\n<\/p>\n
Wong spent just over two years in banking before leaving the industry for F&B.<\/p>\n
His parents were worried when he told them about the career switch, largely because of the long hours and physical demands associated with being a hawker, though they were supportive.<\/p>\n
It also came with a \u201cpay cut of about S$2,000\u201d, he told 8days.<\/p>\n
Five years on, his F&B income has yet to surpass what he earned in banking. \u201cAt some point in my business, my salary varied like the stock market,\u201d he quipped. \u201cIt has never been higher than what I got at my [previous] job yet, but I\u2019m working on it.\u201d<\/p>\n
While Wong enjoyed the finance-related aspects of banking, he found navigating the corporate ladder and workplace relationships challenging. He jokes that he misses having annual and medical leave, before adding that what he truly misses is the stability of a fixed monthly salary.<\/p>\n
Even so, he does not regret his career switch.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt has been a great five years, even with the hardship and difficulties,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Those experiences, including the unsuccessful expansion of Wen Li, made him more cautious when starting Ate Cookies. He spent over a year bidding for a stall at a rental rate he was comfortable with before securing his current unit, investing around $40,000 (US$31,450) in the setup.<\/p>\n
Unlike his other venture Wen Li, Ate Cookies is largely a one-man operation. His parents help part-time with some administrative and operational work, but Wong handles most aspects of the business himself.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe hard thing about solo venturing is I\u2019m the brain, body, hands and legs,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
He deliberately chose a concept that could be managed without a large team. \u201cI wanted something that I liked and that I could do alone. I decided it was going to be cookies.\u201d<\/p>\n
Wong, who has a five-year-old son with his wife, an office administrator, is still learning to balance running two businesses with family life.<\/p>\n
Like his parents, Wong’s wife initially questioned why he had chosen the more difficult path of being a hawker compared to a banker, but eventually understood what he hoped to achieve.<\/p>\n
She remains fairly hands-off and rarely asks him questions about either business. Wong believes this is her way of avoiding putting additional pressure on him.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think she just doesn\u2019t want to stress me too much,\u201d he said with a laugh.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
\n
MISSES STABLE SALARY BUT NO REGRETS LEAVING BANKING Wong spent just over two years in banking before leaving the industry for F&B. His parents were…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":77949,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2611],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-77948","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-buzz-headlines","wpcat-2611-id"],"brizy_media":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77948","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=77948"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77948\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/77949"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=77948"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=77948"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=77948"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}