EKUITI Nasional Berhad (Ekuinas) wants to take Bumiputera entrepreneurs to greater heights by enhancing their business capabilities through the Entrepreneur Mentorship Programme (EMP) under its corporate social responsibility arm, ILTIZAM.
Ekuinas Director, Stakeholders' Interest, Hizwani Hassan said ILTIZAM EMP aims to assist business owners who are passionate to grow and expand their companies and are willing to collaborate.
ILTIZAM EMP was established in 2013 and was formerly known as Entrepreneur Capacity Building Programme. The programme is targeted at assisting micro and small enterprises (MASE) by addressing challenges that limit their potential. The programme provides assistance and formulates action plans to help the companies which have the potential to grow further in a six-month to one-year period of mentorship.
"To qualify for the programme, the companies will be assessed through the MASE diagnostic tool, developed specifically to identify and address key business challenges systematically and objectively.
"From there, we can assess and determine areas that need changes or improvements such as system implementation, financial management and marketing tools and strategies as the programme does not provide financial assistance," Hizwani told the New Straits Times.
He said companies that are interested in applying for the programme will be assessed through a diagnostic tool via questionnaires designed to identify challenges faced by these micro and small entrepreneurs. The main goal is to assist the entrepreneurs to understand and identify areas of improvement to elevate these businesses to the next level of growth.
The questionnaires help to identify the root cause of challenges by covering nine areas such as business model, revenue, cost, product, distribution, marketing, capabilities, financial management and business support.
"After identifying those comes the action plan, including strategies to strengthen their business such as system improvements, establishing marketing plans and preparing financial statements that are needed for expansion and growth of the business."
Elaborating on the programme, Hizwani said ILTIZAM EMP would target unique and high potential companies with a consistent track record, founders who are passionate and those that offer job opportunities to locals.
"Entrepreneurs we have met are mostly those with creative ideas which have the potential to bring Malaysian brands to greater heights.
"For example, the Raw Denim House (RDH) not only produces custom-made quality jeans in Besut, Terengganu, they also employ local graduates to work for them.
"The owner, Ahmad Safuan Nizam Kamarudin, was innovative as he started his business offering clothes alterations and later had an interest in vintage denim which led him to create vintage-inspired jeans," he said.
"Through the programme, we helped to build RDH's e-commerce website and online presence, research into ready-to-wear products, and developed proper financial statements so that they are able to track the overall health of the company."
Apart from RDH, the programme also successfully assisted nine local companies — Bibah Songket, Al Quds Travel Sdn Bhd, Fatihah Frozen Sdn Bhd, EightDesigns Sdn Bhd, Proquaz Sdn Bhd, Biz Connexion Sdn Bhd, Parabox Sdn Bhd, KinderKaizen by EYTC Group and Resources Sdn Bhd, and local batik brand, Kapten Batik.
"In addition, we leveraged Ekuinas' network to help the businesses where possible, for instance, finding rental space in a prime shopping mall," he said.
This year, Hizwani said ILTIZAM EMP is looking to assist five new companies, and they are currently open to three more for the programme for 2021.
"The two current EMP participants are premium pasta brand Eatalian Express Food Industries and sports tape producer ATF Sport Taping.
"The pasta brand offers vegetarian-based products which are targeted at children and are available at premium grocery stores in the country. This year, we are looking at assisting them to obtain a Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points (HACCP) food safety certificate and enhance their online presence.
"The sports taping brand is also the first Bumiputera company to produce and sell kinesio tapes at affordable prices and which are designed by the founders themselves who are former professional national rugby players. We are in the midst of working on a campaign to increase its online brand presence and looking out for opportunities in new markets segments such as for personal and physiotherapy use.
"What sets these companies apart is that they came from humble beginnings, used their own savings to start their business and utilised proper research and development (R&D) for their products, hence proving their passion for the business," he said.
Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, Hizwani said ILTIZAM EMP also assisted some of its former companies mainly in terms of rent and staff salary so they are able to sustain the business and retain their staff to ensure they are able to pivot back once the situation improves.
On ILTIZAM EMP's future plans, Hizwani said the team is currently working on a new programme that targets smaller businesses and traders, which will be announced soon. Many of those smaller business owners were badly hit by the Covid-19 pandemic and Ekuinas believes that short-term solutions can benefit their business in the future.
Those who are interested in ILTIZAM EMP or have any further inquiries can drop an email to info@ekuinas.com.my.