‘If you had $50K, what business would you launch in Singapore to replace your full-time job?’ — Singaporean asks

SINGAPORE: A lively discussion ensued after a netizen wanted to know how someone would use $50,000 if the amount were suddenly given to them.

“What if an investor came to you and just gave you $50k to start your own business. What business would you do? How would you do it? Would you turn your hobby into a cash cow?” asked u/justbemenooneelse on r/askSingapore on Monday (July 24).

One Reddit user with a much-upvoted answer had some questions of their own. “What’s your runway? (How long can you go without earning?) And how much effort are you willing to put in? Would you leave Singapore until it made enough to be profitable?”

Another commenter who’s had several successful businesses since secondary school wrote, “Really, you don’t even need 50k to start a side hustle or new business.”

One had this piece of advice. “Think about what you love and what others need. Everything else will flow from there. Don’t focus on $. If you focus on making $ and use your mathematics, I assure that you are bound to fail. People are emotional creatures.”

However, others believe that $50,000 is insufficient for someone to start a business.

“Go back to work,” one wrote.

“50k you can only be passive investor to other biz,” another chimed in.

“Not enough to sustain yourself. Perhaps a side project first,” a netizen opined.

“50k, need 200k min to start anything except may be hawker stall,” another said.

One added, “50k ain’t enough to replace my full-time job. Would most prob just use it to maybe trade sports cards or smth, part hobby, part side hustle lol.”

But others encouraged the post author to do due diligence and find out what can be sold online.

One urged him, “As they say, majority % of start-ups and SME in SG closes within 5 years. But with $50k, thats seems honestly a considerable amount of starting capital if you budget it wisely. You can search in ACRA for businesses with initial investment of around $50k as it is quite common.”

/TISG

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