Developing Business with Real Actions

Mariatul Qiftih has been in the business world since 2016, after seeing that the business world provides great opportunities to find employment and to make money. This belief grew stronger after several years being directly involved in various activities both on and off campus, including being active in various community activities.

Kurnia has an educational background in Midwifery and worked in a hospital. Her busy schedule did not prevent her from continuing to participate in activities related to entrepreneurship, especially in the culinary field. Kurnia is interested in the culinary field, because she feels that culinary is very broad and endless, and part of basic human needs.

According to Kurnia, one thing that she did from the start and needs to be shared with other potential entrepreneurs is the importance of Execution. Execution means that when you want to start a business or entrepreneurship, it is not enough to just come with an idea or a business plan. The main thing is to take immediate action regarding the plan or business idea.

No matter how perfect an idea or a business plan, there will be no benefit if there is no action. When taking the initial steps to start the business, there will be many new things or facts that are not in accordance with the initial plan. This will especially be experienced for beginners who do not have the experience to start a business.

"From my experience, another reason for getting into this culinary business is because of the large amount of information available, so that we can always try out new recipes to get the ideal taste favoured by consumers," explained Kurnia. "The key in this culinary business is the taste. That is why producers need to always try out new recipes," she added.

In her business, Kurnia employs 2 permanent staffs and as many as 4 assistants who can be called at any time. These workers are people living nearby who need work.

Kurnia is a participant in the entrepreneurship training organized by Nelson Consulting supported by Riwani Globe. The training is a part of the Employment and Livelihood project, jointly organized by four United Nations (UN) agencies in Indonesia, including the ILO. The joint project is funded by UN COVID-19 Response and Recovery Multi-Partner Trust Fund (UN MPTF) and aimed to provide equal opportunities for vulnerable groups in improving their income and quality of life.

"I learned many new lessons related to business, specifically related to calculating costs, profits and capital requirements," said Kurnia when asked about the training she attended. “It turns out that one of the weapons that an entrepreneur needs to have is an understanding of the cost of the product. Understanding of these costs can be a strategy in negotiating with our business partners, both internally and externally," she added.

COVID-19 pandemic clearly had an impact on Kurnia's business, especially with the restrictions imposed by the government. This resulted in a decrease in sales.

"The lesson I learned from this pandemic is that when demands decrease, the empty production time should be used to test product variants with new flavours. So that when demands start to increase, we are ready with new products," said Kurnia.