Every year Acton KL organises a Children’s Business Fair. Last year was our first time joining. Ayub started his business – Bugging Out, selling insect-inspired stationery and other knick-knacks.

This year he wanted to do the same and bring his business to the next level. So he did.

Learning about entrepreneurship hands-on

One of the things I love the most about ActonKL is their hands-on approach to education. They encourage the children to learn through doing, rather than studying. It works well for Ayub (to a certain point).

This sprint the kids worked in groups to set up lemonade stalls and “compete” against one another to see which team could make the most money.

Ayub did great. Super proud of him. His team came in third. Out of four. Haha. His lemonade tasted so good though I loved it. We made original lemonade and fruity lemonade. I think the problem was that he super overpriced his drinks. One tiny cup for RM5 haha. Should make it again. Put it in a cute bottle with a hipster label. Call it organic. And sell it some more. And be super rich. Then he won’t have to go to school anymore. The end.

Ayub’s Bugging Out product line

Last year, Ayub hand-drew around 20 notebook covers and a colouring book. This year he optimised efficiency with his line of products. We printed multiple copies of five original covers, rather than Ayub hand-drawing multiple covers. We also made the colouring book way cuter and added a tote bag.

His colouring book is my favourite thing. People don’t realise he drew each bug by hand. And that he actually drew a lot more. But since Mr Ninja was the colouring book editor and he’s super fussy about “quality” or whatever, he cut out a lot of Ayub’s bugs. Boo.

Is he not the most precious thing in the world? >.<

And here are all his notebooks. They sold out 🙂

Calculating cost and potential profit

Ayub had to sell a lot of stuff in order to make a profit. Unfortunately he was unable to profit this time. But he was very close to breaking even. Our cost was high, but he kept his prices low. It’s ok.

The Big Day: Children’s Business Fair 2018

Ayub all set to go with Sulaiman has his right-hand man, and Aisha as a little mak cik sibuk tumpang glamer.

This year’s Children’s Business Fair was held at The School @ Jaya One. I thought the boys’ booth looked pretty dope. Sulaiman organised and Ayub decorated everything by himself.

We had leftover erasers from last year’s fair so we sold those again haha.

Inseck snak courtesy of Esther who flew them in special from Bangkok <3. Love you long time Esther, even though Gughan ate two packets hahaha.

Aisha had the most fun

Ayub and Sulaiman stayed at their booth the whole time, selling to customers. Meanwhile, Aisha enjoyed the fair. Walked around multiple times. Spent over RM100 on trinkets and snacks and all kinds of cute things. She’s getting sassier and sassier. It’s hard to imagine 6 months ago I was worried she had a speech delay.

Aisha: (eats fries from her plate)

Me: (eats fries from aisha’s plate)

Aisha: oh! Where aishi fries?

This is her with a heart-shaped balloon that cost like RM5 and a panda pin on her t-shirt that was RM15. Haihhhh…

She finally fell asleep after lunch and only woke up at dinner time.

Final thoughts on the Children’s Business Fair

It was a lot of fun overall. But I realised that Ayub didn’t really retain much information or knowledge on entrepreneurship, despite this being his second year learning about it. It’s also the time I realised he could neither multiply nor divide. Poor fella.

On top of that, Mr Ninja and I were disappointed in his attitude during the fair. He was very VERY unkind to Sulaiman, constantly shouting and berating him. Telling Sulaiman his calculations were off (Sulaiman was in charge of the books), when in fact Sulaiman’s calculations were spot on. For a 6-year-old to account for close to RM1,000 worth of sales is amazing ok. Sulaiman came to me in tears at the end of the fair and broke down telling me what happened. (We had stayed away from their booth to give them independence and control of their business venture). Ayub acted like a jerk. Oh, Ayub. Next year, Sulaiman can have his own booth and his own start-up.

Anyway, leading up to this day, we were on the fence on whether or not to continue Ayub’s journey in ActonKL. After this day, we decided it would be an end to a beautiful chapter at the school. And we went on to look at new options for this special kiddo. Finding schools for high-functioning autistic children in Malaysia is hard.

Meanwhile, do check out Ayub’s Bugging Out website if you’d like to buy any of his products!