Date : 19 November 2020
Topic : Creative Entrepreneurship
Speaker : Michael Chrisyanto, Founder of Eatlah ( https://eatlahjkt.com/ )
The guest lecture is conducted by kak Michael Chrisyanto, the founder of Eatlah. Eatlah is a street food stall that serves quick and easy meals. Kak Michael started the business with two of his friends, Kak Riesky Vernandes and Charina Prinandita. In the guest lecture session, he told us the story behind Eatlah and how it started.
The lecture covers topics in starting a business such as concept making, products planning, branding, marketing, and finding solutions for problems that can be converted to a business idea.
Before creating Eatlah, Michael had a clothing brand that focuses on building brand image. Then in 2016, Michael and his two other friends had the idea of making Eatlah back from their student days where they love eating chicken salted egg, which is popular in Singapore. They wanted to introduce this unique taste to Indonesians. After moving back to Indonesia, they started selling Eatlah in a stall in front of an office and by then it became popular and got a lot of demand. The team wanted to create a ‘casual’ image for Eatlah. This concept is also applied on their takeaway or on-the-go boxes so customers can enjoy Eatlah anywhere at any time.
After introducing Eatlah, Michael taught us about steps on creating a business. The first step is to create a concept. The concept has to be simple and straight forward. In finding the concept, Michael usually find problems in his daily life and create a solution to that problem. He highlighted, “find the gap in the market and the key to making the concept is finding the problem and understanding the market.”
Next comes to the product. In the production step, research and public test is essential. This can be done by conducting surveys and asking target markets on how would they think. Finding out the SWOT (Strength, Weakness, Opportunity, and Threat) of the business and also the business’ competitors would help in this process.
Marketing is also a part of running a business. Marketing strategy needs to be carefully though so the target market can receive it well. A point in marketing strategy that needs to be pointed out is the communication style. How the business delivers the product to its target market can affect the image the business wants to tell. The business needs to be honest to the market.
Lastly, it is the process of branding and visual identity of the business. In a business, brand image is important. It is how the customers view the brand. Create the font, colors, collaterals and environment of the business.
To add, Michael told us about the creative ways he applied on problems faced when running the business. For example, during this pandemic museum are closed so he thought of a solution to help artists. Eatlah collaborated with Muklay to make an illustrated Eatlah boxes. Michael suggested to make use of technology and time. Look at the problems and issues that is currently going around by using your time to look at Instagram or other social medias.
During the question and answer session, Daffa asked, “how to be aware on when should we start the business?” Michael answered that we can start anytime. Money doesn’t really matter than hard work. If one works hard for a goal, they can make it. Resources is not always about money, it is about how you think and analyze. He stated, “know your skills and make use of it.”
Notes on guest lecture
From this lecture I learnt a lot on the process of starting the business. It can start from a single problem, and though further ideations we can build a business. There are a lot of steps that needs to be thought in the process of running a business. I was also inspired when he told us to make use of our skills. It made me realized that I can start things from small if I work hard on it.
In addition, from all the class lectures and guest lectures, I studied that even if one is working in a creative industry, they have to obtain entrepreneurial and business skills. When you can create a good design but you are not able to market it to the potential customers then it will be just a design. Working in the creative industry also includes creative thinking of making concepts, identity and marketing strategies. If one obtains design and entrepreneurial skills, then they will be able to both create and market it successfully. This is called creative entrepreneurship. Creative entrepreneurs use their creative knowledge and skills to build a business. They focus on building the brand ideation or image, rather than in only making a profitable business.
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