You can’t talk about Fashionese Daily without talking about Hanifa Ambadar – or more widely known as Hanzky or Hani. She is the one who started it all. Starting with documenting her recent purchases, favorite shopping spots and trends that caught her eyes in a personal blog, Hani then created FashioneseDaily.com which has grown to be the most visited online media in fashion, beauty & lifestyle in Indonesia. A few months later she decided to open Fashionese Daily forum, which again, proved to be a smart move because it is now one of the most active forums in the country with 6900 plus registered members from five continents.
Started blogging in 2000, Hani is no stranger to the world of blogs and online media. She actually found klikmarketing.com (now inactive) during her Senior year in Southern Illinois University – a blog focusing on marketing which gained a relatively wide readership from fellow marketing students and practitioners around the world.
Even though she already has her plate full with Fashionese Daily day-to-day operations, Hani is keen on bringing the company to the next level. Fashionese Daily Network now has 2 additional sites under its wings : Mommies Daily and Fame N Frame, which has expanded Fashionese Daily readership further, catering different needs and interests of the audience.
With a bachelor degree in Marketing, MBA in Management Information System, coupled with the limitless passion in fashion, marketing and journalism, Hani is ready to take Indonesia’s fashion and online media industry by the storm.
How do you feel about your ‘little baby’ a.k.a Fashionese Daily being this big now?
Beyond grateful. It might seem effortless when you see it from the outside, but all of the crew members know that we have put a lot of time and effort into it. That’s because we want to, not because we have to. I am also especially happy that I feel like I have a big extended family now. Don’t you think Jakarta feels even smaller because everywhere you go, you are bound to bump into FDers?
Tell us what your typical day is like!
It’s definitely not 9 to 5 every single day. Most of the time, I leave the house around 10 am and try to come back before the sun goes down. There are the good days when I can just do the work from home. But, there are many times when I’ll be out and about all day, attending press conferences, fashion shows, meetings and product launches, and be back home at 11 at night. My day varies from one to another, which I can’t be more thankful of, having a flexible and interesting schedule. Plus, I got to meet a lot of different and interesting people!
You’re an entrepreneur now and have always been most of your life – don’t you ever want to climb the corporate ladder?
My dad was an entrepreneur, so it was instilled in me since I was a kid that working for someone else was not the preferred option. My first venture was in the early year of college (1999). It was an LLC (limited liability company) registered in the United States. What did it specialize in? Basically off-shoring web and programming project from the U.S. to Indonesia. To be honest, I didn’t really understand the minutia of the legwork involved, but I knew I could easily get many web developers to do it back home. So I went ahead with this outsourcing business, when ‘outsourcing’ was still a rather foreign word.
It only lasted for a few months because I was busy with college work and couldn’t be bothered to look for another project. Besides, that entrepreneur mindset changed drastically during my third and fourth year in business school. I, then, became a typical business student, lured by the capitalistic world, eager to step on my heels and worked my way up as a corporate slave. That is, until an innocent and helpless baby came out of my womb.
When I had Jibran, I just knew that my priority and personal goal had shifted. Becoming top executive at the corporate level (and spending just one or two hours a day to be with him) just didn’t seem so appealing anymore. I did try to go back to work after he was born, but it wasn’t where my heart was, so I resigned within a month. Now when I think of it, I am more cut to be self-employed than working in corporate world, because I am a risk taker and opportunity-oriented. I also like lining up my plan and having control over my own destiny. I believe I am independent. But the dangerous thing is that I could get lazy when there are five other people who are able to pick up my slack when I don’t do the job correctly, a setting mostly found in multinational companies.
Dengan segala kesibukan itu, you’re still a dedicated mother of 2 wonderful children. How do you manage the time?
Ehmm… the correct answer would be to… FOCUS :D. Mind 100% at work when at the office and 100% family at home. But honestly, I don’t think I have already figured out the formula to manage it all. I feel like I’m always running out of time, always in a rush and don’t perform the best to my potential. I am guilty as charged. This year has been quite a crazy year for me, so yes unfortunately, I am not a superwoman 😀
What do you think are the biggest challenges that brand owners have with this fast-changing media landscape?
Most big traditional companies have a hard time adapting to online culture. What do you expect, they are so used to having a controlled environment in the offline world. When they see complaints on their products posted in some blogs, they immediately think of ways to erase that post so no one will ever read it again. What they could have done instead is responding and countering the claim in a positive tone, which in turn will win them sympathy and give them good publicity.
