As a video producer in TV and promoting, Khris developed an intuition to create issues that individuals craved, and when she left her job, this gave her the arrogance to begin a enterprise along with her companion, Raph. Collectively, they launched Halo Doughnut. 

“This entire venture has really been within the making for nearly 2 years. We took a doughnut-making class collectively in 2018, however work all the time obtained in the best way and our dough wasn’t nice,” Raph informed Vulcan Put up.

“Issues clicked for the primary time after Khris took that class once more in January 2020, and we offered our first doughnut on March 28, 2020.”

Using herself

Earlier than beginning Halo Doughnut from her mom’s residence kitchen, the entrepreneur had stop her job simply 2 days earlier than the MCO was introduced because of the poisonous work setting. 

Effectively conscious of the consequences the pandemic would deliver, Khris merely assumed that she’d don’t have any hassle discovering a brand new job. Within the meantime, she saved herself busy by baking and posting footage of her creations on-line which have been then despatched to buddies who thought they have been scrumptious. 

“Buddies of buddies needed some too, so Khris began promoting them and extra folks saved coming,” shared Raph.

The start of Halo Doughnut was coupled with Raph’s information within the startup scene. The 2 foodies had been dancing across the concept of beginning an F&B enterprise collectively for the longest time. After crunching some numbers, they ultimately determined to advance Khris’s abilities right into a enterprise, spending RM25K as startup capital that got here from Raph’s financial savings.

Taking the following step

Maybe all that funding was price it, as Halo Doughnut’s enterprise grew sooner than they’d hoped. Raph credit this to Khris’s creativity, and what he thinks are the most effective doughnuts he’s come throughout; he’s by no means preferred doughnuts or desserts earlier than this.

Whereas Khris was capable of hone her abilities in baking, her information of bookkeeping and math wasn’t on par. “She was undercharging folks by 25% on common and was mixing orders up,” Raph chuckled. 

“My nerd energy got here to the rescue right here and I constructed a Halo-tailored POS for her which we nonetheless use to today.” And that’s why Raph prides himself on dealing with all issues nerdy for Halo Doughnut, from accounting to IT providers and electronic mail interviews, he joked.

Khris’s expertise within the media business additionally guided her within the enterprise’s social media presence, which labored of their favour particularly at first. Raph additionally made certain to level out that the entire “help native” motion performed its half in serving to them entice clients too.

Having to handle a menu of fifty flavours that modifications each week, it took them just a few weeks to get right into a rhythm of dealing with bigger quantity orders. The workforce additionally realised it was unsustainable to maintain working Halo Doughnut from Khris’s mum’s kitchen in the event that they needed to scale. 

Therefore, they moved in as considered one of Cookhouse’s first tenants as quickly because the cloud kitchen opened in June 2020. Through the use of the correct tools, they have been capable of make manufacturing occasions extra predictable, the place supply orders would exit by 12.30PM every day.

Raph thinks that shifting to a cloud kitchen was a useful stepping stone for the enterprise, as they couldn’t afford their very own storefront. Nevertheless, the couple is seeking to arrange their very own retailer sooner or later, however not till subsequent 12 months.

An outlet for creativity

Whereas Raph prefers not to enter element about Halo Doughnut’s income, he as a substitute shared that they’ve offered about 17K doughnuts so far.

He proudly added that their enterprise is bringing in sufficient cash for the couple to maintain going and be crammed with optimism. Though, it’s not sufficient but that they’ll afford for Khris—who wakes up at 5.30AM to make the doughnuts—to sleep in, or to have their very own store but.

Despite this, Khris can not return to being an worker after dipping her toes into the world of artistic freedom and having government energy in an organization. “The hope is that this pay reduce is only a short-lived pace bump,” they mentioned.

This 12 months, the couple will deal with increasing Halo Doughnut’s workforce and its attain in order that Khris can take a step again from manufacturing. As soon as that’s achieved, Khris will probably be focusing extra on the enterprise’s R&D and social media content material to develop the corporate right into a meals empire promoting far more than doughnuts. 

• You possibly can be taught extra about Halo Doughnut right here.
• You possibly can examine extra Malaysian startups we’ve coated right here.

Featured Picture Credit score: Khris and Raph, co-founders of Halo Doughnut