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Business Lessons from a Chicken Rice Seller
You don’t always need classes and a syllabus to learn
I visit my mom every weekend and whenever I do, I always pay a visit to the chicken rice stall nearby her place. It’s just a little stall in a coffee shop that has other hawkers.
Even though it’s in an area that’s considered far away from the city, the shop is often crowded and the chicken rice usually sells out by 2pm, if not earlier.
Although it’s not a venture capitalist-backed startup or a multi billion-dollar conglomerate, I’ve learned a few valuable lessons on business from this little enterprise.
Create a great product
Every hawker center in Malaysia will typically have a chicken rice stall. It’s something of a staple. But not every chicken rice stall is the same.
This particular one that I visit every single weekend I’m at my mom’s serves an amazing roast chicken rice.
The chicken — whether you get the breast or the thigh — is always moist. The skin is browned to perfection. The soy sauce gravy that comes with the chicken has the right level of saltiness. The cucumber is always fresh and sliced to the perfect size. The oiled rice is just oily enough and wonderfully fragrant.
