I believe Singaporeans are food lovers and are very passionate about their food. Just reading the local food blogs is enough to make  one confused, not to mention, people sharing their food discovery social media platforms like  Facebook and Twitter. I decided to visit Eunice Leow, Co-founder of Strictly Pancakes to understand why she ventured in F&B.

Me: How did the idea of Strictly Pancakes come about?

Eunice: It all started with a pancake pact that we made with each other. I got to know Joanne (Co-founder) at an ice-cream parlor, where we worked part-time while pursing our studies. In the midst of scooping ice cream and serving customers, we both became very good friends and this sort of triggered our entrepreneurial spirit. We made a pact that we would start our very own café serving our favorite dish – Pancakes. From that day onwards, ideas started bouncing and on 19 Sep 2010 – Strictly Pancakes was born.

Me: F&B industry is a highly capital intensive business. How did you raise the capital for it?

Eunice: Well, we couldn’t apply for the SPRING Yes! Startups fund because retail F&B business is not something they are particularly interested in. So the initial capital came from both our savings. Joanne graduated earlier so she had some saving of her own.  On the other hand, I was very fortunate to borrow additional jumpstart funds from my family and ever since then Strictly Pancakes became profitable, I have been paying back my loans.

Me: Staffing is another big challenge for F&B in Singapore. How did you overcome that?

Eunice:  In the beginning, we got some part-timers to help out with the serving while we did most of the kitchen work. As the business grew, we needed to get permanent staff and getting experienced locals to join us was not an easy task. So we came up with an ‘On Job Training’ plan to recruit applicants without F&B experience and this helped to widen our hiring pool. We now have 7 full-time staff with a good mixture of locals and foreigners.

We also try to incorporate work-life balance in our staff by having a pool of regular part-timers to shorten the long working hours. Manpower scheduling is one of the key aspects of managing an F&B outlet and we have learned it through experience.

** If you are not sure of manpower regulations, you can check it out here – Levies & quotas for hiring Foreign Workers

Me: That’s challenging! Do you have a mentor to guide you or did you learn all that through the startup experience? 

Eunice: Yeah. I do have 2 mentors. They are Sergey Brin and Larry Page.  Google became our best friend when we were unsure of how to go about doing certain things.  Having worked at an ice-cream parlor previously did give us the experience we needed, however, it was not enough to set up a business. Google came in handy when we needed to apply for an F&B related license, finding retail space, designing menus and even preparing good quality pancakes.We tested several online pancake recipes before coming out with our very own secret sauce  which  made our pancakes soft and fluffy.

Me: Any words for aspiring entrepreneurs venturing into F&B space?

Eunice: You have to be patient especially when it comes to dealing with your staff. But that’s not all; you also need to be able to manage your stress level during peak periods and be prepared to work long hours, including weekends.

Me: How do you engage with your customers?

Eunice: Besides the use of traditional media, we are also using new media such as Twitter and Facebook to engage customers. For example, on 1^st March 2011 we had our very first International Pancake Day. We posted special offers and promotions on our Facebook page and the response was overwhelming.

Me: How do you handle the bad reviews given to Strictly Pancakes online?

Eunice: We have our very own customer recovery practices. We will first indentify why that particular complaint was made and service recovery  will be done accordingly. Well, there are times when customers just want to be nasty and we do not tolerate that. Everyone in Strictly Pancakes is like a big family.

Me: There are a few local food bloggers who talks about the Garlic Butter Prawns pancake.  Are those the best selling item here?

Eunice: Certainly. We have 2 major categories here. The savoury pancakes and the sweet pancakes. Garlic Butter Prawns pancake tops the chart under the savoury category, while the Strawberries & Co tops the chart for “the sweet category”.

Me: How did the iLead experience help you in this venture?

Eunice:  iLead definitely helped me to define my success. I was from the 3rd batch of iLead program. During my 7^th month on program, I learned much more about myself. Firstly, I began to understand that I do not like working for other people. Secondly, I am not a desk-bound person. With that thought, I decided to pursue my pancake pact after graduation.

Me: Any thoughts on expansion?

Eunice: Sure. Joanne and I are cooking up a storm now in our kitchen but I cannot reveal too much. So follow our Facebook pages to see what’s cooking next.

image credit: http://www.greatnewplaces.com/t-Joanne%20Chuah

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• Scotch pancakes from Mary Berry’s 100 cakes and bakes (kerrycooks.wordpress.com)
• Great New Places (http://www.greatnewplaces.com)
• Pancake pals to partners (herworldplus.com)

Reblogged from WordPress.com News:

As we mentioned last week, you can like and reblog posts directly from your reader, which displays a stream of all the updates published on all the blogs you follow from your WordPress.com account. We’ve also brought the reblog button back to the toolbar that appears at the top of the screen when you’re logged into WordPress.com. Note that you’ll only see the like and reblog options while you’re looking at individual posts. For example, you’ll see this on the left side of your toolbar while viewing …

Reblogging feature is back on wordpress!
Some questions in my mind?
1. Would I be using less of #tumblr now?
2. Would reblogging actually helps me to discover new and interesting on wordpress?
hmmm

Just in case both the #SOPA and #PIPA bills are pass and internet freedom is lost. Here’s another video to explain why it’s a bad idea.

Clay Shirky (via Clay Shirky’s TED Talk on Why SOPA & PIPA Are a Bad Idea)

Getting rejected is just part of the growing process and learning to accept rejection is a tough cookie at the initial stage. The quote below by Mark Suster who is a 2x entrepreneur and has gone to the Dark Side of VC.

