With 81 percent of Filipinos interested to start their own business, Go Negosyo founder Joey Concepcion on Sunday, Jan. 8, expressed elation that his years of advocating for entrepreneurship continue to “bear fruit.”

He cited the recent survey by OCTA Research conducted in Oct. 2022, which reported that 81 percent of adult Filipinos would prefer to go into business if they have enough knowledge to do so.

Based on the same survey, 80 percent of those in the A, B, C, and D classes were interested to get into business, while 74 percent of those in the E class were also interested.

“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,” Concepcion said in a statement.

“It is so important to build the MSME’s optimism and the willingness to engage in the economy,” he added.

The Go Negosyo founder was appointed by President Ferdinand “Bongbong” 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 Chief Executive.

He also served as an economic adviser to former president Rodrigo Duterte.

The survey did not only show Filipinos’ interest in entrepreneurship, but it also found that 53 percent were aware of 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 small businesses/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 A, B, C, D, and E.

For Concepcion, the survey showed that Go Negosyo and its push for an entrepreneurial mindset has had an impact on Filipinos.

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,” Concepcion said.

“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 shared.

As the country’s leading advocate of micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs), the Go Negosyo founder believes that small businesses remain the backbone of the country’s economy and one that could improve many lives.

He said that MSMEs account for more than 62 percent of job generation, so helping the country’s MSMEs grow will redound to more jobs across the country.

Over the years, Go Negosyo’s mentoring programs have benefited tens of thousands of active and aspiring Filipino entrepreneurs.

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 (DTI) and the Department of Agriculture (DA), and its regular Facebook Live show Go Negoshow that provides free mentoring over the social media platform on the Go Negosyo Facebook page.

It has recently renewed its Kapatid Angat Lahat program, which aims to foster the transformation of MSMEs through their inclusion in the value of chain of large companies.

The program also gives MSMEs access to mentorship, money, and markets; process and production improvements; resources; business models; digital innovation; capacity-building; and new technologies.

While MSMEs were negatively impacted because of the Covid-19 pandemic, digital technology helped some in pivoting and finding a more stable ground to do business, Concepcion said.

Bolstered by the reopening of the economy, he expressed confidence that 2023 “will be a much better year for our entrepreneurs.”

“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 added.