M'sian sisters came to S'pore with S$500, worked for over 10 years before starting eatery

Picture this: you've moved to a new country and you're hopeful for a fresh start here.

But you're also unsure of what’s to come.

Instead of your father giving you a "small loan of a million dollars" (if you know you know), your parents only have S$500 to give you.

You work hard and survive through your own means in this new place.

You begin to miss your hometown’s comfort foods, wishing there was a place that sells them.

That was how things began for sisters Elaine and Cheryl Tioh, who started Shan Cheng in Singapore.

Hailing from Ipoh, Malaysia, their entrepreneurial journey has led to them opening multiple outlets across Singapore.

The two sisters share about what their journey was like creating Shan Cheng.

View this post on Instagram

 

A post shared by Nova (@mothership.nova)

Coming to Singapore

The sisters came to work in Singapore in the 2000s.

All they had was S$500 from their parents just so they could rent a room.

And so, they had to quickly find a job to continue surviving in Singapore.

Eventually they found jobs — one worked as a bank teller while the other worked at a logistics company.

Working hard, they saved their salary for about 10 years till they decided it was time to start their business.

Missing Ipoh food

We asked the sisters about whether working in the F&B industry was their goal when coming to Singapore.

They replied that it wasn't.

Their interest in starting a Ipoh food restaurant was born out of their longing to eat Ipoh cuisine from home, Cheryl shared.

“When we started to come here, we just worked hard to stabilise our life. We found that we missed our Ipoh food.

So because we know how to cook — since [we were] young we helped our mother, so on and off, [on the] weekends we also tried to cook the food for ourselves and sometimes we want our friends to come to our house [and] we found at that time there’s not many Ipoh food or other Malaysian food in Singapore.”

In fact, it was these friends they invited to their home who nudged them to open up a restaurant.

“My friends said ‘eh not bad’; they liked [our food]. Some of my friends are local so they said 'Why not start [your own company]?'"

Starting their first outlet

The sisters recalled how their mother was worried for them when they had opened their very first outlet.

It was at The Central, Clarke Quay in 2011. Elaine recalled,

“My mother came down and helped us for about one week. She was so worried for us.”

They shared about how the whole experience was different from what they had expected given that their mum's store was a small one.

Whereas their outlet was much larger.

Cheryl shared that the recipes in the restaurant are from their mother.

“Soup, noodles, curries and the char siew, most of these recipes are from my mother.”

Challenges faced

With their first outlet opening, the two had to do most things on their own.

This included purchasing their restaurant's ingredients early in the morning. Elaine recalled the challenges they faced.

“Every morning we have to go to market to buy some raw materials because that time we don’t have any contact of the suppliers.

So every morning, at about six or seven, we had to leave to the market while some went to the store to prepare everything.”

Even when it was handling the store itself, they only had each other, Elaine said.

“Sometimes the lighting had problems, the basin got stuck; we need to do [everything] ourselves, repair by ourselves. We had no idea sometimes."

Cheryl added in,

"A lot of things we have to do by ourselves lah. Everything its not just like work you know?

We have to start we have to think like the whole business, everything from the beginning everything we have to plan, marketing, even the renovation everyday we have to go and see.”

Working together as sisters

The sisters naturally have had their ups and downs while working together to make the business work.

But working together has not been without its challenges.

Cheryl shared that as sisters, they have the freedom to share whatever is on their mind even when they aren't happy.

Elaine added,

“Most of the time we also have different mindsets different ideals of course we can just tell.

The advantage is after we [voice our concerns] out, we known that our ultimate objective is that we want to get something done.”

Shan Cheng

Compass One, 1 Sengkang Square, 02-28/32, S545078

Opening hours: Daily, 10am to 10pm

Top images via Reinald Goh.