Efforts Of Songket Craftsmen To Maintain The Sustainability Of The Business

This study aims to determine the various efforts made by the craftsmen of cloth woven songket to maintain the sustainability of its business so that it is still undergoing work as craftsmen of Batubara songket. This research uses descriptive qualitative approach. The population of the research was the target population, they are 20 craftsmen which is fully worked as craftsmen and drape earnings only on the results of the sale Batubara fabric songket. The entire population was made a research sample. Data analysis was performed with the techniques of study literature, observation, in-depth interviews and also questionnaire. The results of the research note that the craftsmen suffered many obstacles in sustaining its efforts in terms of economic factors in particular limitations of capital and the lack of knowledge or expertise in creativity for producing new motifs and still using traditional weaving equipment so that it takes a long time in the production process. In addition, the existence of a limited production number of result based on sales levels eventually made order fabric songket very little. Many of the efforts made by the craftsmen, they are (1) capital problem by submitting a loan to a bank just constrained reserved terms, (2) join the training or coaching from Government but still very limited amount and its implementation, (3) do marketing directly is considered more effective purchasing power draw compared to join the gallery or send to main distributor because it is considered more quickly receive cash (4) innovating colors and motifs follow current fashion trends (5) reduce the number of workers considered to be able to reduce production costs (6) sell fabric at prices cheaper but still give priority to quality (6) commitment to maintaining cultural heritage of Batu bara woven songket for the sake of continuity of the culture of the Malay of Batubara community in the future.