The Skinny Bakers will be on television !

On my 21st birthday last year, the 1st of August 2015, we decided to make it happen and started selling our cookies at our first event in Kota Damansara.

And a few months later on my mother's birthday, 3rd February of 2016, we were told that we are going to be on television !

No words could describe how happy and excited I got when I heard the news ! 

Ya Allah, thank you :) 

Also, much thanks to Sonia as well for being our host !

And my mum for being such a great Business Partner / COO / CEO / Driver / Mum...everything lahhh 

Wish I was there to stand next to my mum but when I saw her smile in the picture below, I felt such content and happiness. Nothing mattered more to me than to make my mum happy, and am glad that I decided to go with my mum's idea of starting a business together :)
I guess what they said was true, that it all comes to niat (intentions). And my niat upon starting this business was to make my mum happy and my parents proud. Also, a personal goal has always been to start a business before 25 y'old, so yeah. Alhamdulillah.

Nobody said starting a business was going to be easy. But it seemed to have grown so far in such a small time frame, less than a year ! 

It was only months ago though. I first started approaching The Whisk cafe, being persistent with them and passing them testers. Then when I started my legal internship with ZulRafique & Partners, I told myself, I was not going to stop approaching cafes. I'll bring a box of cookie jars as samples into my car to work and approached cafes after work, so sometimes I'll be back home at about 10PM. My amazing mum would be busy baking the cookies whilst I was doing the usual 9-5PM. Then on the weekends, me and mum would go 'cafe-hunting' together. 

Oh I will always remember the times I got lost in KL driving after work. I didn't have mobile data since my stay in KL was only a couple of months over Summer Break. I got so lost driving that I even got from Central KL to Ampang just to get back to Subang Jaya and arrived home at 11.30PM. Came back home and told mum the exhausting story and she went like 'Ya Allaaaaah', just cause she's an expert KL driver (Also cause I missed our family dinner that night). Luckily I had extra cookie jars that I could eat just cause I was stressed up driving phewwww (hehehe, so now you know where most of the samples went to ma, my tummy). Although, in my defence it was just one jar, I think. Hahaha.

And the times I checked my mum's handbag just to make sure she had a jar of samples in her bag every time before she heads out, just cause I carry a jar of cookies everywhere I go. Mum would check up on me as well, cause you'll never know when opportunity comes riight ? Hehehe

Anyways, back to the title of the post, yes, we will be on television insyaAllah, in a month's time.

On what channel and what time etc? Like us on Facebook and Follow us on Instagram, and we'll keep you posted ! ;)

The Cookies, The Camera and My Adorable Mum

As you all would've known, that's my mum ! (and yes you can obviously see how 'obsessed' I am about my parents with the amount of posts I've dedicated to them hehehe). But this is kinda a different kind of post though. 

So, you know, I've stocked up pictures and took many shots of our cookies before I left to study back in the UK. 

And as you would've expected, I'm starting to run out of pictures and our cookies have been progressing that we needed new pictures to update our lovely customers ! 

Beyond that, mum had this great idea to put all 3 types of cookies into a gift box for people to give to others for birthdays, weddings etc which is super awesome ! And she passed me the pictures for me to edit.... (Note that my mum do take great pictures just maybe today was just not her day hehe, love you ma)

Anyways, she sent me a picture from inside the house, which I thought was taken at a great angle (speaking as if my photography skills are like a pro)... but the lighting was bad in the house

So, told mum, 'Maaaa, can you please take picture outside? The lighting is better outside'. Then she went like, 'Hujan la'. (Oh yes, I forgot that we were thousands of miles away from each other to know that KL was raining haha) But she still managed to take a few pictures at the patio, which had pretty decent lighting ! 

Not bad riight ? But I wanted to post a picture from a side angle, like how she took the picture on top (well, sorta). And I wasn't sure how to tell her the angle of the box that I wanted so I took a picture of a box that was in my room and asked her to take a shot with the same angle ....

My picture taken from my uni's room 

Mum's picture taken from home

(Haaah, can't see you the lengths we go through for product pictures ? Haha)

But this time, I was the 'dumb' one cause I forgot our box had a 'window'. So....

Me : Oh maaaa ! I forgot that our box had a 'window'. Can you please take a picture again but with the box standing ? Hehehe

Mum : EISHAAAAAAAAAA !

*although we were only whatsapping, I could imagine her shouting my name across our hallway at home already hahaha*

And yes, as you have guessed it right, my mum isn't a huge fan of doing this haha ! Which makes me appreciate more whenever she tries to do so for our cookies :) 

Oh, and it means a lot whenever she types more than her usual 'ok'. So, when mum types, 'Eishaaaaa', you know she really meant it well hahaha

But she still did it anyways.... 

Which was too senget for me to edit so yeahhh. I liked the angle from the first box, really. But I didn't want to kacau my mum with my perfectionist needs for a better picture so I found a way around things...

I whatsapped my brother asking for his help to take more pictures of the box with the cookies and soon-to-be-bought ribbons ! Hahaha. Thanks abang for volunteering to help take pictures from home :) I bet you enjoyed hearing how me and mama were trying to figure the pictures out hehe

Anyways, let's just maybe finish this post off with my mum's pictures which were pretty legit ! 

