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Jakarta moms fired up as entrepreneurs
At her fingertips: A tablet device displays the website of Indonesia MomPreneur at www
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At her fingertips: A tablet device displays the website of Indonesia MomPreneur at www.indonesiamompreneur.com on Tuesday. The community helps housewives who want to become entrepreneurs. (JP/Wendra Ajistyatama) (JP/Wendra Ajistyatama)
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span class="inline inline-none">At her fingertips: A tablet device displays the website of Indonesia MomPreneur at www.indonesiamompreneur.com on Tuesday. The community helps housewives who want to become entrepreneurs. (JP/Wendra Ajistyatama)
Establishing good careers in big companies is not an option for women who choose to be full-time mothers while managing their businesses at home.
They call themselves 'mompreneurs'.
The Indonesian MomPreneurs community has grabbed the attention of Twitter users since launching its Twitter account, @IDMomPreneur, in March last year. The account now has around 6,000 followers.
Community founder Ike Dahlia Cambey said her active members now totaled around 900 people, 75 percent of whom lived in Greater Jakarta.
She said the idea behind the establishment of the community was to empower housewives who want to become entrepreneurs while keeping their families a priority.
'Many housewives are not proud of their status,' Ike told The Jakarta Post over the telephone.
'This is a noble profession. How can they nurture great children if they are not proud of themselves?'
The community holds monthly gatherings in Jakarta and airs a weekly radio program on V Radio every Wednesday at 6 p.m.
The gatherings, Ike said, consisted of workshops on online marketing, financial clinics and cooking, as well as sessions with owners of successful businesses.
'We limit the number of participants for the gatherings to 50 and charge them Rp 70,000 [US$7.2] for lunch and a goodies bag,' she said.
'We want to attract members who seriously want to become entrepreneurs.'
Ike said she encouraged her organization's members to arrange their own gatherings within their local communities in order to share their knowledge.
Looking back, Ike, who now lives with her family in a housing complex at Bumi Serpong Damai in Tangerang, said she had no regrets over her decision to become an at-home entrepreneur.
The mother of two said she used to be a workaholic career woman at various companies. She gave up her last job as a manager responsible for 2,800 employees in a company in the capital several years ago.
'I was heartbroken when my babysitter told me that my first baby said 'mama' for the first time when I was not around. I then decided to be a full-time mother,' she said.
A challenge came when her husband lost his job in late 2009 and her family posted outstanding debts of Rp 1.8 billion in 2010. Ike then immediately sought to earn money with her whole wheat brownies business.
'It was the lowest point in my life. We sold everything, but it was not enough to cover the debts. I almost divorced my husband due to our financial situation,' she said.
Her subsequent reconciliation with her husband turned out to have a good effect on her business.
'The brownies business covered our debt. Today, I have five permanent employees and receive orders for around 100 pans a day. Next, I want to set up a small factory near our house because my kitchen can no longer accommodate the production,' Ike said, adding that she managed to paid off the remaining debt in 2012.
She said her net revenue from the business now stood at a minimum of Rp 40 million a month for orders of 50 pans a day, which matches the highest income she ever earned in an office.
Another housewife entrepreneur and an active member of the community, Ida Amal, proves that it is never too late to start a business from home. The mother of four said she worked at an animal husbandry company in Kapuk, North Jakarta, for five years before she resigned from the job to raise her kids.
'I stayed at home for nine years before I decided to get involved in my family business in 2001. We started the business from zero,' she said.
Ida said her two businesses, in organic fertilizer and muslim clothing, were running well. She said she and her husband now made Rp 42 million a month from the organic fertilizer business alone, which they run together with other relatives.
With her factory, office, shop and home located near one another in Serpong, she can juggle her time between her family, business and activities in a number of communities.
'I have the freedom to control my income, take care of my kids and be involved in communities where I can express my passion,' said the activist for the Indonesia Berkebun urban farming community.
Communities for housewife-entrepreneurs also exist overseas.
Women in the Philippines have Mompreneur Manila, while in Canada, mothers join Mompreneurs, a network that connects its members to businesses in local communities.
