Shaqira Ramli and her husband first began promoting handmade tapestry from India in bazaars round West Malaysia and later ran tie-dye workshops beneath their model, Bohomys. 

However because of the pandemic, their enterprise which relied on in-person interactions needed to come to a halt. To make issues worse, they misplaced nearly RM20K the day the primary MCO was introduced on account of cancellations for his or her workshops. 

“The pandemic hit us arduous, and I used to be misplaced for a bit. However I knew that I had two children that wanted me, and I wanted to work arduous for them,” Shaqira recalled.

“It was devastating as a result of it was that exact same 12 months that we determined to do that full-time and have been imagined to do a workshop for the Langkawi Artwork Biennale.”

Artwork had all the time been her calling

Previous to Bohomys, Shaqira was within the occasions trade, which she discovered actually demanding and demanding. “I used to be pregnant with my first child once I determined to stop my job, as I used to be having actually unhealthy morning illness and couldn’t decide to my work,” she recalled.

When she left the stress behind together with her profession in occasions, Shaqira felt prefer it solely made sense to return to what she beloved doing most—artwork. Although they bought artwork handmade by others first, Shaqira and her husband later discovered a distinct segment they have been captivated with in making pure tie-dye and instructing others about it.

“From the start, it had all the time been a 2-man present. My husband helps the heavy work, and I’m the artist. We’re at the moment home-based in Putra Heights, Selangor.” 

“We have been very lively in bazaars, particularly in Penang. Someday in 2017, a good friend of mine who’s the organiser of Lokalhouz in Penang requested if we might educate on the Butterworth Fringe Pageant together with the Georgetown Pageant. With out hesitation, I mentioned sure,” Shaqira identified some memorable moments in her artwork profession.

Making good use of outdated connections

Bohomys’ pivot began in July 2020, and it started when Shaqira and her husband determined to begin promoting their pure tie-dye as merchandise. Earlier than this, they have been simply instructing and promoting pure dye kits.

Having labored within the occasions trade beforehand, Shaqira was conscious that occasion favours (small items given at occasions) often had brief lifespans. They have been low-cost but additionally had few makes use of earlier than being thrown away.

Figuring out that they might provide occasion organisers one thing extra impactful, Syaqira and her husband began approaching them to pitch their pure tie-dye merchandise. They managed to land themselves their first order (tote baggage, company shirts, and masks) shortly after their pivot, and realised they would wish extra tailors.

“Once we began to do occasion favours, we realised that whereas we have been getting extra orders in, individuals have been additionally shedding jobs and gross sales. So we met with a neighborhood youth tailor and employed her to stitch our merchandise after we’ve dyed our materials,” Shaqira shared, including that many youth like her have a lot potential however lack coaching.

After that rent, Shaqira determined to launch what’s a part of their pivot immediately as properly, a social enterprise to empower and upskill youth to earn higher by means of their Upskill, Create, and Earn programme which started in September 2020. 

Upskilling youth by means of pure tie-dye

Since their pivot, they’ve added 2 individuals to the workforce by means of the programme: the aforementioned tailor, and one other native one. They’ve one other particular person within the workforce who helps with the dyeing course of however isn’t actively concerned within the apprenticeship programme. 

“We see ourselves because the bridge for these youth to find markets that they by no means thought they might attain earlier than. We need to show that even small tailors can promote to the upper-class markets, which really occurred throughout our Publika bazaar in Might,” Shaqira defined to Vulcan Submit. 

Among the many plans that they need to upskill these youth embrace exporting their work abroad, discovering methods on how they’ll work with MATRADE in addition to introducing them to greater markets basically.

That being mentioned, the youth aren’t obliged to work with them full-time and are nonetheless operating their very own tailoring small companies.

“At the moment, we’re specializing in youth from the close by city village close to our place. We imagine that solely those that need to change will be capable to profit probably the most from this mission. So, we have to show to them that this works,” Syaqira shared.

They haven’t been capable of onboard extra tailors due to MCO restrictions, however she disclosed that the 2 tailors have seen a 30% improve in earnings since working with Bohomys and earn about RM200-500 per 30 days. Admittedly, the MCO has lowered their earnings a little bit although.

Holding her spirits up regardless of the struggles

Because the first MCO, Shaqira had confronted hikes in costs and was unable to supply for some provides generally, and he or she shared that her material provider couldn’t open her store for a bit. 

This limits them to solely having the ability to make baggage, T-shirts, masks, and scarves within the meantime, however as soon as their material provider is ready to function once more, they’re pondering of introducing extra garments. 

“We’re at the moment in talks with some events that wish to help our programme and to open a group ability centre in Kampung Kuala Sungai Baru, Puchong, the place youth can be taught expertise not restricted to tailoring however many extra for no price, in order that this helps them to earn higher proper after MCO,” she shared their future plans. 

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At occasions like these, pivoting from being a profit-driven enterprise right into a social enterprise isn’t one thing you’d all the time hear of, given what number of SMEs need to maximise what little earnings they’ll for now. 

Whereas upskilling and hiring youth for his or her enterprise to hurry up manufacturing is one resolution to deal with the pandemic, a disadvantage remains to be the in-person limitation they’re going through, given the character of their enterprise. 

We don’t have any sure-fire options, however maybe there are methods that Bohomys can digitalise the programme to achieve extra youth and discover alternative ways to supply their tie-dye merchandise to clients.

• You’ll be able to be taught extra about Bohomys right here.
• You’ll be able to examine extra social enterprises we’ve coated right here.

Featured Picture Credit score: Shaqira Ramli, founding father of Bohomys