Another thing that I have heard from them is, even if they know what to do and have put it on their agenda, they never get around to execute it. Simply because they don’t have someone to do the job for them. Even if they hire an in house online strategist, I still think that a team is needed. One person is just not enough to do it all.
You used to write a lot about handbags. Is it still your obsession, or have you moved on to other things?
Yes, of course I still adore bags. But now I’m not as exposed to the newest trends in bags as much as when I was still in the States. Bags are more accessible there with many choices at every price point. It also help that the same brands are cheaper than in Indonesia. Other reason is because my husband now gets paid in rupiah there are many other things a that I have to write and manage for the blog. I’m happy and content with what I have now in my closet and still keeping my eyes on the holy grail bags (just not committed to the saving..:D).
In your mind, what is FD going to be like in the future?
Content-wise, FD is richer and becoming library-like. I envision it to be a one-stop resource for everything fashion and beauty. Students who are working on their paper about fashion, women or shopping behavior can find answer here. If one wants to be more aware of Indonesian fashion arena or check out the look book of every fashion designer he/she can easily find them here. A complete list of salons and boutiques is in the plan too. I believe we’re on the right track to achieve it, since we are already quite a resourceful place. That being said, there is still more that we need to cover.
Right now, we are in the process of reorganizing the channels and categories – moving the fashion and beauty posts into their own separate houses. We have just launched our sister site too. Fame n Frame & Mommies Daily :).
I hope the community is getting bigger without losing the tight-knit feel. We are looking forward for 2010 where we have events for the whole year catering to members of different interest. In the long run, I hope our community can hold regular philanthropic activities and do something for the betterment of Indonesia. Maybe something along the line of “Fashionese Daily for Indonesia” or something. I think it’s doable. I also anticipate more people on board so we can share the workload (secretly hoping to have all the time in the world to browse and interact in the Forum :p).
What achievements are you proud of the most career wise?
Oh my God, this one is gonna take long! If you want to continue reading, you’d better get some snacks or coffee.
Obviously, I am proud of what Fashionese Daily has achieved (I just don’t wear it on my sleeve and never take full credit of it because if it’s not for the wonderful team and community, it would be just another blog). But it still feels weird to consider it as a career because most of the time it doesn’t feel like work at all :).
I remember this one day around 3 years ago, I kind of examined my role in this life. I remember that I didn’t feel content. I was a stay at home mom at that time. I did all those glamorous things like cooking, laundry-ing, ironing, cleaning up the bathroom, gardening and all the fun stuff :p. But I kept thinking if that’s all there is to it? Not that I feel I was above it or anything, but I just thought that I was capable of doing something more. I basically was unsatisfied of my achievements as an individual and felt like I was lacking something (even though I was only a month past my MBA graduation, where I had to juggle between school and taking care of the house. You see, I am too hard on myself sometimes).
So what I had in mind was to explore opportunities that wouldn’t require me to leave my son. It didn’t have to generate money; just as long as I could put my energy into the world, to satisfy the urge of self-actualization and make something meaningful out of my life, for my own good, for my own self-respect as an individual.
That opportunity has to be something I could continue for when I decide to go back home for good. I have started Fashionese Daily before this thought came to mind. At that time, fashion blogs have became a hit in the States and then it occurred to me, that maybe, just maybe, this little personal fashion blog of mine could be turned into something more serious. And then I met the right people and everything just went uphill from there 🙂
I guess what makes me proud the most of myself is the fact that I started it out of nothing and then made it into something. I made the most of the limited resources I had back then. Now it’s just feel satisfying to be able to put my enthusiasm into action and find myself doing what I’m meant to be doing. The sweetest thing remains: that I don’t have to give up a lot of family time to achieve it all.
Do you have any advice to people who want to be an entrepreneur?
Just do it! Really, the right time will never come. Just do it already and start with whatever you have at the moment. The right tools will come along way. Also, we might initially start it on our own, but at certain point, we will need help from others. My smartest move ever was to ask the right people to join FD team. They are people who are competent in their fields, people who are brighter than me, who can bring to the table the different skills, knowledge and idea that I probably wouldn’t thought of myself. Having capable people on board, the team as a whole, always bring new and innovative solutions to the conversations. We also constantly learn from each other, creating a stimulating environment.
