing in 2005. I could literally see him shivering as he told me his story when he arrived back in Singapore. He told me his near death experience and he now believes that the clover is indeed a gift from God and that the clover he was wearing protected his friend and him.

6. What are some of the challenges you faced when you first went into business?

There were many copies and imitations of my products around. When I first started, there was a vendor operating next to me at Orchard Atrium. Upon seeing me open another pushcart at Plaza Singapura, he sat down with me for 3 days on the pretext of making friends. After which, he went to China and copied my ideas and products, besides bringing in other imitations too. I was so disappointed that I left Plaza Singapura and went to Concourse as I wanted to avoid having my business being associated with the imitations.

7. How did you overcome these challenges? Please share some specific examples of the action you took to overcome the challenges.

In a way, it was a blessing in disguise to be confronted with imitations for that helped me change my strategy. Instead of selling just accessories, I marketed the clover as a valued product. In addition, while doing my research, I realized that in Korea and Japan, the clover  were only popular for 2 years as the market was soon destroyed by imitations due to shaken consumer confidence. I learnt from these experiences and thus moved to the Concourse, a rather quiet location. Firstly, it has cheaper rent, compared to Orchard road. Secondly, I wanted to test out my model of marketing a valued product vis-à-vis just an accessory. If my clover is popular, no matter how remote I am, I reason people will still search me out; especially as Singapore is small. Soon, many customers came in with testimonials and words spread around bringing fame to the original lucky clovers.

8. Can you remember your worst day in business or a time when you felt like giving up? What happened that made you feel that way and how did you triumph over it?

I have never felt like giving up because I have passion for the clover and the accessories. I strongly feel that when one has passion for what he does, he would never feel like giving up.

9. Can you share some of the lessons you learnt from overcoming your own business challenges that you think will help other businesses?

Firstly, as I have mentioned, one must have passion. If you have passion for what you do, you will never fail because your passion will carry you through to see success eventually. Of course, passion alone will not help. Secondly, you must also be prepared to work hard. For example, when my wife and I first started on the pushcart, we worked from 10am to10pm, reaching home at around 11plus to 12 midnight, after packing up and dinner. I also had to stand and toil in the hot weather giving brochures and people would start wondering, what is a ex-Colonel like me doing out in the streets; running around and giving out leaflets when you used to have people running under you? You see, when you persevere and succeed, people will come to admire your determination and courage. Thirdly, you must be creative and be prepared to invest in R&D. You realize that my designs are suitable for a wide range of customers, including both the young and the old. Fourthly, you must also make sure that the clovers are reasonably priced so that people can afford it. That is why my products generally lie in the range of $49.90-$188.

10. When was the moment you realised the business would work and support you?

The turning point would be during the days in Concourse. Those days allowed me to hit astonishing sales volumes despite being situated at a deserted place. I saw value and I had the hope in this product. I feel that if you are blessed, and at the same time are able to handle the product design and marketing well, when people buy from you, they will get blessed too.

For example to date I have 50 ladies who have wished for a baby and they have conceived successfully after purchasing my clovers. I have people who come in and give me testimonials, calling this a miracle clover. I have some customers who changed for the better and some students studied harder with the clover, achieving scholarships. I also have stories of people who met with accidents; their car or bikes smashed but nothing had happened to them. Initially, when customers first came in with testimonials, I was a bit surprised and skeptical. However, when more of them start to come in with testimonials, I began to wonder and decided to systematically computerized these blessings since 13^th Mar ’08. It was then that I started to believe that the clover is really a gift from God. I am indeed blessed.

11. What are some of your proudest business achievements to date? And why are they so important and meaningful to you?

It would have to be the fact that I managed to become the top clover purchaser. Six months into the business, I was behind Japan in terms of the purchase of clover leaves. Three months later, according to my supplier, I actually overtook Japan and am now the biggest purchaser. This motivated me to do better. In addition, personally, I feel that it is important to share your blessing and to bring recognition to the brand. Of course, strategy is important too. For example, I learnt from my earlier mistakes at Orchard and from Korea and Japan, not to sell imitations and just accessories. I have to promote the value of the lucky four-leaf clover, add value through designs and share success stories. I even went on-line to promote and sell my clover products at http://www.julieroberts.com.sg.Today; Julie Roberts’ is a well known clover brand. My on-line hits have surpassed 2 million hits. It is indeed an achievement having been in the business for just 4 years.

