What is the nature of your business? (Business Profile)
Our core business is in the conduct of mathematics and science tutorial classes for students from primary to junior college levels since 1999. Currently we have 7 operating branches in Singapore. We focused ourselves to prepare students for examination. We also provide an E-learning portal for students to log in. Another business segment is in the assessment book market, where we have rolled out some of our books at Popular bookstores island-wide. Users of the books can gain access to our E-learning contents, which are designed for ease of learning. We are also currently seeking potential candidates whom we can franchise our business locally and overseas.

What made you embark on this venture choice?
I was blessed to have earned a government scholarship and went on to read Engineering in Cambridge University UK. Before I embarked on this venture, I was working in the civil service for about 9 years. One of the key reasons is that at that time I feel that there should be more young people stepping out into business to develop enterprise that can venture overseas as Singapore is becoming more "limited" in terms of opportunities. Our country needs more home-breed companies like Creative Technology. Local companies can move into sectors where government-linked companies have not ventured. The second reason is more personal. I enjoy risk and adventure. Running and managing a business is very much like fighting a real "battle", where casualties means loss of resources and time, and victory means greater monetary reward and seeing your company growing. Managing business risks also allows me to grow, and learn a lot more about myself, which I would otherwise not have learnt if I had continued in the civil service.

How does your business work?
Our focus on the business is not only in teaching, but also on development of educational content. From the start, we focus our resources and time in creating proprietary teaching contents for ease of teaching by teachers and learning and absorption by students. Our other focus is to bring in a group of teachers who believe in helping students improve their grades, and are dedicated to make the students believe that they can improve. Hence our company motto is "Believe in Yourself". Apart from that, we have experimented and implemented a maximum class size of 8 that is big enough to be commercially viable and small enough to get student participation and to provide individualised attention to the students.

Did you have the capital to start the business or did you have to borrow from someone to get started?
When I was serving in the civil service, I accrue the saving, which I later used as the capital for starting the business.

Do your parents have their own businesses too? Have they inspired you in one way or another?
My late father was a successful businessman. What I can remember about him is that at a young age, he had to support his family when my grandfather was sick and was forced to start his own business. He started his business by driving a lorry delivering potatoes to Singapore from Malaysia. There is thus an urge to start my own business and challenge myself.

What was your childhood dream? When did you decide that you would strike out on your own instead of working for someone else?
I wanted to be a doctor at a young age, but I was unable to learn biology due to the streaming examination in Secondary 2. Later I read engineering in university. During my university days, I was convinced that I should try to start and run my own business if possible. Subsequently I pursued a part-time course to obtain a Master in Business Administration to prepare myself for starting my business. As a side note, to catch up my lost love for biology, I am completing my part-time degree on Biomedical Science this coming June.

Why does someone decide to be on their own rather than join an existing company?
I know many people who wanted to start their own businesses for many different reasons. The first reason I believe is that you want to do something that you really enjoy, have control over, and have great fun and challenge doing so. For example, we decided to go into the education business because we enjoy teaching students and innovating educational contents and developing and experimenting with various teaching methodologies. The next reason is that there is a particular service or product that you feel can be different and unique. In a small crowded market like in Singapore, whatever services and products you offer have to be competitive, effective and efficient.

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?
I feel that we have not been very much affected by the 911 terrorist attacks. One of the key reasons could be that our centres are exam-oriented and parents still consider examination preparations as a high priority for their children. However, there are isolated cases that students have to terminate their lessons due to financial difficulties during those difficult periods. We have also provided assistance to some of our regular students who have experienced such difficulties.

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 challenge for us initially is to get acknowledgement from parents and potential employees that we will develop to a credible size and people would have faith in the services that we are providing. Understanding these parameters, we were successful in the establishment of our first branch winning support from parents and students.

Who/What motivates you?
I would say the staff, as we have gotten many good people who have joined us, believe in us and stay with us. I want to create greater opportunities for them so that in terms of remuneration, prospects and working environment can be improved. Since last year, we have also implemented our share employee scheme with the intention of co-owning the company with all employees in the long run.

Tell me about the first few customers and the first few years of business.
My first customer was a secondary 3 student whom I taught from secondary till he ended his junior college education and is pursuing his university study in Australia now. I have also taught his sister who had just graduated last year from junior college and is entering university this year. They have given my partners and myself numerous positive and constructive feedbacks about how we can improve our materials and teaching methods. Such informal connections with the students allow us to constantly get feedbacks from them, and this remains a practice till today. In fact, this gradually becomes the company philosophy. We are regularly thinking of how to learn, improve and innovate. Later as our team of people increases, we were concerned that this practice would be gradually reduced. Hence even until today, we spend a lot of time and effort listening to feedbacks of parents and students, and understanding the problems encountered by our staff: teachers and customer service officers. Many of our ex-students studying in universities have also returned to the company to help us out in part-time work in this area.

Please tell me some stories of your best day in business or your proudest achievement to date.
Recently, we have worked very hard to develop an E-learning software and programme for a potential overseas client. I feel that without the tireless efforts from the programmers, assistants, and teachers, it could not have been possible. Numerous of them put in extra hours without being asked to help ensure that the quality is high and details are checked thoroughly. It was a great process that allows us to get bonded. For me, it is the teamwork and understanding that we built over time and I am indeed gratified and proud of the team. On another occasion one of our teachers is resigning and the rest of the staff took the initiative to cover the classes. For that, I am deeply grateful to have good reliable and dependable working partners. Thus, I would say that my proudest achievement is to have a built strong relationship with my staffs over the years to ride through the challenges. I believe only with challenges can the team get stronger.

