THE Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) in Negros Occidental has urged the 20 micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs), who are new mentees in the province, to implement their respective business improvement plans (BIPs).
DTI-Negros Occidental Provincial Director Lea Gonzales, who spoke at the graduation rites of the third batch of "Kapatid Mentor Me" program in Cadiz City Thursday, July 11, said the mentees presented "very good" improve plans for their businesses.
Gonzales said that prior to the graduation, some mentors and business leaders serving as panelists examined the BIPs presented by the MSMEs.
"They were given suggestions and recommendations on how to further improve the plan," she said, adding that "we will monitor if they really implemented the BIPs and if these have helped them improve their business."
The DTI, through the mentors, will also provide continuous assistance to the local mentees, the provincial director said.
In April this year, the agency launched the third batch of recipient-mentees of the mentoring program in the province.
The 20 new mentees, who are now more competent MSMEs, are mostly from the northern localities like cities of Escalante, Sagay and Victorias, among others, with various businesses like food, bakery, salon, aluminum and glass installation, and coffee shop, among others.
They were identified based on criteria set, including at least one year operation, business is registered with the DTI and local government and committed to complete the program modules.
In June 2017, the DTI launched the Kapatid Mentor Me program in Negros Occidental, the 66th location in the country.
It is aimed at helping MSMEs scale up their businesses through weekly coaching and mentoring by successful business owners and practitioners on different functional areas of entrepreneurship.
The agency has partnered with the Philippine Center for Entrepreneurship (PCE) for the conceptualization of the program, which is one of the three components of its Project Kapatid along with adopt-an-SSF (shared service facilities) and inclusive business.
For the first batch, 18 of the 21 mentees graduated from the program and were able to produce potential improvement plans for their businesses.
In 2018, DTI-Negros Occidental also produced 20 mentees who completed the 10-module sessions last June.
Like the first two other batches, the new set of graduates have completed the entrepreneurial mind-setting and values formation, marketing with market trends, business model canvass, product development, operations management, human resource management, supply and value chain, accounting and financial management modules.
For the BIPs, the template contains business model canvass and plans for four functional areas of business such as marketing plan, operations management plan, financial plan, and organizational management plan.
Gonzales said aside from improving their BIPs, mentees were also given assistance by three financial institutions.
Gonzales said they are mandated to bring the services of the DTI to other localities outside Bacolod City thus, another batch of new mentees might be covered next year.
It will probably be in Kabankalan City, she added.