Month: February 2021

Are you thinking about how to start your own restaurant in Singapore? Do you have dreams about running an amazing food business, or being hailed as a prodigy chef? Look no further – this all-in-one guide was written specifically to help you build your very own restaurant!

The 12 steps to becoming Singapore’s next Gordon Ramsay / David Chang:

1. Choosing a restaurant concept
2. Writing a business plan
3. Formulating a menu
4. Identify funding sources
5. Incorporating the company
6. Picking a location
7. Renovation
8. Purchasing equipment
9. Applying for necessary licenses
10. Hiring employees
11. Marketing and branding
12. Acquiring food poisoning and restaurant insurance

Step 1: Choose a restaurant concept

There are a multitude of restaurant concepts you could build. Should your restaurant be quick-service, casual dining, or a high-end place? Will you serve Chinese, Indian, Japanese, or other cuisines? Do you want to build your brand around specific food products, like steak or seafood? There are many moving parts here, and the concept you choose will play a central role in defining your value proposition to hungry customers.

Some examples of restaurant concepts you could build:

1. Casual Japanese-Italian, specialising in fusion pasta dishes
2. Quick-serve Mexican, serving a wide variety of tacos, burritos, and rice bowls
3. Quick-serve Korean, focusing exclusively on Jajangmyeon
4. Mid-tier American diner, serving burgers, barbeque, and shakes
5. High-end Western steakhouse, focusing on prime beef cuts

Step 2: Writing a business plan

Because there’s so much ahead of you, you’ll need a thorough business plan to keep you on track. Writing everything down makes executing your restaurant dreams easier, and helps you foresee any potential problems you might face. If you don’t write out a business plan, it’ likely that you’ll miss out crucial parts of execution (e.g. marketing, strategy, competition) that may very well jeopardise your entire business.

What should go into a good restaurant business plan? Some key items to include are:

• A precise vision of your restaurant concept,
• An overview of your target market,
• Your menu and price points,
• Inventory sourcing plans,
• Financial projections for the next 3-5 years,
• A go-to-market strategy,
• Research on your competitors,
• Competitive advantages
• Location planning,
• Renovation plans
• Employee hiring plans and incentive programmes,
• Training plans for food and beverage preparation,
• Business continuity plans,
• Expansion opportunities, and
• Business risks.

It might look like a long list, but remember: the more you plan at this stage, the less pain you’ll have as you move ahead. If you need further help writing a business plan, read this seminal article from Harvard Business School.

Step 3: Formulating the menu

By now, you should have at least a rough idea of what kind of cuisine you’d like to serve. It’s time to take those rough thoughts you have and really shape them into precise food items that customers will love.

For example, let’s say you want to start a casual Japanese Tonkatsu restaurant. You’ll have pork katsu as your main dish. Will you serve other types of katsu, like prawn katsu? What about side dishes, like gyoza, or krokke (croquettes)?

A crucial point when formulating your menu is thinking about competitive differentiation. You’ll need to understand what other Tonkatsu restaurants are generally serving. How will your Tonkatsu restaurant be any different? In Nagoya, Japan, there is a special local twist to Tonkatsu. Nagoya is famous for “Red Miso Tonkatsu”. It’s traditional Tonkatsu served with a deeply rich, thick, sweet-salty Miso sauce that’s packed with innumerable layers of salivating umami flavour. A quick Google search for “Red Miso Tonkatsu in Singapore” doesn’t bring up too many results. You’ll find only 2 or so notable results. One is for Ma Maison, a group of Japanese restaurants that’s been around for a long time, and the other for Hajime Tonkatsu, a restaurant in Serangoon Gardens. If you’ve been to Nagoya and tried their Red Miso, you’ll know that this sauce is absolutely heavenly. Perhaps this might be a good point of differentiation for your restaurant? It’s not easy to make an amazing Red Miso sauce.

You should also consider the general quality of your food. The Tonkatsu you fry might be delicious, but are they really that much better than other Tonkatsu served across Singapore? Is it good enough to attract someone from the other end of the island to patronise your restaurant? Think about the true quality of your food.

You’ll also want to think about your beverages. Canned drinks are standard. What about fresh juices? Will you serve alcohol? If yes, what kinds? A Japanese Tonkatsu restaurant would be remiss without a nice selection of Japanese beer. Again, this might be another area for differentiation. Many Tonkatsu restaurants serve the same old rotation of beers – Tiger, Heineken, Sapporo, Asahi, etc. Are there certain Japanese craft beers that you could incorporate to differentiate your beverage selection? A delicious, small-batch Japanese beer might go down very well with hot and crispy Tonkatsu.

The quality of your product will be instrumental in building your brand and revenue. So take as much time as you need at this stage to really refine your menu, and ensure that you can execute your food preparation perfectly.

Step 4: Identify funding sources

Starting a restaurant in Singapore is expensive. Ingredients are pricey, labour is costly, and rents are very high. You’ll need to make sure that you have access to sufficient capital to not just launch your business, but also to tide you through at least 2 years of operations. You need sufficient financial runway so that your restaurant has time to prove itself.

Banks are highly unlikely to lend you any capital to start a new business. There’s no business credit history, and it’s usually too risky for their credit portfolio. Venture capitalists also don’t fund restaurants, since the risk-adjusted returns are too low compared to high-growth technology startups. As such, you’ll have to source funds from other avenues to start your dream restaurant.

Some funding sources you can consider include:

Your bank account:

Hopefully, you’ve saved up enough to fund at least a portion of your startup capital costs. Consider all assets that you have – your checking account, savings accounts, and any stock investments you may hold.

Friends and family:

Here’s where you’ll find out who your truest friends are. Have discussions with good friends and close family members. Share your entrepreneurial dreams with them. When you’re discussing your plans with them, make sure that the central question of “Why should I invest” isn’t structured along some self-centred approach of “because you’re my uncle” or “because we’ve known each other for 10 years”. Put your personal ties aside. You’ve got to show your friends and family that you are uniquely positioned to build Katong’s next great Laksa restaurant, or Orchard’s best Korean BBQ place, and that they’re likely to earn a great return by investing with you. Oh, did I mention that this is one reason why a thorough business plan is so important? You’ll make much more convincing presentations if you have a solid plan. This way, you can really dig into the details, easily address whatever concerns they may have, and confidently show them that you’ve really thought the entire idea through.

Business partners:

Because the cost of starting a restaurant in Singapore is so high, it’s best to found your restaurant with a few business partners. You can each pool your money into the business, and also tap each person’s network for additional funding. This reduces the stress on each individual co-founder. Also, business partners will be essential for bouncing ideas off, and navigating the myriad challenges that come with starting and scaling a business. Solving problems and growing a business are just exponentially easier when you have a partner (or partners) running alongside you.

Step 5: Incorporating the company

Don’t make the mistake of running a restaurant without a registered corporate entity. If you don’t have a registered company, your Food License (more on that in step 9) will not allow you to hire foreign workers. If you can’t hire even a single foreign worker for a restaurant, please kindly be prepared for a world of pain.

There’s various entities that you can choose from (e.g. Sole Proprietor, Private Limited), but generally it’s a good idea to register your company as a Private Limited. Registering a Private Limited entity will shield you against personal liability for major risks, like food poisoning. A Sole Proprietorship doesn’t provide you with the same liability shield, so it might not be the best idea.

Incorporating a Private Limited is straightforward, and doesn’t take much time at all. It’s also affordable – many corporate secretaries have packages that hover around only $300 to set up a company. Ensuring you operate a corporate entity will also make it much easier to handle routine business tasks like hiring workers and paying taxes.

