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In 2017, Adrian Chia sold his IT start-up to his biggest competitor after 6 years of intense business-building. He was in dire need of a break. To escape Singapore’s hectic lifestyle and overcrowded spaces, Adrian Chia took his family to Australia for a holiday. They lived on a farm, drove across Great Ocean Road, and rested on sandy beaches. The slower pace, fresher air and beautiful natural landscapes changed his life – literally. He roped in childhood friends, Jeff Yeo and Dave Ng, to start a business. Pouring in $100,000 in seed capital, they started up Big Tiny – to offer the same experiences to other city-dwelling travellers looking for a getaway. In any real estate business, “it’s always about location, location, location”. Big Tiny’s first order of business was to secure beautiful locations, and to reduce commitment and stress for such landowners. Instead, they would build and manage the accommodations. They worked with landowners on a profit-sharing model. This minimised upfront costs, but provided outsized returns for popular travel locations. Beyond the natural scenery, Big Tiny also co-created unique eco-tourism experiences, such as apple harvesting, horse riding, bushwalking, wine tastings and even quad biking, with the landowners. The co-founders found that building tiny rental houses on wheels would be most cost-effective – and did not constrain them to a single location. Big Tiny could move their accommodations to various locations, based on seasons or occupancy trends. They did not need to build more tiny houses than what is necessary – reducing costs and increasing rental return potential. Tiny homes also leaned on an increasingly popular social philosophy – living more simply and sustainably. From $90,000 onwards, tiny house enthusiasts can house model, and rely on their proficient management teams in six international offices to build and manage the accommodations. Today, Big Tiny’s tiny rental homes can be found in more than 10 countries, spanning across Australia, Malaysia, New Zealand, Taiwan, France, Italy, Spain, Portugal, Austria, Sweden. The team is always looking to add more locations. We caught up with Adrian Chia, Co-Founder and CEO of Big Tiny to learn more about his tiny home entrepreneurial journey and plans for future growth. For me, the biggest challenges are dealing with the diversity of cultures, legal environments, and market dynamics. Different countries have varying laws and regulations regarding business operations. Keeping abreast of and complying with these regulations can be complex, especially when they change frequently or are subject to interpretation. Also understanding and respecting cultural differences is crucial for successful communication, marketing strategies, product design, and building relationships with land hosts and other suppliers. With previous experience starting and growing successful systems and technology companies, I lead the business and strategic planning at Big Tiny. I am also responsible for designing and implementing branding and asset management programmes for the tiny houses. Dave’s passion and expertise lie in materials science and environmental technology. He’s a true advocate for eco-living and reducing carbon emissions. Dave combines his knowledge of tiny house building with ongoing studies and experimentation around the use of recyclable building materials and modular building structures to reduce waste. At Big Tiny, Dave uses his past management experience in various companies and government agencies to lead the building and operations of the company. Jeff brings over 15 years of experience working in the fields of branding and marketing, he leads the branding and creative functions for Big Tiny. His experience before starting Big Tiny includes setting up an organisation dedicated to empowering underprivileged working women and ensuring they have a safe working environment. We first canvass regions that lend themselves to a tiny house stay – close to a major city but far enough away to give our guests a true ‘escape to nature’ – and then begin to recruit host landowners through a rigorous site assessment process. All our properties offer something different, so it also can depend on what people are looking for in that particular region. Some of our locations are semi-secluded and close to activities, and others are in the middle of nowhere. Apart from the serenity and peace on offer, many of our houses are in quaint coastal or riverside locations that offer plenty of outdoor activities. We even have houses that are set on properties with private bushland and rivers – so think a morning bushwalk, an afternoon dip in a private stream or swimming hole and finishing up with an outdoor barbeque as the sun sets. Guests at our properties can also engage in a variety of activities offered by landowner hosts, from farm tours and horse riding to bushwalking, wine tastings and quad biking. Whatever is on offer, activities promise to put guests a million miles from their hectic city life. My most memorable project is definitely the first tiny house in Singapore. It was built in the garden of my house. Another project that stands out is Island – where we have 5 1-bedroom tiny houses for rent. Even though it’s in Singapore, the project was “overseas” for us, and we literally had to bring the tiny houses to the island by boat. Entering a foreign market can be equal parts exciting and nerve-wracking in the beginning. As you grow and develop, the challenges can become greater – but also easier to overcome. Often, it’s necessary to remember why you started your journey to keep you motivated through the tough times. When entering new markets, it’s important to work alongside with local councils and government. It’s also critical to have a good banking partner that could support your expansion in the new markets. It can be a rollercoaster ride, so enjoy the achievements when they come as you’ve worked hard for it! Just like Adrian needed a time out on the hustle and bustle of city life, Big Tiny is banking on the growing appeal of winding down amid breath-taking natural beauty, learning about rural farming and animal-rearing activities, going on long hikes. Big Tiny’s ambitions is to offer this type of experience on a global scale. They have their sights set on new and unique opportunities to expand. Another big challenge of managing an international set-up is having to deal with multiple currencies. Adrian shared that “exchange rate fluctuations can expose us to financial risks”. When operating at scale, even small changes in exchange rates can affect Big Tiny’s pricing, financial planning and ultimately, profitability. For example, its tiny houses are built in Singapore and Malaysia, and shipped to various countries, for example Australia and Europe. In those countries, Big Tiny also works with many suppliers to assemble and manage the properties. They also rent out the properties in the local currency. All of this means they need to work with many different foreign currencies, and not just a pair. Adrian shared that they use the to better manage their foreign currencies. Big Tiny is able to set target foreign exchange (FX) rates on the OCBC Business app, and “once we get an alert that the target has been hit, our finance department will quickly convert the funds we require”. With a network of international operations, the co-founders often travel for work. Despite constantly being on the go, they are able to stay on top to their financial operations through OCBC Business app. The Business Trends feature on the app gives Adrian and his co-founders “an overview of our monthly sales and expenses on-the-go, and we can also see the trends”. This feature is also useful for this marketing and operations team as they provide broad sales breakdowns post-promotional campaigns. They get a quick overview to understand if the campaign is working, and whether customers are transacting. Finally, as Big Tiny also receives investors’ funds when they buy a tiny home, the OCBC Business app gives the finance and operations team a real-time update whenever funds come in. They can set a benchmark reference amount – close to the sales price of each tiny home – for the alerts to fire. Like Adrian says, as businesses scale, the challenges usually become greater. But, the entrepreneur will also be more experienced in solving the problems they encounter. For Big Tiny and its finance team, OCBC has become a reliable partner they can rely on to keep on top of their financial operations and manage their foreign currency risks more effectively.