There are more millionaires here now and among them, entrepreneurs who started out young.

After all, if fortune favours the brave, then the young have a leg up in the cut-throat world of wheeling and dealing.

The New Paper on Sunday spoke to entrepreneurs who started out young. A common theme emerged - their battle cry is no fear.

Take Miss Magdalene Chan, for example.

She is only 20 years old, but already runs a million-dollar business.

Miss Chan and her 24-year-old sister, Clare, are bosses of Hervelvetvase, a fashion blogshop which has been making an annual seven-figure revenue for the past two years. It started in 2007.

The younger Miss Chan, who recently graduated from high school at the Overseas Family School here, says her friends do tease her.

"Sometimes they call me Millionaire Mag for fun," she says with a laugh.

Two 10-piece collections are launched with the help of their 12-women team every week.

Most of the pieces, priced between $20 and $30, are designed by the duo, then sent to China for manufacturing.

The Chan sisters are among the growing number of rich who call Singapore home.

Born to a Malaysian housewife mother and a businessman father who is from Hong Kong, they have been living in Singapore for the past 17 years and are permanent residents here.

Social media has been integral in the success of their business, say the sisters.

"Platforms like Facebook help our customers to see the previews of our collections and to share them," says Clare.

Their business started in 2007, with just three pieces of clothing sourced from the wholesale streets of Melbourne, Australia.

Then, Clare was an undergraduate studying psychology at Monash University. She had an insatiable appetite for shopping.

"I noticed that the clothing choices back home were quite limited and if it was a pretty design, it would be worn virtually by everyone, losing the exclusivity factor," she says.

The first collection they launched, imported from Australia, was snapped up and spurred them to expand the business.

But over the years, competition has intensified exponentially, says the duo.

When they first started, there were only a handful of players in the local blogshop scene, a far cry from the thousands which occupy cyberspace these days.

The competition can be daunting, they say.

"The (online shopping) market has become saturated.

"Even as one of the trailblazers of the industry and having operated for more than five years, we still find ourselves shaken from time to time by the sheer amount of competitors who are vying for customers," says Clare.

Although the women have their father, a director of his own company, as a mentor, they felt like "two lost sheep" when they started out on their own.

Being young and female added to the challenge, they say.

"There were countless times we were ripped off by suppliers.

"In a particularly bad case, a supplier we went to in China cheated us of a five-figure amount and disappeared with our own designs, which we sent to his factory to manufacture.

"Some time later, we saw them floating about in Singapore," says Miss Clare.

"But the business offers us a great sense of achievement and satisfaction especially when it comes to drawing a salary," says Magdalene.

In fact, this reporter spotted a pair of Chanel ballet flats on Clare and a designer bag on her younger sister.

But they are quick to add that they are a lot more aware of the value of a dollar now.

"We do a lot of budgeting and financing in our business, and that flows into our decision-making when it comes to personal things, whether it be buying a pair of shoes or taking up a course," says Clare.

This article was first published in The New Paper.