This 20-year-old NUS student saved her parents’ shop from closing and runs it between classes

At nine, Lin En Qi was already playing entrepreneur. She would take T-shirts, power banks and bags from her family’s lifestyle and homegoods store at Kampung Admiralty, Happy Life, to sell on resale platform Carousell and to her schoolmates behind her teachers’ backs. 

She even mapped out her education around her dream of pursuing business, including choosing Outram Secondary School, one of the few schools she knew that offered business as a subject. 

There, she continued reselling clothes, shoes and accessories on Carousell and Instagram. By polytechnic, she even started a vending machine and claw machine business with her own savings, relying on online research and with minimal help from her family.

So when her parents decided to close Happy Life after sales plummeted during COVID-19, En Qi and her then-17-year-old sister saw an opportunity to step in and save the 10-year family business in December 2023. Since then, their parents have been almost completely hands-off, leaving the sisters to run Happy Life themselves, which sells products ranging from organisers, bottles and stationery to makeup, stuffed toys, and clothing.

Balancing university, running the family business and taking on internships is no easy feat. But for the 20-year-old NUS Business School student, the overwhelming feeling isn’t stress — it’s gratitude for the trust her parents have placed in her. 

But what does it take for a teenager to learn the ropes of running a brick-and-mortar store in an age of online shopping? We spoke to En Qi about taking over Happy Life, balancing it with her studies, and why she has always been drawn to entrepreneurship. 

Taking over Happy Life

COVID-19 had not been kind to En Qi’s parents’ businesses: their four-outlet noodle shop, Sin Xiong Ji and especially Happy Life. As the lifestyle store relied solely on brick-and-mortar sales, foot traffic and consumer spending fell, while online shopping for lifestyle products on platforms such as Shopee and Lazada surged. 

“We felt that there was still potential in the business because they had many years of trust with the customer base,” she said. “That kind of trust takes years of experience in the same location, serving the same group of customers. Once we lose that, it’s very hard for us to gain it back in the future.”

The two saw an opportunity to breathe new life into the business too. “We know Instagram, we know TikTok, we know how delivery works. So we were like ‘why not just give it a try and see how it goes?’”

Since taking over, En Qi and her sister have had full control over the business, from day-to-day operations and product selection to expenses, customer outreach, promotion and marketing. 

Her parents, who currently helm the Sin Xiong Ji outlets, step in only for minor issues such as fixing the air-conditioning. Even then, they offer advice rather than doing it for her — an approach she’s grown to appreciate. 

“They just let us do it ourselves, and if we have any problems, we’ll reach out to them,” she says. “So we are not restricted. We don’t have to follow a format.” 

En Qi says she therefore learnt most of her business skills through trial and error on the job. For instance, they initially over-ordered trolleys and coat racks, but couldn’t sell them even after slashing prices by 50 per cent. In the end, they had to give the stock away. 

“That’s when we learnt that we should order based on what our customers actually need. And to know what they need, we have to be physically there, listen to them, see how they shop around the store and what they spend on,” she explains. 

Today, En Qi oversees sales, marketing and business development amidst a busy university schedule, while her sister handles HR and inventory.

But what keeps her going are the customers she was bent on protecting in the first place, who consist mainly of children and the elderly. 

“Some of the customers, especially the elderly, come to our store not because they want to shop, but because they need someone to talk to,” she says. “That’s when I realised this retail space is not just a place to buy and sell anymore. It’s where customers treat you as their friends.”

She recalls how an elderly woman, who regularly purchased stickers from them, used to cycle down to visit the store three to four times a day, despite knowing that her stickers hadn’t been restocked. She would tell them about her day and stories about her life. 

Other customers would even introduce their grandchildren to them, saying, “Grandma always comes and talks to them.” 

“To me, that’s very meaningful,” En Qi shares. It’s why the sisters introduced DIY slime, bracelet and photo-frame stations last year to engage customers and their children more. 

“It makes the whole store feel happier,” she says. 

Making the trust her parents, customers and suppliers have placed in them count is another motivation for her to keep the business going. 

“Honestly, I don’t know what made our parents want to pass down the business. It’s a very brave decision because we were just 17 and 18,” she says candidly. “I only had one full-time job experience and one part-time working experience; it’s crazy.”

