• Food Stalls

According to 2009 statistics from the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA), more than 8 million overseas Filipinos are working abroad — the top ten employment destinations namely the US, Saudi Arabia, Canada, UAE, Australia, Malaysia, Japan, UK, Hong Kong and Singapore.

But while the government unceasingly recognizes the heroism of these individuals who contribute largely to the Philippines’ economic growth, there are also some Filipinos who choose to stay in the Philippines to establish their own businesses.  As of 2009, there are 780,437 business enterprises operating in the Philippines — and 99.6% (777,357) of these are micro-, small-, and medium-scale enterprises, or SMEs. These SMEs are touted as the backbone of the Philippine economy, with their businesses playing an indispensable role in boosting the country’s economic development.

Many of these businesses need to hire specific skill sets from time to time, and many more are service organizations that need to source clients and business. They can now do so easily online by tapping into www.freelancer.com where to date over 1.1 million jobs have been outsourced.

The World Working For the Filipino

Matt Barrie, the chief executive of Freelancer.com, the world’s largest online outsourcing marketplace, believes that there is a huge opportunity for Filipino SMEs, thanks to increasing globalization and the rapid adoption of the Internet in this country. The award-winning entrepreneur, technologist and lecturer, who holds a Masters degree in Engineering from Stanford University, believes one of the best solutions for Filipino entrepreneurs is by tapping into a global online jobs marketplace.

“The opportunity for Filipino entrepreneurs is booming online! Filipinos are already the fifth largest population on Freelancer.com, and the third largest freelancer community, and growing at a tremendous rate. Whether you have an idea to start a business and need to hire someone to help turn it into reality, or you’re an entrepreneur wanting to start a service business working as a freelancer online, there’s a huge opportunity,” he said.

The Philippine has the third largest Internet penetration in Asia Pacific and has been growing exponentially, increasing from 8 million users online to 30 million from 2009 to 2010. On top of this, social networking penetration is among the highest in the world, for example it is estimated that about 25 million of these online users have Facebook accounts.

SMEs in the Philippines can now connect with over 2.7 million verified professionals to get a variety of jobs done that don’t require hiring fulltime. Freelancers from over 400 different industries can be hired, starting at PhP1,200.00, and an average around PhP8,000. Apart from assisting employers, this online marketplace can also help Filipinos find alternative sources of income apart from their day jobs by working as freelancers or building service providing companies. The top freelancers on Freelancer.com are today making around US$1 million a year and already around 1.1 million jobs have been provided through the site to freelancers globally.

Freelancer.ph today offers transactions in Philippine Pesos; and, over time, would offer a range of local support and featured. The site already has over 100,000 registered Filipino users. The launch of Freelancer.ph will encourage more Filipinos to sign up and connect with the site’s growing international marketplace.

“As we increasingly localize www.freelancer.ph to suit the demands of Filipino SMEs and freelancers, there will be more and more opportunity build great businesses by going online,” said Mr. Barrie.

About Freelancer

Webby award-winning Freelancer.com is the largest outsourcing marketplace in the world. Through Freelancer.com, businesses connect with independent service providers and freelancers. Freelancer.com connects over 2.7 million professionals from all over the world. Through our website, employers can hire freelancers to do work in areas such as software, writing, data entry and design right through to engineering and the sciences, sales & marketing and accounting & legal services. Jobs start from 1200 PHP, making Freelancer.com extremely cost effective for small businesses, which often need a wide variety of jobs to be done, but cannot justify the expense of hiring full time.

The Fisherman Foundation, the SEVEN Fund, and the University of Asia and the Pacific-Center for Social Responsibility are pleased to announce the “Breakthrough Innovation Grant” (BIG) competition – the search for the most innovative business idea that can create prosperity in Metro Manila, Philippines.  We are looking for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) as well as social entrepreneurs whose ideas can serve as drivers for poverty alleviation and social improvement.  Proposals must be innovative, resourceful, scalable, and fit the particular needs of the Philippines to drive wealth creation.

Think you have the winning business idea? Enter the competition now!

Four winners were chosen out of a dozen finalists – one each from the National Capital Region (NCR), Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao.  A special prize was given by Starbucks to the finalist whose proposal best exemplified the values of a responsible business. To help propel their business, each winning team received Php100,000 as seed capital and a business incubation and mentorship scheme courtesy of Social Enterprise Development Partnerships Inc. (SEDPI). In addition, all the finalists received project management and feasibility training from SEDPI based on a curriculum designed by the Ateneo de Manila University and the National University of Singapore.