Every company is different so it’s hard to listen to advice from the uber-successful fund raisers. Their story will likely be very different from yours. Fund raising is bloody hard. It takes a lot of work. Don’t believe otherwise.

Link to Mark Suster’s article: How to Develop Your Fund Raising Strategy.

And here’s a video that be useful as well

Related articles

• How to Develop Your Fund Raising Strategy (bothsidesofthetable.com)
• Going to Raise VC? Here’s a Primer on Process, People & Powerpoint Deck (bothsidesofthetable.com)

It was 5am when we arrived Suntec and there was already a long queue in front of us. Wondering what am I queuing for? Check out the Sunday times today!

But what happen when you failed a startup? Would you be given a second chance? Well, if I understand correctly the Spring Yes startup fund is only available for first time entrepreneur and below the age of 26. Than I start to wonder if an entrepreneur aged 25 applies for the Yes fund but he started a business at 23 and failed. Will the entrepreneur will qualify for the grant? From my understanding and what is written on the site, my guess is a big “NO”

Spring: Why this fund is only for 1st time entrepreneur?

I maybe thinking a bit too far on this but if Singapore is trying to push for entrepreneurship yet it has a policy that does not encourage failure. Isn’t this contradicting?

What says you? Do you think the entrepreneur should be given another chance to try?

*i failed my IPPT again but my shuttle run has improved. Still I am going again next week.

Reblogged from ♥ Malavika ♥:

I believe in beginnings and endings. Of course I believe in the middle bit too, but I believe the way you begin something and the way you end something can say a lot about what you fill the inside with. One day I will talk to you about endings and the middle parts, but today, I am going to talk about beginnings. I believe the beginning of anything is important. The beginnings always set the tone for what is to follow. I believe in the first day of …

This is the way to go! Am planning to try this out instead of just stumbling out of bed and not knowing what is next. It’s always good to have a direction and this may be the formula for a great day

Board Jump, Chin Up, Shuttle Run > I will beat you! - I failed this test because I score 1pt for my broad jump!

I completed two Ironman Race, So what’s next? Well I think it will be passing my IPPT. I feel so bad about myself,so ashamed. But why am I writing this? Because I am going to make it a point to pass my IPPT with flying colors.

For readers who are overseas, what is IPPT you may wonder? IPPT is Individual Physical Proficiency Test  

All PES A, B and C1 active NSmen below the age of 45 years for Officers and 40 years for Warrant Officers & below are required to take the IPPT annually.All IPPT eligible NSmen must attempt IPPT once within their IPPT year. 

Fyi, I am a PES A NSmen – meaning I am combat fit . So what are test items for IPPT? They consist of Sit Up, Standing Broad Jump, Chin Up, Shuttle Run and 2.4KM Run. And in this case I only score 1pt for my Standing Broad Jump.

And the scoring system is as follow for me in the age group of 25-29

Meaning if I want to get a GOLD for my IPPT, I should be getting at least 4pts for each station and a <10min for a 2.4KM run. I will now start focusing on strength and power training to improve my results.

Do you have any tips on passing IPPT that you would like to share, I would love to hear it in the comments

Useful Links

1. How to improve your SBJ? - http://www.menshealth.com.sg/fitness/improve-your-standing-broad-jump
2. Why you failed SBJ? – http://www.menshealth.com.sg/fitness/5-reasons-you%E2%80%99re-failing-standing-broad-jump
3. IPPT TIps & Tricks – http://www.mindef.gov.sg/life/secrets.htm

However, today I discover that Evernote has a new product offering. It is call Evernote Food. So I decided to give it a try. STOP! “You must be wondering are most of my friends using Evernote Food too?” The answer is no, but because I am a fan of Evernote itself so I gave it a try.

Preserve and relive memorable food experiences. From fine dining to family gatherings to a local food truck, remember every delicious moment.

I am sad to say this but the Evernote food did not meet my expectation. Maybe I was expecting a little bit more from Evernote.

Evernote Food allows me to key in details on Title, Place, Tags and Meal Notes

The dashboard works just like a dairy

Especially love the part where Evernote Food syncs with Evernote, It looks neat and beautiful

I liked

1. The part that Evernote Food works together with Evernote, because the picture of the food is display in a beautiful format like a notebook.

I disliked

1. Evernote Food hang when I tried to share it over facebook
2. Evernote Food was not able to determine my GPS location – (I am guessing maybe Evernote Food cannot work outside US yet or my iphone GPS system is spoilt)

Since I am on the topic of food, I like to share about another rising Singapore startup in this space – Burpple.com. Burpple.com is the brainchild of Elisha and Dixon. It is a Social Mobile Food Diary that allow users to save, share and discover food moments. They are still in the beta stage and I did not manage to get an invite yet (it’s HOT). But Dixon did show me the app interface before. “I not saying this to get an invite but the interface sure look stunningly beautiful” I have no comment of the app experience yet.

Anyhow, I guess for the time begin it’s back to instagram. So what about you? Do you like taking pictures of your food and share it with your friends? if Yes, what app do you use? Instagram? Foodspotting? or Others?

p/s I do know Elisha and Dixon, we sit just opposite each other when we were hot-desking at Blk71.

Related articles

• Evernote Food: Remember what you ate (news.cnet.com)
• Evernote Announces Food & Hello to Remember What You Ate and Who You Ate It With (readwriteweb.com)
• Foodspotting Eat Up: Food Tour (milan, Italy) (littlemisslocal.com)
• 25 Delicious Food and Drink Related Websites (noupe.com)