You can use online corporate secretaries to easily incorporate a company. Read our guide on Singapore’s best online corporate secretaries to pick one for yourself.

Step 6: Picking a location

You’ll need to scout for a great location for your restaurant. Here are the best methods to find a space that’s available to rent:

1. Online real estate portals like propertyguru.com.sg
2. Engaging real estate agents to do the legwork for you
3. Straits Times Classified Section

Real estate portals like PropertyGuru will give you a quick idea of how much the going rates are for certain areas and specific property sizes. When engaging real estate agents, it’s helpful to already have an idea of which areas of Singapore you’d like to locate yourself in, the approximate property size you’re seeking, your restaurant concept, and your budget. A good real estate agent will be able to sniff out good commercial spaces that fit your fledgling restaurant’s needs. In order to expedite the process and ensure that you have a ready list of potential sites to review, you can consider engaging multiple real estate agents to assist you.

When thinking about your location, you want to strike a balance between affordability and visibility to foot traffic. If you can build a good brand (say, through social media marketing), then you may not need to splurge on an expensive ground-floor unit that has high visibility to passersby. You could instead opt for a unit that’s more tucked away, and rely on your online marketing and word of mouth to draw customers to you instead.

Here are some additional important points you should consider when picking a restaurant location:

Potential sales:

Look at your financial projections. Are your expected sales able to support the rent a property is asking for? Make sure that your projections are conservative. In case you don’t meet your sales targets, a location with lower rent provides you with a larger margin of safety.

Traffic density:

Is your chosen location in a high-traffic area? Is it inside a mall, or close to one? What about proximity to public transportation hubs, like MRT stations? Hang around outside the location – how many people do you see walking by on average? How many customers do you see patronising neighbouring businesses?

Site history:

Do some research on previous tenants. Who were the previous tenants, and why did they move out? Was it because the location itself was poor?

Onerous lease terms:

Make sure that you aren’t signing up for lease terms that are particularly onerous. You can engage a lawyer to help you review whether particular terms place an undue legal burden on you.

Future development:

Is the area slated for future development, like new MRT stations, or new shopping malls? Is it part of a broader development of a particular region, like the Punggol Digital District, that may bring in large waves of new potential customers?

When you’ve identified your chosen location, don’t sign the lease straightaway. This is because further regulatory approvals are still required before you can launch your restaurant. What you can do in the meantime is to sign a “Letter of Intent” with your prospective landlord. This will allow you to reserve your chosen location while you clear the various regulatory requirements.

Do note that if your chosen location was not used as a restaurant before, then you’ll need to apply for planning permission from URA to convert the space into a restaurant. It costs $535 (true as of publication) to submit an application, and generally takes about 10 working days to be processed. It’s vital that you do this before you sign any lease agreements. If you don’t get permission from URA, you can’t use the space as a restaurant!

Once you’ve picked a location, it’s time to transform it into the restaurant you’ve always dreamed of.

Step 7: Renovation

When you’re planning your renovation, it’s a good idea to engage an interior designer that’s experienced in planning restaurant projects. A designer that has handled many such projects before will be able to help you maximise every square footage of your restaurant space, which in turn will maximise revenue.

In terms of layout, restaurants usually will allocate about 1/3 of their total square footage to the kitchen. Some extra space may be allocated to storage, and potentially a small office area. The remaining 2/3 goes to the dining room.

Also, some restaurant industry reports note the following customer group sizes:

Groups of 2: 40-50%

Groups of 3: 30%

Groups of 4 or more: 20%

With the above data in mind, it’s best to have tables that can fit 2-3 people. This allows you to optimise seating efficiency. Small tables can seat small groups, and can be pushed together to fit larger groups. Bigger tables can go to waste if you don’t often have larger groups coming in. These figures may change depending on your restaurant concept.

A good designer will also help you design an efficient production area. Often, many production areas are poorly laid out, which causes slower food delivery times, poorer service, and generally more time wasted reaching for or finding things. Make sure that there’s adequate space for food preparation, cooking, baking (if needed), dishwashing, equipment storage, food storage, trash storage, and receiving/delivering food. Make sure the production area is planned in a way that all the key equipment or ingredient areas are within close reach of one another. Your cooking area needs to have enough space for multiple cooks to work side by side.

Also, don’t skimp on your renovation costs. You might be tempted to opt for that contractor that gave you the cheapest quote – so cheap it left you wondering if it really is too good to be true. When you’re faced with sky-high start-up costs, any savings will seem like a gift sent straight from heaven. Don’t do it. Cheap prices mean cheap designs, cheap materials, and cheap workmanship. Poor designs affect your customer experience, and will influence your ability to attract new and repeat business. Low quality materials and workmanship mean your furnishings won’t last you very long, and new work will need to be ordered again.

In the long run, you’re much better off investing your money with a reputable interior design firm, along with a good contractor. High quality renovations will last you a much longer time than shabby work that you have to re-do in a couple years. It pays to play the long game here.

Also, sometimes restaurant owners forget this, but having a beautifully decorated restaurant is a really powerful marketing tool. You can use your restaurant interiors to create beautiful Instagram and Facebook posts. You’ll also wow customers, and these impressed diners will be more likely to talk about “that gorgeous restaurant” they visited, spreading word-of-mouth about your business.

Step 8: Purchasing equipment

Buying all the equipment will be one of your biggest start-up expenses, after renovations. For a 1,000 sq ft. restaurant with about 40-50 seats, you can expect to spend at least $50,000 just on the equipment alone.

Here’s a list of equipment you’ll need for a restaurant:

1. Stove range with exhaust system
2. Ovens
3. Chillers/Freezers
4. Dishwasher (optional)
5. Pots and pans
6. Knives and knife sharpeners
7. Miscellaneous cooking tools
8. Plates, bowls, and cutlery
9. Refrigerated display cases (optional)
10. Furniture like chairs and tables

When purchasing equipment, sometimes restaurant owners will debate between buying from a local supplier, or whether they should buy direct from platforms like Alibaba.

Step 9: Obtaining required licenses, permits, and certificates

The most important license you need is the Food Shop License. This license is issued by the Singapore Food Authority (SFA). The application will cost you $195 (true as of publication). It may take 18 working days, (almost 1 calendar month) or more to complete the entire process. Click here to apply.

If you are taking over a premises that was previously used as an F&B space, then you should inform the previous tenant to cancel their Food Shop License. This is because you can only be issued a Food Shop License after the previous tenant has had theirs cancelled. So it’s best to get in touch with them to hurry things along.

What’s the overall process like when applying for a Food Shop License? Here’s an overview:

1. Submit an online application via GoBusiness (note: you’ll need your CorpPass)
2. Book an SFA inspection. You’ll need to schedule this at least 7 days in advance.
3. Pay for the license after approval

To ensure a smooth inspection process, make sure that your premises complies with the requirements listed by SFA. Click here to view the full checklist.

There are a few key things to note about renting restaurant spaces:

Fire Certificate:

You should ask for a copy of the landlord’s Fire Certificate. A Fire Certificate is issued by the SCDF to property owners, certifying that the property meets basic fire safety standards. If the location you chose was not used as a restaurant previously, there may not be a Fire Certificate. In this case, you should ask the landlord to provide the Fire Certificate to you at their own cost. If the landlord refuses to do so, make sure to factor in the cost of obtaining this Fire Certificate when discussing your rent with the landlord.

