Kenko Holdings Pte Ltd
Address: 8 Raffles Avenue
Esplanade Mall #02-21
Singapore 039802 (Main Office, please click on website below for more available outlets)
Contact: +65 6737 0010
Rising from humble beginnings
Asians have always been known to take a liking to naturopathic treatments and massages. For Mr. Jimi Tan, owner of Kenko Holdings Pte Ltd, building a career in this industry was a natural move. Raised by his grandmother, Mr. Tan observed many friends and neighbours who came to him for massage treatments to ease any muscle pain or ailments they have. Eventually, he started acquiring training himself and pursued studies at a reflexology college in the United States.
Despite being known as premium brand for massage services in Singapore, Kenko Holdings and Mr. Tan’s success came from humble beginnings. The business started when Mr. Tan attended to house calls, and he eventually opened outlets in 1991, when there was enough business to sustain a more lucrative, larger-scale venture.
Kenko Holdings has firmly established itself in the CBD area, where the storefront primarily serves business owners and expatriates working in Singapore. Kenko Holdings ensures that customers can enjoy their service without any disruption, such as phone calls and the din of the crowd, which is a usual feature at many massage shops.
Despite being well-known with a higher income crowd, the biggest challenge for the business came when SARS swept across Asia. It brought their business to a complete halt. With a natural affinity for entrepreneurship, Mr. Tan recalled these challenging days as a learning experience. The business impact gave them more reasons to focus on differentiating their techniques from their competitors, and on improving the overall experience for their customers.
To cope with the challenging times, Mr. Tan encouraged his employees to stay tight-knit as a team. He is a firm believer that “positive energy and persistence” are key to the business maintaining its success, despite all these challenges.
A common fear for owners of a service-based business is that employees might leave upon learning tricks of the trade. Mr. Tan remains confident that branding and employee engagement is the key. In his opinion, employees who leave to run a business on their own could only win over customers with lower pricing, but lowered prices are not encouraging enough for them to continue giving the same level of quality service as before. Mr. Tan ascertains that he has always focused on making his team happy, and attributes Kenko Holdings’s success to his employees.
Other than these work ethics, Mr Tan’s advice to young entrepreneurs is to always look ahead and not focus on instant rewards and gratification. Mr. Tan believes that one needs to give in order to receive and achieve success in one’s line of work. A business owner needs to enjoy what they do, and be able to derive joy from being able to assist others.
For Mr. Tan, the definition of success is therefore finding happiness in what you do. On the same tangent, entrepreneurs need to focus on long term goals and overall quality. In his words, commitment to one’s work and future objectives is the ultimate way to bringing success to any line of business.