Introduction to Entrepreneurship 2016

3) Observant

Another characteristic of a successful entrepreneur is observant. The meaning of the observant can be defined as good at watching, listening and good at noticing what is going on around you (Merriam-Webster, 2016). Another meaning that describes by Vocabulary.com (2016) for observant is quick notice, showing quick and keen perception. Many successful entrepreneurs have this characteristic when they’re having their business. But, the best example of an entrepreneur that are having this characteristic is Bryan Loo Woi Lip who is the CEO for the Chatime brand in Malaysia that make waves and doing it very well.

If you’re a bubble tea lover in Malaysia and you’ll know what’s the brands that are running well in Malaysia and the CEO of that brands. The answer will be answered as Chatime by Bryan Loo Woi Lip. He as a managing director in LOOB Holding Sdn. Bhd and now as a master franchisor of Chatime brands in Malaysia. Regards thanks to Bryan Loo who recognised a void of a culture of the brands in Malaysia and make it grow beverage and ring the bell in this country. He also makes this brands have the fastest grow in the ASEAN region in his entrepreneur venture towards the whole world. As his responsibility and the observant towards this brands or business make him become more success in his entrepreneur business (Wikipedia, 2016).

Bryan Loo Woi Lip is one of the young entrepreneurs who successful let the Chatime brand be so popular in Malaysia. He was born in Perlis, Malaysia which is the smallest state in Malaysia and raised up at there. In his childhood, he loves to draw some comics and this started his business venture in his life. After he has done to draw the comics, he sells it to his friends that are willing to pay for it and read it. The payment for the each comic that produced by him is about RM 0.50 to each of his friend that willing to pay to read. This has begun his venture to earn the pocket money until he had enough the pocket money since his comics is selling well among his friends (Timothy Tiah, 2013). From this lifestyle, the observant characteristic has

been showed by Bryan Loo in his childhood life that selling the comics to his friends.

 In his study life, he was a biochemistry student in one of the universities in Australia which called Monash University in Melbourne as a degree holder and successfully graduated in his biochemistry course at there. After he graduated as a biochemistry student, he didn’t come back to Malaysia and started to find his first biotech jobs in Melbourne as a salesman. The product that sold by him at that time is a ladies product which is a pregnant lady water bag. During the period that as a salesman, he met many failures as most of the women didn’t have much knowledge about the product and some women treated him as a conman. This had become a bad and embarrassing experience to him when the time he selling the product to the women in hospitals (Asiapasificbusinesses, 2013).

After 2 years that becoming a salesman, he decided to quit and come back to Malaysia and purpose his dream and interest for starting his business. With his father’s encourages the guidance, he decided to start his business life in F&B industry but he had no idea to start his new business life (Timothy Tiah, 2013). After some consideration, he decided to start his business life in selling the bubble tea as he realised Malaysian nowadays more focus on drinking coffee or milk tea and selling milk tea or bubble tea will be acceptable to the Malaysia customers. So, he had gone to Taiwan along with his father to find the sources for his business life as selling the Taiwanese bubble tea or milk tea in Malaysia (Asiapasificbusinesses, 2013). The observant characteristic has been shown by Bryan Loo is the way he starts his business life in an age of 24.

After he quit his job, he used 3 and a half months to travel around the countries to find out the sources about the bubble tea or milk tea with the supportive from his father in his venture. Finally, when he travelled to Taiwan, he had found the sources about the milk tea with his fathers. He had done the research about the brands that can be brought back to Malaysia to start his business life in Malaysia. After that, he had listed down 160 brands of bubble tea in Taiwan. After he comes back to Malaysia, he filtered out the brands of bubble tea or milk tea in many ways, he had chosen the best 5 brands. After he filtered the top 5 brands, he started to approach to the directors and managers of those 5 brands bubble tea or milk tea in Taiwan and have a discussion with them about the collaboration in Malaysia market (Asiapasificbusinesses, 2013).

    After he tried many times, the proposal about the collaboration might be lacked to attract their interests towards the collaboration and it makes him failed to have the agreement with the directors and managers of the top 5 brands in Taiwan. So, he goes back to Malaysia with the disappointment with his father. They had travelled around 10 times as they want to find the brands of bubble tea that can be brought back to the Malaysia market. But, they still failed to fulfil their wish. After he came back to Malaysia, he meet with his cousin and showed his cousin the pictures that he had captured in Taiwan and the experiences that he had during the days in Taiwan. His cousin saw that Chatime brand in one of the picture and told him that Chatime brand is going to expand their business in others country (Timothy Tiah, 2013)

    Once he has been motivated, he googled the contact number of the Chatime brand     and contact the CEO of Chatime brand, Henry and talk about the business plan to Henry about the collaboration and he successfully obtained the approval from the Henry, CEO of Chatime in Taiwan. The result comes out unexpected and so successful (Asiapasificbusinesses, 2013).The entrepreneurial journey has been started after the approval by Henry. After 2 months of the agreement, Bryan had opened the Chatime outlet in Pavillion, Kuala Lumpur in 10th of August in 2010. After started the journey, he used about 6 months to learn about the business and make it become a big hit in Malaysia. He believed that a franchise to do well and to do the brand justice, it has to be controlled by only one owner (Timothy Tiah, 2013). So that, the observant has been shown by Bryan in his journey of entrepreneur that full of failure and also the success.

In 2011, Bryan Loo had been nominated an award which is organised by Malaysian Retailer-Chains Association (MRCA) and 8 TV. The name for the awards is called MRCA 8TV Entrepreneur Awards. This means that his successful is had been confirmed when receiving the awards. Besides, he was the winner of The Best Master Franchiser awards in 2012. After that, he had beaten the other two finalists and won the Ernst & Young Emerging Entrepreneur of the Year Awards in 2013. He has been featured in many of the magazine and new stories. He was featured as the cover story of the August 2013 edition of Malaysian Tatler (Wikipedia, 2016). With these awards or the prizes can be concluded that the characteristic of observant which is showed by Bryan Loo has made him move towards the successful way in future.

 With the responsibility of being the master franchiser of Chatime Malaysia, Bryan Loo also has given his responsibility towards his family who had become the lucky one in his life. In early of 20, Bryan has given his other half of life to share with his first and only love who is Sally Quah. They got married and together in handling the Chatime brand in Malaysia. His wife is being a Financial Controller for the Chatime brand and he believed that the relationship will make the things become easier and more smoothly. He can go out all the time for the meeting without any worries or get distracted about looking for love (Jean Khoo, 2016). They have two cute and the pretty daughter named Kylie Loo for the first daughter and Hayley Loo for the second daughter (Wikipedia, 2016).

Based on these evidence, we can conclude that Bryan Loo Woi Lip is one of the successful entrepreneurs that is having the observant characteristic in the journey of the entrepreneurial. The reason why he is having this characteristic is the way he faces the problems and able to pay attention to anything that he face.