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[00:00.44] Mornings for Khris Teri of Halo Doughnut means it's time to hand make sweet treats, with flavors such as lemon pop, cinnamon affair along with burnt salty. Everything is made from scratch.

[00:17.70] So the financial downturn helped me revisit my passion.

[00:23.81] Unemployed in March, this former video producer with a zeal for cooking, started making doughnuts for friends.

[00:31.25] So one of my best friends said now Khris I think you should sell this, I think you should make this into a business.

[00:36.29] Teri started out at her mother's kitchen, but quickly outgrew it. So now she rents space in a shared commercial kitchen.

[00:43.20] It only costs about $400 a month, and includes all the pots and pans which keeps the expenses down.

[00:50.64] We started it in a shared kitchen because it's low risk and it's low investment. I think it's the perfect way to start a business.

[01:01.00] While various new businesses have different back stories, Teri's situation fits a trend that shows a rapidly growing number of micro businesses in Malaysia,

[01:10.56] businesses that are starting up from even the garage or their house to kitchen, their home kitchen.

[01:17.20] Raymond Woo of the Malaysia Retail Chain Association says, there are easily tens of thousands of micro businesses that have started up in the country since the economic downturn started in March.

[01:28.36] The people behind them often need a low-risk way of earning income, after being laid off or forced to take a pay cut.

[01:35.26] It could be doing marketing advisory businesses, website photography, services that they actually know as a hobby, and then moving that hobby and monetizing it.

[01:46.69] At a recent pop-up event, customers sunk their teeth into Teri's doughnuts at prices, ranging from one to two dollars each depending on the flavor.

[01:57.05] One thing is the fluffiness of the doughnut and the flavor is always something out of the ordinary.

[02:04.48] Halo Doughnut has not quite reached the break-even point yet.

[02:06.61] But Teri expects to turn this into a profitable business within a few months.

[02:11.65] She currently has one part-time kitchen worker but plans on hiring more soon.