What I Learned from a Young Entrepreneur from Blitar
Last Saturday, I hung out with a friend. He is an entrepreneur from Blitar, East Java. We chatted about the business he runs, and here is what I learned from him.
1. Start small
His journey began with a struggle. In junior high, he found it hard to join academic olympiads. In Blitar, only a few students could take part, and waiting for the government to organize one meant waiting a whole year for a single event.
So he built an online platform that lets students join olympiads for free. He started by coding the website manually in HTML, using a domain from Niagahoster, with only the skills he had at the time.
2. Join incubators and competitions
In college he start serious to growing this business, he joined business incubators and several business competitions to win funding. This helped his business a lot in the early stage, when funding was hardest to find.
3. Hire people
After received the funding, he try to hire people. He said hiring people helps enormously in running a business. You cannot carry everything yourself.
4. The journey can feel lonely
Get Betaria’s stories in your inbox
Join Medium for free to get updates from this writer.
He was running this business around 5+ years, he said building a business often walking alone. He said he have a problem with his partner, there are any problem in the office that he have to make the decision.
That is why having a mentor to share ideas and discuss problems with is so important.
5. Adapt your product to each region
Now he has 10 branches across cities such as Blitar, Bekasi, and Surabaya and so on. The product strategy differs in each area because each community has a different purchasing power. In Blitar, for example, families are able to pay for tutoring or olympiad programs. So, his targeted is middle up.
6. Fundraising and investors
while growing this business. she has received some point an investor came on board. But the expected return was compared with the team and resources he had, and the pressure became too heavy. In the end, he decided not to continue with the investor.
Today, he prefer to do by own self, he set the target by himself and his company is growing step by step.
Challenges inside the company
- Operations
His marketing is growing but the operation for Medals and certificates can’t catch the need. The produce both items for the olympiads are at the head office, and sometimes they arrive late at the branches.
2. Human resources
The problem is not the quality of the people. It is that SOPs and rewards are not applied well, which creates tension among coworkers.
