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How to Adult is a series that explores the realities of finding one's feet as a growing adult in Singapore, sharing people's life experiences and covering topics like relationships, careers and mental health among others.
What might strike someone meeting Chen Min for the first time is her buoyant personality.
During a chat with AsiaOne, the 24-year-old seemed at ease engaging in conversation on virtually any topic that came her way.
Maybe this shouldn't be all that surprising.
This was, after all, an individual who went against the grain by starting her own business right after completing her secondary school education.
Min has been running Pastriets Bakery, a home-based bakery, since 2017 when she was 17.
The business specialises in a variety of desserts—from mini cupcakes to dessert tables.
While many youth her age would likely have been focused on applying for their ideal school or course, this young entrepreneur had other plans.
"We had a long gap before our polytechnic [lessons] started. So I decided to take the opportunity during that period. I was really eager and immediately began baking," Min said.
Starting young
Why start a business in the first place?
"I wanted a lot of flexibility and I love the idea of running your own business," Min replied.
Min has also shared her journey of starting her home-based business on TikTok, in a post last year that has since gone viral, with many admiring her resilience in the face of setbacks and uncertainty.
In the post, Min recalled that her first purchase of baking ingredients rounded up to "about $60" and how "anxious" this made her.
Min noted that her family's "average" financial background was part of the reason behind her uneasiness.
"Whatever I had was just from the savings [from my parents]. Back then, I only received about $2 a day and if I had CCAs then it'd be $4 a day.
"So I had to really squeeze every cent and dollar," she said.
Having limited financial resources also confined Min to the type of business she could start, so a home-based bakery was the "least risky" option.
The cost of baking ingredients is "cheap", and if the business failed, leftover ingredients could still be used for personal consumption, Min said.
Now that she had convinced herself of a clear career path, there was the matter of revealing her plans to her loved ones.
Balancing act
"You're not as responsible as you should be. You're still not mature yet."
These were the words her mum said to her upon knowing of her aspiration to be a home-based baker.
There was no resentment from her though, as she understood that her mum's response came from a place of concern.
However, she admitted: "When I heard [my mum's response], I was like 'you don't understand, I'm going to do it anyways'."
Min noted her parents would always share their honest opinion before providing her with the space to make her own decisions and give their "100 per cent support".
She told AsiaOne about how her mum would be by her side on the odd occasion she burned the midnight oil to complete a customer's order.
Whether it was to check in on her well-being or offering to help with the dishes, Min's mum made an effort to ensure she felt supported.
And there was no denying that this had its intended impact, with Min saying: "It doesn't feel like I'm going through everything alone.
"The burden feels lifted and having that warmth from your family makes it a whole different kind of experience."
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In Min's case, the issue of dealing with loneliness should not be understated either.
The start of her business coincided with the beginning of her journey as a polytechnic student, too.
Running Pastriets Bakery meant that Min had to deal with some uncomfortable situations during her teenage years.
While the business helped her fulfil a life goal, it also kept her very busy, denying her opportunities to build stronger social bonds during her time in polytechnic.
Spending time with friends after class became a decision that had to carefully considered, Min said.
When friends would ask her to hang out, she would come up with excuses to skip them.
This cycle of awkwardly having to reject advances to socialise ultimately led to her friend count dwindling.
Min added: "It was a very lonely process. I had friends but I would say that throughout the period, I did lose a lot of friends as well."
When asked if she ever envied her schoolmates who did not have a business to manage and could simply focus on school, Min replied that envy or resentment "never crossed [her] mind".
She added: "My business back then felt like a hobby instead of a job or hustle.
"I was very happy doing what I did, so I did not feel pressured coping with school."
Dealing with setbacks
Before starting the business, Min said that her bakes tended to be "entire failures"—from burnt cupcakes to watery icing—but this never deterred her from wanting to improve.
"I always turn to baking, even though it all failed [back then]. It was a form of stress relief and escapism for me," she said.
Even after starting the business, Min admitted that baking failures would continue recurring.
The self-taught baker had to deal with mistakes, and this led to her spending even more money on baking ingredients.
A challenge Min found tricky to overcome early on was trying to form a large customer base.
"Back then, most of my customers did not want to order once they heard that I'm home-based," Min shared.
So she decided to bring her sweet treats to the customers instead.
When Min was swamped with schoolwork on weekdays, she hired ad-hoc delivery drivers for assistance.
But on weekends, she'd take it upon herself to deliver her bakes on her own by public transport.
She would even deliver for free to accommodate to customers, even travelling from Punggol to Jurong to fulfil deliveries. The main goal was to get more people to have a taste of her bakes.
This tactic wasn't all "rainbows and sunshine", Min said.
A stinging incident that stood out to her was one particular late-night order when the customer requested for next-day delivery with cash upon delivery.
Min accepted the order and even claimed to have stayed up until four in the morning to complete it.
Unfortunately, the customer did not even show up at the delivery location.
"I was so broken. I threw my box of cupcakes because I felt so stupid, humiliated and defeated," she said.
Thankfully for her, this was a one-off situation and Min took it as a learning lesson on how to better deal with customers.
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Over time, word spread of her quality bakes and Min started to grow confident in her bakes.
Pastriets Bakery is still the same one-woman business today and, logistics-wise, Min runs the business the same way she did when she was studying in polytechnic.
The only difference is that the menu now has a wider selection of bakes, she said.
At the time of writing, Pastriets Bakery has more than 20,000 followers on Instagram and a five-star rating from almost 500 reviews on Carousell.
"Now, I'm the proudest small business owner," Min said.
It hasn't been the smoothest journey for Min and her tip for those looking to start their own business is to stay consistent and disciplined.
She added: "It's normal to feel unsure and demoralised because success doesn't come easy or immediately."
With the success of her home-based business, what are her future plans for Pastriets Bakery?
While a brick-and-mortar stall isn't in the works for now, Min hasn't ruled it out entirely.
"I want to take it one thing at a time but it will have to come eventually," she said.
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