After a 3-year career break in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, following her husband’s job transfer there, Nadia returned to the hectic corporate life in KL to work as an in-house legal counsel. Soon after, she was hit with lethargy and anxiety over work.
Worse, her husband, who was also back in Malaysia, later tested positive for COVID-19, and she now had to juggle WFH while caring for a family member under quarantine.
That’s when she figured she needed to consume something that could boost her energy levels and her husband’s immunity simultaneously. “I did research on wellness shots, consumed them on a daily basis and felt they did a great difference to our bodies. We did R&D on the product, as well as tested and verified it with our family and friends,” she shared with Vulcan Post.
“These are the series of events that sparked the idea before I decided to pursue Worth-A-SHOT! professionally.”
Joining The Wellness Industry
Through her Instagram business, Nadia makes and sells cold pressed juices that come in little 30ml bottles meant to be downed as shots first thing in the morning. Its main ingredients are turmeric, lemon, orange juice, ginger, as well as honey.
To make the cost of deliveries through third-party couriers worth it, the product is sold in half a dozen batches:
- RM30 for 6 bottles (1-week consumption),
- RM59 for 12 bottles (2-week consumption).
According to Nadia, wellness and health can be an elitist industry. Wanting her product to be accessible and affordable to all levels of society, she believes Worth-A-SHOT! is priced fairly for long-term consumption.
Nonetheless, Nadia’s isn’t the only brand selling turmeric ginger beverages locally. There’s another called Jiang Yeah Yeah (Grandpa Ginger) whose 750ml beverage retails for RM128 each.
Doing the maths, it seems that both are priced within a similar range, where buying two dozen Worth-A-SHOT! bottles would get you 720ml for RM118.
The immunity boosters I’m most familiar with come in the form of supplements, which are plentiful. Purchasing supplements can cost roughly RM130 for 120 pills, making it about RM1 per pill, which can last up to 4 months if 1 is taken per day.
From what I reckon though, where Nadia’s business stands out is in the method her products are consumed, not to mention its branding. Think about the jokes you could crack about downing a shot before clocking in at work every morning—for health.
Even Nadia isn’t trying to compete with the supplement industry, telling Vulcan Post, “We respect and understand that the crowd has different tastes and preferences. Some may enjoy it in form of supplements and some may enjoy it in form of highly concentrated juices.”
“But, our team believes there’s always something for everyone because the objective remains the same, to maintain wellness and health.”
The Numbers Don’t Lie
The legal counsel-cum-entrepreneur also has a customer base to show for the demand for her turmeric shots. Within her first month of starting the business, Worth-A-SHOT! had sold over 2,000 bottles (about 333 half-dozen orders) with 85% of them being returning customers.
For now, her juices are made-to-order in batches through her slow juicer at home.
One of the biggest challenges she faced, apart from balancing a full-time job, was getting the right fruits that are dependent on the seasons. This is because different species of them might change the taste of her product, sacrificing its quality control.
Another came in the form of anxiety, worrying about whether customers even wanted her product in the first place. However, Nadia was grateful for her luck and her supportive entrepreneurial friends who would recommend her products to their own clientele.
She chimed, “Also when the customer base is growing so quickly, there’s little time to dwell on the doubt. Most of the time, we just brave it!”
In the short term, Nadia will be developing new flavours for her immunity shots, even trying out recipes involving vegetables, which may be unfamiliar to the market. “The long-term goal is to have our first kiosk open after our second year of business, if not sooner,” she said with her fingers crossed.
- You can learn more about Worth-A-SHOT! here.
- You can read about other Malaysian startups we’ve covered here.
Feature Image Credit: Nadia, founder of Worth-A-SHOT!