12. How do you differentiate your business from your competitors? Please provide specific examples.

Firstly, it is important not to contaminate your product with other species of clovers in your business to prevent brand dilution. My brand only sells one type of clover and that is the Genuine Irish 4-leaf clover. Secondly, it would be keeping the designs closely related to the times and seasons so that you keep attracting customers to be on the look out for your new designs. Thirdly, I give a lot of emphasis to customer service. Follow-up service, like repairs are generally free. I treat my customers as friends, thereby enlarging the network. In turn they help to recommend more friends and their families to the lucky clovers. Fourthly, I update my website almost daily. The website helps me to put up the latest news on my product and the testimonials. This keeps communication with my customers and potential customers alive.

13. What are some business ideas you have implemented that created great results in your business?

What I did was to firstly, keep the price affordable. You must also keep your product design relevant and updated so that the customers will always be on the lookout for your product because they know that there is always something new. Next, the marketing aspect of advertising and promotion is important. Through marketing and advertising, you promote the branding of your product. I advertised on national TV and newspaper, channeling people to where I am. I also invested a lot on brochures. When I first went to Raffles Place, I employed 29 Saint Nicholas girls, 5 of which would help me to man my booth. As for the rest of the 24 girls, they would be out in the square, distributing brochures. For one week, I did that and I even had 4 people carrying Julie Roberts’ advertisement boards walking around the park. You can just imagine the impact, as everyone in town could possibly know about Julie Robert overnight. That is the power of advertising. Advertisements are of course supplemented with the provision of information.

For example, at road shows, we have two groups of people. One of them would sell and the other would stand there and inform potential customers about the products. In addition, customer service is very important. I always tell my staff that when you make a friend, it would be a friend for life. Not only that, he will also introduce his friends to you. Similarly, we should also see our customers as friends and not just as customers. From a business perspective, this part of networking is very important. That is why I provide free after-sales service for customer such as, changing the chain and crystals that has fallen out if it wasn’t too long ago that they bought it. For example, yesterday there was a customer who bought the clover about a month ago and there were some scratches behind. You could detect from her body language that even though you could polish the scratch off, she still feels uncomfortable about it. Thus, I changed the product for her and gave her a new one for free. As a result, her whole family was very happy. In turn, you make friends with them and they would introduce other customers to you.

It is very important to make them a friend when they come to a store. This includes nasty customers. An example would be there was once a customer who came in at a time when the shop was relatively crowded; she shouted in a loud angry voice that she bought a product with the same design as me but at a cheaper rate. Luckily, I was there and asked her to let me take a look at the cheaper product. After careful examination, I took my product and her product, placed it next to each other and asked her if she could see the difference. Initially, she said that they looked the same. I then turn the product around and told her to look for the difference. After observing the metal, she realized that my product finishing is much better than the other one. That was when I explained to her that that product was a copy and the materials that were used are different. After which, I asked her to look at the leaf carefully. She did not see it immediately at first. To the unobservant and to the untrained eye, they are not able to see the difference between the real and the fake leaf at first glance. I then explained to her that a real plant has roots and stems that goes up to the tip of the leaves to provide nutrients but the leaf of the fake leaf does not. It was through this observation that she realized her mistake and she felt a tinge of embarrassment. After calming her down from her initial angry self, I told her that I would compensate her for the losses she made on the other fake product by giving a discount if she buys my clover to offset the amount she had initially paid for the fake one. When other customers around see me doing this, naturally their impression of the shop would be good. Thus, it is important to not neglect customer service.

 Last but not least, training of the staff is important. I myself am but only a one-man show, so I must impart my knowledge and skills to other people, especially my employees. I need to make sure my staff gains knowledge about the product as well as the understanding of the value which I have built in product. This could be done through training.

