In the current economic climate, finding any job - let alone the right one - is tough, especially for young people who do not have much experience. Instead of spending months sending out resumes and going for job interviews, another option is starting a business.
Tracy Luk Lai-kwan, 26, graduated from the Hong Kong Institution of Education and worked as a school teacher for a year before founding Fruitful Education to provide recreational classes to schools in 2007.
'The biggest challenge in operating an educational organisation is the need to build a good reputation and gain the trust of schools and parents,' she says. 'At the beginning, I sent out hundreds of brochures and made hundreds of calls to schools, but the feedback was poor because nobody knew us.'
But Ms Luk didn't give up. Finally, St James Settlement gave her music and art lessons a try and they were well received.
'Now we serve around 20 schools and education centres and have 50 tutors with different specialities,' she says. 'The key to our success is monitoring students closely and frequently communicating with schools and parents so we can improve.'
Ms Luk says the next step will be to open her own centre. Rent is the main concern, but she is confident she can raise funds next year when the business has grown.
Egon Liu Yun-kai, 26, a toy collector, turned his passion into a moneymaker by opening an online toy shop. Results were encouraging, and three months ago he took advantage of declining rents to open a shop in a mall in Sham Shui Po.