First Cebu MSME week pushes entrepreneurship

CEBU, Philippines - Organized to promote entrepreneurship, the first Micro, Small and Medium-scaled Entrepreneurs Week (MSMED Week) is looking at trying to change the mindset of our younger generation to help them awaken their entrepreneurial spirit so that they can become potential entrepreneurs in the future.

“Most successful businessmen started at a young age so with this kind of activity, we want our young ones to discover their potentials. Most people have the entrepreneurial spirit within them but was not developed and was not sustained because of lack of guidance,” said Filipino Cebuano Business Club, Inc. president Rey C. Calooy in an interview.

Calooy said that the usual mindset of our younger generation is to seek education, get a degree to eventually join the work force and work but they are not aware that they have an option to be self-employed through entrepreneurship.

“We want to change this mindset so we can lessen the unemployment rate of the country and so that more and more will venture into business thus creating more jobs. When the supply of employees would go down, the employment income will also increase,” said Calooy.

He said that they have since been advocating entrepreneurship in the community and they have always encouraged our schools to integrate the concept in all levels so that entrepreneurial potentials of our younger generation will be moulded at an earlier age, he added.

He said that proper ways and measures to save and to spend should be thought in our schools so that young ones will have financial literacy that can help them in their survival when they go into the real world once they graduate from school.

“We have encouraged our schools to integrate financial literacy in their subjects so that our potential entrepreneurs can start young and they can develop their skills and character until they grow up. Entrepreneurship is about building charter,” said Calooy.

This July 26, the 1st Cebu MSMED Week 2009 celebration will kick off and in the one whole week, seminars geared towards the promotion of entrepreneurship will be tackled such as car dealership, franchising, network marketing, and tax accounting seminar, technology and business with talks on computer solutions and web marketing and development as well as a presentation of the SME loan and credit financing.

Calooy said that one of the highlights of their MSMED week is the student and entrepreneur encounter wherein business students from the University of Cebu main and Lapu-Lapu and Mandaue campuses will get a chance to meet and consult with successful Cebuano entrepreneurs.

“The concept of entrepreneurship in the country still needs to be aggressively promoted and pushed because not a lot Filipinos are aware of this. Usually, people think going into business is difficult and needs huge capital and is only for rich individuals. They still have to realize that time, effort, talent and character are also part of the resources that can help make one a successful entrepreneur,” said Calooy.