The SCDF requires restaurant owners to clean key equipment like your exhaust ducts and kitchen hoods yearly. You must engage a professional cleaning firm to do this. Such cleanings must be done at least once a year.

Your Fire Certificates must be renewed annually, and can only be renewed after you complete a successful SCDF inspection. So make sure to keep your restaurant clean, tidy, and safe!

Food hygiene certificates:

All food handlers must possess a valid Food Hygiene Certificate, and be registered with the SFA (Singapore Food Association). A food handler is anyone who prepares food and beverages. This means chefs, cooks, and kitchen assistants. Waiters are generally not considered food handlers, unless they are also involved in preparing and cooking the food. Food handlers can earn a Food Hygiene Certificate by attending an NEA-accredited course, like this one run by the SFA.

Course fees: $160.50, incl. GST (these fees are before subsidies)

Course duration: 1 day (7.5 hours)

Course fee subsidies:

Food handlers are required to attend a refresher course 5 years after they first attained their Food Hygiene Certificate. Thereafter, food handlers will need to attend a refresher course once every 10 years.

Liquor licenses:

If you want to serve any alcohol, you must have a liquor license. These are issued by the Singapore Police Force. To apply for a license, simply use GoBusiness’ online portal.

The cost of a liquor license ranges from $110/year to $880/year (accurate at publication). Licenses must be renewed yearly.

Liquor is a fantastic way to earn lots of extra profit, since the margins are much higher on alcohol than food.

Here’s an overview of the various liquor licenses:

Selling liquor without holding a valid license is a criminal offence. Penalties include:

• Fine up to $20,000, and/or
• Jail up to 3 months

Halal licenses:

If you want to serve Halal food, you must make an application to MUIS. Application fees range from $775 for restaurants which are under 186 sqm (2000 square feet), up to $1,140 for restaurants which are over 186 sqm. Prices exclude GST.

As part of the application, you have to submit your restaurant’s floor plan to MUIS. This floor plan should clearly state the production areas, storage areas for inventory and cooking/dining equipment, and dishwashing areas. These areas can only be used for Halal items. If any Haram items touch these areas, you must inform MUIS, and a ritual cleansing will be ordered.

You must ensure that all inventory used are halal-certified. These inventory items must be declared to MUIS via their online portal.

You must hire at least two Muslim staff members, and they must each have Halal training certificates. At least one of these Muslim employees must be a supervisor. Also, employees are subject to MUIS’ approval.

Do note that MUIS may order laboratory tests to be carried out on your food. MUIS can also order religious cleansing procedures to be performed if they deem it necessary. The cost of these tests and procedures must be borne by you.

GST-registration:

Eventually, when your restaurant starts gaining traction and generates more than $1 million in revenue, you’ll need to become GST-registered. Here’s another guide on GST-registration for when you get there.

Step 10: Hiring employees

With all the effort that you’ve put into developing your menu, you’ll now need great kitchen staff to produce it on a consistent basis, along with friendly waiters to deliver great service. Start by looking at the capacity of your restaurant? Is it 25 covers? 100 covers? Are you open all day, or only for dinner? Look at how many covers you plan to turn over each day, and then plan your hiring needs accordingly.

In labour-starved Singapore, hiring for a Food and Beverage business is definitely a challenge. You need to bring in talented staff with good compensation packages, but you also can’t afford to pay too much, since margins are thin in this industry. Labour costs will form a significant portion of your ongoing expenses. Typically, you can expect to spend around 33% of your total revenue on labour.

First off, do some research on what the average compensation is for each position that you plan to hire. Do this for your head chef, your line cook, your dishwasher, your manager, your server, and whoever else you’re going to bring on board. Then, set a minimum, and maximum salary that you’ll pay. You can invest more resources into positions that you think are key (e.g. the head chef and manager), and then perhaps pay average wages for the rest of your employees.

Here’s a quick overview on the 3 main positions you’ll hire:

Manager:

This is the most important person, next to your head chef. Your manager will ensure the smooth running of your restaurant, make sure that your staff are all pulling their weight, and that all customers leave your establishment happy and full. Managers should receive a portion of profits or shares in the business to keep them motivated.

Chefs and cooks:

Bring them in for cooking interviews. Have them cook your menu. Does their food taste amazing? Have a look at their past culinary experience. Where did they work? Call up their previous employer and see if they were a great or middling employee.

Waiters:

Service is such a crucial part of the dining experience. A visit to a restaurant can be easily ruined by poor service, even if the food is top-notch. Have you ever been to a great restaurant, only to be disappointed by tardy or rude service? It didn’t really matter that the food was good, right? Chances are you wouldn’t go back to that restaurant – I know I wouldn’t.

Make sure to thoroughly screen your waiters for their service standards. How friendly are they with customers? Do they smile often? Are they confident? Can they easily explain your? How passionate are they about service, ultimately? Some people are built for the service line, and others just won’t make it no matter the amount of training.

Insider tips:

An F&B insider tip on hiring is not to rely too much on online job portals, like LinkedIn. Rather, consider recruiting people from other F&B establishments. That’s the most solid way to know that you have someone with firm experience. You can experience the service standards of waiters you want to recruit, and see (or rather, taste) the quality of chefs you want to hire. For restaurant staff, the proof really is in the pudding. It’s best to get out there to rope passionate people in.

Hygiene training:

Make sure you drill your staff on maintaining proper hygiene practices. A “simple” mistake like taking a knife used for raw food to cut cooked food could at best give someone bad diarrhea, or at worst kill them. Cross-contamination is a huge issue in restaurants, because it’s so easy to forget about. Have two separate sets of equipment for cooked food, versus raw food.

Enforce daily thorough wipe downs and cleaning. Do regular spring cleanings, especially in areas where inventory is stored. Label all produce with purchase dates. If you pre-cook anything, label it with a date of manufacture. You need to have a rigorous system like this, because otherwise you’ll forget and expired food might end up in someone’s food, with vomitous consequences. Don’t turn your restaurant into a Kitchen Nightmares episode.

You’ve sunk lots of money into this journey, so the last thing you need is having to shut your doors because you/your staff made someone terribly sick.

Step 11: Marketing and branding

Lots of marketing for restaurants can be done either freely, or without significant marketing expenses. Leverage social media channels like Facebook or Instagram. Take regular photographs of your food. Shoot videos of your food being cooked in the kitchen, so potential customers can see how your food is being prepared. If you use unique ingredients, tell customers about it. Shoot videos of your staff – have them tell stories of why they’re working with you, what their job means to them, to humanise the business in your customers’ eyes. If you’re diligent with your social media marketing, you can grow your awareness without having to spend too much on ads.

Ultimately, a successful restaurant won’t be built by acquiring customers through paid ads. Instead, word of mouth will be your best growth channel. Growth through word-of-mouth is exponential, when compounded over time. Ensure that every customer that walks through your doors is treated like a king or queen. If you can do this consistently, you’ll have a very good chance of building a restaurant empire.

It’s important that you don’t fall into the trap of thinking that “if I build it, they will come”. A common mistake that new entrepreneurs make, with often fatal consequences. If you have a great product, good for you. You’ve won half the battle of running and scaling a restaurant. To win the other half, you’ll need to get as many people as you can to recognise you even exist.

Strong investments into marketing and branding are vital to succeed in an industry as ridiculously crowded as F&B.

Loyalty cards:

Give your customers loyalty cards to encourage them to visit you again. For example, you could design a loyalty rewards programme that gives customers a 1-for-1 main course offer on every 5^th visit. Repeat business is the lifeblood of any business, and loyalty cards are a fantastic way to reward your best customers.

