Taking the plunge, shaping the future

Kirk Damasco and his food and t-shirt businesses

by Ryan Edward Chua 

QUEZON CITY, Philippines—He entered college not knowing what course to take. He took up Management at the Ateneo de Manila University, but still did not know what to do. To Kirk Damasco—and perhaps to many people his age—the future used to look vague and shapeless.

Not until he took the plunge and started his own business.

Back in grade school, Kirk, who hails from Iloilo, sold fruits like santol and other things to his classmates at the orders of his dad.

Today, he owns a food business along with three others at the John Gokongwei Student Enterprise Center (JSEC) or SOM Mall called “Kaon Ta,” a Hiligaynon sentence meaning, “Let’s eat.” He also prints and sells t-shirts.

Since then, Kirk says that he has started to discover business as his calling.

Entrepreneurial challenge

It all started when he joined the Entrepreneurial Challenge of the Ateneo Management Association, the home organization of Management majors, during his junior year. This yearlong competition had him and his teammates sell foods, t-shirts, a fashion line, and promote a band.

After the contest, he and a friend thought of pushing through with a t-shirt business, seeing how profitable it was.

His experience in the competition taught him a lot of things, like looking for and contacting suppliers. During the contest, their t-shirt supplier and printer was in Tarlac, until they decided to find a better one by scouring the busy streets of Divisoria more than 10 times.

“What we had from the experience was the experience itself,” he says.

Their first venture into real business was when they opened a stall at the Eagles of Hope Bazaar, a fundraising activity of the Ateneo Alumni Association, in November 2006. They earned P26,000 in four days, half of which they kept as profit.

They soon used their earnings in the bazaar to finance Kaon Ta at JSEC, and to print shirts for organizations on campus.

Easy and hard

Owning and maintaining a business is actually easy, says Kirk. “If you really want it, everything will follow.”

“But being a student,” he says, “makes it a struggle because you have to juggle and balance everything: academics, orgs, business.”

Running a food business is particularly challenging, Kirk adds, because one has to constantly ensure food safety, cleanliness, and a good image for the business.

Motivation

The future used to be so uncertain for him, but discovering entrepreneurship as a call is beginning to bring things to shape, he says.

Kirk attributes his newfound passion to the John Gokongwei School of Management (JGSOM), which he kids has “brainwashed” students like him to engage in entrepreneurship.

“Why don’t you create work, since you’re Atenean and you have the capabilities and the chance to do it?” he quotes JGSOM officials as telling them. “You’ll not only help yourself, you’ll also help society as a whole.”

Kirk wants to continue the business even after graduating, but recognizes the challenges that await outside the university.