I often meet Jacqualine Chan at media events. She is a hands-on mummy blogger who brings her children everywhere, without any help. She baby-wears her girl, holds her toddler boy’s hand and navigates each event like a pro. Talk about multitasking.
I just found out that she owns a party planning service called Hello Lobang. Here is her story and how she manages 2 kids and a business on her own.
Describe your business in 1 – 3 sentences
We are a one-stop party planning site where parents can get their party necessities such as dessert tables, goodies bags, magicians, balloon artists, photo booths etc without bursting their wallets. We believe that parents need not spend a bomb on a fun and memorable party.
How did you decide on this business idea?
Being a mother of two myself, I realised it is extremely expensive to engage someone to do up a dessert table for me! As such, I started sourcing and looking around for affordable options. Being in the events industry for the past 10 years has also helped me to establish useful contacts to help other mummies and daddies to get a great ‘friendship’ rate.. and so, the business began.
What ideas did you consider but reject? Why?
We did consider going into children’s clothings but because of the lack of contacts and experience, we decided not to venture into uncharted waters. We prefer to do something we are familiar with, so that we don’t give our clients and ourselves heart attack.
What motivates you?
The happy faces of the children when they see a spread of goodies on the dessert table, specially prepared for them. Their “WOW!” and little sneaking of the tidbits while their mommies are not watching made me laugh and that really gives me the joy in what I do.
How long have you been running your business?
We’ve just started 7 months ago in March 2015!
How long did it take you to start becoming profitable and/or successful?
Because of our low rates, we aren’t exactly ‘profitable’. We managed to get fully booked 2 months into the business, which was really good because that meant that we managed to get the word around and we’re competitively priced to help parents with their parties without burning their wallets. Success to us is to see every parents’ approval and satisfaction with every party we plan.
How many children do you have? How old are they?
Two kids – Dylan and Alexis. He is turning three and she is turning one. We are planning for another 2 more. Not kidding when we say we really love kids!
How did your family react to you starting your own business?
My parents were really supportive! Because we don’t have a personal transport, my father would lend me his car whenever we have a party to set-up. Sometimes, when we don’t have anyone to take care of the kids for us while I need to be away, my parents will come in and be our babysitters, even though they have to work themselves.
What do you enjoy most about what you do?
Crafting. Putting the ideas I have in my head into reality and then bring it to live at a client’s party is what I love the most.
What is the easiest part of building your business?
The easiest part was probably building our online presence, such as updating our Facebook page regularly, coming up with an Instagram account etc since I am quite a social media addict.
What is the hardest part of building your business?
The hardest part is to be everywhere at the same time. Because this business is very new, we haven’t got around hiring additional help. I’m the one doing the graphic works, crafting, setting up, tearing down, event conceptualisation, project liaison… so it gets overwhelming after a while.
What were your biggest mistakes, or biggest waste of time/money in your mompreneurship journey?
Because we don’t have a lot of experience, we ended up buying a lot of table displays that are expensive but we cannot put it to use because they are either too huge/too heavy.
What are the biggest pains or frustrations you face on a day to day basis? At business or at home?
Sometimes, the difficult moments are balancing work-work and house-work. When we get big parties coming up, I spend a lot of time planning and crafting and I neglect my household. We would eat out and sometimes I delay on doing the laundry. It makes me upset that I cannot do both efficiently.
If you have a magic wand and do anything to solve the pain/frustration, what would you do?
I will magically split myself into three!
What resources or tools did you find most helpful when you were getting started?
Friends and the Internet. I realised that I have many great friends who are willing to go the distance to help me and share their experiences with me, so that I learn more in a shorter period of time.
Who is your business coach or mentor? Or who do you go for business related advice?
I have a couple of friends who are business owners as well. We get together and talk about business plans and all the adult-talk, but at the end of the day, I will make the final decision with my husband. We work very closely together and take each other’s opinions very seriously.
What is the accomplishment you are most proud of?
Every time I complete a party set-up, I feel so accomplished for the rest of the week! My adrenaline level is kept high every week with every party I complete. Until now, we’ve done over 20 parties in a short span of 4 months. I’m quite proud of this. Before I started, not many people believed that I could pull this business of.
Can you recommend an essential app for moms in, or going into, business?
www.blog.kissmetrics.com
Can you recommend an essential website for moms in, or going into, business?
www.mywifequitherjob.com
If you were to do it all over again, what would you do differently?
No, I am so glad we started this business. Why didn’t we do so earlier?!
What’s next?
We’re hoping to bring the business to the next level – start hiring some quality help so that I can focus on other areas like marketing.
Favorite part of a typical day?
Breakfast with the kids. Without this business, I may probably need to work in a 9 to 6 job. And that would mean I will miss majority of my day with them.
Time of day you get the most work done?
9pm to 12 midnight, where the kids are asleep and everything else is quiet!
How do you make time to work on your business?
I really just spend lesser time on things like online shopping (oops) and random surfing. I also have a to-do list on my work table so with every free moment I get, I can know what I need to do, instead of spending time thinking what I was supposed to do.
What is your advice for a mom wanting to start a business?
Just do it! There are days when you feel like all your energy is snapped outta you, but having a positive mindset will get you to where you don’t think you’d ever be. 🙂
What is your childhood ambition?
I wanted to be a dentist. Haha!
My life….
Is pretty much complete. I’m at peace and I’ve never been happier. 🙂
I’m currently reading….
Mother & Baby magazine. It’s one of my favourite flips on laid back days.
Thanks Jacqualine. All the best to bringing your business to the next level!
PS: If you (and your business) like to be featured in MomBoss in the Spotlight series, drop me an email at mich@thechillmom.com with the subject line “Feature Me in MomBoss Spotlight” and I’ll send the questionnaire for you to fill out. It’s that simple! 🙂
