"If You Close Business No. 6, Start Business No. 7"

Ministry of SMEs and Startups Hosts '2021 Rechallenge Day' Sharing Success Stories of Overcoming Adversity

Kang Sung-cheon, Vice Minister of the Ministry of SMEs and Startups.
[Photo by Asia Economy DB]

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Jong-hwa] Kang Tae-soon (59), CEO of 'Wellness,' had to close down his planning agency when a business crisis hit in 2004 and his wife suffered a sudden accident that put her life in danger. Despite selling all his assets, he was left with debt and became a credit defaulter, but his passion remained strong. Fourteen years later, in 2017, after overcoming his credit delinquency, Kang founded Wellness, whose main product is artificial turf with antibacterial and deodorizing functions. Wellness has been on a path to success, growing from 61 million KRW in sales in 2019 to 845 million KRW last year. Kang stated, "My principles are not to do what others do, always develop something new, and avoid creating debt."

#Kim Sung-jin (54), CEO of 'Tommy Korea,' a pet supplies manufacturer, is a six-time comeback story. Having experienced six business closures, Kim regretted most the closure of his car air freshener and deodorizer manufacturing company, which won the 1 million USD export tower award in 2003. At that time, he learned how to respond to unpredictable crises by diversifying clients and balancing export and domestic sales portfolios. When he re-established his business last year with pet supplies as the item, he secured initial capital through a re-startup loan from the Small and Medium Business Corporation and opened a smart store on a portal site after online sales channel training. Within a week of opening the smart store, he sold 10,000 units. Kim emphasized, "Despite extensive business experience, I did not become complacent and completed over 100 hours of re-startup education," adding, "Continuous learning and development are most important."

On the 25th, the Ministry of SMEs and Startups announced that it held the '2021 Rechallenge Day' to foster a culture that accepts failure and supports re-challenge in our society.

The event included a rechallenge ceremony (awards for revitalizing re-startups, contest awards, etc.), presentations of rechallenge cases, and networking for policy communication among participants.

At the rechallenge case presentations, Kang Tae-soon, CEO of Wellness, won the grand prize?the Minister of SMEs and Startups Award?at the Rechallenge Case Contest (Rewriting Success Stories) held from August to October, and four others, including Kim Sung-jin of Tommy Korea, received excellence awards. The awardees then shared vivid experiences from failure to re-challenge.

Notably, this year, as part of follow-up measures to the 'Measures to Promote New Business Entry and Rejuvenation of SMEs' announced last July, a 'bad debt write-off' event was held jointly with policy financial institutions (Regional Credit Guarantee Foundations, Small and Medium Business Corporation, Korea Technology Finance Corporation) that completely relieve debtors' repayment burdens by terminating the exercise of uncertain claims. This reviewed the status of bad debt write-offs carried out over the past four years.

Through this, approximately 1.7 trillion KRW worth of claims, which have effectively expired from 2018 to this year, were written off, enabling more than 66,000 SME owners and small business owners to break free from debt shackles and dream of a fresh start. The Ministry plans to ensure that policy financial institutions cooperate to write off more than 300 billion KRW next year without fail.

Kang Sung-chun, Vice Minister of the Ministry of SMEs and Startups, said, "Failure is a painful experience for all of us, but it is also a process toward success," adding, "We will focus our policy capabilities to open the door to success once again with strong resilience despite difficulties."