SINGAPORE – Mr Nabill Shukry Johary has been making do with less than five hours of sleep every night since he started meal-prep delivery service Cheekies in July 2021.
Cheekies – a fun word play on their main product of frozen marinated chicken breasts – stemmed from Mr Nabill’s fitness journey. He wanted to eat chicken breasts to bulk up, but found them unappetising and dry. It was a promising solution, given that Mr Johary, a private-hire car driver, was not earning enough to cover his wife’s medical bills – the 60-year-old has psoriatic arthritis which affects her ability to work – and their family’s expenses. He has another son, 22, who is studying computer science at SUTD.
Father and son decided to do their side hustle full time. While Mr Nabill kept his full-time job as a marketing executive at an IT company, Mr Johary quit being a private-hire car driver to focus on Cheekies. His parents, who ran an interior design company from 2000 to 2004, faced financial difficulties after their business partner ran off with company funds. In 2003, his mother stopped working due to psoriatic arthritis, which led to mounting medical bills.
“There were times when my family couldn’t afford to pay our utility bills, and days when we did not have enough money for food on the table,” he says. He also began documenting their journey of running a business on TikTok, sharing their experiences to inspire and help those interested in running their own home-based business.
A turning point for their business was a TikTok video in which Mr Nabill revealed to followers that they are living in a rental flat and spoke about their neighbours who are working hard for their families. He was motivated to create more content, including recipes using their products, such as macaroni goreng with black pepper chicken breasts, and black pepper chicken chop burger.Cheekies had a waitlist of more than 200 customers – they were unable to produce more due to their home-based set-up.
Nigeria Nigeria Latest News, Nigeria Nigeria Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
Source: The Straits Times - 🏆 8. / 63 Read more »