A Singapore citizen who used to be "stateless" and unsure of his future, Mr. Yeo is a truly inspiring entrepreneur who makes use of his knowledge and skill in electronics and communications to bring the deaf back to a world of sound. While knowledge and ambition drives him, it is his passion and love for people that keeps him going.

Company: RESOUND HEARING SERVICES CENTRE PTE LTD Address: 19 Tanglin Rd #05-17 Tanglin Shopping Centre Website: N/A Interview with Mr Yeo Gim Lam by Chiam Xiu Ting on 29-Mar-2007. Student can be reached at xiuting.2004@smu.edu.sg   Business Profile: Resound Hearing Services is in the business of helping people who suffers from hearing loss, from children to adults, and from adults to old folks. Apart from fitting hearing aids, services such as post-fitting adjustments, customizations, and counseling for the patient and his/her family members are provided.   Interviewer's Comments: Faced with limited capability and resources to start a new business in his "homeland", Mr Yeo showed everyone his determination and passion by venturing overseas to start up a business by himself. Not forgetting his goals and dreams, he came back to Singapore a year later, filled with knowledge, experience, and capability to do something for fellow Singaporeans. With a story and mission that touches the lives of many, I could not help but feel proud of Mr Yeo's endeavour.   1. What is the nature of your business? We are in the business of helping people who suffer from hearing loss, the hearing impaired. The person can be a child, an adult, or the elderly,. We believe that hearing is as important as speech, because we have to first learn by listening before we can imitate and speak. So this is a process of learning to speak. Just imagine how can a new born baby learn to speak if he/she cannot hear. So this leads to a lot of people being classified as being mute. However they are not, they are just unable to speak because they can't hear. For children who are suffering from hearing loss, they need to cope and go to work in the future. If they can't communicate, how can they contribute to society? Their parents are worried because these children have to be independent eventually. The trouble is that they do not know what to do and this is where we come in.   2. What made you embark on this venture choice? I was an engineer by profession, started out in the area of radios and communication devices. I moved into simultaneous interpretations and acoustics systems. I have learnt that sound is not something that you can measure by the number of megahertz. It is about acoustics, a complex sound wave formatted into tone, loudness, and timbre. My pass experiences have given me an advantage and the skill necessary to venture into the hearing aid, . It was an opening experience for me to see the number of people suffered from hearing impairment, and how it can change people's lives. I have always wanted to set up my own business, having my own workshop, with my own way of getting things done, my own style and approach. So after working for some time, I headed to China to start up a company.   3. How does your business work? For our business, we do not just sell instruments but also provide services and technical support. This is a business where we have to work closely with patients, to find the right hearing aid for them, so as to help bring them back to a life with sound. After fitting the hearing instruments, we have to customize and make adjustments as the patients learn to adapt to their new life. We also often have to provide counseling for the patients and their family numbers.   4. Did you have the capital to start the business or did you have to borrow from someone to get started? I have limited financial resources then, hence my decision to start a business in China, which has lower operational costs and other advantages. Although my wife had a stable job, I did not want to give her any burden. At that time, my 2 daughters were still studying; one in Junior College, and the other in secondary school. My wife supported me because she knew that I wanted to strike out on my own. Because of this investment into business, my family moved out of our house to my in-law's place, and rented out my place to generate extra income while I was away. I started up with only 3 workers in China, and gradually worked my way to having almost thirty workers after 2 years.   5. Do your parents have their own businesses too? Have they inspired you in one way or another? My parents died young, I was brought up by my sister. She is like a mother to me , and she showed me care and concern.   6. Do you have a childhood dream? When did you decide to be in this line? To be honest, I didn't expect myself to be in the engineering line when I was young. It was my wife who inspired me. I was an army regular then, and receive a scholarship in polytechnic. So I started out my career in the army as a technician. Over time, my interest in electronics and engineering grew.   7. Why do you decide to be on your own instead of working for someone else? When I was in the army, I spent many years in the R&D Lab, which help me to learn about design and project development. It influences me to embark on a similar career, to have my own workshop and able to my own designs. I have always believed that we should have products of our own design and tailor to suit the market needs. my dream is to one day design my own product completely from scratch; Singapore's product.   8. Why does someone decide to be on their own rather than join an existing company? There are fewer burdens when you work for someone else. But you have to accept that you can't do things your way, So this depends very much on individual, but it seems to me that many youngsters nowadays prefer to strike out on their own and be able to make their own decisions.   