Setting Up Your Own Cafe

Hi there ! 

I know its been awhile (in fact, a bit too long), been a bit preoccupied with setting up the shop and catching up with Raya orders for our cookies. But then I thought, I should spare a few minutes sharing my experience and what I've learnt throughout the process, hoping to guide others (especially the younger generation) on the basics on what you should expect in...... Setting Up Your Own Cafe !

First is,

1. Register your company to SSM (Suruhanjaya Syarikat Malaysia)

This is really important since you really cannot progress anywhere without a Company Registration number. Its better if you give them a call and ask them on what documents you would need to be prepared with if they acquire any before going there straight :)

Then,

2. Find a great location !

Location plays a really important role in this process. And you would need to have a location of the shop first before applying for permit or license or anything else, so find a place to rent. It can be through the internet or even by driving around scouting. We managed to find our location through propertyguru.com and iproperty,com.my but I'm pretty sure there are so many other ways to find places as to where you can set up your shop

Next,

3. Register for license from MPSJ/MPPJ etc 

It would most likely take an average of 10 days for the license application to succeed but this also depends on how fast you manage to fill in and complete the forms. They would expect you to go for certain courses, but no worries, they have the checklist of things you would need to complete before submitting it in ! (Note that this stage might be a bit costly). And for the Training, you wouldn't be expected to have any preparations before the class since the class is very direct, but you would be tested at the end of the Course. (It was hilarious how I had to go for a class with my mum, never thought I'd ever have to go for a class with my mum! One thing for sure though, she was definitely competitive in scoring better at the test than me hahaha)

We had to through a "Basic Knowledge Training" which took up to 3 hours, but it was quite interactive so it was alright. We took ours at Bandar Sunway, but you can take the Training at any location nearby your area really.

4. Start constructing your shop

Planning, planning and planning. That's definitely the most important thing I've learnt throughout the whole process. My dad thinks I don't pay attention to what he says, but I definitely didn't especially on how much he emphasized on, "If you fail to plan, it means you are planning to fail". So, plan ! Allocate the amount of money you have, plan the dates you wanna order your stuff, finding for contractors etc. It took us about 2-3 weeks in planning to set up the shop, researching the right POS for the shop, floor planning of the shop etc and our shop is only a 1/3 lot. Our contractor is taking about a week to build up the place so the target is to complete everything within 1 month and a half, so make sure you plan and try to reach the target ! The longer you take, the more money you pay for the rent of the shop without getting any returns. Do try to target for an Opening Date :)

5. Stick around for a while

Most of us give up the moment we haven't been receiving much profit the first few months. We expect our Return of Investment to be recovered within the first few months, but it doesn't work out like that with everyone. Especially if it costs a lot more to set up your shop. So, if things don't seem to work out at the start, find out ways to make it turn out! InsyaAllah, you'll be fine. I'm still setting up my shop but have been asking around other cafes on how they make it, and they usually say, you'll have to pull through, not to expect easy and quick profit at the beginning. 

That's it for now :)

Will try to share more of my experience throughout the whole process. Hope this helps ! xx

Balancing Deen and Dunya

Most of us go through life thinking we have achieved the balance that we should be trying to achieve as Muslims (referring to balance as in between Dunya and Deen), but have we really?

One of the many random pillowtalk conversations with my mum a few weeks back had me asking myself, was I really balancing my life out? Did I really do as much to learn loving my faith as much as I have been doing for my education?

The system we were brought up in (well, at least for most of my generation), is that we spend most of the hours in our day studying about Chemistry, Mathematics etc. And then after, we play sports in the evening, and continue doing homework later on at night. And we'd probably have an hour or two of Islamic Studies classes every other day which most of us end up complaining about..... And we go on to college and university thinking that, "hey, we've made it through school and well, I've passed PAFA and scored A for my Islamic Studies. So, I should be alright" Then it got to me, we could've done better than that, we could've found a better "balance". I could've learnt more about my religion, and how it really relates to our every day life

How great it'd be like if every single activity and subject (or basically just most of the things we do), we relate to Islam. 

As simple as for instance, just telling facts like Ibn Muadh al-Jayyani attributed one of the law of sines; 

(Which was a formula we all referred throughout our whole highschool)

Or even, learnt sports that the Prophet did as Sunnah as part of our curricular activity such as Archery which is proven to increase our strength and focus that can benefit us in so many ways nowadays (especially given the fact that I get distracted so easily heh)

And those were just merely examples...There's so much more to that
But my point is,

Could we have achieved a better "balance"? More intergrated Islamic-ally? Could we have been more inspired by these other great Muslim Leaders?



