Keila's Bike Shop Marikina Bodega is the biggest and the grandest bike store in Marikina City. Period. For Ella and April who started this colossal business, it was not always a beautiful story and it was surely not a walk in the park. But let me tell one thing. this story had a really bad beginning and a
triumphant ending. This is their inspirational story that started with just one bike.
April worked in a bank while she supported her siblings with their school tuition. Life was not easy for April as she was working so hard as a sister and as mother to her husband and kid. Not too long, Ella got out of prison under DSWD from a 3-year imprisonment. Her case was dismissed and legal action was terminated. She was just 20 years old at the time. Trying to make things right, she started to sell small items online, things like fishball and kikiam. This was her own way of coping to improve the quality of her life and its livability. She wanted to prove to her family that she was dead serious in becoming a changed woman. She was not earning enough and she needed great help.
Undecidedly, on August 2020, she borrowed money from the person she trusted most, her older sister, April. She promised April that she would use the money to run an online bike store and that she would give her her cut of the profit by simply becoming her financer. Without any hesitation, April lent her the money through the help of her partner and started the business. When I asked April how she lent such big amount of money to her sister so easily, she told me that she knew that Ella was ready. Little did they know that it was just the start of something really big. April decided to quit working in the bank and eventually helped with the business' finance, marketing and networking while Ella did the selling.
Business was doing quite well for both of them They switched from an online store and turned their home into a bike bodega. They were selling 25 bikes a day and they had to buy more because they sold out quickly. Ella and April managed to pay the money back sooner than what they expected. On May 2021, they opened their very first bike bodega shop in Lilac Street, Concepcion Dos. It was literally just a bodega to store their bike items so they would not have to crowd their house with bicycles. Fortune was so good to them that on December of the same year, they've fixed their shabby bodega and turned it into a decent store warehouse.
Photo courtesy of Keila's Bike Shop Marikina Bodega.
It may be a quick road to success for them but it was never easy. All those sleepless nights, hard work, stress and afflictions were paid off with immeasurable achievement and contentment. From a hunble beginning of a bike store with just one mechanic, it is now a bike business empire with many mechanics and staff. It is a company built with love and trust as their foundation. As Ella and April would say: "Oo, inaamin namin, mahirap ang buhay pero kinaya namin. Hindi kami sumuko."
Keila's Bike Shop Marikina Bodega is located at 3 Lilac Street Concepcion Dos Marikina City, Marikina City. You may call them on their business mobile number at 0945 729 9706. They offer delivery, online booking and in-store pickup.
