Frequently Asked Questions
Myanmar currently lacks the legal licensing business framework necessary to recognise social enterprises. From lawyer to business guru, they have all said the same thing: create a joint local-international venture until social enterprises are legally recognised in Myanmar. This includes registering as an international business – one co-founding foreigner is enough to register it as such under Myanmar law - which represents and upholds the services and operating model while the local registered Myanmar business represents the day-to-day trading.
With this clearly defined and legally sound foundation Hla Day is able to operate as a social enterprise, ensuring that all profits generated will only ever be reinvested back into Hla Day’s operations.
No shareholders, partners, or board members will ever be entitled to receive any part of the profits. All profits will be fully reinvested in diverse ways that empower our community of artisans.
A Hla Day board of friends featuring both Myanmar and international members has been set up to advise the board of directors.
From women living with HIV producing school uniforms, to a pastor trying to support 16 villages - all producing green tea(!) - all groups have at least two things in common: they were missing a marketplace and the handicrafts they were producing weren’t particularly consumer oriented. Most groups were also made up of people who needed a second chance because for reasons of prejudice or disability or both they weren’t able to access the conventional job market. These three realizations shaped our model. Artisans and Hla Day have managed to find each other by word of mouth, connections made through NGOs and our customer community.
Hla Day's artisans now make up a community of over fifty groups of artisans and small businesses. They are families and individuals, often disadvantaged and vulnerable people, who have seized a new opportunity to build fulfilling, healthy and sustainable livelihoods.
We consider these main factors:
Firstly, the item must be produced with natural, recycled or local materials by Myanmar artisans who will be able to improve their livelihood by selling to us.
Secondly, the new item must fit into the Hla Day range of crafts.
Thirdly, the item must promote Myanmar culture, identity or traditional skills.
Fourthly, is the item original? Is it fun? Is it well made?
Finally, if the product doesn’t meet these criteria ... see next point
This actually happens quite often. And that's why we are who we are and do what we do! We will offer our advice and collaboration on the item or if necessary come up with a completely new idea. We call this our co-design process, where we exchange ideas, evaluate skills, prototype, iterate and test. Hla Day provides financial support during the phase of ‘product development'. It is just a small amount, but we know that people need support while they are trying out new things and the time to make progress. Once the product is ready, Hla Day helps them set a fair price for their work (see FAQ 6 below) and then orders stock from the new artisan.
Hla Day artisans can be anybody who fulfills the previously described criteria and many artisans work from home. Some groups meet once a week to distribute ‘homework’ - for many it is a great advantage to work from home, allowing them to save money on transport and look after their families while still earning a living. Groups, which do have a workshop, are mostly located in the outskirts of Yangon where the poorer part of the population lives.
Hla Day used to have a design table set up in our studio on 42nd Street where we can meet with artisans to create, develop and refine products. We also offer training regularly one on one or for our larger groups. Depending on the needs the training is done either with our design team or other professionals and partners. Hla Day has worked together with Turquoise Mountain and Lutheran World Federation to develop a business resource tailored to Myanmar craft producers.
Once a product is ready and can be ordered, the next thing we need to look at is price. Quite often artisans find it difficult to set their price, as it can be hard for them to accurately determine the cost of their time and quantities of materials used to develop and produce a product. We help our artisans to calculate a fair price for their goods, we try to make sure they are charging accurately for the production costs and for their labour (which they tend to forget!).
Once revised, we start purchasing directly from them at that agreed price.We then add a mark up that allows us to cover our running costs (see FAQ 7) and put them on sale in the shop. We also provide business and accounting training to assist in other areas that may be new to artisans such as basic finance, product costing and pricing.
Hla Day is a not-for-profit social business. which means no one (founder, board member, advisor, etc) makes a profit from the business. The mark-up of the products allow us to run the business 7 days a week, 8 hours a day while paying fair salaries to our staff. We cover all the running costs that are involved in a normal business such as rent, marketing, and government taxes amongst others.
We take pride in having a social business model that is fully sustainable. Aside from operational expenses the profit is fully reinvested in diverse ways that empower our community of artisans such as: equipment, educational trainings, product development and testing and micro-loan.
Yes, we try to visit the artisans regularly to get to know them and understand and evaluate their working conditions. Visiting them grounds us and connects us strongly to their reality and their day-to-day challenges. However, most of the time they visit us because:
When artisans see their craft nicely displayed among other beautiful products and meet with other artisans and the staff of Hla Day, it gives them a real pride in their creation and the recognition of their work. This grows a feeling of ownership as a member of the Hla Day community and inspires them to work hard while becoming more confident of their own capabilities.
It is a learning experience: Has my product sold? Is it a success? Why? Why not? How can we learn?
They are able to interact with Hla Day customers and see the marketplace in action which helps them to understand the whole process and model.
With 40 groups in different parts of the country and only a few staff it takes us a long time to visit each of them but with only one Hla Day they know they can always find us at the shop!
Hla Day means beautiful in Myanmar, well actually it is spelt Hla Deh - but we have added our own twist. We wanted the name to reflect Myanmar and its language while be memorable and appealing to a diverse foreign community. We think that Myanmar, its culture and people are beautiful, and we like the idea that foreigners will quickly learn the word Hla Day.
‘Designing’ in our case is a collaborative process that is not necessarily led by the designer. Several factors determine the new product:
The capabilities of the artisan group
The local availability of the necessary materials
Consideration of how the new product will fit into the range of crafts already and what will be attractive to our customers
The Hla Day team and our artisans brainstorm together, we make prototypes, we exchange ideas, we study materials, we test, we get feedback from customers, and sometimes we start all over again! Our process is definitely not linear, we are flexible and responsive and often go back to square one to re-design something that is more attractive for the customer.This allows us and the artisans to improve and learn valuable lessons.
Many of our customers are tourists and travelers looking for presents and memories of the wonderful days in Myanmar. However, as Myanmar continues to open up, we see more and more local and expat customers who are consious shoppers, keen to make a positive impact through their purchases. We have been very fortunate for the local and international community who share our vison that fair businesses can create social change and have encouraged and supported us with the building of Hla Day.
Hla Day faces many of the same conditions and difficulties as any other businesses in the current changing economic environment in Myanmar. Hla Day is established with a sound legal basis, seeks expert advice where and when needed, and reinvests any profits in the development of our social business. We stay true to our standards in quality and service to the artisans and customers and strive continuously for innovation as a key to Hla Day´s sustainability.
Have you got a question that we haven’t answered? Please get in touch and we’d be very happy to answer your questions.