Gift certificates:

Giving customers gift cards is an affordable and really easy method to attract more customers. 20% off Monday night dinners. Free side dishes at Wednesday lunches. Get creative with your promotions. A good way to quickly get exposure is to reach out to event organisers, and have them use your gift certificates as prizes in lucky draws or competitions. You can do this for public events, corporate events, personal events, and more. You can also donate these gift certificates to charities. Non-profit organisations will often organise raffles or lucky draws to raise money.

Influencer marketing:

It’s a good idea to invite influencers to come try your food. Influencers with smaller followings may be willing to post reviews of your food on their social media accounts or blogs for nothing more than a free meal. Influencers with bigger followings will often ask for a fee, unless they’re doing it as part of their routine food hunts. If you can generate a buzz around your restaurant early on, chances are you might be able to lure some bigger influencers in without having to pay them for a sponsored post. Seth Lui, who runs Singapore’s most visited food website, has been reported to charge between $1,000 to $10,000 for a single post (and that was back in 2015!).

An interesting strategy here may be to leverage “micro-influencers” and “nano-influencers”. “Micro-influencers” are people with 10,000 to 50,000 followers, who are known for their posts/experience in a particular vertical. (This 10,000 to 50,000 figure is a global statistic; for smaller markets like Singapore, perhaps under 10,000 might be a more appropriate figure). For F&B, you may wish to target micro-influencers who are home cooks or culinary enthusiasts.

They key thing is that micro-influencers are cheaper to hire, and their followers tend to have higher levels of engagement with their posts. This allows you to not only spend less money, but also to get a potentially higher return on dollars that you spend on influencer marketing. You can do the same with “nano-influencers”, who are people with 3,000 to 5,000 followers. Nano-influencers may be much more willing to simply visit your restaurant for a free meal, without a sponsored post fee.

Think about the math for a second: if you can get 10 or 20 of these people to visit your restaurant and post reviews, your posts will reach a combined audience of anywhere between 30,000 to over 100,000 people. You can still generate a significant amount of buzz this way, without having to shell out the huge sums of money that more famous influencers would charge.

Step 12: Acquiring Food Poisoning and Restaurant Insurance

Congratulations for making it this far! If you’ve completed steps 1 to 12, you’ve probably invested close to a year (or more), and several hundred thousand dollars into realising your dreams. Grab a beer and give yourself a high-five – you’re almost at the finish line.

Before you open your doors to customers, it’s really important that you protect yourself against major F&B business risks. One of the worst risks that restaurants face is food poisoning liability.

Another major risk is worker injuries. Under Singapore law, you must compensate all workers for work-related injuries/sickness. For instance, if your chef cuts himself while preparing a dinner service, you’ll have to compensate him. If you don’t have Work Injury Compensation Insurance, this compensation is going to come out of your pocket. Work Injury Compensation Insurance is legally required for all manual workers. In the context of restaurants, occupations where Work Injury Compensation Insurance is mandatory include:

• Chefs/Cooks
• Kitchen Assistants
• Waiters
• Dishwashers
• Cleaners
• Delivery staff

A restaurant insurance package will combine all the essential covers that you need into a single policy. This provides comprehensive, affordable, and easy-to-manage coverage. Provide’s restaurant insurance package covers:

• Commercial property (covers major risks like fire, water damage, inventory/stocks damage, etc.)
• Public liability, including food poisoning
• Business interruption (covers operational costs like rent if your business shuts down unexpectedly)
• Money loss/theft
• Worker injuries

Restaurant startup resources:

Here’s a further list of resources that you may find useful as you work towards starting your restaurant in Singapore:

Restaurant Association of Singapore: When you start your own restaurant, joining our local Restaurant Association may be a useful idea. You can network with fellow restaurant owners, and receive some discounts on certain industry events.

Beverage Trader Network Singapore: Comprehensive list of wine/liquor distributors in Singapore. Emails, phone numbers, websites, and addresses are all conveniently provided for in one page. Simply look through this list, pick a company you like, and contact them to get some quotes for liquor that you can serve. Consider shopping around for a few quotes so you can get the best deal.

Menu Maker from Canva: Use this tool to create beautiful menus. No need to pay a designer to do it when you can make one yourself.

Restaurant Business Plan: Use this to quickly put together the structure of a business plan. This can help you organise your thoughts more coherently, save time, and might also bring up points that you might not have previously thought of.

Restaurant Startup and Growth Magazine: A regularly updated online magazine that’s dedicated to restaurant owners. You’ll find lots of education material on how to grow your restaurant business.

Virtual offices a great way to give your company an official-sounding address, without having to actually rent an office. If you’re registering a company with ACRA, a virtual office is a great way to avoid having to expose your own residential address to the public. These offices are also great for receiving physical items like business mail/parcels, which can be forwarded to you anywhere in the world. With most people working from home, having a virtual office is a great way to maintain a professional corporate image, whilst saving on expensive commercial rentals that eat into your margins. Also, if you’re an entrepreneur who’s located overseas but running a Singapore-based company, a local virtual office is a must. We’ve compiled this list of the cheapest virtual offices in Singapore for entrepreneurs who need a corporate address on a tight budget.

Contents:

1. Summaries
2. EZCorp
3. OnlyVirtualOffice
4. VirtualCorp
5. VOffice
6. Rovva
7. Protecting your business

Summaries:

The absolute cheapest virtual office: EZCorp. From $52.80/year ($4.40/month, 12-month contract).

Out of the 5 options listed here, EZCorp is the cheapest virtual office. The next 2 closest competitors are OnlyVirtualOffice ($58/year), and VirtualCorp ($90/year).

It’s interesting to compare EZCorp with VirtualCorp, because for about $40 more each year, you do get some useful benefits like free web hosting (for the 1^st year), and weekly cheque deposits to specific banks, which can be a nice convenience.

If you extend your contract to 3 years, however, VirtualCorp’s rate drops to $59.98/year, which is almost similar to EZCorp’s pricing ($52.80/year). If you’re confident that you’re going to need a virtual office for 3 years, then this locked-in plan may be worth considering. Do consider speaking to other business owners who’ve used VirtualCorp’s services first before you sign up for 3 years though.

If you don’t need any additional benefits, and are focused solely on price, then it’s worth looking into EZCorp.

For entrepreneurs based overseas, but whose companies are registered in Singapore: Most of the virtual offices here only include local mail forwarding in their packages. VOffice’s VIP Package includes forwarding letters to overseas addresses for an additional $100/year (there may be a limit on the number of mails they will forward, and top-ups may be required past a certain volume). EZCorp will do overseas letter forwarding for $5/letter, plus courier charges. The other providers in this list did not publicly state their overseas mail forwarding rates, so do contact your chosen virtual office for a custom quote.

An easier alternative would be simply to have your letters scanned and emailed to you. Most of the virtual offices in this list offer this service. However, the only virtual office provider that has publicly stated their mail scanning prices is EZCorp, which charges $180/year for such a service. Consider reaching out to the other providers in this list to see if you can get a better rate.

If you expect to receive parcels and need them forwarded, speak with your virtual office provider for a quote. Do note that not all virtual offices will accept parcels – some will charge a fee per parcel received, while others have a policy to outright reject them. Read the fine print before you sign up!

#1. EZCorp

Website: https://ezcorp.sg/registered-office/

Virtual office address: 2 Venture Drive #14-02 Vision Exchange Singapore 608526

Overview:

EZCorp is the cheapest virtual office provider, out of the 5 virtual offices listed here. Their services are the most basic out of all the offices in this list, but if you’re looking for the absolute lowest rate, EZCorp has it.

