Meet the Dynamic Entrepreneurs in Hmlet’s Community

Singapore Oct 13, 2020

In celebration of Own Business Day, meet  these bold entrepreneurs from Hmlet’s community who are marching to the beat of their own drum.

At Hmlet, our vibrant community of members hail from an assortment of cultures and backgrounds and have a wealth of experiences and interests!

We spoke to our thriving Hmlet members to get to know more about their amazing business personalities.

Shawn Soh, Design & Brand Consultant

My story
I am a design and brand consultant for SMEs in fashion, retail and events. I started my time in London studying at Central Saint Martins. After graduation, I started a few businesses. The one I am still working on is my brand consultancy services for SMEs. I also do a lot of work in event and retail design. I kinda bounce around both, working for clients in London, New York and Singapore. Prior to that I founded two other businesses in London: a theatre production company, and worked as the set and costume designer; and a brunch cafe in Battersea, and worked as the head chef.

What was the biggest risk you took in order to start this business?
When I first started out I heard news about a big client looking for a company to design and produce their exhibition project. I had zero experience and zero team members. There were also at least 30 different established agencies competing. To be honest I wasn’t confident of winning but I thought it would be fun to try. I spent a week studying tutorials, contacted mentors for advice and created a killer pitch. Then on the day of the presentation, I got my friends come in to pretend to be my “creative team”. I created multiple business cards for them to hand out to the client to make things look more legit. I borrowed my dad’s suit jacket, was nervous as hell but managed to put on a great presentation.

Who the hell would know that a month later, the client called me and said I won the pitch! Obviously the next challenge for me was to produce this insane task alone but I managed to source out the team I needed later on and things worked itself out. The gig kickstarted the momentum for my business.

What have been the biggest rewards of starting your own business?
I love meeting new people and hearing their stories. I also love that I can help entrepreneurs overcome their challenges and grow their business. It’s good fun.

If you weren’t running this business, what would you be doing instead?
Running a plant nursery.

What advice would you give to budding futurepreneurs?
Take risks. Failure and roadblocks are part of the process. Be relentless but don’t be too hard on yourself. Always remain kind.

Is your brand in need of a revamp? Tap into Shawn's creative mind via his website, or get in touch with him via mail@shawnsoh.com.

Karen Tsui, Orchestrii & WhereMyHeartLeads

Give us your elevator pitch!
I founded Orchestrii to provide quality design and user-centric experiences for businesses. Orchestrii does not just provide run-on-the-mill content and marketing services for your business website. Instead, Orchestrii works hand-in-hand with your business to enhance user experiences on your site as well as to address the root cause of your business problems. For instance, Orchestrii might revamp your business workflows to make your business more competitive and efficient, enabling cost savings to sustain the business. Be it business advisory services, strategic partnerships or programme execution, we have you covered. Additionally, I run my own website Where My Heart Leads that covers inspiring stories from diverse individuals as well as provides musings about the school of life.

What was the biggest risk you took in order to start this business?
Facing the uncertainty of whether this venture would succeed or not.

What have been the biggest rewards of starting your own business?
Seeing how far people and businesses can grow from the work we’ve done together. It’s like seeing the potential in a child who says, they want to become the best game developer, and showing him the steps and skills to hone so that he can reach for his dreams.

If you weren’t running this business, what would you be doing instead?
Teaching & mentoring.

What advice would you give to budding futurepreneurs?
It can be a steep learning curve on many fronts - and most especially how resourceful you are within yourself. Advice: Keep it simple. Celebrate even the small victories to keep you going. Learn from your mistakes as they can be the gifts to help you grow - review how you might do it differently for the next opportunity.

Could your business benefit from Karen's expertise? Get in touch at hello@orchestrii.com.

Lena Koh Maltesen, Lena Destiny

Give us your elevator pitch!
Demystify Chinese Astrology is what I do in a language easy to understand from the Chinese metaphysics Bazi (8 Characters from your Birth chart). I stumbled on this ancient character reading and life journey 30 years ago but practised it from 2012 after an intensive course from the Mastery Academy. Bazi is intriguing and gives insight of your full potential and offer self-reflection to better yourself and the environment.

What was the biggest risk you took in order to start this business?
Persuading sceptics to use this method was a challenge because some of them think that this method is fortune telling. I risk being wrongly labelled as such.

What have been the biggest rewards of starting your own business?
One of the rewards is to witness clients’ “AHA” moments and they were able to take on  new roles that they were uncertain about. It is really wonderful to be able to meet so many different personalities, uncovering their hidden talents and use their innate traits to tackle career and personal challenges. Best of all, I can do my consultation  from the comfort of home, cafe or even a garden so the financial outlay is really minimal.

If you weren’t running this business, what would you be doing instead?
Giving personalised tailored tours discovering Singapore.

What advice would you give to budding futurepreneurs?
Anyone desiring to go into such a personalised service must know the client demographic and psychographic profile and learn to listen and relate to them. Make a business plan, however modest, so you can identify your goals  and how to reach them. And surround yourself with people who are better than you in what they do to achieve a synergistic success.  Love what you do, give the best service; and money follows.

Curious to discover the Bazi methodology? Get in touch with Lena via her website or through lena-koh@maltesen.dk.

Nikhil Charan, Boxaroo

Give us your elevator pitch!
Boxaroo makes it convenient for brands to find, design and order eye-popping branded merchandise, company swag and custom promo products. We make it incredibly easy to do it all online, end-to-end.

What was the biggest risk you took in order to start this business?
Deciding to double down on Boxaroo in the middle of a pandemic. Fortunately, other businesses realised that sending meaningful merchandise and branded swag was an easy way to delight and engage their teams and customers who were working from home.

What have been the biggest rewards of starting your own business?
I’m learning something new almost every day because I’m handling so many different aspects of the business together with one other co-founder.

If you weren’t running this business, what would you be doing instead?
I would’ve kept a day job in consumer tech, but outside of that I would probably be chasing after my dream of becoming a filmmaker.

What advice would you give to budding futurepreneurs?
Ask me again in a few months, but for now it's this: thoroughly validate your idea and assumptions. That’s very important. Also – network, network, network. Being part of a community like Hmlet, I met some incredible people, some of whom were very helpful in this journey.

Connect with Nikhil on his personal Instagram or LinkedIn, or learn more about Boxaroo via their website, Instagram or LinkedIn.

A community that continues to welcome

2020 has been an uphill ride for entrepreneurs and their businesses. Yet, living alongside each other in the Hmlet community (with the relevant social distancing policies in place of course) will connect you with dozens of passionate entrepreneurs stepping out of their comfort zones and navigating the post-COVID19 landscape. If you identify as an entrepreneur yourself or simply wish to get to bond with Hmlet’s diverse community, learn more about us here!



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