Call 'Em Little Bosses

Kids as young as five are running businesses at children's fairs, and parents say the experience is helping them hone essential life skills

- Jane Ng

Audrienne Hui En Mohammed Bazli is nine – and has a little business selling homemade plushies. The Primary 4 pupil from Rulang Primary School set up shop for the third time on June 14 at the Children's Entrepreneurship Fair held at Furama RiverFront, a hotel in Havelock Road.

"Running my own business is interesting because I get to talk to people. I ask them how they are and what catches their eye," says Audrienne. She spent $10 to rent a stall space – about 1m by 0.5m – to display her plushies, which she calls Michikos.

The work for her business starts weeks before the fair, when she spends an hour or two daily making yarn plushies with the help of a knitting machine.

"Sometimes, my arm gets tired from turning the machine gears many times. But the end product is so cute," adds the young entrepreneur. Her wares sell from $8 for a mini to $40 for a jumbo-size plushie.

Audrienne says she learnt that it is not easy running a business.

"The most difficult is getting people to buy a Michiko because they may not want to. But I try to convince them by telling them what they can use it for."

The Children's Entrepreneurship Fair is the brainchild of Ms Sheryl Ang, who founded social enterprise Self-directed Life in 2021 and ran the first fair with the help of volunteers in 2022.

Ms Ang, who homeschools her three children aged six, nine and 10, is trained in accounting and finance. She now focuses on coaching and advocacy on parenting and education topics.

She hopes to educate parents on the benefits of child-led learning.

"It is possible to educate children by giving them agency. We want to empower children to have their own voice, make their own decisions and run the business as they would without interference by parents," she says.

For example, some parents may say "this product doesn't look good" or "that packaging is not nice".