Image source: TODAY / Voices / June 12, 2022

EE Music Singapore was established in 2015 as a traditional music education centre in Singapore. They have built a strong reputation within the music industry as a center of excellence that is focused on providing quality and progressive piano education for young learners.

Their business was doing well and managed to expand its outlets in Singapore and also China within 4 years until the Covid-19 pandemic hit. Many foreign teachers in Singapore have returned home. This sudden change can be difficult to adjust to, especially if you’re not sure what the future holds.

To overcome this, EE Music transformed their centre to include edu-tech in their music education, which has helped them emerge stronger when Covid-19 hits us. By harnessing the power of artificial intelligence and algorithms, they can generate teaching content that is tailored to the needs of each student. This content can be used to supplement or replace traditional teaching methods, providing a more personal and effective learning experience for students of all ages.

They had approached the SME Centre@ASME and were assisted by our Business Advisor, Jonathan Choy, who provided them with useful business advisory and recommendations on how to transform into a full-fledged music tech brand. Jonathan also encouraged them to patent their inventions and Intellectual Property with the support of the Market Readiness Assistance (MRA) grant from Enterprise Singapore and also connected them with the Singapore Business Federation (SBF) to support their internationalisation efforts.

This new direction will allow the company to tap into new markets and broaden its reach. With their knowledge and expertise in music education, they will be able to offer a unique and valuable service to students and teachers alike.

Read full article here.

Image source: TODAY / SME Diaries / May 29, 2022

Han Seng Thye Medical Products Trading, a traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) shop in the heartland has been around for decades. Like many other businesses, they were badly hit when the Covid-19 pandemic severely disrupted Singapore’s economic activity, especially during the circuit breaker period and movement restrictions.

Mr Chong Leong Thye, the owner, was having uncertainty over how to sustain his business, retain existing the customers as well as attract new customers.

With the support of our business advisor, Thomas Wang, and the Heartland Go Digital initiative, the traditional TCM business pushed further efforts on going digital and has now adopted cashless payments, their e-commerce store and also became a Shopee seller.

Thomas had also provided insights on Shopee’s monthly discount vouchers which would be helpful to move their piling inventories to counter the perishables’ expiry dates. After onboarding Shopee’s platform, this has helped them to expand their customer base and product range, on top of their TCM products.

As they embark on this journey with the assistance of our Business Advisor, they are discovering that digitalisation can help them strengthen their brand affinity. They also see that e-commerce helps them reach new audiences and new markets.

Read full article here.