How do you start—and navigate—a business through its ups and downs? James Pang, founder and managing director of My Drum School shares how God called him into business and remains the centre of it.
As a fresh-faced graduate 17 years ago, James Pang was on top of the world. The 26-year old had attained first class honours in accountancy from Nanyang Technological University and had received many job offers, finally deciding to work with one of the Big 4 consulting firms.
Little did he know God would soon change his life.
James at the very start of My Drum School in 2008. All photos courtesy of James Pang.
“During my first work trip, God spoke to me very clearly: ‘Go and start a drum school’,” James recounted. It was a big decision but he ultimately decided to trust God and quit his job, barely eight months after starting work.
“My parents were very concerned. They asked me, ‘Starting a business doesn’t require a degree! You finally did well in school… Are you sure you know what you’re doing?’”
However, James knew in his heart he was on the right track because it came from God. “My parents weren’t unhappy; they just wanted to be sure that I knew what I was doing. My mother even lent me some money to get started.
“After My Drum School’s first year in business, things started to come together and I knew this was my calling.”
STARTING A SCHOOL BY FAITH
Ever since he learned to play the drums—starting formal lessons at 17—he knew this was what he wanted to do. He invested in a set of digital drums and practised every day. Nine years later, he was starting a drum school with “no certificate, no nothing”.
“No certificate, no nothing” but James diligently marketed his school in 2007
“I took my first graded exam when i was around 28 or 29,” James laughed. “Parents of my students would ask me, ‘What certification do you have?’ I would reply, ‘I’m taking Grade 2 now.’ Luckily, my students and their parents were very understanding.”
He eventually achieved highest honours for his Associate Diploma in Drums seven years later in 2014.
For the first seven years, James observed the Sabbath day and the business closed on Sundays. It was a struggle both financially and emotionally but he managed to make peace with the decision.
“After seven years, God told me: ‘Open on Sunday; reach out to non-believers.’ By this time we were so used to closing on Sundays, that I was surprised how uncomfortable I felt with this.
“But we obeyed God, and started opening on Sundays. Our first two staff members were Christian, but we now have staffers of all religions, though the majority of our teachers and students are believers. We also actively reach out to the non-Christians in the music community.”
James and his family joined City Harvest Church in 2019. His four children all have names beginning with the letter D. “So you know I really love Drumming,” he joked. The family had been at a smaller church for many years, but Pang and his wife keenly felt the lack of support for families.
“My wife would be in the cry room all the time with our four kids, so we felt it was time to think about the children and the next phase of our lives,” he explained.
After visiting CHC and Harvest Kidz (“The kids loved it!”), the family decided to stay.
James with his first staff team in 2009
OUTSMARTING COVID
In August that year, James took out a $200,000 business loan to renovate two of the school’s locations. Half a year later, the government announced the COVID-19 “circuit breaker”, shutting down tuition and enrichment centres and places of worship.
This was the death knell for many businesses in Singapore. But instead of wringing their hands, James’ curriculum team proposed taking lessons online.
He explains, “We had been developing our student app for a year before the pandemic hit; COVID pushed us to accelerate its development and pressed our students to download the app from the app store.”
James and his team swung into high gear.
MDS continued in-person classes for small groups during Covid in 2020 but it was their online classes that grew
“We had to rewrite the syllabus such that we could upload the content to our student app so that students could use the practice pad at home,” he details.
“Each member of the curriculum team had to rewrite one module. Instead of playing songs, we focused on other aspects of musicality, for instance, music theory, sight-reading, rhythmic work, rudiments, combinations etc.
“It was pretty dry stuff, but it’s the foundation of drumming and we’re lucky that many students appreciated the chance to get back to the basics.”
What could have been a disaster became a blessing to My Drum School (MDS). “COVID changed the way we did business,” says James. “Before COVID, we were only around 50 percent cashless. Now almost all our accounts are settled using PayNow.”
Going online also gave rose to creative ways of developing their students.
“During COVID, we started hosting virtual recitals every three months. Students would record themselves playing and we would stitch their performances together, with eight drummers per song. We would edit the videos, then publish them on YouTube for the community to comment,” James says.
