Ms Lee is a successful entrepreneur who is very passionate about her business. She started practicing Bikram yoga somewhat by chance when she was going through hard times herself and she realised the effectiveness of it. Since then, she has continuously been practicing and has grown to love Bikram Yoga. It is because of this, that she chose to set up this business with a yoga centre having facilities that meet her personal standards of yoga.

Company: SALUD VIDA PTE LTD (BIKRAM YOGA CITY HALL) Address: 252 North Bridge Rd. #02-14 Raffles City Shopping Website: http://www.bikramyoga.com.sg Interview with Ms Ming Rong Lee by Harsh on 06-May-2008. Student can be reached at harsh_murarka1987@hotmail.com   Business Profile: Bikram Yoga City Hall is a well located state of the art yoga centre that now has about 4000 students. She runs this yoga centre where Bikram Yoga, the original hot yoga, is practiced.   Interviewer's Comments: Ms Lee is a remarkable woman with a tremendous amount of love and passion for her yoga. She moved from Toronto and set up her yoga centre even though she had limited resources, because of her love and passion for the business and for yoga itself. She is running the business very well and it was great to interview her.   1. What is the nature of your business? We provide a balanced, healthy lifestyle to the group of people who wish to enrich their life and seek mind and body connection, through practicing Bikram Yoga, the original hot yoga.   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.) Yes, my father started his own business at the age of 19. Due to the war, he only had elementary school education. Because of his family needs, he started working at a very young age, and learnt how the welding machine worked and soon after he got one of the companies from Japan to engage him as their sole agent. My mom helped my dad manage the finances, etc. On the contrary, I thought I did not want to run a business of my own as I had witnessed how much work/energy my parents had to put in to run a company. I thought I would find a job I would enjoy. But things worked out differently and my passion for Bikram Yoga changed my career path. One thing my parents had inspired me was to continuously learn. My father's business had evolved from welding machines to robotic arms.   3. What are your reasons for choosing to do business in this particular industry? I was in marketing and advertising profession. I had my health crisis in 1999 and was diagnosed of hepatitis C and lumps on thyroid glands. I went through runs of medical examinations and tests; after medication, my health was stabilized. However, the hectic professional life aggregated my health and I had to remove my thyroid gland in 2001. I used to work out in the gym, started it since 1998. In the gym I met this girl who told me that she was practicing hot yoga and I was keen to try it out. I did my first Bikram Yoga class in 2003 and felt a huge difference just after the first class. It was slightly difficult at first due to the heat in the room as Bikram Yoga is practiced in a hot room heated to 40 degrees Centigrade. However, I woke up the next morning with very good energy. That year, my brother passed away and my father was suffering with a brain tumour at the hospital. There was a lot of stress at work and family matters to attend to but Bikram Yoga really helped me walk through these difficult times. So I became a very good practitioner and later took the instructors' course and became a teacher of Bikram Yoga as I did not want to go back to the corporate world.   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. I came to Singapore from Toronto in 2005 and I had to sell off my property in Toronto including my house and car. I also had to borrow some money from my mother and sister and that was how we funded this venture. It took about six months to set everything up.   5. How does Bikram Yoga work? Bikram Yoga is the ORIGINAL hot yoga which consists of 26 postures and 2 breathing exercises practiced in a room heated to 40 degrees Centigrade. Every practice is 90 minutes.   6. What was your childhood dream? When did you decide that you would strike out on your own instead of working for someone else? I can't remember what I wanted to be when I grew up. I was a shy, responsible kid. Though when I was working, I never saw my job as 'just a paid job', I was always willing to pick up responsibilities, learn new things beyond my job scopes. I think my attitude has helped ease the transition of 'employee' to 'employer' when the opportunity arose.   7. Did you start business as yoga, or yoga as a business? After my graduation, I researched several job fields and was inclined towards marketing. I went to Taiwan to look for a marketing job. I worked for a couple of multinational companies and had a lot of fun too but I felt exhausted. I moved back to Toronto in 1997. I then went into sport and event marketing, and eventually ended with a multicultural advertising agency. After Sept 11 event, our head office decided to close down our Toronto office, and I became an independent marketing consultant for some of my previous clients. I would like to say Bikram Yoga is my passion, I see it as something that can help improve people's life, and I personally walk the talk! I am a Bikram Yoga practitioner and teacher, not just a businesswoman who set up a yoga studio without even knowing how to do yoga.   8. 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 behavior and trends) which affected or influenced you and your business that made you change the way you think and do your business? Personally, I think historical events don't have much impact on my thinking than impacts from my families and friends. My brother passed away when he was only 35 years old. It made me aware that our health and family have to come before anything else. It made me see the priorities of my life. My parents had treated their employees like a family and their style of running a business set the foundation of how my relationship is now with my team.   9. What are some of the challenges you faced in starting a business from scratch? It was my first time working and living in Singapore. It was very challenging for me to explain the concept to people and my team. Also, understanding the local culture, speaking the local language was a challenge as well. However, it was not difficult to overcome and move forward.   10. What motivates you? Be able to practice yoga every day and smiles on my students' faces when they come in. I still enjoy every bit of what I do. Bikram Yoga is all about your body, which is changing everyday and that changes your practice everyday. It is very exciting. I see the improvement in my students' health, bodies over a period of time and it is just so satisfying. So many injuries and illnesses have been healed through the yoga practice. This keeps me motivated. Students come in enthusiastically and regularly, we have become a small community.   