9. Are there at any point in your life that you experienced a significant event or problems which affected or influenced you and your business that made you change the way you think and do your business? Life is never smooth or straightforward. I have encountered so many problems that sometimes I will tell myself that I should given up just lead a simple life. The one thing I would like to have is more family time, as I feel that I have not been fair to my wife and family for quite some time. I have been working to encourage my colleagues to take over; to the business, as my family number are not interested in this line, I want my colleagues to one day move on with the business.. I may then take things a little easier, but still be around to help up with the business.   10. What are some of the challenges in starting a business from scratch? The lack of financial resources, the importance of understanding the market, and finding the right co-worker who share the same passion and goals. This is not an easy business to be in, especially in Singapore where the market is small and people are generally uninterested in this business. One challenge in this business is to be able to counsel patients and help them understand their hearing aid, All patients have to undergo a rehabilitation process from the time their stat to wear their hearing device. They have to learn to use the instrument, adapt to new listening habits, just like how one learns a new language. Not everyone will receive the same degree of benefit from hearing aid, this depends on the nature and severity of the person's hearing loss, and possibly more important the individual's motivation and will power. This is an especially difficult process for the aged, because they may have lost touch with sound for too long. After the instrument is fitted, the brain must first learn to listen and to process. This is something that most patients do not understand. They do not understand that they are just buying an instrument; a hearing aid. Not a new ear that allows them to hear immediately. It's is a challenge to explain to the new wearers the differences between hearing, listening, and understanding.   11. Tell me about the first few customers and the first few years of business. When I first started my business, it was in China, and I only started operations in Singapore about a year later. I took over the company from someone who under estimated the challenges. After we took over, we wrote letters to the company's past patients, asking them to come back and let us resolve any complaints or unhappiness that they may have. Many of them came back, but only to remark sarcastically, thinking that I just wanted to sell something to them and later forget about them. They were unaware about the change of management and were very unhappy about their past experience with the company.   12. Please tell me some stories of your best day in business or your proudest achievement to date. Every patient is an achievement to us when they are satisfied with our fitting, you can imaging how happy and proud it makes us when we see that patients have acquired the benefit of hearing from our device, But, if you ask me about the proudest day in business, it was the day I proved myself to my family and share the joy with them that I had managed to set up a business of my own, with an office of 30 staff in Beijing, and 4 branches in other provinces.   13. Do you recall your worst day in business? Have you ever felt like giving up? I once regretted coming into this line because I had not imagined the number of people, especially children, suffering from hearing impairment. I remember this father who cried when asked him why his son was not fitted with a hearing aid when his hearing problem was detected at the age of 3 or 4. The father had spent so much money trying to cure his son's hearing problem in vain. Another instance was a parent who cried asking me for help, after learning that 2 of their sons had hearing problems, one was 6 years old, and the other a newborn. These cases really upset me, and made me want to give up, as they were heart wrenching. A lot of people with hearing problems feel are very negative because they feel that life has been unfair to them, They cannot communicate with others and they cannot tell others about their feelings, even their own family, and it makes them feel isolated. But of course, I persevered because this is something I like to do, I wanted to do , I believe, I can help them lead a more fulfilling life, and I want to make a different while I'm alive.   14. When was the moment you realised the business would work and support you? I had to forgo my own salary when I first started out. I had to scrimp and save when I was in China, and live in a flat it was a 2 hour bus journey to get to my office. I had a small office and had to minimise costs. My staff and I worked almost every weekend, to conduct talks, and provide free hearing tests at old folk homes, and schools for the hearing impaired. Slowly, result starts to show a year later, it encouraged us to persevere and to build up our name, and reputation further.   15. What are some of the things you have had to overcome to succeed? We have to increase public awareness, not just for the development of the company, but to let people know how hearing devices can help them. It is also not easy to find experienced professionals who share the same passion and commitment to work together, to achieve the same goals. We believe in the importance of service and commitment, and that it can only be achieved working as a team, and not by an individual's efforts. A team of people equipped with technical and medical knowledge, who provides good service and understands the products, the problems, and is committed to the best for our patients.   