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Borneo Bulletin Yearbook 2021
SPARKLY DOMESTIC DIVAS
Operating since 2016, Sparkly Dosmestic Divas
offers cleaning services for houses and commercial
buildings. They also provide house-to-house
delivery, particularly for online businesses that do
not have transport to deliver goods outside Brunei-
Muara District.
As a cleaning company, their business was also
affected by the pandemic. Customers were reluctant
to have the staff in their homes, and the company
did not wish to expose its employees to risks, said
owner Santy Allim.
The rst two months was a huge challenge, said
Santy. In order to minimise risks, she and the staff
took precautions. They asked about the customers'
health before a booking was made and wore masks
during cleaning. After a few months, their business
started to pick up again.
Ever since its inception, the company has
prioritised 100 per cent local workforce – mainly
to reduce the unemployment rate in Brunei. They
also prioritise individuals such as single mothers
with young children and youth who left school at
an early stage.
During the start-up stage, Santy said they faced
various issues including insuf cient number
of employees to meet the growing customer
demand. However, they managed to maintain
the business and were offered a cleaning
contract with the Food Court at Yayasan Sultan
Haji Hassanal Bolkiah Complex. They also found
collaboration with companies such as Mothercare
and Bebeland.
Last year, shortly after the bridge connecting
Brunei-Muara and Temburong District was
of ciated, the company received its rst
customer from Temburong.
JADDAMS
One local MSME run by youths that has taken
the nation by storm as a corn drink specialist,
Jaddams, recently expanded its presence in
the Belait District and was well received, with
stocks nishing in less than two hours after
opening on certain days.
Muhammad Sau bin Haji Suhaili, one of the
founders of Jaddams, shared that the business
started from a group of graduates who decided
to venture into entrepreneurship back in 2018 .
“Alhamdulillah, the feedback from the
community has been overwhelmingly positive,
and even starting around February and March [of
2020], while the full impact of the situation was
upon Brunei, we were still able to maintain our
business like usual,” he said.
Muhammad Sau also noted the nature of the
business that he and the group of graduates had
set up lent to it being able to operate during such
tough times with the quarantining not being a
major factor. “Our business is not based on
sitting down; just come and go,” he explained.
Furthermore, the advent of the pandemic has
also brought about some changes in how they
conduct their business as they look to maintain
and further expand their scope. Muhammad
Sau shared that even prior to the start of the
pandemic, they had provided delivery services,
which they were able to focus more on following
the start of the pandemic in addition to their
normal store-front for takeaways.
Moving forward, Jaddams hopes to further
expand its business across the nation.