Your S'pore Story: ‘They may come curious about the president's ex-bodyguard, but I hope they will return for the porridge'
Hawker Lim Hwee Yi serving up porridge at One Punggol Hawker Centre – the first stall she built from the ground up after leaving her job as a personal security officer.
By the age of 27, most people are just getting into the rhythm of their careers. But many Singaporeans would not even think of running a hawker stall with the trade known for its long hours and back-breaking work.
But that is exactly what Ms Lim Hwee Yi has chosen to do – and takes pride in.
Watch her video here.
Just last year, she swapped her earpiece and gun – from her days as a personal security officer – for aprons and bubbling pots of porridge.
Ms Lim had protected former President Halimah Yacob, current President Tharman Shanmugaratnam and their spouses during her stint with the Police Security Command.
Today, the second-generation hawker is not only continuing her parents' legacy with
Botak Cantonese Porridge , but also giving the business a fresh spin: bringing in younger hires through social media, introducing new business ideas and building a workplace culture that feels more like friends working toward a common goal.
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She shares more about her journey as a young hawker and what keeps the fire going.
Ms Lim hopes that her staff will eventually become business partners and open new porridge stalls with her.
PHOTO: SPH MEDIA
'The first reaction customers have when they find out I used to be a bodyguard is always the same: 'Eh, how come you so small-sized?'.
I was a bodyguard for five years protecting two of Singapore's presidents. It can be intimidating, obviously, but they were also very nice to work with.
When I graduated from polytechnic at 21, I wanted to join my parents' business right away. But they wanted me to experience life first, so I signed up with the police force.
Last year, in my first week of taking over my parents' two hawker stalls, I messed up big time. I was complacent and used the wrong proportions of water and rice. The congee was so watery we couldn't even sell it. That was my wake-up call. People think porridge is just rice and water – so easy, right? But actually, it's not. Every single detail is important.
We sell Cantonese-style porridge – the kind which you can't see the rice grains. It is made with three types of rice and everything we use is high quality, from the fish to the sesame oil and even the soy sauce. My dad used to be a chef and he learnt this recipe from a Cantonese chef. We really take pride in what we do.
Right now, I manage our third and newest stall at One Punggol Hawker Centre. It's the first outlet I built up from scratch and I run it with a younger team – most of them are between 22 and 27, around my age. I managed to hire a few of them through a TikTok video I posted. They started as part-timers and later came on board full-time.
We are trying to break away from the traditional way of hiring hawkers. In the past, hawkers usually just received a fixed monthly salary with no career progression. Here, I give them clear milestones. Every time they hit one, they get a salary increment – the long-term goal is for them to become business partners and open new stalls with us.
More on this topic 'Our love story started with bubble tea'
There is also no hierarchy here. We see each other more as colleagues and solve problems together. If something goes wrong, we don't waste time blaming one another – we just focus on finding the solution. This is the culture we want to cultivate. They seem happy coming to work because it is like working with friends!
We currently have about 12 to 15 full-timers across our three stalls. But we believe that a business is only sustainable if your team isn't overworked and you have enough manpower. This is how we attract younger staff.
I am giving myself five years before deciding my future. But I really hope people will give us a chance. They may come curious about the president's ex-bodyguard, but I hope they will return for the porridge.'
