www.kopihangtuah.blogspot.com
Copyright © 2017 by
Dr. Abdul Rahim Said
mihardias@gmail.com
Business Coach and Mentor
AT THE BALAI SENI NEGARA'S (BALAI SENI) YOUNG ART ENTREPRENEURSHIP (YAE) BOOTCAMP 2017, one of the participants asked, "Now that I have
completed forty hours of training, can I call myself an art entrepreneur?" No one responded. Only broad smiles around the table. He continued, "To be a private pilot all you need is
a minimum of forty hours of flying! The same number of hours we spent here, in
this Bootcamp". He is right. I looked it up in Wikipedia.
Amongst other requirements, the trainee pilot must
complete at least a total of forty (40) flying hours. But the trainee cannot
call himself a pilot just yet, until he is awarded a private pilot license
(PPL). The requirements extend beyond the basic forty flying hours. In fact,
out of the total, the trainee must also complete ten hours of solo flight, five
hours of which must be cross-country "flying
from one airport to another, at least 50 nautical miles away". Besides, in
case of the US, the candidate has to pass the the Federal Aviation Authority
(FAA) Private Pilot written examination followed by taking a Private Pilot Oral
and Practical Flying examination.
The similarity
between pilot training and entrepreneurship Bootcamp ends at the total number
of hours involved. At the Bootcamp there was no examination and no supervising
agency to certify a candidate deemed qualified to be an art entrepreneur. But
more importantly, unlike the pilot, an art entrepreneur is not supposed to be able
to perform a specific function. For example, he is not expected to fly a
machine or drive a vehicle after the Bootcamp.
My answer to the
question as to whether a person may call himself an entrepreneur at the end of
the Bootcamp, is simply, yes you can! Even without undergoing forty hours of
Bootcamp you can safely brand yourself as an entrepreneur. If you plan to
involve yourself in art business you can always hang up a sign board in front
of your premises to promote your activities.
There are many
walking around us who are academically unqualified, do not go to bootcamps, do not even have Sijil Pelajaran Malaysia or possess enough
experience, yet take pride in calling themselves entrepreneurs. So, can anyone call himself an entrepreneur then? By the way, what exactly is an entrepreneur? And who qualifies to be called
one?
The Wikipedia Business Dictionary defines an
entrepreneur as someone who "exercises initiative by organizing a venture to take benefit of an opportunity and, as the decision maker, decides what, how,
and how much of a good or service will be produced". The Bootcamp "graduate" has yet to exercise his initiative and
organize a venture from which he expects to benefit. He has not established an
entity within which he may exercise his decision on what, how and how much
goods or services to be produced.
So, I advised the Bootcamp graduate, "Get yourself a vehicle that you
can drive. Use it as a means where you would like to go and at what
speed".
The Bootcamp rookie looked surprised! "What vehicle?" He asked.
"You need to register a company", I replied as one of the
participants who already had a company of his own before joining YAE, burst out
laughing.
"What company?" He responded. More laughter from the one who
already had a company and was dishing out his business cards to other
participants in the seminar room. As a prerequisite, to be an entrepreneur, you would need a vehicle, not a
car but a business entity.
We took the six of the seven newly minted art entrepreneurs to the
Companies Commission of Malaysia or Suruhanjaya Syarikat Malaysia (SSM) and
made everyone register a sole proprietorship. That was the first time most of them have ever heard of the term "sole
proprietorship". For the six artists enrolled in Balai Seni's YAE
scheme, this was an alien concept. Outside the SSM one of the bright eyed young artist, questioned her
handler, "Why do I need a company?
I am an artist. Many artists I know, don't have such things!"
She was absolutely right. To quote Dato' Dr. Mohd Najib Dawa, the Director
General of Balai Seni, who inspired the creation of YAE, "Artists who
peddle their art on city streets do not even know where to register a company.
Let alone, owning one!" The easy answer is "Of course you need one to conduct business as an
art entrepreneur!" But the executive from Balai Seni told her, "We
require all artists in YAE scheme to register and own a company to be an art
entrepreneur".
Artists are not business people. They do not think like a business person.
