She gave up her job as an auditor to work in the family restaurant. Seven years later, she opened a second spot and made a profit.

• Chloe Tan, 30, left her first job out of university as an auditor.

• She decided to help out at her parents’ restaurant, which serves homemade Chinese food.

• Seven years later, she expanded her business and opened New Station Rice Bar.

As a young adult, Chloe Tan followed the same path as many other Singaporeans of her generation: going to university, getting a degree, then taking a steady 9-5 job.

But three months into her first job as an auditor, Tan quit.

“I just remember not really liking it and not being excited,” Tan, an accounting major, told Business Insider.

At the same time, she wanted to help her aging parents retire. They had spent the past three decades running a food store selling zi char, or homemade Chinese food.

So after quitting, Tan decided to help out at their store, New Station Snack Bar. She didn’t mind that she initially had to take a pay cut of around 30%. “This is where our childhood took place,” she said, recalling how, as children, she and her siblings would help with menial tasks like bringing napkins to customers or recommending dishes to eat.

This time, however, his contribution to the restaurant was different. Over the next three years, Tan worked as a cashier, managed accounts and did marketing. She was comfortable but felt like she wasn’t doing anything fruitful.

Things have changed during the COVID-19 pandemic. During the lockdown, Singapore’s offices and schools were closed and dining in restaurants was not allowed.

Within three days, Tan, with the help of his friends, launched a website and organized food delivery across the island. The area of ​​Singapore is 284 square miles, about the same size as Austin, Texas.

The challenges she faced during the pandemic showed her what she was capable of. “It kind of sparked a passion and a fire in me, like, hey, you know what? Maybe I can do more things with my life,” she said.

It was at this point in her career that she knew she could grow the family business.

His accounting skills came in handy

Putting her accounting skills to use, Tan began working backwards to determine how much she could afford to lose.

She invested about 40,000 Singapore dollars, or $30,000, in her business. She cut costs by opting for second-hand products and was lucky enough to receive free equipment from some retired chefs.

After almost two years of planning and renovation, Tan opened his restaurant in February this year. Located at Fortune Centre, an old shopping mall in central Singapore, her store is a 10-minute drive from her parents’ restaurant. As a sister outlet, Tan named his new venture after his parents’ restaurant: New Station Rice Bar.

At first, her parents didn’t take her seriously

Tan remembers her father asking her why she had made his life difficult by expanding their family business.

“My dad referenced his own business and said, ‘Hey, my business is good now. It’s not like it doesn’t make money. Aren’t you happy about that?’” she recalled.

But it wasn’t about money. “I didn’t want to waste my 20s just by being too comfortable where I was,” Tan said.

When she worked in their restaurant, her parents discouraged her from setting foot in the kitchen.

“They felt like it wasn’t a place a woman should be. There’s fire, there’s smoke and, to be honest, it’s not a very pleasant environment.” Tan said. If she wanted to work in the food and beverage industry, she should manage accounts or do marketing – not cook, they said.

His parents were also hesitant to teach him how to cook. But Tan was determined. She enlisted the help of a zi char chef from Hong Kong, whom she only knows as Chef Wing.

For three years, she consulted Chef Wing himself to learn how to develop recipes, cook dishes and develop menus.

She had two main takeaways as an apprentice: respect your customers and respect the ingredients.

“I learned that the thing about catering is that as long as you put effort into it, people will be able to taste the value,” she said.

The lessons she learned turned out to be true

Nearly 10 months after opening the 500-square-foot restaurant, New Station Rice Bar has seen a steady stream of customers. Students from a nearby art school come for an after-school snack, while office workers visit the store for lunch.

Like his parents, Tan sells zi char dishes. However, unlike traditional zi char restaurants, Tan keeps its menu simple, with just six main courses ranging from SG$8.50 to SG$9.50.

She has also modernized her dishes by departing from traditional recipes. The chicken in its signature curry chicken rice, for example, is made with Japanese-style breadcrumbs and the curry has a thicker consistency.

But the most popular dish is the salted chicken and egg rice, also a best-seller at her parents’ restaurant. To do this, she fries small pieces of ground chicken and covers them with a creamy, sweet and savory sauce. It is served with rice and a fried egg.

Tan Jun Hong, a civil servant, discovered the restaurant on Instagram and now visits it regularly.

He said the real appeal was the nostalgia it invoked in him. “I grew up visiting the old-school Zi Char shops that served simple and affordable home-cooked meals that you see here,” he told BI. “It brings together good food and good memories.”

The challenges of being a boss

“Running my own business made me realize that sometimes you need to stop being so obsessed with certain things,” Tan said. She learned to live – not with – but alongside anxiety, she added.

“That’s how business is. Every day you’re putting out different fires,” she says, whether it’s a lack of manpower or a freezer breaking down while on duty.

When BI went to the store on a Friday afternoon, a water pipe had burst. Tan just sighed. That’s what she means, she says.

Being a boss is very different from being an employee, she added. “It’s really about courage and perseverance. Even if I’m sick and I don’t want to wake up and come to work, I still have to come down because I’m representing my team,” said Tan, whose team went from two to five.

Sometimes Tan wonders if his lifestyle is sustainable. She works 12 hours, six days a week, and on her days off, she returns to the kitchen to do prep work.

His struggles are consistent with those of other Singaporeans trying to make it in the tough F&B sector.

Cherry Tan, 29, quit her job as a flight attendant to open a hawker stall with her husband. His parents were uncomfortable with his career change. “Even until today, they asked me why I had to give up a comfortable job,” she told BI.

She estimates she took a 50% pay cut when she stopped working for Singapore Airlines and had to get used to the long hours and difficult working conditions.

Similarly, Iszahar Tambunan, 45, left his job as a ship broker to take over his family business. Like Tan, he experienced the unpredictability of running a business. “Business isn’t always the same every day. It’s a different challenge,” he said.

Despite the unpredictable nature of being a business owner, Tan’s dream of retiring his parents remains his end goal.

Her parents also came to support her.

His mother, Oon Seok Sim, said she was not worried. “At worst, she loses money. At least she tried. If she never tried, she’ll never know,” she said. “And anyway, she’s doing pretty well now.”

Tan, whose business recently became profitable, said her favorite part of running a business is achieving results. “Right now it’s about seeing the business grow. You can see the customers coming back,” she said.

“It makes me want to wake up every day and keep doing it.”

Read the original article on Business Insider