Baturhan Kaynak, the founder of B.K Wolfe, is a 22-year-old who comes from a Turkish background. He started his journey by studying a double degree in Civil and Infrastructure Engineering (Honours)/Business.
Three years into studying, Baturhan had stepped foot into the business life and opened his men’s formal suit store.
A few months after opening his men’s suit store, he opened up his alteration store in Essendon. Baturhan’s dream has always been getting into business and growing in the field. After graduating from high school, he applied to a men’s suit company. Working in that field had allowed him to grow knowledge with how business works, customer expectations and general business expectations.
Baturhan believes that his most prominent supporters and the people who motivate him are his family and friends. Their support has allowed him to believe in himself and empower him to be where he is now.
Baturhan is very honoured and humbled to say that he has been part of a strong community from a very young age, he believes that being part of the community projects and events also supports him.
He trusts that ‘the community does not need you; you need the community’. The community has been a fantastic support for him, and he is very grateful for every support he has and is continuously receiving.
Covid-19 pandemic impacted the world unexpectedly and has effected many businesses. During the first wave of the pandemic, Baturhan had to shut both his businesses. This was a distressing time for him because he had opened his business newly and had hired full-time staff. In the meantime, of the first lockdown, he had come up with the idea to make masks. He believed it was worth trying, and during that time wearing a mask was not mandatory.
Having negative feedback during this time, implying that Baturhan was attempting to take advantage of the situation was a demotivation for him, he was doing the best he can to keep his business up and running and pay his staff without letting them down.
When the second wave hit, the Premier of Victoria had first announced that he recommends the use of masks.
During this announcement, Baturhan’s masks sales had increased by a large amount. A few days after the second announcement of masks, wearing the mask had become mandatory was announced.
Being local manufacture, Baturhan was able to keep up with the sales of the masks. His website was up and running, he had hired new staff and worked day and night to supply Victorians with locally manufactured masks.
The mask project had allowed his business to make up for the loss from the first and second wave, and be the most profited time of his business.
From Baturhan’s experience of opening and advertising his own business, he believes that social media plays a significant role. For his alteration store, he believes that Google is the best platform that promotes and reaches out to him and for his suit store, Instagram is the best advertising support.
Baturhan’s future goals are to experience various businesses, due to his young age he believes he can test try multiple businesses to find the perfect one that he fits into. Baturhan’s main goal is to be able to financially to support his family until his last strength.
As a community, we are grateful to have business owners like Baturhan whose priority is providing the best service for his customers, and as the Turkish News-Press family, we would like to thank Baturhan Kaynak for taking the time to do this interview with us and wish him the best in his future accomplishments.
