To say that the last six years have been a rollercoaster would be an understatement. During that span of time, I gave birth to four beautiful children, opened up three tuition centres, and earned my master’s degree in early childhood education at NIE.
While simultaneously playing the roles of mother, wife, student, educator, and entrepreneur has been an incredible challenge, it’s one that I was up for. I love to teach, and have a great desire to nurture the next generation of young minds.
Opening up my own tuition centre was a dream and made sense to me, despite the fact that I had no experience in running a business – especially when it came to things like managing accounts, and issuing and filing invoices. Though my husband, who has been my pillar of strength and who has helped guide me through the operations aspect of running a business, I was essentially a one-woman show: I took on administrative, marketing, and operational roles, in addition to my teaching duties.
However, there is only so much a single person can do. I knew I needed help, and that’s when I was introduced to the Digital Mumpreneurs Programme.
A friend from school introduced me to a colleague who ran the programme. Intrigued by what it had to offer, I decided to take a chance and applied right away. After learning I was accepted, I went into the programme excited to learn about all the new ways I could expand my business knowledge, and access new opportunities and networks I was previously in the dark about.
After attending a couple of sharing sessions and panel discussions, I was ready to put into practice the knowledge and insights I was accumulating.
Firstly, I adopted an entirely different approach to marketing. Previously, students found my tuition centre via word of mouth. But after listening to Love, Bonito’s Rachel Lim talk about how she uses “reverse mentoring” to learn from the youth about the latest social media trends and often works with younger employees to manage her business’s social media accounts, I decided to follow in her footsteps.
I worked with select influencers to promote my tuition centre, and used the “live” function on Facebook, YouTube, and TikTok to conduct revision sessions. I am very glad to say that these strategies have paid off handsomely.
Using the insights and network from the programme, I was also able to secure additional funding to help open up a third branch of my tuition centre.
Attending the Digital Mumpreneurs Programme turned out to be a personal turning point. I walked away from the experience not only with a deeper, richer understanding of the inner workings of a business, but also with a renewed sense of purpose and enthusiasm for the future. Since graduating from the programme, I have hired a small team to help me run the tuition centre, including a co-principal to help with curriculum planning, and admin staff to ensure everything runs smoothly.
And while I am still learning on the go, I feel much more confident in my abilities as a teacher and businesswoman. I have more time on my hands to spend with my husband and kids.
I am currently working with a major publisher to have our textbooks/workbooks distributed worldwide and I definitely want to provide curriculum and materials support to social enterprises providing volunteer tuition programmes as a way of giving back to the community of young learners who have enriched my life in so many ways.
When I first opened up my tuition centre, not a day went by without thinking that maybe I was not cut out to run a business. But I persevered despite the mountain of doubt in my mind because the sense of satisfaction I receive from positively impacting young minds is far greater. With the Digital Mumpreneurs Programme, I have found a community of brilliant, like-minded women who, like me, were juggling multiple things simultaneously. After spending time in their company, I have walked away feeling so much more empowered and capable.
I hope my story serves as inspiration for women who lack confidence in their own abilities — you are far more capable than you realise and you will find a way to make it work.
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Senior Lecturer, Ngee Ann Polytechnic
Melvin Gan is a senior lecturer at Ngee Ann Polytechnic’s School of Business and Accountancy, where he specialises in sustainability in business management, ESG reporting, digital marketing, consumer insights, and human-centered design thinking. A founding member of the Sustainability Module Team, he has been instrumental in developing specialised curricula such as Corporate Governance and Reporting for Sustainable Business and has contributed to the growth of the Business Sustainability and Digitalisation specialisation.
Consultant & Trainer, CSO Centre
Joyce was former Commercial Director at Climate Impact Exchange (CIX), a global carbon solutions provider established by Temasek Holdings, Singapore Exchange, DBS Bank & Standard Chartered in Singapore. She was hired as part of the founding team and represented CIX in multiple public forums on decarbonisation, market development and green finance.
Joyce has close to 20 years of experience in the financial industry. She has helmed leadership roles at Singapore Exchange, Goldman Sachs and Credit Suisse across various business and operation units. At CIX, she worked with C-Suites, NGOs and financiers on decarbonisation solutions, global carbon market development, as well as alignment with the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) for long term impact and business resilience.
Consultant & Trainer, CSO Centre
Lance is an FSA Credential Holder and GRI Certified Sustainability Professional. Throughout his corporate career, he has worked at JPMorgan, Citibank and Singapore Exchange. As a marketing and corporate communications consultant, his clients have included DBS, Singtel, UOB, Bank of Singapore as well as many other government organisations, SMEs and startups.
He currently specializes in helping corporates with ESG and sustainability reporting as a trainer and consultant. His courses have been taken by individuals and companies from all over the world and accredited by the Institute of Banking & Finance (Singapore). He is also an associate lecturer with Ngee Ann Polytechnic for various sustainability-related courses.
Designed for business owners to enhance their digital capabilities through practical learning, this programme takes businesses to the next level.
Designed for business owners to enhance their digital capabilities through practical learning, this programme takes businesses to the next level.
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