#2. OnlyVirtualOffice

Website: https://onlyvirtualoffice.com/

Email: [email protected]

Phone: +65 6974 2695

Virtual office address: 1 Tampines North Drive 1, T-Space, Singapore 528559

Overview:

OnlyVirtualOffice is the 2nd cheapest virtual office provider here. You won’t get any prestigious office addresses when you sign up with them – your office will be at Tampines. Then again, if you’re looking for the cheapest option, you’re probably not concerned about getting a swanky address.

It’s straightforward to sign up for an office address with OnlyVirtualOffice. Here are the steps:

1. Visit their website, and select 1 out of 3 virtual office plans
2. Provide basic details like company name and UEN
3. Make payment online
4. Receive email confirmation
5. Update ACRA with your new address
6. Update OnlyVirtualOffice on your revised ACRA records

OnlyVirtualOffice does offer users of its highest tier (the Business Plan) 8 hours of meeting room usage a year, which is definitely on the low side. You also have to book it at least 3 days in advance by emailing them. The meeting room is compact and fits 5 people. A projector is available on request.

If you have a small team, and don’t need an office environment to entertain clients or business partners, then OnlyVirtualOffice’s bare bones approach could be well-suited for you. You can always host meetings in cafes or other public spots.

#3. VOffice

Website: virtualofficeservices.com.sg

Email: [email protected]

Phone: +65 6460 0199

Virtual office address: 22 Sin Ming Lane #06-76 Midview City Singapore 573969

Overview:

VOffice is the 3rd cheapest virtual office in this list, starting at $57/year (4.75/month, 12-month contract). They differentiate themselves from other virtual offices by offering you free meeting and office room usage with their mid and highest-tier plans. You do have to book these rooms at least 3 days in advance by emailing them. The meeting room fits 6 people. If you need to meet clients in an office (and not some public space like a café), and only for exceptionally rare occasions, this may be a benefit that you find useful.

You can sign up with VOffice online.

#4. VirtualCorp

Website: virtualofficeservices.com.sg

Email: [email protected]

Phone: +65 6735 5181

Virtual office address: 50 Chin Swee Road #09-04, Thong Chai Building. Singapore 169874

Overview:

VirtualCorp’s generally provides more benefits compared to the other virtual offices in this list. The free weekly cheque deposit (to the specified banks) is a nice convenience if your clients still pay by cheque. 1 year of free web hosting is also a nice perk to have. It’s good to know that these benefits are included even with their most basic plan.

As move up to their Biz-Pro and Enterprise plans, we see some more useful benefits. Unlimited local mail forwarding is nice (some of the other virtual offices here limit the volume of mail they will forward, and charge for any excess amounts). You also get free incorporation and a named corporate secretary. The highest tier even includes handling your required annual tax returns. This looks to be a comprehensive, all-in-one service that could certainly save you time and effort when starting your company.

VirtualCorp also offers 6-month contracts, which is shorter than the typical 1-year contract that other offices will typically impose on clients.

#5. Rovva

Website: https://www.rovva.com/

Virtual office address: Choose from approx. 25 different locations across Singapore

Key office locations:

• Multiple locations in CBD:
  • Marina Bay Financial Centre
  • 1 Raffles Place
  • Asia Square Tower
  • 1 Fullerton
  • Guoco Tower
• Multiple locations in Downtown Core:
  • 18 Capitol Singapore (directly opposite City Hall MRT)
  • Spaces Clarke Quay
  • Duo Tower (Bugis)
• Multiple locations in Orchard Road:
  • TripleOne Somerset
  • Wisma Atria
• Locations in the East:
  • Paya Lebar Quarter
  • Spaces Joo Chiat (in Katong)
  • Tampines Junction
  • Changi Business Park
• Locations in the West:
  • Vision Exchange (Jurong, near IMM)
  • Fusionopolis (near One-North MRT)

As you can tell, Rovva has a massive roster of some of the most central locations in Singapore. You can choose from the most premium corporate addresses that Singapore has to offer, all from one virtual office provider.

Some pictures of Rovva’s well-appointed offices:

All pictures sourced from Rovva.

Overview:

Rovva is a global virtual office provider. The sheer size of the company is reflected in the number of virtual office addresses they have here – approximately 25, with the majority of them located right smack in the middle of Singapore’s most exclusive business districts.

You can choose virtual offices in super-prime locations like Marina Bay Financial Centre, Raffles Place, Orchard Road, and Tanjong Pagar. Rovva even has a virtual office at Fullerton, right in front of the Singapore river! If you prefer somewhere closer to residential suburbs, Rovva also has offices at Katong, Tampines, Paya Lebar, Jurong, and Changi. These locations are also cheaper than their CBD locations. If you live near to these areas, non-CBD offices may be a more convenient and wallet-friendly option for you.

Rovva costs the most out of the virtual offices in this list. However, given their selection of prime locations, and some pretty useful perks like frequent office facility access, Rovva isn’t all that expensive – especially if you consider the cost of alternatives, like renting a shared workspace (e.g. WeWork). For instance, Rovva’s “Virtual Office Mobile” plan starts at $178/month, which comes with 2 hours of community meeting room access each day, along with unlimited business lounge access. If you’re an entrepreneur who works from home, but still needs to hold regular in-person business meetings,  then Rovva would be a good option to consider. You can skip noisy cafes and go straight into hosting your business meetings in a polished environment, located at some of Singapore’s best addresses. From their website, Rovva’s offices (particularly their CBD options) seem very well-appointed.

Rovva also has the unique distinction of having the shortest minimum contract period – 1 month. Most providers will enforce a 12-month minimum. They also have live receptionists that are included in their higher tier plans, which other budget options don’t provide for.

Protecting your company:

After you’ve signed up for an affordable virtual office, make sure that you protect your business. We offer the most affordable and comprehensive business insurance plans in Singapore. Click the links below to get insured online, in just 3 mins!

• Commercial Property Insurance from $9/month
• Public Liability Insurance from $9/month
• Work Injury Insurance from $5/month
• Business Lawsuit Insurance (Professional Indemnity Insurance) from $42/month

Barbershops have exploded in popularity in Singapore. Just like with starting a cosy café, there’s a certain romance about running an old-school barbershop. From the plush leather barbering seats with their glittering chrome bases, to the slick razor-faded haircuts from the 50s and 60s, delivered with the intangible atmosphere of a bygone era – it’s all quite alluring for would-be entrepreneurs.

But before you plunge your hard-earned savings into setting up your own barbering business, it’s important to know what you need to set up a barbershop, and how it’ll affect you financially. Here’s the ultimate guide on how much it will cost to start a barbershop in Singapore!

Rental Costs

The largest chunk of your start-up costs is likely to go towards rental. Rents will differ significantly depending on where you locate your barbershop. You could go for a super-central location within the CBD, which gives you daily access to a large pool of working professionals and general shopping crowds. You could also opt for a location not quite within the CBD, but still within the broader Central Area  – hip areas like Bugis come to mind. Or, you could venture out into heartland suburbs, where foot traffic is still healthy, but rents are lower. The location you choose will have a large impact on your costs, revenue from foot traffic, and potentially your brand image. Weigh the trade-offs between these different factors carefully.

