Home-based businesses are not a new phenomenon. However, with a recent spike in their popularity alongside significant closures within the F&B industry, debate has sparked online on whether or not playing fields need to be leveled between them and licensed businesses. We spoke to a home-based business owner, DeLun, as well as an ex-restaurant and bar owner, Ee Chien, to hear their thoughts on the matter.
00:00Home-based businesses, from cosmetic services to specialty coffees and coarsed meals, you
00:06can find a variety of such businesses tucked away in a house near you, be it on private
00:11property or even an HDB flat.
00:15In the 1980s, a scheme overseen by HDB and URA was introduced, allowing small-scale home-based
00:22businesses to operate without prior approvals within certain conditions.
00:27Such businesses also do not need an SFA license, though they must still comply with certain
00:34food safety requirements.
00:37Some home-based business owners see this simply as a first step into the industry, opting to
00:43open an actual store once their business takes off.
00:47But recent debates online argue that on one hand, home-based businesses should be treated
00:52the same as regular food outlets, and on the other hand, that enforcing such regulations
00:59may stifle entrepreneurship.
01:01We wanted to hear from both sides, so first, let's go and speak to someone who's currently
01:06a home-based business owner.
01:07Here's your coffee.
01:08Oh, thank you very much.
01:09Enjoy.
01:10Oh, this looks great.
01:13So Delun, I'm going to ask, how long have you been doing this home-based business?
01:35Close to two years.
01:36Wow.
01:37Yeah.
01:38Before that, I was working as a creative art director in a local animation company.
01:43I like to drink coffee.
01:46And I thought maybe it'd be nice to do it myself and see how hard can it be.
01:53So has it been tough?
01:54Yes.
01:55There's a lot of failure R&D going on between roasting, brewing, and sourcing our beans.
02:01Why did you decide to start with a home-based business instead of going straight to opening
02:08a cafe?
02:09Because I'm already at home.
02:10I just want to try something as an experiment.
02:13If it doesn't work out, at least I have a machine and some drinks that I can drink for
02:19myself.
02:20The thing is foolish to jump straight into F&B without any experience.
02:24How does the marketing work for you?
02:25A lot of the new HDB, they will have a telegram group.
02:29So I just put myself out there and see if anybody wants to risk drinking my coffee.
02:34So your first customers were your neighbours?
02:36Yeah, myself and my neighbours.
02:38There's no food traffic here, right?
02:39No, no food traffic.
02:41It's like nobody even knows your unit number.
02:44Yeah, I only give them my unit number after we confirm the orders because I don't want
02:49crowd at my doorstep and also disturb the neighbours.
02:52Ah, I see.
02:53I did check with them and so far they're also my customers.
02:57Yeah.
02:58That's the best.
02:59But it's always a good practice to like have basic respect to your neighbours.
03:04Even if they say it's okay but just be mindful of what we are doing.
03:08Scale-wise, how do you think you compare with let's say a cafe?
03:12Definitely we cannot be comparable.
03:15In a cafe setting they can have the food traffic, they have the space for dine-in and they can
03:22have all the signboard and stuff.
03:24Within half an hour they can easily do what we will do for one service.
03:299am to let's say 2pm.
03:33So about 5 hours.
03:34Yeah, about that.
03:35Considering that you do so much less volume.
03:38Cost wise.
03:39My mortgage.
03:40That's your home loan.
03:42Utility and I mean equipment and stuff.
03:45Staff cost zero.
03:47I mean I have to sort of pay myself.
03:50I'm the staff because we can't hire anybody.
03:53Right.
03:54One of the big points that people have been quite vocal about is the fact that home-based
04:01business owners are not held to the same regulatory standards.
04:04I feel like yes we do need some regulation but not the same as a cafe because like what
04:11I mentioned, we are very different in terms of skill-wise.
04:16Maybe we could have regulation that is proportional to what we do.
04:21How do you feel when people say that oh you're stealing your business, it's unfair competition?
04:25I wouldn't think it's unfair because they can do the same thing as well.
04:29And like what we mentioned earlier, our skill is totally different.
04:34We have a bigger issue to fight rather than targeting a home base.
04:38Thanks so much Terlun for taking the time to speak with us and this coffee is great guys.
04:43So that was fascinating hearing from Terlun.
04:45But now let's go talk to Yi Qian who used to run a bar and a restaurant.
04:49Hey Qian, thanks so much for taking the time to speak with us.
04:52So could you tell us a bit about your experience in the F&B industry?
04:55I was in the F&B industry for about six years.
