Jon Lai has been exposed to business since he was young. 1PCT Daily Management Sdn Bhd was not his first baby. In the early days of 2015, he founded Jonlivia – slimming apparel e-commerce.
“I was naive, I was very young – but I was very ambitious. I was running a slimming apparels business for a few years and it was doing good. I managed to grow the team to 27 staff, expanding offices, factory line – I was at my peak,” Jon tells WargaBiz.
When the 31-year-old entrepreneur founded Jonlivia back in 2015, he had grand ambitions – he was determined to shake up, and eventually dominate the e-commerce industry. Unfortunately, it has been much of a challenge to sustain the company for several reasons. There were a lot of struggles and things started to be out of control.
Making bad decisions
He started to lose his staff one by one – and ended up with only two people including him. It all boiled down to mismanagement and his naiveness to get all he wanted even though it was unnecessary for the company’s growth.
He did what most entrepreneurs would do – spending money on opening more shops, splurging on renovating the office and hiring more staff even though he did not need them. Slowly, the employees started to feel a sense of unconnectedness. He was dragged by heavy commitments as rentals, unsold stocks and sales started to decline. His cash flow was shrinking which led him to take financing of RM 1mil.
He was distracted by his ambition. Eventually, he lost direction on how he should lead the company. It took him a solid year and a half to finally come back to his sense and figure out what he wants to do.
A coincidence event for 1PCT Daily Management
“So it happened that I approached the person and told him that I wanted to know more about online marketing. The person turned out to be one of the important business figures in my life today who happened to be my manufacturing partner. I learned a trick or two from him on how to do marketing, entrepreneurship, etc.”
Unfortunately, the business did not last long. From Jonlivia he moved to another brand – Kiper. But, he was carried away and lost his focus. The same things happened as in Jonlivia, he was sorted of suffocating due to inventories, lack of innovation, stocks piled up and sadly, sales started to decline day by day.
“That was the moment I asked myself what I want to do? When COVID hit our country, I realised people started to care more about their health. So I bravely took a plunge and pivoted my business. That’s how 1PCT Daily Management was founded in early 2020,” he explains.
“What I learned from my previous failure is, as an entrepreneur, you do not have to do everything on your own. Know how to leverage on the right resources to run the business.”
The burgeoning interest in health products presented an opportunity for him to introduce The Perfect Derma, Nattome, and eventually The Perfect Heartio.
1PCT Daily Management’s first baby, The Perfect Derma is a product using all-natural Chinese herbs specially created to tackle skin problems such as psoriasis and eczema. The natural ingredients in the product are designed to restrain itching and reduce inflammation and swelling. Besides helping to cure skin problems, The Perfect Derma also helps to repair damaged skin cells and improve cellular immunity under the dermis – all without the usage of steroids.
While for Nattome, it is a stomach health food produced specially to soothe GERD, acid reflux, bloating and heartburn. Nattome is made of fermented bean that has a lot of benefits for the stomach. It helps to optimise gastric pH value, strengthen the gastric repair and immune system and reduce gastric and protease production. The product can soothe acid reflux in just 10 minutes and strengthen the stomach lining in 30 days – which can help to reduce the risk of gastric ulcers and stomach cancer.
Jon tells the latest product under 1PCT Daily Management is The Perfect Heartio – an extract essence combining various Chinese medicine herbs that are dedicated to preventing heart disease, cerebral infarction, stroke and are generally good for the heart. The Perfect Heartio can effectively clear cholesterol build-up in blood vessels. The product can be consumed to remove the coagulated fat in the blood vessels, remove the residues that cause blood vessel blockage and it has been medically proven to neutralise free radicals and prevent heart disease.
Thriving despite failures
While The Perfect Derma was their first baby, it’s the fastest-growing and has strong sales. In 2020, their revenue, combining The Perfect Derma and Nattome was close to RM6.5 million. In 2021, their annual revenue shot at RM19.6 million.
“Last year’s revenue was considered my best achievement. I was very proud of myself and my team. Truthfully speaking, to be able to achieve total revenue of RM19.6 million is truly remarkable. Credits must be given to my talented team.”
Sharing his plan for 1PCT Daily Management, Jon said they are planning to work with people like agents or dropshippers. Most certainly, they will explore offline platforms as in collaborating with certain pharmacies. However, Jon emphasised e-commerce contributes an incredible acceleration to the company and they will definitely focus more on it.
“I always go by 80:20 rule. It is my life principle. I focus 20% of my effort that drive 80% of the result.”
Now, reflecting on 1PCT Daily Management’s inception, Jon said he is proud of all the company has achieved. But, he is never comfortable and hunger for more. The company is moving to a new double store office in Kepong to accommodate all the staff. Besides, he also has a plan to have his own production plant probably by this year.
The most important tip and advice he shared to entrepreneurs who are facing dead end are that there is absolutely nothing wrong with giving up. “People always advise to keep trying and never give up. But what if that thing does not work anymore? In my opinion, sometimes you need to know how to give up when the time is right. There is nothing wrong to give up and starting all over again if you already recognised what the blind spots are,” he ends.
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