CBD/City Centre Locations

Leasing a space in ultra-prime locations like City Hall, Raffles Place, or Telok Ayer will cost between $10 to $20 per square foot. So, for an average 500 square feet barbershop, expect to pay $5,000 to $10,000 in rent each month. A quick Google search will reveal that many barbers choose to locate their shops in these prime central districts. In the pre-Covid-19 era, such locations offered barbers easy access to the working crowd.

Even though Singapore has largely reopened business activity, many office employees are still working from home for a fair portion of the week. They will likely continue to be doing so for the foreseeable future. In such an environment, it’s probably a good idea for new barbershops to think about basing themselves in residential districts. Areas like Tampines, Sengkang, Toa Payoh, Jurong, etc. are all well-populated estates that new barbers can tap into. Rents are more affordable in these areas, and you can still build a loyal following through hip branding, investments into social media marketing, and good service.

Heartland Suburbs

With rents stretching to such astronomical amounts in the city centre, some barbers have chosen to ditch “hip” addresses, and taken themselves out into the suburbs instead. For instance, old-school barber Acidic Chop Shop is based in Jurong West, while The Panic Room is based in Geylang. Although the rent in these neighbourhoods are lower, they’re still not always cheap by any means.

For heartland areas, barbers can expect to pay between $5 to $9 per square foot. For a typical 1,000 square foot barbershop, this works out to a monthly rent of around $2,500 to $4,500.

Residential districts are a worthwhile consideration, since transportation infrastructure in Singapore is highly-developed. It’s not particularly difficult to travel to one’s favourite barbershop once or twice a month. People will return as long as the service is top-notch and value-for-money. Businesses like The Panic Room have managed to capitalise on this by basing themselves outside of the city centre, and successfully building a large following that is happy to travel to their store. Aspiring barbers who don’t have access to lots of capital, or don’t wish to be saddled with a highly monthly rent, should consider this option.

Upfront Rental Deposits

When you sign the lease, your landlord will typically ask you to provide an upfront deposit of between 3 to 6 months worth of rent. In addition to this deposit, make sure you also have 3 to 4 months’ worth of operational costs (rent, salaries, consumables, etc.) saved up. This will provide you with a live-saving cash flow buffer, just in case your business doesn’t produce as much revenue as you initially projected. You don’t want to end up with a bankrupt business before you’ve even had at least a year or two to prove your business model.

Rent Increases

Although Covid-19 has certainly dampened some of the demand for commercial rental, there’s only so much space to go around in Singapore. Landlords are likely to increase your rent when your lease expires. Experienced barbershop owners who have good contacts in the industry, or previous relationships with landlords may be able to negotiate limits on rent increases, alongside other benefits like lower rental deposits. However, if you are new to the barbershop industry, or your barbershop is too small to warrant more favourable terms, it’s not likely that the landlord will grant you much leeway in negotiations.

If it’s your first time setting up a barbershop, it’s advisable for you to sign a shorter lease – around 6 months or so. Although this makes it more likely that your rent may be increased at the end of 6 months, a shorter lease will minimise the amount of start-up capital you need to put in. By contrast, if you sign a 24-month lease from the get-go, you’re stuck with paying rent for the next 2 years, regardless of whether you make money or not! Signing a shorter lease will also help you validate whether your business is actually working, and whether you have the ability to pull customers in and turn a consistent profit.

If you eventually find that your business is not working, a shorter lease will give you the option of either shutting it down, or pouring in more funds to keep the business going. A long lease, however, would block you from quickly exiting a business that’s hemorrhaging cash.

Relocation Costs

You should also take into account potential costs if you plan to relocate. Most leases will include a clause requiring that you restore the location to its original state. Restoration fees typically run around SGD 3,000 to SGD 5,000 for a 500 square feet barbershop.

Renovation Costs

After you find a good location for your barbershop, you’ll need to renovate the space to convey the aesthetic you want. Maybe it’s a sleek and modern barbershop, with neon lights, lots of glass and burnished metal. Or maybe you prefer a grittier aesthetic, and want a rough-and-tumble old-school barbershop. Whatever your choice, expect to pay at least SGD 10,000 to 20,000 for renovating a 500 square feet barbershop. This estimate includes interior design consultations, actual renovation work, and the cost of furnishings.

A lot of your marketing is going to come from social media – pictures of haircuts you’ve just provided, pictures of clients/yourself at work in your barbershop, etc. Given that your premises is going to feature so prominently in you marketing efforts, it’s advisable to invest a little more in an attractive interior design. This will pay dividends over the long run, as more customers get to know about your cool-looking space.

Manpower Costs

After rent, labour will be your second biggest recurring expense. Manpower in a barbershop is pretty flexible. The amount of barbers you need to recruit really depends on the scale of business you want to open, and whether you can barber yourself (or not). If you want to just open a one-man show, you can find a small space in a mall or housing neighbourhood, and just run the entire business on your own. You won’t have to deal with the stress of staff overheads. Of course, you’ll be completely limited in how much money you can make, since you won’t have barbers who can pay you commissions from clients they serve. If you want to run a bigger business, then you’ll need to hire additional barbers who can bring in this incremental revenue for you.

There are various compensation schemes that you can employ for your barbers. The most common compensation structure is a basic salary, plus a commission per cut. This incentivises barbers to provide good service, and to build relationships with their clients to keep them coming back. Another common compensation scheme is to rent chairs in your shop to each barber for a flat monthly fee.

If you’re an experienced barber yourself, you can also hire barber apprentices. Apprentice haircuts are almost always provided at a discount compared to their more experienced colleagues. This way, you can attract potential clients who are on a budget. You can also build up a talent pipeline by grooming these apprentices into experienced barbers. By hiring them when they’re still young and green in the industry, you save on the salary expense of having to hire an experienced barber straight of out the gate.

Barber Training

If you plan to do the barbering yourself, but don’t actually know how to cut hair yet, there’s two methods you can use to get started.

Method 1: Attend a barbering course

A basic barber’s course starts at around SGD 1,500, per participant. Most of these courses last for 2-3 days. These courses will go over the fundamentals of hair-cutting techniques, like performing fades, line-ups, and cutting layers.

Here are some courses in Singapore that you can attend:

1. Hair Mafia & Co. Barber Course: SGD 1,799 for 2 days

2. Beauty Recipe Intensive Barber Course: SGD 1,588 for 2 days

Once you’ve completed your chosen course, you can then go ahead to work in a barbershop as either an apprentice or a junior barber.

Method 2 (Recommended): Apprentice in a barbershop

An alternative is to become an apprentice in an established barbershop. Some apprenticeships may be paid, others may be unpaid. You will start from the bottom, and likely have to do “menial” tasks like cleaning the shop and tools. If you’re truly passionate about barbering, you’ll stick through it. There’s no better way to learn how to cut hair than to learn from others who’ve been doing it for a long time.

Equipment

Luckily for barber entrepreneurs, most barbering equipment is relatively affordable. First up, you’re going to need a set of good hair clippers to give your clients amazing hair fades. The most well-known brand in the industry is Wahl, which also happens to be the number one brand of clippers sold in the United States.

You’ll need a hair detailer as well, which you’ll be using to make crisp line-ups. You can use hair detailers for more precise cuts on beards.

You’ll also want to have a foil shaver. A cordless model, like this one from Andis, is particularly helpful and well-made.

For scissors, you’ll need barber’s scissors and thinning scissors.

