Business opportunities are everywhere, even if you don’t look for them. This specific instance was experienced by an alumna of the Communication Science Department at Universitas Dian Nuswantoro (Udinus), Pradita Rahmawati, through her knitting hobby. Her entrepreneurial venture was kindled in 2016, when Pradita, known simply as Dita, received an order from her friend.
“As time went on, I began to see the opportunity of knitting as a business opportunity. Then, when I studied at Udinus at the end of 2019, I registered the legality of my business,” she said.
Her knitting business is named Tids Crochet , and it also served as a study object when Dita participated in the Work Lecture program initiated by the Communication Science Department. Dita, who was born in 1995, chose the business scheme in the program and focused on her business.
Years passed. Tids Crochet became more prominent. Its products also became more varied, including shoes, bags, wallets, hats, scarves, accessories, and home decorations. At first, these products were distributed to many cities in Indonesia. However, Dita, who graduated in 2022, saw partnership opportunities, allowing her to export her products to other countries.
“Recently, we also partnered with other companies so we could export our knitting products to many countries. Our exported products encompass knitted umbrellas (parasols), as well as swings made of rope and wood, with knitted accessories,” she revealed.
The products are primarily made manually through handmademeans during the production process. This allows a job opportunity to emerge, especially for craftsmen or craftswomen. To this day, Tids Crochet has successfully empowered fifteen craftswomen consisting of housewives, with one of them being people with disabilities.
Business Strategies
Even though the business development goes fairly well, Dita is still committed to coming up with better marketing strategies for her products. She had taken many ways to sustain her business, including by establishing a network withstakeholders).
“We are also actively seeking exhibitions. As for the marketing system, we usually implement pre-orders and ready stocksystems. The products are mainly sold online through social media and marketplaces, as well as offline through bazaars, exhibitions, and partnerships with many stores in Semarang, Yogyakarta, and Jakarta,” she explained.
In addition to selling products, Dita also stated that Tids Crochet also opened a workshop aimed at knitted product enthusiasts. The location (home base) is Jl. Berlian 3 No. 332, in Ambarawa Asri Residential Area, Semarang Regency, Central Java.
“If one were to open a business, they must understand what they want. Consistency, hope, and will are necessary to benefit others. This is because we will never know when our businesses will serve many people if we never try,” she concluded. (Humas Udinus/Penulis: Ika. Editor: Haris. Foto: Dok. Pribadi)
