Former TVB Actress Vivien Yeo Says She Earned Over S$17.9mil In 5 Years By Starting Her Own Beauty Biz

Being financially independent and doing only what you love sounds like a dream — or a pipe dream — to most. But Malaysian actress-turned-entrepreneur Vivien Yeo claims that she’s been able to achieve that with her eponymous beauty store.

The former TVB actress shared in a recent video that she’s earned over HK$100mil (S$17.9mil) in five years with her business, which started off as an online store. The Vivien Yeo Beauty Store has since expanded beyond cyberspace, with brick and mortar stores in China, Hongkong, Malaysia and Singapore. The store sells a variety of products ranging from skincare, make-up and weight loss supplements.

Vivien recently gave an insight into her money-making methods through a YouTube video, in which she shared more about the online payment systems and platforms that she uses for her business. She also revealed sales figures from two payment gateways, Magento and Stripe, which came up to HK$86mil (S$15.4mil) and HK$19mil (S$3.4mil) respectively.

The 35-year-old said that she changed the payment gateways for her online stores so frequently that she isn't able to show all the sales figures for the five years her business has been around in the video. She continued that the figures shown in her video were only from online sales, and excluded cash payments, bank transfers and offline sales.

She emphasised that the S$17.9mil she’s earned isn't all profit as she’s spent a hefty amount on advertising, purchasing products, infrastructure and other related expenses. According to Vivien, the purpose of her video isn't to elicit jealousy, and that she sincerely wants others to be able to achieve financial independence like she did.

Vivien then went on to talk about her Facebook advertising expenditure, which she claimed was “enough to buy a brand new three-room flat in Hongkong”. Vivien added that she also had a dedicated ad account manager fly with her from Singapore to Hongkong in order to attend a meeting.

​Before she ended the video, she asked her viewers to take note of one important thing and that is to ignore the naysayers in your life.

“The thing that I heard the most was people questioning me about my every move (…) They asked me why people would buy my brand when there are so many other good skincare brands out there," she said. "They also asked whether a woman would be able to handle so many things on her own. Even now, there will still be people who doubt what I say [about my sales figures] even if I release all my sales reports.”

One thing’s for sure, though. Vivien was able to pay TVB the termination fee that was required when she ended her contract with the broadcaster prematurely so she could focus on her business. When reporters asked how much she had to fork out, she would only say this: “It was a figure that both parties agreed on and were happy with. I’m very grateful to TVB for being so understanding.”