My Intention in Kuala Pilah

Today we went to Kuala Pilah to look for land for rent. The whole trip was a bit adventure due to traffic situation and road condition. Imagine this; the road is like zigzaggy, narrow and awfully quiet. We passed through kampung orang asli while we were at the top of mountains at the border of Negeri Sembilan and Selangor. That was the first time I drove in that area and I swear, I do not want to drive through that area anymore. Creepy indeed!

It was a bit gamble because I couldn't contact the tok penghulu kampung in Kampung Tengkek. Yeah, the name is a bit off. Thank god it's not 'tungkik' or 'tengik'. Anyhow, the people in Kg Tengkek are nice people. This is the birthplace of homestay program in Malaysia. Cool kan?

So we were there to meet En. Abdullah Hassan, the tok penghulu in that area. I was referred to this gentleman by another kind-hearted gentleman whom I met in Banting via my friend. Of course our objective to visit him is to seek his help in getting land for our agro-entrepreneurial activities. He was very helpful in explaining to us about dealing with land here in Negeri Sembilan. I felt a bit obscure when he asked me about the size of land which we are looking. He himself is managing and handling his farm land of 50 acres size. We were just looking for 10 acres instead.

Nonetheless, he never looked down on us. Yes, we are a bunch of young men who are coming back to 'kampung' instead of going to 'bandar'. Like my partner said - we are tired with the game of life in urban area. Probably.

He offered 11 acres piece of land near Kuala Pilah area and 10 acres of land near Bahau for reasonable rental rate. Both offer are very, very, very enticing to us. I took my sweet time to ask him on incentive provided by the state Agriculture Department. Other than that, I also asked him a few questions on challenge to become farm owner and agro-based entrepreneur. He said, most of the problem would be when the reality hits the paper plan.

You see, I did my calculation for the cashflow to run a banana farm. Figures on the paper can look nice due to our assumptions on the cost of certain items. However, my cashflow could be off due to many reason. One of them is the fluctuation of price of fertilizer. Same goes with the price offered by the wholeseller. I did my study on the marketing and sales of our local fruits and I found out that the market price is pretty much set by these wholesellers. Therefore, it is very pertinent for me to set our vision to become wholeseller. Only this can ensure our profitability and maintaining the business. According to my calculation, we would only hit more than million ringgit savings in the company by the fourth year with an assumption that the fertilizer cost only increased by 10% per year. I even put low salary for myself just to make sure the company can survive with minimal cost.

Hopefully by the third or fourth year, our company could channel some of the cash to start a business in F&B. Maybe opens up a kopitiam or cafe. That would be the next step for us. Investment for real estate would be our last and final step. Agriculture, F&B and real estate/properties. These will be my goal in business.

I have a vision for this business venture. My vision is to see this is an empire of business. We start with simple and yet almost guaranteed return and expand ourselves into cash generating business like restaurateur. My final dreams are to set up a foundation that gives scholarship to young Malaysians to excel in their academic and to help young entrepreneurs to establish themselves.