On Friday, February 28 2025, the KSE Entrepreneur Academy Batch 9 Kick-Off Webinar took place which was held online via Zoom Meeting at 13.30 - 16.00 WIB. This activity was attended by 225 students who received KSE scholarships and presented two main presenters, namely Mr. Cahyana Puthut W. as Professional Trainer & Entrepreneur, who presented material on the basics of entrepreneurship, and Mrs. Wiwid Syahdiyah S. as Chair of the KSE Alumni & Entrepreneur Association, who discussed the differences between sales and marketing. The event began with singing the Indonesian national anthem and Mars KSE, followed by presentation of material from the two presenters, an interactive discussion session, and a documentation session.
The first material was presented by Mr. Phutut who asked: "Why do many people want to become businesspeople?" This successful question sparked discussion with the participants. Many people think that being a businessman is a popular profession because it provides financial freedom, aka independence, flexible work and so on. Mr Phutut confirmed this answer and emphasized that being an entrepreneur means being independent and being able to see difficulties as opportunities. He also shared several main things that a businessman must have, namely competence as a unique value, a flexible mindset so he can adapt, skills in the form of hard skills and soft skills, and integrity as the basis for honesty in business.
Some of the identified barriers to business progress include fear, wrong assumptions, laziness, unrealistic goals, relying too much on other people, and asking too many questions without execution. Mr Puthut also reminded that business does not always have to start by making your own product, but can be done by selling existing products. The mentality that a businessman must have includes faith (belief), friends (relationships and collaboration), fight (persistence), and fun (enjoying the process). Success in business is determined by several main factors, such as quality & product to ensure the best quality, marketing strategy & digital communication to make marketing strategies more effective, and an excellent team to increase business efficiency and success.
In the question and answer session there were several questions submitted by participants. One of the unique questions from Lampung State University (Unila) students was: "How do you find the middle ground in selling quality products with low purchasing power?" Mr Puthut answered that focus must be given to the uniqueness of the product and confidence in selling it. Collaboration with other businesses can also be a solution, such as adding additional services to the product, for example creating a coffee shop next to a motorbike repair shop.
In the second material session, Mrs. Wiwid explained that marketing focuses on building branding and customer awareness of products, while sales aims to convert potential customers (leads) into product users. There are three main pillars in market insight, namely customer insight to understand customer needs, product insight to analyze product strengths and weaknesses, and competitor insight to differentiate products from competitors.
One of the important concepts discussed is rejection as redirection, where rejection in business can become a new opportunity if handled wisely. When asked whether it is better to become a professional first before entering the business world, Mrs. Wiwid emphasized that the biggest capital is a good name and trust. One can start as a professional to raise capital before actually getting into business. To keep products relevant in the market, he suggested understanding the product life cycle, because business trends always experience ups and downs, so innovation and adaptation are very important.
