XEntrepreneur+interview

V: I've done up the slides, structure-wise follow the writeup. Sorry for deleting too much of your slides. Liming, Alex and I will present and this is the breakdown: (as at 29 Mar)

Liming: "Who is this burly man" to "Botak Jones is born" (slides 1-7) Verena: "BJ today" to "future of BJ" (slides 8-11) Alex: the rest (it's quite alot but I don't know how to split more fairly)

The latest version of the write up as at 31 Mar

28 March 11 Hi Verena, the write-up is good. Can consider having a exec summary.

Hi Alex Feel free to add and finalised the slides. Thanks. Verena, freel free to adjust the slides to your writeup too.

Verena, 28 March - I've completed the writeup. Please take a look and give me your comments.

Alex 27 March 201

Hi Jami, thanks for preparing the presentation slides. I do some updates based on below (including Lee Wen's input just now)

Presentation files as per 27 March 2011:



I added the following pages:
 * Most Important Culture
 * Advice for Entrepreneur To Be

And do some modification for some of the pages.

Hi All,

Please feel free to give input / modification.

Thanks, Alex

Hi all, amended slightly on Alex's version. Thanks.

Lee Wen: Sorry for the super late input. Mine seems quite duplicate with you all too.

His Beliefs

 * He believes in �Never say no to customer� and also �with the attitude to learn, anything can be taught�
 * He wants to bring good food to everyone with the best service.
 * He believes that everyone should be tried like a human being.

His Views on Entrepreneur

 * He believes that entrepreneur is inborn - no easily to teach someone to feel like an entrepreneur. An entrepreneur does things based on gut feel � when he see something, quite instantaneously he will know the outcome; he probably has already quickly calculated the risk in his mind, whether it is manageable or area that can be minimized
 * He feels that an entrepreneur is someone who likes to do what he/she wants to do. Is hard to being told to do things.

How he started

 * See an opportunity in the TUAS as there is a large crowd and business will be viable
 * Intially, he has given food sample as people usually won�t try things that out of their comfort zone � �Comfort food�
 * So he took the initiative to call newpaper to create awareness
 * Botak Jones was featured in newpaper � 2 papers
 * Subsequently, ST food columnist also wrote about Botak Jones
 * Business became good; people from all over Singapore. For example, customer will drive from bukit timah to TUAS to look for botak jones.
 * Open AMK avenue 5 � 2nd branch

Personality
He is an impatient person. He feels that entrepreneurs are impatient person. They need to get the things done actively. Entrepreneur will bring words to actions. ==Challenges==


 * Staffing - Good service staff is hard especially �People who take pride in whatever they do�. People generally fall into a routine and forget little details.
 * Botak Jones motto � Delivery a higher food quality and service to Singaporean.

Bernie�s Bar � Learning Experience & Failure

 * There is an unspoken rule in businesses. Everyone have different sets of values and principles. Not possible to ask people to follow your set of rules
 * He was too trusting. Resulting in the fall of the Bernie Bar.
 * At that time, this failure was hard to swallow and it took him very long to comeback
 * However, he is thankful that the event happened as it was a good learning experience.

Liming : Hi all, sorry for the late input, i've concluded his answers into 6 strength that he has. i haven't given much details, as it seems that you already gave many. 1. Passion: Successful entrepreneurs are the kind of people who always feel passionate about the things they do, for every business move they take, they put their heart in it, for instance, his insisting towards perfect food quality and taste, the great pleasure he attained from customers� satisfaction, his strict requirements towards his staff to provide better service.

2. Action: Never, never to be a theorist only, and that�s the crucial boundary between ordinary people and an entrepreneur, putting your thoughts into practices is the premise to success.

3. Character: Doing business is not just about making profit, while, doing things transparently is vital. In another word, people�s character is more important, he appreciates honesty and integrity much.

4. Ambition: Although he has already achieved great success, he still embraces the thinking to expand his business venture overseas. Bringing Botak Jones into a higher level and making this brand be recognized by more people still appeals him. He also mentioned that success only comes after doing environment scanning and cooperating with right people.

5. Insight: He thinks entrepreneurs need to have sharp business acumen to envision and foresee something, he thinks he has been endowed this gift.

6. Marriage: He has a wife who always trusts and supports him, and they have been lived together for years, that may be another aspect contributes to his success.

Verena: This is mine. Apologies for not sending this out last night. Son went bonkers last night. By the time he's done, I was kaput.