Find out more here.

Led by CITEM, PINES is a three-day trade event meant to encourage environmental investment through the showcase of the latest Philippine-made environment-

Through our Caravans, Negosems, multi-media (TV and web) campaigns and books, Go Negosyo hopes to demystify entrepreneurial success and popularize entrepreneurship as an alternative to unemployment, job-seeking or migration.  We are a partner in improving entrepreneurship education, and in providing a marketplace of ideas, innovations, business models and best practices. In short, we aim to catalyze the development of entrepreneurship in the country. An entrepreneurial culture would lead to an entrepreneurial nation and, consequently, to improved economy for the country.

Go Negosyo do not endorse a particular kind of business or franchise. Instead, we provide links to our partner entrepreneurs’ businesses, to business opportunities, to entrepreneurship-related training programs, and to funding sources. Hoping to generate competitive Filipino entrepreneurs, we seek to be the institution that brings together all key stakeholders and enablers of different entrepreneurship programs.

HOW WE STARTED

After being appointed in 2005 by President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo as the Presidential Consultant for Entrepreneurship, Joey Concepcion envisioned a movement that would advocate for a positive and enterprising attitude among Filipinos — a mindset that would help them move up in life. With the help of like-minded trustees, Go Negosyo was born.

Since its conception, Go Negosyo went on to forge partnerships not only with business corporations and entrepreneurs but also with academic institutions, non-government organizations (including business chambers and professional organizations), microfinance institutions, government agencies, and local government units. Creating linkages with members of both private and public sectors allowed us to increase Filipinos’ access to a negosyo support system, and facilitate a nationwide movement.

It was the formation of partnerships that allowed Go Negosyo to embark on a full-blown advocacy that has reached out to hundreds of thousands of Filipinos. What started as an idea quickly snowballed into a massive movement. Within four years, Go Negosyo was able to embark on over 30 full-blown Caravans all over the country, produce a TV show, create a website portal for entrepreneurs, and launch bestselling books (three volumes of inspirational stories of entrepreneurs and a how-to-start-a-business book). We gained widespread presence in the print media through Mr. Concepcion’s weekly column AskGoNegosyo in Philippine Star and through the publication of entrepreneurs’ stories in the front page. Every month, we’re invited to conduct talks on starting a business, and we’re often featured in TV and radio shows. We even have a global audience as our TV show is aired in GMA’s international channels.

Kittelson & Carpo was founded by a Filipino corporate tax lawyer and an American Outsourcing Consultant in Makati, Metro-Manila to provide dynamic assistance to foreign BPO and outsourcing companies starting and doing business in the Philippines. Our main areas of expertise are business registration with government agencies, taxation, employment, payroll, accounting and HR recruitment.

In the last three years K&C has registered more than 100 foreign companies setting up businesses in the Philippines.

K&C provides assistance to:

1. determine the appropriate business vehicle for your company
2. understand and manage the risks and cost of doing business in the Philippines
3. determine your eligibility for tax incentives available under Philippine law
4. implement your business strategy which includes SEC registration and availment of certain tax incentives with PEZA or BOI.

Once the business registration and tax incentives are addressed K&C then assists with working Visas and Permits for foreign employees, office space, HR staffing, payroll and accounting services.  We will open doors to various industries in the Philippine business environment.  Kittelson & Carpo Consulting is essentially a “One-Stop-Shop” for companies starting their business in the Philippines.

K&C can advise on the most suitable business enterprise for you considering the company’s intentions, foreign ownership restrictions , tax , income and corporate concerns when doing business in the Philippines.

Ronald Flynn founder of Spectrum Blue Steel said, “We are able to take that resource ‘garbage,’ and turn it into real profits financially for our partners and shareholders. Spectrum Blue Steel is now building the first material recycling facility and Biosphere power plant in San Fernando, Philippines, which turns waste into green energy.”

Spectrum’s Biosphere green technology is meant as an alternative source of power that reduces fossil fuels and demonstrates less damage to humans, animals and plant health, as well as damage to the world, in general.

