Salapak Mikroshop Facilitated MSMEs of Bandung City in Increasing Their Skills

“The purpose of this event is to inspire culinary MSMEs entrepreneurs in welcoming Ramadan. This inspires them as to the products they will be selling in Ramadan,” said the Heads of Koperasi Mandiri Unggulan or Simaung Bandung and Salapak Mikroshop, Tita Wulansari.

Compared to other cooking classes, this event was different as the participants were taught to calculate the profit from selling puddings.

With the initial fund of Rp100.000, they could receive a profit of 130% at the minimum from selling puddings.

What if MSMEs entrepreneurs do not have a place to sell their products? This is the most concerning issue to which Tita addressed that those who need a place or stalls could sell their products in the Salapak Mikroshop gallery.

“On the second floor, we have a gallery. For MSMEs entrepreneurs of Bandung City who do not have a place, this is your house. You can place your products here,” Tita said.

To help promote MSMEs products, Tita emphasized that Salapak also offers a collaboration with other collaborators from the corporation, State-owned Enterprise (BUMN), and the Government.

The Head of Partnership and Network of Cooperative Agency and MSMEs of Bandung City, Dedi Kurniawan, hoped that Salapak could also increase entrepreneurs’ knowledge.

“Hopefully, Salapak could be a room for everyone not only for marketing, but also for increasing our knowledge. What was taught in the class today, hopefully, could be an inspiration and a new start for our economic recovery,” Dedi said.
One of Salapak’s partners, Pawnbroker (Pegadaian) of Bandung City, represented by the Head of the Development of MSMEs, Bambang, stated that the product curation could hopefully become one strategy in expanding the market.

“We help promote MSMEs products so they can reach other cities. If required, the reach can be international,” Bambang said.

Similar with the previous occasion, Bambang stated that Pegadaian sent 17 MSMEs of Bandung City to Turkey.

“The purpose is to introduce Indonesian products, such as 11 fashion products and 5 culinary products,” he said.

As a response to that, one of Salapak’s partners from distributors, Mr. Jelly Silvana, stated that their team will facilitate MSMEs entrepreneurs in Bandung to improve their foreign language proficiency for free.

“We also have to learn foreign languages such as English and Mandarin. We will hold a special class for this purpose and it will be free, since these two languages will be important in economics,” Silvana said.

Thirty people were participating in the cooking class. They listened carefully while taking notes and asking the chef teaching them.

Erika Agustine, one of the participants from Tamansari, Bandung, had a catering business since 2018.

She used to have three stores to promote her products, but all of them were forcibly closed due to the pandemic.

“We were forced to close them. This is why I want to join the curation here, hoping that the promotion will reach other cities immediately. If possible, it can reach overseas, helped by the government,” Erika said

Although she was a new member, Erika had a big dream to expand her business. Particularly, after joining this event, she felt more enthusiastic to sell her products more.

“Joining this event makes me more enthusiastic to create and sell my products. Moreover, we are approaching Ramadan, making me inspired as to what to sell in Ramadan,” she said. (din)*

The Head of Communication and Informatics Agency of Bandung City

Yayan A Brilyana