Why Be an EntrePinoy - 1

Rare is the Filipino mother who tells her young son or daughter: Child, when you grow up, you be an entrepreneur, ha?

A teacher, yes — the so-called noblest profession. Or a doctor – naku, every family needs one. Or a lawyer – aba, galing-galing, so dignified. What about an engineer or a nurse or therapist with outstanding prospects to work abroad – aba siempre! And a salaried corporate manager in a multinational ? – yes na yes din.

Indeed, why should a self-respecting person go into business – a trade associated with exploitative, profit-taking capitalism. Or ruthlessness na mala-Shylock. Dyahi. For shame!

But have you thought of it this way?

The everyday reality is most people need or demand goods and services – these are the consumers or the general public. Other people supply these goods and services and these of course are the entrepreneurs. Together, they make up what is known as the economy. Demand and supply are the forces that make the economy work and vibrate.

When there is demand for goods and someone supplies it, money changes hands and profits are made. The more goods are demanded and supplied, the bigger the profits and the more the money that goes around the economy. This is how an economy prospers and grows. The main person who makes this activities happen is, sino pa – si entrePinoy.

EntrePinoy helps a country prosper not only by producing and supplying goods and services that are in demand and therefore makes profit but also because in the process of producing goods and services, he employs other people. Needless to say, when he employs workers, he pays them salaries. This gives workers buying power and enables them to become more active participants in the economy. As more and more people buy, the more profits entrepreneurs will earn. The more the entrepreneurs profit, the more they are able to hire people and to pay them well. And so the benefits go round and round in a circle in a spiral in an ever-growing prosperous, generous wheel.

Further, entrepreneurs who succeed and grow help other entrepreneurs succeed and grow too. How does this happen? Well, few entrepreneurs are self sufficient. No entrepreneur is an island, wika nga. Most depend on other entrepreneurs for their raw materials, parts, and supplies. Aling Lilia, a ready-to-wear garment manufacturer buys tela from Divisoria Maramingtela, a wholesaler; buttons, zippers and accessories from a suki in Tutuban mall; sewing machines and small sewing tools from a Singer dealer. A few months before Christmas, when Aling Lilia is hard pressed to serve peak orders for RTW, she sub-contracts some of the sewing to her kapitbahay and kumare, Aling Cora who is a fine costurera. As Aling Lilia prospers so do Divisoria Maramingtela and her other suppliers as well Aling Cora, her sub-contractor.

Do you see how the success of one business benefits other businesses with whom it is linked with? Do you see why it is true that “growth begets more growth?” And do you see the entrepreneur at the center of it all, making it happen?

O di ba, yes na yes din dapat sa pagiging entrePinoy. It is every bit as dignified and rewarding as any other profession – if not more.

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About the Author Annamanila is Myrna Rodriguez-Co, a professional writer and editor who has over 50 books and periodicals on entrepreneurship and small enterprise management to her name. The latest of these are the four-volume Dreamers, Doers, Risk-takers entrepreneurial case story series of the UP Institute for Small-Scale Industries, a two-volume series on technology-based entrepreneurs of the Department of Science and Technology, and a two-volume series on agrarian reform programs and beneficiaries of the Department of Agrarian Reform. She edited the Small Business Entreprenews magazine which won an Anvil Award as best external publication many years ago. She had a four-year consultancy stint with the Development Bank of the Philippines, handling communication and promotion for its ISSEP lending project. Recently retired from the ISSI, she was retained by the office as publication and publicity consultant even as she contributes regularly to the Philippine Daily Inquirer small business features section and occasionally to the Sunday Inquirer Magazine. She is mom to six grown-up children and grandma to a toddler. She maintains a personal blogsite at http://ode2old.blogspot.com whose theme-philosophy -- "the best is yet to be" -- she tries to keep faith with with blow-hot-blow-cold fervor. Read more from this author

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