Ep 153: From Being Told To "SHUT UP" To RM150+ Million In 5 Years?! | Hui Jing Lee, Co-Founder Of Bila-Bila Mart So This Is My Why podcast

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Ep 153: From Being Told to "SHUT UP" to RM150+ million in 5 years?! | Hui Jing Lee, Co-Founder of Bila-Bila Mart

2d ago 1:11:43

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Hui Jing’s life reads like a TVB drama.

Her mum was forced to be the sole provider for the family after her dad landed them in bad debt.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, Hui Jing understood the importance of money & joined the work force young - at the below-legal age of 15 - for a mediocre RM4/hour.

It wasn’t easy.

But it kickstarted a series of jobs that saw her go from working as at McDonald’s to The Body Shop to becoming a finalist for the Red Bull Female Driver Search in 2009 (they were offering a cash prize) to becoming an insurance agent (where she learned the joys of passive income) to joining a radio station as a road runner and finally…

Co-founding one of Malaysia’s fastest growing local convenience store chains, Bila-Bila Mart.

Which is on track to hit a whooping RM150+ million in revenue & 100 stores by the end of 2025, with an IPO on the horizon!

Not bad for a Brickfields girl who was once kidnapped & held ransom due to bad family debts.

If there’s one thing that clearly stands out about Hui Jing’s story, it’s this: Taking risk

During the interview, she spoke of how:

“Throwing everything outta the window (i.e. leaving corporate) sounded like an adventure. I wanted that adventure.

Because I was just thinking, okay, now I have no commitments. I don't have a family… If I don't do it, if I don't risk it, I don't really see how is the world outside, when am I gonna do it?”

That said, life hasn’t been without its challenges.

Once at a bar, she was told, “Jing, you talk too much as a female. Can you shut up?”

And also advised to stop working and to “ask your husband to feed you.”

Needless to say, that lit a fire in Hui Jing that led to the founding of Bila-Bila Mart, where she also spoke about:

✨ How Dettol saved Bila-Bila Mart (they opened their first physical store during MCO)

✨ Their first breakthrough (pivoting from the idea of selling hot food → kedai runcit model)

✨ The process for local SMEs getting their items into Bila-Bila Mart

✨ Dealing with chauvinistic men who question Jing’s very young team

✨ Why you are the decision maker of your own fate

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Special thanks to Bila-Bila Mart for sponsoring this episode.

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