UNS – For students, hangout and drinking coffee with friends is a fun activity. However, do you realize that behind the fun of hanging out, there is a great amount of time wasted? The time that can be used by students to do their assignments or performing productive activities were wasted because of hanging out and gossiping, without doing any productive activities.
Emmanuelle Rendi Wijaya, Muhammad Rifqi Hadziq, Muhammad Raihan, Clarence Axel David Hasudungan Pardede, and Farhan Luhung Prameswara are well aware of the unproductiveness of hanging out. The Universitas Sebelas Maret (UNS) Surakarta students successfully shift the unproductive hangout into a business. In a month, they can generate tens of millions of rupiahs sales. What is their business?
Since 2019, Rendi, Hadziq, Raihan, Axel, and Farhan started their coffee shop business. The coffee shop is located on Arifin Street No. 41B, Kepatihan Wetan, Jebres, Solo, they named the shop: ‘Kopi Bertopi.’
“So, firstly it was unique. We were hanging out. We were roommates, at the beginning of our college year, we often went to a coffee shop to hang out and doing an assignment like students in usual. After that, we discussed, because we were not students who went home after class. We tried to find a routine and we are not local people, most are from Jakarta and we know each other in UNS,” stated Rendi, the Co-Founder of Kopi Bertopi, Friday (6/3/2020).
To uns.ac.id, Rendi who is an Accounting Program FEB UNS student, said that he and his friends have the same interest, to open a coffee shop. From this interest, the five started to learn about coffee, choosing tools, coffee beans, and managing finance.
“When we discussed, we (found out that we) have the same interest in business, so we put it together. We reviewed shops, and we had the same restlessness and we made coffee shop according to our ideals. So, this (red: Kopi Bertopi) is good. Not only studying from class. In the class, we look for theory, in business we put it into practice. When we opened the shop in 2017, the owners were us. Because we started in the 4th semester,” he continued.
When starting the business for the first time, Rendi stated that he felt uncertain at first. This uncertainty appeared because his friends had never run a business. The other reason that made him uncertain is the minimum knowledge on how to operate the tools and to select the best coffee beans.
“Initially we thought, can we really manage this much money. So, we made a presentation to the investor and it was accepted. But instead of happy, we were panicking because we were just 4th semester, in terms of maturity in managing money, (we are) not fully comprehend the management of funds and this is first business,” Rendi stated.
In running the business, the five have different responsibilities and duties. As a co-founder, Rendi manages the finance, Hadziq as founder, manages the operation of the shop and warehouse management, Axel manages the physical operation of the shop, Farhan manages the marketing and social media, and Raihan manages creative and branding of Kopi Bertopi.
In the interview, Rendi revealed that Kopi Bertopi changed its menu every three months. Rendi always paid close attention to the new menus are the result of the creation and innovation of Kopi Bertopi; in terms of consumer taste and the selling curve.
“We always innovate the menus every three months and it is scheduled. We observe the sales curve. In the first month, it is always very high, two months, it gets stable, and after three months it will decline. Before the decline, we entered innovation to make the curve go up again. We learned from YouTube, books, and conversations with others. We learned about Solo’s latah (copying others) culture. Solo people like something new, get excited, but then get bored,” he said.
When asked about the means to maintain harmony among the founders, Rendi shared the tips to uns.ac.id. He said that honesty in communication is the main way. He said it because, in business, honesty often becomes the cause of business to crumble. With honesty, Kopi Bertopi can survive until today.
“We have to be open. We get this much profit or we suffered this much loss, one person holds the money. He has to report it weekly, how much money is generated, how much money is spent, how is the cash flow. And every month he has to report the team. Because money is divisive. We also use a special account for business and in one-month Kopi Bertopi sales can reach tens of millions rupiahs,” Rendi stated. Humas UNS/Yefta
