Last Friday, the World Trade Center and the Philippine Stock Exchange were the venues creating a buzz. It was last Friday that Go Negosyo hit a record attendance of over 15,000 while the stock market saw the market fall for two consecutive days, signaling a gripping fear in Europe and America that could affect Asia. What happened in the stock market that day could cause a repeat of 2008…

But to stay on a positive note, the Go Negosyo Young Entrepreneurs Summit held at the World Trade Center saw thousands of young students from over 200 schools fall in line outside at as early as 6:00 a.m. Unfortunately, the management of the World Trade Center had to limit the number of people inside the halls, and controlled the gradual entry to avert any possible untoward incident. They said they had to ensure safety first. But in about one to two hours, almost everyone managed to enter. We’d like to take this opportunity to give our sincerest apologies to school teachers and students for the delay in entry and for any inconvenience, as we at Go Negosyo did not think we would surpass last year’s attendance level and we did not expect this overwhelming number of attendees. (more…)

We believe it’s best to teach entrepreneurship while they’re young. This is why we’re launching again the biggest annual gathering for young and aspiring entrepreneurs, which is now on its third year. From all indications, there are over 200 schools that are sending their students to hear the country’s most inspiring speakers. For those who’ll attend, this may be a life-changing moment that will help them to start believing in themselves and to learn how to be the best that they can be.

Come early to secure seats. We expect thousands of people to attend this event, with close to 400 booths for exhibitors and 100 tables for the students’ bazaar. We also have our Go Negosyo mentoring booth which will be open the whole day. About 10 Go Negosyo Angelpreneurs have signed up to offer free mentoring sessions. Two seminar rooms have been allotted and there are around 30 topics to be discussed on various skills and negosyo topics; and this is apart from the event’s highlights happening at the plenary. (more…)

It’s definitely a Negosyo month. This month, three big entrepreneurial events are happening at almost the same time, as entrepreneurship (or negosyo) is now drawing more attention than ever. This advocacy which Go Negosyo started six years ago is now shared by so many, to help would-be and existing entrepreneurs in starting and growing a negosyo, and to succeed in it.

In my last column, I mentioned the biggest franchising event of the year organized by the PFA, Franchise Asia 2011, a four-day international event that starts on September 22 and in which Go Negosyo is an event partner. I’ll be one of the speakers and we’ll also be supporting the event with our negosyo seminars on September 24. What’s good about Franchise Asia 2011 is that it’s global in scale. It exposes Filipinos to more negosyo ideas, both here and abroad.  Starting entrepreneurs can begin their business venture first with a franchise, which allows them to learn and study a proven and successful business formula developed by the franchisor. (more…)

Six years ago when I started the advocacy of Go Negosyo, one of the very first persons I approached was franchise guru and Chairman Emeritus of the Philippine Franchise Association Sammie Lim; and another franchise mentor Bing Limjoco, who also became a Go Negosyo awardee this year in our Women Summit; and of course, Robert Trota, Chairman of the PFA and the king of Max’s Chicken, and also one of Go Negosyo’s supporters and mentors.

In a presscon, Sammie mentioned that years ago, he and I and a couple of other entrepreneurs shared the same dream, which is to create thousands of small community jobs. I’ve done so by educating Filipinos about entrepreneurship through Go Negosyo, while he has done so by helping develop franchising in the country.

Starting September 22, the PFA will be holding its largest ever franchising event, one with an international flavor as it brings together about 26 member-countries of the World Franchise Council (WFC) and the Asia Pacific Franchise Confederation (APFC). Go Negosyo is fully supporting Franchise Asia 2011, which will give an opportunity to many Filipinos to get new ideas and to learn how to start a business. It is a four-day event and will happen right before our own Go Negosyo Young Entrepreneurs Summit, so what a great week it will be, full of activities and opportunities to learn even more about entrepreneurship. It is now up to each and every Filipino to take action and grab these opportunities to succeed.

Franchise Asia 2011 will feature plenary sessions with notable entrepreneurs such as Chairman and CEO of Jollibee Tony Tan Caktiong, and Mang Inasal Founder Injap Sia. I, on the other hand, will be joining the panel of a Business Leaders’ Forum moderated by Karen Davila.

Apart from the International Franchise Conference, Franchise Asia 2011 also presents a three-day International Franchise Expo. Since the event’s theme is Asia to the World, The World to Asia, the expo hopes to provide a platform to showcase Asian brands, especially those that are homegrown here in the Philippines

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Over the years, Go Negosyo has been supported by media partners. Without them, our events would not have had that level of awareness among the people. I’d like to thank the Philippine Star group and the Belmonte clan, who convinced me to start writing for the newspaper years ago. I do two columns for the Star, telling stories on entrepreneurs and how they did it, among other topics. To this day, they continue to support us with print ads and help feature the entrepreneurs. In our Young Entrepreneurs Summit, we will recognize the Star-prenuers. 15 of them are from the 50 entrepreneurs who will be featured in our soon-to-be-released book on inspiring young entrepreneurs.

Also, we’d like to thank the GMA7 family and Atty. Felipe Gozon. He shares the same vision of wanting to help micro and small entrepreneurs succeed. They continue to support us with the necessary awareness campaign in all our events.

I would also like to thank Ruthy and Bobet Vera, great friends who see the need in helping the young achieve their dreams of success, too. Bobet is a very successful entrepreneur himself with Radio Partners, Inc., and is a very spiritual person as he also serves as a Eucharistic minister in the church we attend. It is prayer in action.

I would like also to give special mention to the Prieto family who continues to support us through the Inquirer and BusinessWorld for the past years, giving us full support in ads. Also, thanks to Alvin Tan of Chinoy TV and to NBN4.

We’d also like to thank the owners and the groups managing the new forms of media, such as the blog OurAwesomePlanet.com by Anton Diaz, Sulit.com.ph, Entrepreneur.com.ph, Pep.ph, ClicktheCity.com and Google Philippines.

Let me thank all of our media partners, who are helping us inspire, mentor and give hope to the many who want to succeed in life.

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Again, we’d like to invite everyone to our third Young Entrepreneurs Summit on September 23. Grab this rare opportunity to listen to the Honorable Executive Secretary Paquito Ochoa and CHED head Patricia Licuanan. Also, for the first time since the last presidential elections, Former Defense Secretary Gibo Teodoro will be giving an inspirational speech to encourage the youth to move forward and succeed in life. And of course, the bossing of all bossings, Mr Manny V. Pangilinan himself, will be there too.

Entrance is free for students and their teachers. Please bring a valid ID. For those who are not students or teachers, there will be only a minimal fee of 50 pesos, which already comes with snacks.