FILIPINOS are increasingly getting into the entrepreneurial mindset, a recent survey conducted by OCTA Research showed.

The survey’s results were shared by Go Negosyo founder Jose Ma. “Joey” Concepcion 3rd, who expressed elation that efforts by his group for the past 17 years “continue to bear fruit.”

“The recent survey by our friends at OCTA Research found that a big percentage of Filipinos are willing to go into business, and that more than half of the respondents are aware of the advocacy that I and the Go Negosyo team have been promoting. It is so important to build the MSME’s (micro, small and medium enterprises) optimism and the willingness to engage in the economy,” Concepcion said in a statement on Sunday.

OCTA polled 1,200 respondents ages 18 years and older and covering socioeconomic classes A,B, C, D and E.

The survey found that 53 percent were aware of Concepcion and his work at Go Negosyo, the nonprofit he founded in 2005. Go Negosyo is seen either as a partner, or a supporter, of small businesses/enterprises by 52 percent of adult Filipinos, or as one that teaches how to run a business by 47 percent of adult Filipinos.

Eighty-one percent “would prefer to go into business” if given the knowledge to do so, the survey said.

Concepcion said the poll also indicated that “Go Negosyo and its push for an entrepreneurial mindset has had an impact on the Filipino” since its establishment.

“There are about 26 million Filipinos still living in poverty, unable to meet their basic food and non-food needs. This represents nearly a fourth of our entire population,” the former presidential adviser for entrepreneurship said.

“By providing access to the three M’s essential in successful entrepreneurship — namely mentoring, and access to markets and money or capital — we can increase the number of Filipinos who can build successful businesses, and in turn employ more of our countrymen,” he said.

Concepcion noted that with MSMEs accounting for more than 62 percent of job generation, helping the country’s small businesses grow will lead to more jobs.

Go Negosyo’s mentoring programs have benefited tens of thousands of active and aspiring entrepreneurs over the years. Among its projects are the highly successful mall-based free mentoring roadshow 3M on Wheels, structured training for active entrepreneurs in cooperation with the Department of Trade and Industry and the Department of Agriculture.

Its regular Facebook Live show “Go Negoshow” provides free mentoring over the social media platform.

Concepcion said MSMEs struggled during the coronavirus pandemic, but digital technology helped some of them to find new ways to do business.

“With the pandemic now behind us, and even with the current headwinds facing the global economy, I am confident that 2023 will be a much better year for our entrepreneurs,” he added.

“I think our growth will continue, and I believe that, perhaps by the second quarter, we will reach a tipping point where commodity prices will go down. Interest rates definitely will taper off, and hopefully, by the second quarter and maybe towards the third, interest rates will go down, and it will be the same with power rates. Barring any further escalation between Russia and the Ukraine, we might have already seen the worst,” he said.