The partnership came about by chance. Shi was looking for a site in Melbourne to open up a store and was referred to Lam because of his knowledge of the area and experience in the industry.
“We just decided to work together. She’s very practical and we’re a similar age and have similar thinking,” Lam says.
Lam and his family have a total of 15 businesses and he’s strategically opened 13 of them within two blocks of each on Swanston St.
“I live in the same two blocks as well. It’s good because you’re so close to the businesses, but at the same time all the staff know where you live and if there’s ever a problem they can just come and knock on your door.”
Prior to opening Gong Cha and Hot Star Chicken, Lam and his family had been against the idea of franchises.
“We ran family-oriented restaurants which we controlled ourselves and branded ourselves,” he says.
“Then I began investigating it more and I realised that creativity wasn’t my strong suit, so I opted to bring in a brand and it worked out really well. After 10 ideas you can start to run dry in terms of creativity.
“All my friends work in corporate industries, but to me that’s quite foreign. For me it’s always been about doing your own thing and working hard.”
To promote the business, Hot Star Chicken has Twitter, Facebook and Instagram accounts.
“In our previous businesses we didn’t engage very much with social media, but now we’re seeing you have to engage your customers and get them talking about the product.”
Running a business is tough work, let alone running 15, so it’s no surprise Lam doesn’t have much free time.
“I work until 6-7pm at night and then I go home for dinner, put my daughter to sleep and then come back to the stores and work until 10-11pm and then work from home until 2am. It’s not a great routine.”
“I work so much I don’t have spare time. The moments I cherish most are the times I spend with my wife and my daughter. I’ll try and take one day a week off,” he says.
During the day Lam finds his time consumed by meetings, phone calls and emails, so after 10pm he’s able to work on the business.
Lam’s initial goal was to open five Hot Star Chicken stores and already he’s opened four.
“We’re possibly looking at another 10 sites over the next 12 months from June,” he says.
“We intend to open in South Australia and Queensland next.”
His best advice to other entrepreneurs is to “find good partners”.
“You can’t do it all on your own 100% of the time. It’s hard dividing the roles, but we all do the work and we’re all absolutely essential to the whole process.”
