Reflection School of Life Special

Learning Years of Brand Building

Story of my nickname Bije. It happened because during middle school, I scratched the cap of a waste bin, and my best friend there yelled, pointed to me ‘ah, dj, dj, call him dj.’ After that moment, others called me DJ every day. People happened to forget the exact nick name, right after first time heard it, and everyone calls me bj or bije (pronounce /bi.dʒe/). Along the way, I was cool with it without correcting everyone. That’s the story.

High school years, and with my circle, we hanging out and began making ideas to run a business. I propose to run a brownies brand because my mom has been a baker since I was a little kid. Because my nickname's first alphabet is B, we decided to use Bije as the brand name, and I played with some abbreviations from the word B.I.J.E and coined the phrase "Brownies Ini Jelas Enak," which is This Brownies Is Delicious in English. Started around 2012, we promoted it with Twitter and BBM during that years. Bit bias for that claim on the brand name, but I believe that a name is a prayer.

In 2013, I left my hometown Pontianak to study communication in Jakarta. Due to study obligations and the challenges of long-distance management, I put the business on hiatus for a long time.

Long story short, in November 2022, I revived the business from the ground up, reestablishing it as Bije's Brownies. Today, November 19th marks our three-year anniversary since restarting in 2022. This is ongoing journey, and there is much more to learn.

We are grateful. We run it despite some wins and failures. We appreciate everyone who supports us by buying our brownies, from family, friends, colleagues, and the public. Thank you for supporting a small independent brand!

With years of building, We need at least seven years to come, like Naval advised,

"Be patient, it takes 10 years to build a career in anything.”

And speaking of 10 years+, one of my good friend from middle school is running a business for decades. The name is Garage Market, brand that promotes second-hand items on Instagram. And I have a chance to speak with Ais, the founder, in real life. We talk about anything, and I learned something from him about brand building. He told me that brand building need "consistency, idealism, and honesty". First about consistency, when he build the brand around 2014, he believe and said that “if talking about work, despite being small, if we consistent doing it. The result will come. I feel it the most, because that's the way. Why consistency because 2014 I start it from zero follower.” This reminds me of pareto principle where 80% of outcomes came from 20% of the small causes.

Second, he said about idealism in selling “You must have idealism, by showing how you sell, meaning like, when you look at seller A and seller B, they sell like that, you follow it. That’s make you inconsistent and lack personal branding. Followers can read about how you sell, from your service, how you post the stuff, and how you make content.”

Third thing he mentioned about honesty and said “There are many incidents that happened, when having reputation from the start, but become fraudulent. So, it's good to have real communication, which is nice because you're honest and people can appreciate you sells like this.”

As a man himself, the motivation that makes him running are his family, he said that "What motivates me is family. Means that they are alive, and of course, no longer productive. Younger siblings, two. When situations are at rock bottom, that's what it's like. I have lots of dependents. If it’s cliché, yes, that’s the situation."

Another inspiration I find in another city is a unique seller who has been selling colored pencils for over 30 years in Tehran, named Muhammad Rafi. This inspires me to stay consistent and bring smiles to customers, whether they are buying or pass. Quoted from his interview, "To be successful in a profession, you have to love your work." You know what is awesome for this man and his business? You can see, inside the narrow counter, where 50,000 organised, sorted pencils are on display in a tiny space.