The consumption habits of modern consumer lifestyles are causing a huge worldwide waste problem. The Philippines have many overfilled landfills so government officials are looking for solutions. The landfills in the Philippines have created a devastating impact on its ecosystems and cultures throughout the republic.

True Green Energy Group is promoting world power and green technologies through the Biosphere MKV because it has developed new ways to recycle waste while generating electricity from landfill waste and doing so with zero pollution.

On December 18th issued under Presidential Decree 1586 “R03-0912-0226″ certified that Spectrum Blue Steel Corporation has been granted an environmental compliance certificate (ECC) for the biosphere gasification facility project located at Brgy. Lara, City of San Fernando, Pampanga, by the Department of Environmental and Natural Resources (DENR) through the Environmental Management Bureau Region 3, which was also approved by Renaldo E. Garcia Chief Environmental Impact Assessment & Management Division and Engineer Carlos J. Magno the Regional Director.

The certificate covers the operation of the biosphere facility group (11-c.5.f) that will utilize and dispose of 172 tons of fresh waste per day or 62,952 per year to generate 10MW of electric capacity in a area of (17,000) square meters covered by public and private partnership. According to the certificate the projects geographical coordinates and location are North Latitude 15.04’28.44″ East Longitude 120.37’27′.45″.

Ronald Flynn went on to say, “The enormous increase in the quantum and diversity of waste materials generated by human activity and their potentially harmful effects on the general environment and public health, have led to an increasing awareness about an urgent need to adopt scientific methods for safe disposal of wastes. While there is an obvious need to minimize the generation of wastes and to reuse and recycle them, the technologies for recovery via MRF system and the Biosphere gasification plant will now play a vital role in mitigating the problems in the Philippines.”

Despite being an attractive technological option for waste management, the gasification-based process for municipal solid waste (MSW) treatment is not free. A complete system including the material recycling facility and the Biosphere MKV engineered, installed and turned on is a estimated at USD $13,500,000 dollars.

In the current contractual transactions with the San Fernando and Santa Rosa, Philippines, both cities gave SBS the land and the landfills for twenty five years including tipping fees and 100% of the recyclables with the right to extend. The project build-out including the roads, fences, MRF and the Biosphere MKV system were funded by Spectrum Blue Steel, TGEG, shareholders and partners.

Spectrum Blue Steel’s strategy is to “de-carbonize” the electric power generation industry by shifting to non-fossil fuel-based energy sources, specifically energy-from-waste. This follows the Energy Policy Act of 2005 which confirmed energy-from-waste is renewable, and the Philippine Renewable Energy Law (RA 9513) of the Philippines.

Spectrum is a domestic corporation duly registered under the laws of the Philippines and holds a license to the Biosphere Technology from Global Environmental Energy Corporation (OTC Bulletin Board: GEECF). Global is a fully integrated energy company whose interests include electrical power generation, oil and gas exploration and production, clean coal and waste management technologies.

Amb. Tambunting was recognized for being a champion for the development of small and medium enterprises (SMEs), earning him the title “entrepreneur for entrepreneurs.” He was selected from among the seven category winners of the Entrepreneur Of The Year Philippines. As the winner of the national title, Amb. Tambunting will represent the Philippines in the World Entrepreneur Of The Year Awards in Monte Carlo, Monaco in June 2010.

“It is truly an honor to have been bestowed this prestigious award.  I believe that our entrepreneurial spirit is what drove us to establish, build and grow Plantersbank.  It is the same entrepreneurial drive that makes us understand and keep our focus on the SME sector.  The award affirms that the Bank took the right path in choosing to serve the SMEs, especially those in the countryside.” said Amb. Tambunting.

Amb. Tambunting was honored for his commitment to focus on financing and helping SMEs through Planters Development Bank. Under his leadership, Plantersbank has become the leader in SME finance resources and the country’s largest private development bank.

Presenting him the award were SGV Foundation Chairman and President David L. Balangue, SGV & Co. Managing Partner Cirilo P. Noel, Chairman of the Entrepreneur Of The Year Philippines 2009 judging committee Mr. Cesar Virata, Entrepreneur Of The Year Philippines 2007 and President and CEO of Alaska Milk Corporation Wilfred Steven Uytengsu, Jr. He was also joined on stage by his wife, Ms. Margarita Tambunting.

