Her hobby of sewing has led Erna Zurnimawati to become one of the most successful entrepreneurs in batik and weaving. Not only has she successfully pioneered her own business, the owner of the Nena Collection brand is also passionate about sharing her knowledge and experience with fellow entrepreneurs.
Although she did not explore sewing skills specifically, because she grew up in a family of tailors, Erna became accustomed to seeing the sewing process, and made her interested in trying sewing herself which later became a hobby.
"There is a sewing machine at home, right, in the past, the average village people all had a sewing machine. So in my family, everyone has a sewing machine. It just so happens that there is a family engaged in convection, so I often see. But to sew myself, I tried it myself with the machine at home," she explained.
Participated at the Biggest Exhibition in Yogyakarta in 1992
This sewing hobby apparently continued until Erna went to college. Even though she was busy with lecture activities, Erna's skilled hands were still able to make bed sheets, curtains and computer covers from cloth which at that time attracted the attention of her friends. Therefore, when there was a Gama Fair exhibition organized by Gadjah Mada University in 1992, friends told Erna to register. Erna agreed and paid a registration fee of Rp75 thousand to open a stand with her classmates.
To open a stand, of course, you need to have products sold, especially at that time Gama Fair was one of the largest exhibitions in Yogyakarta. Instead of making something from her sewing skills, Erna actually remembered the pottery craftsmen she often visited.
"I like to linger in the place of people who make pottery. Though not familiar, but I like to see him painting, drawing. Well, when there was Gama Fair, I told the pottery craftsman that I wanted to borrow the products to sell at the Gama Fair consignment system. It turned out that he agreed. I was surprised, even though I didn't know but how trusted me," Erna recalled.
Sure enough, the pottery's trust was paid off. The pottery products on display are sold. After the exhibition, Erna received an order for 350 pieces of pottery for the wedding souvenirs of one of her friends.
For the design of the drawings on the pottery, Erna admitted that at first she felt unconfident making her own design. But he was inspired by the pottery craftsmen he frequented, and increased his confidence to draw his own designs.
Office Job While Running a Side Business
After graduating from the Islamic University of Indonesia in 1996, Erna worked in a company with a very busy job, which made her not have much free time.
In 2000 Dan Erna got married, and at that time souvenirs for invited guests she ventured to make her own. Then there was a neighbor who helped me make a kebaya, who then invited Erna to work together to run a business.
After 3 years of work, Erna was determined to run a side business assisted by her neighbors by producing pillowcases.
Running a business while working is certainly not an easy thing. Erna must be smart in dividing her time. Morning to evening work, in the evening continue to take care of business. At that time in running her business, Erna was assisted by 9 neighbors who were also her employees.
The production from the side business is then sold with a delivery system to stores, according to Erna, this is more practical because just make it and then deposit it to the store. For the first time, he went to Sarinah Yogyakarta and Mirota Batik. At Mirota Batik, the sales turned out to be amazing. Initially, only 20 pieces of pillowcases were left with a total price of Rp. 300 thousand, finally deposited per 100 pieces.
Mirota was apparently interested in getting more of Erna's creations and asked her to make curtains, tablecloths and other crafts combined with embroidery. Seeing the opportunity in front of her eyes, of course Erna, who likes challenges, agrees. "Mirota has many model requests, to fulfill these requests, there are many neighbors that I work with. All of them were housewives," she recalled.
Source: Private collection
Erna combines weaving, Jogjanese batik and embroidery to create unique ethnic creations and of course very marketable. 3 years of working while running a side business, Erna managed to get a turnover greater than the salary she received. Therefore, he finally decided to resign from his job in 2005 and focus on managing the business.
During her focus on running a business, Erna's design skills also improved even though she was self-taught by observing products in modern stores, as well as looking for design references in books and magazines. Then modified with traditional materials, namely batik and weaving. Some of Erna's batik and weaving crafts can be seen through @nena_batik_n_craft's Instagram account.
Joining Exhibitions for Business Development
Source: Private collection
Erna did not miss the opportunity to participate in various exhibitions such as Inacraft and also selected customer product exhibitions held at BTPN bank, in addition to introducing her products to more people, from these exhibitions she received many orders from various regions and even abroad.
"Since the exhibition, my sales are not only retail, there are from SMEs as well. So SMEs that have not been able to produce their own, take a ride to produce at my place. For example, there are customers in Makassar who produce weaving. They send the material to me, then I sew it, send it back to finished goods," he said.
Erna's friends who are exporters often order Erna's products to be sent to Spain and Paris. Therefore, Erna always strives to improve the quality of its products so that they are not less competitive with foreign products. Erna also started to have regular customers from Japan who until now are still working together for more than 10 years.
2 times Slumped by Disaster, 2 times Risen
During her business trip, Erna had to face 2 disasters, namely during the devastating earthquake in her residence, Bantul, in 2006 and the COVID-19 pandemic since 2020.
In 2006, Yogyakarta was hit by an earthquake. Erna's business was also affected, even though at that time her business performance was high. Although her house and sewing tools were damaged, Erna felt that her business should not stop. He immediately looked for a rented house and secured sewing tools that could still be used, so that 2 weeks after the disaster his business had started moving again.
Unfortunately, the neighbors who worked with Erna, did not recover as quickly as she did, due to the damage they suffered. Hence, he was forced to continue his business alone. This is not easy, especially since all the capital that Erna has is used to repair her house damaged by the earthquake.
Erna is also excited to participate in Daya program from BTPN in the form of business management training, as well as product exhibitions held to rebuild her business. Thanks to his persistence, he was even covered by national print media as the recipient of the best SME award by the Minister of Economic Affairs.
Then, during the COVID-19 pandemic, Erna and her family were exposed, so she and her family and employees had to undergo quarantine. Production stopped completely for almost 1 month. Moreover, the shops were forced to close because activities were restricted, Erna's business was automatically paralyzed.
After recovering and testing negative for COVID-19, Erna began to try to be active again by receiving an order for 4,000 cloth masks from one of her colleagues who worked in one of the government agencies. At that time, cloth masks were still recommended for use. Erna's cloth mask is created in such a way that it is not only beautiful to look at but also comfortable to wear with a 3-layer duckbill model.
In a day, Erna can sell 200-300 pieces of cloth masks with a turnover of up to Rp90 million per month. This is certainly like a windfall in the midst of a pandemic, Erna is relieved that finally the wheels of her business can turn again and employee salaries can be paid.
Entrepreneurs Who Also Provide Business Training
Armed with experience building a business from scratch, and also attending business development trainings, Erna ventured to accept Disperindag's invitation to fill out training on fabric in Banjarmasin in 2013. It turned out that the results were quite satisfactory. In 2014 Erna was again asked to fill out training in Tabalong, Kalimantan.
From accidental, until finally trusted to fill other trainings to date. For 2023, Erna has even been scheduled to fill in training for several cities, including Madiun and Blora.
According to Erna, meeting people and sharing experiences made her feel more useful. To support the training process, he hunted for an old-school sewing machine so that it could be used by the participants for practice. Currently, Erna already has 13 sewing machines which, with the help of her friend, are modified into portable sewing machines that can be carried everywhere.
In the future, Erna wants to open a gallery for educational tours so that people who come to Yogyakarta can learn to make fabric handicraft products that can be taken home. You can shop or comparative studies to see the production process. "I want to create a gallery. So converge, there is production, there is retail sales, and training," he concluded.
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