The Able Art's Journey, Business with Optimistic Social Mission Rises After the Pandemic

As we all know, the pandemic has had an impact on most businesses. Especially those whose sales don't completely rely on platform sales online, such as The Able Art.

The Able Art is a based business social enterprise which reproduces the paintings of disabled artists into products fashion, like pouch, tote bagand scarf. As a business in the field of art that has social values, The Able Art is counting on platform digital and exhibition offline as a means of selling.

Then, what will happen to The Able Art during and after the pandemic? What has made him survive to this day? Check out The Able Art's full learning journey shared by Tommy, Founder The Able Art, the following.

Inspired by Kick Andy's “Painting with Heart” Show

The Able Art is a business idea that came after Tommy saw the Kick Andy program with the theme “Painting with the Heart”.

In the program, Mr. Sadikin Pard and Winda, artists and painters with disabilities, were the speakers. From there, Tommy's concern emerged about the condition of disabled artists in Indonesia, which was also the beginning of The Able Art's journey.

After that, Tommy conducted research and discussed with Mr. Sadikin Pard in Malang. After he was convinced of his plan, Tommy gave up his career in IT to focus on establishing The Able Art and improving the welfare of disabled artists.

Then, on December 3, 2007, The Able Art was officially established and operating until now with a total of 7 artists and 1 painting studio per year.

Get started with Zeroknowledge in the field Fashion

Departing from an IT background, Tommy started The Able Art with zero knowledge in the field fashion,art, and retail. This fact, revealed by Tommy, makes The Able Art journey like roller coaster because need to do a lot trials and errors.

The Cat Tote Bag by The Able Art

Hijab Lotus by The Able Art

"TAA's journey was not a smooth one. Our journey was like a roller coaster. (We) started with zero knowledge tentang fashion, painting and business retail Karena background I am IT. (This) makes the TAA prefix like fumbling and doing a lot trials and errors both in terms of production, sales, and partnerships with artists," said Tommy.

Even so, in 2018, The Able Art finally found its consistency after getting an incubation opportunity at Installer Incubator for social enterprise which also led The Able Art to win several championships E-commerce.

"In 2018, we had the opportunity to incubate in the Instellar incubator for social enterprise. From there we began to find good consistency in production and brought us to the Top 100 of Blibli The Big Start 2018, followed by winning 3rd place at the 2018 National Tokopedia MAKERFEST," he continued.

It didn't stop there, The Able Art then got a valuable opportunity to be interviewed by Andy F. Noya on the program that inspired his business, namely Kick Andy. Since then, the sale of The Able Art, good online nor offline, increase.

Setting aside Profits for Beginner Artists

Not only focus on making profit through sales online and offline, The Able Art also has a mission to support and train budding artists.

This mission is realized by The Able Art by setting aside 5% of the profit to provide painting tools for budding artists to practice.

Besides being supported in the form of painting equipment, the novice artists were also given guidance and input from senior artists of The Able Art and painting studio teachers.

“For budding artists, we set aside 5% of our profit for support painting tools such as paints and canvases for them to practice, and we also provide guidance and input for them through senior artists and painting studio teachers who become businesses we,"explained Tommy.

Travel Rise After the Pandemic

Sales Drop Drastically During the Covid-19 Pandemic

The Covid-19 pandemic is known to uproot many businesses. Although sales had dropped drastically due to the absence of eventsoffline, but The Able Art did it survive for the last 2 years.

"Since the Covid-19 storm in March 2020 hit, we have experienced a drastic decline in sales due to... eventsoffline cannot be implemented and the economy is uncertain. After survive two years, we are ready and very confident that we can rise and jump higher than in previous years," said Tommy.

Rearranging Sales Strategy

From 2017 to early 2020, The Able Art was active in using platform-platformonline, such as WhatsApp, social media Instagram, and E-commerceTokopedia, as a means of selling.

Recognized by Tommy, use platform-platform This is quite effective and results in increased sales.

"Platform which we use, among others, through WA, IG and Tokopedia for promotions and sales. So far, sales increased from 2017 to early 2020.”

But, unfortunately, since the pandemic, sales have dropped drastically, so Tommy and his team need to devise a new strategy so that sales of The Able Art products are consistent again.

Determination is one of the keys to survival

Starting a business in the fashion, art, and retail from scratch is not something easy. Although it looks smooth and beautiful, in fact there are many difficulties faced by The Able Art as a business based social enterprise.

Tommy explained that the difficulties encountered often come when making sales online. When selling online, it's hard for The Able Art to highlight social values which he has.

“The difficulty is more towards selling online. We can't highlight social values that we have and buyer tend to seek product cheaper."

Even so, these difficulties are not a reason for The Able Art to give up his good intentions. His determination, vision, and mission from the start, who wanted to play a role in supporting artists with disabilities, are the main reasons The Able Art has been able to survive until now.

Entering the B2B Market to NFT

When talking about innovation, Tommy explained that The Able Art innovated on several things, one of which was products. The Able Art now has a wider variety of products than when it first started.

Then, The Able Art also started to build relationships and discuss with the company enterprise as a real step into the realm of B2B from previously only focusing on B2C.

“We started to enter the B2B realm from what was previously only B2C, where we discussed a lot with companies enterprise to be able to play a role ingiving back to society'," he said.

Not only that, The Able Art is now also starting to spread NFT sebagai platform to sell digital paintings.

A Message for Other Business Activists Out There

Since the pandemic, the decision to go digital is no longer an option, but a necessity. Although for The Able Art role offline cannot be abandoned because it is considered more effective to highlight social values, but Tommy still admits without digital platform business will be difficult to develop.

"Without digitization, our business will be difficult to develop because the market is now bigger digital even though the role of offline also cannot be completely abandoned, especially for businesses that have social values which requires face-to-face discussion to explain value-new."

Therefore, Tommy advised business people out there to start go digital. Either by self-study or recruiting young talents who are more digitally savvy to help grow the business.

Despite the many difficulties encountered, especially in conveying social valuesUnder his leadership, The Able Art remains passionate about continuing to fulfill its mission to fight for the welfare of disabled artists and introduce their work to the wider world. Of course with the help of digitization.