By JOY FANG MY PAPER spoke to two youths who took the path less travelled by giving the job hunt a miss and choosing instead to start their own companies.

Both got into businesses which revolve around their interests in environmental issues.

CINDY CHNG, 19

Miss Cindy Chng is all of 19 years old and is the boss of her own travel company, ECO Travel.

The first-year undergraduate at Nanyang Technological University Business School got her start after she met Mr Wilson Ang, the president of Environmental Challenge Organisation (Singapore), in 2007.

She pitched her idea of a travel agency focused on educating travellers on the environmental aspects of the places they visit, and her company became a subsidiary of ECO Singapore, a non-profit social enterprise which promotes environmental preservation among youths.

She gains the trust of her clients by constantly talking to them. She said: 'I reassure them and try to reduce their worries.'

'I am also very open to feedback from people.'

THIAN ZHIWEN, 27

MR THIAN Zhiwen was thrown out of the laundromat when he asked the owner if he would distribute his environmentally friendly hangers.

'He gave me all the possible reasons why it would never work in Singapore, crushed the hanger and threw me out,' the 27-year-old said.

He and his former classmate, Mr Wong Joon Ian, came up with the idea of the BloomerHang - cardboard hangers which can be recycled. Companies can also pay for ad space on the hangers.

'We wanted a business that would benefit everyone, like a boomerang that hits all on its trajectory,' said Mr Thian, who added that his hangers are 50 per cent cheaper than plastic ones.

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