Friday July 6, 2012
Hooked on community
By DARYL GOH
Photos by DARRAN TAN and URBAN VILLAGE
MOST people make it a point not to work on weekends. Yet there are who some just can’t get enough of weekend schedules packed with work-related functions and community-based events.
At the Urban Village, the busier it gets the better. All work and no play, in fact, is good news for the small but dedicated team behind this “creative entrepreneur hub” located in a quiet housing area on Jalan Abdullah, off Jalan Bangsar in Kuala Lumpur.
Urban Village co-founders Azizul Latif, 36, (better known as Zul) and Hasnizam Zaki, 30, (Zam), can each whip out a well-thumbed diary of events from the last 12 months to underline the venue’s popularity among the non-mainstream community and beyond.
“As far as sustaining this project, our main concern now is to create more awareness for Urban Village.
“In many ways, it is a versatile venue with an indie identity. But we want to reach the broader masses.
“Apart from being a creative hub, our core business model is to provide facilities for creative entrepreneurs and professional freelancers to operate their business,”said Zul, who registered Pop Collective Sdn Bhd with his business partners to run the daily operations at Urban Village.
“Our mission is to provide an enabling environment for young creative Malaysian entrepreneurs.
“We want to help in providing them with basic business necessities such as work space, event space, retail space, entrepreneurship consultation and exposure,” he added.
Established last July, Urban Village — which is essentially a two-storey bungalow with sizeable compound — has been the nerve centre for a wide-range of independent and DIY-based activities.
From art bazaars, album launches, art classes, indie fashion events right to dialogue sessions and workshops for non-governmental organisations as well as photography exhibitions and bicycling meet-ups, Urban Village maintains a consistent programme of events to keep itself afloat.
Two months ago, the co-founders also found themselves in the spotlight when they presented a memorandum to the Ministry of Finance. At this pre-Budget 2013 meeting, chaired by Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak, the duo pushed for the formation of a body to introduce a full programme with seed funds to develop creative brands among indie start-up communities for endevours in categories such as street wear fashion, music labels, book publishing and food and beverage brands.
How to build a village
Back in May 2011, Zul and Zam approached My Harapan (MH), a Youth Trust Foundation, with the initial proposal for the Urban Village project.
Armed with years of struggle and the benefit of hindsight, the idealistic duo, who introduced the indie clothing line called Pop Malaya in 2006 and formed Kreative Entrepreneurs Malaysia (Kream) in 2009, needed to build on their experience and utilise their extensive network in the indie community.
With their hands-on mentality, it was time to regroup as previous undertakings went pear-shaped.
“We knew we had to push ourselves despite the lack of success of Pop Malaya and Kream.
“It took time for the business side of the independent community to come into its own,” said Zul, who adheres to the philosophy that collaboration is better than competition.
Alongside their long-time art designer Adam Jalaludin, the duo pressed ahead.
The Urban Village proposal was sent to Dana Belia1Malaysia which is a grant funded by Yayasan Development Bhd (Yayasan1MDB) that enables youth (between the ages of 15 and 40), youth organisations and registered NGOs (promoting youth development) to apply for an entrepreneurship programme.
Dana Belia 1Malaysia was launched last January with RM20mil to fund creative projects undertaken by the youth community. The criteria outlined by Dana Belia is to empower youths as well as target recipients that demonstrate the capability to execute their projects independently and to create opportunities for a wide segment of youths to channel their energies into something positive and productive.
Dana Belia approved RM150,000 as start-up capital for Urban Village last June.
Zam revealed that the idea was to find a central location to house the Urban Village.
“We wanted a place where the creative communities could converge and connect.”
Urban Village, which was a former spa, has now been converted into a fully functional “home base” geared towards creative entrepreneurs.
The bungalow, as Zam pointed out, features eight co-sharing work-spaces on the upper floor and an event and exhibition area downstairs.
Apart from the Urban Village cafe, the five rooms on the ground floor house two micro-stores, T-shirt printing room, music rehearsal studio and artist residence accomodation. Urban Village also provides design, branding, copywriting, creative talent and event management services.
