Bahalina Heritage

Old But Gold

My interviewee was Ms. Kimberly Bahalina a daughter of Carl Kitz Bahalina the CEO and founder of “Carl Kitz Store”, formerly known as “Bahalina Store” located at Magsaysay Abellanosa Street Barangay 18, Cagayan de Oro City. The type of business they have is a small sari-sari store business and the business have operated for 81 years, started in 1940. The “Carl Kitz Store”, primarily sells packed of cigarettes, soft drinks, different types of beer, and many more. They started this small business because they wanted to have an everyday income. She said that owning a business is a difficult yet rewarding task. Hence, an enormous amount of dedication, responsibility, and audacity is necessary in order for a business of any kind to succeed. Like many other tasks, the greater risk level determines the reward. If a person is willing to take the risks to own and operate his or her own business, the reward will most likely be worth it in the long run, she added. Their family have always been a very dedicated family to business. In which they believed is a very important quality for a business owner to possess because one cannot start up a business and then simply forget about it if things to not go exactly as planned. No business can be free from challenges. Best approach is to learn from business challenges. In the beginning, their business did not go very smoothly, and money was tight, but they believed a good businessperson stays dedicated and knows he or she can figure out whatever may arise.

Keeping Up With The Times However, the pandemic has taken a toll. The COVID-19 pandemic has affected their day-to-day business cash flow. “Carl Kitz Store” had to temporarily shutter its operations for eight weeks when the crisis hit, laying off its entire staff. She said, she was really anxiety-ridden and really stressed but her only thought was, “I have to make a strategy to move forward”. After several weeks, they started to operate again but their sales really go down by about 40-50%. But that doesn’t stop them. They still continue to operate and was able to get back from their usual sales. She said that, being a business owner is about believing in something and standing for what you believe in. The main reasons they started a businesses is to be successful as well as to make money. No one ever starts a business with the intent to fail, however if a business does fail most business owner learn from their mistakes and try again. The mentality of successful business owner is an "I will not lose" attitude that motivates that person to not accept failure as an option, she added. To sum it up, we can say that success is like a seed that needs a balanced proportion of all the elements of life. And no one can achieve success in a day they have to go through and face different conditions in life for being successful. Above all, success is the feeling of fulfillment that you feel when you achieve your goal.