For an artist, the first thought in the morning is to put on canvas what went
through his mind the night before. On the other hand, for the business man, daily thought revolves around
"Where is the next Ringgit coming from?" Or "What do I do with
my company today?"
To change the mindset of an artist
who thinks creatively with the right brain to make better use of his analytical
left, it may take more than forty hours. But suffice to say that artists are
not tuned into business thinking. We have to help them get started.
That is the raison d'être of YAE!
They eventually came to our way of thinking. Everyone agreed to register
their own sole proprietorships. Under the watchful eyes of their handlers, they
filled in the application forms, queued patiently and one by one, obtained
permission, to proceed using their own names, for their sole
proprietorships. Unfortunately, that day the online payment system was down. They were asked
to make payment online the following day and would be issued with a business
license thereafter.
All our Bootcamp graduates are now proud owners of their own unique
companies:
- Teh Nadira Art Collection
- Jesicca Kuok Art Production
- FYY.FINE ART STUDIOS
- A.FIKRIL FINEART
- Bop Sopan Fine Art
"Each of us have our business license, can we now call ourselves
entrepreneurs?" Asked one artist who was holding up his license fresh from
the printer and a few designs for his business card. At this juncture, I was not sure whether he felt the same way the trainee
pilot did, when issued with a license to fly.
"You have a business license. Yours is similar to those issued to
other professionals like doctors, lawyers, accountants or architects! You now
have a registered business license to practice as a professional artist!" But I am sure it would take a little longer before they could fly away out
of the YAE enclave as entrepreneurs or top flight professional artists. A thought crossed my mind, "We may have more work to do before that
happens!"
The executive from Balai Seni did not wait for me to reply. "We will
be taking you to a bank to open your company accounts, two days from now.
Before that you'd need to make company rubber stamps". Blank expressions
appeared on young faces in front of me. One of the artists who is
familiar with the industry that carves names of companies on tiny blocks made of rubber,
volunteered to help, calming down everyone, "Don't worry, I can get yours
done in one day!"
As it turned out the bank could open accounts without
rubber stamps. They returned to YAE enclave at the Balai Seni beaming,
"Hey boss, my business card, my company registration and account number!
Are we not entrepreneurs?" We were seated at a round table in the largest container designed
to be the showroom for all their finished art work.
"Congratulations, you
are now artists each with a company registered as sole proprietorship with SSM
that you can legitimately operate. Of course, you have a company account to be
used to transact your art business. You are not an entrepreneur. Not yet!"
"Why not?"
I pointed to the Wikipedia Business Dictionary definition
and repeated parts of its contents, "You are just someone who "exercises initiative by organizing a venture" but has not taken the benefit of any opportunity and I have yet to see you act like "a decision maker, to decide on what,
how, and how much of a good or service will be produced". I paused a while and watched them digest the
information. "You are still far away from being an entrepreneur. You only have a
vehicle not even a venture. Your company, your bank account and name cards are
just means to an end". I studied the eager faces and added, "You are just on the threshold of
entrepreneurship. You are not there yet!"
However, I was certain they could be entrepreneurs soon enough. We have
designed a residency of six months at the Balai Seni. During that next
six months they will produce works of art under the supervision of dedicated
coaches and mentors. During their residency, they will act and behave like true
entrepreneurs making calculated decisions "on what, how, and how much of
the goods or services they will produce".
During that period too, I am certain they will, as Joseph Alois
Schumpeter, the originator of the concept of entrepreneurship, defined, that
these artists will act as risk takers in "monitoring and controlling their
business activities as sole owners of their ventures". They will be
"motivated by profits, purely as a standard to measure success",
hopefully without neglecting their artistic pursuits.
At the YAE enclave on the grounds of Balai Seni, we shall
be turning out entrepreneurs who are themselves artists. They will complete
their six months residency with values that Schumpeter discovered amongst
entrepreneurs in the 19th century.
Finally, I am confident, they will emerge from the shipping containers as
individuals who "greatly value self-reliance, strive
for distinction through excellence, are highly optimistic (otherwise nothing
would be undertaken), and always favor challenges of medium risk (neither too easy, nor ruinous)"
* kopihangtuah
| mcmlxxv:viii:xxix |
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