Half of the funding was given to Urban Village in the first three months while the remaining amount was released after six months. Rent for the bungalow is RM8,000 a month, and Zam noted that Urban Village (since this January) has had to be self-sufficient after the funding money dried up.
At the moment, the Urban Village project is breaking even and meeting its operating costs.When can they start turning a profit?
“We aim to start making a profit in early 2013. We also need to tweak the business model — which now operates like an NGO — to adapt to the business realities and challenges ahead,” said Zul.
Sustaining the business
If you’re not prepared for hard work and sleepless nights, don’t get into this type of business, warns Zul.
While the mission statement has already been put out, the co-founders of Urban Village can still afford a smile. They have, after all, pushed hard to stay in business and this month sees the venue reaching its first anniversary. Plans are afoot to refresh the services at Urban Village.
As part of those plans Urban Village has presented its “Indiepreneurs: Let’s Start A Revolution” campaign, which went viral online earlier this year. The campaign will be revisited and expanded upon as a comprehensive workshop.
Part of their future business plan — sourcing for partnerships with youth-related NGOs to conduct joint programmes.
“We want to develop a start-up workshop module and sell it to the NGOs and government agencies, who are looking to engage with youth entrepreneurs,” said Zul.
A PR unit, which is basically handled by Kasia Kusnierz, has set about organising open-day sessions for potential clients to get to know about Urban Village.
But what is the main source of revenue at Urban Village? There are two main earners — the renting of event space (RM500) per session and the monthly rent for the shared workspace for entrepreneurs, start-ups, and small businesses (RM800 a month per workspace).
“Right now, we have four long-term tenants. What they get is a dedicated desk space with WiFi, informal meeting room and full facilities with small-office costs. Just bring your laptop and you can plug in and get straight to work,” said Zam.
“It is just right for those — the free-range creative types — needing access 24/7 or at odd hours and those not in the office all day long,” he added.
To date, the co-sharing workspace has been taken up by two renowned homegrown comic book artists (Zid and Eisu), a voice-over company and a youth NGO.
One of the unlikeliest successes at Urban Village has been its Urban Village Presents “Pop Knowledge Series: Art Workshop For Kids!”
The programme, run by professional artist Fathul Luqman and supported by Rantai Art, will return after Hari Raya. Fees for the children’s art classes are RM450 for three months.
Profit-sharing, according to Zul, is also practised at Urban Village’s in-house micro-stores, which carry local independent clothing brands such as Morning Rocket, Tarik Jeans, SvperSvnday, Moola, PeaceUponYou and others.
One of the key areas marked for improvement at Urban Village is the retail gallery, with Zul planning to add more homegrown products such as CDs, books, furniture, and merchandise.
The newly-built jam studio is another new feature at Urban Village. With an hourly rate of RM30, Zul anticipates an influx of up and coming bands in the rehearsal studio.
If multi-tasking is an asset, then Zam and Zul can count on their kitchen smarts to help run a boutique cafe at Urban Village.
The Urban Village cafe, which is renowned for its cult favourites — Karipop (RM2.50 each) and Popburger set meal (RM10) — has the capacity to cater to indie events and festivals outside.
The bungalow can also be hired out (for approximately RM4,000) as a special events venue — with decor design, F&B and entertainment (bands, etc) provided by the Urban Village team.
“With the sort of indie networking behind us, we are capable of organising brand launches or theme parties with a different edge,” said Zul.
Despite the talk of branding and streamlining the business, a big part of Urban Village is also about supporting the grassroots.
In conjunction with Urban Village’s first anniversary, the Pop Karat bazaar (every Sunday, starting July 8) will welcome the vintage market community to its outdoor premises. There is a table fee of RM30 for vendors, and this weekend promises a bumper crop of vintage clothes sellers.
Didn’t we tell you there’s never an empty weekend on the Urban Village calendar? For details, visit www.urbanvillage.my.