Meet The Leader Abimantra Pradhana (Sana Studio): Opportunity for Healthy Lifestyle Business Will Never Die

Abimantra Pradhana, founder of Sana Studio and Kopi Sana

As a sports fan, Abimantra Pradhana turned the lifestyle change of the people of Jakarta into a business opportunity. At the time, in 2012, Jakarta started to introduce a healthy environment through car-free day. People began to go outside to exercise. Abi, who loved sports since he was in Junior High School, could meet people with the same vision and hobby.  

The space used for the car-free day is of course not enough. There needs to be a forum in order to routinely carry out a healthy lifestyle.

“When we ask people why they do not exercise; they would say that they want to do it with friends. So, we made an environment, a friendly community to start exercising. For people, the most important thing is to start a healthy lifestyle, regularly,” said Abi, who was previously conducting business in architecture.

Thus, Sana Studio was established, a space to do sports in which Abi claims is full of familial warmth. Sana Studio was founded together with his sister in law, Layla Munaf, the first Zumba instructor in Indonesia.

“We want this healthy lifestyle to spread even further, and to enable easier access for more people,” added the 36-year-old in his studio at Panglima Polim.

It is this background that makes Sana Studio different than most other gyms. Already operational in three locations: Panglima Polim, Cipete, and Kemang, South Jakarta, it emphasizes on the concept of community and brings forth a familial atmosphere.

“This cannot be copied by other places,” he continued.

According to Abi, this concept makes people who have just recently switched to a healthy lifestyle feel accepted, comfortable, and at home. The instructors play the role of friends, teachers, coaches, even motivators who encourage people to live healthier.

“I want instructors who can drive people’s potential in each class session. That is the unseen X-factor that is not visible in just one meeting,” he said on the requirements to be an instructor at his studio.

Managing an Healthy Urban Lifestyle

For Abi, a healthy lifestyle can support his career as an architect with long working hours. He also has to split his time; teaching three times per day in a week as a lecturer, plus becoming an instructor.

“Usually, with an active lifestyle, not exercising makes people experience stress due to deadlines and so on,” he said. 

That is why Abi has made sports as a means to release the stress he gets from his routine activities. By exercising, at least people have other means for stress release, and at that time, they will feel more alive. Abi has a piece of advice for workers behind their desk who are stuck in a 9 to 5 routine in offices.

“The key is that we have to realize we can never find the time to exercise. Everyone’s busy. So, we have to make time,” he added.

Where to start?

Walk 30 minutes every day. Leave your car and motorcycle at home and use public transportation, which will make people walk, climb stairs, constantly moving from one place to another. People say that once routine activities are formed, people will be stimulated to increase their exercise level because people have a tendency to not feel satisfied.   

According to Abi, exercising is able to improve productive workers. He himself is the evidence.

“When people are healthy, they tend to be more productive. When people are productive and healthy, they can generate and produce the best quality of themselves,” he continued.

Now, he said, many more people are routinely exercising. Abi observes his customers, who are 90 percent women. In many talks, it can be concluded that they are active and thirsty for information.

“They are very aware of their bodies. So, they have started to choose proper and healthy food for themselves and begun to examine what better options they can obtain for their bodies,” added Abi, who said that one of his motivation to exercise is so that he can eat good food.

“Hmm, good food! But it must be healthy, too,” he exclaimed.

As it turns out, this principle is also held by most of his community members, who are coffee lovers, just like him. It is coffee that often accompanies him when pulling an all-nighter to design a building. So, Abi feels that he has a business idea right in front of his eyes: making healthy coffee, both for himself and his community.

With his sister, he then established Kopi Sana, which he claimed to provide high-quality black coffee with almond and soybean-based milk, vegan snacks, and so on. He said that the selected black coffee is safe for people with acid reflux problem.

“Why did we open Kopi Sana? Because we have the captive market, namely from the Sana Studio community,” said Abi. With the establishment of Kopi Sana, Abimantra has an additional career, as he is starting to learn to become a barista. 

 

Healthy Lifestyle Business Opportunity and Profession Will Not Die

In actuality, industries focusing on healthy lifestyle services in Indonesia have only surfaced for five years or so. Way behind other countries, who have been doing it since 20 years ago. That is why there is still room to invest and climb careers in this field. Both business and profession in this field, Abi said, will never die.

“Regarding opportunities, many can be pulled to sports, food, supplement, or other necessary things,” he added. The profession in this field include nutritionists, sports psychologists, instructors, and so forth.  

People holding the profession to develop healthy lifestyle services do not need to have a sports degree like the old days or graduated from a fitness trainer. Abi gave an example of around thirty instructors having their career in his studio.

“Currently (at Sana Studio), 99 percent of its instructors have a bachelor’s degree, even a Master degree. Interestingly, almost half of them used to have jobs unrelated to sports. They worked as professionals in banks and other fields, and now are carrying out this business,” he added. Abi has a message that if you want to dive into this field, now is the time!

Have ideas to make a Healthy Indonesia? Let us meet and share at Indonesia Development Forum 2019 on July 22-23, 2019!