Taking street food to the next stage of entrepreneurship

Hi friends,

Living in Asia gives us a great a opportunity to enjoy and savour a diverse range of food, from the more high end restaurant dining to the rich street food variety. We are indeed privilege to be able to enjoy it. Recently there was an article regarding the need to preserve this street food heritage, less we loose its authenticity as time goes by. The call was that this culinary skill should be taught in catering schools to promote the interest of developing a career or business opportunity for it.

I find the article most interesting and can definitely associate with its thoughts very well. I wanted to share that indeed there is a great opportunity in this area of street food especially from an entrepreneurial perspective. I came from a background where my mother is a street hawker. Along the many years that she has been in it (she retires a few years ago) I have also been involved in the various aspect of the business. That kind of exposure gave me good experiences and skill sets in the street food business and its opportunities. In this business indeed there is a lot of hard work and long hours but the entrepreneurial skills that one can learn from it is invaluable. Some thought that such business is a very simple one. That is not really the case. If you have been into it, you will find that there are many aspects of the business planning that one need to carry out, among others from the need to plan for fresh ingredients, timely supply, understanding customer's flow and preferences, developing good customer's relationship, financial and cash flow planning, risk management, branding your stall etc. In fact the greatest of them is the intellectual property (e.g. your sauces and ingredients) that you have developed. How do you preserve your IP and pass it on? It is no different from any other business except perhaps for its scope and scale. There is great entrepreneurial opportunity in this food business. It also does not always have to be of a lower class. There are quite a number of street food today which due to the entrepreneur's creativity and innovation has allow them to price it at a much higher price. And if the food and services is done properly I believe the customers do not mind paying for the premium to enjoy their favourite food. Though such business may involve much work and longer working hours but the margins is also good. I spent approximately 10 years (in and out) in my mother's hawker business. I know every aspect of it and I am proud that I had this opportunity to learn and experience it. By the way, where do I come from? I come from Ipoh, Malaysia, a place famous for many of it street food. What kind of hawker food that my mother was involved in? Wanton mien (noodles). As I used to tell others, give me a day notice and I can set up a stall and ready to roar!!

I visited Penang recently and was fascinated with its vibrant street food. I took a picture of it. See picture above.


Looking out:

1. Signal engineer who can assist in a new technology venture initiative.

Catch-up the next time.
KH