When the first MCO was implemented, I was out of job but I've met some interesting personalities that have big dreams, and together we set up 3 companies to build a 一条龙服务, literally translated to "one dragon service" to serve a very niche market, which at the height of pandemic, it was what the market desperately needed..
We worked on for several months without pay to launch the service into the market, we had a fantastic product, a solid sales and marketing plan, but we lack the talent and people to run the show - and that was where we failed..
I can draw up a solid marketing and advertising plan but I am not a salesperson, I am not a smooth suave sweet talker and I don't have the skills of a salesperson.. They say its an idiotproof job, but truth be told, sales is not for everyone - particularly if the product you are selling to is so niche that the only people you speak to are committees, rather than individuals..
What we were proposing was to reduce social contact, automate some processes, reducing manpower (indirectly, creating redundant staff) - at the height of pandemic where social distancing is a must and people are afraid of losing jobs..
We had a wrong strategy..
One of the biggest problem was that the founder spent too much money and time setting up the company when we had zero take ups.. We had a fully equipped co-working office, we had spent days bickering how to draw up the organisation chart, and by that, subsequently led to our failure..
By drawing the organisation chart, we were telling ourselves that it was no longer a team effort and that we need to hire people, and that was a red flag.. Yes, we did hire a few - we paid the salaries and commissions but they didn't last long because they were not in line with the direction of the company..
I was a partner and a shareholder but I wasn't the one pumping the money hence I lacked the quorum to speak up.. My contribution was in charge of sales and marketing and in lieu of salary, and for the next 18 months, I worked tirelessly without taking a cent but the company was bleeding money every month..
Soon, I began to exhaust my savings - I still have monthly bills to pay, I still need to eat, I still need to commute to work.. I even had to sue my previous employer for hanging me out to dry in March 2020 on the onset of the MCO..
But I was using up my rainy day savings..
For 18 months, we couldn't take the company to where it should have been.. We tried to penetrate other regions and markets only to have doors slammed on us..
After 18 months, at the end of 2021, I called it quits.. I could no longer sustain without an income - I was down to the last RM5k or so and it would have took me some time to get a job.. I settled for any job that pays within my experience and the range I was comfortable with..
I didn't even last in that job for 2 months because I went in with the big hopes of turning around the company but every proposal I gave was shot down and every weekly management meeting, all of us department heads were gunned - it was a simple Chinaman family business with the one-lord-wins-all mentality, no one else was allowed to question or speak..
I left, despite having depleted my savings, I just left without a job..
Me reflecting on those times - whenever I hear people say how one should have 24 months of rainy day savings, I go like, dude, you don't know what I went through.. Try taking no salary for 18 months and keeping all your monthly bills, installments, payments all intact - then tell me I should save up..
I am now slowly but painfully building back what I lost..
My family runs a FMCG wholesale trading business and we control and have the exclusive rights to the wholesale distribution in one region, supplying to FMCG retails, but I am not one who runs back and join the family business.. Heck, I have never even step foot into the company, what more take over..
Don't watch too much TV drama, it doesn't work that way..
