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Starting a business after the pandemic wasn't easy, especially with limited capital. However, by staying disciplined with my budget, building a community around a shared passion, and using the right technology, I was able to grow my coffee shop from a single location into a business with five outlets across Yogyakarta, Indonesia. This is the story of how careful planning and data-driven decisions helped make that growth possible. How did you start your business? I co-founded 31 Bloc, a coffee shop in Yogyakarta, Indonesia, in 2022, shortly after the COVID-19 pandemic. Like many entrepreneurs, I decided to start my own business because job opportunities were limited, and I wanted to create something sustainable for myself. My initial investment was around 20 million Indonesian Rupiah (approximately US$800). From day one, I knew that every expense mattered. Starting with limited capital forced me to be very careful with budgeting, and that mindset has remained one of the keys to our growth. Today, we operate four physical coffee shops and one cloud kitchen, but none of that happened overnight. We focused on growing steadily while keeping our operating costs under control. When choosing a POS system, affordability was one of my biggest concerns. Many local providers required expensive subscriptions and long-term contracts, which weren't practical for a small business. I needed a solution that was both reliable and cost-effective. What makes your coffee shop unique? Our coffee shop is built around more than just coffee. My business partners and I are motorcycle enthusiasts, and from the beginning we wanted to create a place where people with similar interests could gather. Our first customers were simply friends and members of our own community. At the start, selling 30 cups of coffee a day was already a meaningful milestone. As the business developed, each partner took responsibility for a different area. I focus on finance, business systems, and operational control, while my partners lead product development, marketing, and community engagement. Today, our shops have become popular meeting places for motorcycle riders. There aren't many cafés in our city that actively support this community, and that has helped us build a loyal customer base and a strong identity. Which Loyverse features do you use the most? Even though I'm currently using the free version of Loyverse, two features have had the biggest impact on how I manage the business. The first is the Dashboard. I really appreciate how intuitive it is and how easily it shows my sales performance throughout the day. The hourly sales reports help me understand customer traffic much better than the local POS systems I used previously. The second feature is the API. Using the Loyverse API, I built my own reporting tools with Google Sheets and TypeScript. One of the dashboards I created is a heat map that shows exactly when customer traffic is highest. This information allows me to schedule my baristas based on actual demand rather than assumptions. Since labor is one of my largest operating costs, these reports help me decide exactly how many employees I need during each shift. Instead of relying on guesswork, I make staffing decisions based on real sales data. Why do you recommend Loyverse? One of the things I value most about Loyverse is its simplicity. I hope it continues to stay lightweight instead of becoming overloaded with features that require more powerful hardware. Many small businesses in Indonesia still use older tablets and smartphones because replacing them represents a significant investment. In fact, one of my stores still uses a Samsung tablet from 2016, and Loyverse continues to run smoothly on it. That reliability is a huge advantage for small businesses that need dependable software without investing in expensive new devices. Because of that, I've recommended Loyverse to many friends and business partners who are starting their own businesses. It's an affordable solution that works well even with existing hardware, making it much easier for entrepreneurs to get started. What advice would you give to new entrepreneurs? My biggest piece of advice is to pay close attention to your budget. Many entrepreneurs spend money on tools or services that they don't really need during the early stages of their business. Every expense should have a clear purpose and contribute to improving your operations. In Indonesia, some POS systems charge subscription fees that are simply too expensive for small businesses. Those costs can quickly reduce profitability, especially when you're just starting out. Focus on spending wisely, controlling costs, and making decisions based on data. Building a successful business isn't only about increasing sales—it's also about managing your resources efficiently. That's the foundation that allowed me to grow from one small coffee shop into multiple successful locations Follow their IG:https://www.instagram.com/31.bloc?utm_source=ig_web_button_share_sheet&igsh=ZDNlZDc0MzIxNw== Take the next step! Sign up for Loyverse and experience it for yourself, starting free.

