Entrepreneurship is increasingly gaining headway into the Filipino mindset. This is according to a survey conducted by OCTA Research, the results of which were shared by Go Negosyo founder Joey Concepcion.

“I am glad that the work we have done for the last 17 years continues to bear fruit. The recent survey by our friends at OCTA Research found that a big percentage of Filipinos are willing to go into business, and that more than half of the respondents are aware of the advocacy that I and the Go Negosyo team have been promoting. It is so important to build the MSME’s optimism and the willingness to engage in the economy,” said Concepcion.

Prof. Ranjit Rye of OCTA Research said that the survey was conducted in the last week of October 2022. “The results showed that 81 percent of adult Filipinos would prefer to go into business, granting that they had enough knowhow to do so. Across socioeconomic classes, that desire remains high at 80percent among classes ABC and D, and 74 percent from class E,” said Prof. Rye.

He shared that the survey also found that more than half, or 53 percent were aware of Joey Concepcion and his work at Go Negosyo, the non-profit he founded in 2005. Go Negosyo is seen either as a partner, or a supporter, of smallbusinesses/enterprises by 52 percent of adult Filipinos, or as one that teaches how to run a business by 47 percent of adult Filipinos.

The survey involved 1,200 respondents aged 18 years and older, covering socioeconomic classes AB, C, D and E.

Concepcion said that the survey showed that Go Negosyo and its push for an entrepreneurial mindset has had an impact on the Filipino. Since 2005, Go Negosyo has promoted entrepreneurship as a way for Filipinos to lift themselves out of poverty. “There are about 26 million Filipinos still living in poverty, unable to meet their basic food and non-food needs. This represents nearly a fourth of our entire population,” saidConcepcion. “By providing access to the three M’s essential in successful entrepreneurship – namely mentoring, and access to markets and money, or capital – we can increase the number of Filipinos who can build successful businesses, and in turn employ more of our countrymen,” he said.

Concepcion was appointed by President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. as the lead of the jobs cluster of the Private Sector Advisory Council, which comprises leaders from the country’s business sector who provide guidance to the President. The Go Negosyo founder said that with MSMEs accounting for more than 62 percent of job generation, helping the country’s MSMEs grow will redound to more jobs across the country.

Go Negosyo’s mentoring programs have benefited tens of thousands of active and aspiring entrepreneurs over the years. Among its projects are the highly successful mall-based free mentoring roadshow 3M on Wheels, structured training for active entrepreneurs in cooperation with the Department of Trade and Industry and the Department of Agriculture, and its regular Facebook Live show Go Negoshow provides free mentoring over the social media platform on the Go Negosyo Facebook page.

Go Negosyo recently renewed its Kapatid Angat Lahat program to foster the transformation of MSMEs through their inclusion of MSMEs in the value of chain of large companies, as well as giving them access to mentorship, money, and markets; process and production improvements; resources; business models;digital innovation; capacity-building; and new technologies. 

Concepcion said that MSMEs were negatively affected during the pandemic, but that digital technology helped some to pivot and find new ways to do business. “With the pandemic now behind us, and even with the current headwinds facing the global economy, I am confident that 2023 will be a much better year for our entrepreneurs,” he said.

“I think our growth will continue, and I believe that, perhaps by the second quarter, we will reach a tipping point where commodity prices will go down. Interest rates definitely will taper off, and hopefully, by the second quarter and maybe towards the third, interest rates will go down, and it will be the same with power rates,” he said. “Barring any further escalation between Russia and the Ukraine, we might have already seen the worst.”