Our cookies at Meteora Cafe, Subang Jaya

But I guess yesterday was just not her 'good photography day'. You know, like 'bad hair day', 'bad hijab day' and stuff. Hehehe. 

Sorry ma, just had to write this post of our rather 'cute' experience as a memory for both of us to always remember. Hehehe. Love you ma :) 

Cheers to my adorable mum and our many attempts (and still counting) ! *giggles*

The Skinny Bakers : My Mum, The COO

Many of us would decide to start a business with either their friend or partner or some random investor. Well, atleast that was how it nearly went for me as well. But things took a turn. Rather than going around finding for someone who I can 'trust' and would work as hard, possibly even harder than me, my mum was right there in front of me this whole time !

I couldn't have imagined growing this empire with anyone else than my mum. My mum is super hard working, definitely more hard working than me, and is very experienced in doing business. She's been my strongest motivation my whole life, that I'd do anything for her. In business terms, I'd do anything to make this business a success for and with my mum. And insyaAllah growing it to become our next empire ! Beyond that, she loves doing business and practically has been doing it her whole life ! I told her that I wouldn't want to be part of the business not learning anything so she would have to tell me every single step of the way on how the business grows, although I'm far away.

So here's how things work between me and my mum. We both need each other to make this cookie business into our next empire.
I got the recipe a few years ago and my mum got it from me over Summer. I work on the tech side of things, such as photography, social media, sticker designs, website etc. Its also cause I'm far away from home so yeah. And mum now handles the production at home ! (Yes, here's the answer to many of you who has been questioning me who has been doing the production of cookies since I've been away).

While I was in KL, I would approach cafes with our cookies, proposing our cookies to be placed at their cafes. Even when I was occupied by my internship, I'd go to cafes after working hours. And on the weekends, I'd go to cafes with my mum.

Since I've been away pursuing my degree here in the UK, mum has taken over that part and has been approaching places beyond expectation. Alhamdulillah, we've been getting orders for weddings and birthdays since we started, only a few months ago ! Our cookies are now available at Petron Manjalara and Petron Bandar Utama. Not to forget, we've placed our cookies at some event organizers office as well !

With the pace of how things have been growing great for us, it looks like I've got to save more money to have more capital in order to achieve our goals for this cookie empire !
But what are our long term plans for the cookies? Hmmm, It's still a secret. Hehehe. Till next time !

Part 1 : The Skinny Bakers

My first attempt on starting a baking business started off when I was 12. Typically, it was during the Eid celebration and it was the season for biscuits 'kuih'. I sold a few pineapple tarts with my mum and gained about RM 200. Then, my pursue in my baking business stopped as I was busy pursuing other interests throughout highschool.

Only a few years ago (3 years ago to be exact), I started baking again. And it was for my friends and family. I never baked for myself, really. But surprisingly, the best 'turn-outs' for the many recipes I've tried are usually the ones based on what other people requests of me to bake for them. But the one recipe that really stayed was our 'Chocolate Chip Cookies' that some people would even say, that it tastes better than 'Famous Amous' !

Then it begins ! I started baking for my sister who was pregnant with our first niece when she craved for freshly baked chocolate chip cookies. Next thing you know, I started baking for my niece, nephews and even my own friends requested for orders. But I was still busy catching up with my A-Levels, so introducing the cookies into the main market was never part of the plan (especially since I was preparing to study abroad)

A year passed by and I've completed my 1st Year of my LLB Law studies, came back for my Raya Holidays and my family requested for the cookies again ! Even after a year away from home and baking, I came back with people still requesting for the cookies, especially my lovely niece and nephew. My mum started learning how to bake the cookies from me, since I was to go back to UK and continue pursuing my studies (at least ada la for someone to bake the cookies whilst I was away). And next thing you know, BAM ! The idea to start a business just came with the flow (Also due to much encouragement from others, which are most definitely much appreciated).  Our motives & plans for the future of the business you may ask ? We'll definitely keep you posted in the future blog posts. 

So, here it goes. To the first 3 weeks of pursuing our business, 'The Skinny Bakers'. With everything going well so far (alhamdulillah), much gratitude goes to those who have been supporting us from the very beginning. Cheers !

The Fault of the Youth

The least we or anyone can and should do is to stand up and actually tell ourselves that we are responsible for the society we live in today and the future generation. To live with our mistakes and correct it rather than blaming 'anyone else' (or the usual, other political bodies). Rather than being keyboard warriors behind the desks at home, we should be real activists and standing up for what we say or our opinions on social media. Volunteering in NGOs and supporting events or movements towards a better cause. I believe the youth has so much energy and spirit in them but it has been misdirected nowadays. The focus of the current generation has been too much on impressing each other materialistically, or even as simple as through social media. We spend the energy and drive on 'popularity' or the amount of 'likes' we get on each picture. Doing really cool and creative videos only to get that special attention when such energy and creativity could have been put into good purposes. We are capable of so much more than that. Than what the world expects of us. Imagine if things were done differently. The world could have been a better place. The change has to start from us, from the youth.