THE “Kapatid Mentor Me” program of the Department of Trade Industry (DTI) has produced 18 potential business improvement plans in Negros Occidental.
Of the initial batch of 21 mentees from the province, 18 completed the 10-module mentoring sessions for 10 weeks and graduated last week.
Rachel Nufable, chief trade and industry development specialist of DTI-Negros Occidental, said these business improvement plans went through panel presentations before the mentors and other industry experts.
She said one of the proposals, which received a very positive remark from the panelists, is making an online application where all information about their products and those of other micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) in the province can be accessed.
“The program has really helped our recipient-MSMEs produce excellent business improvement plans like that of digital marketing,” Nufable said, adding that these enterprises are also capable of acquiring financial assistance, if needed, from various institutions.
On June 29 this year, 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 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.
In Negros Occidental, the mentees, mostly from the food, wearables and homestyle sectors, completed modules like entrepreneurial mind-setting and values formation, and marketing with market trends.
Other modules included business model canvass, product development, operations management, human resource management, supply and value chain, accounting and financial management, taxation, and business law.
Even after graduation, the DTI will still conduct monitoring and continuous coaching, Nufable said.
“This is to ensure that the program is sustainable and that mentees will be more competitive and even become future mentors," she added.
Meanwhile, the three other mentees, who failed to attend one module, will still be assisted by the DTI to finish the program.
They will be allowed to attend the modules they have missed with the program's second batch of mentees possibly this year.