November 04, 2009 10:56 AM

Puziah: The Teacher Who Became A Successful Entrepreneur

By Melati Mohd Ariff

KUALA LUMPUR, NOv 4 (Bernama) -- In the midst of the economic crisis in 1998, Puziah Saad boldly resigned from her teaching career.

Puziah who had taught for eight years made up her mind to venture full time into multi level marketing (MLM).

Though she had no formal qualification in marketing, the daughter of a settler born in Selangor 44 years ago has been highly confident of the prospects in MLM and of her ability to excel in the field.

Even during her teaching days, this strong willed woman familiarised herself in direct selling under part time basis and due to her earnestness within a short period of time she was earning handsomely.

Confident of her ability, she resigned from the teaching profession with a 24 hour notice and ventured full time into MLM.

NOT SHY

Though Puziah may not have a marketing background, her most valuable asset is the gift of the gap and her confidence in selling the products.

"As for me the entrepreneurship skill has been part and parcel in me even since I was young. During my school days I used to sell guava and corn to friends to sustain myself.

"At the back of my home there were corn planted by my mother. When friends ask I will bring three or four for them. In selling, I have been used to since young. When I started the MLM business, what ever that I sold it sold well. Since then I was aware of my forte," she said to Bernama in an interview at her office in Wisma De Bella in Taman Maluri here recently.

Puziah noted that she established the Bella-Z Mutiara Marketing (M) Sdn Bhd that began operations on July 7, 1998 with she playing the role of the managing director.

The initial products that helped her to establish her name in the MLM sphere is the seven aloe vera based healthcare products especially the aloe vera drinking gel that helps to improve blood circulation, which she procured from a foreign supplier and sold under the De Bella brand name.

NO EASY ROUTE

There were numerous challenges that Puziah underwent.

"But when we achieve a level of success, we will feel satisfied. This is for genuine entrepreneurs and not those who depend on political patronage," said Puziah who is married to Mustapa Sulaiman. The couple is blessed with three children Nabilla Huda, Natasha Ain and Nabihan Ariff.

Reminiscing her early days in business, Puziah said she had to mortgage her house, sell her jeweleries and even her car to start the business.

"I managed to amass about RM200,000 as working capital and my husband told me that if our business fail we have to live under the bridge but I begged him for a chance," said Puziah.

She added that, at the initial stage, she operated her business from her home. When the first stock arrived, it was stored in the terrace house filling up all the free space available.

"I could not sleep for almost a month, my body weight came down from 65kg to 48kg. Here is where I built up my strength. The first month I sold stocks worth RM60,000, the second month it touched RM200,000 and the third month, RM300,000. In less than five months the stocks were depleted.

BUSINESS EXPANDED FAST

Puziah's earnestness in helming her MLM business saw good returns from 1998 to 2003. From the wealth that she gained she bought some real estate that became part of the company's assets.

Among her asset is the Wisma De Bella worth RM2.5 million located at Jalan Jejaka, Taman Maluri here.

Apart from being the managing director, at the initial stage of the operations she herself trained `leaders' for her MLM business.

"I did not want to undergo courses to train others, I only learned the art by reading and through my own experience. I was also successful in moulding highly determined leaders. I hold training sessions every week among others to motivate them and show them the way to do business," noted Puziah.

From the seven aloe vera based healthcare products, a whole new line of products were added under the De Bella collection including beauty, skincare and make up products.

MANAGING CRISIS

Like any business, Puziah's business has also seen its ups and downs. The real test came when a group of MLM leaders parted company and established their own firm.

"Business was affected but thank god there were a group of workers who were always behind me. I also switched strategy whereby instead of holding training sessions frequently I produced catalogues for my dealers.

"The catalogue is updated every two weeks. This strategy was effective and sales slowly recovered," he said.

According to Puziah, she has about 30 service centres including in Sabah and Sarawak, 500 stockists and 10,000 active distributors.

Apart from this, she also has franchise holders in Bangkok, Jakarta and Manila.

The entrepreneur related that her business has survived for the last 12 years due to prudent financial management.

"While many of the MLM entrepreneurs failed, my company survived due to prudent financial management.

"Even under financial constrains I will make sure the money is managed in the best manner and when the tidings are good I buy assets. In the event financial difficulty arises, I can sell these assets at a very much higher price," noted Puziah.

VENTURED INTO AGRICULTURE

After 12 years in the business world, Puziah can now sit back and enjoy the fruits of her labour.

However, Puziah is not ready to venture into the complacency zone. Instead she is now trying her hands in agriculture.

Explaining the rational in diversifying her business from MLM to agriculture, she noted that it was to meet the government's call that idle and abandoned land be utilised for productive purposes.

The first agriculture project that Puziah ventured into is the egg laying ducks in Melaka in year 2007. For the project, she started with 30,000 ducks.

"There is potential in duck breeding only that the feed cost is quite high. I have to spend about RM7,000 per day," she explained adding that she invested her own money for the project.

Puziah has also set up a factory at the farm to process salted eggs.

NUMEROUS EFFORTS

To enhance the viability of her egg laying duck venture, Puziah is planning to further diversify by breeding kampung chickens and planting bananas.

As for this purpose, she needs a bigger area and has applied for the land adjacent to her duck farm from the local authorities.

"The land is an ex-mining land, if I'm successful my venture can expand and my eight workers can continue working with me," said Puziah who is still hopeful of getting the piece of land.

Other than the ducks, she is also trying to breed cat fish at her village, Kampung Limau Manis, Desa Pinggiran Putra. She also buys the fishes from contract breeders.

Puziah noted that she has got a contract to supply processed fish for the Indonesian and Thai market.

"Our factory processes the fishes (discards the bowel and head) before sending it to Penang for to be processed further as the factory in Penang has the HACCP (Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points), GMP (Best Manufacturing Practices) and Halal certifications.

"These certifications are crucial for the export market," explained Puziah, adding that her catfish product would be launched by the end of October.

HARD WORK AND CHARITY

Apart from expanding her business, Puziah is also harbouring hopes of recruiting more entrepreneurs in the cosmetic business.

However, the plan calls for the support from the government.

"As for training programmes like this, if we are to ask the participants to pay not many will not come. We have to provide it for free.

"My target is the poor in the cities and outstation. I want to develop the entrepreneurial skills among this group. If I could develop 200 of them that is good enough," she added.

Success has also brought greater altruism to Puziah who has been helping the needy and downtrodden. In year 2000 she established the Yayasan Harapan De Bella.

Under the foundation, she opened an orphanage at Kampung Melayu Ampang which is the permanent home for 10 orphaned children. The children came to the orphanage when they were between 7 to 9 years old.

Other than taking care of their studies, Puziah sents them to Al Quran classes after they finish form five.

She also sponsors about 50 other orphans covering their school, food and clothing expenses.

Puziah is also planning to set up her Al Quran centre as another of her philanthrophic initiative.

-- BERNAMA

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