The Real Side of Running a Small Business 💭 When I started this journey, I imagined freedom, creativity, and building something of my own. And yes, those things are true — but there’s also a much tougher side that I want to share honestly. 💸 There’s no fixed salary. Some months, I make almost

💛 The Pros of Being a Small Business Owner (From Someone Who Left Corporate) 1. Freedom & Flexibility I’ve never been a morning person, so waking up for work used to feel like a daily nightmare. Sometimes the dread would start on Sunday evening, just knowing Monday was coming. Now? I can

I’ve been a marketer for 8 years — building brands, running campaigns, crafting stories. But I’ve always been in MNCs, where everything was already in place: brand guidelines, colour palettes, logos, even PowerPoint templates. All I had to do was work within the system. So when I started my o

Did you know Singaporeans can only stay 1 month in Taipei? I only found out on this trip! 😂 This has little to do with my small business, but I wanted to share some of my good finds and day-to-day moments in Taiwan anyway. I kicked off the trip at Toucheng, Yilan — it rained non-stop for the

Hi I’m Elaine 👋 After a full decade in the corporate world, I finally took a leap of faith and started Above The Clouds — a small brand where I create customisable lifestyle items using iron-on patches. After quitting, I took a solo trip to Taiwan to reset and reflect — and somewhere between sip