Nestled on the picturesque island of Gili Air in Indonesia, Marta Jes runs "Little Gili," a charming boutique catering exclusively to children's needs. Founded out of a personal necessity to provide quality toys and educational materials for visiting families, Marta's shop has quickly become a haven for both locals and tourists seeking thoughtful, eco-friendly products. Despite the challenges of operating in a remote and tourist-centric environment, Marta's strategic use of Loyverse POS from the outset has played a pivotal role in managing daily operations and fostering growth. In a candid interview, she shares her insights on starting and sustaining a unique business on this idyllic island paradise. What is your business about? I have a small offline shop. It is like a kid’s boutique. The shop is located on a small island of Indonesia called the Gili Air, which would take you an hour and a half to go around. This island is very touristic, and the visitors are particular. A second ago, I was looking on the web for Loyverse, and you have features to add and manage your customer base, but my clients are coming to the island for one to three days for holidays with kids. Probably, they will never come back here, or they will come in terms of years or something like that. A few families live on the island with kids, and I would say they are my loyal customers. What inspired you to start this kind of business? I have two boys, six and eight years old, and this is the place where we usually come for a quick getaway. I am the mom who is always prepared, which means we have coloring books and crayons when we are waiting for the food. My kids don’t usually sit on the phone, so we need to be prepared. What if I don’t have the coloring book and staff? There is no place on the island where to buy such items. This island is considered a family-friendly place. If you have kids, you would come here and not to the other two islands next to Gili Air, one for yoga and the other for people who prefer parties and noisy activities. This got me thinking that if families are coming here, they don’t have a place where to buy toys, coloring books, puzzles, and other items that are needed for their children. There is a supermarket with nothing and everything in it. They offer only some plastic toys that will be destroyed within 5 minutes. I had never thought I would be a shop owner, but I felt that this was something that the island was missing. This was my first business, and I would need to open my wallet wide to have it. It is not like let’s spend 50 euros and try it to see if it will work or not. But, so far so good. When did you open your shop? I have opened the shop on July 5th. It will be a year since it opened soon. Have you used Loyverse since the beginning, or did you start using it later? I used Loyverse since the very beginning. Before I opened the shop, we had a small social project where my friend and I helped the local community produce coconut products, and sometimes, we were in the market trying to promote these products. That was the first time we came across Loyverse. We checked a very basic version of Loyverse then, only to register sales and print receipts. That was three or four years before opening my own shop. When I opened the shop, I didn’t do extensive research about the POS app. I know that in Indonesia, there are two popular POS used in Coffee and other businesses. But I decided to go ahead with Loyverse. I know that I don’t use Loyverse fully. I am paying only for employee management at the moment since I have an employee who needs to have her own access to the system. I know that I can have Advanced Inventory and use Integrations to connect Loyverse with other systems, but I might explore the other two add-ons later since I don’t need those extra features at the moment. How was the onboarding process for you and your employees? The girl working in the shop is 21 years old, so you know, you just show the app, and she is like, “Great, I got it,” but for me, it took a little bit longer :). Even though her English is not the best, she has no issues with the system. She knows everything, and it is excellent. Sometimes, when I visit the shop, I see how she is using the app and learn something new myself. It was easy to set up everything. I think after two months of using the app, while I was talking with my friend who is also using Loyverse for her business, we were discussing how to track the cash that goes in and out of the cash drawer, and she told me that I needed to activate the shift feature and the employee needs to count the starting cash and the cash at the end of the day and the system will help with the cash reconciliation. So, I was learning new things along the way and using more and more features. Are you the only one with access to the Back office, or have you given your employee access as well? I am the only one who has access to the Back office. The employee has restricted access rights. What has been the most helpful feature for you so far? One of the most useful features has been the daily reports, which allow us to understand daily sales. I also appreciate the receipts report because it is essential to know which items have been sold. As I mentioned, my shop is really small, so I don’t have 50 units of a specific product, for example, since I simply don’t have the space for it. Today, I saw that my employee sold four units of a particular product, and I know that we had only eight units of it in stock. Every day, I can quickly check which items have been sold. I use the Dashboard app very frequently, and I appreciate that I can see the total number of receipts, total sales, and how many items were sold. Still, I would also like to see the individual receipts since, for me, it is interesting to see who bought what. I can see this information on the computer, but unfortunately, I cannot see it on the phone as well. What improvements would you like to see in the Loyverse system? I noticed that once you create an item with variants, it is not possible to delete them and make the item a simple item again. Sometimes, I have items with variants, but when I notice that some of the variants are not selling well, I would like to remove them. This is an improvement that I would like to have. But overall, I am really happy with the system. Do you sell only offline, or do you also have an online shop? I have Instagram since if you don’t have Instagram today, you don’t exist. When I first opened the page, I was committed to posting every day, but this is not in my nature. Actually, I don’t feel it. I like to see and swipe rather than post. I was committed, but I noticed that my customers don’t care because most of our customers are walk-ins. I started to post every day for every new product; I even started to post reels, then I stopped for a week, and I noticed that it did not affect the sales at all. After this, I decided that I didn’t need to advertise via social media or other channels. I think this is also due to the fact that we are the only shop of this kind and there are no competitors. Sometimes, people from other islands contact me via Instagram to ask if I have a specific product in stock, and if we do, we ship it to them by boat. In Indonesia, we have a page called Tokopedio. I have an account there, but I rarely use it as well. Do you plan to open more branches of your shop in the future? I was thinking of making this store bigger and maybe expanding with some kids' activities, like workshops for kids, drawing, etc., since this is something that the island does not have. On the other hand, this would be more risky than selling diapers. We are talking about small humans, and I have two boys, and it is a real challenge. So, I have to really study the pros and cons before making the final decision. What is the philosophy that you try to follow in business? I don’t know if it is a philosophy, but it is mostly related to the items that we are selling. We don’t have plastic products inside, and the island is also very eco-friendly. We tend to have wooden toys, puzzles, and books and avoid anything plastic. I think kids can and should play with very creative toys, and they don’t need phones or plastic toys that will harm them. All the products that we offer help to boost the children’s creativity. I don’t know if it is a philosophy, but I don’t sell anything in my shop that I wouldn’t let my children use. What message do you want to give other young entrepreneurs who might be planning to open a new business? I am an Excel person. I would not go through anything without really thinking about it. I am not a business shark. This is the first time that I opened my wallet to open a business. I made some profit before making some small things, but it wasn’t this level of investment. What I know now is that it is not possible to make a profit in a business without opening the wallet a little bit. The more money you put in, the more money you will get. I know that from this small shop that I have, I will not build a villa with a pool, but is it something. My advice is to calculate everything and have a backup plan. It is a risk, but no risk, no fun.