Lastly, no barbershop would be complete without a good set of razors. Now, modern hygiene practices dictate that using the same single-blade razor on hundreds (or thousands) of customers is probably not the best idea. The problem with a traditional straight-edge razor is that you need to also have a commercial disinfectant unit (which are expensive), otherwise you’re going to run a serious risk of infectious or blood-borne diseases being transmitted through your shaves. A straight-edge razor must also be stropped before each shave, which adds additional labour to the already labour-intensive job of barbering. Straight-edge razors must also be professionally honed every few months to restore the keenness of the blade, which adds additional cost. You can sharpen the blade yourself on a whetstone, but that takes practice and time.

Enter the barber’s saviour: the shavette. Shavettes take single-use, disposable razor blades that can be swapped out for each new client. Since a new blade is used for each client, shavettes represent a more hygienic and convenient option. Furthermore, a shavette blade from a good manufacturer (like Feather, or Merkur) will be sharper than a straight razor’s blade. This will give your clients the closest possible shave.

Among the many brands of Shavettes, Parker makes durable and affordably priced shaving sets. This one below is full-metal, which gives it a nice weight. It’s sure to make you look like a real professional each time you whip it out to give your clients a clean, hot shave.

Parker Shavette, available from The Panic Room ($33).

After you’ve got your hair trimming equipment ready, you’ll want to have nice, plush chairs to make your customers comfortable. If you’re setting up an old-school barber, then this Old Style Barberchair is perfect for you. At SGD 440 per chair, it’s reasonably priced. If you’re not ready to spend that much, then this barber chair might be more to your liking. It won’t convey the same old-school vibe, but at SGD 119 per chair, it’s really priced to move. You can consider getting a rubber barber’s mat to go with your chair as well. These mats are non-slip, and their thick cushioning effect can help relieve stress on your joints from standing all day.

Consumables

Your main consumables are going to be hair styling product, dusting powder, shampoo, disinfectant, and razor blades. The great thing is that most of these consumables are pretty affordable, so they’re not going to take away much from your bottom line.

You can stock decent-quality but affordable product like American Crew or Suavecito. Suavecito makes a giant 32oz tub (900g) for only $130. This tub size is specifically designed for barbers. If you use 3g of product to style each client, that works out to just 43 cents per client. Highly economical.

You can also consider oil-based pomades for true greaserheads. Try the famous Reuzel Pink, which is sure to satisfy any greaser who walks into your store.

It’s also a good idea to stock some hair product to sell. You can apply product to your clients’ hair after their cut, and if they like the product you can then try to close a sale. This will form a nice extra revenue stream for you.

Utilities

Water and electricity will cost around $1,000 a month for a typical barber that operates around 8-10 hours daily.

Summary of total set-up costs for a new barbershop

How many haircuts will you need to break-even?

This is one of the most important questions you’ll have to answer when deciding whether you should open a barbershop. If we add all the costs above, minimum start-up costs for a barbershop are about $50,000 to $80,000.

Let’s use the assumptions below for our break-even calculations:
1. You run an old-school barbershop
2. You charge $35 for a haircut (market rate)

You would therefore need to provide 1,428 haircuts to recoup your initial investment. Assuming you deliver an average of 10 haircuts a day, you would take about 143 days to break even, or about 5 months.

Protect your barbershop

Starting a barbershop is expensive. Suffering accidents while running your barbershop is even more expensive.

A fire could break out from a faulty electrical outlet, burning your shop down and taking all the money you invested with it. A customer could get injured during a close shave or haircut, leaving you legally liable for their injuries. One of your staff might slip and fall at work, leaving your business liable to pay his medical expenses under MOM’s Work Injury laws.

Given the $50,000+ you will spend building your barbershop, make sure you protect your investment with a good barbershop insurance policy. These policies start from only $200 a year, and will provide you several hundred thousand dollars’ worth of insurance coverage. Click here to buy barbershop insurance in 3 minutes, online!

Introduction

Are you thinking of incorporating a new company in Singapore? Or maybe you’re tired of your current corporate secretary, and are looking to switch to a new provider. Whatever your situation is, there’s never been a better time than now to consider using an online corporate secretary. Online corporate secretaries provide an affordable, quick, and highly convenient experience for secretarial-related services. Whether you want to start a new business, issue new shares, or remove a director, these online firms have got you covered. To help you decide which company to use, we’ve put together this guide on the 5 best online corporate secretaries in Singapore for 2021.

What is a corporate secretary?

First off, let’s start by establishing the role of a corporate secretary. In Singapore, all companies are required by law to appoint a company secretary within 6 months of incorporation. A corporate secretary’s main functions are to ensure that the company fulfills statutory requirements, the company practices good corporate governance, and shareholders’ interests are protected.

A corporate secretary helps you achieve this by filing your annual returns, assisting you with share transfers, appointing directors, and more. Corporate secretaries take on these mundane administrative tasks so that you can focus on more important business matters.

How are online corporate secretaries different from traditional corporate secretaries?

Both traditional and online corporate secretaries offer the same set of services. The biggest difference, however, lies in the speed, convenience, and price. Online corporate secretaries often operate much more quickly than their brick-and-mortar counterparts. Because they’re online, they tend to charge lower prices too.

The 5 best online corporate secretaries in Singapore 2021 (no particular order):

#1. Osome

Osome (pronounced as “awesome”) is an online corporate secretary that provides a full spectrum of services. The company was founded in 2017. Osome has raised over USD $5 million in venture capital funding, being part of a recent wave of online corporate secretary startups sweeping the industry.

Osome’s range of services include:

a. Incorporation: Osome will register your company for you with ACRA, and will provide you with a company constitution. All government charges are included in their service fee. Their incorporation package includes up to 3 shareholders, and you can add extra shareholders for $50 per person. Osome claims that once you have your documents ready, most company incorporations can be done in under 1 hour.

Osome also has specifically designed packages for foreigners. For $2,250, you can get an incorporation deal that includes registration with ACRA, nominee directors, and. This helps you to easily set up companies without having to find a resident Singaporean to be on your company board. For $2,650, you can throw in an employment pass application as well.

b. Corporate secretary: Osome has 2 packages – Basic and Unlimited. Under the Basic Package ($300/year), Osome will take care of, well, just the basics. You’ll get your annual ACRA filings which are required by law, and also preparation for your AGM. This is a barebones package that’s suitable for companies that really aren’t experiencing any changes to shareholders, directors, or location changes.

Under the Unlimited Package ($600/year), Osome will take care of much more. You get what’s included in the Basic Package, plus changes to directors, shareholders, addresses, issuance of new shares, dividend distributions, and more. If you need to make regular changes to any of these things, then it’s best to go with the unlimited package. For a set yearly fee, you’ll have access to all these services which makes it pretty cost-efficient.

Do note that if you sign up for the Unlimited Package, you will get a free company incorporation. So, if you’re registering a new company, it’s advisable to consider getting the unlimited package so you can make use of the various secretarial services, whilst saving money on the incorporation fees.

Osome also offers multiple useful add-on services, like company stamp supplies, Corp-Pass registration, company strike-offs, and more.

c. Accounting and taxes: Unless you’re running an accounting practice, few business owners are going to enjoy trying to reconcile their books regularly. Osome takes care of this for you with their accounting subscription service. For $600/year, you can get a basic package that allows for 40 transactions each year. Their starter package from $1,200/year covers 480 transactions, and you even get a personal accountant/bookkeeper assigned to you. They also have custom plans available if you handle much higher transaction volumes.

#2. Sleek

Sleek is an online corporate secretary that offers a comprehensive set of services. The company was founded in 2015. The company has raised over USD $5 million in venture capital funding.