14. Where or who do you get your business ideas from?

I found that a lot of my experience learnt from the army could be applied to business. For example, when we attack the enemy on top of a hill, the first thing we learn to do is appreciation of the situation. We learnt to appreciate the enemy, terrain and the possible approaches. This applies in business too. In my case, after appreciating the situation, I had the pushcart, which is open-concept. I want a place where there is visibility and not a shop which is obscure. I also did not want a shop whereby customers have to step into a ‘room’ to view my products. An open concept gives me the higher chance of success. In the army, we are taught how to attack all fronts by drawing circles. As such, I drew circles around my product, indicating what I should develop in my product to make it more attractive to customer, such as creativeness, design, pricing, presentation and packaging. From then on, you move on to another circle, which surrounds the product. This includes display, lighting and cleanliness. These traits should never be taken for granted as it could also help to enhance your product. Outside of this circle is yet another circle, depicting staff knowledge of your product, customer service provided and staff dressing. For example, sometimes when I employ students, they come in very short shorts and low cut shirts. I was shocked because our products are meant for people of all ages. Thus an elderly customer with traditional thinking might be put off by such dressing. Thus, I explain to my staff that image is very important and he/she must dress presentably such as not wearing slippers.

Going to International shows, open up my horizon. I get new insights on latest trends, products etc. I also scan through the internet from time to time to search for ideas and new products. I also do read up on fashion magazines and related books.

Sometimes, I will walk the ground to see what are offered by others in similar industries. This way you get to appraise your own performance and learn from others too. I also do initiate market research and surveys.

Customers’ feedback is important too. I do encourage customers to give feedback including designs they like.

15. What do you see for your business in the next 5 years, and does it include any plans for expansion?

After being through my first stage, which is product promotion, design, development and branding, I decided to move on to the second stage. As the Concourse is redeveloping into a condominium, it is very unfortunate, though also a blessing in disguise that we had to shift out of Concourse.

That triggered me into thinking of my second stage of development and I deliberately chose to move back to Orchard road. This is for a simple reason. During the course of my 4 years selling clovers, many imitations of other varieties of clovers have sprouted, particularly from Korea and China. Lucky for me, I am selling the actual Trifolium clover leaf which originates from Ireland. Now that many people know of my product and brand name, I moved back to Orchard road to make the product more accessible to customers. Accessibility has since become my main game. In addition, I am moving towards franchising and expansion. The potential of this product is tremendous so I am trying to expand the business as much as possible, now that it has become established.

 I used to run road shows, which was really hard work, especially with regards to the physical labour involved in setting up the road show booths. Sure, it was good money, but at present, I do not have the luxury of time to do road shows. Currently, I am focusing my efforts on advertising, promotion and design. Meanwhile, I also try to recruit young people as they tend to be more vibrant and enthusiastic. For example, I presently have 5 undergrads working for me. These students were originally my customers who decided to join me after they saw the potential of the product. This is how I want the business to progress. I feel that in order for one’s business to develop, one must involve the next generation because being young and energetic, they can ultimately help carry the brand beyond Singapore. The undergrads are presently helping me run the franchise cart at VivoCity, which incidentally is operated by the son of my good friend. He has been carrying my product for a year in VivoCity and he is doing so well that he recently opened a jewellery shop there (with the one-year savings he had made thus far). Together we are helping to train these undergrads in running the business in the hope that we can further develop this clover business.

My hope for these undergrads is that they can gain some experience whilst contributing to my business during this final year of their course of study. One of the students is a Malaysian so I was hoping that eventually, I could bring the product over to Malaysia through him. I am taking progressive steps now, and although I have many people from Malaysia and China approaching me to ask for a franchise, I have not found someone suitable as it is difficult to find trustworthy and reliable people. The reason for this is because in my 4 years of business, many people have repeatedly copied my products, so I am now very careful of whom I trust. In fact, I went to Malaysia last year, hoping to get a Malaysian franchisee but could not find a suitable partner. As I have said, the potential for this business is really tremendous, so long as one keeps developing the product and design. I believe that I will do very well as I have been doing, so long as I am blessed and so long I have customers coming back to share the testimonials.