Amb. Tambunting was named Master Entrepreneur 2009 for best exemplifying sound management practices in critical areas of the company, including finance, marketing, human resources and sales, proving that banks can meet social development goals yet remain efficient, profitable, responsive to shareholders and sensitive to risks.

So I will start a list of the Filipino Business Publications – I will keep coming back and add some more as I find them.

• BusinessWorld Online
• INQUIRER.net
• SME Insight
• PinoyBusiness.ORG

The Ernst & Young Entrepreneur Of The Year Philippines program recognizes the achievements of Filipino Entrepreneurs who develop businesses that influence the way we live, transform local communities and support the economy as it moves forward.

Nominations accepted until November 2008.

The story shows how Allan managed to get past his familly previous un-successful ventures and turn the last one into a success just in time to avoid a new failure.

The first venture was a family owned housing development project in Cavite. “Even though members of the family had worked on the Cavite project for 10 years, they eventually were forced to abandon the venture.
We met all sorts of problems—political, internal, labor,” recalls Allan, who was still in elementary school when the development started.”

Following their bad experience in Cavite, the Capulongs opted to try their luck with another property in Pampanga. That too would start out to be a disappointment.

To find out how Allan turned this project into a success, follow the original article.

“A typical micro-businessman in the Philippine setting is the owner of a sari-sari store in an urban poor community. He (or she) is mostly contented to wait for the patronage of his neighbors and accidental passers-by.”

The good news for the microbusinesses in Philippines is that they can get help from Ka-Entrep, an initiative which is partly funded and supported by a group of micro-entrepreneurs from Belgium. “Filipino micro-business owners need to look beyond the day-to-day operations of their operations to become true entrepreneurs, says Palou Abustan, a resource person in the character formation workshops of Ka-Entrep, an organization committed to empowering micro-business entrepreneurs.”

If you kept track of my articles, I’ve already wrote about SME Insight Magazine from Philippine and later about 7 steps to start a business – advices from the Philippines
. If you are wondering about how is doing a business in Phippines, the Doing Business 2008 in Phippines is gathering the most important statistics. You could however have a better glance from the US Department of Commerce resources about Philippines . Here are the main ideas from the report:

• The Philippine business environment is highly personalized. A proper introduction by a trusted intermediary is the best way to enter this market.
• Filipino contacts prefer an atmosphere of calm and restraint, avoid direct confrontation, and would typically offer a polite reply coupled with a smile rather than an outright negative feedback to the other party’s ideas.
• Philippine business has its own etiquette. For example, as a show of respect, Filipinos usually address people by their titles (e.g., Architect Cruz, Attorney Jose, Dr. Romero)
• English is the official business language

Here is the complete report on doing business in the Philippines.

While I’m not prepared yet to write a full review about doing business in Philippines (maybe I’ll do that later), there are a couple of articles that got my attention in the last week or so. The first one, Starting them young on entrepreneurship by By Kenneth del Rosario (Philippine Daily Inquirer) is about the educational efforts that take place in Philippines to teach youngsters about entrepreneurship: “In this program, students are challenged to look into social problems that plague the country and develop solutions where they themselves can be part of.”

I’m not sure if this is against one of my older articles – Born or taught to be entrepreneur but teaching entrepreneurship in a country which I assume doesn’t have great entrepreneurship roots make sense. “Part of the mentorship program of the school is to partner each group with an entrepreneur who would give advice on how the students can successfully run their businesses. The mentors, some of them entrepreneurs, were chosen based on their experiences and willingness to help.”

And if you wonder what kind of entrepreneurs can be found in Philippines, the second article (which I’m very proud I found in this context) is Filipino social entrepreneur honored in Davos, Switzerland . “A Filipino young social entrepreneur and alumnus of Ateneo de Manila University, Illac Diaz, is one of 28 nominees from all over the world to be declared Young Global Leader 2008 in Davos, Switzerland.”

“He was nominated for his “professional accomplishments, commitment to society, and potential to contribute to shaping the future of the world through inspiring leadership.”

He has been awarded the 2007 DHL Young Entrepreneurs for Sustainability Award in Singapore; 2006 People of the Year Award from People Asia Magazine, and The Outstanding Young Persons of the World 2006 award from Junior Chamber International, and the 2005 Ten Outstanding Young Men of the Philippines award also from JCI.

