Tomorrow marks the 2 month anniversary that I've been in Jakarta. Time has pretty much passed by in the blink of an eye! When everyone keeps commenting that life in Singapore is fast-paced, try tripling that speed and you get Jakarta life.
JAT has been pretty optimistic so far, considering we've only put full effort into it in the past 1 and a half months. Almost 75% of our current sales enquiries are from oversas!Wensi and Dionne have been very sweet, recommending to friends about our service, and sending me a WatsApp msg on the same morning too! If you are reading this, hugs n kisses to you ;)
We've moved into the 3rd level of the shophouse for our offce, and our official office address is now 'Jl Jembatan Tiga Raya No. 5AH, Lt 3. jakarta Utara 14450, Indonesia'. We are trying to recruit a business dev executive, to help me with the local market.
On the marketing side, I have a very capable 21yrs old girl from Bandung, helping me with the SEO and online marketing. Our traffic quality has really increased thanks to her! As well as a freelancer graphic designer to help me with marketing materials and brochures.
On the B2B side, we have negotiated with a couple of partners (to be revealed later) where we will be able to station flyers and banners at their facility for marketing and publicity. We have also managed to develop a few travel agent partners from Jakarta & Bali, as well as overases agents and conference organizers.
Apartment hunting has been a pain in the ass. All I can say is that money doesn't lie. Pay good money for nice apartment. It really makes a difference when you are receiving a constant 'allowance' magically deposited into your bank account each month. All of a sudden, the value of SGD$1 has escalated by 10 times!
Anyhows my flight ticket back to Singapore is bought! I'll be back for almost a month in January 2012, for Chinese New Year. I actually miss the state of equilibria when I'm in Singapore. My mind is churning all the time for work when I'm here, even when I'm reading the magazine, I'm looking for potential clients or advertising opportunites. It's definitely a race against time when its your business. Don't get me wrong, i'm not complaining. in fact, I'm enjoying every minute of this busy-ness, and brainstorming how to grow this 'baby'!
Last but not least, the Bahasa Indonesia language is growing slowly but steadily, as restricted to 3-7 words sentences. I can understand the locals in daily life (provided that they speak slowly)... And even order my own Bakmi! "Mas, satu bakmi, paket kecup manis. Nga pedas. Di kantor 5AH."
Saya pinter..... :)
P.S. Dear Grace and Matt, no, I am not 'playing' harder or even as hard as when i was n Sngapore.
