Small Business Owner - Dick Chan

Introduce yourself

Hi, I'm Dick. I'm the co-founder of Supway HK.

Describe your work

If my friends come to ask me how’s my work, then I will say “I’m an outdoor instructor” because it is easier for everyone to understand. 

Who are your normal clients?

For the people I normally work with there are two types of people. Actually three types of people. So during the weekday, sometimes we will have some school programs. So, from kindergartens, from primary schools. To secondary schools and sometimes universities. So many students will come to us and do an experiential learning program, or just a fun day. 

Another type is the corporate client. So many companies want to do some staff training or just a retreat.  Like an insurance company they will need to do some retreat, maybe every few months. So for some of them it is just for fun and for some of them it’s for management training. So, just depends on what they want. 

And then the last type will be during the holidays or during the weekend. These are some families or just public clients who come to us as they want to have a guide to lead them to view Hong Kong. Or maybe to know more about the mangroves. They want to get more fun from kayaking or from SUP, or they just want to learn some skills from the activities. So there are a few types of people that we normally work for. 

How do you promote your work?

So to promote my work, very basic. In this year, normally we will use Instagram or Facebook and then sometimes through agent platforms like KK Day, or like Klook.  They are very good platforms and then we do some advertisements to the public. So to make many people know about your company and what you are doing.  Something like that.  

And another type is for school programs. It’s very hard actually. So you have to be in this industry a long time, so you have more connections to some teachers or some ex-colleagues. Now we have some connections with the schools. So more is about connections for the school program work.

What do you love about your work?

I love my work so much. First of all I can always try different new things. It’s not only about watersports. Sometimes we have to think about some new activities or how to run the same activity in a different way. So we keep thinking of something new. Some new ideas. Some new concepts. So for us it’s like to keep learning and then keep doing.  So for me it’s very fun and secondly it’s about sports, because I love to move around, instead of sitting in the office in front of the computer. That’s not my lifestyle, so here I think is perfect for me. I can try so many new things and also paddle with different people. This is a very fun thing for me. 

What is a normal working week like?

So a busy week can be like this -  from Monday to Friday I wake every day at 8am. And then me and my team have to come back to base to then start to prepare a school program and then after a busy day, the group will leave at 4pm, and then we will tidy up and leave here at 5pm and then back home. [At home] me and my partner will do the backend things - adjust the plan for tomorrow, planning for the next week and also some social media stuff, until we are tired. That’s the day for Monday to Friday.

Saturday and Sunday if the weather is good then many public clients will come to us to do some water trips with us. So also the same practice. We’ll come back at 8am and then leave here around 5pm or 6pm.  And back home to social media, then sometimes you’re back to a meeting with the staff because it’s Sunday and then another week is coming, So that’s a week for the peak season. 

For the low season there’s another lifestyle. So normally we just do some planning. Maybe have some meetings but just a few times per week.  And then actually that’s a break-time.

Tell us more about setting up your own company

For setting up my own company, actually me and my partner called Keefe, and then we are just quite random to do that, but before that we do lots of research. We have to see how the industry is going, because before that we are just instructors and then now we are in different position. Because we are the guys who plan the course and also who do the promotion as well. So we have to do some research about what the environment need and what the clients need. 

So yeah, there’s something we have to do before [starting] the business and so sometimes we have to get some experience from our friends.  Because some of our friends are quite experienced - I can say a senior staff in the outdoors. So they will have more experience to share. So this is quite challenging for us.  So we hope that every time we can do better.

So about other things such as accounting, human resources, training - actually it’s just by us as well. Just two people to finish it and then we often have to Google how to do it. So now it’s our fourth year, I’m pretty sure we do a lot better than the first year.

Do you have any advice for people thinking of starting a business?

So I think I can have some advice to some instructors that want to set up their own company. I will there are three points I can share. 

So first of all is about the place. If you want to run the business make sure you have a good place that you can use for the activities. You don’t have to own the place and you don’t have to rent the place. But at least you need to do lots of research to find different kinds of places to run different kinds of activities. This is very important, because Hong Kong is very small. So actually most of the places already have someone using it.  So sometimes you have to think of something new.  Then you have to do lots of site visits.

 The second point is money, of course. As a freelancer, you think everyone is worried about money, right? Because you have a peak season and low-season. So if you run a company that is just the same. You have to calculate is it worth enough, because you have to put lots of money in to start a business. And then you use lots of your time, so you have to calculate is it worth it?

The last point is about people. So for example, I have shared that this company is run by me and Keefe, but actually we have a very big group of instructors. So those are very…those are our lovely friends. Mainly from Outward Bound, because we have those connections over there. 

So we can make sure every course has good quality and high-standard instructors to help us. So I would say people are very important to running this kind of business. Because one or two of you is not enough to run a good program.  Then they are the people who can make your clients feel happy and have a good experience and then they will stick to you and come to you again next month.

Thank you very much