Hence, my next stage is to find suitable partners that will help me launch the product overseas. I am very confident in my product and believe that if one can market and sell the clovers as I have done in the same way overseas, one can become a millionaire within a year or two, with enough hard work that is. Recently, I had a customer from Brunei who took my clover products to sell them there. It was so successful that the clovers were sold out within 2 weeks! Subsequently, this customer came back for more and sold out 70% of stocks within a week of ordering them.

Inspired by the movie, ‘Leprechauns’, I hope to eventually have a movie of my own based on the true-life testimonials of my customers. Japan, Korea, Hong Kong, and even Singapore have already made TV dramas, based on the lucky four-leaf clovers. India was the latest to use the significance of the clover in a movie, incorporating the clover into the movie that starred their famous actor Salman Khan. The Hindi movie is called ‘Lucky’. Thus, imagine the impact when I come up with a Singapore clover story, all inspired by true life experiences. Anyone game?

16. What does entrepreneurship mean to you?

The first thing that comes to my mind is that it means opportunities for creating jobs for people. A successful, growing business, translates to the capability of development, which in turn translates to job opportunities being naturally created.

For example, I recall that although I only used to have a small shop at Concourse, I had about 20-30 employees under my CPF payroll during the peak period. Also, during the seasonal school holiday period, I hired 29 students to flood Raffles Place. The above were examples of how even a small shop with a spirit of entrepreneurship can create substantial amount of employment.

Another point to add about entrepreneurship is that one should not lose out on opportunities and not be afraid to try. Last year, I decided to set up a booth in Jurong Point after having been advised by one of my customers and seeing the high volume of crowd there. However, when I initially approached the management at Jurong Point, they told me that someone else had already tried to sell the clover before and I could not come in. After having convinced them that what was sold was the Korean clover, not the Irish Trifolium clover, they decided to let us do a presentation. Upon watching our presentation, they were so impressed that they gave us the spot we requested and asked us to start the next day.

Due to the lack of manpower, my wife and I dropped whatever we had on hand and proceeded to start up the stall, working from morning 10am all the way to close to midnight, as we didn’t want to let go of this opportunity. For one month, we worked extremely hard, but in the end it was all worth it. During my course of working there, I looked out for students to work part-time, and at the same time, had two full-timers to help me man the booth. I was supposed to be in Jurong for only 2 months but I extended my stint by an extra month. For the first month, my wife and I could be there daily. However, we could not be present for the 2^nd month as we had to go back to Concourse for the Christmas fair. As such, we started to employ and train 14 staff, out of which, only 2 or 3 of them were full-timers. I have 5 people per shift with another 4 dispatched to distribute leaflets. In actual fact, I do not need all 14 of them to man a shop. After all my wife and I alone could handle the shop well. Why do I do that? I do that because through entrepreneurship, I could create job opportunities for many people. This is my way of sharing and giving back to the society. When I employ these students, I pay them on a normal basis with bonus, just like the regular full-time staff. Depending on my employees’ sales and hard work, their bonuses could range from 50% up to 100%. I have had polytechnics telling me to take these students for work attachments and pay a rate of $450 per month. I don’t do that because I can afford to pay them more. When these polytechnic students worked for me, they were paid $1200 to $2000(depending on their performance). Poly students working for the neighboring stores were envious.

Before, I used to draw my salary from the government. However, now as the boss, I make the money, and I contribute back to society by paying others with good salaries. That is why we should have a large pool of entrepreneurs so that more job opportunities can be created.

17. What are some entrepreneurship qualities that you have which has helped you come this far?

Firstly, my greatest strength is my ability to learn. I am not shy or shameful to stand in the streets and learn from there. I have friends who see me on the streets giving out leaflets; I could sense that they are a bit of shy or ashamed as they bypassed me. However, they came back to me after I was successful. It is just human nature. Therefore, you must be ‘thick-skinned’ but at the same time, you must have passion, commitment and integrity to customers too. In addition, you must work hard and be creative to succeed.

18. In your opinion, what other qualities does a person need in order to be successful in business? And why? (eg. Educational qualification, work experience, family influence, attitude, etc)

Education is a plus factor but it is not the main factor. The qualities that make a successful businessman or businesswoman lies in oneself.

