When you started off, were you alone, or did you have partners?
We started off together as partners but he (my husband) was actually an inactive one. I was the active one. He gave me advice because he was also running another business. Only about 2 years later, he came in full swing here.

And from then on, was it just the two of you? Did any more partners join in?
No. Until now, it is still just the two of us and will be the two of us.

When you were working previously, were you also in this area/industry?
My first very good experience was working with a retail company, Bluebell, where they deal with all the branded stuff like Moschino, Louis Vuitton. I was there for not long, about half a year, before I proceeded to my studies. But that gave me the interest. I think I really like fashion. Sometimes you just like fashion, but to sell them is another thing. I actually started to realise that I love to work in such an environment.

Subsequently after I finished my A levels, I went on to pick up my PSC (private secretarial course)

After completion, I worked as a secretary for a few months, but that is really not "me" so I moved on and found a marketing job in a retail company where we actually market watches and diamonds. My duty was to go to departmental stores, talk to buyers and start having promotions. We ran promotions from places to places to sell the brand. We had a shop and so that also added on to the interest. Of course I learnt a lot from there.

After that, I joined a bag company for 3 months before this company closed down.

When you first started out? How did you get the capital?
I had to take up a loan.

Was it difficult to get a loan?
I actually went for a personal loan, which was difficult; we are taking a very big risk, considering our age. Of course for Alvin (her partner), he was from another business, he had some money, but it is not enough, it is definitely not enough to carry on because when we project a business to start off, we need to project the expenses for at least 6 months to 1 year. So we cannot have enough to start off and ignore the following periods after the business has taken off.

How did you get the contacts to start out?
I actually have got no contacts, so I went to import from Hong Kong. I would go for exhibitions and get my contacts.

So you ventured overseas first to get your contacts?
Yes, to buy in. First of all, we actually started off like a trading company; buy in bags and we sell. But after a few months, we realised that this is not going to work. Because if we buy, anyone from Singapore would know how to buy and if you happen to buy the same thing and of different price… And we were so small, so we did not have any bargaining power at all, unlike people from bigger companies. So in that sense, we lose out. We realized that we cannot rely on this method; we have to change our method. We started designing and found a factory to produce for us. That was half a year after we started business.

Along the way, I'm sure you must have faced a lot of problems?
A lot of problems, a lot of setbacks. Setbacks are really something you have to fall and pull yourself up again.

Any particular one which you remember where you almost felt like giving up?
Of course, when you start off, when you totally have no contacts, when you go to the department stores and they reject you flat. These are the times that you think "Maybe I'm not cut out to be one" (a businessman). After going to them umpteen times, they still reject you, so you really feel like giving up. "Maybe they just don't like my product or I cannot provide good products to the market."

I'm sure there are also happy times. Any particular memorable incident which made you feel like you are going to succeed?
It was actually in 1998. That was the first time when CLEO magazine actually called us up and asked for an interview. I asked why and they told me they were actually interviewing 3 businesswomen and I was one of them. I told them that I have a very very small business and it is not even worth mentioning. Then, business was no good at all, we were also at the verge of wanting to give up.

However, they said that what I was doing was really interesting and they got my contact from their colleague. So after she interviewed me on the phone, she said that she would come down and see me. She came down and she was so happy and excited to see the old office and all the bags designed. She said "OK, a photographer would come and shoot" and they sent a very professional photographer and I got to do up the office.

Our appearance on the magazine actually brought us business, three major businesses. One is we are being recognised as a local designer and at Scotts 0101, which was an old shopping place, they actually invited us to have a little booth, a little corner there. When they called me up and asked me to join, I said I have no money. They told me that I do not need to pay a single cent. Everything was totally provided. I just had to display my products and assign a salesperson there. That was one of the very good support I got from Trade Development Board, (now known as IES, International Enterprise Singapore) as well as from Scotts.

The next thing was that I got a lot of phone calls from the cosmetic houses like Lancome and also from MTV, so we started producing for them. Bags, for their premiums.

Thirdly, another big thing is that departmental stores started to see us differently.

When you started doing this business, what did your family think? Were they supportive of you starting out?
Yes, they were very very supportive, because my Dad is a business person and he is very encouraging and supportive towards the idea that his children do business.

And because your Dad is a businessman, did he tell you any useful tips/experience?
My dad is our mentor. We will always consult him for big or small matters regarding business.

So he is actually showing you the way, your role model?
He is part of my role model. Because my Dad is a very conservative person, so in terms of modernizing, he doesn't modernize his business, whereas for our aspect of business, we need to modernize. But I guess its all the important lessons that he had learnt through his business venture, he passed it to us.

What business is he in?
Electrical retail.

