The future of fashion - Hong Kong Institute of Certified Public ...

Entrepreneur CPAs
Benny Tong
Manager, audit
Jonathan Tsui
Brian Tang is used
to being the oldest
person in his
Hang Hau office.
And, unusually for
a Hong Kong Institute
of CPAs member,
his day job is spent among folks who can
barely add up.
Finger paintings scatter the walls,
splotches of primary colours conceal the
windows and clay ornaments dangle from
the ceiling. On one side of the room, a threeyear-old
applies generous amounts of paint
to a reindeer with 10 legs. On the other, a
little girl pounds her lump of clay into her
26 January 2013
unique interpretation of a bird.
“We are not like other galleries – we’re
more creative and let the students have the
freedom to draw. They can choose the shape
and the colour. Some galleries don’t even allow
students to talk, but we do,” says Tang,
founder of Little Masterhand, which runs
art programmes for children such as basic
painting and Chinese art.
This open-plan environment, or “gallery,”
which allows children to be miniature artists
– and as messy as they want – is exactly what
Tang had in mind when he decided to blaze
his own trail.
He is one of the Institute members who
have eschewed the traditional career stops
such as accounting firms or businesses to
start their own exciting business ventures,
using the all-round skills they have developed
as CPAs.
Since 2010, Tang has been running the
business with his wife, an art professional
with experience in children’s education.
“Art is a really good pastime for children.
They can relax here, learn to be creative and
learn to concentrate,” Tang explains as his
reason for starting Little Masterhand.
One of the initial challenges he faced was
attracting customers and retaining them – it
was important that Little Masterhand demonstrated
to parents that it could provide
quality art lessons. After about six months,