Writing the last chapter Eg. Caterer screwed up and food poisoning Philosophy in customer service Botak Jones is about treating every customer as a human, giving each person a new and good experience. Seeing things that are not good enough for the customer, things that might seem inconsequential like cold tuna mayo and warm egg mayo.

Bernie�s at East Coast (BFD) was doing exceptionally well � previous business wondered what did they do wrong. Bernie�s at Changi was also doing well. So when Bernie�s at Boat Quay failed, it was a big blow to him. By then, he felt embarrassed that he landed up in such mess.

Losing control Hire people to help you run the business so you got to learn to trust them to do the business. Case in point: Opening Dempsey outlet. He�s not for the idea but every HOD wanted to do it, so he chose to step back and allow HOD to decide. Bernie has got to think twice about visiting an outlet. If he ever does, he�ll be mindful to correct staff through the respective levels of management, and not do it on his own.

Businessman vs entrepreneur He seems restless, like he wants to move on and do something new, be it an extension of Botak Jones, or something totally different. The business aspect of running BJ does not really interest him as much.

Being an entrepreneur is having a sense of SWOT, without whipping out the calculator and calculating profits. Started out with Tuas. Getting feedback from regulars and knowing your food is good makes you want to sit it through, and it did for BJ.

Expanding into Shanghai, Indonesia, Malaysia Starting in China and in other countries. It�s their rules. You have to remember that you have to play by their rules. Not assume that people will abide by your rules. Going overseas � first sell the product you�ve been successful with. Once you�ve sort of infiltrated into the market, then come up with localized products.

Relationship with Zee He knows NLP without going through the course. An ability to sense things are wrong before anyone else is aware. Can also �foretell� chain of events that will happen in the future.

21 Mar 2011 - Alex

Hi All, this is what I get from the interview

He is a creature of Habit. e.g. if he go to Botak Jones, most likely will order fish burger & smoked turkey, because if feel good, so feel proud can produce something like that. Control Freak, tend to micromanage Majoring in business, so learn about thing you need to know to do a business. But leave university early, because very impatient, can get more money with diploma during that time Botak Jones is his biggest satisfaction In Singapore, for some people, looking for "Comfort Food", like rice / noodle After reading an article in New Paper about a new "Sports Bar", he called New Paper to request for interview about Botak Jones in Tuas. New Paper interview him, and the article come in whole 2 pages. The results: the next day the business went crazy Using blog and marketing: have a marketing staff, but sometimes will have personal post (and signed by himself -> so people will know who post what) Most Important: To treat everybody as a human being, until they give a reason not to. Basis: Singapore goverment plan to give a world class service to tourist. Why to we so concern about tourist when we cannot treat each other good service. How do you want to be treated, is what people expect to be treated. Never say no to customer. Always try to work something out It is 100 times harder to find people that passionate about food. People rather working at lower salary in Cjhimes area than for higher salary and better working hour in BJ (because of hawker centre). If breathing and willing to work, already 50% fit to work Service culture can be taught. But personality cannot be taught. Couple working together usually a negative thing, but turn it into something positive. During first year, spend about $100.000 for good service Must realy care about you're doing, more important than getting it done (by rushing). Put a face, put inner pride, it show what you're doing School is a bad place to entrepenuer, becauase it disenchant the heart of student that want to do entrepeneur Entrepenuer cannot be trained, it must be from inside. Entrepenuer take action on idea, most people don't go that far The better you surround yourself with capable person, the better you will be When you're big enough, there are different way to run your company. Trust people, or at least listen. People should be transparent and honest for reason more than making money When running a business, if you run according to your own rules, expect to lose. Have to adjust to the rules of the games, understand the system, and then get the right person. Leart from his CEO: You cannot just have entrepenuer stand on its own, you must have a good business plan If you do something bad, then you do amazing thing to remedy the situation, the remedy will be the one that talked more. Going to expand to Indonesia & Malaysia (and maybe China) Want to start stand alone BJ, so will be attractive to people for franchising As a businessperson, always thinking about risk; As an entrepenuer, it is only as final check. As a businessperson, can run a business; As an entrepenuer, can create business. As a businessperson: "How to Make the product affordable". As an entrepenuer: a product is the most important thing, cannot reduce the quality. Entrepenuer tend to move on and only do what they are interested in.
 * ==Personal==**
 * ==Difficulties==**
 * ==Marketing of Botak Jones==**
 * ==Company Culture==**
 * ==Operating Botak Jones==**
 * ==Views==**
 * ==Future Plan==**
 * ==Businessperson VS Entrepenuer==**

Regards, Alex

21 Mar 11 - Jami Hi All Here's the info I have prepared:

a) About Botak Jones. There were compiled from the news articles from Factiva which Verena supplied earlier. I pulled about his personal info, how he met his wife... etc. useful if we want to include more in slides.

b) Slides Verena and Alex : these are the 1st cut slides (draft stage...), which i just prepared based on this morning's interview... please feel free to amend, take out, change the design.

