“You Need a Stomach of Steel to Run a Business”
Reading time: 2 mins
DecodeHR turns 10 this year! Our Founder Evelyn Chow started the HR consultancy as a one-man-show but it has has now grown to become a close-knit team of 10 staff.
In a 29 May webinar titled “Women in Leadership” to 25 students from Curtin Singapore - which was the 7th installment of the Curtin Singapore Women in Business Speaker’s Forum - Evelyn shared with them the biggest challenges she faced in starting and sustaining DecodeHR and how she overcame them:
“I didn’t have enough business knowledge and skills to do a good job of running a business end-to-end. So, I did an MBA with NTU, went for courses in the US, took on different certifications. Continual learning was the way I equipped myself to run the business.”
“I made mistakes, in hiring, in making business decisions. But what’s important is that I learnt through my mistakes and I had to learn how to eat humble pie!”
“You need to have a stomach of steel to manage the pressure and expectations, especially when you have more people on the team and responsibilities to your clients grow.”
“I left full-time work, in a regional role running 4-5 teams across the region, for better work-life balance. But I realised running your own business is 24/7! To address this, I made sure I was very clear about my priorities. I have two children aged 14 and 16 and it’s important for me to enjoy personal hobbies, like art, baking and rock-climbing.”
“Even though I have years of experience in managing people, it was a challenge. You need to take care of and develop your people, so they can give their best.”
