We had been given a task to interview someone that we know.

As the first step, we had listed a name list of people that we could interview. Later we decided to interview a beautician in Tanjung Malim that we knew last semester. Fazitah Binti Awaluddin was the name given. On 7th August 2010, we went to Mrs Fazitahs saloon which is located opposite the Maybank Bank to do the interview. Since we had known each other, we used to make an informal interview. She was born on 6th July 1979 at Hospital Besar Melaka. She has eight siblings and she is the seventh. Since she had to follow her husband, she preferred to stay in a residential area at Proton City, Tanjung Malim. Even though she has transferred to a new place, Mrs. Fazitah or usually known as Kak Chik still planning to continue her carrier as a beautician. Usually during her free time, she used to spend her time with her family by going for a holiday. The places that she had gone were Sungkai Hot Spring, Cameron Highland, Kuala Terengganu, Pulau Redang and so on. She loves to eat Nasi Ayam and her favourite drink is Nescafe Ice.

By 1999, she ended her single life by getting married with Zahar bin Sapar. She was 21 years old during her marriage meanwhile her husband was 26 years old. Her husband came from Tampin, Negeri Sembilan which is in the same town with her. His husband works in INSTUN Department. Now her husband is doing part time study while working in UTM at Jalan Semarak, Kuala Lumpur. They now already have three kids. The first daughter was Nor Farah Nadhirah, 9 years old, the second daughter is Nur Farah Najhiah, 8 years old and the youngest is Mohd Irfan Zufar, 2 years old. Her daughters are schooling at a school at Proton City. Her children are cute, active and friendly. They love to play at the playground which is located nearby their house. According to her eldest daughter, Nadhirah, her mother is very strict in teaching her children about good attitude and very patient in entertaining her children especially Irfan. She added that her mother really like other mothers but the speciality in hers only known by us.

Mrs. Fazitah started to enter kindergarten when she was 6 years old at a kindergarten near her house in Tampin. Then, she continued her study at Sekolah Kebangsaan Tampin from 1985 until 1990. During her primary school, she was a shy girl and less confident to be in front of public. After finishing her study in primary school, she had furthered to Sekolah Menengah Tampin from 1991 until 1995. At that age, she started to make a lot of new friends and has the courage to communicate in front the others. During her form three, she was chosen to be a school prefect because of her good attitude and well disciplined. She was very punctual. This quality that she has was the reason why she was qualified to be a school prefect. At school, she was known as a kind-hearted and generous among her friends and teachers. Her interested in beauty could be seen clearly and became more obvious from time to time. As an evidence, she had participated a course which was Trend Misteri Dayak organised by Sari Ayu Martha Tilaar Kosmetika Indonesia, Jakarta on 28th September 1987 when she was fifteen years old. After Sijil Pelajaran Malaysia (SPM), she used to do part-time work in a saloon at her place. During her past time, she never thought to be a beautician or even to own a saloon by herself. It was like a dream. Actually, she mostly likes to be a chef as she loves to cook and try new recipe. She is very talented in cooking western food, Thai cuisine, local food, cakes and biscuits. She learned all this from her auntie that owned a restaurant and handling a catering. She usually helps her auntie during her free time and weekend doing the catering and also cooks at the restaurants kitchen. She had planned to further her study in course related with cooking. However, her mother did not allow her to do so as her mother saw the potential in hers was more towards the beauty of woman. It sounds more feminine. She was inspired by her sister, Mrs. Azizah who also a beautician and the owner of a saloon in Kuala Lumpur. At first, she thought this will be her temporary work. However, she became to love her job until she decided not to further her study even though she got an offer from a local university. As the result, she became a permanent worker at the saloon. After two years, the owners of the saloon, Puan Hamidah suggested her to get a qualification as a beautician by joining a skill course in beautician for about two years. In order to get the experience by

