Altering the lives of single mums

A couple who started a successful marketing agency try their hand at a social enterprise helping single mothers. By Eleanor Yap (Author). Josephine Ng and her husband had a successful career. They started an integrated marketing agency and after it was acquired by one of the largest marketing services groups in the world in 2001, they took a long deserved break of more than six years to enjoy quality time with family and friends. However, in early 2009, the young couple got an itch to give back to society and that sparked a social enterprise, A-Changin Pte Ltd. Their first initiative is called Alteration Initiative. Set up to help single mothers, the business is solely funded by the couple. SALT Online speaks to Ng (minus her media-shy husband KC) about their initiative, the challenges ahead and why we should care about single mothers: How did your little idea grow into a social enterprise? In doing good, you either contribute financially or through volunteering. I was considering getting a post-graduate degree in social work and dedicating my time to social services. KC suggested instead that we put in our money and our time to start a social enterprise since we were successful in starting and growing our previous company. Starting a social enterprise is the same as starting a company, except that there is a social mission behind it. We put in the seed money, mapped the short- to long-term business strategies and started this social initiative. In starting this social enterprise, was there a similar model overseas that you mirrored it to? No, there wasn’t. The social aspect (single mothers in need) and the commercial aspect (alteration service) were decided by the two of us. During a social entrepreneurship/ philanthropy event at National University of Singapore in late 2009, we found out through a friend who used to work for the National Council of Social Service (NCSS) that single mothers have relatively little help and support. We knew then that we had identified our primary beneficiary target, although we also accept other people on a case-by-case basis. We zoomed in on clothes alteration as its simplest skills can be learned within a relatively short time; and it is interesting as advanced skills and creativity are required for complex alterations. Plus, we believe we can introduce something modern and professional to the alteration business segment which has a dated image. I, on the other hand, don’t know how to sew! What challenges did you face in starting this social enterprise? What are also some current challenges? We are very pleased to get this initiative started within three months. The VWOs (voluntary welfare organisations) and Government agencies have been very supportive. We managed to open our first retail outlet at Dhoby Ghaut MRT Station and organised a work trial with CDAC (Chinese Association Development Council), HELP (Help for Every Lone Parent) Family Service Centre and PPIS As-Salaam Family Support Centre in December 2009 with the help of South East CDC (Community Development Council). I believe scale is our biggest challenge now. To help more beneficiaries and to better service our customers, we need to open more outlets. Many mall operators and owners do not take us seriously as they have a negative perception of the alteration business. Some are even more cautious when we mention that we are operating a social enterprise. And these are public-listed companies with widely-publicised corporate social responsibility programmes! It’s a sad reality. You found that single mothers were a group not receiving much support. How big is the problem? What solutions were available for them before your initiative got off the ground? Assistance for single mothers is available through VWOs, CDCs and other agencies. The main problem is that most single mothers in need have difficulty securing jobs. Alteration Initiative addresses some of the problems faced by them. We introduced part-time flexible hours for trainees, adequate pay and a convenient work location. We believe there are enough single mothers with the passion and aptitude for sewing. But they all have unique problems and not all the selected beneficiaries were able to take up our trainee position. I had one who had health problems and who couldn’t join us. There was another who has a delinquent child and was too distracted to work for us, and there was another woman who had housing issues and was living with her three kids at a relative’s place. The latter came in for two hours but kept getting calls from her relative and in the end, she had to leave. Since you are not a single mother, why do you support/sympathise with them? We support and sympathise with every person in need. Helping single mothers in need gave us a focus and we responded to the fact that they have less support. In future, other initiatives to help other groups of people in need may be introduced by our social enterprise, A-Changin. Our wish is to Do Good. Together. Currently how many experienced seamstresses and trainees do you have? We have six senior seamstresses (three are single mothers) and four trainees (three are single mothers). We are at full capacity now so we hope we are able to have at least one more outlet and a central production unit (either in a shophouse or flatted factory) by this year. Then we will be able to reach out and help more beneficiaries. So in the few months that you have been opened, have people flocked to your outlet more because it represents a cause that they want to support or more for the quality? We are very happy for the encouraging words that people have for our social mission. But it is the quality, process and service that we really focus on when it comes to the business part of Alteration Initiative. We have two bottom lines – one for the help we provide to single mothers in need and the other for the service we provide to our alteration customers. What are your future plans for Alteration Initiative? We will be opening a new outlet at Mandarin Gallery sometime in July. The positioning of this outlet is different from the current and the emphasis will be on high-fashion alteration so hence the name of the new outlet – Haute Alteration Initiative. We plan to open more alteration studios island-wide, but this will depend on us finding a good location. We also just started a Replication service where customers want us to copy their gowns, blouses, dresses, and men’s shirts and pants. We also have an exciting collaboration with Pathlight School, Singapore’s first autism school, to restyle their T-shirts which have doodles. These T-shirts are retailing at Pathlight Mall and royalties from the sale go to each doodlist and artist. Will you be looking at starting an Alteration Academy? No, there is no plan for an Alteration Academy, but there may be one for a Sewing Academy which we might open this year. This story was first published on SALT (www.salt.org.sg), an e-magazine by the National Volunteer & Philanthropy Centre. Additional info provided by cataloguer: The article is accompanied by two photographs showing the entrance of "Alteration Initiative" at the Dhoby Xchange and Josephine Ng behind the counter at the shop.