Zachary Young has used his skills to help small businesses increase their profits, even in the midst of a global pandemic.
What’s your story?
My entrepreneurship journey was 8 years in the making. After I graduated from a renowned business school, I realized nothing truly prepares you for the realities of business. So, I picked up a sales job and worked for a marketing start-up before striking out on my own.
Thankfully, all those years paid off as I used my experiences to scale a million-dollar company into a 7- million-dollar company (and counting) within 9 months.
Today, I help SMEs to rapidly scale via time-tested growth systems so that they can take on larger competitors in their industry… and win!
What excites you most about your industry?
Strategic consulting for small companies can be such a life changing experience and I managed to experience this first-hand during the Covid season.
The companies that I’ve had the privilege to help consult and scale during this tricky period not only manage to increase their profits, but more importantly, they managed to keep the jobs of their employees and even hire some others who have been let go by their companies!
I am excited for the impact we can make globally as our industry starts to go online and become more and more digitized.
What is your connection to Asia?
I was born and brought up in Singapore, however my business runs across the region. I’m thankful to have partners throughout different parts of Asia.
Favourite city in Asia for business and why?
This has got to be Singapore without a shadow of doubt. I never knew how supportive of local businesses the government was until I started my own company!
Plus, our language advantage and strategic location makes it so easy for us to travel around and serve people from all over the world.
What’s the best piece of advice you ever received?
“If you want to enjoy greater success, you have to be comfortable with experiencing bigger failures.”
Who inspires you?
Barack Obama. I’m always amazed at how he became the first African-American president to be elected even when there were so many odds stacked against him.
Every time I’m running short on motivation, I’d think to myself… Obama had 24 hours and he ran one of the world’s most powerful countries with it. What am I doing with my 24 hours?
What have you learnt recently that blew you away?
Complexity and longevity seldom go hand in hand – If you want something to last as long as possible, make every effort to keep it as simple as possible!
If you had your time again, what would you do differently?
I probably would have sped up my mistakes so that, sooner rather than later, I could reflect and learn the key lessons I needed to take away.
How do you unwind?
After a long day, I typically like to sip a nice cocktail to take the edge off things (typically a gin and tonic).
Though recently during covid, one of my business partners shared with me about his habit of watching slapstick comedy on Netflix to rest his brain. While this is still relatively a new way of unwinding for me, I must say that it is one that is quickly gathering steam…
Favourite Asian destination for relaxation? Why?
Taiwan. It has the perfect mix of the urban city life that I’m so used to in Singapore as well as the quiet countryside that allows me to hike and enjoy having a break.
Everyone in business should read this book:
The Great Game of Business by Jack Stack. I always believed that running a business should be a very enjoyable process and this book shows how business owners can run a fun yet highly profitable business. I’ve used many ideas in this book to great effect and I wish many more business owners would pick it up and use it’s methods to transform their businesses as well.
Shameless plug for your business:
Every company that I’ve worked with has hit a least a million dollars in revenue except for 2 (that is another story for another time) hence I’ve stopped doing mass prospecting.
I realized I work best with ambitious business owners who have an unquenchable desire to scale their company and dominate their industry. However, as I only do deep work with 4 clients at any one point of time, there’s a current waiting list.
However, if you’re not put off by that fact and still interested, let’s grab a cocktail and have a chat!
How can people connect with you?
Feel free to drop me an email at [email protected] or connect with me directly on my Facebook or Linkedin profiles.
Social Media Links?
Facebook: facebook.com/zacharyydf
Linkedin: linkedin.com/in/zacharyydf/
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To hear how entrepreneurs around the world overcome their challenges, search your favourite podcast platform for ‘CallumConnects‘ to hear a 5-minute daily breakdown.
Callum Laing is an entrepreneur and investor based in Singapore. He has previously started, built, and sold half a dozen businesses and is now a Partner at Unity-Group Private Equity and Co-Founder and CEO of MBH Corporation PLC. He is the author of three best-selling books ‘Progressive Partnerships’, ‘Agglomerate’, and ‘Entrepreneurial Investing’.
Connect with Callum on Twitter and LinkedIn
Download free copies of his books at www.callumlaing.com
