THE nature of my former job allowed me to attend many business-related
exhibitions and seminars both locally and internationally. Over the
years, I have accumulated two box full of fliers and information on
every possible business I can venture into.
Source from (The Sun Daily): http://www.thesundaily.my/news/587816
Published: January 14, 2013
I also found inspiration while travelling abroad, scouring the places
I visited for products and services that can be introduced in the
country.
Still, as mentioned in my last column, I was wary and hesitant to
enter into unfamiliar territory where I have little knowledge of and no
mentor. Neither was I interested to jump into the multi-level marketing
business.
Thus, this idea to expand my auntie’s café called Del’s Kitchen was something I was pondering about for some time.
If you find yourself craving for food from the east coast you would
immediately think of Kelantan Delights Restaurant and similarly if you
want anything from the north, you would most likely head to eateries
like Penang Village Restaurant.
But where do you go to get that occasional fix of Laksa Johor and Soto Ayam?
Being in a country that loves food, I saw a gap in the market for such offerings.
That’s when my business partner and I decided that we should brand Del’s Kitchen as a southern food specialist.
Del’s Kitchen was established 12 years ago from humble beginnings as a
business-class caterer to a local airline company in Johor.
Today, Del’s Kitchen café has four outlets of which two are located
in Johor Baru, one in Singapore and the latest in Petaling Jaya, owned
and operated by yours truly and my business partner and cousin, Suraya
Supian.
The advantage of expanding a family business, besides being able to
capitalise on its existing central kitchen (thus, we don’t have to do
the heavy duty cooking) is giving the owner Delilah Eusof no other
choice but to personally mentor her nieces. That is like having Colonel
Sanders personally guiding us!
The main challenge and pressure here is to ensure that our quality in
service and menu remains the same to Del’s Kitchen brand name, which
already has a huge following in Johor Baru after being in the market for
more than a decade.
Honestly, I never actually expect to see myself operating a
restaurant. The thought of long hours and having my hair smell of grease
at the end of the day seemed so unglamorous back then.
But the dream to develop this food business to greater heights keeps
me going. The feedback we have received so far from customers have also
been encouraging.
There are so much potential in this industry and we have so many plans in the pipeline for Del’s Kitchen.
I love finding inspiration from young entrepreneurs, especially our
very own success stories like founder of BIG Group which owns a chain of
concept restaurants Benjamin Yong, chief executive and co-founder of
Groupon Malaysia Joel Neoh, whom I had interviewed when I was a
journalist, and founder of my favorite online shopping website
FashionValet, Vivy Yusof.
Last night, I took out the boxes that were filled with fliers of the
businesses I had dreamt of doing and added the flier of my very own
restaurant.
I hope someday my children will find the box as inspirational as I did.
A former business journalist, Zurinna Raja Adam is now a stay-at-home mum, taking on her dream of becoming an entrepreneur.
No comments:
Post a Comment