AGE is no barrier to achieving dreams, as two sisters from Malacca have proven. Despite being in their 50s, they bravely embarked on a new venture during the movement control order (MCO) last year, learning how to run their own online business.
Colleen Tay, 58, and her sibling Karen, 54, can easily hold their own in the kuih business market, having established their own brand on Instagram (@bynonia) in November last year.
They started their business with something that they knew best â making authentic and high quality Nyonya kuih using recipes handed down by their mother.
âWe are old-school. Last year, we decided to take a leap of faith to go online with our business, with much encouragement from our daughters. We had a discussion with them about how to set up and market a business online,â said Karen, who is a former newspaper employee.
âWe realised that technology is important nowadays. Social media platforms like Facebook and Instagram are the perfect mediums for us to sell kuih. I feel the reach is so wide and immense,â added Colleen.
By setting up their brand online, the two opened up new marketing avenues for their wide range of traditional homemade kuih.
âApart from our loyal and regular customers who keep coming back for our kuih, we are able to reach a whole new market that would potentially be untapped without the help of social media,â said Colleen, who formerly worked in human resources.
âWe had to relearn what we thought we knew about our customer base and look at the bigger picture. We learned to pay special attention to photography, presentation and posting in the best way to attract the right target audience. It was very much a learning process for both of us with the online business,â said Karen.
Initially, the younger members of their family helped out with the photographs, but soon, the two took over.
