“No success is too young.” That phrase has become one of the business principles believed in by a beautiful woman named Roja Fitridayani. At the young age of 23, Roja is already the CEO of a hijab business in Bandung, West Java, called Hijab Princess. Among hijabers, the name Hijab Princess is already well known. This online shop has supplied its products throughout the archipelago. In fact, its products are not only marketed domestically, but also abroad, such as in Malaysia, Brunei, and Australia.
The woman who is fondly called Oja said that she started her hijab business because of her love for collecting various hijab styles. In mid-2012, she was obsessed with pashmina-style headscarves. Oja, who at the time was a fourth-semester student at the Faculty of Business and Management at Widyatama University, began frequently purchasing this style of hijab online. “Back then, I often bought pashmina-style headscarves from Instagram. I bought them online from Banjarmasin,” Oja said during a conversation with Merdeka Bandung last weekend. She then began to realize that she had become a consumptive woman to fulfill her hobby. Moreover, the shipping costs from Banjarmasin to Bandung were quite expensive for a student’s budget.
Since then, Oja began thinking about making her own phasmina-style headscarves. She started visiting shopping centers to find fabric similar to what she had bought from the online shop. Until one day, Oja found a place that sold fabric similar to what she had bought. The price of the fabric was also cheaper. From then on, Oja made her own pashmina scarves and had them sewn by a tailor. “It turns out that making them myself is cheaper. I buy the fabric, have it cut there, and then take it to the tailor,” she said.
From the 2 x 1.5 meter piece of fabric she bought, there was a lot of leftover fabric that was not used. She then sewed the fabric into beautiful headscarves similar to the ones she wore. After that, Oja decided to sell them on a whim. “I sold them on BBM on a whim, and the response was positive. From there, I got a lot of buyers. Initially, I didn’t intend to sell them, so I just used BBM,” she said.
Since September 2012, Oja has been seriously working on her hijab business. She also uses Instagram to market her products by creating the @hijabprincess account. “Since September, I’ve been serious about it. Thank God, sales have gradually increased. The increase became significant when I made the Pashmina Diamond Italiano hijab at the end of 2013. Sales increased two to three times,” she said. Oja graduated from college in March 2014. She began to focus more on her business, especially on hijab products, especially for Pashmina Diamond Italiano hijab products. She collaborates with suppliers from India to supply fabric for her products. These hijab products are so popular in the market that they once sold 4,000 pieces in just three days.
After three years in business, Oja now employs 21 people. She aims to produce 10,000 pieces per month. Currently, she has 161,000 followers on Instagram. “In terms of marketing, we cover almost all of Indonesia, from Aceh to Maluku and Papua. We also sell overseas to countries such as Malaysia, Singapore, Brunei, and Australia,” she said. In addition to selling products through an online shop, Oja also sells products through an offline store. She owns her own boutique named Butik Hijab Princess located in Baltos, Jalan Tamansari, Bandung City. Besides Baltos, Oja and her fellow business partners also opened a boutique in the Dago area named Alodie.
Get out of the “you’re too young” mindset
Roja Fitridayani’s success in building the Hijab Princess business as it is today cannot be separated from one of the principles she believes in in her life. This young and beautiful CEO says, “No one is too young to be successful.” “Because if we have this mindset, the standards we set for ourselves become lower. She could have achieved something, but because people said she was too young, she ended up following that mindset. What could have been many achievements become few. This is what needs to be changed,” Roja told Merdeka Bandung.
Oja admitted that she had experienced this herself. However, she gradually began to change her mindset. “So I tried to break free from the ‘you are too young’ paradigm. Because it really holds you back and limits your achievements,” said Oja, who is currently pursuing a Master’s degree in Business Administration at ITB. She continued that as an entrepreneur, young people must have an adventurous spirit. An entrepreneur, said Oja, must dare to explore their abilities.
“Businesses don’t come from people who don’t have an adventurous spirit. Because many people don’t expect it to happen, but then it does,” explained Oja. In addition, he added, an entrepreneur must also have a strong mentality. With a strong mentality, an entrepreneur is trained to prepare for even the worst-case scenarios. “So, young entrepreneurs must be given the worst-case scenarios first. That way, they can prepare themselves mentally, for example, if they don’t make a profit. Then, they must be prepared to work hard. Don’t think about becoming a boss,” explained Oja. In addition, an entrepreneur must always be innovative with their products. That is what he applies at Hijab Princess. Oja also implements various innovations in his brand. “At Hijab Princess, we created the Hijab Diamond Italiano Royal. Besides the unique stitching, it features a crown. However, this is exclusively for the premium line,” Oja concluded. Quoted from Bandung.merdeka.com
