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KUALA LUMPUR – Educator Sujietra Jayaseelan was set to set up an after-school fitness center for children in Petaling Jaya, Selangor, but her plan fell through in March when Malaysia imposed a partial shutdown to slow the spread of the coronavirus. After observing his own children studying at home when schools were closed, he instead launched Green Patch Academy, an online center that offers academic and skills training for children.
“The online method had never crossed my mind. I also offered a very low price considering the impact of the pandemic on people’s finances. It would have been so cheap if this was my initial idea,” he told The Straits Times.
Green Patch is just one of nearly 280,000 startups registered in Malaysia between March and September, defying the pessimism of the pandemic with startups in sectors such as food and beverage, online retail and fitness.
This number far exceeded the number of companies that had closed since March, by 32,469, according to the Business Commission, when the country introduced drastic restrictions on movements to contain the outbreak.
The Minister of Business Development and Cooperatives, Wan Junaidi Wan Jaafar, described this development as a ray of light and said that local entrepreneurs were adapting their business models to be resilient during difficult times.
“I applaud this because such a move is vital to the survival of their business. An entrepreneur must be innovative, creative and dynamic to adapt and adapt to whatever situation they find themselves in,” Datuk Seri Wan Junaidi told The Straits Times.
Malaysia’s economy has not been spared from the consequences of the coronavirus and is expected to contract by as much as 4.5% this year. Meanwhile, the latest business confidence index released by local ratings agency RAM on December 7 stood at 35.9 percent, still substantially below the 50 percent threshold needed to be read as bullish.
However, some entrepreneurs keep going.
Most of these new businesses, Wan Junaidi said, operated in the food and beverage sector, closely followed by online retail shopping businesses.
“Another interesting area is also the fitness industry. Because some people are afraid of going to gyms, there is a growing demand for virtual fitness classes and personal training,” he said.
New entrepreneurs have forged ahead with their business plans, all while turning on short notice when circumstances change.
Ms. Dhashene Letchumanan, a former marketing executive, had planned to sell her Skin Start beauty products in physical stores prior to the pandemic. By the time she launched her skincare line, the motion controls were in place, forcing her to switch to online retail.
“I could have sold my products through retail stores, stalls or kiosks if there hadn’t been a pandemic. But now the best option is to just stay online and use dropshippers, which is a way of generating income for other people who have lost their jobs”. Ms Dhashene told ST, referring to the practice of selling a product out of stock, leaving orders to be fulfilled by the wholesaler or another retailer.
Meanwhile, other new companies have been created with the help of civil society organizations and social enterprises.
A group of construction workers who lost their jobs after clusters of Covid-19 were discovered at their workplace now run The Nanas Lab, a company that makes pineapple jam.
“They have been growing pineapples to eat when their food supplies run out,” said Ms Raudhah Nazran, CEO of social enterprise Accelerate Global. “We saw that as a business opportunity and we taught them how to monetize their farm.”
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