Pandemic driving Filipinos to entrepreneurship

By Doris Dumlao-Abadilla, 17 Aug 2021

The prolonged pandemic is driving more Filipinos into entrepreneurship to support their households, even those who are still keen on keeping their day jobs.

Based on a survey conducted by financial literacy advocacy group The Global Filipino Investors (TGFI) among over a thousand respondents, mostly based in the Philippines, 64 percent of employed people tried to launch a new business while staying in their current jobs.

About 45 percent have gone into online selling while 14 percent tapped opportunities in freelancing.

TGFI expects these numbers to go up as 18 percent of respondents said they lost their main sources of income during the pandemic.

The survey was conducted last week ahead of the group’s upcoming TGFI Financial Literacy Summit 2021 to be held on Aug. 28 and 29. The bulk of the respondents come from the millennial (born from 1980-1994) and Gen X generations (born from 1965-1979), TGFI founder and president Floi Wycoco, a former overseas Filipino worker, said in a press briefing on Monday.

Asked about the challenges cited by respondents in setting up new businesses, Wycoco said in a press briefing that education was still a major challenge for those just starting to do business.

Prior to the pandemic, he said aspiring entrepreneurs could just meet up with friends or attend government-sponsored events to pick up new ideas.

Another challenge is adapting one’s systems to a digital marketplace.

“A lot of respondents are still slowly shifting or familiarizing themselves with the use of payment platforms online. Other than having their products available not just in social media platforms, building their own websites is also a bit of a challenge,” he said.

Furthermore, building one’s network was still much better when aspiring entrepreneurs could meet in-person to share wins and other insights, he added.

Overall, the pandemic has been an “incredible and sustained learning experience” that compelled people to become more resourceful and creative with new ways of generating income, the survey suggested.

Insofar as purchasing behavior is concerned, there has been a notable increase in the use of online banking and e-wallets as preferred payment modes, at 75 percent and 71 percent, respectively, indicating a strong overlap in the two types of payment. But 42 percent of the respondents still choose cash. Only 2 percent of respondents have been using credit cards to pay for their transactions.

About 62 percent of TGFI’s respondents are privately-employed while 20 percent declared themselves as self-employed. Among those who were employed, 51 percent were under the work-from-home (WFH) arrangements while 49 percent were working onsite, although a total of 61 percent really preferred WFH setups.

“One of the things I realized is when you invest, you don’t invest in business, you invest in people. Beyond the numbers, one has to be comfortable with the people one wants to do business with. A commitment to integrity should always be present as well. Interpersonal fit is to be considered if one wants a business to thrive,” said Januario Jesus Atencio, chair of TGFI.

TGFI’s upcoming summit —which targets aspiring entrepreneurs, financial advocates, young professionals, students, and even overseas Filipino workers and their families— is expected to draw 10,000 attendees. The event will cover give general topics: entrepreneurship, investment, personal finance, e-commerce and real estate.

Among the resource persons are Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas Governor Benjamin Diokno, Mark Bantigue of BDO, Mary Gaw So of The Real Estate Hub, technopreneur David Almirol of Multisys Technologies, Dingdong Dantes, John Aguilar of The Final Pitch, Sean Si of SEO Hacker, Rienzie Biolena of Wealth Arki, Edmund Lee, of Caylum Trading Institute, Rhonda Wong of Ohmyhome, entrepreneurship coach Lyqa Maravilla, Rommel Ng of The Resto Coach and Mariel Bitanga of Simply Finance Ph. INQ