Serial entrepreneur enjoys watching his businesses grow

Sharing a common vision is important when it comes to choosing partners to work with

- Prisca Ang

People are the most important asset when it comes to investing in businesses, as serial entrepreneur Max Lee has learnt.

"I really enjoy watching a business grow," he said.

His ventures have included a photo printing company, a craft beer bar and an interior design company, with a wine and ice cream place in the pipeline.

Mr Lee, 33, said hard work is important when it comes to learning about a new industry quickly. That is just one part of the equation, though, as doing things alone will get one only so far.

"When I run a business, I really trust my shareholders, because you'll never be able to be good at everything. I get the help of others for certain things, like marketing or human resources, if I'm not strong in those areas, and focus on the things that I'm good at," he added.

Half of his personal investment portfolio is in businesses, with the rest going to savings and a small selection of blue-chip stocks.

"I really enjoy watching a business grow, and I have some cash with me as a safeguard in case of economic downturns," said Mr Lee, who studied business at Nanyang Technological University.

He knows the challenges of being an entrepreneur all too well. He started out by selling instant cameras while he was still in school, but market developments soon cut out resellers like him from the industry.

So he pivoted to printing photos for free, with advertisements printed on the back of these images. "But it's a chicken-and-egg problem if you don't have (enough users), you can't get advertisers on board and that's going to be an issue."

Disagreements between him and his business partners also complicated things, so they sold the business, Spark Asia, to two local entrepreneurs in 2017.