Do you recall your worst day in business? Have you ever felt like giving up?
When key members of the staff had resigned, I always ask myself if there could be more that I should have done. Nevertheless, as we grow stronger, I continue to remember the contributions put in by some who have left us that makes us stronger and better. At times, such incident “removes” the fun of building a team and there is fleeing thought about stopping to build and grow the team. But the thought of those who are still with us encourages me to continue striving and pushing forward.

When was the moment you realised the business would work and support you?
From the day we started, we felt that our unique teaching concept and creative contents would work and we would have survived. The uncertainty rather lies in whether how successful can we get, and whether we can develop to become a household brand.

What are some of the things you have had to overcome to succeed?
In the setting up of our 2nd branch, we had a set back. As we had to manage and operate 2 branches, we made numerous mistakes and benefited hugely from these mistakes. We were forced to develop solutions to make the branch profitable. Issues ranging from putting in place operating systems to manpower planning to marketing were learnt. Operating procedures on establishment of new branch was developed, reviewed and improved upon so that when we started our 3rd branch, it was immediately a success within 3 months of operations. Overall, it was a painful experience in operating a loss-making 2nd branch for about 1.5 years. But without it, we would be unable to be successful in our subsequent branches.

What are some qualities that you feel you possess which differentiate you from someone who works for others?
Firstly, I think the willingness to learn and to strive for excellence is one important factor. I always believe that "If it is good enough, it will never be good enough." and we should continue to seek ways to improve and be better. The second factor is probably the ability to persevere. Not all things would go the way you planned. But if you never stop trying, you will find the way out. Lastly, I believe in the importance of giving back to your staff and society. Therefore, I am moving towards co-owning and co-management of the company with deserving staff in the long run, and annually I have made contributions to Straits Times Singapore pocket money fund and other charitable organisations.

To succeed in business, what qualities are essential? What are some of the secrets in making a successful business?
A successful business is best described in chinese as "zhuan qu ren xing". In direct translation “a successful business earns the hearts of the people’ and it means that a business should be built by winning the people’s trust and faith. You got to be able to earn the ‘heart’ of your customers and the business would naturally be profitable. The second quality is about balance, preached by Lao Zi in the "ying and yang". The balance in our case is between profitability and teaching the students with the best of our abilities. In business, I believe one cannot solely go for profit. At the other end, there must be the ethical and moral aspects to the business. If the business is "unbalanced", problems may arise though you may acquire short-term profit. The last factor I feel, is the ability for one to stomach the risk and uncertainty as the stakes can be high in running of a business. I remember what an entrepreneur said: "for the 1 or 2 successful entrepreneurs that you see standing, there are millions that have failed".

Who or what inspires you?
I would say that my late father inspired me to challenge myself.

Have you ever thought of expanding the business in some way or in multiple locations? How and where?
Yes, we wanted to continue our expansion in Singapore and subsequently to expand in regional countries. It is something we are working hard on. For overseas expansion, there are many issues to be addressed, and the risk is as high as the gain.

What aspects of expansion would you like to see for your enterprise?
To build a network of educational centres that are teaching and preparing students for examinations using the proprietary educational contents that we have developed.

In your opinion, how would you define entrepreneurship?
I would like to quote what my wife (co-partner of Smartlab) said, “Any entrepreneurs must be able to fight, be prepared to lose, be prepared to rethink all the fundamentals that were first laid, be prepared to be humble and admit that you are wrong, be prepared to learn, develop and innovate, and lastly be prepared not to give up, because once you give up, the game has ended.” This is what keeps me going. Just to share a short abstract on what I read about Steve Job. He mentioned that whatever you are actually doing, you are creating these little dots. But it is these little dots that allow you to draw that line. Looking back, all the long hours of business planning and expansion, content development, learning and teaching were my “little dots”, and today I can join these dotes with a line. But what you will see is the line, and not the dots that we have painstakingly put on.

To what extent does one?s educational level help or hinder entrepreneurial-ship?
I never felt that education is a must to entrepreneurial-ship. I had a dad who is uneducated. He was exceptionally successful. Education develops and trains thinking. Education is definitely a big plus in helping set up business but it is not a must. The risk for educated people to start their own business is expectedly high as compared to working in the civil service or MNCs.

As we try to select the final 41 entrepreneurs, what qualities would you think a person should have to inspire others?
I think these entrepreneurs should be prepared to share what they have learnt in their course of building the enterprise. I participate in this event with the aim of sharing some of my limited experience that I have acquired in the course of growing my business. I hope that the winners will share their difficult moments they have been through and provide useful tips and guidance to the younger entrepreneurs who are beginning their journey.

What are some of your own values in doing business and what do you like to pass down to others, particularly the younger generation?
I would say that never be tempted by quick success. There might be some who are fortunate and very timely in their pursuits. But, it is not the case for most of other entrepreneurs. In business, think long term, develop a sound plan and change the tactical plan from time to time, and stay on course maintaining your direction. Work hard to earn the trust and faith of your customers through your services and/or products. Balance the focus of the business in wanting to earn greater profits as well as looking after the staff and interests of your customers.

What advice would you give young people who want to start their own business?
I would say do it. Singapore needs it. You are the people with energy. I think many educated people would want to be managers or top/middle management in big corporations or civil service. But Singapore needs more people to hands-on, build companies, innovate and create services and products that will be needed by the world. We need more local enterprises to create more opportunities for our next generation in the face of fiercer competition from the region, China and India.

Student Interviewer's Personal Comment
It has been a wonderful and fulfilling experience in interviewing Mr Tan. For a person who has a bright future in the civil service, the mental and business challenges that he had overcame in building his business are indeed great achievements. He is a very good role model for many young graduates who are contemplating to start out on their own or stick to the common path of working at big companies.