Taking advantage of the Internet to help her pursue an unorthodox business idea, 35-year-old homemaker Lu Su-feng (盧淑芬) seven months ago started sharing with others her love for one of Tainan's most well-known food products -- milkfish (虱目魚) -- through the nation's first online milkfish purveyor.
Milkfish is an important aquaculture product for people in the southern part of the country. Pronounced sabahi in Hoklo (more commonly known as Taiwanese), the fish is the centerpiece of many a traditional meal in Lu's hometown of Tainan.
"However, using milkfish to make all kinds of milkfish-flavored dishes -- including hamburgers, sausages, hot dogs and even popsicles -- subverts tradition," Lu said.
PHOTO: SEAN CHAO, TAIPEI TIMES
"I love challenges and I enjoy subverting tradition," Lu said, discussing her business orientation as a woman entrepreneur.
In her eyes, there's no dish that can't be made with milkfish.
She established her online business -- www.sabafish.com -- last December with working capital of some NT$300,000.
PHOTO: SEAN CHAO, TAIPEI TIMES
Now, with the Mid-Autumn Festival drawing closer, Lu said that she plans to introduce the nation's first-ever milkfish-flavored moon cakes to the market next month. She believes that the product will expand people's ideas about milk-fish and broaden their taste for novelty food.
This entrepreneur can go on practically forever about how amazing milkfish is. But before she went into business, she didn't seem to match the stereotype of an online entrepreneur.
"I was a computer idiot. I knew homestyle cooking," Lu said.
She didn't know how to use a computer and had no work experience outside the home, so she's leaned heavily on professionals in various fields. "I hire all kinds of help -- accountants, Web site designers, frozen-food professionals and dieticians -- to help me facilitate my unusual ideas about milkfish," she said.
Lu has monthly revenues of about NT$100,000.
She now surfs the Internet frequently, but more importantly, she has found producers of frozen food in the southern part of the country who don't mind that her business is on the small side so far.
"They told me that all food processors started small, which gave me a lot of confidence in myself and my business," Lu said.
"I feel that I've found a business model that is tailor-made for me," she said.
Online or telephone orders are delivered within two days. The flexibility of Lu's business model not only allows her to take good care of her three children, but also helps her make money in her spare time.
The only chore that takes up a lot of Lu's time is building customer relationships -- sending many hand-written letters to ask customers their opinions on her products, which she does because online transactions provide no face-to-face contact between the buyer and the seller.
Indeed, all Internet businesses face difficulties connecting with customers, according to Lillian Chang (
Often, business operators have no way of knowing whether customers are satisfied with their products or services, so new approaches to this problem are necessary, Chang said.
But by the same token, online businesses have advantages over their conventional counterparts because they pay less for space and can use the Internet for promotion, Chang said.
Chang, who acts as a business adviser for SOHO, said that Lu's success lies not only in her unique business positioning, but also her identity, which she said is the real selling point behind her business, and something that no one can easily copy.
"Her identity as a Tainan local who is eager to share her love for a real Tainan product is the thing that sells," Chang said.
If Lu continues to succeed, she may face a lot of challenges associated with making the transition from a one-woman company to, for example, a chain store -- challenges such as recruiting employees and learning management skills, Chang said.
Nonetheless, Chang lauded Lu as a good role model for the nation's potential women entrepreneurs, who typically run small-scale businesses, but whose numbers have been increasing recently.
Social acceptance, women's growing business ambitions and governmental policies have all contributed to the growth of female entrepreneurship, said Annie Lee (
According to statistics that have been compiled by the National Youth Commission, businesses owned by women have grown in the past 10 years from 12.7 percent to 16.6 percent of the total number of businesses -- while 15.8 percent of small and medium-sized enterprises and 11.86 percent of big businesses hired women executives in 2002.
A survey conducted by the commission in 2002 found that 27 percent of women said they lacked the professional skills to start a business and 22 percent said that they were short of capital -- while 17 percent had no access to market information and 12 percent lacked confidence in themselves.
To encourage more women entrepreneurs, the commission has increased its budget for micro-loans -- with a preferential 3 percent interest rate -- from last year's NT$900 million (US$26.6 million) to this year's NT$1.3 billion.
The money is intended to fund short-term business training programs for women interested in becoming entrepreneurs.
As for Lu's online milkfish business, Chang suggested that Lu expand it into a chain-store business in the future.
Lu said she is not ready to take that step, although she does dream that, within six months, she can open her first brick-and-mortar store.
Moreover, she hopes that someday her business can expand to include ecotourism and can offer visitors a tour of the habitat of milkfish.
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