HOPE for OG by Syukur

Assalamualaikum and hi everyone, I am Syukur a final year student at International Islamic University Malaysia (IIUM). I hope you are all in good health. Here, I will share my experience in Entrepreneurship subject this semester (2019/2020 semester 2). In this semester, just like last semester we were assigned by madam Fatin Husna to form a group to run our own business. The business should be carried out by us online as well as physically during the entrepreneurial week. The business that we run will be evaluated by madam Fatin Husna for carry assessment mark. Even at the end of the semester, there are awards for several categories such as the Entrepreneurial Hope Award and more.

So, I and a few others of my friends form a group and we decided to sell food, Korean food, gimbab. Since most of us were together at Rotu's training last January and we were in a group called Original Gangster (OG) at the time, we were inspired to name our food business as Original Gimbab (OG). Members of our group consist of five persons which are Mu'izz (CEO @ Chief), Rhiezan (HR), Hazim (Marketing), Zainul (Financial) and me (Operating).

All the things we have provided for us to do in the booth during entrepreneurship week. Among them we have created an Instagram account called @ og_the5 to promote our business. On that Instagram account, we introduced our members and mentioned the specialty of our own food products there. This Instagram is one of our strategies for marketing purposes and we use other mediums such as Whats app to disseminate the information and developments of the food products we sell.

The entrepreneurship week that is scheduled to take place in the seventh week of this semester has us looking forward to it. But unfortunately, since the beginning of the semester, the world has been shaken by the news of the outbreak of corona-virus disease (COVID 19). In the fifth week of the semester, the Malaysian prime minister has announced an order for movement control for the Malaysian country starting March 18, 2020. So, all activities at the university have been suspended, including the planned entrepreneurship week which will take another two weeks.

Following the news of the movement's control order announced by the prime minister, our plans have changed by 180 degrees. We all need to live and adapt to the new norms of life. Following the news, the university also announced to give students a two-and-a-half month leave and students would be sent home. So, madam Fatin Husna has advised us to continue our business online. The main problem for us to continue in business is due to our product type of food product. We could not send our products through postage and also we could not go out home to buy ingredients for cooking. Madam Fatin Husna advises not to focus on the business but focus on the promotional content on Instagram so it will be an advantage for us if we want to continue our business in the future.

Basically, the original gimbab is Korean food, so in order to match the taste of Malaysia's throat, we've adapted the recipe a bit. Most commonly known Malaysian food worldwide is Nasi Lemak. To get that idea, we have included anchovies as an additional recipe. This will make the gimbab itself feel like Nasi Lemak mixed with the existing ingredients in the gimbab itself, such as rice, eggs and cucumber. You can see all the ingredients to make the original gimbab on our Instagram account or click on the image of our Instagram program I featured above.

Thankfully, the country is recovering from the economic crisis as well as a bit of relaxation from the Malaysian government for its business activities. Looking at the current situation, I might be able to re-discuss with my teammates whether or not to continue this business. For me, I hope the business we design will continue to be profitable. This is because we will gain valuable experience in running our own business while also getting to know the deeper business. If my teammates don't want to continue this business, InsyaAllah I will study the justification for me to run this business myself. The road has been wide open since I already have an Instagram account which is a medium of promotion and this business is already registered with the Companies Commission of Malaysia (SSM) besides I have also gone to food handling courses. All those advantages are already with me.

So, I need the support of all of you so that I can live up to my business. I also hope that this corona-virus outbreak (COVID 19) will continue to disappear from this world. I sincerely hope we can all reunite at our proud university (IIUM) in the near future. The yearning for friends and lecturers can no longer be contained. Lastly, I hope we are all in good shape and always under His protection. Take care of each other and fight COVID 19 as we have not yet won. Thank you for reading my doodle on this 'hope' to the end and I wish you all your hope will be achieve. Byeee ... Assalamualaikum.