Softball teammates grew you tiao stall into a $2 million chain

Ms Wang Jing Fang and Ms Khor Ning Min are behind the You Tiao Mei chain, which has eight outlets islandwide

- Hedy Khoo

When her best friend asked her to invest in her fledgling you tiao business in 2019, Ms Wang Jing Fang put in $10,000 as a side hustle.

Little did the 34-year-old expect that their you tiao hawker stall would grow into a fried snack chain generating an annual revenue of more than $2 million.

The snack chain branded You Tiao Mei, or "fritter little sisters" in Mandarin, now operates eight outlets and a central kitchen churning out its signature you tiao ($1.20 each) and tau suan ($2.20).

Ms Wang and Ms Khor Ning Min, 31, both single, were teammates on the national softball team from 2009 to 2015. They became best friends after leaving the team and discovering they had a mutual interest in doing business.

Ms Wang, who graduated with a degree in computational biology from the National University of Singapore in 2014, was then working as a microscopy technologist at a research laboratory. But she had set up an e-scooter business called Scooter Hub with a partner in 2015.

Retailing e-scooters and providing workshop services proved an initial success, with Scooter Hub growing to three outlets in Clementi, Woodlands and Kovan, and earning over $1 million in revenue yearly. In 2017, Ms Wang quit her full-time job to focus on the e-scooter business.

Ms Khor, who graduated with a diploma in sports science from Republic Polytechnic in 2014, helped her aunt set up an online store for her clothing business, then worked as a Grab driver at age 21 in 2015. She earned as much as $10,000 a month, driving 16 hours a day and saving up to start her own business.

In 2016, while on the road, she stopped behind a van from a dough fritter company that had a telephone number for inquiries on franchising.

She called the number and was quoted $10,000 to set up a franchise stall, including equipment, food products and training. Finding the cost reasonable, she decided to start her own hawker stall at Ci Yuan Hawker Centre in August 2016.