Expensive Tuition Fees, This Student Sells Used Clothes for Hundreds of Millions in Profit

Jakarta, CNBC Indonesia – The skyrocketing cost of studying in Indonesia has become a hot topic of conversation in recent days. The high cost of college clearly prevents someone from studying higher education.

Cases like this have occurred before in the United States. In a Georgetown University report, it is known that tuition fees in 2020 are 169% more expensive than fees in 1980. On this basis, quite a few students are racking their brains to find money.

One thing that is often done is doing business, like what Ali Dieguez does. Dieguez could be an example of how these difficulties forced him to do business with profits of hundreds of millions.

What's the story?

Ali Dieguez is a health student at San Diego University. Initially, he had no intention of starting a business because everything, especially in terms of costs, went smoothly. However, Covid-19 made it difficult for him, forcing him to go into business.

Dieguez's business is selling used sportswear. At that time, sports had become one of society's most popular activities, so the need for sportswear was very high. As a result, not all people can buy new clothes because they are expensive, so used clothes are the solution. This opportunity gave rise to a business idea in the mind of this woman born in 2001.

“One thing people are doing is exercising in quarantine,” he said.

Since 2020, he has been actively searching for high-quality used sportswear in various stores for resale. He sells all goods through many e-commerce sites in the US, such as Poshmark, eBay, Etsy and so on. Interestingly, Dieguez's efforts to gain profits through business were relatively short.

To Insider, quoted Monday (20/5/2024), he admitted that the demand for used clothes for him during quarantine increased rapidly. In fact, a year after launching the business, he admitted that he had earned US$13,740 or Rp. 220 million.

He said that the main key to business success lies not only in market availability, but also time management and hard work. He doesn't want business to make him forget about college. While doing business, he always wakes up at 4.30 am to start activities, such as doing college assignments and exercising.

After that, he went to college and continued with business until the evening. He admitted that this activity was very boring and tiring, but in the end it paid off.

Not only did he gain hundreds of millions, but he was also able to complete his studies at San Diego University until graduation without financial difficulties or scholarship assistance. It is known that he always sets aside U$3,668 or Rp. 57 million from his income for his tuition fees.

“I don't have the right to receive aid. However, I can afford to pay for all the college fees because I always set aside money from doing business,” he said.

Now, Dieguez is still running his business. Not only selling sportswear, but also other clothes such as dresses and other casual clothes. Even so, Dieguez's story is not a solution to the high cost of college. The government must make tuition fees cheap again, so that students do not have to struggle to find money.

[Gambas:Video CNBC]

(mfa/mfa)