How a 17-year-old averages S$360,000 in sales selling sports supplements

In one line, what do you do and what is your most significant achievement?

I ran an ecommerce business selling sports supplements and averaged 360k in sales a year.

Who are you and what business did you start?

I am just a simple man who daydreams a lot and am currently in university

I make sports supplements affordable, cheaper than retail for consumers.

What's your backstory?

I founded StrictlyProtein during my retain year in JC after using my free time attending many entrepreneurial events in NUS Block 71 and kind of got inspired to be an entrepreneur myself. Also, StrictlyProtein was born during my time in the gym when I realized my first ever sports supplements were so expensive.

What led you to specialise in your industry?

Technically I just found something that I enjoyed doing everyday. There is purpose, satisfaction and fulfilment everyday when I make a sale or add value to customers. This can't be taught in school whatever you are studying. So, more and more you're just more focused on building up your brandchild, seeing it grow bigger and in turn become more rewarding for yourself.

How did you spend your First 100 Days of launching your business?

I source for the cheapest distributors out there, be it local or overseas (UK and US). I also tried to experiment with the tools on e-commerce websites. This is where a lot of trial and error takes place and also my first time posting up good listings for my products.

Since launch, what has worked to attract and retain partnerships/customers?

Good customer service and support. I was very lucky myself when my customers saw me as this young 17yo guy putting in the hard work to deliver them their products, age did play a factor for me back then. More importantly, it's always customer service, there's so many places that have poor customer service and you can't be one.

What is one underrated thing in your industry that business owners should start doing/using?

Excel, it makes tracking things so much easier.

What were the biggest challenges you faced and how have you overcome them?

Biggest challenge for me would be running a business during my A Level year. Your homework naturally will take a hit and you'll get some stick from your teachers. The worst I got from a teacher was "Oh what good can you get out from selling 'drugs' to people". Ironically that month I did 10k in sales. I think we should learn to follow our purpose in life and not follow other people telling us what to do, so once you learn to live life with purpose, you will eventually not care about naysayers and channel that energy and focus to build whatever things you want. This is especially important for an entrepreneur, as whatever we're doing is not a conventional 'job' that school is moulding us to.

How are you doing today and what does the future look like?

StrictlyProtein has unfortunately hit a plateau in the way I couldn't grow it any bigger and value add or impact more people than I want. Thus I am a person who doesn't like staying stagnant and am currently tinkering on the next problem to solve in our market. Personal goal of mine would be to run a successful big scalable business before I graduate from university.