The SHINE Series features individuals who I meet on my travels or through my network who inspires me through their mindset, actions and/ or heart to flourish. When I first met Ellen, I was intrigued by her story of how she became an entrepreneur. Finally, I have the platform to shine the spotlight on her.
Ellen Chew – Founder of Chew On This Restaurant Group, London
Stay and be jobless or return to Singapore without your other half?
That was the choice that Ellen had to make. She chose the former and that decision for love started her entrepreneur journey.
When asked what is her favorite quote that inspires her to keep going, she shared “It isn’t a quote per-se but more of a Chinese proverb: “Talk does not cook rice”. It inspires me to put boots on the ground and get to work. Talk and ideas are great, but great ideas are often just that and never gets materialised if you don’t take action. This invigorates me to get off my bed and make things happen every single day.”
With a mindset like that, it is not surprising that she has triumphed over initial challenges to build the Chew On This Group which comprises Rasa Sayang, Mrs Chew’s Chinese Kitchen, Shan Shui, Arome Bakery and Lobos.
How did your journey begin? What inspired you to start your journey?
I’ve always been involved in the food industry even from a young age, but the turning point was in 2005 when I came to London with my other half who had a job offer here. Kopitiam, who was then my employer, knew that I was moving to London and paired me up with a UK F&B group who wanted to set up a food court concept in London. But because of certain challenges, they decided not to go ahead with the project.
So here I was, with every intention of paving a new beginning in London but left with the choice of having to be stuck here jobless or to return to Singapore without my other half. So I chose the former. But that also meant that I was stuck in London with only £8,000 in my pocket and that was literally my life savings emptied.
In the beginning, of course, it was extremely exciting to embark on this new journey. My other half and I always had a dream of travelling the world and London seemed like the best location for us to realise this dream. I mean, It’s an English speaking country; it’s so close to all the European destinations; and best of all it’s a cosmopolitan city with an appetite for good food! So with grit and determination we made it work somehow, and here we are 18 years later.
What challenges, if any, did you find at the beginning of your journey and how did you overcome them?
The beginning of my journey was a very tough one. Other than my other half, I didn’t have my family or friends around me; the weather was so cold all the time; and I wasn’t in a good financial state. One of the memories I had of that time was having to renovate our home by ourselves because we didn’t have the money to hire a contractor to change our flooring. While I was on my hands and knees trying to rip out our existing flooring, I just broke down and wept as I thought about what it is that I’m doing here in a foreign country devoid of friends and family. What’s more, I left a comfortable job to come to live in such uncertainty, but eventually, I got over the self-pity and worked towards the goal I’ve set.
I’ve also had to face many challenges starting a business outside of Singapore. The law, red tape, cultural differences, geography and demographics all make for a very daunting task if you don’t have someone to guide you along the way.
I’ve had to learn most of it the hard way but nothing could have prepared me for the time when I had to deal with squatters in London. Thanks to useful advice, I was able to resolve the issue. These are things that wouldn’t even be a passing thought for someone trying to start a business in Singapore but were major concerns for me when I was fresh and green to the landscape here.
How did you get the idea for your business and why did you think it would work?
One of the first restaurants I started was Rasa Sayang, which is a Singaporean/Straits themed restaurant based in London Chinatown. Back then in 2008, Chinatown was filled with your run-of-the-mill restaurants that only served roast duck and dim sum. It was a big step for me to challenge the convention and establish a restaurant whose cuisine is totally different from a HK-style eatery. I had so many questions: would people understand the cuisine? would it be an acceptable concept for the local palate? Thankfully, with good PR and marketing and excellent food, it worked out well for us and we have garnered loyal customers over the years.
What kind of research did you do before you started?
One of my key considerations before opening an F&B establishment is the location. I strongly believe that a good location is one of the most important aspects of running a successful F&B business. My restaurant concepts are tailored to plugging in missing trend gaps in the location that I’m considering. I also believe in working closely with landlords to understand their business ethos and needs for the location that I’m pitching for in order to fill these trend gaps.
What daily habits do you use to help you succeed?
The success of the business is greatly attributed to the dedication of my core team. So, as much as possible, I try and free my time during lunch so my core team and I have lunch together. This is of course optional for anyone who’d prefer not to but most of the team would normally lunch together. I feel this is the time where we’d catch up casually which inevitably bonds the team. Food is always the way to the heart!
Knowing what you know now, is there anything you would have done differently?
Probably not. I think the journey of doing, learning, achieving and failing along the way has shaped me into who I am today. Although being a restauranteur has been tough, I am glad I pursued my dream and stuck to it.
How did you persevere through the tough times?
One of my mantras in life is to be tenacious in everything that I do. Never give up and never take no for an answer – the tougher the journey, the better the reward. This has helped me surpass a lot of difficulties that I’ve faced throughout my career.
What may be one or two memorable experiences you’ve had while running your business?
The squatter case. Also, we had a member of staff in one of our restaurants who was stateless hence not been able to go back to his home country for more than 20 years. We worked hard with human rights and immigration solicitors to fight for his residency status. When he finally received his travel documents to go home to see his parents after more than 20 years, that meant so much to me.
What is a typical workday like for you?
I am fortunate to have a strong and diverse team working with me. So typically, most of my workdays include having brainstorming or problem solving sessions with the various departments of the team – this includes our chefs, our operations people, our finance team, our public relations people. I also carve out quite a bit of time to make sure that I meet up frequently with our various stakeholders like our landlords and bankers to keep them abreast of the progress in our businesses.
I am also frequently in all our F&B outlets not just to make sure that the service level and food quality is up to expectations, but also to get a sense of the level of satisfaction and fulfilment of my team members. We have a very culturally diverse team working in the group so the challenges that people face differ greatly. It is my job to ensure that these challenges are being addressed.
What do you want to achieve next?
I think after dedicating so much of my life to my business, I’d like my next achievement to be a personal one – to work towards optimum health, both physical and mental.