First he was sued, then he got cancer...
By LORNATAN

Before striking gold with Success though, he had to overcome a severe setback in his first business venture.

In 1990, Mr Tan started a business selling a non-slip chemical for floor surfaces that he and a friend had sourced from Australia.

The product - SlipGuard - was unable to prevent slipping. Instead, it ruined floor surfaces. The debacle resulted in close to 20 lawsuits and countless angry customers.

"It was the worst nightmare of my life," he recalled.

The pair lost the $600,000 that sales of the product had garnered and the $30,000 they had invested.

He said:" It's not the money. It's the stress of people coming after you... There is no way out but to change their floor tiles."

Soon after, Mr Tan found himself a new business.

While he was settling the compensation claims, he offered to help a friend organise a seminar. It turned out to be a resounding success.

And after a few months of doing this, he decided to start his own business. Success Resources was set up in 1993 with just $1,000 from him and his partner.

Since then the firm has organised seminars in seven countries and attendance averages 16,000 people a year.

Even a life-threatening illness did not stop Mr Tan.

Despite undergoing treatment for colon cancer in 1995, Mr Tan flew to Hongkong where he had committed himself to filling about 4,000 seats for a business seminar. It was six weeks from the event and only 300 people had signed up.

For a month, he worked from 7:30am, attending chemotherapy sessions in the afternoons. Inspired, his sales team of 10 made it the biggest business seminar of the year.

Looking back, Mr Tan said: "I have a high pain threshold and being a simple person, I didn't worry too much. But I would not advise anybody else to do it. Life is more important."

His chemotherapy sessions ended in 1996.

For the year ending October last year, Success Resources made $10.1 million.

HIS DREAM: Mr Tan aims to achieve sales of $50 million in two years through Success resources and his online, realtime, seminar firm SkyQuestcom.com, with the latter accounting for $35 million.

He plans to start 100 franchises in China and to hold seminars in Japan. His company now has offices in Shanghai, Beijing, Malaysia, Taiwan and Indonesia.

He hopes to list the company next year.

The family business is his pet interest

By VLADIMIR GUEVARRA

His father, who founded the family business in the 1970s, wanted his youngest son to take care of the pet business some day.

"My parents somehow knew that my elder brothers would be professionals. I never saw myself wearing a tie to work like them and I wanted to run the business anyway," he said.

Pet Lovers was doing fairly well, growing at a steady pace, until 1988, when Mr Ng's father died after a stroke.

Mr Ng was just 16 years old then, so his uncle took over.

But the problem, he said, was that the business was then "treated more like a hobby or a part-time business".

The company started losing money. By 1994, it was losing more than $100,000 every year. Two of the three outlets had to be closed down.

"At that time, I decided to lead the company," said Mr Ng.

It was a baptism of fire for him, a 23-year-old who had just completed national service.

Mr Ng ran the business like a mission, in honour of his father.

With two other trusted companions, he persevered, stacking sacks of pet food on his back while making deliveries to customers.

His suppliers, on occasion, wavered. "When I took over, they asked,'Why should we lend to you?'.

"I said that we were expanding and we will turn the company around."

Sensing his determination, they continued to provide him with supplies on credit.

His strategy was to open a new outlet in a different mall every six months.

And it worked. With Shaw Centre as his base, he opened a store at Thomson Plaza, then another at Hougang Mall.

Now, there are 10 outlets with 45 staff in Singapore, making Pet Lovers one of the best-known pet specialists on the island, offering pet food, grooming, health and even pet burial services.

Its first outlet abroad - in Hongkong - opened recently.

Proving that its services are fast gaining ground, revenues of $800,000 in 1995 have grown to some $5.5 million last year. It is expected to hit $6 million this year.

HIS DREAM: Pet Lovers will soon open a 3,000-sq-m Pet Safari in Kuala Lumpur, where shops are specially arranged according to types of animals.

There are also plans to venture into China, particularly the burgeoning Shanghai market.

The country's one-child policy and rising affluence among Shanghainese will generate demand for pets.

Mr Ng said humbly: "If I look at where I am now, I don't think I've done much yet. We have a whole lot more to do."