Entrepreneur grandmother
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By Chang Soon-hee
A large cloud of steam erupted with a whiff of corn flavor from an aluminum pot when an old woman lifted its lid at the corner of a bustling market place. The sunburn and wrinkled face told she was over 80. She has been there, as far as I remember, for some 20 years selling steamed corn.
She opens her tiny vending stand at 10 a.m. exactly and closes it at 10 p.m. sharp, rain or snow. She occupies a 1 x 1 meter piece of land along the busy market alley and her business equipment consists of a kerosene stove, a large aluminum casserole placed on top, a flat stainless lid for the pot which also serves as her hot corn display shelf, a small chair, and ears of fresh corn stored in the space under her chair. And a leaning beach parasol that shades her from rain and the summer heat.
"Halmeoni, how is it today?” I asked one evening. "I sold only 300 so far but I can make it up to 400 today. People are stingy these days,” said the tiny entrepreneur who knows about the country’s economy. Her daily target is 500 ears. I paid 4,000 won for four of the still very hot corn ears.
If she sells an average 300 corns a day, she would go home with 300,000 won in cash in her money belt. The granny never heard of rent or valued added tax. As she works almost every day her monthly earning would reach around 9 million won in cash. A quick arithmetic reveals that if she pays all together some 25 percent of the income or 2.25 million won for the cost of fresh ears, its transportation, the fuel, and one kilogram each for salt and sugar, her monthly income would reach a sum of 6.75 million won. It’s her pure profit. And the old woman seems to enjoy chatting with everyone who stops by at her stand.
"I like your corn, it’s soft and tasty,” I said. "Thank you. I go to the corn field in Gangwon Province where a farmer supplies me with his best corn. I check all of his cultivation from the seeding, fertilizing to harvest and storage. My father was a corn farmer I know how to produce fine corn,” she told me.
"Fine dining begins with fine ingredients from the field,” the world-famous International Culinary Institute in New York says in its brochure. And this old Korean granny who has never heard of an MBA knew how to win the competitions by maintaining the quality of her product, simple steamed corn sold on a one square meter vending stand, and being the CEO of her flourishing enterprise.
How did this old woman maintain her business over 20 years always making good money while thousands of entrepreneurs fail or barely float above water? ``I sell tasty corn people love to eat by controlling the quality of the ingredients and I decide the price,” she said. "Housewives don’t want to spend time to steam raw corn by boiling water in their small kitchen.” Then she spat out, "Oh, that stupid supermarket over there once tried to imitate my business in their shop but failed. They needed six people to do the same job I do alone.”
If you feel tired of wearing a suit, necktie and shiny shoes to go to office, and obeying silly orders from your superior while grumbling about low salary, you may have something to learn from this cheerful grandmother.
The writer is a petit gourmet who loves to work in the kitchen. Her email address is ham1940@gmail.com.