Known as the 7-eleven of Sematan, Sulasteri Karim operated her mini makeshift convenience shop in the kitchen of her home.
Sulasteri first stepped into Sematan with her then newly-wedded husband way back in 2005, with dreams of opening a convenience shop of her own.
“Initially it was hard for me as my children were still young, and the economy situation back then proved it to be hard to open a business in the village area”, Sulasteri said when met at her shop recently.
Sulasteri who started the business having to ‘ikat perut’, or starve to meet the end of day with wishes to be successful one day; had never given up on her dreams as she believes there is still hope.
Owing it to her husband, Mohd Nazrul Firdaus Abdullah, looking at his wife’s determination, he saves up cash to fulfilled her dreams by working odd jobs.
“My husband is the one who supported my dreams by looking for a capital for this convenient shop”, she added.
“I want her to learn and experience more, if we do not, then how are we going to be knowledgeable”, are Nazrul words to encourage his wife’s venture into the business.
‘M-Box Corner’ is what the convenient shop is known as. When asked, Nazrul answered, “Because this shop is like a box, and money flows in like a coin box.
Proudly hung, the signboard of ‘M-Box Corner’, is added with the colour red and black, Nazrul mentioned it symbolises strength; as how his wife had in opening the tough business.
Sulasteri was one of the participants of iM Sarawak Entrepreneurship Programme early last year. Through the course she had learnt to expand her products and to market her shop through social media.
Used to only earning an average of RM 1,000, Sulasteri now earns an average of RM 2,000 a month; the programme gave her not only insight in conducting her business, but also the confidence to manage her business well.
“Before the course, I did not earn well and had issues with transportation, numbers of customers and cost of capital.
“I started with less products on the shelves and minimal number of supplies for each products”, she disclosed.
After attending the programme, through her extended knowledge in expanding her businesses, she has added home-bake cakes by her as one of the product selling in her shop.
“My home-bake cakes are placed at cheap price as it is to target school children coming in after finishing their classes”, she added.
Sulasteri is now able to have more products display on her shelves, when previously she only took minimal amount of goods due to transportation problems they had having to transport supplies with only a motorcycle.
Fortunate for the knowledge she got from the programme, she manages to earn well from her mini business and has even built a separate building for her convenient shop at the back of her house, in hopes to move in after Hari Raya.
According to Nazrul, the cost of the building is amounted to an estimation of RM 15,000. What lessen the cost would be the handyman Nazrul capabilities in wiring and construction works.
The business future plans sees to expand by selling farming equipments and stationaries for the village students.
“Right now, students have to travel to the nearby towns, which is far for them, just to get stationaries and other school’s necessities”, a concern Nazrul said.
Aside from that, M-Box Corner also receives help from Azam 1Malaysia as they grant her four electrical appliances such as a freezer, chiller, shelves and coconut juice extractor machine.
Such is a story, when you give a man a fish, he would eat it only for a day; if you teach a man to fish, he will have food for the rest of his life. This is the objective of the entrepreneur programme of iM Sarawak for the people.
iM Sarawak is a social development initiative led by 1Malaysia Sarawak Advisory Council members formed by Prime Minister Mohd Najib Tun Razak to help improve the quality of life of various communities.
iM Sarawak Entrepreneurship Programme helps in improving the quality of life of small traders and people from the lower income group by enhancing their soft skills and business acumen.
The two-days programme saw participants from various places attending the workshop to equip them with essential entrepreneurship skills.
The programme also include a 30 days mentoring session by iM Sarawak to ensure benefits and objectives of the programme met.
