DIPLOMA IN ENGINEERING WITH BUSINESS (S42, DEB)

ENGINEERING A MACARON BUSINESS

Graduate Tay Kuan Yu shares how his course gave him the keys to building his very own macaron business, J’adore Macaron.

We hear many stories of bankers and lawyers ditching well-paid jobs to sweat away in the kitchens of their cafes and restaurants. All in the name of passion – for food, to be precise. Over here among the graduating cohort we have Tay Kuan Yu, who also prefers reading baking recipes than engineering or business books. This young aspiring baker has started an online macaron business.

When he got his ‘O’ level results, Tay Kuan Yu realised that his choices of poly diploma courses were limited, as he had scored a D7 in English. His elder brother helped him to narrow down the options available before he nailed down Diploma in Engineering with Business (DEB) in SP as his first choice.

The decision had made an impact for the former North Vista Secondary School student. The course, which has business modules such as Principles of Marketing, Financial Management and New Venture Planning, gave him ideas to start a business of his own. Not only that, he also took a liking for the engineering modules too. This May, he graduates with an impressive GPA of 3.905 out of 4 and has secured places with the local universities.

The decision to start his business came about after his internship where he realised that even if he gets a good job, it’s still just a regular income, just like everyone else in the company. But if he runs his own business, he can at least try to make sure that his business can grow and grow, and so will his income.

With his love for baking since his secondary school days, why not turn it into a business? Moreover, he has a relative who owns a café where he could use the ovens there. Rather than churning out cakes and cupcakes like every other bakery store, Kuan Yu decided to focus on macarons. His reasoning, something he refined from his business modules, was that macaron is the most difficult pastry to make, which in turn meant there would be less competition.

“But to compete with the others, I have to offer the best. That is why I use only expensive ingredients such as almond powder and Hershey’s chocolates,” says Kuan Yu.

J’adore Macaron (meaning “I Love Macaron” in French), an online macaron business, was born in July last year. He took orders on Facebook and Instagram. Today, his business is already turning in nice profits. “I’ve made close to $10K in net profit so far. Most of the orders came from Facebook friends as well as my poly friends. The best sales came from my Valentine’s Day promotion,” he proudly declares. He could sometimes sell 200 macarons in a single day, which would rake in about $240 in revenue.

During SP Open House this year, he took up a store and sold his macarons for $2 a piece. They were all sold out!

National service duties will knock him out of action for a while but he is determined to continue growing this business. “My dad and brother will help me oversee the business while I would work as much as possible on weekends,” he says.

An average student in secondary school and now a successful poly grad going onto university: where did the motivation come from?

“When I joined SP, I told myself that if I’m not going to help myself, no one else will help me. I’ve learnt to be self-reliant. I’ve also made many good friends who helped me in my course. Luckily, I’m strong in maths so the engineering modules were not difficult for me, although I preferred the business ones more,” says Kuan Yu, who has accepted Nanyang Technological University’s offer to study business.

“I think there will be a lot of opportunities to showcase my macarons in university through their events. There are some people who want to fund my business after tasting my macarons but I’ll take it one step at a time,” he adds.

He has already made that one big step while in SP. Thanks Kuan Yu for living up to the statement, “With SP, it’s So Possible!”