I hve put in some pixs... do add more.

I will send thank-you email to Bernie and attached the photos we took this morning.

Jami

Notes of the Interview Session on 21 March 2011 - Jami

__ How He Started his Business __ Saw an opportunity in Tuas, no good western food around So based on his gut feel, he started Botak Jones It was not a rosy start but he knew his food was good. It was not easy to change Singaporeans main staple of rice and noodle. He gave free samples for people to try. He called the The New Paper to see his stall (Alvin) A two-page article by The Straits Times had a very good review of this stall. From then his business took off. He remembers fondly a little girl (5 years old) who would only ask for �Botak Jones� Fish N Chips!

__ His Approach to his Business __ You have to be passionate about what you do! You have to transparent, honest. It�s more than just making money, it�s about doing it right. Culture : Treat everyone as a human being until they give you reason not to. Beyond attitude, its understanding and putting others above self.

__ On Running Botak Jones __

In the F&B industry, the turnover for staff is fast. He finds it hard to find good people. When he finds one, he has no qualms to train. He looks for people who care about what they do. He says �you have to put �a face� to everything you do, got to have pride� If you are open to learning, you can learn anything.
 * On finding the right people to run the business�. **

He says he is still passionate about Botak Jones. Always looking for new ideas to expand. They have plans to franchise their business in Malaysia, Indonesia, Korea and China.
 * On the future of Botak Jones��. **

He gives example of a catering that had done wrong. Service Recovery: He refunded the full amount to the disgruntled customer. To turn things around he humbly asked to be given a second chance to do the next catering free of charge! The happy customer wrote about this experience in the forum page. Although it costs him a lot, he felt it was important to do it. �If you mess up, the onus is on you to make up. It is also to punish ourselves to prove that we are sincere�.
 * Case of A Catering Gone Wrong�. **

__ What Bernie Says About Being an Entrepreneur? __ Entrepreneurs are very impatient people. They can�t wait to take action! The difference between Entrepreneurs is that they have an idea, they take action. They are not afraid to take up the challenge. They will not be able to live a full life, unless they try. He claims decisions are based on his gut feel. �You need to have very good intuition� Entrepreneurs might not be able to run a business, but definitely MAKE a business. They are strategists. They create ideas. It is about giving people alternatives. Entrepreneurship cannot be taught, You got to do it, take action Entrepreneurs got to stand on a sound business operation with a bottom line, with mini requirements. Networking� you got to know the right people who will then connect you.

INTERVIEW QUESTIONS 14 March 2011, Verena

1. Did you start the trend to sell higher quality "western food" in coffee shops? Besides Aston's, who else are your competitors? What are your plans to distinguish yourself from them? 2. You have loads of promotions, contests and activities that tie in closely with the culture in Singapore. Have they been effective in increasing your revenue? 3.What made you decide to go into social media, like twitter, fb and a blog? Any impact on your business? (for us to read: [] ) 4. You have a lively blog. Seems to have the same comical tone as your menu. Do you maintain them? 5. Botak's Backyard is located at an "ulu" part of Dempsey. That location has changed hands several times in a span of a few years. What makes you confident that your business can be "last longer" than the others who have come and gone?

Verena - My feedback in bold in Jami's post. Think it's crucial that we read up on his background before asking the questions. THere are also too many questions below. We should prioritise and have at the most 10 questions?

[|Botak Jones_Factiva.pdf]Background info on him. Searched from Factiva ["botak jones" AND singapore]

3 Mar 11 - Jami Thanks Liming. I have categorised your interviews into five segment and added some more. All - Please feel free to add.

__The Motivation Behind Starting Botak Jones__ What ignited the spark in you to start Botak Jones? The catering **(F&B)** business in Singapore was already very competitive then, did you think you will bring a significant change in the existing market then? What was/is your unique selling points?

