Noble intentions often lead us to success.
Because the success achieved not only provides benefits for oneself, but also benefits for many parties. It is believed that Muhammad Rizky Ramadhan, who is familiarly known as KIMO, started his business in his early twenties.
By creating a music school with affordable fees, KIMO hopes that aspiring musicians can register themselves and pay the fees using their own money. Not only that, the education time is also relatively fast, namely only one month. Today, the school founded by KIMO, Double Deer Academy, is attended by hundreds of students with unquestionable musical quality graduates.
Artists Who Can't Play Music
Kimo admitted that he couldn't play music. When he was in high school, he was forced to study piano with his father. KIMO even went to private school. The song his father recommended was The Beatles, which clearly wasn't really KIMO, he thought at the time. Not cool at all. Finally, KIMO is not good at playing the piano, he only understands the basics.
But, the desire to make music was always there. The problem is, KIMO doesn't even understand chords. KIMO's lack of knowledge and understanding in the field of music encouraged KIMO to find software that could produce music. Some of them are Fruity Loop and Logic Pro. For KIMO, making music is like drawing. In the Digital Audio Work Station, there are pedals, kicks and other sound options. We just have to arrange the pattern. The pattern is what we 'draw' into a melody. We just need a sense to judge whether the pattern we have arranged produces a false note or not.
KIMO's basic knowledge and musical abilities in the realm of electronic music made him win a scholarship from the SAE Institute Jakarta, at FX Sudirman. After graduating, KIMO was confused about what he wanted to do. Become a DJ? The rivalry and competition made KIMO lazy at first. Then, one day on a trip, KIMO accidentally found a fashion, music and other arts district that adopted an external style called ORBIS Store, in Panglima Polim. The district inspired KIMO to build something similar, but KIMO wasn't sure what to build.
Not far from there, there is a music school that teaches various musical instruments called the Farabi Music Education Institute. Through Farabi, KIMO created a music school with the name Double Deer Academy. The difference is, the school built by KIMO focuses on digital music. Kimo sees that many young people want to learn music, but don't want the hassle. They want to be able to play music instantly. Finally, within a month, KIMO was confident he could teach his students to play digital music. With a total of eight meetings, two meetings in one week, they were able to graduate from Double Deer Academy with quality.
Was Double Deer Academy built by KIMO smoothly? Of course it's not easy. KIMO's limited capital at that time forced him to submit an unsecured loan of IDR 32,000,000 in the offer he received via SMS. He used IDR 25,000,000 to pay the building rent for a year and the remaining IDR 7,000,000 for the equipment he needed.
This amount could not cover everything KIMO needed, so in the end each student was required to bring personal facilities during the lesson. Unable to afford a TV, the screen used by KIMO is a medium-sized imac screen that he has had for a long time. Yes, the partner that KIMO collaborated with at that time even needed to sell Lambretta to complete the equipment they needed.
In limited conditions, KIMO was determined to start a business without any business knowledge at all. KIMO does not yet know the commonly used terms ROI or BEP. As a music teacher, KIMO's inability to play music is actually a plus point. People consider this to be unique in itself. Perseverance at that time meant that KIMO and its partners succeeded in returning the capital they spent in less than a year.
Good intentions will lead us to success that is beneficial for many people.
The Importance of Expanding in Business
Double Deer Academy is not the only business KIMO has created. The second business created by KIMO and his team is Audio Post Production. There, they creatively create jingles, soundtracks, voice overs, or other needs related to music. Their clients are diverse; ranging from banks to private schools.
Having gone door to door, KIMO said he had difficulty getting clients for his second business. When intending to approach large companies, KIMO is advised to contact each company's agency. KIMO was surprised to find out that every company doesn't just have one agency. A company's out of home advertising agency can be different from an agency for online advertising. After asking around, KIMO understood that the services offered by KIMO could be connected to companies through directors at videography agencies.
After the second business started running, did KIMO feel satisfied? Not yet. KIMO continues to expand its business, such as creating Double Deer Records to Double Deer Lab, a peer to peer marketing method, where KIMO brings together consistent and authentic communities throughout Indonesia with companies that need contributions from these communities. This time, KIMO didn't just penetrate the music community. He also contacted the motorbike community and the culinary community.
“I'm happy to see things grow according to what they originally dreamed of. "I'm happy to be in the middle of their success process," explained KIMO warmly. This glory made KIMO successful in bringing these communities to the surface.
Currently, KIMO's business is diverse. Starting from skin care which he and his wife are involved in to developing new products for 0 year old children. Even though he doesn't want to give any information about his newest business, KIMO can confirm that his business this time also has big opportunities.
One of the Most Important Lessons in Business Is Compromise
Kimo shares several business tips that may be useful for beginners. First, we must trust our business partners. Some partners are happy to get involved directly in running the business together, others just provide financial support and wait for the results. Whatever our choice of business partner, KIMO suggests, we must be able to trust them. That's why an initial approach before starting a business is very important,
Second, if financial limitations force us into debt, we are fully responsible for our financial condition. Don't let this debt stop your journey in business. Failing is normal. However, failure must be able to teach us something that we will not repeat in the future. KIMO admitted that his business also experienced a deficit, but not long after, he managed to restore its financial condition again.
The last one, continued KIMO, was a compromise. To this day, KIMO provides a holiday for its female employees who come during a special month on the first day. Because, KIMO finds it difficult to compromise with women if their emotions are unstable. Not just women, throughout KIMO's career, he sometimes came across many people with strong personalities who were very difficult to compromise with. However, there was never any other way. “Compromise is one of the things we really need to learn if we decide to do business.”
From KIMO's struggle to build its business, there are many things we can learn as lessons. Even though we are not musicians and maybe our business field is not in the music industry. Now, it's time to define your business and start building value within yourself. What reputation do you want people to see from you? You decide. Make sure you consistently do it. To quote KIMO again, "don't just have a fever to become a founder."
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