Mr Chua’s views on purpose-driven entrepreneurship were among those shared at a fireside chat on “Developing our Young Entrepreneurs: Pathways to Sustainable Success”, at Maybank’s first YES Forum held in April.

The event, held at the Star Vista, also saw the launch of a new e-financing solution to support budding entrepreneurs.

From the open and insightful sharing of five prominent entrepreneurs, we distilled four top tips:

Find meaning and purpose

The Chinese term for business is “sheng yi”. But to Mr Chua, the two characters on their own are also deeply meaningful in his business journey.

“Sheng means to ‘create’, yi means ‘purpose, meaning, impact’. It’s all about creating value and purpose for people around us,” he said to the 140-strong audience. When he thinks of Speco’s value, it is about how to prevent people from falling sick, and how to uplift marginalised workers through Speco’s social enterprise arm.

It is vital to find such meaning to make the first step in entrepreneurship, said Mr Joseph Lee, Founder and CEO of SME business network Global Business Chambers. Responding to a question from moderator Marc Leong, Head of SME Banking at Maybank Singapore, on what is stopping Singapore from producing the next unicorn, he said: “The biggest barrier to entrepreneurship is safety.” Handsome starting pays in corporate jobs are a “deterrent” to people striking out on their own, he explained, so aspiring business owners must find a purpose that is worth risking their job stability for.

Growing your people – and yourself

A strong sense of purpose alone may not be enough, however. It is also important for business leaders to develop the people under them, said Mr Lawrence Kim, Group CEO of engineering firm Ebenezer.

His company has expanded its businesses as it goes green, pivoting from oil and gas to solar photovoltaic systems, logistics and scaffolding. So Mr Kim ensures his workers, who number more than a hundred, have more than one skill specialisation.

For instance, a scaffolder is trained to also do metal installation for hospitality suites at Singapore’s Formula 1 race, or to fit solar panels. Besides developing employee skills and creating meaning, this versatility also allows Ebenezer to “manoeuvre whenever there is a cyclical change in business”.

Business owners should also adopt such adaptability, says Ms Daphne Ng, Co-founder and CEO at digital signing and document service platform Dedoco, which has driven digitalisation in this sector.

Recalling the start of the company in 2020, Ms Ng said she had to work extra hard, being new to the enterprise software and blockchain security field. 

“When I first started, the most common question I was asked was, ‘Are you computing trained?’ or ‘Are you from an engineering school?’” the business graduate recalled. But she was confident in what she offered, working harder than anyone else in understanding the industry and playing to her forte.

“My strength is in being a tech translator – making it simple for clients to understand the tech, making it adoptable for them in terms of user experience,” she said. Today, Dedoco has employees in five regional countries, including Singapore.

Never rest on your laurels

While Mr Chua saw Speco thrive during the pandemic as demand for cleaning chemicals and antiviral coatings shot through the roof, he began planning for a post-COVID reality early. Amid the raging pandemic in 2021, he thought about how his company could sustain for the next 30 years. 

Speco’s leaders then “redrew battle plans” to explore plant-based and ambient technology, as well as Internet of Things applications. “Now, we have a runway again, to internationalise and scale up business in a post-COVID way,” he said.

Mr Kim also reiterated this mindset of continuous improvement. “Business is a long marathon,” he said. “Always think: What is next?”

Don’t neglect networking

Entrepreneurs are often consumed by the demands of their business, sometimes at the expense of networking, said Ms Florence Neo, CEO of trade association Action Community for Entrepreneurship. Her platform gives SMEs the chance to meet venture capitalists, angel investors and family offices.

“A lot of start-ups are strapped for time but it is so important to make time to connect with the right people,” Ms Neo said in response to a question on funding. “You never know whom you might meet.”