I used to have a boss, General Chin, who is now the Ambassador of China. He was well known to work smart. When I was a young officer, he approached me to tell me that he noticed that I worked very hard and he wanted to teach me about working smart. I then learnt how to both work hard and smart, under his guidance. He described opportunity as ‘grabbing hold of the hair of boys in China who run around’. These boys had their hair bunched up in the center of the hair crown. When he runs past you, you only had one chance to grab it. That was my ex-boss’s definition of opportunity - so when opportunity comes, you better grab it.

 What is my definition of opportunity? It is true that one must grab hold of opportunities when it comes. However, I also feel that opportunities are abound around you. Life is what you make out of it. If this door is closed, God is fair as another window would be open for you, even in times of adversity. It all depends on whether you want to bring out your character and seize the chance.

Of course, one of my greatest assets is the support from my family. Without my wife and my children support, it would be difficult to succeed well. I am indeed blessed in this area.

19. In your opinion, what does it mean to have the spirit of enterprise?

The Spirit of Enterprise means that you should have the courage to take up challenges and be open to learn. Even if you fall, pick yourself up and strive further. Yes, I do have nasty customers who come in at times and were skeptical about the testimonials that I have received. They said that the people who gave the testimonials are my friends and family. When people offer suggestions, I would take a moment to think about it and decide if it makes sense. If it does, I would make an effort to make changes in accordance to their suggestions. Once every two weeks, as part of sharing and to promote my business, I make it a point to change the customers’ testimonials in my shop and website. It is not hard as I have testimonials coming in on a daily basis. Thus, when people criticize, I take it as a learning point though sometimes you have to control and swallow your pride, but that is life. What is the point of making enemies out of them? There is no point in doing so as people come and go. Thus, you value those who are true friends and are good customers. As for those who try to be nasty, you just ignore them. I always tell my staff not to just stand in the store but to go out of the store to volunteer information to potential customers. However, I have had several experiences of customers whom upon seeing the product and testimonials, laughed, but still come back the following day. Eventually they end up buying the lucky clover.

20. What triggered your interest in venturing overseas?

This brings me to the point to when I had a discussion in The Philippines. It was during a forum when I made the observation that Singapore is really a little red dot. As such, after looking at how small we are, and when you look at The Philippines and the world at large, you see plenty of opportunities out there. That is also why we must encourage a lot of entrepreneurs to look outward. Entrepreneurs need a lot of support. That is when you should have private and public sectors working, helping and supporting each other.

21. You mentioned that you employ a relatively large number of staff for just one or two stalls to create job opportunities and wealth creation. What kind of problems do you face with these employees?

One of the frustrations I had during the earlier days was the staffing. When my wife and I had a shop in Orchard and a pushcart in Plaza Singapura, we employed 3 staff per pushcart. Usually one would employ only one or two staff per pushcart. However, since my wife and I have been through it and know that is hard work, we decided to give our staff some space for family life, but they took advantage of this.

There was frequent absenteeism as they thought that the other two staff could cover for them. Well, if that was true and they can have their bouts of absenteeism without bothering or disrupting my schedule; that would have been fine. However, it wasn’t the case and instead, they created a lot of small problems for me which hindered my plans for development of the business.

In addition, my staff was unwilling to distribute brochures, which in my opinion is a very important aspect in raising awareness of the product. If you do not give out brochures, how would they even come to know about your product? I monitor the awareness of the public via my website. If the distribution of the brochures were done very well, the number of people who viewed my website would increase. Today, my website has had over two million hits. Upon accessing my website, you will realize that the testimonials that I have received amounts to a few thousands. Readers would feel amazed. Their curiosity would be aroused and they will eventually visit the shop. This will then present us the opportunity to share with them the wonders of the four-leaf clover.

22. What advice would you give young people who want to start their own business?

I would like to tell them first of all not to be afraid to try out. You must know what you like and have the passion. If you wake up every morning and question yourself why you are going to work, then this might be the wrong field for you. It is better for you to get out of it quickly. It is important for you to know what you are aiming for in life. If you do not know, you must at least have some general directions. These directions can be changed as you go through life.

