Under the #GirlPower concept, the food truck business belonging to Nurul Syahida Abdul Rahim, 32, is only handled by two women workers.
Nurul Syahida, who started the food truck business in February, said taking women workers was a challenge to her to compete with other traders.
“Normally, we see the food truck business is handled only by men or a mixture of men and women. However, I employ two women as a challenge to myself.
“We are a minority in the food truck scene being a women-only food trucker. So, to me, it is quite easy to penetrate the food truck market,” she told Bernama.
The mother of five from Kuala Lumpur opted to sell food and drinks in the style of desserts, such as crepe and mango smoothies because, according to her, there are too many food trucks selling heavy food, such as pasta and rice.
Nurul Syahida said so far her food truck has been located at the Food Truck Hotspot in Precinct 2 here, from 5pm to midnight daily. She also accepted bookings from clients in Kuala Lumpur or elsewhere outside of Putrajaya.
Asked on the challenges of women in handling the food truck business, Nurul Syahida said she and her workers have to carry the 14kg gas cannisters themselves aside from driving the Daihatsu truck to far off destinations, such as Lumut, Perak to meet the needs of clients.
“But it is not a problem to us as my workers are hardy. Although at times they complain of being tired, they appear to have gotten used to heavy work. I guess it comes with the job,” she said.
Nurul Syahida said her gamble also paid off as she could reap a net income of RM500 to RM2,000 a day depending on the weather and the number of visitors on weekdays and weekends.
On her future plans, Nurul Syahida said she planned to open a crepe kiosk at a shopping centre as the demand from Malaysians for the French dessert was encouraging.
“In this business, regardless of men or women, we must have passion, it won’t work if you don’t have passion,” she said.