A Success Story of "In Free Time" Empowering Women and Their Communities, Mila: We Value Collaboration

Every brand certainly want to be able to have an impact and benefit the surroundings. This is also the initial mission of brand which is now known as Leisure Time.

Free time managed to become brand who not only take advantage of technology in the midst of this all-digital era, but also become brand impact on women and their communities by involving them in the production process.

Curious how the complete journey? Check out the success story of Leisure Time conveyed by Milla Wijaya, as Co-Founder, Co-Owner, and Brand Director in Free Time, to the following DailySocial.

A Leisure-Inspired Journey

Free Time is a brand which was initiated by Utterly Magazine and sponsored by Utterly Studio, a multidisciplinary creative agency. Mila explained that the presence of Saat Senggang was the fruit of the thought to be able to involve women more realistically.

“The birth of this free time actually started from an idea of ​​how so that we can involve women and their communities deeper and more real. Because if you go through the magazine, the segment will be smaller, right? So, okay, we have to make it lifestyle-brand so that value What we want to convey is that we can connect directly and be closer to the audience,” he explained.

Undeniably, brand When Leisure has a name that is quite unique. It turns out, there is an interesting story behind the name Saat Senggang where this name is inspired by free time that can be filled for inspiration.

“So we are inspired by our free time which is usually filled with moments of looking for inspiration. Then, in free time, sometimes the best ideas can come up, like unique, interesting ideas. And from there we can develop it into something,” said Mila.

So, everyone's free time is the most productive time that can be used to work without being limited by age, time, and background.

From that thought, Saat Senggang was born with the aim of encouraging women to be creative and realize the things they like. It is also represented by tagline them, namely'Make every second in life count'.

Innovating in Product Models, Packaging and How to Develop Brand

Build brand it is not an easy thing. Therefore, Mila admits that in developing her free time, she and her team have done a lot trials and errors and innovate to find the best way to do business.

Brand Free Time is brand with knitted products which launched its first collection in August 2019. Initially, Saat Senggang did not only want to focus on one type of product, but also various products related to leisure time.

“Initially when we were free, we didn't want to focus on one product, actually. So (want to) all relate equally in his spare time. Maybe there are mothers who cook in their spare time, there are mothers who in their spare time sewing, or there are mothers who knit in their spare time. Well, because we used to get the mothers of our closest people to be able to knit, we thought okay, let's start from here," said Mila.

From there, Saat Senggang began to collaborate to facilitate the distribution and distribution process Branding product knitting community knitting, and continue to look for the best way to develop brand-his. Starting from integrating the program offline and online, make campaign, photo shoots and more so that value brands and the product is well received by the public.

In addition, Saat Leisure also continues to innovate in terms of product models and packaging, adapting to the times so that they are easily accepted market.

Focus on Managing Community Between Production and Branding

According to Mila's statement, all the women who took part in the production were artists for Saat Senggang. Therefore, managing the community is one of the important things that must be considered and will also have a good impact on the production process of the Time Free itself.

Currently, the production activities of Saat Senggang are located in four different locations, including in Surabaya, Semarang, Solo, and Malang, where all deliveries will be made from Surabaya.

The large number of production locations and the number of women knitters make Saat Senggang have to be smart in finding ways to manage the community so that the quality of the products produced remains good.

"Because we're not actually producing actors, right? I mean like me and businesses not knitting. But we anticipate that with each region there will be one matriarch where we work with her,” explained Mila.

Furthermore, Mila also explained that the matriarch in each area is tasked with helping if anyone wants to join the community by guiding the production method and also the SOPs that must be followed.

However, it turns out that instead of product quality, Mila admits that it is the commitment of the knitters that is often the obstacle. Even so, it can be a new space for Leisure Time to innovate.

Tokopedia Becomes Platform Mainstay From the Beginning

When the pandemic hit Indonesia in 2020 ago, many businesses were overwhelmed in terms of production to make the transition from sales offline ke online. However, this is not the case for Leisure Time.

