PLDT Home Biz drives PH economy by digitally enabling home-based entrepreneurs

MANILA, Philippines — Entrepreneurs are the backbone of the Philippine economy, keeping it humming with business activity. But early in 2020, when the COVID-19 pandemic hit the country, the wheels of business suddenly stopped turning, throwing the economy out of whack and a lot of people out of work.

"After a few months, a lot of these small companies started closing," said Patrick Tang, vice president and head of PLDT Home Biz.

"Everyone had to be safely home, where they're quarantined so the virus does not spread. This happened for a good six months of the year, from March 2020 all the way to late September. Then there was another spike of infections going on towards November. When we saw this trend – when a lot of people started losing their jobs – we asked ourselves, 'What's going to happen to them? How do we help them?' They have all transferred from the office to home. How would they run their business at home?" he added.

The solution came in the form of PLDT Home Biz, a brand re-introduced as the bigger and better digital solution for home-based entrepreneurs.

"Before, we called ourselves PLDT KaAsenso, because we are your partner in success, sa pagka-Asenso," Tang shared.

"We changed it to PLDT Home Biz last year because we wanted to make it clear that we’re here to support your home business, that we can help you run it effectively and successfully at home,” he added.

The seeds for this new initiative of PLDT Home were planted back in 2010, when young people were already striving to become entrepreneurs while still in school.

"We knew we were in the position to help these negosyantes and start-ups. When the pandemic hit us and we saw a lot of small enterprises going out of business, it drove us to aggressively pursue this endeavor to help them bounce back," Tang said.

There's a glow in his eyes when he talks about his passion project, "It's really about helping our customers. It's about going beyond installing our services in your office or store. We are going to make our services available and accessible to you wherever you are now.” 

Home sweet workplace

The leading and fastest home broadband in the country today, PLDT Home introduced a product customized for home-based entrepreneurs. With your home doubling as your workplace during this ongoing pandemic, PLDT Home Biz makes sure that:

1. Your PLDT Home Biz installation is free of charge because they are truly committed to helping home businesses thrive;
2. Their available services would always be cost-effective and provide good value for money;
3. Your internet speed should efficiently support your business needs at home; and
4. PLDT Home Biz offers beyond connectivity through its e-commerce partners: UnionBank GlobalLinker for the online marketplace, PayMaya for online payment solutions, LBC and Grab Madiskarteng Boss Club for deliveries, Sqanly for building chat commerce for your biz and, of course, a strong partnership with the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) through programs that can further help entrepreneurs.

"Of course we also have Paymaya, and its beauty is that there's a tracking mechanism for all your sales so you know exactly how much you earned for the day, the week, the month," Tang shared. "It takes care of your payments, your inventory, and accounting for you."

"Our customers get all these services from our e-commerce partners for free. And we continue talking to more partners to give our customers even more opportunities and resources at their fingertips. PLDT Home Biz is here to give every entrepreneur the best possible service to help them continue on and even grow better,” he added.

Fibr for business health

Tang can't stress enough the message that PLDT Home Biz wants to drive home: Yes, you can succeed while working from home. "We have introduced Home Biz Asenso Plans that have very fast, very strong Fiber connection, and we made them very affordable, too."

There's the P1,599/month for 35 Mbps, with the option to add P500, or P2,099/month, for the 35 Mbps to become 60 Mbps. Once you become an existing Home Biz customer and your business starts getting more traffic, there's an upgrade plan, the highest with speeds up to 350 Mbps at P4,999 per month.

Tang also shares, "We've also included in the service a backup Internet in case you encounter any problem, plus unlimited free calls to PLDT, and Smart/TNT."

Being digitally enabled is a big plus for home-based entrepreneurs, especially in these uncertain times when we cannot even predict when the pandemic would end.

"The beauty of being in a digital world is that it increases your reach," Tang said.

"You break down many physical barriers -- suddenly, distance doesn't matter anymore. You're able to put the right tools in place, you're able to get more eyeballs vis-a-vis a walk-in customer or walk-in traffic to the store. You're able to accept payments anywhere, and you're able to deliver the goods to customers rather than wait for them to come in," he added.

To succeed in an online business, fast and reliable connectivity is an advantage. And that means a powerful broadband connection.

Boosting the economy, one Biz at a time

Tang talks about his life mission with unabashed passion, "I'm a firm believer in our country. My goal in life was to work for a company that has the word Philippine in its name. I decided I wanted to work for the Philippine Long Distance Company (PLDT). I wanted to make sure I'd have an effect on Filipinos' lives, to be able to connect them, to bring them to the forefront of technology so that they can succeed, skills-wise, with the rest of the world.”

“It's about making our economy one of the best. We can be one of the best economies in Asia again. My mission is to help in nation-building starting with our economy, one biz at a time. These are the fundamental bricks that you want to make sure you establish for a very strong economic foundation. When there's a strong economy, everyone benefits."

His advice for all aspiring entrepreneurs: "Not all people are born entrepreneurs, but we can surely create more entrepreneurs by changing people's mindsets. If you're dreaming of setting up your own business and your plans are in place, try PLDT Home Biz. You definitely need a strong online connection and the right online partners."

Home-based entrepreneurs can certainly look forward to PLDT Home Biz pursuing more collaborations to ensure that Filipino entrepreneurs have all that they need, including hardware. 

"If an entrepreneur is uncertain what laptop or Internet routing system they need to operate their business at home, we will make it more convenient and affordable to them as well," Tang shared.

"In fact, the advantage of having a PLDT Home bill is that we're able to give you all these devices on installment and at 0-percent interest. We're also thinking of adding more e-solutions into the mix to help you set up your home-office spaces and conveniently bundle everything together in your broadband subscription,” he added.

The message that PLDT Home Biz is sending out to the Filipino home-based entrepreneurs rings loud and true: You have not been forgotten. You can thrive and succeed with the power of the internet in your home, and we can all work together towards recovery and a more hopeful future for Filipinos.

Know more about PLDT Home Biz through this link or watch their latest video here.