Sunday, July 10, 2005
Elim Chew
She is the prime mover in popularising street wear amongst the young and trendy in Singapore; the owner of the highly successful 77th Street fashion chain; she was named Most Promising Woman Entrepreneur by The Association of Small and Medium Enterprises in 2001; winner of "Mont Blanc Woman Award" 2002, and in 2003 winner of the "Young Woman Achiever Award" by Her World and "Leadership and Mentoring Award" by Research Communications International - yet for all her success and glory, Elim Chew shares that it is purpose and passion rather than the pursuit of money which propel her to scale new heights in business.
Necessity EntrepreneurWhilst
it was necessity that drove Elim to embark on the path of entrepreneurship, it was out of passion and her love for street wear that 77th Street was born. Not long after Elim returned from London upon completing a hairdressing course, her father passed away. To sustain herself, she poured her entire life savings of $1000 into starting a small salon in 1987 whilst her mother and sister Sulim relocated to London in search of work.
"My love affair with street fashion began in London. Punk rock was 'in' and my friends and I emulated Cindy Lauper's dress style. But when I returned to Singapore, I could not find any funky apparel, so I got Sulim to buy and send them to Singapore," said Elim.
The 'far out' clothes and accessories caught the eye of some of her hairdressing customers and they soon began to ask Elim to bring in the fashion items for them. So in addition to her hairdressing business, Elim managed to eke out extra income from selling some of the street wear she asked her sister to send over.
"My love affair with street fashion began in London. Punk rock was 'in' and my friends and I emulated Cindy Lauper's dress style. But when I returned to Singapore, I could not find any funky apparel, so I got Sulim to buy and send them to Singapore," said Elim.
The 'far out' clothes and accessories caught the eye of some of her hairdressing customers and they soon began to ask Elim to bring in the fashion items for them. So in addition to her hairdressing business, Elim managed to eke out extra income from selling some of the street wear she asked her sister to send over.
Self-Reliance the Way to Go
The self-reliant young entrepreneur did not have the luxury of financial support from banks or venture capitalist. Through scrimping and saving, she managed to amass a small wealth which she used as capital to start 77th Street. Said Elim: "To start a business, you need money. When you don't have it, you need to work very hard to achieve it. I started 77th Street with just $15,000. With what I managed to make from it, I ploughed back into the business and then when I made more money, I put back into the business again." That was how 77th Street was organically grown.
Dare to Swim Against the Tide
A lack of capital was not the only obstacle Elim had to overcome. Elim shared: "People thought I was crazy. I even had friends who told me 'why don't you close shop and do something else?' " Determined to prove her skeptics that she had what it takes to succeed in business, Elim persevered with an unrelenting passion and swam against the current of mainstream fashion to introduce a new era in fashion wear.
"People would come in and laugh at what I had then. They looked at Doctor Martens and said what ugly looking bulky shoes," recalled Elim. But Doctor Martens soon took the market by storm and as the punk rock movement began to dominate the music industry, street fashion became the rage amongst the young in Singapore. At that point, business for 77th Street took off.
Recognizing the market readiness for street wear and its boom potential, Elim decided to sell off her hairdressing business in 1994 to focus her energies in building up 77th Street. Her mother and sister returned to help her with this promising venture. Without formal business training or a mentor to guide them, Elim and her sister faced many setbacks in the early years of building 77th Street. Going through the school of hard knocks, they learnt the hard way how to run a business and successfully grew the business. Today, 77th Street has 11 outlets in Singapore, 3 joint venture outlets in Malaysia and grosses over $12 million in revenues.
Beside the expansion of her fashion retail businesses, Elim has also been carving out other niches and creating possibilities in the youth market. She started The Young Entrepreneur Mastery (TYEM), to inculcate entrepreneurial skills to the youth; the 'Get-a-Life!' membership program, to connect to youth the latest in fashion, fun, entertainment and education. Other forays into the business include expanding into the distribution business of men and ladies wear under Ethics Apparel. Elim also went into the manufacturing of skincare products and spa services under Elvie's Grace; and the formulation of Antibac 2K, which successfully eliminates 99.999% of viruses and bacteria through her R&D laboratory under Wei Yang Cosmetics International.
77th Street is also set to manage a 40,000sqm cutting-edge underground youth shopping complex in the No.1 shopping belt in Beijing, XIDAN, conceptualising all levels B1, B2 and B3.
Money Simply a Means to Fulfilling a Greater EndOn what fuels her entrepreneurial endeavours, Elim shares: "Money is not an end in itself. What motivates me to succeed in my business is that it enables me to impact lives and to make a difference in society. Be it building orphanages or supporting charities, you can't do anything without money. That I would be able to look back one day and see all the lives I have touched and the people I have helped keeps me going."
To young aspiring entrepreneurs, Elim offers the following advice: "Find that passion and fire burning within you and just go for it. Just do it. Of course, it is important to take calculated risks. I know of many entrepreneurs who 'just do it' without doing their calculations and they end up with a huge debt when the business fails. If you can, find a mentor - somebody who is in the business who you can then look up to and ask questions. Last but not least, find the purpose of what you want to do. For me, it is not the money, but the purpose - in my case, impacting lives - that drives me to do what I want to do."
# . Grace Eleora Loo : 7/10/2005 11:08:00 PM
