Part I: Business Profile

Honey Girl’s Ukay-Ukay is owned and managed by its owner, Ms. Honey Girl
C. Bactad and the Co-owner is her mother Mrs. Mercidita Cuaresma who
accompanying her in the operation of their business. It is located at Reyna Regente
Bangar, La Union, near Reyna Regente Arc. P.S Proof of Business Registration
(N/A).

Part II: Brief description of the Business

Ukay-Ukay store is a place where you can buy second-hand item in a cheaper
price. It is a thrift shop where you can find fashionable clothes and accessories. They
are displayed hanging in different rack and separated according to the kind of
clothing or accessories.
Honey Girl Ukay-Ukay, a 2-year-old business and as far as I know they
started selling in the middle of the Pandemic. Their Ukay-Ukay store are selling a
bunch of clothing. A store where customers can bought/purchase various used
clothing, shoes, purses, caps, and etc. Honey Girl Ukay-Ukay is an ideal location for
finding the most affordable clothing that you may wear on a daily basis. The things
they are selling are suitable for people of all ages; they can be used by youngsters,
teenagers, young adults, middle-aged group, or even the elderly. When it comes to
clothing, they have items that are suitable for every age and preference. Everything
you enjoy and desire to wear is available here. They provide excellent service to all
of their clients/customers. They market their products that people may desire to wear
and they also offer the most competitive price to make all the products affordable.
Part III:

The following questions are made to aid the necessary information needed in
this paper. And I conducted an interview last December 2022. It will tackle the issues
and challenges of the owner faced at the time of pandemic and how she copes up
those challenges.

 What made you choose this particular nature of business?

 What are the issues and challenges that you encountered for the past years
when COVID-19 strikes?

 When the pandemic strikes, what are your ways and strategies that came up
to make/gain continuously profit for your business? What sort of strategies
that you use to continue your business?
 Despite of those/these challenges, what are the things that motivates you to
continue selling amidst of the pandemic?
 Did you overcome the challenges that you've faced?
 What can you say or what advice did you want to tell to those people who
wants to put up any kind of business?
 Are you able to say that your business is continue growing because of the
challenges you've faced?

Mrs. Mercidita, the co-owner stated that they choose this kind of business,
which is an Ukay-Ukay store since there are many people who prefer to buy in this
kind of stores rather than malls. And it is better since the products can last longer
than food items to sell. She also chooses this kind of business because during the
pandemic, Ukay-Ukay stores became a hit and popular to the people. She also
added that her perseverance and dream to be more successful serves as her
motivation to choose this kind of business.

In addition, putting up this kind of business may have a lot of possibilities to

faced unnecessary circumstances. There might be challenges you may face in
operating the business. In my interview with Mrs. Mercidita she stated that having
weak internet connection is one of the challenges she faced, it is a challenge for her
because online selling is one way/her medium she used in selling her Ukay-Ukay
items. And sometimes because of the weak internet connection, responding to her
customers isn’t that easy. Messages she sends will be delayed for having weak
internet connection, thus she requires a strong connection for her customers. She
added also that sometimes sales are sluggish because there’s only few customers
can walk-in in their physical store because of pandemic restrictions. And as a
business owner on how to handle the problem/challenges your business are facing.
You must be the one who will find solutions to those challenges/problems. As I ask
Mrs. Mercidita on what sort of strategies/ways that came to her mind to continuously
operate her business and gain profit, she said that with the power of technology and
social media she used to generate profit and have stable income that will help their
business to grow. Numerous online platforms like Facebook have extended the
lifelines of businesses during pandemic. Because of the danger, business owner like
Mrs. Mercidita, in turn, had to maximize their resources to continue operate their
business. They experienced lack of comprehensive management and flexible work
strategies.

To sum it up, I ask Mrs. Mercidita what instance would she tell that their
business is continue growing and what advice she can tell to those aspiring business
owners who wants to start a business? The owner said that their business is growing
since it is currently and continuously gaining profit and from simple clothes, she is
able to add other items for their store to sell. And lastly, asking her an advice to the
aspiring business owners/entrepreneur, “in putting up a business it would be hard for
us to gain profit at first, but don’t lose hope. Take the risk and who might know that
risk will bring you to your own success.”

Part IV: Recommendation & Conclusions

The past year have done a lot, most likely the pandemic which makes doing
business extremely difficult and risky for small businesses, owners and consumers
lives, and the country’s economy as a whole.

Small business owners must implement crisis management strategies that

fully account for both financial and non-financial issues and should be considered it
in the long term. Small business owners should be involved in creating crisis
management procedures that suit their requirements. Everyone should attempt to
seek new markets, integrate technology into their operations, and modify their
marketing methods in order to continue expanding and improving. And long-term
motivations for small businesses to strengthen their resilience and regeneration may
come from the desire to expand and gain market share.

Part V: Documentations