He founded the Pier One Seafarer’s Dorm and is the executive director of MyShelter Foundation, a non-profit organization which addresses the housing and educational concerns of the rural areas.”

I don’t know about you, but it’s really great to see how entrepreneurship creates values no matter where you are coming from. So next time when you are thinking about entrepreneurship in USA, Europe, Eastern Europe, Asia or Africa, just remember this one thing: entrepreneurship makes us all equal, both in terms of opportunities and results.

They say: “I just want to share with you issues I dealt with starting out — and consequences of some I still have to deal with today. This is written with a Metro Manila, Philippines setting in mind but should be easily replicated elsewhere.”

Here are the 7 tasks in the article (with my comments of course)

• Unleash the Entrepreneur within

While they give plenty of external resources on this one, I think it’s missing a point. Money! The only reason entrepreneurs want to start a business is to make money. Of course, money can have different names like work for yourself, being your own boss, pride and recognition, or whatever reason an entrepreneur might have, but the real framework for anything you would like to accomplish is making money.

• Save at least 3 months worth of living expenses…

Even if they are talking about web start-ups which might require little or no initial investment, planing to earn a living from the newly started business in 3 months might be fullish. Unless there are some special conditions which allow you to get customers, deliver and cash money in very short sales cycle, chances are that it will take about a year to get the financial security you need (and that if you are lucky). But yes, you should save money, make a budget and be prepared to say what they say: “I used to buy nice clothes or shoes at least once a month or whenever I eye a sale; since starting our company, I’d buy a nice dress every quarter or so — and no new shoes!”

• Find 1 or 2 partners

I have started the same, with 2 partners. And while I know it was the only way I could start a company at that time, you should think very well about picking up your partners. Most likely is not very important who your partners are if things don’t work, but it makes all the difference in the world if it works and there are money to burn. Once again, an impressive list of external resources on this subject on the blog.

• Register your company

Interesting to see what it takes to start a business in Philippines.

• Have a common conducive workplace

(I had to look in the dictionary to find out what conducive means ). Basically the workplace should be a good enough environment to start a business and to sustain whatever you are doing. Of course I agree with that, but chances are that you might need a year or so to be able to rent a nice place to work. Usually if you start small, an office at home is quite ok, especially if you start an online business like they did.

• Raise funds from your own pocket and from family and friends

Unless you are in USA, is quite hard to find investors ready to burn money for just an idea. Everywhere else, be prepared to have a 7 figures turnover to get the investors attention. Once again, relevant articles are linked on the paragraph there.

• Focus your efforts

While they have a funny explanation about focusing on the business “I gave up my car and comfortable living at my parents’ to stay in a cheap condo so I can be near our office.”, most likely one of the early days issues is that because you have bills to pay, you can’t say no to customers or business lines that simply aren’t good enough to make you grow. You know that for this customer you will work more than you should, you know that on the long run, doing X or Y is going to slow you down, but you are simply too hungry not to take the job!

I would add an extra step:

• Make a business plan!

While some will not agree with this one, is absolutely fundamental to see what it takes to pay the bills. What are your expenses, how you are going to cover them and how long till you break even.Well, enough ramblings, you better have a look at the “7 Must-Do Tasks Before You Start Up” – there are plenty of resources there which you might find interesting.

Oh, and good luck to the people behind the blog and their venture!

I’m not sure about the printed magazine, but the blog is interesting because of it’s dual approach: it got interesting information about business environment in the Asean region and also general thoughts, ideas and articles on running a Small Business in general.

I had a look at the articles about Small Businesses, and I have to say that they are well targeted and easy to understand. Let’s take a look at a recent article: Common mistakes small businesses make – it’s short and well thought. The first point they approach is “Doing it all alone.” I think this is the most common pitfall in all small business start-ups! They have another good article called: “Simplifying Just In Time” – it talks about the Just In Time concept implemented first by Toyota: “The original practice of JIT involves a demand-pull system, which means customer orders prompt production so the company does not produce inventories for stock. Raw materials arrive at the factory floor just in time for production. Needless to say, JIT involves minimal to virtually zero inventories.” I didn’t know about this, and it seems there is more on the subject in the printed magazine.

Talking about doing business in the Asean region, there are plenty of articles about regional meetings, SAAS in India.

Here it is again: SME Insight from Philippine