What qualities do you think you have that differentiate you from someone who works for others (i.e. an employee)?
I guess its pure determination. Of course, many a times we wanted to give up. We can't help it. I guess we just have to be determined. We have already moved on thus far and if we give up, we only lose more.

You are doing quite well and have been expanding. In Indonesia, there is also a franchise. So other than Indonesia, have you ever thought of expanding to other countries?
Definitely. In the pipeline will be a regional expansion. In fact, there have been quite a few people that came in and checked with us. To franchise in Malaysia for example, and even somebody from Thailand too, these are the possibilities. But it will take one to two years, because sometimes people just have to watch, like our Indonesian counterpart. She watched us for 2 years silently. When she was very confident of how this company worked, how this company produced their things and the direction, she came to approach us.

Where do you see your business heading in five years' time?
In five years' time, I guess we should be moving out of the region. We will still work very hard to keep Singapore as our main hub for our company. But I guess we are venturing out more to the nearby countries. We have already set off to Indonesia.

We have also actually started selling to Malaysia, it is just that we have not got an agent or a franchisee. And of course, we would want to target the nearby region first, like Australia, which we have enquiries and we have started working something out with them. In fact, we have started selling to Japan now. We were actually sent by TDB (now known as International Enterprise Singapore, IES) to do an exhibition representing Singapore. 4 designers have been selected and we are one of them. We went to the exhibition and we are happy to say that we brought some business back for Singapore.

In this industry, competition is high. What do you think is your competitive advantage that gives you an edge over the rest of the competitors because in Singapore, I think there are a lot a lot of shops selling bags. It's very hard to really capture the attention of the target market.
We are very basic people, we go by the 4Ps. Before I touch on the 4Ps, we must recognize that we have our forte, which is in designing. We do not buy and sell, we design, produce and then sell. In a way, all these are exclusive designs to us only.

We have our product, our designer's product, and then we have our price. A lot of people simply love the price because they call it "price friendly". We have our promotions, we are very very aggressive in promotions, and of course, we choose the right place. We often will make sure that we will expand, go into Orchard Road, which is where most people shop and this is actually more prestigious when you buy things from there.

You used to have a shop in Wisma. That was quite a good location. Why did you give it up?
From a business point of view, there is this thing called overheads. When the rental started increasing, and their increase is not a little bit; it's in fact not justifiable at all. They doubled it, so we find that we have already made a name there. We find that there is no point paying such high rental and at the end of it, we are just working hard for the landlord so we relocated to a pretty good place. We are still very selective. We relocated to Plaza Singapura. Why we chose Plaza Singapura is because Dhoby Ghaut is going to be the largest MrT station, so we found that it is very strategic. We also relocated our OUB outlet. We just shifted from OUB to Far East Plaza. That's how we try to work because after awhile, if we think that that place is not working out as well, we have to relocate.

In the future, would you like to see your kids starting businesses of your own?
I would love that, if I have kids, they take over the business because it is really our sweat and blood.

During your almost six years in business, have you had any unusual requests from customers or any unusual encounters?
Yes, I should say it's quite a common request. They wanted custom-made bags. That's something I'm still working out because there are shoes that people can custom make for weddings. In fact, just late last year (in 2001), we had a joint venture with our Hong Kong partner to have a factory in China, so in a way, we have our own, it's a co-owned production plant. I'm still trying to work something out to have a sample room in Singapore so that we can do some exclusive things for customers, who don't mind paying a little bit more.

How do you cope with the impact of the economic downtown? How has it impacted your business?
Yes, there (business) is a vast difference but I think the downturn makes us learn something. It makes us learn to trim costs and push us to work harder not only in Singapore but also out of Singapore. That is why we have been travelling a lot to Malaysia to get business. Sometimes you are cornered by bad situations, for survival, there is no choice.

Who do you admire?
In business, I actually admire this old man. I think he is really something. His name is Ng Teng Fong. He is the boss of Far East Organisation. I read about him when I was in my teens. What really impressed me was he actually bought land when the property market is at a slump. To me, this is really something very courageous. Of course, he is quite smart, he is actually focused and he got Far East Plaza, which is at Orchard Road. Today we have our shop in Far East.

It was such an experience to go up to their office. When I went up to the office, I looked around. It is so old, so antique, I was thinking to myself that they should be better off, deserve something better. The way they record their payment, it is in cards, not using the computer at all. I told them that this is something really antique, I was just joking. And they replied "Ya, if not, how can the business grow?" They cut costs. To me, I would not accept it that way, we should have to modernise. But I really admire him because I think he is very sharp.