11. Who was/is your role model? (If any) What did you learn from him/her? I saw my parents as my role models. They built their business with honesty and generosity. Though they are strict on how the jobs were to be done, at the same time, they treated their employees like part of the family. My team in the studio are like part of the family too. Everyone enjoys coming to work. As a team, we help each other and also have fun at work. The second mentor was my manager at Rado watch. She taught me what brand marketing is. I learnt from her not to be afraid of making mistakes, but be able to correct it, learn from it and move on.   12. Tell me about the first few customers and the first few years of business. It was a bit difficult at first because not many people in Singapore knew what Bikram Yoga is. People thought that nobody would want a hot yoga in Singapore because Singapore is already a hot country. But when we first started advertising, there were a few customers who signed up even before we even opened. That was very overwhelming because it gave me a picture that it would work. People were open to the idea. Gradually, we started getting more and more people and we have come all the way from there to having close to 4000 students now.   13. Please tell me some stories of your best day in business or your proudest achievement to date. Our first anniversary was the best day in business. It was a big landmark for me and we organised a big party for the members. It was very good to see all the members together.   14. Do you recall your worst day in business? Have you ever felt like giving up? Well there were just a few glitches at the beginning. For instance, there was a leakage from one of the shops above and distribution board jumped circuit at night and left us without heat for our rooms for practice, .etc, and of course, sometimes, the sales was not as much as you had expected, but these are not the major issues for me at all. I have to say I am quite lucky from day one. No, I never felt like giving up, I just deal with them. This is one of the most important things I learn from practicing Bikram Yoga, never give up.   15. What are some of the things you have had to overcome to succeed? Cash flow was one of the major issues I had to learn to overcome. When I started, I used to put too much energy on worrying about the cash flow but focusing on where to get the sales in. Later on, I learned to shift my focus on looking at the big picture, not the sales figure of that day. Things always worked out at the end. One thing I learned through the years is to overcome the limitations of my mind.   16. What are some qualities that you feel differentiate your studio from the others? I did not set up this studio just because this is the trend for the moment but because I really love Bikram Yoga and put in that extra effort to make things as perfect as they should be. I wanted a studio where I could practice everyday, and I have built my studio keeping that in mind so the wellbeing of the student has also been taken into consideration. We have created the environment where people would love to come and practice everyday. More importantly, we have created a community for people from all walks of life and professions who have the same interest in health and wellness to exchange their experiences. And that is the special part.   17. What are some of the things that set you apart from your competitors/rival businesses? I think I take initiative from all the things I chose to do. I am willing to take an extra mile to make things better. Keep on learning as well.   18. What are some of the secrets in making a successful business? You simply have to have a passion for what you do and enjoy what you are going to do everyday. So it is your attitude that matters.   19. Have you ever thought of expanding the business in some way or in multiple locations? How and where? I think our current studio is in a central location and we would like to keep this as our main studio in Singapore. Ideally, we would like to expand but it would need to be in a convenient location, easy for students to access to. As far as for expanding out of Singapore is concerned, it depends on my teacher, Bikram Choudhury, the founder of Bikram Yoga.   20. In your opinion, how would you define entrepreneurship? I think that entrepreneurship is all about being able to take responsibility and initiative. It is about your attitude towards what you do. Also, abilities of strategic thinking, planning and problem-solving are all important. Basically, you have to multi-task.   21. To what extent does ones educational level help or hinder entrepreneurship? I think it is always good to go to university because you learn to think and analyse things. You learn skills that you might not use in your everyday activities but they definitely come handy at times. For instance, my math degree helps my understanding of budgeting in my early marketing career. And my marketing experience came in handy when I was promoting my yoga centre. Although you can do without going to university, I think going to university definitely gives you an advantage.   22. What are some of your own values in doing business and what do you like to pass down to others, particularly the younger generation? Whoever takes over my business has to love the students and yoga as much as I do. I do not want commercial values to override the integrity of yoga which is the core of my business.   23. Have you been able to achieve what you had set out to, or has the direction that your business took deviated a little from you original plans? Yes, I have been able to reach my goals. My first objective was to have a place to enjoy my practice everyday. I have reached my goal from last year; I had two 30-day challenges and one 115-day challenge records in 2007 while running the business full time and teaching yoga as well. Secondly, I wanted to make sure that the place is financially self-sustainable, and that too has been achieved. We are now on the path to achieve our third objective of using the funds that come back to expand and take Bikram Yoga to other places as well.   24. What advice would you give young people who want to start their own business? I would ask him to stay true to what they are interested in doing instead of what's hot in the market. I would advise them not to be afraid to make mistakes and always revisit their objectives and their original intention if ran into roadblock.