Meet a radio D.F&B entrepreneur and first-time dad!

Power 98FM Radio DJ DARREN WEE lives with his wife Chenise Koh, threemonth-old daughter Leah Rose Wee and family dog Tessa. Over the past 11 years, Darren has launched various cafés, bars and restaurants . His latest venture is Good Chai People (GCP) – Singapore’s first specialty café for sticky chai!

- DEEPA CHEVI

Tell us a bit about your work.

My work at GCP revolves around every aspect of the business. Over the years, I’ve made it a point to be as handson as possible so I’m aware of what’s happening and able to troubleshoot any issues that my team may face. My duties include choosing the location, coming up with the concept, deciding on the budget for capital expenditure, purchasing equipment and appliances, deciding on the café layout and design, arranging the equipment so it makes sense during operations, and doing R&D for whatever is served on the menu.

Once GCP is ready to welcome customers, my work continues. This includes training my service/kitchen team to efficiently run the day-today operations, maintaining and improving service standards, getting to know repeat customers, gathering feedback about our food and drinks, PR and marketing to promote the business, designing posters and other collaterals, looking at the financials to cut down food costs and increase revenue and profits, and managing the social media pages.

For Power 98FM, the radio station where I work, my main responsibility is to ensure good content for my show, Sunday Mornings with Darren Wee (6am to 9am!) and to make it as engaging for listeners as possible. I make sure to do my show prep by checking out new food establishments, finding out if there are any upcoming events that might be of interest to my listeners, and any newsworthy topics worth discussing.

How did your transition into F&B go?

It was a very steep learning curve for me 11 years ago. Back in 2012, I was a full-time radio DJ with Power 98FM and had zero experience in starting and running a business, or any F&B establishment for that matter. When