In production activities, Saat Senggang can actually hold a stronger community because female artists have more free time during the pandemic.

In addition, in terms of sales, during leisure time did not experience significant difficulties during the pandemic. This is because Free Time is one of the brand who started his journey from the beginning based on online with platformTokopedia as its mainstay until now. 

"There are definitely many roles (Tokopedia) because Tokopedia has a system that we think is quite helpful. Very helpful even. Yes, the term is from how back office-yes, when there is an order, you can setting PO, given the delivery time, plus there is an assessment and performance of the store, it really helps how we control internal parties, "said Mila.

According to him, the system at Tokopedia really helps him in coordinating with other departments, such as administration and marketing warehouse. Then, in free time, there is also no need to build a shop onlinehis own.

"Then, for example, there are complaints, it's like making it easier for us without us having to" build ownwebsite right, own e-commerce so. Keep adding free shipping, we can register at Power Merchant. Yes, it really helps if I say yes. Plus it's here now affiliate. So that from the store itself it can be integrated into the store itself platform others, social media, for example Instagram,” he continued.

There is a program Tokopedia affiliate also helps In Free Time to earn extra income by sharing link product to platform other promotions, such as social media.

Face Challenges Always Update Knowledge

Even though during the free time pandemic you don't experience difficulties, it doesn't mean that your free time has never faced challenges. From difficulties in the production process to challenges in formulating business strategies, Saat Senggang has ever faced, according to Mila's statement.

"He's always there. That's why we have to keep updating knowledge," he said.

As a business with products made handmade, meet the production quantity when demand being high is certainly an obstacle in itself. However, that didn't stop the Free Time. Enlarging the community is the solution chosen by Leisure.

But, again, the obstacles do not stop there. When Senggang meets other challenges, namely how to control the community and product quality (QC) because the community is getting bigger.

Another obstacle stated by Mila is the strategy in realizing the dream of becoming a brand that sustainable taking into account three factors, namely: people, profitand plane.

“But for this planet, we are still trying because we really want to be able to produce products whose materials can be recycled. So more economic circle so. But again to get there is not something easy. Because first supplyit doesn't exist. These items are hard to find, for example there will be very expensive. So we work around it from small things to have sustainable value that."

To anticipate to keep it achieved sustainability dream, in free time starting from small things like making the packaging that Our bamboo scoops refresh our planet and reduce poverty in a sustainable way., make designs from recycled waste, and make small items from leftover yarn that can be resold.

Succeeding in Persisting with Consistency, Value, and 'Digital Literacy'

The number of challenges did not dampen the Time Free to continue to grow. According to Mila, consistency and value that Moment of Leisure has is also the reason why Time of Leisure has survived to this day.

“What makes defending is definitely consistency. We have full hearted we pour in brand this. According to our, brand that can survive when the brand is formed with value, "He said.

In addition, Mila has also repeatedly emphasized 'digital literacy' as the key to survival and development brand Free Time. Willing to continue to learn to understand technology is the key survive shared by Mila.

“For those who are still technology stuttering, if they are still afraid to enter technology, it's usually because of limited information. So maybe tips for business people who are still technology stutter, he must be open to new information, find out. Because if for example in this day and age they stutter in technology I also don't know how they are survive right."

Want to be Brand More Impact

It is undeniable that Saat Senggang has had a considerable impact on the artists, namely the women of the knitting community in various regions who are part of the production process of Saat Senggang.

Even so, Free Time doesn't want to stop here. Mila expressed her free time wish to be brand more impactful in the future and continue to maintain value held from the start.

"In the future we want to be brand which can be a place to open new jobs, become a brand that always upholds sustainabilityy, and maybe I can have other products that might be outside of knitting so that they can have more impact on other communities besides the knitting community.”

From the story told by Mila, we know that Saat Senggang under the auspices of Utterly Studio has succeeded in involving women and supporting them to be creative and do what they love.

Although the journey of Leisure and the knitting community faced various challenges, this did not stop the dream of Saat Leisure to have an even greater impact.