The disposable diaper has been a symbol of contemporary child care. But, do you know that it is emerging as a symbol of the nation’s garbage crisis as well? Indeed, managing diapers waste is one of the most rapidly growing pollution problems worldwide.
As disposable diapers are products of wood or cotton, it can decompose within five months. Nevertheless, the super absorbent gel and the plastic products within them take longer to decompose and need at least 500 years to decompose. Yes, 500 years.
Minikinizz, a local small-medium enterprise from Indonesia, exists to be one of the solutions to reduce the diapers waste as it sells a cloth diaper which can be used over time. This kind of diaper proved to be environmentally-friendly and has a cost-efficiency impact
Started in 2012, Minikinizz was established by Rona Himmah with her husband’s support, Asmui, at their own house in Pasar Rebo, Jakarta. Rona and her husband have maintained the business until present with the support from various business competition programs and they have won some awards, including being one of the chosen
As we visited Minikinizz diapers’ production house, Rona and Asmui told us the story of their journey in establishing the business. Thus, here are 5 lessons which we could learn from Rona and her husband of maintaining Minikinizz for 7 years;
1. Your problem could be another people’s solution
Her baby’s sensitive skin made Rona aware that her baby couldn’t wear a disposable diaper and she had to think of another alternative. In that moment, the idea of making a cloth diaper popped up in her mind and she made it. She never thought that the idea was being appreciated by her fellow friends and she realized that it was business-potential. Turns out, the diapers are highly on demand as Minikinizz could produce hundreds of diapers per month with hundreds of millions of revenues. So, instead of complaining, when you have a problem and you found a way to solve it, think again- your solution towards the problem might be a great idea which could be impactful for other people as well.
2. You need to be brave to take a leap of faith
Rona started establishing Minikinizz in 2012 and in 2013, she took a leap of faith to resign from the company in which she worked as a Supply Chain Management officer. She dedicated her time as a women-preneur and a housewife after since. In 2017, her husband was also resigning and dedicating his time to develop the business as well. When we asked her choice of being a women-preneur, Rona answered, “Taking the first step is always be the hardest part. My tips for the soon-to-be entrepreneurs out there will be don’t be afraid of starting the business and just do it. If you truly focus on what you’ve started, you’ll be succeed in it.”
3. Your perseverance is the key to reach success
Being brave of taking the first step is not enough, you need to be focus as well. According to Rona, the most challenging thing of being a women-preneur is to divide her times between maintaining the business and taking care of her children. That was the main reason behind her decision to leave her office-life and fully dedicate herself to develop Minikinizz. As she started the business, she realized that she needed supports from various stakeholders. In 2013, she joined some local-SME-communities and tried her best to be the winner of some business competitions. Indeed, alongside with focus, perseverance is highly important to reach the success, especially if you want to be impactful through your business.
4. Your background doesn’t matter, your learning agility does
Even though either of Rona and his husband had a business-related knowledge or skill, they still determined to establish Minikinizz. Rona has a bachelor degree in textile while Asmui dedicated most of his career in an NGO which focused on environmental issues. Both of them agreed to learn about the business from scratch and they did it through participating in some business competition programs such as IAP, “Through IAP, we learned countless knowledge and ideas through the experts and practitioners. The program taught us until the smallest technical details, such as sending an e-mail to the clients. The knowledge from the program was the most memorable thing we’ve got from IAP,” Asmui added.
5. Your business and social impact should go hand-in-hand
So, what makes Rona and Asmui persistently maintain the business until its 7th year? Yes, the social impact. Currently, Minikinizz has employed 16 local people to work together with Rona and Asmui. Every time she confronts challenges, she always remembers her team, knows exactly that Minikinizz has helped many mothers out there, and contributes on reducing the amount of diapers waste from the environment. Thus, social impact is one of the fuels to keep the business ongoing. When social impact exists, the business which we established will always find a way to survive, simply because it solves social problems.
At the end of the day, ideas are not enough as we need to execute it and persistently maintain it through ups and downs. As long as