Do you intend to expand the partnership any further?
Partners are really important because if we do not have the same vision and we think differently, we cannot work things out. Of course, we cannot say that there are no differences between us. But at the end of the day, we can solve things and come to an agreement, which is very important. There must be chemistry in working.

Other than being interviewed by CLEO, have you ever been approached by other magazines?
Yes, Her World, CLEO, newspapers, Teenage…not all the time they will have face-to- face interviews, sometimes phone interviews are conducted.

Other than bags, you also sell accessories. Are these also designed by yourself?
No, we do not design the hair accessories. Hair accessories were an opportunity. We were just in Korea and we were trying to see things, looking at the trends. We saw that Korea has actually got good factories to produce hair accessories. So we went to a factory and saw that there were really nice things and what we did was we just bought offhand from them.

When we came back, we did very well and we realized that this was another avenue to complement what we have now. Anyway bags are accessories too. We brought in to departmental stores. It sold so fast, buyers are really happy, so we started bringing in. Then the competition was very little. We sold so many diamantes.

Until maybe recently, we felt that the business had to have some change in direction. For bags, we are really not worried because our forte is to design, so it is how much that we want to put in effort to design. If we buy, again it is back to the same question, you will meet someone buying the same thing and then sell at different prices. If you sell too high, it is not good, because you will lose your customers eventually. If you sell too low, then the markup is no good, so no point.

Some of your bags are quite unique as they actually have the ez link card slot…
Yes! When the government said that that there is going to be this ez-link system, I was just thinking and I feel that we can do something, because that is what some of the Hong Kong companies actually did. But they did it very differently and I actually adopted the idea and we changed around. Instead of having too many complicated things, we just had this transparent pocket for people to slot in and they can see. This is a selling point and people were impressed. So this is how we actually kind of reward our customers, by giving our best and yet not selling them at exorbitant prices.

Is Alphavine also the official licensee for Winnie the Pooh?
Yes, I should say that that is ending soon. Basically, we took up the licensee because they actually approached us. We wanted to increase our portfolio. We wanted to have a better look so we took up the licensee and we had to make some reservations that it is not going to make money for that, and we started running it. Perhaps our sources are not very good. We are not able to compete because there are a lot of parallel imports where importers just bring in without having to pay licensee's fees. At the end of the day, we are not able to compete. This is a very good lesson for us, shows that our best business is something which we are good at. To concentrate and be focused at our forte because sometimes when you find that you have a little bit more time, you just want to try something.

What was the inspiration behind your brand? How did you think of that brand?
OK, this is something very personal. I prayed about it. I got this inspiration from God. I find it such a nice thing because it is so easy to pronounce. One syllabus and it did not sound too "cheena". I know that some people pronounce it wrongly, especially the Indonesians, they call it "March". But that's also our challenge to us when we have promotions, when we speak to people we also try to say "Marcx" more often.

Using the pink is because its very "girl". Even if a girl's favourite colour is not pink, it still attracts attention. Furthermore, it is hot pink.

How did you manage to get the materials for your products?
Basically, for us we source our materials from Hong Kong. Some of the materials are made in China but a lot we selected will be made in Japan and Korea. One of the very strong material makers is Korea and Taiwan. Taiwan and Korean fabric is most of the time being selected. We will send it up to our factory, get it produced and then back to Hong Kong, where we have an office and then from there redirect to Singapore.

So are there any plans for you to hire more designers?
I think there will be plans later on but at the end of the day, I really love to create things. It is the passion. It is really not easy because I am also quite an outgoing person. I like to go out to the market and talk to people so that I can get what they want. I would know what kind of things they are looking for, what kind of price etc…so it helps in my design.

If you are chosen as one of the winners, would you come to the ceremony to be honoured?
Yes, of course I will.

Will you be comfortable with the Press and TV asking you questions?
No problem.

Do you have any objections to this interview being posted on the community website and/or published in the newspapers?
No.

I just want to add something on how we can use our expertise to help the younger people. For example, we actually work a lot with institutions. We have a lot of interns from Temasek Poly, Nanyang Poly and recently we even stretched down to ITEs. Basically in our business, we need fresh blood. I am not saying that we get rid of our current staff. But because for young people, they are very protected, so I think through our business, we can actually educate them. When they are attached to us, they will find themselves learning quite a number of things with no reservation from our side. We do not reserve back some of the things. This is one of the things we are trying to work on because we are very grateful to TDB (now known as International Enterprise, Singapore; IES) for giving us a chance. We believe that we want are able to help out in that sense. Taking attachment students is also good for us, it is a win-win situation whereby we can get extra help. Of course, they do not draw such high wages, we just give them an allowance. On the other hand, we have to spend time teaching them.

Thank you for your time.

Student Interviewer's Personal Comment