Next, you must always be more open and listen to the people around you so that you can learn from others and take in valuable lessons. In that way, you sharpen your instincts as you go through your life journey. You must not be ashamed or shy to do what you want. There is nothing shameful about making an honest living, so go ahead and do it.

In addition, when you are successful, you must always remember to share your success as you are not living in this world alone. When you share, what goes around comes around. This is something that many of my customers believe in. Some people said that I am playing with statistics, in the sense that I have had thousands of people who bought clovers from me and to date about 2892 customers had struck 4D or TOTO. So I told them to name me a shop where you have customers coming in everyday to give testimonials and 47% of those who struck rich, struck the top 3 prizes. What about those others who did not report? Then, there are those people who reported that they have babies, success in business, health, love, studies etc. Of course, a lot of these have to do with confidence. The product gave the customers confidence and allowed them to have a more positive outlook. A positive attitude about life will bring you blessings and soon enough, good things would come. This is something my customers truly believe in- when you share, the luck will come back, tenfold. As such, I would encourage budding entrepreneurs to know what they want in life.

If they do not know, it is all right as when you are young, your directions are not that focused as yet. You could do something that you think you would like and from there, focus on it if it is right for you. You must focus on whatever you do and through experimenting along the way, if you think that it is not your cup of tea, you better get out of the boat fast. Moreover, as you make friends along the way, these friends can help you develop along the way because you cannot do everything alone. You must share in order to have others share with you to help you develop. You should also be open to ideas.

Moreover, you must read widely, especially about your product line. About 4 years ago, when I went to take a look at China, I do not like what I saw as there were many imitations of poor quality. However, it is different now. The quality is much better now and as such, I make it a point to travel every year to new places. In addition, I go to international shows to have a feel of a blend between east and west where I can get my ideas.

23. In your line of field whereby you focus on the emphasis on genuine products. What comments do you have with regards to these aspects?

It was just yesterday that someone was sharing with me about imitation products. I told the person that there is nothing wrong with copying but the issue is that you have to copy intelligently. To be more accurate, the correct word should be reinventing. For example, many people were selling the clover before me but I reinvented the clover. How did I reinvent it? I did so in terms of designing and building value as I blend such designs with the culture.

I also share my blessings. The power of sharing in itself is attractive. As such, when customers see that there are so many people who are willing to share in this shop, they would have faith too and eventually they would share as well. That is also why I abandoned the concept of expanding throughout Orchard road after my competitor copied my idea. Instead, I went on to the Internet and concentrated on my shop while ignoring the imitations. I could see imitations flooding Singapore. At the end of the day, I sent my competitor a lawyer’s letter and sued another two China companies. This is an expensive exercise but I had to do it. I also went into registering my products to protect them and now most of my latest products are patented. Today, I am happy. My next stage as mentioned earlier is to move out of Singapore but I need reliable partners and I am on the lookout. I plan to do it gradually. Anyone keen?

24. With the changes in market today, do you think it has become harder or easier to succeed in business? Why do you say so?

To begin with, it has never been easy to start a business. One has got to plan ahead for finances, as well as the product and strategy. Business is not just something that you can just throw yourself into. However, once one gets into it, if one has the drive, the passion to see it through, then it is not difficult to succeed. Many people were surprised to see me do so well.

When I left the army, my boss offered me a job that with a five figured income. He was very surprised that I did not take up the job and preferred to go to the ground level to “suffer”. One day, when he visited my shop, he was surprised that my sales hit $10,000 for that day. He almost fell out from his chair. He could not believe this so I took out all my receipts and showed him the evidence. Thus, this goes to show that if you have the determination you can succeed. I would advise anyone who wants to go into business to go ahead. From my years of experience, I strongly feel that if one feels that he has the ability and the urge to go out and do business, then do so. If you were working in a company for an employer, you would have a very static salary with little increment, but if you start up a business, earning $10-20 thousand dollars is nothing. The opportunities are out there and it depends on what you want to do with it. Now, I’ve reached a point whereby I have enough money and am quite comfortable. My wish is to impart my knowledge to the younger generations. This is why I am developing my son, my friend’s son and the 5 undergraduates at the moment. It is only through training that you can continue developing your business.