Books Rental for Middle Lower Class

Reading Habits in Indonesia

Democracy is very welcomed in Indonesia, with democracy, Indonesia people received much information from any media without any limit, it indicated that mostly of Indonesian are well informed. They have already known that reading is very important to improve their knowledge.

In my city, Surabaya, there are about 10 biggest bookstores. The people who buy books very often in these bookstores are coming from the upper middle class. While the lower middle class people, the majority of Indonesian, have very limited access to bookstores. The problem is not beacuse they don't know the important of reading, but the problem is about their income. The Indonesian salary fee is $300/month in average and The price of book is $10 in average. With that salary, books are relatively expensive to buy.

Therefore, to open a Book Rental online is good business opportunity, starting only from $ 1, people can bring home a recent or contemporary books for 15 days, but they have to leave their ID card as a collateral.

The Beginning of My Idea

I am an english teacher in a private school, it is call Muhammadiyah 11 for Middle School. There are about 350 students.

We have a visiting library program once a week. But the most students are not excited to read. They feel boring because the books are not up to date and various. they want to read novel for teenangers that they have ever seen the books just like in the books store in town. But they did'nt find them in library.

Since that time i tried to think how to buy some new books or novel books for teenangers, i tried to think haeder until I bought 5 novel books for teenager with my money. I offered that books to the students. they can bring home, but not free, they must pay IDR 10.000 (around $1) per 15 days. In my surprise, they grabbed all the books immidiately. And they pushed me to bring more books every day.

And Now i have only 50 books. These are not enough for around 350 students in my school. My purpose to collect money here is to buy more books. So i can develop the book rental not only in my school but also in other schools and region or town.

The Future

In the future, i really want to develop this business, i want to have an application for smart phone. I will name it: GoBook. This application is for the people who wants to read the books but they don't have enoug budget. They can borrow and do transaction by application, and I deliver the books home.

Given time, many people from the Have-not will have reading habit just like the Have-people. It is a Business, but it is also about helping.

I invite your donation. Tell your Friends & relatives to make donation.