From
player to entrepreneur
by Jacky Lau
l Building a company is never easy and the sports industry presents many hurdles.
l 運動產業的發展正面對許多障礙，要建立一所公司也 絕非易事。
l This young basketball entrepreneur succeeded because of sound business acumen, useful networking and a timely business model that optimized the use online platforms.
l 年輕籃球企業家劉卓晨成功的原因，在於擁有精明的 商業頭腦、良好的人脈關係，以及採取合時的商業模 式，並能夠善用網上平台進行宣傳。
l He now runs four companies and it all started because he was being badly treated as a referee.
I left school when I was 19. I used to skip classes at school and got bad results, but I knew a lot about sport, especially basketball. That was when I started to think about a career in sport, maybe as a coach or a referee. It was a turning point for me. I had four goals. They involved coaching, refereeing, running my own business and investing the profits in the company. To begin with, I began refereeing for private club matches and interschool competitions, but I was badly paid. I only got about HK$160 to HK$200 and had to work in some rough areas. After one match, I got beaten up, but the club didn’t care, even though they knew all about it. They didn’t help me to call the police or anything. I was really disappointed. That was in 2014 when I got together with a group of other refs who like me were all freelancers or part timers. We decided to form a new basketball league and organize matches where the referees would get protection. That was the start of my company, Palsportshk which was for basketball refereeing and coaching. Building up your own team and getting experience are the priorities in these areas. Qualifications are not
l 以往他擔任比賽裁判時的待遇甚差，讓他決定自發籌 組四間公司。
a must. My first job as a coach was at the YMCA and after that I put a small basketball club together with young players. Facebook was good for promotion and fitted my business model, attracting teenagers who would otherwise have gone to a traditional club. In the first year, I coached seven nights a week and worked on competition management during the day but I also realized that coaches in Hong Kong have too few resources. They have passion but not sponsorship, nor the skills with which to bargain and persuade. So that’s why I decided to start up a second company BALLLIFEHK (“ 籃壇 ”) a PR firm for sport. I was 25 and that’s when I became an entrepreneur. First, I took business management courses in Taiwan and then in Malaysia. I learnt how to write a proposal with sound finance knowledge. I also learnt the importance of forming a good team. My target was to find more resources and sponsors so I went to the chambers of commerce and contacted various brand name manufacturers to make my pitch and ask for sponsorship. I also began doing online promotions for sport teams.
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