Road to success paved with good advice

SHAH ALAM: Durian Crepe Robi founder Robiatul Adawiah Ibrahim, 37, said listening to the advice of others and applying it well helped turn her struggling venture into a lucrative business, generating millions of ringgit in sales.

“There was a time when I wanted to give up, especially when I just started. I was working as a kindergarten teacher with a monthly salary of RM900 and taking orders for various types of dishes just to earn some extra income. But I recalled a piece of advice to never give up, given by a trainer for an online class I joined, so I decided to take up the challenge.

“It was really tiring as there were quite a lot of orders, but I thought about building a comfortable life for my children and family and I didn’t give up. Thankfully, things went smoothly for my business,” she said.

Robiatul had a tough start as a food entrepreneur, having decided to sell a wide variety of dishes, including roast chicken, pasta and lunch sets, and working out of a rented home in Kampung Sungai Penchala, Damansara from 2015 to 2017.

But she overcame the challenges, choosing to quit her teaching job and focusing on being an entrepreneur in 2018, after managing to generate RM20,000 in annual sales.

That year was also when her durian crepes gained popularity, resulting in a rise in demand for her desserts and enabling her to fulfil over 100 orders a day.

Her success was also possible because she took the advice of others to heart. She applied what she learned in various entrepreneurial classes by building a network of agents who marketed her crepes and helped her reach a wide customer base.

With 10 agents in her budding marketing network on WhatsApp, her sales reached RM150,000 a year and she decided to focus solely on her durian crepe business.

Robiatul’s business expansion included renting a house as an operations centre and increasing production to 20,000 orders a month, resulting in sales hitting RM1.3 million in 2019. She even had to sign a contract with a durian supplier to ensure a constant supply for her crepes.

Demand for her crepes continued to rise, especially during the movement control order, hitting a peak of over RM4 million in sales in 2021.

In recognition of her success, Robiatul was chosen as the Federal Territories Islamic Religious Council Entrepreneur Icon in 2023. – Bernama