I spent my childhood in a few different places - England, Singapore, Australia- before my family settled back to Kuala Lumpur in 1991. Plus I spent a year in the U.S. to complete my degree in Mass Communications. My early exposure to different cultures has both influenced my driven personality and need for perfection (at least through my eyes). Being the eldest, I have always had a bossy streak. I disliked my parents telling me what to do, and my "whys" and answering back resulted in many red marks from fresh slaps or a good caning. So, I guess it was inevitable for me to be independent and start something on my own.

Borneo Addict is a spa products distributor and supplier company that I founded after I left my nine to five banking job in 2006. In 2008, my partner and fiancé John and I also started our Thai-concept restaurant MANGO, which has recently been re-branded to MANGO Thai Desserts and More. Prior to becoming an entrepreneur, I thought my career would have led me to some swanky office job as I worked my way up the corporate ladder. Life sounded pretty predictable after I graduated.

After returning home from graduation, I started job hunting, sending about twenty resumes out and attending about ten interviews. Most interviews were in the advertising industry, some in sales. I finally got accepted for a marketing trainee position in Citibank and worked there for three and a half years. It was a challenging atmosphere, but during the 3rd year, I didn’t feel inspired. I was doing what I knew, but felt I couldn’t "breathe" life, almost like my youth was being sucked away! Leave was always never enough and my time was confined to those nine hour, and at times twelve hour blocks in a day. I gained a well-rounded professional experience from the job, but grew tired of the hectic work culture and back-to-back late nights. I then decided to resign (after much objection from mum) and take a short break. I knew I had wanted to do something on my own, but didn’t have a clue what I was going to do and how.

Towards the end of 2006, I joined my fiancé to manage his café in his hometown of Kota Kinabalu. Moving to Kota Kinabalu was a contrast to the city life that I used to live and breathe.

In the beginning, I enjoyed the sea-fresh air, wildlife, abundant local fruits that I loved like tarap, bambangan, buluno, pink guava, avocados, and the general slower pace of life. It was the ease of life that was a breath of fresh air.

The airport was 15 minutes from any part of the town, we frequented the beach for evening jogs, there were hardly any traffic jams, and no tolls! It was even more fun when my friends from Kuala Lumpur, and even my childhood friend from Perth, visited. I didn’t feel ‘isolated’ during the first year, because our friends were coming in and out of town for business and leisure. We became part-time tourist guides and hosts to KK for many close friends and family. Our café business allowed us the ease of time, being able to free ourselves up for other projects and some travelling. We were then able to relocate our café operations from Beach Street to the Waterfront.

When we moved to the more touristy location, foot reflexology was added as a supplementary service. As we continued to source and purchase the materials, we discovered that it would be a better idea for us to source for them ourselves. Being a "here and now" sort of person, I immediately started spending late nights researching on oils and aromatherapy on the Internet. On hindsight, I realise that the Internet was a powerful resource for my business then, and still is today.

My research led me to Virgin Coconut Oil (VCO) and Essential Oils. I found a reliable essential oil manufacturer, so that part of our quest was solved. We knew that Sabah had an abundance of coconuts, and started to source for manufacturers for VCO. Because VCO has been labeled in the media as a health food, we identified spas as our potential clients because of the unique properties of the oil. With essential oils coming from natural resource, I wanted our brand to represent something local, and something that is related to nature. We decided to use the name Borneo, because of our famed eco-tourism. However, we needed to add strength to the name. After throwing ideas back and forth, my fiancé and I decided on Borneo Addict, with the tagline "nature inspired, exotic acquired" because we felt that this was what our core products stood for.

Once we knew our products and manufacturers, the next hurdle was sourcing for unique packaging. During one of my fiance’s regular trips, and with the help of my local friends, we sourced Philippine coconut fibre bags, which were ideal for our brand concept.

We incorporated our company at the end of 2007, with limited capital from my own savings. Fortunately, with just a handful of products, our investment was manageable. We started marketing our core products, VCO and essential oils because we knew our prices were competitive compared to the big players. Hotels and spas usually have long-term relationships with their suppliers who have an extensive product range. Thus, we decided to focus on our 2 main products. I started making calls to some local spas. Nexus Karambunai Resort’s spa, Borneo Spa, was coincidentally interested in our Pandan Flavoured VCO, which became one of the first orders from a spa. From there, our inquiries and orders slowly increased and Gayana Eco Resort then started ordering our essential oils in bulk for their spa. We became a business-to-business company.

In 2008, we ventured in to our MANGO- Thai Inspired Cuisine restaurant. We did make trips back to KL intermittently during the first year in KK, but as our business stabilized our trips became fewer. Then fewer friends started coming. Likely to be due to companies cutting back traveling costs as the economy slowed, and friends were venturing to other places. We focused on our food and beverage business and dedicated our time to making it the best Thai restaurant in KK. I juggled my time being hands on with both Borneo Addict and MANGO.

After we started MANGO, we decided to retail Borneo Addict VCO and essential oils at a tiny corner at our MANGO in Kota Kinabalu. It was more of a trial to see whether we might have potential for a stand-alone retail outlet. With a positive response, we considered diversifying. A relative of mine introduced me to a New Zealand company that had a similar product philosophy to Borneo Addict, and we then started importing a small quantity of hotel amenities.

It was during this second year in KK, that I started feeling terribly isolated in such a small town. I was jealous of family and friends who were able to attend concerts, shop during warehouse sales, and became bored of the slow pace. I still had the drive to bring the business further, but felt that KK stifled my creativity. I can understand why many city people decide to move to KK together with their family. We came across many people who relocated their family from the Peninsula to Sabah. But, I realized that these were people with young children and KK was the ideal, peaceful town that was perfect to nurture their brood. As we continued our close working relationship of Borneo Addict with our hotel business partners, we decided that a move back to Kuala Lumpur was vital for both our business expansion plans, as well as for personal growth.

Even though I adapt easily to different places, I realized I was actually missing the city. Kota Kinabalu is undoubtedly a wonderful city, but we needed the support from those who were more business savvy and had a faster pace of work attitude. With the economic slowdown, tourist numbers were reducing. We decided that our food and beverage business also had potential back in Kuala Lumpur with the locals. It was not a tough decision, as we were keen to head back to Kuala Lumpur. The only tough part was finding buyers for our things and the physical move was emotionally draining. However, our decision was made easier because we had peace that no matter where we were, technology and budget airlines would make it possible to do anything from anywhere!

With our past experience in managing a reflexology centre, we wanted to incorporate our Borneo Addict spa product range to complement a service centre. We also wanted to re-brand Mango as a Thai dessert concept. As of August 2009, Borneo Addict is now operating in Wisma Central KL, as "Borneo Addict Wellness and Reflexology." Our signature reflexology services include hand massage, neck and shoulder massage, head massage, and our signature Borneo Foot Reflex. Sticking to our roots, our therapists also originate from Borneo.

Our Borneo Addict product range is expanding to spa products and accessories, as well as a body care range. Apart from our core VCO and essential oils products, we will be adding handmade oil burners and handmade soaps to an extended spa accessories and body care range. As for our Thai dessert brand, MANGO, we will also be expanding towards the end of the year, so we will constantly be on our toes in business development for both Mango and Borneo Addict.

Borneo has always had an aura of mystical rainforests and animals. We hope that in the not so distant future, we can bring Borneo Addict and Mango to the overseas market. All it will take is a lot of effort and a little luck.