16. What are some qualities that you feel you possess which differentiate you from someone who works for others? Passion and patience. I have learnt to put myself in the shoes of my patients, they are often unable to describe their difficulties.   17. To succeed in business, what qualities are essential? What are some of the secrets in making a successful business? There are no secrets to success. You just have to work hard, to achieve your goals. Once they have these qualities, they will be willing to overcome the hurdles they will face, and push themselves forward to learn more.   18. Who or what inspires you? In life, my sister, my wife and my daughters, In work the provided me with the foundation, what I have achieved today is in part because of my time in the army. I managed to get my Singapore citizenship through it, and it was the army's scholarship and that allowed me to study communication and electronics in polytechnic. My colleagues have also given me a lot of opportunities and I have learned from their ideas and depend on their support through tough times. This is one thing which inspires me because of the support others have given me. I feel that what I am doing now is my way of giving back.   19. Have you ever thought of expanding the business in some way or in multiple locations? How and where? Yes I have, but it also depends on the company ability. I want to expand outside of Singapore; I am looking at people who are willing to invest in this business, because I do not have sufficient capital alone.   20. What are your views on the risks that entrepreneurs have to take? Plan wisely before going into business, the biggest risk is to work so hard and lose everything. To be realistic, you can't do without money to start a business. But it's not just money, but your time and efforts.   21. In your opinion, how would you define entrepreneurship? Entrepreneurship is for someone who is keen and sharp in business. Not only in terms of technical know-how, but also in dealing with people. He or she must only be business oriented but understand the needs of the market.   22. To what extent does ones educational level help or hinder entrepreneurialship? It does not really affect as there is only so much you can learn in school. Of course you may learn about market behaviours, demand and supply, and other theories. What is more important is that a person must be able to deal with people, both in the office and outside of the office. This is just like what the Chinese calls "guan xi", and this applies to all countries and areas of business. Nobody will do business with a stranger, If there is trust between two parties, businesses can be done more smoothly and things will be easier. Education helps but it's not everything. Some of the business successful people in business are not highly educated, but they have business acumen and are good at managing people.   23. As we try to select the final 2007 entrepreneurs, what qualities would you think a person should have to inspire others? The definition of a successful entrepreneurship or a successful entrepreneur is subjective and depends on individual. For me, I take it as a challenge to do my best to achieve my dream and realise my vision. In any business, the main purpose is to generate profit, But I feel it will be good if the business can give back to society as well. So to me, a person should be determined to achieve his goals, be responsible to his family and at the same time, make positive contribution to the society to inspire others.   24. What are some of your own values in doing business and what do you like to pass down to others, particularly the younger generation? A business should have a life of its own and be self-sustaining. We should be able to go on holidays and the business operations should still continue running smoothly. It should not be affected, because of the absence of one or tow people. To me, this is how all businesses should be operating. The start-up phrase should eventually lead to self-sustainability.   25. What advice would you give young people who want to start their own business? Know what you want. Then set your target and plan to achieve them step by step.   26. Do you foresee the future entrepreneurs conducting their businesses in a different way than entrepreneurs from the past 5 years? Definitely, There are so many differences in the way businesses are running now compared to before. Entrepreneurs nowadays have more knowledge and have more flexibility in setting up a business. For example, you no longer even need to have an actual office to run a business, everything can be done over the internet these days. But the internet has brought a different set of challenges. There are no global boundaries; people can chose to import products even if they already exist in the market.   27. Do you feel that the future entrepreneurs have a higher chance to succeed than the entrepreneurs from the past 5 years? Yes, for example, with technological advancement, young people are more aware and have more exposure to different fields and different people. Furthermore, with people becoming wealthier, many youngsters lean towards being more independent, and to become entrepreneurs in order to pursue their dreams. With so many new markets opening up, there are more opportunities available.   28. Do you think it is important for entrepreneurs to have a balance between work and family? And will having a family hinder entrepreneurship? Life must be balanced, and you need it. And you should be fair to the rest of the people around you, especially your family. For me, I can lose everything but not my family. This is my belief. Family comes first.