04:58I purchased a cocktail bar and restaurant called Jekyll and Hyde and spent six years running that while having a full-time job at the same time.
05:05Wow, what was that experience like? It must have been challenging.
05:09Yeah, so I always naively thought that it would be easy to run a restaurant and naively thought it would be easy to run a bar.
05:15And so I thought I would be able to do something with a full-time job at the same time.
05:18I thought it would just be an easy way to make some side income.
05:21Obviously that took a lot more time and a lot more money than expected.
05:24But I think the whole concept of running an F&B is that you're running an entire business.
05:28Which means you're not just looking at consumers coming in, but you're looking at obviously your rental,
05:33you're looking at all your costs, all these hidden things that people don't really think about when it comes to running a business in general.
05:40These are all things that I think a home-based business wouldn't have to deal with, right?
05:45So what are your thoughts on that?
05:47Yeah, so I mean home-based businesses, a lot of them are actually the prerequisite to a lot of restaurants starting.
05:53I mean, I know friends who have started with home-based businesses, right?
05:56So I think when you look at home-based businesses in general, it's not something bad, right?
06:01It's something that's actually good because it's someone utilising their entrepreneurial spirit to try something new.
06:07I think the key difference really is, as we've mentioned, obviously these costs,
06:10but also what's required to be able to run these businesses, right?
06:13I mean, when I'm talking about what's required, I'm talking more about the licensing regime around that.
06:18That means having a food shop licence, if you're serving alcohol, having an alcohol licence.
06:22In terms of building and fitting out the kitchen and or the bar, you also have to make sure that everything's according to code or according to standard.
06:30Wow, there's so many barriers to entry. Why don't I just do something at home?
06:35And I think a lot of people want to do that. How do you feel about that?
06:39From a licensed owner perspective, home-based businesses again inherently are not a bad thing because a lot of people have come from that.
06:45I think the gripe that most licensed business owners have is just how stringent it is on the licensed side,
06:52and how there is no structure when it comes to the home-based businesses side.
06:56I want to be very clear that we're actually not saying that we want more policies and more stringency around home-based businesses,
07:03but rather maybe a relaxation to a certain extent on licensed businesses.
07:08And relaxation not to the perspective of having something unhygienic or anything like that.
07:13Obviously, you have to have those rules. You're feeding a larger population, right?
07:17If you're running a licensed business, you must have a food safety certificate, you must wear a face mask etc.
07:23But again, for home-based businesses, SFA recommends that you have a food handler's permit, but you are not mandated to have a food handler's permit.
07:32Wait, shouldn't it be mandatory to take the food handling course at least?
07:36I mean, I would assume so, but it's not.
07:39As an eater of food, I would appreciate if the person who made that food I'm about to eat has undergone a course that teaches them about food safety and hygiene.
07:47So I mean, there are people that certainly do that, of course, but there are people who also don't do that because they don't need to do that.
07:52So Yuxian, do you think there's a gap in expectations from consumers with regards to what they demand from a restaurant chain versus a home-based business?
08:02Yeah, I think people would be a bit more forgiving, right?
08:06I mean, if it's anything that you do, if it's a home-based business, whether they do food or whether they make something that's more home-based,
08:11like if you make cookies from home, your colleagues will say, oh, thank you, right?
08:14Not like, well, I'm not very good, right?
08:16As opposed to, I went to a cookie chain and I got you 10 bucks of cookies.
08:19This again goes back to the regulations piece, right?
08:22So think of a friend that has a cafe in the Thompson area, which is also new at home-based business.
08:27And I think one time someone said to her, do you hate dogs? And she doesn't, by the way, she loves dogs.
08:32Okay.
08:33But the reason why they said that is because she can't allow dogs because you can't allow dogs in an enclosed area.
08:37And that's the law.
08:38And that's the law.
08:39But the landed property, which does, you know, matcha and coffee, et cetera, and all that down the street allows dogs because it's a home.
08:46So you can do that.
08:47And so again, I think that's the gap in the regulations that people are more forgiving if they have, I don't know, maybe dog hair in their tea versus another place.
08:54Thanks so much.
08:55I really appreciate you talking through all this with us.
08:58Yeah, you're welcome.
08:59Thank you for having me.
09:00So home-based businesses have actually been around for a really, really long time.
09:06Now you've heard two different perspectives.
09:09So what do you think?
09:10Should home-based businesses be subject to the same regulations as brick and mortar establishments?
09:17Or should they be lightly regulated so they have a chance to thrive and maybe survive in Singapore's ultra-competitive environment?
Be the first to comment