On Monday, September 27, 2021, the Introduction to Agricultural Technology course of TPHP UGM held a guest lecture on the topic of “Entrepreneurship”. This guest lecture was presented by Wednes Aria Yuda, owner of Cokelat nDalem, and hosted by Prof. Dr. Ir. Tyas Utami, M.Sc., TPHP UGM lecturer. The guest lecture which took place at 09.00-10.40 WIB was held through the Zoom platform and was attended by 110 participants.
Cokelat nDalem is a chocolate product brand that was originally marketed to tourists visiting Yogyakarta. Cokelat nDalem has a variety of products with different market segments but still pays attention to licensing and product legality. One of the nDalem chocolate product variants, Boenbeans, is made to pay attention to the welfare of cocoa farmers by providing SOPs and guidance to farmers so that the quality of chocolate produced is high.
In developing a food business, conducting research by paying attention to product SWOT is important because it is useful to fulfill what customers need. Identifying the market, testing whether the product is acceptable to the public, and finding the most appropriate price for the designed product can help obtain feedback from customers to improve the product and continue to innovate.
Marketing the product can also be done through social media and marketplaces. Marketing channels can be made diverse so as not to rely too much on one particular channel so that if chaos occurs, the market can still be maintained. In addition, collaboration with other brands can be a profitable way to market products.
In a food business, 3 roles are needed to develop the business, namely hustler, hipster, and hacker. The hustler is the one who takes care of the financial part and is good at management. A hipster is someone who takes care of the marketing part. Meanwhile, hackers are people who can create products according to the wants and needs of hustlers and hipsters.
In addition, 7 pillars must be considered in managing a food business, including product, management, finance, HR, legality, marketing, and distribution. The resource person also added that new entrepreneurs can focus on the market first because the concept of the company also needs to be considered whether it is a start-up or MSME.
