Ada banyak toko online saat ini. Sangat banyak, bahkan. Tapi, karakteristik apa sajakah yang membuatnya sukses? Albert dan Lidya berbagi kesuksesannya dengan kita semua.
Tak bisa disangkal, salah satu masalah terbesar bagi mahasiswa dan diaspora Indonesia di Australia adalah biaya hidup yang mahal. Tak heran, bukan hal yang aneh lagi kalau seorang mahasiswa internasional harus bekerja sambil belajar untuk mendapat tambahan uang saku. Tapi, ada cara lain juga, lho, untuk mendapat uang tambahan sekaligus mengaplikasikan hobi kalian. Dan, bahkan kita bisa melakukannya dari rumah, yaitu making your own online business!
Nah, bulan ini Indomedia mengundang Albert dan Lidya, founder @st._ck, sebuah bisnis online yang menjual barang-barang gaya hidup seperti tote bag, lukisan, baju, dan buku dengan desain orisinal minimalis dan menarik. Dan inilah resep suksesnya
Hi everyone, it’s Albert and Lidya from @st._ck.
Stick is our little project that has recently grown into an income-generating business. Shoutout to the team in Indomedia for the opportunity and being dear friends to us.
So, You are ready and want to learn more about being an entrepreneur, you found yourself asking: “Where do I start?” Well, we got you and wanted to share a little bit of the ingredients that we have learned that propels our business forward. Here are 5 quick tips to keep in mind:
1. Have an aim and purpose
Sell products you would use yourself. Take time to craft the message and the aim of the products. I have seen many people selling things they won’t use themselves, not to say they are wrong, but you should believe in your products, otherwise, it’ll end up being just another product in the market. Spend time with people, find out what they want or start with small research or survey on your future products.
For Stick, we want the brand to reflect a lifestyle that we would love to live by and hence produced a strong brand message and values. The first day Stick was launched, we had somebody reached out to us to write an article on our brand. She was intrigued by what the brand stands for and also the products we offer.
2. Know your audience
People will follow you if you speak their language, that’s why instead of buying fake followers, we learn to know, invest in and speak to our audience. Lidya and I love minimalism, therefore we would prefer to follow Instagram accounts with beautiful, minimal aesthetics. For Stick, we want our audience to feel “included” not “excluded”. We use puns like “stick together” or “stick around” so they are aware that we value them and are always present for them.
The majority of our buyers are friends of friends or even family. We, sometimes, think of customers as people you don’t know and need to reach somewhere, but oftentimes, a sign of you hitting your target audience is when people with similar tastes as you, recognised the products you are putting out, and don’t be surprised if they are the people you know because they can help you leverage your business.
3. Learn and then Educate
We want our brand to stand out, but nobody is going to recognize us unless we educate them, not only about the products but why they should buy them. For stick, we started by learning about the skills we need to know to kickstart the project, from selling skills to Branding skills. With internet on our fingertips, the only thing that stops you from learning these skills is you! And, it really helps because we actually use our own products. We can easily tell people why we like our products, and why they can’t find anything like it in the market.
4. Build multiple channels
Make it easy for your customers to find you, you’ll never know who would buy your products or services. They might be a click away. Start with the basics, have a checklist of the channels you would want to manage. We say manage because an inactive account is bad for your brand and reputation. Make sure you have time to grow these channels or hire somebody to grow it for you. For Stick, they are e-commerce platform or a website, as well as social media accounts like Facebook, Instagram, and Youtube, we also consider opening a pop-up shop in the markets.
5. Patience
We have read so many success stories from some of the wealthiest people on the planet. What we found is that they have something in common, which is they know and believe in their product and therefore endured the challenges that came their way. For stick, we know it is not going to be an overnight success, well thank God if it happens, but a lesson that we don’t want to miss as entrepreneurs is being patient. There are hundreds of stories of people who acquired overnight success and blew it the next day, we don’t want that, besides, the journey and the process is much more important than the destination. So all we can say is stick with the process 😉
Q and A
Q: How do you discover Stick?
A: Lidya started with line-art prints just for fun, and also trying out selling to local buyers in Sydney. After looking at the potential of the art we can produce, we realized that it is nowhere inferior to the big brands we know. And hundreds of drafts later, we came up with the pieces in our collection today.
Q: How do you determine the prices of your products?
A: We are just starting out, so having unaffordable products is not a good idea, hahaha.
What we do instead is building a network of customers who would buy them at a very reasonable price and see it as an investment to grow the brand. Of course, there are different strategies out there, but the one we prefer is to have more people know our brand rather than being too exclusive that it is not reachable.
Q: How to set up delivery and payment?
A: There are so many e-commerce tutorials on Youtube! Pick one and follow them.
Feel free to reach out to us for coffee or DM us for any questions. We are open to the public!
Always stick to what matters,
Our website : stck.shop
Our Instagram : @st._ck
[IM/Albert & Lidya]
