The five -year-old eFusion, one of only a few big names that dominate the competitive ringtone and mobile phone logo download market, could tap the new technology to ramp up new services.

Mr Lim, its chief executive officer, could then bring in souped-up multimedia games and music services. For instance, next-generation quizzes and chatlines with video clips thrown in.

Certainly, the new services would jazz up eFusion's offerings and meet handset owners' expectations for fresh tunes every two to six months.

'I have learnt to recognise a fake business deal from a genuine one. You can never learn these lessons in school,' added the Nanyang Technological University accountancy graduate.

So while the nationwide rollout of 3G mobile phones is expected by the year's end, Mr Lim is not holding his breath for an immediate 'boom' in the 3G business.

'You still need consumer education. Consumers will take time to upgrade their phones,' he said.

And there have to be more 3G handsets available and they must also be easy to use.

There is also the question of how much it would cost people to download or send content. For example, it costs about five cents to send one SMS, but about 40 to 50 cents to send one MMS. The cost of 3G content cannot be determined yet.

The real deal, whether 3G would add to eFusion's 'multi-million dollar' business which should hit a double-digit figure next year, remains to be seen.

Starting young

The cautiousness is a far cry from when Mr Lim, who is inspired by his businessman father and motivation gurus like Anthony Robbins, began dabbling in business at age 18.

He peddled household wares from his own home at a flea market at Clarke Quay, ran an import and export business, organised trade fairs and seminars, and an online dating portal 'that was a flop' partly because there was no 'critical mass' and partly because of the dot.com bust.

The portal, however, was the start-up christened eFusion. And after the Internet bust, Mr Lim banked on mobile phones content because he foresaw that people would be buying more mobile phones than PCs. And he was right.

Today, the 120-strong company has three lines of business: mobile communications, outsourcing and smartcard services.

Mobile communications accounts for 70 per cent of the company's revenue. These include friendship lines where people call a number to chat, submit answers to quizzes, get soccer results, phone voting via channels like the short messaging service (SMS), MMS, interactive voice response systems, wireless application protocol and web-based log-ins. Ringtones make up a small portion of the company's content.

The outsourcing business makes up 25 per cent while the smart card business makes up the balance.

Under outsourcing, the company's call centre, with about 100 agents, handles sales, customer relationship building and customer retention promotions.

For example, a bank that wants to do a credit card acquisition can get its eFusion's agents to recruit new credit card customers.

Under its smart card business, eFusion can print and personalise cards for ezLink and Cashcard for a promotion.

For example, printing Finding Nemo collectible cards when the movie was on.

For all his been-there-done-that savvy, the bachelor still lives with his parents, an older sister and a younger brother in their family home.

A Nokia 9210 Communicator phone-cum-digital organiser is his constant companion.

He still thrives on the challenge of implementing ideas. 'I plan to be in business for the next 30 to 40 years. I've always liked to be an entrepreneur and to build a business empire.'

But there is one thing he will not trade: 'I just make sure that I have seven hours of sleep.'