At the age of three, James came to Singapore with his family to start a new life. Growing up in a cramped one-room flat, witnessing how tirelessly his parents worked to survive, he was hungry to succeed.
From dropping out of university, landing in debt, to becoming a top sales performer and successful entrepreneur, James went through a roller coaster ride to get to where he is today – building Singapore’s leading online renovation media portal, Renopedia.
We have had the chance to meet James over Zoom to hear more about the ups and downs he went through throughout his life and building Renopedia.
Choosing Career Over University
“Don’t do your own business, just get a stable job.” James Soh, Founder of Renopedia, Singapore’s leading online renovation media portal, recalled his parents’ advice when he was young. Unlike many entrepreneurs, he was discouraged from carving his own path due to his father’s failed business ventures.
Despite good A-level results that led to offers from both the College of Architecture and Computer Engineering in the National University of Singapore (NUS), he decided to drop out of university and build his budding career in Multi-Level Marketing (MLM).
“That was in 2005. I contemplated whether to study or work? I looked around me and saw that many university graduates were earning a very humble income. Some even had to repay their university student loans. I decided to focus on earning money. I wanted to achieve something that my father couldn’t – financial freedom.”
Rising Up From Debts and Near-Bankruptcy
Unfortunately, this tenacity in him did not serve him well initially. After being exposed to numerous success stories of MLM veterans and entrepreneurs from motivational talks, he wanted to fast track his progress. He took up close to $40k bank loans to stock up on products he wanted to sell, and ventured into another F&B business. Within a short time span, he felt the impact of his impulsive decisions.
Products unsold. Car instalments. Debts amounting to $70k. He was drowning in bills and legal letters everyday – almost to the point of declaring bankruptcy.
“No choice is the best choice.” Desperate to get himself out of debt, he left MLM to look for a full-time job. After a month of countless email applications and over 20 job interviews, he finally landed a sales position in a publishing firm. After a year, he became a top performer in selling advertising space for interior design firms and managed to clear settlements with the banks. And within four years, he had multiple promotions and was earning a handsome commission.
While he started on the wrong foot, his hardships laid the foundation for some of his fundamental skills as an entrepreneur in the later years. “I learnt to think critically and make calculated risks. I need to know my ability to bear consequences. It is also through my experiences in the past that I now see challenges differently. Being an entrepreneur, I see myself not as a problem solver, but a challenge taker.”
Starting All Over Again With Renopedia
While he was enjoying good career progression, he did not settle for comfort. During the period 2011 to 2012, bookstores including Borders, Times and Kinokuniya were closing one by one. Demand for physical magazines was declining. He knew he would soon be stranded in a sunset industry with the incoming wave of digitalisation. As such, he left his job to start a maid agency business with his friends. After the plan flopped, he went ahead to start an online magazine for interior design, which later led to Renopedia.
“I need to start a new business as soon as possible. And since I was selling advertising space for interior design magazines, why not continue with that and do it online?”
Truth to be told, Renopedia was born out of his survival instinct. And James was ready to do his best, except he did not know-how. He was clueless about the digital space, including website hosting and social media marketing. He either called friends for help or googled his way to find answers. But with his knack for sales, he was good at knowing what customers (homeowners in this case) want. Renopedia took off after gaining a lot of engagement for its value-added content and attracted interior design firms to enquire for partnerships.
Started as a free online interior design magazine, Renopedia has now grown into Singapore’s leading online renovation media portal for homeowners to find the best interior design firms. Till date, it has helped over 50,000 homeowners to build their ideal homes.
Learning From His Mistakes Of Building Renopedia
Reflecting on his journey, he admitted to making a fair share of bad decisions.
Like many business owners, he made decisions based on affordability including hiring the cheapest employees and production agencies – which led to many problems.
“As a business owner, we can’t only look at the dollars and cents. We need to see the bigger picture. Likewise, homeowners tend to prefer budget interior designers but ended up having a lot of issues. With Renopedia, we want to educate people to choose based on alignment in preferences and not solely on price.”
Now when it comes to decision-making, James lives by the fish tank analogy that was passed down from a client turned friend. “In life, we need to measure. Do we want a big fish tank, or a big fish first? Apply this to hiring: Do I want to generate more revenue before hiring more staff, or do I hire more staff that can generate more revenue? Apply this to business expansion: Do I want to hit a revenue goal before I expand my business, or do I set aside an amount to expand my business first?”
He believes in building a big fish tank first, but not forgetting to assess his resources and calculate his risks.
Adapting To The Pandemic and Beyond
Despite being in the digital space, his business was inevitably affected by the pandemic during the circuit breaker as business owners were fearful of the unknown and paused all their advertising activities. They struggled to transit sales appointments to zoom meetings, as customers preferred visiting showrooms to decide on the interior design products.
In a move to adapt to the new norm, they signed up for courses to learn how to close sales online. They started holding webinars and virtual events, and partnering with prominent celebrities including Wang Lei, Jasper Lai, Fandi Ahmad, Li Nan Xing to amp up their marketing efforts. They are currently looking at using Tik Tok as a new platform for engagement with the younger audiences.
However, instead of mindlessly chasing after market trends, he believes in Keeping It Simple and Stupid (KISS). “We focus on what matters most – the homeowners. We need to keep in mind who they are, where they are, and what they are looking for. We also talk to them directly to understand their behavior.”
Renopedia On Its Way to Expand Overseas
Renopedia is on track to expanding to overseas markets, starting from Malaysia. Considering how renovation behaviours differ vastly between markets, James and his team will focus on understanding local markets and re-strategising their business model.
Besides working hard to grow Renopedia, James never forgets to strike a work-life balance. He keeps up with his personal hobbies such as Muay Thai and Yoga, and more importantly catching up with friends over drinks and mahjong sessions.
On sharing his advice to aspiring entrepreneurs, he identifies resilience as a key quality. “Success is a journey, not a destination. As entrepreneurs, you are destined to take challenges. What doesn’t kill you make you stronger. So accept that the route to success is never going to be smooth, treat challenges as a part and parcel of your journey.”
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