Ready for the Challenge

By Vivaldi Ho Hou Fai

Have you ever thought of having your own business? Many business persons agree that handling your own business is hard, but running it with profit is even harder. What do you think about inheriting a 30-year-old family business? This would be a formidable challenge, right?

Terry Chao, 30, sales assistant manager of Welfare Printing Ltd., is the son of Chao Siu Seong, who has been the boss of the company for more than 30 years. Terry, after receiving his Bachelor degree in Financing from Australia, and working in other companies for several years, decided to come back to work in his family business.

It seems Terry is destined to connect with the printing industry. He was born in a printer technician family; his father started as a printer technician of Journal Va Kio. Then he decided to run a printing company himself. It started from a tiny one, and even the top floor of his home was needed to be one of the workshops of the company. “I would work in the workshop as a summer job to earn some pocket money,” Terry said. Since he was so close to the workshop, he started to learn what the printing industry was when he was small.

Terry’s career in the family business is not as smooth as what we think; Terry has to make a lot of effort in order to gain trust from the staff. When Terry was trying to bring a new computerized accounting system to the company, he encountered some resistance. “It is not easy to make changes in this company, as most of the staff already worked for many years and got used to the old system,” Terry said. “At first, they do not really listen to and trust me, they would rather choose to use the old system and contact my father directly, but when they realized the new system really helped, I started to gain their trust.”

The Welfare Printing Ltd. is now the largest printing company in Macao, which employs more than 100 workers. However, it would not grow as fast as before. Terry explained that the printing industry needs a lot of investment, but generates relatively low returns when it is compared to other businesses. Based on Terry’s financing knowledge, he is also in charge of the company’s investment. He predicted that as new technologies develop and the publication business gets to be replaced by electronics, the printing market will start to collapse. Therefore, they will make their investment more carefully.

Terry’s dream is to have his own business. He admits that when he has enough money, he will start his own business with his friends, but at this moment, he is just ready to inherit the family business and take this challenge.