Sleek’s pricing scheme is slightly different from the other companies in this list. Whereas companies like Osome charge based on the level of service, Sleek charges based on the number of shareholders you have.

Sleek’s range of services include:

a. Incorporation: Sleek will register your company for you with ACRA, and all government charges are already included in their incorporation fee. Unlike other companies in this list, do note that the number of shareholders you want to include will change your incorporation fee. For instance, 1 shareholder will cost $300. 10 shareholders will cost $780. Use their price calculator to check how much you’ve had to pay.

If you’re a foreigner who wants to incorporate a local company and move to Singapore, a full incorporation package from Sleek is slightly pricier than Osome’s. Assuming you only have 1 shareholder, the incorporation itself will cost you $300, a corporate secretary another $300, a nominee director will cost $1,500, and an employment pass $980. Sleek’s total is $3,080 versus Osome’s $2,650.

If you don’t need an employment pass, then Sleek’s package can be slightly cheaper. Assuming you only have 1 shareholder, Sleek’s foreigner incorporation package is $2,100 versus Osome’s $2,250. If you have 3 or more shareholders, then Sleek’s package becomes more expensive with rates starting from $2,280.

b. Corporate secretary: Sleek’s corporate secretarial services also differ in pricing based on the number of shareholders. 1 shareholder will cost $300/year, while 10 shareholders will cost $780/year. Unlike Osome’s two-tier system, Sleek’s corporate secretarial services are a one-tier plan. Once you sign up, you get have unlimited access to their secretarial services.

Sleek will do your annual ACRA filings and preparation for your AGM. You’ll also have unlimited access to changes to directors, shareholders, addresses, issuance of new shares, dividend distributions, and more. If you have a small number of shareholders, then Sleek’s one-tier plan represents great value for you, since it basically costs the same as Osome’s basic plan but offers you Osome’s unlimited-tier of services. On the other hand, if you have lots of shareholders, then Sleek’s plans may not make as much sense as the from the other companies in this list.

c. Accounting and taxes: Sleek’s accounting services come in four tiers. They offer bookkeeping, management reports, corporate tax returns, and even free payroll (for a limited number of employees). They also offer add-on services like multi-currency accounting and GST registration.

#3. Cabin

Cabin is an online corporate secretary that provides a full suite of secretarial services. The company was founded in 2017. The founders come from a pedigreed entrepreneurial background, having previously started Grain, a well-known meal delivery startup in Singapore.

Cabin’s range of services include:

a. Incorporation: Cabin will register your company for you with ACRA for a fee of $150. The website doesn’t make it immediately clear whether government fees are included. Given that ACRA charges $315 to register a new company ($300 for incorporation, $15 for name registration), there is a possibility that the $150 fee excludes government charges. If you’re looking to incorporate your company with Cabin, contact them for more information on this.

b. Corporate secretary: Cabin’s corporate secretary service is priced at $350/year. This price includes annual return filings with ACRA, preparation of AGM documents, and updates to Company Registers. Cabin’s website doesn’t state how much access users will get to things like director changes, share issuances, etc., and whether such services are already included in the $350 fee or whether you’ll have to pay for them as top-ups.

c. Accounting and taxes: Cabin’s accounting service starts at $750/year. Their accounting service includes a useful tax optimisation service, where their team will look through your transactions to maximise tax deductions from areas like capital allowances and charitable donations. Their monthly accounting plan is $200/month, and their quarterly accounting plan goes for $150/month.

#4. Lanturn

Lanturn is an online corporate secretary that offers a comprehensive set of services. The company was founded in 2017.

Lanturn’s range of services include:

a. Incorporation: Lanturn’s incorporate fees include all government charges. Incorporation is free as long you subscribe to a corporate secretary or accounting plan. For foreigners, Lanturn offers Entrepreneur Pass applications ($1800), with a 50% refund for unsuccessful applications. Employment pass applications are $1200, also with a 50% refund if you don’t manage to win the visa.

b. Corporate secretary: Lanturn’s corporate secretary services are priced higher than the other companies in this list. Their website doesn’t break down exactly what services are offered, so if you’re interested it’s best to get in touch with them directly so you can compare their services with other corporate secretarial companies.

c. Accounting and taxes: Lanturn offers 4 tiers of accounting plans, ranging from Basic ($80/month) all the way to Select ($1,800/month). From their website, Lanturn’s accounting plans appear to top out at a quarterly frequency. They also offer add-on services like multi-currency accounting and GST registration.

 d. Virtual CFO: Lanturn offers a suite of “Virtual CFO” services, which makes them unique among their competitors in this list. Lanturn can assist you with financial statement projections (e.g. cash flow, income statement, balance sheet, etc.) Interestingly, they also fundraising support, and can even send staff to accompany you on venture capital pitches. This is a service that none of the other companies on this list appear to offer. If you’re a startup founder raising money and are more focused on the strategy/product side of things, this service could be useful if you don’t happen to know your numbers down cold when meeting investors.

#5. Sprout

Sprout is an online corporate secretary that offers a comprehensive set of services. The company was founded in 2019.

Sprout’s range of services include:

a. Incorporation: All government charges are already included in Sprout’s incorporation fees. Sprout promises to incorporate your company within 24 hours. For Singaporeans/PRs, Sprout offers 2 plans. The Minimalist plan ($348) is a basic plan that gets you a registered entity. The Kick-Start plan ($588) includes ACRA registration, and importantly also comes with 1 year of corporate secretarial service. These prices are slightly lower than the average of other companies in this list, so if you’re looking for the most affordable corporate secretary, Sprout seems a favourable choice.

For foreigners, Sprout’s Launch plan ($2588) gets you a registered company, 1 year of corporate secretary service, nominee director, and virtual office. For only an extra $100, the Onshore plan ($2688) will get you everything in Launch, plus an employment pass. For comparison, these prices are lower than Sleek’s, but slightly higher than Osome’s.

b. Corporate secretary: Sprout offers 3 different corporate secretary plans: Essential, Comprehensive, and Total Compliance.

The Essential plan ($288/year) is a basic plan that takes care of annual ACRA filings and AGM preparation. At $288/year, this is marginally cheaper than its competitors, who typically charge prices averaging around $300/year.

The Comprehensive plan ($588/year) contains everything in the Essential plan, plus unlimited basic resolution changes.

Their Total Compliance plan ($788/year) includes everything in the Comprehensive and Essential plans, plus nice extra like tax compliance, and a review of your books by a Chartered Accountant. Do note that this plan is not applicable for companies with over $1 million in annual revenue, or who have corporate shareholders.

c. Accounting and taxes: Sprout has 3 different accounting plans: Seed, Seedling, and Sapling. The Seed plan ($80/month) offers you accounting for up to 10 transactions/month. It comes with unaudited financial statements, tax compliance, a review by a Chartered Accountant, and a Xero subscription. The Seedling plan ($180/month) has everything the Seed plan offers, but offers 40/transactions month. The Sapling plan ($320/month) offers up to 80 transactions/month.

Don’t forget about business insurance, from just $9/month

Once you’ve appointed a corporate secretary and have your administrative matters out of the way, you should move on to considering business insurance. You’ve probably invested a fair amount of money into starting your new venture, so make sure you protect your company with business insurance.

With Provide’s online platform, you’ll save up to 25% on business insurance. Our digital operating model creates lower overheads, so we pass every dollar saved back to you!

Save up to 25% now on policies like:
1. Business package insurance
2. Professional indemnity insurance
3. Commercial property insurance
4. Public liability insurance
5. Work injury compensation insurance