First reported on 8 April 2009

'WHEN the going gets tough, the tough get going.' That's the motto that Indian-born Rakesh Chopra, founder and managing director of software firm Icon Resources & Technologies, instils in himself and his staff.

For Mr Chopra, 45, these are tough times indeed, the toughest he has faced since 2000, when he took the plunge to become his own boss.

That was no walk in the park either. Then aged in his mid-30s, the engineer had two sons, Nikhil and Ashish, to support. His wife, Jyoti, had just started her own HR consulting business.

Mr Chopra was foregoing a senior vice-president's post at an IT distribution company in exchange for much less pay and far more uncertainty.

But that did not deter him: 'We always felt restricted working for someone else. We had the urge to do something on our own. We wanted to develop things in our own way.'

He and his partner, Mr P. Murali , pumped $250,000 into setting up the business. The lion's share of the capital came from Mr Chopra.

They took up a modest space in Tannery Lane. They are still there but have expanded to take up another floor.

Initially, the company focused on IT distribution, but soon found profit margins were low. 'What we realised, was that we could not be just selling things, we had to add value to the business, and at a lower price than competitors.'

Icon got its breakthrough in 2003 with its first substantial contract, worth about $20,000. The job, for a food distribution firm, involved a system to scan all the client's documents into its IT system.

The company then roped in another partner, Mr Chandan Roy to help with sales and marketing, especially with sealing larger deals.

Another complication was that those early years followed the bursting of the dot.com bubble when companies were not spending much on technology.

The secret to success was hard work. 'Getting the first three references is the most difficult. That is why we had to work so hard at telemarketing. We would call around all our contacts and try to fix meetings. Each of us was meeting three or four potential clients a day.'

What turned into a blockbuster product for the company was a business intelligence software system from Sweden called QlikView.

This allowed businesses to analyse data and make better forecasts about what products they should focus on.

Icon was not the only company in Singapore marketing the product. But Mr Chopra says Icon showed customers it could add value. 'The product helped us to grow tremendously and lift our profile.'

Since then, Icon has grown from fewer than a dozen workers to nearly 100. It is one of the top 500 SMEs here by revenue, having hit over $100 million a year previously. It has four offices in India.

Icon might be said to be sitting pretty, having established itself with large companies and government ministries.

But this sudden downturn has hit it hard. Mr Chopra said: 'It was like going from 110 to 50 in just three months. From October to December, things just slowed dramatically. It is just the toughest times I have seen in 20 years of doing business. Nobody was prepared for it. '

However, he feels is well-placed to weather the crisis. 'We have always reinvested the majority of our profits to grow the business. We were careful with our borrowings, so even today, we do not have a lot of bank financing.'

Icon also manages its capital prudently. 'We try to collect our debts on time and we actually have a shorter turnaround cycle, so as to make sure we get cash sooner rather than later,' he said.

The firm is also nimble. A few years ago, it opened a Malaysian office, but soon found it was a tough market. 'We realised that we had little expertise to succeed in that market and within a year, we cut our losses and closed the office.'

Icon gets 30 to 40 per cent of its business from existing customers - either new sales or support. 'This offers stability to our business,' he said.

Icon is also diversified across two markets, with Singapore bringing in 60 per cent of revenue and India the rest.

Icon has already started to appoint resellers in Sri Lanka and Bangladesh. This will not require much capital expenditure.

Icon has also boosted its portfolio with a new product, Action Base, which helps clients manage their action items by tracking the delegated tasks and consolidating all the related emails into a single email for easy tracking.

At the same time, Icon is keeping costs down while trying to keep staff morale up. It has not laid off staff, but is not replacing those who leave. All staff have taken a pay cut of up to 20 per cent.

Mr Chopra alone is taking home about 40 per cent less. He says the symbolism is important. 'We are the ones who contribute most to steering the organisation. We benefit most when the company succeeds so we should take the biggest hit when things are bad. I also want to show my staff that they are not in this alone.'

And never forget hard work. While waiting for the economy to turn the corner, he writes messages in the monthly online newsletter, urging everyone to put in more effort. 'In tough times, we can only work harder.'