What is the nature of your business? (Business Profile)
Pilates is an exercise that started in America nearly a hundred years ago. It is now one of the most popular exercises in America, which leads the world's trend in exercise and is always 20 or 30 years ahead of the rest of the world. Pilates is a multi-billion dollar industry in America and if we look at other countries like UK, Australia which are more matured economy, it is a booming industry. Pilates definitely has huge potential in Singapore and Asia, as we have half the world's population if you were to just look at countries like China, India and Indonesia. When we opened in Singapore 8 years ago, we were the very first in Singapore and the whole of Asia and right now we are the largest Pilates studio in Singapore. Pilates is total body workout that teaches our muscles to work as a system rather than in isolation. Our clients range from age 2 to 92. Basically everybody can do it. We have clients who are athletes and dancers as well as people who suffer from Parkinson, brain injuries, polio, and spinal problems. Pilates does well for all of them and I believe there is no other exercise that has this kind of effect.

What made you embark on this venture choice?
When I was in university I was involved in martial arts and when I went for my black belt tournament I was kicked very badly into my back. As a result I got had serious injuries on my lower back and hip but today I am totally pain-free without any medical intervention. I have healed myself with Pilates. When I first discover Pilates in 1988 I loved it and I knew it was right for my body so I studied more about it. The more I dwelled on it the more I fell in love with it. I went to America and spent many years there learning everything about Pilates. Then I thought to myself it is so wonderful to my body and why don't I just make a living out of it? So I came back to Singapore and set up this studio. My dream is to make Singapore the Pilates centre of Asia and this is the direction that I have always working towards. I believe in helping people improving their life with Pilates, it is the care for people that is paramount, not just business.

How does your business work?
Customers come to us by word of mouth. Pilates is not mass marketing work. We cannot take in 100 people in one shot. Pilates is a very specific work as we need to work with people differently. We have people who come with acute injuries as well as people who are in perfect health. We need to deal with them as an individual. When customer wants to join us, we do not sell them membership or any packages. This is because customers might drop out after a few sessions so if I 'force' them to sign up and pay me money, I am taking advantage of them and that is not right. What we do is that customer pays ad hoc as and when they come for a session. So there is no risk involved on their side. I believe no other companies do it this way, we are the only one. Every customers who come into our studio need to do 4 one- to- one private session and we tailor- make and customize a unique program that suits him/her. After the 4 sessions, he will go into a group setting which consists up to 8 people and do their own individual program under supervision.

Did you have the capital to start the business or did you have to borrow from someone to get started?
I started the business with my own savings and I did not borrow any money as I did not want to go into debt. I would have loved it if there was a government loan but I could not get any as the government has not even heard about Pilates at that time. So I started small and my very first studio was located at Far East Square with a space of 2000 sq feet. Within 6 months, I grew out of the space. So I moved out of Far East Square when my lease was up and moved to another location with 4000 sq feet. Our current location in commerce point is the third place I moved to and we occupy the whole of 19th floor, which makes up around 6000 sq feet.

Do your parents have their own businesses too? Have they inspired you in one way or another?
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What was your childhood dream? When did you decide that you would strike out on your own instead of working for someone else?
At the age of 13, when I went to Australia alone to study I brought nothing there. I was penniless and many a times I had to sleep with an empty stomach. I knew the pain of going hungry. So I told myself I would not want to be poor and I drove myself very hard to be the best. When I finally got into the best university to do my law degree, I often went to sit on the beach and admired those big mansions along the beach. I told myself that I am going to get this mansion one day. That was the beginning of my dream. I started my own law practice in Chinatown Sydney after having my legal practice for two years to gain experience. That was the first time that I strike out on my own. My first client was an Indonesian man named Bobby Halim. He wanted to buy a house so I acted for him. Instead of paying me fees I requested that he bought furniture for my office. Slowly I built my business up and I became the biggest Chinese law firm in Sydney. After some incidents in life, I realized that I have worked too hard so I decided that I should do something that I really enjoyed. That was when I made Pilates my business as my passion towards it grew stronger.

Why does someone decide to be on their own rather than join an existing company?
Not everyone is the same. Some people do not like to take risk, they like to work for others and receive stable income. But entrepreneurs and their small business is the thing that keeps a country alive. Look at Singapore, what boosted the economy when the country first gained independence was those little shops and that was how Singapore started. Entrepreneurs are those that decided to take some risks, and live their dream.

Are there at any point in your life that you experienced a significant event (WW2, racial riots of the 1960s, the Economic Crisis of the 80s or 90s, SARS, new competition or shifts in market behaviour and trends) which affected or influenced you and your business that made you change the way you think and do your business?
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What are some of the challenges in starting a business from scratch? (Modify question to what are some of the challenges in maintaining a family business if applicable.)
The challenges would be the bureaucracy that one has to deal with and there is still lack of government support in small business. Other difficulty was that there was a lack of support system and I had no one to turn to because I was the first who started Pilates so I needed to depend on my own.

