Author: Suen
Business Nature: Wellness & Jelly Cake
Profession:
1.Instructor, Consultant and Therapist, Anti Bone Aging Health Industry, Posture Management Instructor and Therapist, Postpartum Recovery Specialist, Sales Advisor.
2.Jelly Cake Baker and Jelly Cake Teacher
I was born into a humble family and grew up in a small village with my parents, my elder sister and younger brother. Life was not easy back then.
My father worked outstation most of the time, while my mother also worked very hard to support the family. She did many different jobs such as cycling around the village selling food, running a guava stall, and working as a confinement lady.
Thus, from small, we had to help our mother as well in her routine business duties.
After school, we had to rush home to help her prepare food for her business and follow her to sell guavas at a roadside stall. I even helped my father with garbage collection work sometimes. Standing on a garbage truck surrounded by piles of rubbish and crawling maggots made me fearless of things that many girls would normally be afraid of, like cockroaches. That was why I never grew up as a pampered girl.
During my secondary school years, my parents were both working away from home, leaving only my younger brother and me at home. I became independent very early in life. Every morning, I woke up around 5am to do household chores, feed the chickens, wash clothes, and prepare everything before taking the bus to school. After school, I still had to cook and manage the house chores while keeping up with my studies.
From Remove until Form 6, I worked during almost every school holiday. I worked in factories, restaurants, and many other part-time jobs. After Form 5, I told my mother that I did not want to continue my studies because I wanted to start working and help to reduce the family burden. But my mother always told us, “No matter how poor we are, we must never sacrifice education.”
After completing Form 6, I achieved excellent results unexpectedly and was offered a place in Universiti Malaya to study Business Administration which was my first choice. Instead of feeling happy, I felt worried because I knew my family could hardly afford the expenses. I almost gave up the opportunity until one of my school teachers called and encouraged me not to let go of such a good opportunity.
To support myself through university, I worked every weekend selling color contact lenses at different optical outlets at different locations. I traveled alone by train, LRT and bus all over the city while secretly hiding the nature of my work from my mother because I did not want her to worry.
After graduation, another challenge came when my parents were involved in a road accident and needed special care. My sister and I had to put our working plan aside temporarily to take care of them. I forced myself to overcome my fear of driving so I could drive my father to distant clinics for treatment every day.
That time, I joined the YTL Group and slowly worked my way up to become a Sales Manager. However, the stress affected my health badly and I struggled to conceive. Eventually, I decided to resign and choose a less stressful office job in Klang. Surprisingly, soon after changing jobs, I became pregnant with my first child, and after that I gave birth to three children in three consecutive years.
As expenses increased, I started online businesses and sold jelly cakes from home while taking care of my children. Eventually, I left my office job completely to focus on my jelly cake business and even became a teacher conducting jelly cake classes.
Business was doing well until COVID hit, which greatly affected everything.
Subsequently, I was blessed with two more children, making me a mother of five. Many people questioned why I continued having children despite the physical and financial challenges. Honestly, I simply did not want to leave regrets in my life. My husband is the eldest and only son in his family, and I also hoped to fulfill my parent-in-law’s wish of having a grandson.
After completing my “motherhood mission,” reality hit hard again. Supporting five children became increasingly difficult while my previous business struggled to recover after the pandemic. I kept asking myself what else I could do while still taking care of my family.
Thankfully, I refused to stay trapped in my comfort zone. Through a health screening event, I discovered the bone-age anti-aging wellness industry that I am currently involved in today. Initially, I only wanted to learn the skills to help improve my family’s health conditions, but eventually I stepped into the wellness industry and started another home-based business journey.
Unexpectedly, from the very first day, my business became extremely busy. Besides doing treatments for customers, I still had to manage my household, cook, send my children around, and continue handling cake orders. Many people jokingly call me “Superwoman.”
I was also given the opportunity to become an assistant instructor in the company. Less than six months after joining, I even had the opportunity to attend the World Bone Age Conference in Guangzhou and stand on stage to receive an award as “Secretary General.”
This year, I challenge myself once again by stepping into the sales market together with our company‘s senior technical teachers from China, collaborating with wellness and beauty centres. Although I had worries about leaving my children behind for work trips, I chose to accept the opportunity because I strongly believe that opportunities do not come often, and when they do, we must be brave enough to seize them.
Many people ask me if I feel regretful being a Universiti Malaya graduate and former sales manager who later became a full-time mother and home entrepreneur. But to me, when a woman chooses marriage and motherhood, sacrifices are inevitable. Still, I believe I made the right choice because I was able to accompany my children while building my own career and achievements at the same time.
All these experiences shaped me into a stronger, more independent, and more positive person. I truly believe that with the right mindset, courage, and determination, we can overcome all the challenges in life.
Share to all women here:
Never to underestimate your own strength, step out bravely, stop limiting yourself with fear, and create your own value. As long as we stay positive and keep moving forward, nothing is impossible.
Let’s continue to support and inspire one another. We can be a loving mother, strong women and successful individual at the same time.