Mentorship for enterprise I
n the early 1990s, when Gabriel Li and Peggy Sin of Potter Industries started up their company, there was no public internet and no Hong Kong startup support organization. When they discovered HKFYG’s YBHK they both opted to become mentors and share their experience. pp Peggy Sin second from left, Gabriel Li far right
Gabriel and Peggy started their household business in 1992 when they had to go to the Trade and Development Council to search clients from paper directories. There was no internet, Gabriel remembers, “We had to cold-call potential clients one by one, working long days to overcame different challenges and difficulties, but we were happy.”
Matching mentor to mentee By 2005, Gabriel was president of JCI Dragon HK. HKFYG launched Youth Business Hong Kong (YBHK) the same year as Hong Kong’s first one-stop youth entrepreneurial programme providing financial, mentorship and other practical support. Mentors were needed and Gabriel successfully linked up JCI Dragon HK with YBHK, making it the programme’s very first partner. “We realized that we needed to share what we had learned so that young startups could save time and effort. Only HKFYG and Shell were offering startup support programmes at that time. A lot has changed since then,” says Gabriel. “Now there are many seed funding organizations but the biggest difference has always been YBHK’s mentorship programme. It has a very good network and mentor pool and is still the best mentorship programme today.”
Benefitting from experience “We tell mentees about finance, operations and business integrity: issues that are usually very important,” says
Gabriel. “We don’t try to teach how to be a boss. By sharing our experience and way of tackling problems, we try to inspire startups to make their own right decisions.” Peggy, remembering that they did business with more than 70 countries, says, “For risk management, I needed to find out about their culture and ways of life. We seldom heard of countries like Venezuela in those days, even in news reports. We learnt about their political issues simply by doing business with them. It was the kind of unique experience that we treasure.”
Be nimble and survive Fast-forwarding to the present day, Peggy is tentative. “I think it is really difficult for many people, but if young people use their creativity, I believe they could survive.” Gabriel is positive despite the difficulties Hong Kong faces. “It’s not like the old days when nobody trusted you if you didn’t have a proper office, fixed telephone & fax line. Nowadays people will trade with you even you only have a Facebook or Instagram page.” Although the current situation is very difficult for big companies, given their huge fixed costs, Gabriel concludes that nimble startups can benefit. “Small businesses can survive through high mobility and flexibility. I think young startups should grab this chance to expand. Big challenges mean big opportunities.”
37
