4Seasons Coffee Shop Opens at 2 ACE Campuses

By I’mACE Team

If you have visited any ACE campus, you may have noticed that there is a coffee shop inside for students, ACE staff and visitors. 4Seasons is a coffee shop is owned by a 27-year old Cambodian entrepreneur, Mr Lim Hai, and it is open for business inside ACE Tuol Tom Poung Campus and ACE Santhor Mok Campus. Below you will find an interview with the owner that the I’mACE conducted.

Interviewing Mr Lim Hai

Q: How did you become an entrepreneur?

A: I was born into a family that had run a lot of businesses. Growing up I assisted my parents’ business in many ways. Since I was young I have wanted to be an entrepreneur. Over time, I have developed my own perspective on being an entrepreneur.

Q: Can you tell us about how you founded 4Seasons and when the shop opened?

A: 4Seasons is my first business that relates to coffee, which was opened in February 2018. Before I opened this coffee shop, I opened another business, called Pro Paintball which is located near Prek Ho.

ACE Tuol Tom Poung's 4Seasons Coffee Shop

Q: Can you tell us your 3 most popular drinks offered in your coffee shop?

A: The first one is an iced Latte, the second one is a chocolate frappe and the third one is a hot latte. We also serve bread items, such as croissants and cakes.

Q: Why did you choose to name your coffee shop 4Seasons?

A: The brand 4Seasons was inspired by my brother who also runs his own coffee shop in Australia. The name of his coffee shop is 4Seasons too, so the brand of my shop takes after my brother’s. Furthermore, my brother helped me prepare and arrange this coffee shop a lot, since it is my first time running one.

4Seaons Barista making a cup of coffee

Q: Then why did you choose ACE for the location of your coffee shop?

A: As we can see, there are so many coffee shops. There are high-end coffee shops and more casual coffee shops. Therefore, if I chose to open the shop in the public, I would have to compete with those shops. The more competitors you have, the more difficulties you face in running your business. I believe that my business will proceed smoothly if it is inside an ACE campus because there are many students and staff to be potential customers.

Q: Are there any challenge you have faced in running the coffee shop?

A: The challenge that I have encountered so far is the prices of our products. Even though I am the only coffee shop in ACE, that doesn’t mean that the other public shops around ACE TTP cannot compete with us. Customers, including students and ACE staff, still have many choices as to where they want to buy their drinks, so that is one of the biggest challenges I face. As this is my first time to run a coffee shop, I started with zero experience; everything was new to me, from how to make coffee taste good to how to use the equipment. I learned over time.

Q: Do you have any advice for those who also want to be entrepreneurs?

A: You cannot run a business just for your own advantage, but you have to make sure that your business partners like your cooperators or your customers enjoy doing business with you too. All in all, to be an entrepreneur you must make sure that you are a reliable, honest and responsible.

As a part of I’mACE, we would like to thank Mr Lim Hai for spending his valuable time sharing his story with us. To the readers, if you study or work at ACE either Santhor Mok or Tuol Tom Poung campus, stop by 4Seasons.