Our Year in Review - the Startup, Entrepreneur & Small Business Committee

Chair: Lara Quie // Co-Chair: Kris Sasitharan

The year 2020 will certainly go down in history as a year when certain new words and expressions came into being and others were used more than ever before.
‘COVID-19’, the ‘novel coronavirus’ ‘pandemic’, had us all ‘pivoting’, ‘tracking and tracing’, ‘social distancing’ and avoiding ‘super-spreaders’. We went into ‘lockdown’ and ‘circuit breaker’ whilst ‘WFH’ and ‘distance learning’. We all learnt about Wuhan and its wildlife trade. We also discovered ‘Zoom’, ‘virtual networking’, and how small Singapore actually is when you are not able to travel abroad.

As a Committee consisting entirely of solopreneurs and small businesses, our members adapted swiftly to ensure business continuity during these challenging times. Our Committee’s mission to be a support system to our members really came into its own as we switched to virtual Teams meetings and initiated an extra weekly check-in. These informal Friday lunchtime get-togethers enabled our members to talk openly about their mental and business health. We grew closer as a community and pulled together through adversity cheering each other on.

Despite the pandemic, the SESB put on several excellent events, including webinars, on topics we consider helpful for small businesses. We collaborated with the Marketing and Communications Committee on a webinar on Optimising Social Media Marketing. We also delivered a webinar on Mergers & Acquisitions in an Unpredictable Environment.

2020 saw the launch of the Chamber’s new Podcast channel and the SESB joined in with gusto producing many podcasts, which gave a platform to our members
and others to share their entrepreneurial journey and insights. Our podcasts included our ‘Founders Series’, ‘Meet the SESB Committee’, ‘HR at Times of Crisis’,
‘Cash is King’, ‘Legal 101 – Joint Ventures & Shareholders’, and ‘Adapting to COVID-19’.

Moving into 2021, we have a huge list of exciting events we will be bringing to life. We will continue our successful BritCham Start Up Series covering topics such as
marketing, social media, tax, accounting, HR and recruitment, etc. As we cross our fingers for the global roll out of an effective COVID-19 vaccine, we remain committed to supporting our members and helping them to thrive in 2021.

Find out more at britcham.org.sg/committees/start-entrepreneur-small-business.