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Home-based businesses already operate in a volatile market, competing with established restaurants, bakeries and cafes for the attention of Malaysians.
So it comes as no surprise that when the conditional motion control (MCO) order affecting Kuala Lumpur, Selangor and Putrajaya was recently announced, many Malaysian home bakers were ready to feel the rush.
“My orders for the next few weeks are all for birthday parties and office events. So I knew there were going to be some cancellations and I was right.
“I have had five clients requesting refunds, but I am more than happy to provide them. I have already lost about 1,200 ringgit in sales, ”laments Aiman Ahmad Anuar, who has a pastry diploma from Le Cordon Bleu Malaysia.
During the MCO stint earlier this year, Aiman lost his job as a brand consultant and, if that weren’t enough, he was having a difficult time in his personal life.
But the 30-year-old communications master’s graduate wasn’t going to let those things bring him down.
“I found it quite difficult to find a job that I was comfortable with, so I decided to go back to baking from home!” the Bukit Jelutong, says Aiman, based in Shah Alam.
So last month, Aiman created The Coconut Kook, a home baking company that specializes in brownies, cakes and sticky buns. His business was growing steadily, with between three and five orders received daily through his Instagram page.
Aiman is finding ways to be more efficient with his baking amid the conditional OLS.
Now, with interdistrict travel restrictions under the conditional MCO, Aiman is concerned about delivering his baked goods to his customers.
“I know that email services can still work, but I can’t drive to Bangsar or Damansara if I can’t get a passenger. So logistically, it will be a problem, “adds Aiman.
Fearing that he would run out of baking ingredients and packaging items like cake boxes and boards in the coming days, Aiman rushed to his regular store recently and spent over RM1,000 on supplies in case he couldn’t leave Shah Alam. . You normally spend around RM300 every few weeks.
But things don’t look completely bleak for Aiman.
“Interestingly, orders are still coming in for smaller items, like brownies and sticky buns. So I hope it’s not so bad, ”he says.
Aiman also decided to take a more entrepreneurial approach to his plight.
Although the conditional MCO was just announced, Cheah has already had a number of cake cancellations. Photos: Cheah Wen Tao“I am planning to accelerate my development. If sales drop, I’ll have time to develop more recipes that aren’t designed for celebrations.
“Instead, I want to make things that people can eat on a daily basis, for example enriched breads like brioche or baked sandwiches like cheese crackers.
“But the margins will be lower, for a lot more work, so I need to focus on finding ways to be much more efficient with my baking,” he says.
Riding the storm
For established home baker Cheah Wen Tao, who runs the popular Tao Bakes Cakes, the MCO in March provided a steep learning curve and an opportunity to prepare for the current conditional MCO.
“The MCO was very difficult for us. What happened was we got a lot of birthday cake cancellations. At first, I didn’t know what to do with all the extra stock, so I started selling cake quarters and that turned out to be amazing – all the quarters sold out within three minutes of announcing it on social media! ” he says.
Cheah adds that because they experienced so many cancellations during the MCO, he was better prepared for the influx of cancellations when the conditional MCO was announced.
“We’ve had a lot of whole pie cancellations, but it’s not as bad as last time,” he says.
This time, Cheah has learned to run the business to survive the two-week period.
“We had more time to prepare and improve our capacity. We have better relationships with suppliers, so we are well supplied with basic products like flour. Also, instead of having multiple delivery passengers congregating outside our home, we rely on one or two reliable passengers to take out all of our orders, ”he says.
Although Cheah generally focuses on whole cakes, during the conditional OLS, he will be making smaller cakes and variety boxes instead.
Cheah says that during this period, he anticipates that people will not order as many celebratory cakes. Instead, they are likely to send out small pie slices or cakes to friends and family as little help packages and goodwill gestures.
That’s why he says he’s temporarily ditching the usual nine-inch cakes that he makes in favor of variety boxes, cake slices, and smaller cakes.
“Business will be quiet for the next two weeks, but I don’t think it will have much of an effect in the medium or long term,” he believes.
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