When I first started, I often got asked one question, is what do you think you can stand
how do you think you can stand out compared to other people or compared to other companies
around the same industry.
So for us, basically what we do is we talk to parents and it's very, very important
because you really truly need to understand the customer needs.
At the same time, we also need to talk with our kids because our kids is basically the
user.
So we talk to parents because it's parents who pay the money.
So we need to know who's paying the money but at the same time, we talk to our user
because that is them who use it.
We use the SID money, we start our first program with the Backage University and then we manage
to run it for three months I think and then afterwards we try to keep it carry on for
around a year but then we actually find it pretty hard because for parents to, especially
in Hong Kong, to think that sports is the most important thing for them, they think
it's yes, it's very important.
However, it's not the most important.
So some parents actually thought that hey, your idea is actually very good.
My kids actually like benefit a lot.
However, they also see that if we want to carry on and spread our mission where we wanted
to show that each kid also have their own strength and also their talent, then we also
have to have some income.
So parents actually suggest to us that hey, you know what, every single day my kids go
to school, they are struggling.
They don't know how to study.
When they come back home, they've got nowhere to go to do their homework because outside
Tutorial Center doesn't want them as well as just by drilling, it doesn't work for them.
So I started to think back hey, how did I manage to get my two master and how did I
manage to overcome my dyslexia and then I started to build my own curriculum and think
back how different friends and teachers also helped me to learn how to learn.
So then I thought hey, maybe that's what they need.
The gap is if the parents actually realize or find out that their kids have special needs
or have dyslexia, then they will go to Therapeutic Center.
The Therapeutic Center basically they will have service like occupational therapy, speech
therapy and then they're trying to help them with fine motor skills or how to sit properly
in order to hold their pen properly and write properly.
However, it doesn't really fit in the academic side.
So when parents actually face hey, my kids cannot learn, they cannot follow the academic
or curriculum at school, then what do they do?
They take them to traditional Tutorial Center.
But then at the same time, traditional Tutorial Center is mainly drilling, drilling, drilling
all the time and for our kids to learn, basically the more that you drill them, the more they
will refuse.
And actually some of our kids will actually develop a lot of really negative behavior
so or aggressive behavior.
So parents was actually thinking hey, actually is there another way?
And so I thought with what the parents told me before, like how did I, they always asked
me how did I actually learn and overcome my dyslexia?
And then I thought this is really the gap.
And so we really do create a center where we focus on learning strategies.
So learning strategies means tools for them to learn how to learn so that they never need
to rely on other people.
Bowers means strength within yourself.
What our student needs is not a conventional way of learning a word like using phonics
or even using the sound word pairs in order to link the words in how to spell the word.
Also at Bowers we're utilizing their strength in terms of visual, auditory and kinesthetic
approach so these games and curriculums are all built upon their strength in these aspects.
Right now we gain a lot of awards and the reason why we gain a lot of awards is because
not only do we have demand all the time but we also position ourselves very, very unique
so that no other people can really just copy you or duplicate your idea.
So this is I think as a start-up especially, you really, really got to think about what
make you stand out.
I think that is the question that all start-ups have to think through.