'Crepe Me Out' food truck highlights girl power concept

PUTRAJAYA: Generally, the food truck business is pioneered by males but this does not hamper women from also seeking their livelihood from the venture.
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 since 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 the minority in the food truck scene as a females only food trucker. So, to me, it is quite easy to penetrate the food truck market,” she said when met by Bernama recently.
The mother of five from Kuala Lumpur opted to sell food and drinks in the style of desserts such as crepe and mango smoothie because, according to her, there are too many food trucks selling heavy food such as pasta and rice.
To date, Nurul Syahida said her food truck is 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 food truck businesses, Nurul Syahida said her workers and herself were forced to carry the 14-kg gas cannister themselves other than 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 complained of being tired, they appeared 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 of the Malaysian society 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 added. — Bernama