Someone who sees the big picture clearly

THE way Isaac Tan tells it, the story of how he went from a kid who sold insects pinned under scotch tape at 80 cents a piece to being a partner in video production company Big 3 Productions is a story of other people.

Of those he names, many are entrepreneurs themselves. Others helped make doing business possible, or easier.

There is Willie Lee, whom he has known since childhood. Mr Lee worked out of his own bedroom when he first founded Big 3 to shoot small corporate videos. He roped in Mr Tan three years ago when Big 3 moved into its current office along Telok Blangah Road.

But Big 3 wasn't Isaac's first business venture. As a third-year undergraduate, he successfully bid for a two-year lease to operate a student-run bistro, Screme, at the Singapore Management University (SMU) with a few friends.

Among them were Vincent Ha, another childhood friend from church who now runs a social media marketing start-up; and Seth Lui, who runs milkshake start-up MakeShake. A third partner in Screme, Rachel, did not go on to do business after graduation; instead, she became Mr Tan's girlfriend. His parents are among those who made it possible - he took loans from them to keep Big 3 going in its early days but has since repaid them. "We had a lot of problems at the start because of cashflow," Mr Tan explains.

The bulk of expenses then was on pricey video production software, since Big 3 was still a two-man affair with little equipment. "We wanted to be 100 per cent legitimate; we did not want to use pirated software at any point. So we had to cough up money for all these things," he says.

Other times, they had no jobs; and when they did, clients took a long time to pay. "There were times when we were really just waiting for cash to flow in."

The longest wait so far has been six months but, on average, clients pay about a month after each job is completed. As their accounts receivable grew, so did the accounts payable. "We had to take a father-mother loan," says Mr Tan.

Big 3 worked on securing more projects too. Here, his earlier stint as an intern with the People's Association proved useful. Familiar with the government's procurement process, he decided that the system's transparency could work in favour of a start-up like theirs.

"We thought they'd be more willing to give younger clients like us a chance if our proposal and price were right. So we did that - we just kept sending out proposals," he says.

Recalling the 3-4am nights spent writing proposals, Mr Tan says their initial success rate was one in 20 proposals. "But when we finally got one, things started moving."

Today, jobs from government agencies make up 70 per cent of Big 3's revenue. Other corporate jobs include covering the Nike races in Singapore and producing the training video for Singapore Airlines crews.

Such projects were not what they were leaning towards initially. "We wrote long-form drama scripts and sent them to MediaCorp, but we didn't get those. It was a blessing in disguise because that industry is very, very tough and the margins are very, very low," he says.

Today, he handles "The Big Picture" at Big 3, according to his business card. He credits SMU associate professor Adel Dimian with shaping significantly the way he thinks about business strategy. The impact of that class was amplified by its immediate application to Screme, which did not do well in its first year. A full revamp ensued in the second year, yielding better sales.

Big 3 too has seen revenue grow steadily these past three years. After hitting its target in 2010, the firm has doubled revenue each year - "pretty good", Mr Tan says.

The firm also branched out into mobile app development - spearheading this year's National Day Parade app - and the production of 3D stereoscopic content. With the latter, Mr Tan introduces yet another character to the story: a friend of Mr Lee's who first suggested it to them.

"We had no idea about stereoscopic stuff," says Mr Tan. But, interest piqued, he decided to learn stereoscopic production - or filming with two cameras to create a 3D effect. "And then we did the unimaginable: we went to produce our own stereoscopic 3D documentary, using our own money," he laughs.

They shot the three-episode documentary on rare birds in the Jurong Bird Park. "It was quite a challenge and very expensive to produce. Those days we also worked crazy hours," he says. Big 3 has entered into a joint venture with Mr Lee's friend, who is based in the UK and Malaysia and helping to sell the documentary abroad.

Another trend Big 3 is riding on at the moment is the rising demand for small Web videos. "The agencies have begun to come to us with ideas for viral videos and we just produce the videos for them. We happen to be in the right place at the right time," he says.

The business management graduate, who majored in organisational behaviour and human resources, says the best thing about being an entrepreneur are the people at Big 3 - which has grown from a two-man outfit into a production team of 10.

"We're all good friends. The working environment is such that we don't ask people to come in on time or anything. If you want to work, work lah; don't want to work, don't work lah. Just get the work done."

Operating in what he thinks is "one of the most underpaid professional industries in Singapore", Mr Tan says his personal aim is to make sure that if the company is making money, everybody is well provided for, too. "If you make it not about money, if they can come to work not worrying about money - that's where we need to get to."

It is a small reflection of his bigger life goal, which is to do social business. "The reason I do business is that I believe the private sector has to contribute to correcting a lot of these social imbalances. A lot of the time we look to the government to do all these things, but the private sector actually has a big role to play."

How he gets to that goal, however, need not involve being his own boss all the way. "I've never had a job, but I don't mind wherever this road takes me. I'm not a guy who says, 'My future is this.'

It's more: 'Is my next step going to help me in my goal of doing social business?'"

Comparisons with banker peers with high, stable salaries are futile, too. "I think I'm pretty comfortable. The bankers are earning a lot . . . but when I've just finished work, I'm not spent. I was enjoying myself."

Perhaps it is the way the many strands have pulled together so far, but Mr Tan is nonchalant about the risks of entrepreneurship. "For myself, I know I'll be provided for, some way or another. I'm not a guy who needs a lot to run," he says.