[Student Success Story] 'Winning the Encouragement Award at the Entrepreneurship Contest' Han Senug-ah
- 경영대학
- Hit459
- 2021-09-27
On July 22(Thu), the Jongno Cluster Culture, Arts, and Content Startup Competition was held online. The contest was designed to discover various creative convergence ideas that can preserve and develop the characteristics of local culture in Jongno-gu. In this competition, Han Seung-ah(Business 16, CEO of Billage)of our university received the Encouragement Award. We heard various stories she experienced while preparing for the competiton.
1. Hello, please introduce yourself.
Hello! My name is Han Seung-ah, form the 16th class of Business Administration, who is currently the project manager of 'Billage, a Reading Village'.
2. I heard that you won the Encouragement Award at the Jongno Cluster Stratup Contest! Congratulations. What is the Jongno Cluster Startup Contest? Please tell us about your feelings about winning the award and what motivated you to participate in the competition.
Thank you! The Jongno Cluster Startup Competition is a startup competition hosted by Jongno-gu, Sungkyunkwan University, Korea National Open University, and Baehwa Women's University. It is a cultural and artistic content start-up competition that can enhance and develop the cultural characteristic of Jongno. Since Billage is in the early stages of the business to try various things and develop its business, it needed mentoring and subsides, and it needed a start-up space for meetings and work team members, so I applied. I thought it was a good opportunity to find a lot of shortcomings and get a lot of help while receiving two mentoring sessions before the finals, and I was so happy that I even won the award. Thank you very much for mentoring, subsides, and space for start-ups.
3. What subject did the Billage team win the prize for?
Billage, a village that read books, won the business model (BM) called "Independent Publication Regular Subscription Service". Billage is a project that strives to revive independent bookstores, and is trying to create attractive products and services that can connect books and bookstore readers. Our regular subscription service is a service that partners with other independent bookstores every month to deliver independent publications and various components recommended by the independent bookkeeper (bookkeeper and author's curation card, book grind, etc.)to your home every month!
(In addition, we regularly publish content related to independent bookstores, and in February, we developed an independent bookstore recommendation test based on the personality type test. We are doing all kinds of activities for the revival of independent bookstores. If you are curious, please visit the link https://linktre.ee/Billage_book or @billage_book Instagram and take a look!!)
4. Are there any episodes while preparing for this start-up competition or during activities?
Reminds me of the time Billage wrapped up the 'independent publication subscription service'^^ Our members do the packaging themselves, and there are friends who are dexterous and there are those who don't. Everyone had a hard time cutting artificial flowers for packaging, and there were many cases where packaging was difficult. There was a friend who worked part-time at Yankee Candle. It was amazing because he was so good ㅎㅎ It's easy to cut the artificial flower, and the bookmark holder is also snappy! When working on a start-up project, there are a lot of small things that I have to do myself, so I think these small things become memorable. Experiences that I never thought I would be able to use become a great asset!
5. What were the difficulties while preparing for the promotion? How did you overcome this?
We had previously planned an offline-oriented business model that could induce visits to independent bookstores. However, due to COVID-19, it was not easy to do something offline, and it was not well received by independent bookstore owners, so I became a pivot. Since the bookstore itself is an offline space, there are various activities that can be done offline, but it was too bad that I couldn't use them. However, in line with that environment, we are trying to reinforce online-oriented regular subscription services and strengthen our competitiveness as a platform. To hear the needs of independent bookstore owners, I'm doing a lot of interviews with partnership owners.
6. What are your future careers and goals?
First of all, as can be expected from the fact that I am engaged in Billage activities, I am interested in the field of culture and arts, so I want to work in that field. It's not a specific goal that falls into one word, but I want to become a person who can work independently in the field by using what I have learned, and in particular, I want to become a person who can influence society for good.
7. Lastly, please sat a word to business school students who are interested in starting a business.
There's a saying that goes, "Ready, launch, aim". Originally, I didn't fire without unconditional aim, but when I was running a startup while working for Billage, I realized that it is more important to challenge and try a lot than to hesitate. I hope you don't hesitate and try it without regrets!