My name is Cedric Lee. I am currently a final year IMU Chiropractic student, a student intern in IMU’s Chiropractic Clinic in Setiawalk and I am also the founder and director of Revival Chiropractic. Almost every business starts off with a problem that needs to be solved and behind it is always the person who can’t tolerate the problem any longer and therefore provides a solution to the problem faced.
The Idea of Revival Chiropractic started when I was a semester 3 Chiropractic student, it started off with a personal need – which was a chiropractic table for me as a student to practice on. I remember that it was during the first phase of Movement Control Order (MCO) as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic that I was having online classes and we are all unable to have practical. Due to the nature of Chiropractic which was a course that requires a very hands-on practice and approach, I always had to practice on my crappy couch which was the next best alternative for me.
From that experience, I was in desperate need of purchasing a Chiropractic table for me to practice on at home and after some research, I realized that most Chiropractic tables are supplied from the US, in other words due to the unfavorable exchange rates as well as the extra cost for shipping and taxes it was pretty expensive and not viable for me who comes from a middle-income family with 2 children going through tertiary education – my parents were funneling all they had into me and my brother’s education.
And that was my first problem faced, getting money to purchase a table, therefore I had worked various part-time jobs from working as a clinical assistant in a clinic to selling egg tarts in order to earn money for the purchase of the Chiropractic table. After all the hard work and making enough money to purchase a table, I had a reconsideration and told myself, what if there is a better way to utilise the hard-earned money, therefore I took a relatively big risk taking out of a small portion of my PTPTN funds on top of the money I earned to build and develop Chiropractic tables with a local carpenter. It was a big risk but after a few developments and trials during development the end product was amazing, and it was very much worth it.
In Chiropractic there are different techniques that the profession has developed and at that point of time I was very much and still am Interested and was very fond of the Gonstead system of Chiropractic. And this specific technique utilised 3 pieces of furniture that Includes the pelvic bench, cervical chair as well as the knee chest table and that was the very first products that we manufactured and built – The Gonstead set. And that was how Revival Chiropractic was born, with the aim of providing and supplying high quality and affordable Chiropractic tables and equipment to the local Chiropractors and students In Malaysia.
As with any other new start up, there were some challenges I faced and had to learn quickly such as understanding the business model at hand as I am selling a long-term asset to a very niche market here in Malaysia as well as communicating with uncles who have a very unpredictable temperament. To learn to communicate and handle the different people and clients I work with is definitely something I had to learn to pick up pretty quickly. On top of that, I had to juggle between my studies and running my business. And as a small business owner you are basically playing every role needed to run the business.
It also took a very long time to make my first ever sale, approximately 1 year. But ever since then, the company has taken off and after almost 2 years of running Revival Chiropractic, our company have supplied to over 13 Chiropractic clinics from KL, Selangor, Johor and even Singapore which includes clinics that are well established to young startups looking to make an impact in their community. And over 50 practitioners use our tables and products nationwide. We are currently looking into the international market to export our products to Australia and Europe. We are also continually getting feedback from the local Chiropractors who we are supplying to and continually trying to improve and develop our tables to our best capacity.
And this year we are fortunate enough to be able to reinvest our profits to develop new products specifically targeted to students which includes the radiographic parallel, a portable knee chest and portable Chiropractic table which is definitely a big goal of mine. Reinvesting the profit feels like taking that first step and risk all over again but it is something that I need to keep learning and going through to help propel the business and hopefully serve a bigger part of the community.
One of my favorite quotes from Jordan Peterson where he says that opportunity lurks where responsibilities are abdicated and it is a big privilege for me to shoulder this opportunity and problem I once had, so that now I can play a part in helping the Chiropractic community grow here in Malaysia and also playing a role in helping Chiropractors in Malaysia deliver the best care they possibly can to their patients through providing high quality, affordable and accessible Chiropractic tables and equipment here locally.
I owe all of this success to the support of my family especially my parents and the support of the local chiropractic community in Malaysia for trusting in the products that we provide. As Chiropractic is a profession that is relatively young and still growing in Malaysia, it is really my honor and privilege to help grow the profession through Revival Chiropractic.
Cedric Lee is also the first prize winner for Entrepreneurship Oral Presenters at the IMU Alumni Conference in October 2022.
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