EXPERIENCE IS WORTH MORE THAN MONEY
by NAZUIN ZULAIKHA BINTI KAMARULZAMAN
SERDANG: “We, my friend and I, tried venturing in it first. Then it just continued from then on.” said Zainatul Asyiqin, 21, an agent for Norah Wax. She originally started back in 2016, when her friend proposed the idea of being agents for Norah Wax together.
Initially, she tried the product on herself first, wanting to know whether the product was good. Only then she agreed to be an agent and sell the product. “We shared our capitol, splitting them half. We started off with 10 jars of wax. My friend took five and I took five,” she said when asked on how she came to an agreement that both her friend and her agreed on.
“The biggest donation was from my mom. She was open to the idea of me trying to start venturing into business. She even loaned me some money when I was just starting up.” Being a student, parents would want their children to focus on their studies and not worry or busy themselves to find extra pocket money. However, Zainatul’s parents welcomed the idea of their eldest daughter spreading her wings into business. Her mother encouraged her more, often asking how her business was doing and gave her words of encouragement when her business wasn’t doing well.
“I did not do it for the profit, like I said earlier, my friend talked me into it. I can gladly say, I managed to gain experience from it. “Since I’m selling wax, people don’t come to me to buy it often. It is not a fast moving business. There are a few returning customers, who come back to me to buy more.” she explained when asked about her business momentum.
Being an agent for a product from a company, there are a lot of other agents who share their experiences in their group chat. “I gained a lot from them. How to promote, from constructing sentences to attract customers to gaining more sales.” And her being a part-time agent, she was not pressured to make certain amount of sales in the given time, unlike other full-time agents.
In every business, there’s bound to be disadvantages and challenges. Zainatul’s challenge was the amount of customers she’ll get. “It depends, the number of jars of wax I sell in a month is not consistent.” Other than that, not having transportation was another disadvantage to her business. “My business is limited to the college area only as it’ll be hard for me to go around, to deliver products to other people who are not around my college area.”
“But one good thing is that, the supplier will send us the products. We don’t have to worry ourselves about that.” Zainatul added cheerfully. She will also gladly explain to her customers when asked about the product and how to use them.
As a full-time student with very limited time, Zainatul resorts to promoting her products through WhatsApp and through posters and flyers hung around the college. She also promotes it through her friends, because she knows people will spread the word about her business.
She encourages others to try and venture into business. “By being an agent is a good way to start up and learn, gain experiences.” she gladly said. With work requirements nowadays not focused on academic achievements but also your involvement with the outside world, having such experiences would be able to help the students in the future when applying for jobs.
