Only 27, but this S’porean runs 11 businesses

On the second floor of Block 11A at the top of Mount Sophia in Dhoby Ghaut sits a small, slightly-cramped office with bare white walls, a couple of humble bookshelves along one side, a snaking C-shaped desk almost completely obscured by stacks of paper and other items, and a lone framed caricature of a man waving from a red and off-white car.

One certainly wouldn't expect this to be the nerve centre of the CEO of one of Singapore's fastest-growing and most successful live music-bar businesses, but that was exactly what greeted this reporter upon meeting and receiving a firm handshake from Timbre Group CEO and managing director Edward Chia.

Just 27, he already has significantly more bragging rights than people twice his age — having started Timbre @ the Substation, a live music bar, at age 21. He and his partner Danny Loong, 39, now run 11 different brands of music, food and beverage (F&B) outlets, ranging from cocktail bars to music festivals, delivery and catering services and even a music academy.

At the academy, musicians who play at any of the three existing Timbre outlets (Timbre @ Old School, Timbre @ The Arts House and Timbre @ the Substation) guide budding performers in their craft, and students who are ready to take the stage get the opportunity to do so on a weekly basis. Chia also emphasises that he makes space for local bands to be featured at both Timbre's music festivals — Beerfest Asia and Timbre Rock & Roots.

"It's something that doesn't make us a lot of money, but is yet something I'm pleased to have created — an ecosystem of music culture and musicians within the Timbre group," he told Yahoo! Singapore.

And it isn't just local musicians that Timbre aims to nurture — as part of the group's mission, Chia says they strive to develop Singapore's live music appreciation as well.

Efforts geared towards a social mission

"Everything we do still counts back toward our social mission of supporting Singapore's music scene. In that respect, we also develop our audience and spend a lot of effort to earn our customers' claps," he said, adding that his staff were always trained to applaud bands and to encourage audience members to do the same.

"That's something which drives me — making something which is traditionally hard to make commercially viable into something that is," he added.

His dream since he was in junior college has been to find a sustainable model that can help to promote the arts, in particular local music, among Singaporeans. His first venture, a non-profit organisation called Arts For Us All (AFUA), proved an uphill climb as he found himself constantly seeking sponsorship and grants for AFUA's activities.

"I just felt that at some point there was a limit to what I could do through a non-profit entity," he said. "I felt that starting Timbre and shutting down AFUA would be a good step up, because with a commercial entity we would have more financial power, more business power, so we could do more than what we did with AFUA."

"At a very simple level, I had an idea I wanted to do, that idea was good for society, and I just wanted to get it done," he said.

The challenge of juggling work and school

Having started Timbre even before beginning his first year at university, Chia naturally had a tough time balancing work and studies. He admits he was essentially more of a part-time student than a full-time one, missing lectures and going for only the tutorials that required attendance, most of the time scraping through with — gasp! — a grade point average of lower than 3 out of 5.

He even described his ability to pass all of his subjects and graduate with a basic degree as "miraculous", mentioning however that he had made a promise to his parents to at least complete his degree, since they had, in his words, placed their "blind faith" in his ability to run Timbre from such a young age.

Even though he knew from the outset he wanted to start a business, Chia didn't take a business degree, instead choosing economics and political science, decisions he said he made after careful thought.

"It was a very practical thing, because I've always felt that business is something that is very real — you learn it on the streets and through practical experience," he said.

"What business schools teach are case studies, but these are past examples, and what happens in the business world is things are evolving so fast. Yesterday's business model might not work today, and future business models might not be what you are seeing today," he added.

He explained that he believed more importantly in learning the theories and foundations of businesses and organisations instead, hence opting to study economics and political science, disciplines he says teach the basics of what a good business should be.

"For me, it's just getting the right foundation. A lot of business theories are economic by nature, and for me it's best to just spend my time wisely and learn a bit of the basics," he said.

Standing his ground with parents, employees

Starting a business so early brought more challenges than just juggling school with work. Chia channelled some $80,000, the balance of his educational savings, into Timbre, drawing a $1,000 monthly pay on the agreement with his parents that he would not take allowance from them. As young as he was, Chia also faced the pressure to earn his stripes quickly, leading many of his staff who were older than him.

"The way I dealt with it was just to be very humble," he said. "I got my hands dirty... I did everything from washing the toilets, cleaning the office, running the bar, and sometimes I helped out in the kitchen as well."

"Knowledge is important," he adds, saying that his first few years with Timbre were hardworking ones, which he spent talking to his staff, working and learning from them. "I think if you are sincere about it, it'll just be a matter of time before they come to respect you."

He does not dare to say that all 200 of his employees in the Timbre Group have respect for him, but he is grateful for the people around him who were helpful, understanding and not malicious in spite of his age.

Six years on, he believes that he has attained a certain level of what he calls "performance legitimacy", and was never intimidated by the prospect of leading people much older and more imposing than him.

"Today we have investors and shareholders who are as old as my father, but if I have to stand my ground, I stand my ground," he said.

Chia remains humble in spite of what he has achieved, and says has no regrets in making the choices that he has so far in life. Most of all, he always keeps in mind the social mission he first started out with — to advance the local music scene — and has since set his sights on exporting the Timbre brand around the region, within the next decade.

"I think we are very blessed; it was by no means our own effort," he says. "We had the right timing, and we had a lot of people until today still supporting us. We take that as good encouragement to work hard, do better, and do more for society."

Edward Chia, Adrianna Tan, Olivia Ong, Boo Junfeng and Gerald Giam are the nominees in the youth category in the Singapore 9, a Yahoo! project to recognise nine Singaporeans who have really made a difference in the past year. Make your vote count here; voting ends this Friday, 5 August.