What It’s Like to Be a Female Entrepreneur in Malaysia? -Chat With Ms Joanne Chew, A Self Made Businesswoman.

Are you a female entrepreneur trying to make it big in the field or a fresh graduate or stay at home mom looking to start your own business?

If yes, I am pretty sure you are worried and have a lot of questions running through your mind wondering if the business plan going to work? Are you on the right track?

What strategies would work for you and so on? To answer these questions, I sat down with Ms Joanne Chew, the CEO OF ABC Ideal Partners.

Before going into the article let me brief you through about Ms Joanne and what she does.

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So, Ms Joanne along with her husband is the founder of ABC Ideal Partners Sdn Bhd a company that disturb and supply corporate and premium gifts around Malaysia.

The company’s main goal is to provide top notch products and services to our customers.

Since starting small in 1999, they are now the top supplier and distributor of corporate gifts in Malaysia and the region with over 1,500 clients.

Adding on her company is certified as ISO 14001:2004 company, which means they are a firm believer in sustainability to protecting the environment by investing in technologies and products that are eco-friendly and share this vision with our clients.

Their products are free from toxins, pollutants and any other substances that may be harmful to the environment.

Wanna surprise your partner with a customized gift, or need a bulk of trophies for office annual event?  Check out ABC Ideal Partners for more all these gifts you need. 

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So, now let’s see what you Ms Joanne has got to share:

1) Tell us more about yourself and why you choose this field?

Hi, I am Joanne and I am the co-owner of ABC Ideal Partners along with my husband.

We are in this business for more than a decade now and took us some time to be where we are now but the journey was a good learning experience for us.

To answer why this niche market is simply because I like to see people get surprised and happy when receiving gifts I believe most people will be happy when receiving gifts so why not turn that emotion in business and that has been working well for us.

Also read: 5 Inspiring Malaysian Female Entrepreneurs That We Should Know About

2) What motivates you to success?

The success of my clients what drives me to be honest.

Seeing the services we are providing has helped our client in their event of the campaign and achieve their sales or marketing target drives us to do better and be better. The secret is success leads to success so work for progression.

3) What are the key qualities for a leader in business?

Hard work is the first and also you need patience. 

You also need to show some compassion towards everyone around you and always be open to criticism because without it there is no room for improvement.

Also always avoid gossiping and have the passion to keep learning.

Also read : 6 Loan and Fund Programmes Available in Malaysia for All Women Entrepreneurs.

4) What are you advise for the young entrepreneur? 

Be patient and keep trying and keep learning. Stay in a healthy lifestyle. Great health leads to a great mind.

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Apart from personal questions, we also discussed a lot on the market, business and sales strategies as well.

I believe Ms Joanne’s vast experience and kowledege will be really helpful for start-ups. 

Below is the interview:

1) Based on your observation and experience, what are the marketing strategies that you think would work in the business?

Word of mouth from clients. The more people that talks about you the better. Get the words out there.

Secondly, repeating sales from clients. In other words, build trust with clients is a key strategy in maintaining a good reputation of the company and increase more client.

Lastly, and the most important to date is social media. It is a NEED now.

You can’t run a business without a proper social media page to support you. Digitalization has opened up a lot of new windows so use it wisely.

Also read: Here’s How You Can Be Empowered and Empower Women in Business.

2) The biggest struggle in business is to survive and be ahead of your competitors. How do you handle that?

As said, just be hardworking and keep trying.

Look out for new competition and what their moves but no need to replicate them instead focus on your own business and try to make it stand out by working hard.

3) Lastly, what are your business goals?

My personal goal would be to build and grow together.

For example, my staffs to be in a better stage in their life, just growing successful with your staff, colleagues together. And also to improve self values and career values.