All from a family plantation provides

BUSINESS

By ZARA KANU LEBO
A SMALL business owner is making use of her family’s coconut plantation to make cosmetics and herbal products to sell.
Owner of Mckhys Organic Herbal Products, Madona Sanata, aged 33, of Duramu village, Abau in Central specialises in making herbal products, soaps and oils all from using the coconuts she gets from her mother’s plantation.
“I started this business at home where I make organic products, and I started from oils to soaps and then I went online with the name McKhys Organic Herbal Products,” Sanata said.
“I started in 2015 on and off but it was in 2019, I settled and became more serious in my market because I saw potential even from selling at my front door. It was also the demand from online marketing that I decided to find an open space area to market and when I went to Waigani Central Stop and Shop, I got a space and started my outdoor sales. I was one of the small business women that was moved from Waigani Stop and Shop (SNS) to here to Waigani Central after the January 10 events.
“Currently I have four herbs and fruits I use in my products and they are nim, noni, moringa and turmeric.
“In my mother’s village in Duramu of Abau District, the coconut is in abundance and my family members normally make coconut oils to come and sell them at the markets in the city.
“I learnt a lot of things about how to make oil either in cooked state or in virgin state from my aunties and this has helped me in my business. I make coconut oil and put it in the leaves from the turmeric, noni and the noni to and that’s how they get their names. For the noni, I use the roots.
“I make the soap from the coconut oil as it’s a different process from making the oil, the soap is made from the coconut and the powdered processed leaves”
“For the oils, after scraping and squeesing the coconuts, we cook that oil, remove it and strain and then I have to buy packs for my storage for each oils. From here we add fragrance or as mentioned, products like moringa or turmeric, depending on whichever we use.
“The soap is purely organic and we are working on getting a fragrance for my soaps and pricing is K10 for one soap and oils are all K15 as due to bottles involved and added costs of labelling
“I dry the powder separate from the oil, soap is from the powdered process and right now I’m working towards getting a fragrance to go with the soaps,” she said. Madona does not work alone, she is supported by her husband Bradley Paul aged 31 of Gulf and Autonomous Region of Bougainville (AROB). The products can also be bought in bulk of ten each product and can be delivered to a central location upon request from each customer at a delivery fee charge of K5.
The business currently has four agents selling their products in Popondetta, Lae, Tabubil and Wewak where sales target for outside sales is set at two weeks.
For the single items each oil costs K15, soaps at K10 and other cosmetics products such as sprays and body scrubs which taking into consideration the costs on bottles, wraps for soaps and labelling.
The bulk items are sold at K80 for ten items and can be delivered within the city limits or sent outside provinces as well.
Labelling is done by Madona’s brother who Is specialized in graphics and so he is also paid labour costing on the designs and printing to go to each product.
“we’ve also noticed that out outside agents sell the products very fast and although time is taken up when sending through DHL but once it arrives the products are sold out and our agents return the money after two weeks for restocking”
“My market target to earn in a day is K200 and so we make it our business to reach that or over the target in one day”
“Not every day is a good day and sometimes we make less but still a sale must be made on business days and in a week we can earn K500 or over in sales”
“I’m a startup and I’m just giving my price as reasonable as long as I am able to pay for my costs and earning a little profit to keep the business going”
“We make mistakes and there are days when I overspent but I cover from other products and just cover the costs on that”
“We are fulltime in SME, since we are not employed and since my husband left work last year we have given 100 percent to our market”
“We are renting, our son is going to Tengei Christian Academy going Gade 9 and we are paying from this market alone, so this market is really helping us.
“You can survive on an SME;we are living on this and this is our bread and butter and even people out there and aren’t in a formal job can still make by selling little items like cooked food, betel nut and small jewelries. It’s all about being committed and you can make that money grow from just a small market table or sales you are making”
“The most important thing I have learnt is how you spend your money and it makes you more responsible and pay your own bills.
“When you just think about eating and spending without any savings you will not succeed and these are some things I learnt when I when my husband left work”
“We can manage to pay our eldest son’s school fees at Tengdei and he is in Grade 9 now. We pay our rentals on time and so it’s how you control your finances.
“But I never forget to remove my one tenth to thank God for support and I still cannot believe that we are still renting and paying fees even though my husband and I are not formally employed.
“I give credit to my family because my knowledge on what I am doing now came from little skills from family members and the soap making from my SDA church group.
“I do face scrubs, powders for moringa and turmeric for consuming; the bottling and just about everything at where I’m residing. It was humble beginnings we started from using OP bottles and I had no proper labels to write the product name and stick with sticky tape and sell at the main markets or to my clients.
“So nothing is impossible when you are thinking of making money from little skills you have, yes there are many challenges we faced along the way but we kept going”
“There are some family member and friends who will make you succeed and I thank those people who keep encouraging me to keep going despite so much opposition and competition that can be very hard to take on some times”
“But competition is real and its make you stronger and better each time in your life, so try to be better each day.
“So it doesn’t matter education background, we can manage a business on our own. This has also made me think about going back to getting small business courses to help me.
“Also looking at my advantage is that I have a coconut plantation and I do not need to order coconuts and so my aim is to go big into making PNG products and less imported items and grow my business”
“I have commenced business registration and now I’m starting savings at the National Development Bank (NDB) so I can consider future options in terms of financing my small business.
“For now, we are going one step at a time and funds are limited as we go day by day.
“But we are confident that once funds are flowing we will be good,” she said.
Husband Bradley Paul said, “I want to go back to work but maybe later, because after staying home and supporting my wife (Madona) I have noticed that there is money here also and that she still needs my help.
“I do the deliveries and most of the labour and I have involved my family members to come and see what we are doing and eventually we can employ someone to sit in at the stalls while we are doing other runs during the day.
“I have my nephew here with us, Brendon Kisi from my mother’s side from Gulf, and he is here so he can learn a thing or two and even help us when required with marketing and labour.”
“I see potential in this SME and I will give 100 per cent support to my wife before I think of securing formal employment again as the children are growing up.”
“Being in the SME sector means being self-employed and we are our own bosses and so we must ensure that we do our best to support each other and maintain the business because this is how we are surviving.” he said.