My name is Eveline Wong and as a teenager, I began to devote a lot of time on Vogue, Cleo and Elle fashion magazines.  I love reading them and creatively created many scrapbooks out of it.  You might be thinking I must have flung my studies for reading too much of the fashion magazines, but instead I was a top student achieving straights A’s in college.

         My background is in Information System and from computers to fashion--that's a big jump!  With my passion and flair in fashion boutique industry, I always love to hunt for trendy and sometimes cheap, discounted branded stuff.

         Hence, I started to involve in retail business back in 1999 as I spent a lot of time with my sister (Angie), helping her in selling clothes after clothes.  At that time, my sister was in her early stage of starting her boutique business; I was so attracted with her focus that I became a dedicated helper every weekend. 

         My sister and I didn’t have much capital to start with, so we started small and rented a booth at an up-scale flea market in Mon't Kiara, Kuala Lumpur on every Sunday, selling clothes in a flea market. The small business turned out to be an important learning ground for my sister and I – we found out what our passion was and the potential market in this city. 

         Six months later, my sister rented a booth in shopping mall where business runs 7 days a week, 365 days a year, no Public Holidays, no break for family and herself.  The very 1^st booth in Mon’t Kiara continues operation on every weekend without failed because if we would to stop renting for one time, our place will be taken up by others – yes, it was so competitive.

         This continued for 2 years and sister’s small business has grown to a couple of booths in various shopping malls.  She had to hire workers to help taking care of booths in different locations while she focused on merchandizing.  I helped out every now and then at booth despite of my busy schedule, sometimes unexpectedly because workers did not show up at work.

         With that, I exposed to various challenges of managing a boutique business.  Even business in a small scale, it still requires a lot of hard work and focus.  To ensure a continuous business growth, my sister setup exhibition and supplied clothing lines to event and functions such as Fashion Week in city.  It was many sleepless night when it comes to exhibition that was held on a monthly basis.  We were always at the function venue a day before the exhibition as we were only given that short few hours to do setup (only after shopping mall closes).  I really mean in the wee hours of 4a.m. or 5a.m. in the morning.

It was a long journey since then …… How I wish I knew any experience boutique owner who could hold my hands so that I can avoid some common mistakes that most boutique owners did. 

I always believe there would be a better way to learn from those who is successful and have made it there than having to hit with many roadblocks and obstacles.  It was even more heart pain if lesson learnt involved hundreds and thousands of hard-earned money.

Three years later, my sister came across a vacant retail lot and there is where a fashion boutique was opened in a business center in Subang.  All other booths in various malls were closed down, as she reinvested the sum in the flagship 'Ideal Life boutique'.  The store was carrying clothes and accessories for different market segment in which all inventories was carefully selected and brought back from overseas.