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Ethan Yong, founder of UmamiPapi crispy chilli oil, shares his daily routine and best advice for other small business owners looking to make their mark. When Ethan was five, his mum Laura cooked him a spicy noodle dish that was too hot for his taste buds. She warned him that if he didn’t learn to appreciate the heat, he’d miss out on a lot of great flavors. “Somehow my five-year-old brain registered the idea of future FOMO,” says Ethan. He forced himself to keep eating chilli, and soon it became a flavor he craved.
In fact, he became such a fan of spice that during the 2020 lockdowns, he began experimenting with creating his own crispy chilli oil in his kitchen. Soon he started selling samples to friends and family. One day a stranger reached out over Instagram, asking to buy a jar, and before long, Ethan had to move production out of his home and into a commercial kitchen to keep up with demand. “I remember the day my brother turned to me and said, ‘Hey, man. I think you’re onto something that could be really big.’ Somehow getting that belief from someone so close to me made me think, ‘Okay. Yes. This could be cool.’”
Today, UmamiPapi chilli oil ships all over the world and is sold in more than 800 retailers. Ethan heads up a team of eight, plus several contractors. Here’s a peek at his daily routine at work and at home as a successful condiment entrepreneur.
Tips for Small Business Success
Make Mistakes and Keep Learning “If you grow too quickly, you won’t be equipped with the experience or the skill set to help you get to that next level. When I started, I made all sorts of mistakes. When I sold into my first store, I didn’t realize labels needed proper nutritional information. But you can make those mistakes at the beginning. As you get bigger, the mistakes come with more risks. When you’re new to an industry, put in the hard yards of Googling, researching, and speaking to people. You don’t have a boss: you are the boss. So it’s up to you to continue to learn, or you won’t move forward.”
Pay Close Attention to Your Numbers “I look at my [sales] numbers every day and have a meeting every two weeks with my financial consultant, who helps with budgeting, forecasts, financial modeling, and expenses. Because at the end of the day, if you’re not making money or you’re running into financial trouble, then you can’t be successful.”
Treat Your Employees How You Would Want to Be Treated “I only had a year working in finance before I left to run UmamiPapi full-time, and because of the lockdowns, we weren’t even in the office for most of it. Because I had no managerial experience, it was sometimes difficult for me to handle other personalities and my own stress levels. I’ve matured a lot over the past few years. Today, I spend a lot of time reflecting on that, speaking to mentors, and reading books. I try to think about what makes work pleasant and how people want to be treated.”
Celebrate Wins With the Team “As a team, we like to celebrate our wins. Let’s say we land a big deal, like getting the product into more stores. I’ll take the team out for a nice banquet dinner somewhere. There’s a nice Christmas bonus at the end of the year too, based on each member’s performance. I think it’s good for employee retention, and I hope it helps to make UmamiPapi a place where people want to come into work each day.”
Essentials for Running the Office “We use an Epson printer and our Dymo LabelWriter every day to print stickers with people’s addresses. We use clipboards, paper, pens, and Sharpies. We have whiteboards in different spots around the business because we need to write things like ‘X amount of onion,’ ‘X amount of garlic.’ Sometimes it’s actually more convenient to write things down on paper than bring out the laptop in production. We also use a tablet as a point of sale, with Square, when customers walk by the kitchen and want to buy products on site.”
Source: Alexandra Carlton, Investment NSW
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