POLYTECHNIC graduates Perlyn Per and Tony Lee might be among the 25,000 retrenched people scrambling for a job right now, if they had not set up their own company.

Their own bosses now, Ms Per and Mr Lee's firm provides Net solutions and has managed to increase its takings last year. -- STEPHANIE YEOW
The two struck out on their own in 2000, four years after they left Ngee Ann Polytechnic.

Together with Ms Cher Lee, 28, they set up a technology firm, eTact Solutions, which provides companies with Internet solutions and other services.

Within a year of opening, the firm reported a turnover of $500,000.

Their three-man outfit has since grown to 10, and they count among their clients such names as the Singapore Exchange, the National Arts Council and securities firms DMG & Partners, FraserDirect and UOB Kay Hian.

They are also planning to make inroads into Malaysia and China.

It was Mr Lee, 30, who first thought about leaving the ranks of the salaried.

He said: 'I had a hard time persuading Perlyn and Cher to join me because they had a lucrative and stable income.

'It was the golden period then for IT professionals like us. We were sought after by companies, and to leave all that and set up a new company meant a lot of risk.'

He dangled the carrot of captaining their own company instead of taking orders from someone else.

He also warned them that the demand for IT professionals might not last.

Two weeks later, both women said 'yes'.

Ms Per, 26, who is married, said of going into business: 'There's nothing to lose because we're still young.

'If the worst comes to the worst, we can always go back to working for someone else.

'Besides, we should try now before we have any family commitments.'

She bought a lap-top on an instalment plan and set up shop with her two partners at a 1,200-sq-ft space they rented in Telok Ayer Street.

Looking back, the three see turning entrepreneur as a fortunate decision.

As Mr Lee put it: 'If we were still working for companies, we probably wouldn't have a job now.'

Of the 17,247 workers laid off in the first nine months of last year, about four in 10 were professionals, managers, executives and technicians.

Retrenchment figures for Singapore last year are expected to hit 25,000.

So how did the trio keep their firm afloat, while bubbles burst everywhere else in the dot.com and IT world?

To begin with, theirs was never a dot.com.

They found a niche in providing customised, more flexible and speedier Internet trading and financial solutions for their clients.

They have since diversified into other fields, such as mobile Internet solutions, and even tied up with a Swedish company to provide a full range of corporate SMS services.

They have also come up with a two-way messaging service, allowing customers to check information such as stock prices simply by sending an SMS.

SMS refers to the short message service, where text messages are sent through mobile phones.

Despite the overall economic gloom, the firm managed to increase its takings by about 5 per cent last year, compared with the previous year's figure.

One major reason could be that leaner outfits such as eTact charge lower rates, as they spend less on marketing and promotions, Ms Per suggested.

Customers tightening their belts would certainly turn to such smaller firms, instead of heading for big-name and big-spending companies like they used to.

But far from being satisfied, their firm continues to improve its services, and conduct 'research into more solutions', said Mr Lee.

Ms Per believes that eTact can ride on the wave of Singapore companies that are likely to set up shop in China in the future.

She said: 'When there are so many businesses opening there, so many people needing IT support services, there will be business potential for us.'