It all began during the pandemic. As for so many others, the pandemic left Datin Nellie Amirul stuck at home, unable to run her business for months on end.
At the time, Nellie ran a barbershop business with her retired husband, Brig-Gen (Rtd) Datuk Amirul Ghani Abdul Ghani. But due to Covid-19 protocols, barbershops throughout the country were not allowed to operate and Nellie found herself without much to do at home.
“There was no money coming in and we still had overheads to pay. Covid really wiped me out. I was so depressed because I lost enough money to buy a condo. It was very bad until my hair started dropping so much that I had bald spots.
“But ... what could we do? I told my daughter that I wasn’t in a good state and she sent me a link to a meditation programme that was very easy to follow. I did it diligently and managed to get out of my depression. I could stop thinking of how much money I was losing and it helped me move on,” she says.
At the same time, Nellie says, the lockdowns left her with nothing to do at home.
“I was very bored at home. I mean, there are only so many times I could trim and wipe clean my plants,” she says, with a laugh.
It was then that she thought of a new venture to embark on to pass her time and maybe help a few people out during the pandemic.
“I got to thinking – it wasn’t just barbershops that were forced to close. People couldn’t even go out to eat at the time as restaurants were closed for dine-in customers. But what about those who didn’t know how to cook ... how would they cope? How were they going to feed their families, day in and day out?
“I love to cook, so I thought of making ready-made rempah pastes that could help make cooking easier for people who didn’t love cooking as much or didn’t know how to,” says the Penang-born mother of one and grandmother of three.
Nellie admits that she loves cooking and entertaining, and would often have people over for meals and some fun. So, the idea of sharing her food with others during the difficult lockdown days wasn’t far-fetched.
However, when she shared her idea with a few of her friends and family, they all told her it wasn’t feasible as the market was saturated with ready-made spice blends.
“They told me not to be stupid as there are already thousands of products like that in the market and on the supermarket shelves,” shares Nellie. “So I went to the supermarket and I saw that, yes, they were right, there were so many blends on sale. So I tried them all. I brought them home and followed the instructions on how to prepare them but I found that most of them tasted not very good because they all used preservatives.
“My friends suggested that I add some ingredients to them, like lemongrass or some spices, to improve the taste but that would defeat the purpose of a ready-made paste, right? You shouldn’t have to add anything to it ... if that were the case, I might as well make my own paste,” says Nellie.
Her discovery gave her hope that her idea had legs.
“So I told my daughter that I thought there was a market for my idea for a ready-made spice paste that was authentic and which only required users to add water and/or santan. I decided I would do it at minimal to no production cost – in my kitchen, by myself,” she says.
Nellie got to work but admits that producing the spice blends wasn’t as straightforward as she thought because, unlike cooking a dish at home for family and friends, making a pre-prepared blend that was authentic would require precision, not only in the measurements of ingredients used but also the cooking and storage instructions. Every pack, portion and batch needed to be exactly the same.
“Yes, it wasn’t as easy as I anticipated as I had to get all the measurements so precise in order for the dishes to taste the same as when I cook them at home. After many tries, I finally managed to ‘crack the code’. And once I was happy with my product, I gave samples to friends. I also gave samples to my relative, Rohani Jelani (a well-known chef, recipe creator and food writer). Rohani tested it and said that everything was perfect except for my labels – which she kindly edited. I also consulted her about the pricing for my pastes,” says Nellie.
Old-school marketing
When it came time to sell her blends – she has three blends: Assam Pedas, Curry Chicken and Sambal Udang – Nellie followed the mainstream narrative of marketing her products online, even though she wasn’t fully convinced it was the way to go for her.
“Everyone told me that the best way to market my products was to sell them online. But I tried it and it didn’t work. Yes, I would get one or two orders but customers would often just order one packet to try and that was it. I wouldn’t hear from them again. And if someone from Kajang ordered a packet, I would have to make the blend and drive all the way there to deliver just one packet. I thought there would be repeat orders, but it wasn’t always the case.
“Since my business was basically a one-man show – with my husband helping me as the delivery guy – it wasn’t very feasible. For me, online didn’t work. Maybe if I had put the products on a sales platform and paid huge commissions, it would do better, but I didn’t want to do that,” she says.
So instead, she decided to sell her products to friends which turned out to be a winning strategy.
“It worked because, firstly, they would not just buy one but a few to give to their friends or family. And my business ended up growing just through word of mouth (recommendations and referrals),” she says.
“These were women who knew to cook. Why would they buy my products? So, as I enjoy meeting people, I decided to ask them why when I delivered the products. And I found out that it was because they liked my spices and found it convenient – the pastes tasted authentic, were consistent and it saved them from having to do all the blending and prep themselves. And they would buy a whole bunch and distribute it to their friends or keep them,” says Nellie, adding that as her blends were frozen, they could keep for up to six months.
Nellie now has a few hundred repeat customers and it’s a number she’s happy to maintain.
“My business is still a home-based one, and I’m still a one-man show. It’s not so fantastically big but I am happy as it keeps me busy,” she says.
She enjoys delivering her pastes to her customers – only in the Klang Valley – as it allows her to meet her customers and get to know them a little.
“Sometimes, even though we don’t know each other, I end up having nice conversations with them ... with my husband sitting patiently in the car waiting for me. When I get back to the car, he’d ask me if these are people I know and I’d say ‘No, we just met’,” she laughs.
But he doesn’t mind, she says, as the couple use these trips as a chance to explore new neighbourhoods.
“We like to jalan-jalan and we like to eat ... so we try out the food in these areas, as long as there is no pork-lah,” she says.
Nellie and her husband have since sold their barbershop business and right now, she’s happy to focus on her small business, tend to her plants, monitor the stock market and spend time with her family.
“My daughter, however, keeps pushing me to take part in bazaars and such. She’s worried that since I don’t have my (barbershop) business to keep me occupied, I might find myself with nothing to do and be at risk for dementia and all that. So she pushes me,” she says.
Her daughter, Jasmin, is one of the co-founders of Amazing Seniors, a digital platform for seniors.
Keeping busy
Nellie understands the need for seniors like her to keep themselves occupied and moving. However, she points out that there aren’t too many avenues for work.
“Keeping active is important but, at my age, who is going to employ me?” she says.
Although she has been a housewife for many years – “my husband’s job meant that we moved around quite a bit” – she isn’t a stranger to working or running a business.
“Many years ago, I worked for a beauty company doing marketing for a global brand. As part of my job, I would be sent to Paris for training and I learnt how to do facials.
“After some time, a couple of friends and I opened up our own beauty salon and that’s what I did in Penang. It was very successful but there was a limit to how much we could do as we were doing the facials ourselves,” she says.
However, when her husband was posted to Kuala Lumpur, she left her business to follow him and to look after her daughter. Subsequently, he was posted overseas to Britain and the United States, and his family followed.
Right now, Nellie is content with running her small-scale business.
“At the moment, I can manage it on my own. And I like it. But if there comes a time when I can no longer manage the business myself, I will have to deal with it. At the moment, it is me, my husband who is my driver and my grandchildren who help me ... and I give them dividends for their ‘work’. That’s good enough for me,” she concludes.
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