Are you afraid of being incontestably?

No one has ever become poor by giving 
                                                          – Anne Frank

               

Nowadays, small and middle businesses (which famous as UKM) has become popular among people. Most of youngster don’t imagine themselves as someone who will go to the office from 8 am to 5 pm after they finish college. Youngster start to think how to create and expand their own business.

Unfortunately, this positive trend doesn’t followed by continous training or good seminar which help people to start their own business. And here is Puguh Priyo Sudibyo. He is an ordinary man with big passion of small and middle business (UKM). Fod god sake, he never thought that he will go this far in giving training and seminar for other people.

It started when the man who became a master of biology in Airlangga University led a talkshow about UKM in Probolinggo at 2006. He didn’t only asking a questions to the speakers, but he also tried hard to understand the dialogue. After the talkshow finished, he concluded that UKM has a big chance to be developed. Unfortunately, there was no feasible medium to learn and expand. He looked around and found that most of training was given only at the beginning of UKM establishment. There was no mechanism that could help the UKM so that they would survive and expand. The man who was born at December 10th 1965 was puzzled because the government only trying to make the new UKM without a sufficient training to explain how the UKM should be going on.

At that time, Puguh was working as a musical instrument seller in Probolinggo. He also had 13 branch of water filter service in East Java. At the same year (2006), he started to collect people who attend UKM talkshow because he believe that they had the same insterest with him. They gathered as a small business group name Le Ollena. Le Ollena means souvenir (oleh-oleh) in Madura language. Le Ollena then created many products that comes from fish. He chose fish as a staple of his product because Probolinggo is placed near to the north coast of East Java. Together with this group, Le Ollena has many products started from kerupuk ikan, abon, and ikan krispi. Then the products develop into manggo syrup and oyster chips. Finally, their revenue reach a fantastic number which is one hundred millions every month.

Unfortunately, Puguh was not 100% satisfied with his UKM achievement. Why? Because he could see that there are still many UKM who don’t know how to maintain a sustainable business. He started to give a seminar and training for other people. Not only that, Probolinggo City Government also invited him to give a training for many UKM. In his training, he doesn’t only tell people what to do at the early stages, but he also gives a clue how to maintain and develop the business. He doesn’t want to tell people what kinds on product to be imitated whereas he give people a knowledge to create and modified the product. He also attend many UKM training given by successful business owner in order to develop himself more. He always update his training material after he follow a good seminar. He has a big heart to share a knowledge with other people.

He saw that many UKM don’t pay enough attention for product packaging. Usually UKM only focus on product development such as the taste and the quality. Unfortunately, in this modern world, people pay so much attention to the packaging. The price of product has a big corellation with the packaging. Because of this problem, Puguh give a training about the product packaging so that the price of the product will be increase.

Besides the formal training, he accepted many people who want to start their own business. Even some people stay some nights in his house to learn the way he run his UKM. Those people not only come from Probolinggo, they also come from other cities. They come “only” to meet him and listen to Puguh’s words.  For those services, Puguh never take any payment. He do that things only to help other people.

Puguh has an interesting principle. He believe that if we facilitate other’s need, we will find an easier way to finish our problems. He is not afraid that his “student” will expand their business better than him. For him, everyone has their own path. He stated that many small success stories will give a significant impact to Indonesia’s economic growth.

As personal, I really impressed with Puguh’s believe and action. Not to say, many people are afraid to share their “secret” in creating a good business. They are worried that other people will do better than themselve. Puguh is an exception for that case. He share his knowledge to other people for free. He has a big heart to contribute something positive for this nation. He doesn’t wait other people to do something instead he pushes himself to create a better business environment for everyone else.

Big things start from small things.

And it all starts from us.

With love,

Bella Bernadette

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