Singaporean Comedian Mayiduo Sat At A Staircase And “Chain-Smoked For 7 Days” After He Lost S$200K In His Business

Kelvin Tan, 31, better known by his online ah beng persona, Mayiduo, is a bona fide internet celebrity. 

His comedic skits have amassed him over 46K followers on IG, and almost 85K followers on TikTok.

Kelvin, however, doesn’t have all his eggs in one basket. He is the co-founder of a production company, and the founder of an interior design business. He also owns a printing business, which is run by his wife, Angie Teo, 30.

In the latest episode of R U Okay?, Kelvin sat down with host Jean Danker and clinical psychologist Jeannie Chu to talk about the challenges he’s faced in his businesses, and his coping mechanisms.

It turns out he has always been business-minded.

“You know back in secondary school, we would have class T-shirts. I saw that as a business opportunity so I started accepting jobs and outsourcing [the job] to printers. I became the supplier. [It was] partly because I figured [out that] to actually make money, you won’t get super rich from working, you have to pave your way out, and doing business is one of [the ways],” recalls Kelvin, who sustained his printing gig up to when he served National Service.

A curious Jean asks: “I want to know why you started your printing business so young. Is it because you had a family situation you needed to take care of, and thought you could earn some actual pocket money?”

Kelvin's answer? “No leh.”

He explains: “My family isn’t well to do. We’re probably average, or below average. But this 'thing' struck me back in primary school. When [I say] 'Mummy, I want to buy a playstation”, she would say 'No lah, got no money' — the standard line. But I took that very hard as a kid, I would think [about] why she would say something that’s 200 to 300 dollars is very expensive.”

Back then, his parents would use their neighbour’s banker daughter as an example to tell Kelvin to work hard and get a degree, so he could earn as much money. When he was in primary schood, he would suggest to his mum the idea of opening a canteen stall.

“At that point, it occurred to me that if you can build your own business, your earning potential is uncapped, but when you’re working for people it’s capped. So that’s why in secondary school, when I had a bit more money and resources, I tried something out,” says Kelvin.

As successful as Kelvin is now, the road to being his own boss wasn't always smooth.

“In 2015, I went into a partnership with another guy, and we made money. So we went to start another factory in Malaysia. I did the numbers, and I paid for manpower and rent in Malaysia. My factory was 8000 sq ft, and it cost 4K ringgit [a month to rent]. On average, my staff were [paid] 1.5K to 2.5K ringgit, and there were 40 of them. To me, I pay for Malaysia overheads, and I earn Singapore dollars. It makes perfect sense,” says Kelvin, who did not specify the nature of the business.

Unfortunately, Kelvin and his partner “encountered a lot of issues” in the process.

“In one year, including the set-up, we lost about 200 plus thousand, and that was all the money I had on me at that time,” he shares.

Kelvin, who was only 25 then, was faced with a stressful situation. After paying the salaries of his staff, he did not have money to pay his suppliers.

“I was still quite young at that time, and [I] didn’t really know how to handle [the situation]. So I actually sat at the staircase of my office in Singapore. I sat there and smoked for seven days. I reached office at 10am and I would sit there and chain-smoke until like 5pm. Then I would go home.”

“I was just internalising how to handle and how to deal with the losses and the situation," he adds.

Smoking aside, Kelvin simply needed a space where he could be alone and cope with the issue at hand. “At that corner, nobody disturbed me. I just had that time to myself,” he recalls.

He eventually found a solution.

“I [reorganised] the company and we shifted our focus. In the past, we had a department for design, a department for sales, and a department for production. So I shifted everybody to sales, because to me, a company has to survive by having sales. Last time, I wanted to have [all the departments], which still made money, but nothing beats having a very strong sales team,” he says.

He also spoke to his suppliers. Thanks to his reputation as a “a very good paymaster [who] doesn’t like to owe people money”, they were very willing to help him.

They understood his situation, and allowed him to return the amount he owed them over time while continuing to work together. 

Catch all 3 seasons of R U Okay? on meWATCH here. You can also listen to the podcast on Spotify and meLISTEN.

Photos: Mayiduo/ Instagram, meWATCH