Who/What motivates you?
Two people motivate me. One is Jesus and the second one is Mother Theresa. I worked as volunteer for 8 years at Mother Theresa Charity of Love Home. She motivated me with her selfless spirit to love until you have no more love and give until you have nothing left. Not many people could do that. In my Pilates work, I give until I have nothing to give and I love my clients until there is nothing more to love because I believe that Pilates is not only about physical work, especially to those with acute injuries and pain. They need sympathy, empathy, love and care. Sad to say, but these things are lacking in society nowadays.

Tell me about the first few customers and the first few years of business.
My first few customers were my friends. I asked them to come join me as I had no money to advertise. We became good friends till this very day and they are still my clients now. It was very hard to get business so all I could rely on were write-ups about us. We were lucky because we were a new thing and people wanted to write about us. We received all the publicity we needed. At the fifth month of our operation, we already had a waiting list. Within 2 year of my operation I had a 1 year waiting list of people who wanted to get into my studio.

Please tell me some stories of your best day in business or your proudest achievement to date.
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Do you recall your worst day in business? Have you ever felt like giving up?
The worse day of business would be when one of the teachers that I hired from Canada just decided to walk out and leave Singapore. I was in a middle of a session and while she was handling another session and she dropped her pen and left. My clients were stunned and did not know what has happened. I had to do major service recovery. It was a bad day.

When was the moment you realised the business would work and support you?
The first day of opening. If I did not have the belief, I would not have done it.

What are some of the things you have had to overcome to succeed?
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What are some qualities that you feel you possess which differentiate you from someone who works for others?
Experience. I believe most entrepreneurs that are successful around the world started poor. Very few started wealthy. Look at Yahoo, Starbucks. When you are born with a golden spoon, you do not have to think a lot, you do not have the drive. Coming from lower rank in any facet of your life is always a big bonus for an entrepreneur. I think having that experience is the quality I had. Also with an education, any education helps you to think. I also feel that I always have strong belief and confidence in myself.

To succeed in business, what qualities are essential? What are some of the secrets in making a successful business?
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Who or what inspires you?
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Have you ever thought of expanding the business in some way or in multiple locations? How and where?
Yes I have. I had already done into Indonesia. We now have two affiliate studios in Bandung and Jakarta. My plan is to go into whole of ASEAN. Indonesia was the first place that we explored firstly because it is closest to Singapore and secondly because it was a virgin land that nobody has gone there before. I like to go to places where nobody has gone into. Why reinvent wheel when it is already invented. If you are the first one who went in and did well you carry a huge premium. I would also like to open another 2 or 3 branches in Singapore. I planned to go into homelands. Woodlands, Bishan and Tampines are my three targets. Why homelands? Because they are the ignored market. The people want such service and they could afford it for sure.

What aspects of expansion would you like to see for your enterprise?
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In your opinion, how would you define entrepreneurship?
A small businessman that is on his own, running his own business and doing it with heart.

To what extent does one's educational level help or hinder entrepreneurial-ship?
Education helps a lot but it depends on where you get the education from. If you get an education from a good place, you attained the ability to have an analytical brain that is a big plus for an entrepreneur because you know how to analyze before you jump into it. On the other hand, it can hinder entrepreneur-ship if it is a square type of education. Your thought process would be so limited and I would rather not have any education and learn from ground up. I believe some education is better than none because you need know about basic business skills and you can't just depend on others for advise as they might give you wrong advise.

As we try to select the final 41 entrepreneurs, what qualities would you think a person should have to inspire others?
I think the most important are integrity and accountability. You have to work hard for everything as there is no free lunches in this world. Everything takes time to build and it cannot be done overnight. So do everything with integrity. We are accountable for our action, be it right, be it wrong. If we do something wrong or when you do not know anything, you should admit it and people would respect you for the frankness. Also to really have empathy with people, do not treat everyone like an object. You should treat everyone like how you would treat yourself and that is paramount to me in business. If you can follow these, your service will always be good and customers will come back for you.

What advice would you give young people who want to start their own business?
I will question them: is it is really what you want to do? Are you passionate about it? Do you know what you are doing? I do not believe in being a passive investor, one needs to be hands-on and know the in and out of what the business is all about. Seek as much advice as you can and move slow. Do not be impulsive, sit back and wait as time will reveal things.

What advice would you give young people who want to start their own business?
There is no short cut to success; one has to struggle to get what he wants. It is very important to understand this canon. One needs to become unselfish and live for others, give more than what you take. Only then can one be successful in business.

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