__Starting Botak Jones__ What were the first step you took to get your business started? (eg manpower, funding...) How did you find the key persons who helped you? How did you bring them in to help you with your ideas? Where did the funding come from or how did you go about getting it? Was if difficult? **10k from him and wife, silent partner contributed 10k** Is there one piece of advice you received early on that positively impacted your business life? If so, what was the advice, the situation, and your relationship with the person providing it?
 * V:[New Paper, May 2009 ] "** **In setting up his own business, Mr Utchenik has had to be an economist, a human resources executive, a sociologist, a**
 * political analyst, and even did a radio voice-over for Botak Jones advertisements." Why did you need to be a sociologist?**

__Attracting your Customers__ How did you decide where to put Botak Jones? What was your location strategy? **V: First place was in Tuas. He wanted to target the industrial area, reminds him of where he's from (Detroit) "people working there need good food too"** Who were your target customers and why? How do you build a successful customer base? How do you go about marketing your business? Do you consider these marketing activities as essential and productive? What do you feel makes Botak Jones extraordinary, or set its part from competition?

__Operating Botak Jones__ What is your typical day like? What kind of culture exists in your organization? How did you establish this tone? **V**:**He's the HR executive - motivates 200 staff** Was there time or periods that Botok Jones had encountered with big challenges? What is your greatest fear, and how do you manage that? Now, do you think your company is profitable? What is the future plans for the company?

__Biggest Challenges in Life__ Was there a time where you were really challenged, lost everything and had to start over or were devasted? **V: Yes, he lost more than $200k (his investment) from Bernie Goes To Town in Boat Quay** What put you back on track? **V:After attending a motivational seminar by Anthony Robbins** What have you learned from that experience? **V: Ma** **in problem with Bernie was pilferage, high overheads and paying acts that didn't bring the crowd were other factors. Now at Botak Jones, there are cameras everywhere, surprise checks and close scrutiny of books**

__On Being an Entrepreneur__ How do you define success? Do you think you are successful/ made it? What is your favourite aspect of being an entrepreneur? Do you think you have sacrificed something for being a successful entrepreneur? Like, maybe you don’t have much leisure and family time in your calendar, or work is so stressful? **V: he doesn't have kids. Just he and his wife, and his wife works with him.** What do you feel you must accomplish before you retire? If you were conducting this interview, what question would you most likely to ask? Lastly, what piece of advice would you give to people who want to become entrepreneurs, especially for their starting point? **[BUsiness Times 2007] "After exiting Bernie Goes To Town, Mr Utchenik - whose fame started with Bernies in Upper Changi Road, followed by**

**Bernies in East Coast and then Bernies BFD in East Coast Parkway - worked for a friend at the Home Beach Bar at**
 * Robertson Quay. He then went into partnership with some friends to set up a pub called Blooie's at Jalan Tua Kong.**
 * 'But these didn't quite work out although I managed to raise revenues by more than 50 per cent at the Home Beach**
 * Bar, and so my wife and I decided no partnerships,' he explains." - What happened to your partnerships? Any advice to those who plan to go into partnerships?**

__

**<span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">Interview Questions – Botak Jones ** <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 19px; margin-bottom: 10pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;">Hi all, here are the 15 interview questions i have thought about Prepared by Liming

<span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 19px; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 0.5in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; text-indent: -0.25in;">1. What ignited the spark in you to start Botak Jones, as then the catering business in Singapore was already very competitive, do you think you will bring a significant change in an existing market? 2. At the starting stage, how did you find the key persons who helped you releasing your business idea and bring them into Botak Jones? 3. Where did Botak Jones’ start-up funding come from and how did you go about getting it? Is it a difficult period for you to get those funds? 4. How did you decide the locations for Botak Jones, from the concern of approachability to people or else? 5. How do you target your customer and build a successful customer base, considering that consumer constitution for catering market has a high flexibility? 6. Would you please describe your typical day? 7. Was there time or periods that Botok Jones had encountered with big challenges? What is your greatest fear, and how do you manage that? 8. Now, do you think your company is profitable? 9. How do you go about marketing your business, we have seen lots of promotions and activities held by Botok Jones, are these very efficient? 10. What kind of culture exists in your organization? How did you establish this tone? <span style="line-height: 19px; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 0.5in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; text-indent: -0.25in;"><span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 19px;">11. Do you think you are successful in your career ？ <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 19px;">How do you define success? <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 19px; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 0.5in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; text-indent: -0.25in;">12. What is your favorite aspect of being an entrepreneur? 13. Do you think you have sacrificed something for being a successful entrepreneur? Like, maybe you don’t have much leisure and family time in your calendar, or work is so stressful? 14. If you were conducting this interview, what question would you most likely to ask? <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 19px; margin-bottom: 10pt; margin-left: 0.5in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; text-indent: -0.25in;">15. Lastly, what pieces of advice would you give to people who want to become entrepreneurs, especially for their starting point?