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Straits Times
2 hours ago
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Sign up now: Get ST's newsletters delivered to your inbox SINGAPORE – When Mr Raay Lim started selling durians in May 2020 during the Covid-19 circuit breaker, he expected the long hours and physical toil, but not the non-stop yapping that would come to define his job now. Growing up, communication was never his strong suit. He had a habit of stammering and stuttering, so a career as a live streamer was the furthest thing from his mind. He went into the durian business to facilitate conversations, not lead them. 'I started out because my grandma loved durians a lot. Every durian season, we' d lay out the newspaper, sit and eat together. It's something I'll always remember. So, I hope that by starting my business, I'll be able to replicate these family moments for other people,' says the 32-year-old Singaporean owner of Zen Zu Fu Durians, which operates from a kerbside stall in Tiong Bahru. He set up shop firs t i n Queenstown, the n S in Ming and Bedok, and finall y T iong Bahru. 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The harvests in December and March yield more modest returns. Oth er enterprising thorn sellers started to do the same, lured b y t he platform's sprawling reach and quick commerce. Over the last year, the app has yielded a bumper cro p. T he number of durian sellers on TikTok Shop grew by some 40 per cent, while gross merchandise value surged 185 per cent year-on-year, according to the company. Sellers such as Mr Josiah Jeremy Seow of Golden Moments Durian Cafe in Bugis and Mr Tony Seah of Vlack Durian in Bukit Batok also tried to catch the wave over the last couple of year s. 'The era of business has changed, and we have to adapt and enter the streaming arena,' say s M r Seah, a 41-year-old Singaporean . H e launched Vlack in 2020 and started live selling in June 2024. The results were remarkable. By the following year, revenue had risen by 40 to 50 per cent. A 400g to 450g box of mao shan wang sells for around $60 on Vlack's TikTok Shop, 10 per cent more than at the physical store due to c harges such as platform fees. Because his store is in an industrial estate, online outreach is a necessity. 'We can't attract thousands of customers daily with just our physical store, but on TikTok, we can get thousands to learn about our brand.' Mr Tony Seah's shop, Vlack Durian, is located at an industrial space in Bukit Batok. ST PHOTO: DESMOND WEE For seasoned live streamers like Ms Emily Tan, who goes by @EmObsessed online, durians have also proven a risky – as perishable foods tend to be – but lucrative trade. She had heard that durians were one of the easiest things to sell online, with a higher eyeballs-to-sales conversion rate than other fruit. 'At first, I was like, are you serious? Who buys durians on TikTok? I thought you'd want to get a feel or try the durian. 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But multitasking can be exhausting and dangerous, so he takes occasional breaks from physical work to e ngage his viewers. 'I would say it's 20 per cent selling, 80 per cent chatting,' he says, taking care to differentiate himself from sellers who urge customers to just 'buy, buy, buy'. 'To do business, you must first build your community. When people know your sincerity and who you are, they are more likely to buy from you. The way I approach the live streaming is by thinking that maybe we can be friends first.' Mr Lim believes in first building rapport with customers before selling them anything. ST PHOTO: KELVIN CHNG It seems to have worked. Viewers hang around for an average of two hours – for him, not the durians. Singaporean Ng Shu Huai, for example, has been following Zen Zu Fu's TikTok live sales for a year now. The 39-year-old, who works in the supply chain sector, tunes in every day after work and on weekend s . 'Raay's quite funny and the chats are always light-hearted, whic h helps me unwind after a long day,' she says. 'What keeps me coming back is Raay's honesty and sincerity. He never hard sells and remembers viewers' names, preferences and where they live.' On the other hand, she adds, buying in person can be quite intimidating. It is a sentiment Mr Lim says many millennial and Gen Z customers share, which is why he thinks TikTok has helped him reach a new demographic. 'Dur ian sellers can be intimidating in terms of their voices being loud. It's a bit hard to go down to their shop and speak to them because a lot of people can give into this kind of pressure.' On TikTok, however, the customer is king. Order a box if you like what you see. If not, just swipe past. Honesty is the best policy Ms Tan is not one to beg for business. Her style, she maintains, is transparent and honest, not pushy. 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ST PHOTO: BRIAN TEO The live streaming at Golden Moments runs from 1 to 10pm every day, with shifts divided into two- to three-hour long blocks hosted by in-house staff or a roster of about 20 freelancers it cycles through. Mr Seow is conscious of the difference between online consumers and those who patronise his physical store. Shoppers on TikTok are more price-conscious, as the platform allows them to compare the cost across various stores at once. 'They tend to be more critical about the brand and product because they can see how many boxes have been sold and what a store's rating is like before making a decision to buy,' he notes. In response, he has tightened customer service, ensuring tha t ch ats are replied to and deliveries made on time. The durians are usually delivered within 90 minutes, as promised on its TikTok page, affording quick gratification. Vlack's Mr Seah takes a similarly informative approach. 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