The journey of life that strives relentlessly to this point. This young man described his biography and life experiences as an entrepreneur in detail.
Pin Punray, a native of Siem Reap province, was born in Slor Kram village, Slor Kram commune, Siem Reap city, and lives in a middle-class family. Vendors of Kouchai cakes and fried noodles with the right brand. The young man was silent for a while before continuing to tell his team about his life.
Pun Reay said that the business of selling cakes and fried rice is what made him and his four other siblings live appropriately and continue everyone’s education. The tall, fair-skinned young man took a deep breath and recounted that by this point, the family had gone through many struggles, swimming through poverty, sometimes barely finding rice in a pot. That was when Dad and Mom shook hands when one older sister and another were born. His parents had a definite business: making fried cakes, which they used to sell in the past.
Mr. Ponray and his sister did not know much about the warmth called parental affection because they had to do business to raise a family. So the two little children were sent to get help, and then two more children were born. They helped take care of them, especially their paternal grandmother, who took care of the food from morning to evening until night and then brought them home.
Stop talking about poverty, and it is easier to talk about the educational background of this young man. Growing up, he attended Wat Po Lanka Primary School, Preah Indokosa Secondary School, and continued until the end of high school on January 10, 1979, and pursued a bachelor’s degree. He graduated in 2011 and successfully completed a Master of Management in 2014.
Work Experience
Mr. Pin Ponreay described with a smile that, 17 years since graduating from high school, he had a job and stopped asking for money from his family. At this point, he seemed a little shy and went on to say, but the money to pay for school was still provided by his mother, a good supporter. Because the first job he got was unpaid; he was advised by a brother to work for that experience, but also for the money to cover some expenses for himself, as a bellboy carrying bags for guests in hotel rooms.
After working for two months, he had the opportunity to change jobs to a new hotel, still working as a porter, but this time it was a little better because it was his first job, earning $45 a month.
Not long after, he had another new opportunity to change from a bag carrier to a receptionist, earning a salary of $65 per month in 2008.
Then in the same year, he got a new job as a seller of health products and agricultural fertilizers. This work experience is one he values most in his past working life because he learned a lot about society, met people, got to know distant rural cities, sometimes worked as an office salesman, sometimes as a marketer in a remote rural area, sometimes as a speaker, answering customer questions about radio products, sometimes driving a tractor, and sometimes walking to collect money.
This is a job he will never forget because it has a lot of memories with the president as well as co-workers. Even though he has now stopped working with them, he still maintains a good relationship with the old team, and they occasionally meet up.
For Ponray, the president of this old company was a good leader for employees like him. He remembers all the experience and knowledge they shared without limits.
But things always change. Later, he changed his job from a company to an NGO, an organization related to agriculture. After working for the organization for a while, he moved to work at Siem Reap International Airport, starting on September 17, 2012, as an Aircraft Cleaner until February 15, 2014. With hard work, he had the opportunity to change to a new role as Ramp Leader and now get a new role as Ramp Supervisor until 2018, when he resigned to manage the family shop, Lot Cha Nom Kouchhay, directly. “Here, I do not want to brag about any role or position, but just want to share the story,” he said. “Experience and want to share with the younger generation that to be successful requires effort, perseverance, and trying everything without giving up.”
Entrepreneurship Experience
During his tenure, he started a business that was inherited from his parents, expanding the business of selling fried rice cakes and preparing to open a proper and well-managed shop, which has been supported to this day in six locations: 3 locations in Siem Reap and 3 locations in Phnom Penh. Until now, it can be said that the Lotcha Nom Kouchhay family is a popular local snack in Siem Reap. In the last few years, in addition to the support from the whole family, Lot Cha Nom Kouchhay has participated in many entrepreneurial competitions and achieved a series of results, such as in 2022.
The Lotcha Nom Kouchhay family participated in the Young Entrepreneur Awards and received support and won the 2022 Outstanding Entrepreneur Award in the Cambodian Young Entrepreneur Awards 2022, co-organized by the Cambodian Young Entrepreneurs Association and Cambodian Young International Chamber of Commerce.
In 2022, the Lotcha Nom Kouchhay family participated in the Entrepreneur Challenge 2022 program of Poduprul Tourism School and won first place.
In 2022, the Lotcha family also participated in another competition, the National Entrepreneur Award 2022, where the Lotcha family was ranked No. 1 in Siem Reap, among many entrepreneurs from Siem Reap, Kampong Thom, Preah Vihear, and Oddar Meanchey.
In 2023, the Lot Cha Nom Kouchhay family participated in the Cambodian Entrepreneurship Award for Small and Medium Enterprises 2023 and won the first and last prize in the I-Story program organized by ASIP. The Lot Cha Nom Kouchhay family received second place.
As entrepreneurs, we have made significant contributions to our business environment to help the national economy, not just because we started small businesses. From two small stalls, we became a local food brand with up to 5 awards. We want to inspire small businesses as well as family businesses to be brave and daring to compete to raise the value of Cambodian food and contribute to job creation and ecosystems to help the national economy. #Pinpounnareay