herself, she agreed to follow the advice of Puan Hamidah. After finishing her course, she returned to be a worker in Puan Hamidahs Saloon. Her skills had been improved well. So, Puan Hamidah decided to upgrade her position as manager because Puan Hamidah wanted to open a new branch. Mrs. Fazitah felt so grateful and take this as an opportunity for her to learn the skills of business management for three years. In 2002, her husband was asked to transfer to Tanjong Malim. As a wife, she had to follow her husband. So, she quit her job and stayed with her husband and two kids at Tanjong Malim. She did not do anything besides of being a full time housewife. She really missed her works during her relaxing time. She felt that she was losing something. One day, she mentioned to her husband that she wanted to be a beautician again. For the first time, her husband seems to be disagreed with her idea as he could not see any chance to success and it was impossible for her to get any profit here. However after being convinced by Mrs. Fazitah, her husband agreed with one condition, family must be the first in any circumstances. She was very happy and excited to start again her carrier as a beautician. After that, she started to survey for a suitable location for her business. At the meantime, she had contacted her mentor, Puan Hamidah to help her in supplying the beauty product. Puan Hamidah was overwhelming with the news. In order to start her business, she made a loan with a bank. After doing some survey, Mrs. Fazitah decided to start her business which is located on the second floor and opposite the Maybank Bank. She had made a renovation in her shop so that it is suitable with the saloon image. Services that provided in her saloon are facial treatment, body spa, pedicure and manicure and make-up service. The price for each service is affordable. Her saloon provided a beauty product under brand of Shadira. According to her statement, she trusted this brand because she found that this brand is suitable for any type of skin and she had used it since she was still a worker in Puan Hamidahs Saloon. She was the only Shadiras stockist in Perak. In order to promote her saloon and services provided, she used magazine to advertise her saloon. Her saloon is open on Monday to Saturday from 10 a.m. until 5 p.m. Most of her customers are students, lecturers, teachers, and people around Tanjong Malim. She also has customers from other

places because they satisfied with the services that she provided. One of her speciality is she will not take any worker as she think that she wanted to give the best service for her customers. Customer satisfaction is her priority. Her saloon was known as Fazs Beauty Saloon.

Mrs. Fazitahs day usually begin at 6 a.m. Everyday she will prepared breakfast for her family, sends her kids to school and clean up the house before going to the saloon at 10 a.m. At 1 p.m. she will go to the school to fetch her kids and having her lunch at the saloon. She had prepared the lunch meal at home before going to work. By 6 p.m. she will return to her home and start to prepared dinner for her family. Even though she is doing the same thing everyday, she never bothered about it because she really enjoy it. It is like a satisfaction for her for having the chance to do something for her family. However, during weekends she brought her children to Kuala Lumpur as to accompany her husband who is taking part time study. Before return to Tanjong Malim, they will spend time together at many places such as shopping complex, food court, zoo and other places. Since their children are still small, it is very important for them to make sure that their children are having good lifestyle with them. Even though she was busy with her business and family, she still has time to join any social activity such as Persatuan Ibu Bapa dan Guru (PIBG), Community Society, religious activity, family day and others. She never missed the PIBG meeting as she felt responsible to know about anything that related to her children education. She always contributed her idea in helping the school to improve the school management. As for community society, she loves to get along with the neighbours during the activity held by community such as wedding ceremony, open house, gotong-royong, and any events that she think she can involve and contribute something. She and her family also join the activity that held by her husband company such as family day, dinner, open house during any celebration and so on. She was easygoing, friendly, helpful, open-minded, happy go lucky, attractive and talkative. This is the reason why people around her feel comfortable with her and love her. It is not easy to build up a business. There are many obstacles that Mrs. Fazitah has to face in order to achieve what she had now. At the moment she started the business, she have to face a big amount of lost due to the competition with others saloon. She also had to be wise in dividing her time between her family and business as her children at that time were still small and she never thought to send them to the nursery. The equipments that she

has in her saloon were not to up to date as she wanted to reduce the cost of the cost. This disadvantage had caused her to having so less customer compared to other saloon. So as to improve the service, she used her saving to upgrade the equipments and do more promotion to attract more customers. Besides, she had participant a lot of courses in order to improve her skills such as Kursus Pengurusan Bengkel Tahap I, II dan III SPA & Urutan Tradisional Melayu (8/5/2007 19/7/2007) at Dewan Kenanga, Bangunan Persekutuan Ipoh, Preliminary Training (Stage I, II and III) under the SPA & Traditional Therapy Training Programme by SPAQUEST Intergrated (Malaysia) Sdn Bhd and the Department of Women Development Negeri Perak (14/8/2007), Bengkel Kecantikan Rahsia Kejelitaan under Pusat Pendidikan Kecantikan Mustika Ratu Jakarta, Indonesia and Seminar Keibuan under Pusat Pendidikan Kecantikan Traditional. Now, she already opens up her saloon for six years. Her purposes are to make sure her business getting more success and planning to open new branches at other places. She feels grateful and thankful to her husband, family and friends for supporting her all the time whenever in good or bad time. She always welcomes anybody who wants to get her service at the saloon.

APPENDICES