Came across this though,
http://productivemuslim.com/is-dunya-haram-for-us-heres-how-to-balance-deen-and-dunya/

Dignita: The Store with A Story

In the streets of the Red Light District, where hope shatters for most women who were being trafficked and forced into prostitution for a living, lies a cafe called "Dignita", a former brothel transformed into the store with a story....

100% of profits gained from the store and cafe goes towards supporting the work of Not For Sale (NFS).

And every Tuesday and Thursday night, volunteers will come and distribute food to the prostitutes working along the Red Light District.

Curious about how the organization works, I asked them a few questions...

How does this organization helps in tackling human trafficking?

They provide food and comfort in any way they can to the women working in the Red Light District. Policemen do investigate if the women there are being trafficked or are there voluntarily. And if the police finds people who are being trafficked there, we provide training for the victims to be able to sustain themselves in the future, having to leave their old life of prostitution behind the window or glass doors.

Does it matter if the women chose to be there willingly? And how would you be able to find out who is there voluntarily rather than being trafficked there? 

It doesn't matter if the women chose to be in the Red Light District willingly or not because most of them do not choose to be here. 

The store sells pretty cool items for you to buy in support of the organization and has a small seating area for a group of 3-4 to fit and watch videos on human trafficking that often occurs behind the Red Light District

They even sell quite affordable tea & coffee ! There was no reason not to support their cause especially after watching the video again and again, which really got to me....

The soup kitchen is also part of the cafe....

And they also store their supply of basic clothes, footwear and drinks for the ladies in the store...

It was literally the light at the end of a dark tunnel,

You could even come on Tuesdays, or Thursdays-Sundays at 6PM to get free information about the Red Light District. The informative talk will give an inside look into the history of the Red Light District, The Culture and Realities of the Red Light District, Legalization of Prostitution and Life Behind the Windows which will only take 30 minutes of your time

I've even attached a link of a very interesting yet viral short clip tackling the issue of human trafficking in the Red Light District down here, 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uta5xdGJcqI

You can find the location on Google Map as 'Dignita Retail' but nevertheless, here's the address,

Oudezijds Achterburgwal 82A,

1012 Dr Amsterdam

Please do visit and support their cause :)

Also, please do share this post to inspire others !

The Day We Bought More Than We Can Carry

So, as you can see, mum's finally here in my uni !

And I kinda gave her a rough start, literally haha. 

Anyways, since we're gonna be here for another 2 months or so, we decided to shop as much as we can for the 2 months straight away (Just cause I have exams coming up and I didn't want her to carry the heavy stuff alone, which was really not much of a point as you can see her lifting all the weight as well..... hehehe)

She told me to bring the grocery shopping trolley to Tesco's and I kept on insisting her I could carry all the stuff.... which we all know I can't but I just didn't want to bring the granny trolley around town before going Tesco ! You know.... the one that looks like this....,

We left for town before going to Tesco and FoodInc (where you get all them halal stuff at like a runcit store), and mum decided to look her best for our first day out in town together ! Wearing her new boots and all.... not knowing that she would regret her decision at the end of the day hahaha

As you'd expect, we got lost in town ! Not surprising eyy? Its cause I barely go to town...Also trying to secretly prove to my mum that I'm a good student who doesn't go out often, which we all know are liesssss !! Its just that I barely go to town, doesn't mean I don't go out ;)

So after making her walk around for hours, we went grocery shopping ! And I told her the list of food I was craving for which she would have to cook for, so imagine how much we bought..

We got ourselves some chicken, beef & minced meat, which wasn't so heavy....

Till we went Tesco and got ourselves some milk and wait for it,

5 kilo rice !!

Don't know how we ended up filling 2 huge grocery bags !! 

The worst part was the walk up the hill to my uni from the bus station....

Mum went like "I'm too dressed up for this ! Dah la dengan boots ! Go take the grocery trolley from one of your friends and come down again!"

And I insisted my mum that we could carry them up the hill... which we did ! With a lot of stops from laughing too much at each other carrying more weight than we actually could hahaahaa

After all the good laughs, and a 15 minute walk up the hill which usually takes me only 3 minutes, we made it !

Got ourselves lying flat on my bed after with a long nap right after that to reward ourselves for our unintended workout.... not forgetting the magnum we bought at tesco's !