NOT WHAT HE HAD EXPECTED
Although he had limited personal savings, Mr Saw was determined to grow the business through the new partnership, even borrowing S$30,000 from his father to get started.
For a while, the gamble seemed to pay off, because within months, Talking Toes socks made their way into major department stores, just as Mr Saw had envisioned.
“I eventually quit my full-time job in 2019, thinking it would all work out.”
The three of them had agreed at first to pool together S$100,000 in capital, but as time went on into 2020, Mr Saw felt like he was shouldering the financial burden of the business alone.
“I had already contributed my share of the capital, but (the others) didn’t follow through. I felt trapped.”
Then, he began to sense something was amiss when his salary was delayed for several months. This led to several intense discussions because he had no oversight over the revenue flow at the time.
The partnership eventually soured and just before it ended, Mr Saw said that he discovered S$30,000 in revenue – about a year’s worth – had been lost.
“I was naive and much younger at the time,” he added. “Looking back, there were red flags but I tried to wave them away with my own justifications, because I wanted to make it work. But in the end, it just didn’t.”
TOO EMBARRASSED TO TELL DAD
Due to the cracks in the partnership, Mr Saw said that most of the department store deals for Talking Toes fell apart just before Christmas in 2020.
His friend-turned-partner had already stepped back from the business sometime in mid-2020 due to difficulties in maintaining the partnership.
“It felt like my world was crumbling. I had borrowed money from my dad, lost it and the business was in debt. I owed suppliers and suddenly found myself alone to shoulder everything,” Mr Saw recounted.
Adding to the weight was the guilt he carried from losing his father’s loan, since the amount he had lost in revenue was nearly the same as the S$30,000 he had borrowed from him.
“I was so embarrassed I couldn’t bring myself to tell him I lost his S$30,000 in less than a year.”
