I founded a digital marketing and training company last year at the age of 22 and count my blessings that my business has gotten off to a decent start and I can help support my parents who have been badly hit by the current Covid-19 crisis.
I founded a digital marketing and training company last year at the age of 22 and count my blessings that my business has gotten off to a decent start and I can help support my parents who have been badly hit by the current Covid-19 crisis.
Here, I would like to share how my humble family background has shaped my life so far, particularly in trying out different part-time jobs and saving up for a rainy day.
Growing up in a three-room flat, we had enough to get by but there were many things we could not afford.
My parents had to deliberate for a week before deciding to have a meal at the cooked food stall at the hawker centre.
My dad is a taxi driver and my mother is a supervisor at a restaurant.
Working shifts, they would take turns to care for me and my elder brother.
My friends had gadgets such as PlayStation which I really wanted but could only dream of. My mother would tell me that every single dollar is precious and should be used to buy food.
So, I scrimped and saved, setting aside 50 cents or S$1 daily from my S$2 pocket money till I was able to save S$150 half a year later.
Seeing this, my parents agreed to fork out the balance S$150 for the PlayStation provided that I did not let it affect my studies.
Although money was tight, I did not feel deprived as I knew how hard my parents worked to provide for us.
As a young boy, I wanted to be financially independent as soon as possible so that I could support my parents and buy what I want.
But my father always told me to be grounded, that money is not everything and we must earn it ethically and live within our means.
I took his words to heart.
When I was 12, my brother and I started thinking about how we could make our first buck on the Internet. I had picked up basic coding and programming from online resources and had created my own private gaming server.
I then got some gamers to donate to my server, earning myself a few dollars a day.
Although the sum was small, it was extremely thrilling because it showed me the endless possibilities of projects outside school.
In secondary school, I worked as a part-time waiter in restaurants as well as a door-to-door salesman. I sold water filters and any other products that I could get my hands on. I worked mainly during the weekends, making a few hundred dollars a month.
The author with his parents and elder brother when he was about six years old. Photo courtesy of Lenney Leong
In polytechnic, my class schedule was a lot more flexible. So I explored as many work opportunities as I could, including freelance photography as well as trading in used camera equipment and bitcoin.
I would also do animation videos for clients that I secured through freelancing platforms such as Fiverr.
I even started a cooking academy at 19 years old. Unfortunately, it failed because of a partnership that did not work out.
In the same year, I started doing freelance marketing work for a friend’s baking studio called My Bake Studio. I helped to create marketing campaigns as well as online contents such as videos to draw online traffic to the business.
As it grew, my work started to get noticed by other small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) which asked me to help them build their digital presence.
This led to me starting a digital marketing consulting and training firm called Get Customers last year.
By the end of 2019, we had secured some 100 new clients, mainly through online advertising and referrals.
Most of the clients are SMEs in the wellness, fitness as well as food and beverage business.
Besides my track record at Bake Studio, what stood me in good stead with some clients were non-commercial viral videos I had created previously.
In 2018, I set up a Facebook page called Asia Stories to share videos on inspiring stories in Asia.
My first video about a person with cerebral palsy went viral and garnered two million views. I later scored another million-view viral video about a disabled stray dog. The clip was later featured on Dodo, a New York-based Facebook page with over 36 million followers.
While I am thankful that Get Customers got off to a good start, our growth has been affected by Covid-19, particularly during the circuit breaker.
We are trying to reinvent the business by generating other revenue streams through webinars, online events and live streaming.
I am confident that my team and I can ride through this crisis.
My life experience so far has taught me two things:
First, you don’t have to be limited by your current situation.
I believe that the early 20s are a great time for learning and exploration. I do not think that we should just limit ourselves to earning a comfortable income in a day job.
If you want something hard enough, you have to go all out to pursue it. It doesn't matter how much education you have or how bright you are.
I wasn't exactly the brightest kid in school. I scored 189 for my Primary School Leaving Examination, and 17 points for O-Levels.
The biggest lessons and skills that I gained — from coding to programming to videography and marketing and investing in stocks — to make a decent income were all obtained outside the classroom.
We have to constantly adapt and be ahead of the curve so as to survive in this changing world.
This means constant experimentation even if it may not make sense to your family or your peers.
Secondly, save for a rainy day
This may sound like a cliche. But there is a valid reason why it is overused. It doesn’t matter how much money you make if you’re not careful with it because you can lose it all in a day.
Since young, at the encouragement of my parents, I have always been thrifty.
Most of my expenses are on transport and food. I do not think about owning a car or luxury items.
Over the years, through all the different part-time and freelance work I have done and through the short success I have enjoyed with Get Customers, I have managed to accumulate a six-figure saving.
This has come in very handy in supporting my parents during the current crisis.
When the pandemic hit, my father’s taxi driver salary dropped sharply and my mother got a pay cut. On some days, my father would make only S$9 a day.
I used to give them a few hundred dollars every month as an allowance.
I have since increased this to a four-figure sum.
If I have not been building up an income stream and saving up, I would probably not be in a position to help support my family now.
My goal is to save a million dollars by the time I turn 30 and to create more job opportunities in my company or business so that I can help my colleagues support their families.
I see entrepreneurship as a driver in being able to provide jobs and give back to the community.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Lenney Leong, 23, is chief executive and co-founder of Get Customers, a digital marketing and training company.
