Negosyo Mo, Bukas Ko

For almost nine years now, our advocacy to improve lives through entrepreneurship continues to reach out to more Filipinos. Through our free negosyo summits and seminars, we have in a way empowered small businesses with the right mindset to level-up to a different kind of thinking and business model. People also started seeing the changes in the perception of having self-owned businesses, whether it is micro, small or medium enterprises. 

But, as we celebrate another year of advocacy commitment, we also give importance to those who have less in life and are part of our Negosyo Mo, Bukas Ko program (NMBK). Some lives have improved and are now on their way to reaching their dreams.

The Negosyo Mo, Bukas Ko program started in 2011 with the aim of helping out-of-school youths (OSYs) get training and education for the business world. With our network of entrepreneurs who are part of our Go Negosyo community, we encourage them to consider hiring the OSYs who have been given values formation in our program with the help of partner organizations.  They are hiring anyway and what better way to help by skewing some of their hirings to the OSY’s.  In this way, they are able to give them hope in gaining experience, and a chance for the OSYs to save from their salaries, and allow them to go back to school after some years or months.

We are aware of the reality that there are a lot of youth who have stopped studying due to financial or personal problems. We believe that these challenges should not hinder his or her desire to reach their respective goals and dreams. We help those who want to fight poverty and lift their attitudes towards self-development. 

Our guiding principle behind this project is E2E2E, or Employ to Educate to Empower. OSYs are screened by our NMBK officers in order to see their true passion for success.  Through the help of our partners, we give proper values formation and basic training to the deserving individuals who want to increase their competencies and widen their knowledge.

After their training, they are given entry level positions in our NMBK partners. They are also given salaries but we advise them to save 40%  and build a fund for future tuition requirements. We still want them to finish what they have started. 

In their employment with our partners, they gain the experience and confidence on how to deal with life. They learn further as they are guided and mentored in those organizations. We are thankful to our partners who believe in our advocacy and help us in guiding these OSYs to a brighter future. Companies like SM Hypermarket, French Baker, Pampanga’s Best, Mekeni, Puregold, PR Gaz Haus, RFM, Citi Mart, Kettle Korn, Spud Buds and several manpower agencies such as Aimstaff Multi Purpose Cooperative, Access Pointe Contact Solutions, Reliable Labor Service Provider Inc. among others, collaborated with us and extended their corporate social responsibility (CSR) through our NMBK program.  

Let me share with you an inspiring story of one of our former NMBK trainee, Agnes Balon.

Due to family and financial problems, she had to stop schooling. Since there was no stable income for the family, she applied with different companies but unfortunately due to her lack of a college diploma, not a single company hired her. But her disappointments did not stop her from finding ways to help the family. With determination, she ventured into direct selling of different products. She even had a loading station at home but her income from such sidelines were still not enough for them.

Through her aunt, she learned about Go Negosyo’s NMBK program. She went for an interview and passed. She became the project assistant of the NMBK department of the organization where she learned a lot of things and honed her talents and personality. She gained self-confidence as she learned to work and deal with other professionals. She got new friends who helped her adjust in the working atmosphere. She learned professional skills which will become very helpful in her future endeavours.

I am glad to hear that Agnes was able to save enough to continue studying.  She is now enrolled this semester at the Pateros Technical College. Her positive attitude towards life helped her in her quest to self-improvement. She is now geared to reach her dreams and is now writing her own story of success.

Like Agnes, we hope to inspire more OSYs to enroll and be part of our program. We invite other companies as well to be part of the program and be the angel-employers to the OSYs and make a big difference in their lives.  To our existing partners, thank you for being one with us and we hope you continue to be the bridge to making the OSYs’ dreams become reality. 

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We invite everyone to our first Agri-Negosyo Summit on July 25, 2014 at the World Trade Center, Pasay City. This one-day summit aims to inspire the attendees by featuring successful entrepreneurs and enablers in this field and promote as well various agri-negosyo models. This will show that the agricultural sector is a viable source of income opportunities.  

For more information, you can visit www.gonegosyo.net or call 6379229/6379347