At just 24, Nicolette Ng began giving tuition from a four-room HDB flat with only 12 students. More than a decade later, her English writing enrichment business, Write Edge, has grown into a 12-centre education chain in Singapore, with two more locations planned by February 2027.
Ng started Write Edge in 2014, initially operating from home before her mother encouraged her to move into a 130 sq ft shop unit. Within six months, the student base had grown from 12 to about 60, providing the foundation for the business’s expansion.
Co-founder Eileen Chin later joined the business, and the company expanded by roughly one outlet a year over the following 12 years. By February 2027, Ng expects the network to reach 14 centres.
Ng, now 36, said her understanding of entrepreneurship changed as the company grew. In the early years, she focused heavily on working hard and moving quickly, but running a larger organisation forced her to develop skills in delegation, communication, self-awareness and managing uncertainty.
She said growth also exposed both her strengths and weaknesses as a leader. Building systems that could operate beyond her personal involvement became increasingly important as the business expanded.
Before establishing Write Edge, Ng worked in communications and media, including positions at Singapore Press Holdings and Weber Shandwick. She holds a bachelor’s degree in English literature from Nanyang Technological University and a master’s degree in education, specialising in English language, from the National Institute of Education.
Her approach to money has also evolved alongside the business. Ng said she invests heavily in the company itself, including its teams, curriculum and systems, while also spending on professional development through mentorship, workshops and other programmes.
Her first personal investment was an SGX-listed exchange-traded fund, which she chose as a relatively straightforward way to gain diversification without selecting individual stocks. She said she generally takes a long-term approach to finances and prioritises stability rather than quick returns.
Not every business decision worked out. Ng described waiting too long to close an underperforming branch, including the Woodlands outlet, after about $300,000 had been invested in it. The experience led her to place greater emphasis on factors such as parent demand, pricing and location before committing capital to new centres.
She also said one of her better financial decisions was purchasing a home about three years ago before a period of stronger property prices. She estimated that the property had since appreciated by about 15 per cent. She also bought a new car for around $75,000 when certificate of entitlement prices were relatively low and established automated savings plans to maintain consistent investing.
Ng’s financial outlook was shaped partly by her childhood. Her mother was a hairdresser and her father was a hawker, and she recalled growing up in a family that sometimes had to make do with less.
Her father would wake up around 2am to head to Pasir Panjang Market, while her mother worked long hours before eventually starting her own salon. Ng said watching her parents work shaped her views on discipline, consistency and entrepreneurship, while her mother’s encouragement played a role in her decision to start the tuition business.
Her path into entrepreneurship was not something she had necessarily planned from childhood. Ng once dreamed of becoming a singer and even reached the top 10 in a secondary-school singing competition.
Before building her education business, she also took on various part-time jobs, including distributing flyers and selling clothes at Robinsons Singapore. Her first experience receiving regular payments from tuition students eventually taught her another lesson: earning money and managing it responsibly were two different challenges.
Today, Ng lives in a private condominium in the Kovan area, drives a Tesla Model Y Juniper and balances running the company with family life. She is married to a technology-sector product manager and has a five-year-old child.
Her story illustrates how a small home-based tuition operation can evolve into a multi-location education business, but it also highlights the less visible challenges behind expansion — including hiring decisions, failed locations, leadership development and the need to build systems capable of supporting continued growth.
From 12 students in an HDB flat to 12 education centres across Singapore, Ng’s next phase will test whether the systems and leadership lessons she developed along the way can support Write Edge’s planned expansion to 14 centres in 2027.
