Showcase Saturdays: Julian Lee

Julian (in white shirt) posing with his friends and YouTuber Reuben Kang (seated on balloon) during an event at Gold Coast, Sepang.

Name: Julian Lee
Course/University: BSc (Hons) Business Studies, Sunway University
Experience: Student entrepreneur, Bubble Sports MY

It all started when four of us decided to venture out and start a small business to introduce a new recreational activity in Malaysia called Bubble Sports MY.

The goal was simple. We wanted to apply what we’ve learnt in the classroom to real life. Money was secondary.

Hence, with an affordable investment, the four of us started the business and eventually roped in another investor as an additional partner.

Upon starting the journey, we were slapped with a number of challenges as we didn’t know anything about managing a business. The one thing that kept us going was the mindset of wanting to learn.

As a student, it is usually a priority for us to excel in exams. However, when I started the business with my partners, I found it hard executing what I’ve learnt into the business because smaller things came in the way.

For example, when you have an idea for a marketing campaign, executing it with limited resources and through the right channels can be a challenge, especially when you have to handle all the operations by yourself.

Practical skills

In such instances, you start to pick up the importance of negotiation, time management, and discipline. I’ve learnt that coming up with creative ideas is the easy part, but realising these ideas is the true challenge.

Thus, I had to quickly improve in being responsible and proper in communicating with people through phone calls, emails or even Facebook messages, as they were all important platforms in making a good first impression.

Be it customers or suppliers for your business, human relations management is vital in a business or a career. Through Bubble Sports MY, I learnt how to piece ideas together and be aware of the tasks required to bring an idea to life.

Managing time

Time management was also a challenge as I had to juggle between keeping up with my studies and running the business. Having a service as our main product, the company had to always be reachable at all times.

Hence, we took turns to take phone calls from clients or anyone else who contacted us. Within a short amount of time, we all had to learn how to manage our time more efficiently as our attention would constantly be divided between studies and business.

This skill became incredibly useful when we had to go through a busy semester as we learnt how to work under pressure and handle our responsibilities better.

Concluding thoughts

In conclusion, managing a business while still studying is no easy feat. But by running a business, we begin to understand how significant the things we learn in university are in a real world.

It accelerates your learning by a few folds and you begin to see things differently as there are very real implications to everything you do. Thus, you’ll always have to deliver your best and nothing less.