Our impact, their voices

From pandemic to business opportunity

A young entrepreneur from Jakarta has overcome the challenges of COVID-19 to expand her culinary business. She shared her inspiring business journey with Indonesian youth during an event supported by the ILO recently.

Feature | Jakarta, Indonesia | 21 October 2020
 
The COVID-19 pandemic has become an opportunity for Lia Ganni, a young Indonesian entrepreneur, who launched a culinary business named ‘Momomaru’ last year. The popularity of her online culinary offerings led to an opportunity to open a café in Kemang, a well-known business district in South Jakarta.

“Due to the increase in online business during the COVID-19 pandemic, we were able to expand our business and open a café to get closer to our customers,” she explains.

We need to continue innovating with our menus due to the uncertainty caused by the pandemic. We must be creative to keep our customers."

Lia Ganni
Lia shared her inspiring business journey with 130 young people participating in a Youth Talk held in September 2020 by the ILO and GRID Network, a leading Indonesian media group. The talk was part of a series aimed at inspiring and encouraging Indonesian youth to pursue their dreams even during the uncertainty caused by the pandemic.

It was a passion for cooking which led Lia and her business partner to start their culinary business.

“We like to cook, but we also like to dine out. Thus, we thought why not try to cook the dish we like the most, Salmon Mentai, that we can eat as well as sell,” recalled Lia.

Starting with just six portions that were offered to friends and relatives, the response was overwhelming. The next order was increased to 50 portions and the business really took off through promotions on social media.

“Our specialty is that we only serve fresh dishes. We cook the dishes based on orders and this strategy has made the business grow fast to 200 portions of Salmon Mentai per day. We now employ nine employees,” Lia explained.

To maintain her business, Lia and her business partner continue innovating new menus based on feedback or requests from loyal customers. For customers who do not like seafood, they created beef dishes while pastries like Korean cheese breads and sweet beverages are also popular.

“We need to continue innovating with our menus due to the uncertainty caused by the pandemic. We must be creative to keep our customers,” Lia said. “We even adapted our menu with frozen foods that were in high demand during Ramadan.”

Although the pandemic has seen Lia and her business partner develop a growing business, the impact of the pandemic hit them hard when COVID-19 restrictions initially led to a fall in orders.

“There was a time when I had to think hard to make this work and to ensure that we could pay our employees and not lay them off,” Lia explained.

Youth entrepreneurship helps youth to develop new skills and experiences that promote innovation and resilience."

Tauvik Muhamad, the ILO’s skills development programme manager
Along with her business partner, they gathered together the employees to discuss the situation and agree what should Youth entrepreneurship helps youth to develop new skills and experiences that promote innovation and resiliencebe done. By expanding the menus and constantly presenting new products, Momomaru was able to maintain its business and keep on all of the employees.

Lia concluded her interactive session by encouraging the young audience to never doubt themselves and to realize their passions.

“Act, don’t just dream or think about it,” she said.

The Youth Talk was supported by the ILO’s skills development programme for Indonesia which helps give young people skills that match the needs of industry. Tauvik Muhamad, the ILO’s skills development programme manager appraised the innovation and resilience shown by Lia Ganni as a young entrepreneur.

“Youth entrepreneurship helps youth to develop new skills and experiences that promote innovation and resilience. Young entrepreneurs, as a result, are responsive to new opportunities and trends as well as be able to better adapt with the changing labour market,” Tauvik added.

ILO’s support was provided by its two skills projects the Industry Skills for Inclusive Growth Project (In-Sight) Phase II and the Quality Assistance for Workers Affected by Labour Adjustments (UNIQLO) Project.

Funded by the Government of Japan, the second phase of In-Sight Project aims to promote mechanisms and practical approaches that enable industries and workplaces to become drivers of sustainable and inclusive growth in the Asian region.

Funded by the parent company of UNIQLO, Fast Retailing Co., Ltd, the ILO/UNIQLO Project facilitates tripartite dialogues and provide technical assistance to formulate an effective and comprehensive unemployment benefit scheme as a part of social protection system. The Project will run for two years until 2021.