Watts next? Gen Z woman sheds light on saving her 'boomer mum's' outdated lighting shop

Running a business is challenging and establishing a strong online presence is crucial, especially in today's landscape. 

And that's what one determined 22-year-old Gen Z daughter is doing with Megan Lee on a mission to save her "boomer mum's" lighting shop, Light + Form Concepts.

Currently a business undergraduate at Singapore Management University, Megan recently propelled the business into the TikTok sphere. 

On October 30, Megan posted a 56-second TikTok clip outlining her plans to revive Light + Form Concepts.

@lightandform On my mission to save my boomer mom’s light shop 💡 #fyp #firstvideo #lights ♬ original sound - Light+Form

Megan tells AsiaOne that the business has been poor ever since the circuit breaker period in 2020 and they are finding it "hard to recover". 

Her 61-year-old mum, Samantha Ong, opened the shop in 1990 but has not progressed the business to keep up with the times, Megan mentioned in the video.

Also, in the video, Megan promised a forthcoming business pitch which will outline how she intends to save her mum's shop.

She invited viewers to join in on the journey by following their TikTok page.

The video, filled with Gen Z lingo and her heartwarming story, garnered an impressive 1.7 million likes and 9.9 million views to date. 

Comments flooded in from around the world, praising Megan's video editing skills and engaging storytelling.

Netizens likened the video to a Disney channel show, with some drawing parallels to Kim's Antiques store from the early noughties hit TV show Gilmore Girls. 

Even big names like camera company Nikon and YouTube comedy channel Wah! Banana were impressed. 

While Kapitan restaurant - whose owner's son dropped out of university to help out the family's Slavic eatery - expressed solidarity, they also highlighted the shared experience of navigating familial responsibilities.

Megan shares with AsiaOne that her mum was shocked when she revealed the staggering number of video views.

"Since then she has downloaded TikTok and is currently reading all the comments. She's also so eager and always asking me when we are shooting the next video," Megan added.

In a second TikTok video, Megan presented a business pitch deck to her mum, the product of 36 hours of hard work.

@lightandform The pitch… how do you think I did? 💡#fyp #lights #pitch ♬ original sound - Light+Form

Complete with stats, graphs, and a business proposal, Megan approached it like a typical client pitch. 

Her plan includes boosting the shop's social media presence, changing the logo (as revealed in her latest video at the time of writing), and revamping the physical store itself.

"For now, we have only planned to post on TikTok to help the shop gain more brand awareness and exposure, and hopefully we will see conversions to sales," Megan explains to AsiaOne.

"In the near future, we are planning to expand our e-commerce to reach a wider market."

"It has been unexpected but we are glad to see people loving the videos and being so supportive, it has definitely motivated us a lot."

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venkat.gunasellan@asiaone.com

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