SINGAPORE – When Ms Jumaiyah Mahathir started a company offering halal food media advertising services in 2014, a number of tasks such as accounting had to be done manually.
In 2018, Halalfoodhunt also launched an app that compiled a database of halal food eateries, including restaurants and home-based or online businesses. This, too, required maintenance.
The next year – 2019 – the company decided to pick up a number of tools to digitalise its processes and free up time.
They did this through the Start Digital programme, an initiative that provides newly incorporated SMEs or those that have yet to digitalise with foundational solutions at low cost.
Ms Jumaiyah was able to make use of a number of software programmes such as Quickbooks, an automated accounting system, and Mailchimp, a marketing automation software.
The company, which has three full-time employees and a number of part-timers, also uses the Shopify e-commerce platform to sell food products during Hari Raya.
They received these solutions, called a Start Digital Pack, from OCBC.
Revenue grew by 30 per cent from 2019 to 2020, said the 31-year-old, who is the chief executive and co-founder of Halalfoodhunt.
“It takes our focus off administrative tasks and we can channel our energies to sales and marketing so that the business can grow.”