En Qi’s entrepreneurial streak

Their hands-off approach was not entirely a leap of faith. Before Happy Life, En Qi had already been running her own business ventures alongside school – something she found “fun” to do.  

While studying at Ngee Ann Polytechnic, the then 17-year-old ran a vending machine, claw machine, and bag-designing business, YOUNME. 

“The vending machine business was a crazy idea,” she recalls. After watching a YouTube video claiming it was a “very easy” business to run, she spent $5,000 on a new machine to try it herself. 

But she soon realised she should have rented one instead. She also hadn’t researched the business model thoroughly or thought through what to sell. 

“I just copied what people were selling,” she shares. “I just wanted to start a business. I thought it was easy money, but in the end, it cost me a lot.”

She applied those lessons to her claw machine business, researching the model, planning her costs and break-even point, then buying a second-hand machine on Carousell. She eventually grew the business to three machines. 

When she took on Happy Life, however, those ventures came to a halt. 

“Running those side hustles – those are for your own dream. Because whenever you work, that’s what you earn; you have no fixed expenses you need to pay off. But running Happy Life requires a totally different skill set,” she explains. 

“It’s no longer about your own ambitions. Now, I have employees to take care of, suppliers and rent to pay. It becomes a responsibility.”

The ideal university life

Today, En Qi is balancing these demands with university – a time when many explore their passions, begin charting their career paths, and make memories with friends. But with a schedule like hers, En Qi has learnt that some trade-offs are inevitable. 

“When I entered university, I was afraid that I was missing out,” she admits. “Because you will see people go for competitions and join a lot of CCAs (Co-Curricular Activities). Then I thought, ‘Am I doing the right thing?’”

She tried to do it all too. Just two weeks before her finals, she entered a business pitch competition while juggling her studies and running Happy Life, which left her completely exhausted. 

“That’s when I learned to not have FOMO (fear of missing out),” she says. “I need to be focused. When I’m all over the place trying to do everything, I get nothing done.”

She admits that, at times, she can’t help but feel like she’s watching her peers “enjoy uni life” from the sidelines: “They have parties to go to, study together and go night cycling. It’s a lot more vibrant compared to mine.”

But these days, the disparity doesn’t faze her. She laughs that she’s simply not the “rah-rah kind” — someone who thrives on a busy social life. Her priorities are clear: studying, running the business and keeping a small circle of close friends who have been a strong source of support. 

“I’m quite satisfied with my own university life. If others are pursuing this kind of university life, it doesn’t mean I have to force myself to be in this kind of environment, I don’t think I’d enjoy it either.”

However, burnout is all too familiar to En Qi. She recalls a period when she was interning from 9am to 6pm, running the business afterwards and squeezing in studying between breaks. “I fully burnt out. I couldn’t do anything,” she admits. Her lecturer eventually stepped in, pointing out that she was juggling too many responsibilities at once.

Since then, she’s learnt to put the business on pause when she needs to focus on her finals. “My business wouldn’t crash within two weeks, but I know that if I screw up my finals, I will regret it for life,” she says.

Keeping family businesses alive

In the meantime, En Qi is doing what she can to graduate in three years instead of four so she can eventually manage the family business full-time — an unconventional career path for someone her age, she says.

“I feel that the younger generation now are not interested in taking over (family businesses) – maybe they have other interests,” she says. “I also feel that parents are afraid of letting go.”

Yet En Qi believes taking over an existing family business can carry less risk than starting one from scratch, since there is already a foundation to build on. She encourages young people to be more open-minded to the possibility.

“You don’t have to get everything figured out. You just need to feel there’s potential and that you can do something to change the business,” she says, adding that the sisters have also tapped their social media savvy, livestreaming regularly on TikTok and listing products on Shopee and Lazada to reach customers beyond Admiralty.

“I think the advantage to being young is that you are able to fail and learn from your mistakes earlier,” she shares. 

En Qi also encourages parents to give their children the same opportunity to learn through running the business themselves. 

She advises: “Trust that your children can operate it, and be confident that if anything happens, you are still there to support them and the business.”

Happy Life is located at 676 Woodlands Drive 71, #01-06/07 Kampung Admiralty, Singapore 730676. 

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