Pak naz and his start up – a great example of a successful entrepreneurship

Kedai Emas dan Permata Nazeri Sri Gelugor is owned by En Nazeri bin Ismail or his nickname, Pak Naz. This awesome man was born on 29 March 1955. This father of 8 children come from a poor family and have been living a hard life during his childhood. His parent is a farmer, and he is the second child from five siblings. She got married to her wife, Pn Mariam on the year 1979. On the year 1987, Kedai Emas Nazeri Sri Gelugor was established. The year 2018 marked 31 years since it is been established. The focus of the shop is selling women favorite accessories which are mainly made of gold such as bracelets, rings, necklace, and earrings. Not only they sell gold but also gem type of accessories. Located at Gelugor Kedai village, this store not only succeeds to attract the nearby buyer but also managed to captivate buyer from another area and town.

Personal Background

The man that owned this gold jewellery shop only got the opportunity to study until Sijil Pelajaran Malaysia (SPM) only because of financial issues. Despite not having a higher education background, En Nazeri still can run a gold store. According to him, before he opens his own shop, he actually worked as an assistant at a gold store in Kuala Berang. Even when working as an assistant, he also sells women clothing at pasar malam during the weekend to support his family. He never feels embarrassed about doing such job as he said that it’s a halal job and there’s no solid reason to feel embarrassed about it. After almost 10 years working at the store, with the experience he gains and some money that he saved over the years, he opened his own first gold store at Gelugor Kedai village which is the place that he grew up at.

Business Start-up

“ It was my ambitious drive that made me who I am today,” says the owner of Kedai Emas dan Permata Nazeri Sri Gelugor. When was asked what make him feel motivated, he said that life taught him the best. Having been through a hard life as a kid, he determines not to let his family suffered the same things as he did. His wife and family are his everything. They never ever stop supporting him and always picked him up when in difficulties and when life gets really tough. It is true that behind every successful man there’s a woman who never stops being a supporter. Before starting his own business in selling gold jewellery, his family life are poor that he couldn’t even buy any gold jewellery for his wife let along a gold ring. He feels sorry to his wife for that. The target customer of the shop is mainly women as they are the one who always loves wearing gold accessories. Hence, they are the target customer of the shop.

Business Growth

To go through the story of this owner of two successful gold jewellery shop is like listening to a “ storytelling” about a story of a very diligent inspiring man. A unique fact, which can be viewed as his first direct involvement in business is that he used to sell his mother ‘ kuih muih’ around the village at the young age. He also makes a good pocket money doing a variety of job during school break like selling fruits or worked with people. That’s when he got interested in business. After SPM, he started working to help his family. Then, he got himself a job at a gold jewellery shop. He never attended university because shortage of money, but he used his experience working at the gold jewellery shop as a reference for his business. After almost 10 years working and with enough experience and money, he managed to build a gold jewellery shop. A shop to call his own. En Nazeri said that at first, things are so hard. They could hardly sell jewellery sometime. The business world is always up and down. But that’s the perk, the challenges every businessman will go through. There would be time when things are tough, that’s when you need to be patience and tougher than the problem to overcome it. He only started tasting the fruits of his success upon his third years of doing business. The gold store in Gelugor Kedai village is not the only store that En Nazeri owned. He also has another branch which has been operated since 2003. The branch has been operated for 15 years already and located at Kuala Berang. At the beginning of his business, he doesn’t employ any worker due to insufficient money. So, he managed all things by himself and his wife have been a great help as his assistant. From having only his wife as his assistant, today he has 13 workers working under him. There is no fast track to success. The road to becoming a successful businessman was filled with hurdles. While doing business, he had been sabotaged, cheated, slandered and failure as a part of his experience. Being an entrepreneur poses a lot of challenges and for En Nazeri, the one challenge that he will never forget is the robbery of his shop. 2005 was a year that would stay fixed in his mind. The year when he lost almost RM 110000 because of robbery. Due to that, his business really went downhill. But, being someone who never gives up, he remains strong and trying his hardest to climb up again. His efforts don’t go wasted when he scored a large amount of profit in the next few years.

Future Business Goals

Opening a new branch are En Nazeri next goals. In another year, he said that he might make that goal happened. Not only that, but he also wished to open a grocery store which might come true at the end of this year.

Insight and Conclusions

“ It takes blood, sweat, and tears in order to remain success in the business world”, says En Nazeri. The success enjoyed by En Nazeri today was not gained through an easy shortcut. Hard work, self-confidence and faith that everything comes from Allah has ‎made him the way he is today. Meeting En Nazeri face to face, I can say that he is an open risk taker person. He is very courageous and had high self-confidence and determination in doing his business. Though he bears a huge loss during the robbery, he still courage and confidence to stand up again. A good businessman is also someone who can create a peaceful atmosphere among the coworkers in order to achieve the organization’s goals. This will lead to increasing business productivity because the employee will always feel motivate and having no pressure when doing their job. These traits are a part of En Nazeri. During the whole interview session, he is very friendly and always being the one lighten up the mood, making jokes with his workers and treating them like a family. The fact that he can mix well with his workers even though he is the owner himself showed how humble he is.

I believe this is also one of the reasons his business are doing extremely well because of the relationship he had with his workers. There’s so much to learn from this impressive man who when from rags to riches. In the heart of this 63 years old man, there is courage, determination, and commitment.