Nurhayati (56 years old) or known as Mrs. Inur is an alumni of frozen food training organized by Yayasan Inspirasi Indonesia Membangun / The Foundation for Inspiration of Indonesia Development (YIIM) in cooperation with Insight Investments Management Company (INSIGHT) in the year of 2019. This program is one of the community empowerment programs that aims to improve the welfare of the community through training provided by YIIM and INSIGHT.This program is also in line with Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) Number 1 to end poverty.

Mrs. Inur currently lives with her husband and two children in Cengkareng, West Jakarta. Currently, Mrs. Inur daily activities is selling cakes under the name “Noer’s Kitchen” and also currently she is looking after her basic food stall. Her husband has been working as an online motorcycle taxi since 5 years ago. She has been running these two businesses since 4 years ago. Previously, Mrs. Inur had a shop in the canteen of an office in the central Jakarta area. Her shop no longer located in the canteen of an office due to displacement of the office.

Starting from a Hobby

She was always loved making cake that is the reason for Mrs. Inur’s beginning to develop a cake business. Since the beginning she likes to read various cooking menus in a magazine. After the technology developed, Mrs. Inur learned to cook through Youtube.

“When my son was a kid, I liked to buy cooking magazines. I’ve always loved reading about how to make various kinds of cakes. Since there is YouTube, I learn more often by watching YouTube.”

In addition to making cakes business, Mrs. Inur has also been involved in catering business. She has made various menus since she has a shop in an office. She often gets an orders from the office in large quantities. The most orders that Mrs. Inur got was 500 boxes. The price of the rice box was IDR. 15,000/box. She sometimes gets an order of rice wraps for people who are holding demonstrations. She charges around IDR. 7,000 to IDR. 8,000/pack. In order to running this catering business Mrs. Inur is not by herself but she runs with her friends.

To develop her skills, Mrs. Inur participated in cooking training held by YIIM and INSIGHT together with the association that she participated in. She learned various ways of making market snacks. She felt very grateful because from the training she was able to know the technique of making cakes firsthand.

After attending the training, Mrs. Inur and her group received business assistance provided by YIIM and INSIGHT. She utilizes the oven and also the scales from the donor for the business she runs.

“I got assistance of cooking utensils. My group got an electric oven, a scale, a mixer, a blender, a happy call. Sharing for the use, those who really need it are those who will use it. I myself need an oven and a scale. This help is very useful for my current business. “

From the training that Mrs. Inur participated in, she also gained new knowledge, namely frozen food. After knowing the new knowledge, she immediately put it into practice. She started to make rissoles cake, then put it in frozen. So when someone ordered, she can just fry it.

Before participating in the training, Mrs. Inur felt doubt to sell her cakes because she thinks that her cakes were not suitable for sale. After attending the training, she began confident to selling the cakes she had made.

“I keep learning, looking for which one is delicious. Finally, the last 4 years have just confident to sell and to market it. After training, I am more courageous because I am sure, it has been learned directly in training.”

Currently, she has made various kinds of pastries, sponge cakes, brownies, and onion chips. During Eid, she made 8 kinds of pastries with sizes of 500 grams and 300 grams with prices ranging from IDR. 40,000 to IDR. 75,000. She makes various flavours of sponge cake, such as pandan cake, tape sponge, banana cake. For brownies, prices vary according to the toppings ordered by consumers. For the size 20×20 with the original taste, she puts a price of IDR. 65,000. and for small size onion chips starting from IDR. 1,000 to IDR. 2,000.

Mrs. Inur runs this business herself. When there are many orders, she is usually assisted by her husband starting from shopping, cooking, to delivering order.

The obstacles she faced were the relatively quiet home environment. She also looked for an alternative by selling outside to her friends who worked. This is also effective, the cakes sold by Mrs. Inur are selling well outside.

After that, Mrs. Inur did marketing through word of mouth and through orders via WhatsApp by marketing through WhatsApp status. Mrs. Inur also tried to post her business in a Facebook group called “Kuliner Cengkareng Timur”.

Various Struggles To Fulfil Family Life

Apart from being a hobby, Mrs. Inur runs this business because of the demands of life. She runs this business in order to increase family income. In the end, the family income did not only come from the husband, but also from himself.

During running the business, Mrs. Inur went through various obstacles. Her husband at that time was affected by termination of employment (PHK) at a company. Eventually, Mrs. Inur encourages herself to open a canteen in an office. Mrs. Inur working until she can makes her child finishes her college. During Mrs. Inur sells at the offices canteen, her eldest child helps her.

“My child helps me In the morning. I’m the cooking section, he’s serving and delivering food section to the office. In the afternoon he went to college. After college, he came back to pick me up. I wake up at 3 am to the market. Ride a motorbike with a motorbike bag. Those are our daily activities for 10 years.”

After her first child graduated from college, Mrs. Inur moved to sell at home. It turns out that the income that Mrs. Inur earns is not as good as when she was in the canteen. In the end, Mrs. Inur’s first child helped pay for his sibling’s tuition until graduated from college.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, Mrs. Inur had another problem. At that time she did not get a cake order. For food stalls, their income has decreased drastically. Before the covid-19 pandemic, in a day Mrs. Inur got IDR. 800,000. However, during the covid pandemic, the shop’s income decreased to IDR. 150,000 in a day.

Usually, on a daily basis, Mrs. Inur’s family fulfills their needs with income from basic food stalls. However, due to the pandemic, the available capital was finally used up for food, electricity, and children’s tuition fees. Even the husband during the pandemic did not get any income at all.

“One month, God, go home without getting money. Once a month there was no money at all. When the fast falls, the spending must be double.”

Income Starts to Increase

After the pandemic began to improve, the income earned by Mrs. Inur and her husband began to improve, although not all of it. The husband is starting to earn as much as IDR 100,000 a day and Mrs. Inur has started getting orders. When she got order this year’s Eid, she got a net turnover of IDR. 6,000,000 with 200 jars sold. The average customer area is Depok, Bogor, Jatinegara, and Tangerang. Usually customers order cakes from 4 to 20 jars.

In the future, Mrs. Inur wants to have a cake shop in a fairly crowded area. With the store in the future, she hopes to be able to sell more cakes ranging from various pastries to soggy cakes. And also thus her cake sales are more in demand.

For those of you who want to try Mrs. Inur’s cake, you can directly contact the number 0878 8139 9424 (Noer’s Kitchen).

Inspiration Greetings!