|
Teacher-turned-ice cream cafe operator David Yim, 39. Co-owner of ice cream joint Udders at Goldhill Centre in Novena.
The father of two set up the cafe with a partner in December 2007 for $150,000.
It can seat up to 66 and employs two full-timers and 10 part-timers. The partners intend to open a branch soon. Their speciality is 'adult-rated' liqueur ice cream, with names such as Cherry Bomb, Lychee Martini and Rum Rum Raisin.
'I was a schoolteacher for six years and my business partner was a general manager in a cafe chain.
Although I loved teaching, I didn't think I would adapt well in the civil service and wanted my own space for creativity. That was why I quit.
Ice cream was an obvious choice because it's a 'happy' food and you're dealing with cheerful people mostly, plus I've always been a foodie. We pooled the money from our savings, and my partner and I experimented with ice cream-making for five months, doing our own intensive R&D.
I am fortunate to have a supportive wife - she's a lawyer - who was the sole breadwinner for our family of four while I worked my butt off to set up the business. I was working late nights every day and tasting ice cream at 3 in the morning. Weight gain was definitely a job hazard.
Our location at Goldhill Centre, next to United Square and just opposite Novena Square, is a prime spot because there are numerous condominiums in the area, so customer traffic is good.
This place allows us to open till midnight and we are near shopping malls, yet do not pay the higher shopping mall rental rates.
We want a casual and funky feel to the shop, so we provide board games and magazines, graffiti walls, cow cartoons and a quirky chalkboard where customers can vote for their favourite flavours.
When we were brainstorming the name, we wanted to call it 'The Big Udder', but male friends rightly pointed out that with such a label, people will come expecting to see waitresses with... you know, big udders.
We were very depressed for the first four months because being new, no one had heard about us and sales were bad. It was tough hanging on, but we got by on the positive feedback from our first few customers.
A man tasted our ice cream on the first day and for the next hour, he was enthusiastically telling everybody who walked in that this was the best ice cream he had ever eaten in his life. That was a nice feeling.
My partner and I did not have a salary for almost a year and even now, we are both getting only a fraction of our former pay. We broke even in the fifth month when word of mouth about our ice cream had spread, and thankfully, we are profitable now.
Surprisingly, we have not been affected by the recession. In fact, sales are on an upward trend, with sales for this month being 50 per cent higher than in October last year. We've even had franchising enquiries from neighbouring countries, which is something we will definitely get into.
Ice cream is an affordable luxury and a celebration over ice cream won't blow a hole in the budget. Even in a recession, people still need little treats, right?
But we're not taking things for granted. We are offering other value-added services such as ice cream making workshops-cum-buffets at $35 per person, to teach customers how to make their own ice cream without special equipment.
My civil service job would have been a smart choice in a recession like now, but I believe in the potential of Udders and I am betting on that.'
Tan Yi Hui
This article was first published in The Straits Times on February 08, 2009.
| 
