Took a 50% pay cut
In order to open Twirl Pasta, James gave up his $10,000 a month salary from his previous job and invested about $30,000 to set up his stall. He currently runs Twirl Pasta with his wife, an ex-accountant who also recently left her job and helps James during her free time.
James clarifies that his wife didn’t leave accountancy to help him in his hawker biz — she just happened to resign around the same time he did. “She wanted a change of environment, so she left. She had nothing to do, so I asked her to come and help me,” he explains.
Though he’s confident that he’ll recoup his investment ”soon”, the newbie hawker says he’s well-aware that he won’t make nearly as much as he did in his previous career. He says: “I will not earn what I used to earn lah, especially when you factor in CPF contributions and medical leave. As a hawker, there’s no medical leave benefit. If you’re sick, that’s one day of earnings gone.”
Based on his current profits (minus the investment costs he has yet to recover), James estimates that he makes around 50 percent less than his previous job a month.
Giving the current high cost of living in Singapore, is the dad-of-two worried about earning enough to support his kids? “I’m not concerned, I have enough savings to last me for at least half a year. Of course, we’ll have to see if this business is viable. But based on the first two months, it has been very promising. There are a lot of return customers, they’re all very happy with the food, and the business is pretty stable and good,” he says.
As he’s part of the hawker development programme, his rent at the hawker centre is subsidised, and James gets a 50 per cent rebate off his monthly rent for the first nine months.