Young entrepreneurs should look no further than our very own home-grown Lai Yin Fung
KUCHING: Have you ever wondered how much it takes to start up your own business? In the case of the proprietor of Chicking Eating House, Lai Yin Fung, it was a mere RM60,000 for him to start up his first outlet at Petanak.
SPECIAL BRAND: Lai says quality of the ingredients used to prepare the food is important to ensure that the food is of the best quality.
After a short period in the business, he went on to opening up a second outlet at Jalan Tun Ahmad Zaidi Adruce with an investment of about RM110,000. He gave every credit to his family members and staff for their support and encouragement throughout the years besides the strong support from friends and patrons.
“Support from family and staff is very important as without them, nothing can be done. While the business is expanding slowly, strong commitment from the manpower is important to make sure that the outlets are well managed while not forgetting, friends and patrons who have been strongly supporting me throughout the years,” explained Lai.
The thirty-something proprietor emphasised on the quality of the ingredients that are being put together to concoct his special brand of chicken rice as well as other items on its ala carte menu.
“All the ingredients that we obtain to prepare food in our menu are not cheap and are of the best quality. We put our quality emphasis on important ingredients such as rice, chilli, spices, chicken and soy sauce. We pay close attention to all these ingredients besides our preparation method to make sure that the food that we prepare is of the best quality,” he said.
He believes in doing so because he is in this business for the long term and in his opinion, customer service is very important in sustaining a business.
Initially, he was just helping out his brother-inlaw in his chicken rice business but he soon found his calling and decided to set up one of his own in Kuching. It only took him about three months to learn the art of chopping chicken.
“The reason why I chose Kuching to start up my business is because this is my home town and it is better to start my business somewhere where you are very sure about the demand of the market.” he enthused.
Besides providing a clean environment for his patrons to dine in, he also stressed on the importance of highly trained personnel to provide exemplary customer service. For example, each personnel in charge of preparing chicken were guided as to maintain the quality of the product.
As for customer turnover of his outlets, he expects around 400 to 500 customers per outlet which consist of customers who are either dine-in or takeaway.
Lai said that his business caters for young working adults and families. This was subtly shown in his menu where customers could find value meals ranging from RM5 to RM5.50 for a single portion and combo meals for the whole family at a reasonable price of RM45.
Interestingly, his customer base is mostly Chinese at Petanak outlet. With the opening of the second outlet in Jalan Tun Ahmad Zaidi Adruce, it was hoping to cater for other communities in the market which he stressed were equally important in generating profit to his business. His restaurants were all certified ‘Halal’ by the Islamic Food Research Centre of Asia.
“At Chicking, we not only serve chicken rice but have expanded into other chicken-based dishes such as chicken curry noodles, chicken porridge, Thai style chicken feet and everyone’s favourite, chicken wings.
“Our signature dishes have a distinct flavour to them as the recommended Thai style chicken and Thai style tofu are favourites amongst the customers. We make our signature dishes to order because we truly believe in offering customers food hot from the kitchen so that it does not lose its flavour and texture which is what makes us unique.” he explained.
Lai reported Chicking’s sales figures rose 10 per cent from the period 2008 to 2009 but was reluctant to provide a round figure for the current year in light of the current business environment as a lot of similarly positioned businesses had surfaced all over Kuching.
One might wonder what is the secret behind preparing such succulent chicken to tempt the palates of his loyal customers. Actually, Lai had only this to say, “Punctuality is of the utmost importance in preparing the chicken. One second or one minute too late and the texture of the chicken would be different.”
Generating profit was not only part of Lai’s principles of running his business but he also showed concern for the environment as his takeaway packages were neatly wrapped in brown paper and the furnishing for his restaurants are all made of environmental sustainable products.
“I am always looking forward to serving my customers better and currently I’m thinking of providing a self-service order sheet on each table so that customers can tailor their order to their personal liking and this would minimise any potential confusions in the order taking process.” he said.
He was cautious of overexpansion as he believed it took some time for a business to settle properly before venturing out into new markets. Somewhere down the line, he noted that the Sabah had a lot of potential but for now, he was solely concentrating on enhancing the branding of his restaurants in Kuching.