Business in the News: What Can Little Moons Teach Us About Entrepreneurship?
Entrepreneurs are often described as risk-takers, decision-makers and opportunity spotters. But what do those characteristics actually look like when somebody is building a real business?
The experience of Vivien Wong, co-founder of Little Moons, provides an interesting real-world example.
From accountancy to ice cream
At the age of 28, Wong left an accounting career paying around £80,000 a year to establish Little Moons with her brother, Howard.
Entrepreneurship was not entirely unfamiliar territory. She had grown up around her family's bakery and had long been interested in running a business herself. Moving from a secure and highly paid professional career into a new venture nevertheless involved considerable personal and financial uncertainty.
Source: BBC Business, 20 August 2026.
Little Moons produces mochi ice cream — portions of ice cream wrapped in a soft rice-dough casing.
The business did not become a major consumer brand immediately. For roughly its first five years, the founders supplied mochi to customers including restaurants and cinemas.
Money generated by the business was gradually reinvested before greater investment could be made in branding and expansion into supermarkets.
This is a useful reminder that entrepreneurial success often develops gradually rather than through one dramatic breakthrough.
Sacrifice, learning and resilience
Establishing Little Moons also required Wong to adapt to a very different working environment.
She moved in with her brother to reduce personal costs and help the business reinvest money. In its early stages, she had to take responsibility for numerous activities herself, ranging from finance and IT to learning about machinery, production and product development.
For Business students, this highlights an important point: entrepreneurship involves more than simply having an idea.
New business owners may need to develop unfamiliar skills, work with limited resources and continue making decisions despite considerable uncertainty.
Little Moons later attracted significant attention through TikTok, but the business had already been operating for around a decade. During that period it had developed experience in manufacturing at scale, training employees, supplying large retailers and exporting products.
Source: BBC Business reporting on Vivien Wong and Little Moons.
Taking calculated risks
One particularly significant decision concerned production capacity.
Little Moons considered moving from a factory of around 5,000 square feet to approximately 30,000 square feet. According to BBC Business, the move could increase annual rent from around £40,000 to £500,000.
Wong was more willing to accept the risk associated with expansion, while her brother Howard adopted a more cautious position.
Interestingly, their different attitudes could itself be valuable. Challenging one another's assumptions may help entrepreneurs distinguish between reckless risk-taking and calculated risk-taking.
Think about it
Is successful entrepreneurship about being willing to take risks — or about recognising which risks are worth taking?
Key Business Concepts
Entrepreneurship | Risk-taking | Opportunity spotting | Resilience | Decision-making | Investment | Growth
GCSE Business Challenge
Explain one way in which Vivien Wong's willingness to take risks may have contributed to the growth of Little Moons.
Use the chain:
Characteristic → Decision → Effect on the business
Avoid simply writing:
“Vivien Wong was a risk-taker.”
Instead, explain what decision this characteristic could influence and how the decision could affect the business.
A Level Business Challenge
Assess whether willingness to take risks was the most important entrepreneurial characteristic contributing to the development of Little Moons.
You might consider:
willingness to take risks
resilience and persistence
opportunity spotting
decision-making
adaptability
willingness to learn new skills
A strong judgement should consider whether one entrepreneurial characteristic alone can explain the development of a business over a long period.
Stretch Your Thinking
Would the entrepreneurial characteristics needed to establish a new business necessarily be the same as those needed to manage it successfully as it grows?
Explain your reasoning.
Teaching Business Exam Tip
Simply identifying an entrepreneurial characteristic is rarely enough.
Develop the chain:
IDENTIFY → EXPLAIN → APPLY
For example:
Risk-taking → investment in additional capacity → ability to meet greater demand → potential increase in sales and market presence
The important step is explaining how the characteristic influences a decision and ultimately affects the business.
Source & Further Reading
This Teaching Business classroom activity has been independently written and developed for educational use. Factual details concerning Vivien Wong and the development of Little Moons are based principally on reporting by Yasmin Rufo, BBC Business, published 20 August 2026.
Original BBC Business article:I quit my £80,000 job to make ice cream – here's how
Teaching Business has not reproduced the BBC article or its imagery. The case above uses selected factual information as the basis for an original Business teaching activity.
Want to find out more about Little Moons the Tik Tok sensation? Click here to view their website.
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