“Our young drummers love it—it’s low pressure for them because it’s not a live performance, and more importantly, they can share their videos with their friends. Now, we’re on Virtual Recital #14, even though we have in-person recitals too.”
MDS’ innovative app and virtual lessons and recitals were a big success. This was a Founder’s Day session in 2020
These innovative measures were successful in helping MDS retain its students. “Over the lockdown period, more and more students wanted to postpone until the lockdown was over,” he recalls. But thanks to the app, “by year-end, we didn’t have any net loss in student numbers.”
Despite the difficulties, MDS ended the year in the black and even managed to distribute their profits as a bonus to the staff.
“We had a few things we could do with the surplus: we could keep them as cash reserves, repay the loan, or we could distribute it to the staff,” says James. “Since we had been blessed, this was a good chance to be a blessing too.”
THE BIGGEST HURDLE
COVID wasn’t the most difficult episode for MDS. At the start of 2023, the majority of James core team left to pursue different goals.
“I was very stressed by this,” he admits. “I didn’t just lose employees, I lost some good friends as well, friends who have been with me for many years.
“When they left, the friendship was affected, as was the culture at work. People started to speculate and gossip—that was the tough part.
“COVID was a logistical problem—we could solve it with the right technology, equipment and staff. It wasn’t easy but we did it. This situation was a lot more personal: I had to struggle with my own emotions, beliefs and self-doubt. Did I do something wrong? Why did they all leave?”
My Drum School was named one of Singapore’s most promising SMEs in 2013
One day, his church zone leader Pastor Johann Sim encouraged the zone to write down their vision for 2023. In response, James wrote the Chinese character 一 which means “one”.
“It reminded me of the one true God, but it also looked like a minus sign,” he explains. “In line with Pastor Kong’s message on ‘Slow Down Christianity’, I wanted to ‘minus’ some things from my life. I didn’t expect that to include most of my staff from headquarters!”
James found solace in church and in cell group. “My cell group was there to pray with me and encourage me. I told myself not to neglect God, to continue serving and attending church and cell group. 2023 really taught me to stick it out.”
He was particularly inspired by Dr John Avanzini’s sermon. “What stuck with me was how David saw God as bigger than Goliath. I thought ‘Yes, that’s God speaking to me!’ If not for the CHC community, I would have just stayed at home and remained bitter, missing out on what God was trying to do with me, which was to focus on Him as The One.”
SHOULD YOU START A BUSINESS?
Pang firmly believes that starting a business isn’t for everyone. One needs to receive the calling rather than deciding to start a business because “my boss is mean to me” or “I can’t get the salary I want in my current job.”
“Those who start a business for such ‘push’ reasons often find that many things are worse when you’re running your own business!
Through ups and downs, God has held James and MDS in His hand, leading and protecting them over the years. This was taken at a mini-concert held in 2023 at Hard Rock Cafe
“In my early years, I would encourage everyone to start their own business. Now I realise that might have been harmful to them as not everybody is called to start a business. When I left my job, I felt a strong pull. That was God’s calling for me to do something different.”
For those who feel that pull, James’ advice is to “pray about the calling: pray that God will show you what He is calling you out to do. When I first felt the call, I was on a business trip. I prayed, in the hotel room, for God to show me everything. I spent that night downloading everything from the vision that God gave to me.
“In James 1:5, it instructs ‘If any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to you.’
“The other thing that’s important is thanksgiving. Philippians 4:6-7 says that we need thanksgiving in everything. It’s easy to be thankful in good times, but it’s hard in difficult times. That was the hardest part for me at the start of 2023. I had to tell myself that there’s always something to be thankful for.”
Indeed, all things worked together for those who love God. MDS hired remote staff based in different parts of the Philippines. This meant they had to change many of their processes, from simple things like how to route calls over the Internet, and solve complex issues around payments and security. Things didn’t start well, but the team managed to sort the teething issues out. Last year, James brought the team together, including the Filipino staff, for a company trip to Langkawi.
James gathered all his staff from Singapore and the Philippines last year for an R&R trip to Langkawi
“We’re not in a rush to expand. There’s no need to set an ambitious goal. We want to trust what God is doing with us. Like Pastor Jeffrey Rachmat once said, we just plant the seed and water and trust that God will make it grow.”
