A LEADING telecommunications company offered on Thursday, November 10, its services to budding entrepreneurs in a bid to assist local businesses reach a wider prospect market by going online.
The Philippine Long Distance Telephone Company (PLDT) launched its "PLDT SME Nation Online Thursdays", a program aimed to help owners of small and medium enterprises build and grow their businesses online.
"We are doing it Cagayan de Oro because the city is very booming, when it comes to growing and thriving businesses and we want to help those businesses and inform them of the opportunity and online opportunities. We will have a one-on-one discussion with our clients and talk about everything online, from website to e-commerce, so we give tips, and a little consultation on how to manage your business online," SME Customer Acquisition and Engagement Head Iola Stephanie Barde said.
PLDT SME has invited web developers to entertain and discuss with interested clients during Thursday's one-day activity held at Limketkai Luxe Hotel.
Over 80 local entrepreneurs attended the morning session.
The project assures entrepreneurs three things about having their own websites. First, it will make business establishments "search-able" on any search engine, customers will develop a sense of credibility and legitimacy towards your business and gives a certain business live up to its potential.
"Based on a study, 70 percent of Filipino consumers go online or search you online when looking for a service or a restaurant perhaps, especially when you're new in a certain place, and when your restaurant has a website, when people search you, they will see what you have to offer (for them)," Barde said.
"When it comes to credibility and legitimacy, for example in Facebook and Instagram, maraming nagtitinda ng sapatos at kung anu-ano sa social media pero you have this worry na baka scam and bogus yun, pero kung may website, you have that feeling of assurance," Barde added.
"If you want to be like Lazada or other online shopping sites with a big market range, you have got to invest in websites because you're not limited lang to a page, you can talk anything there about the product, you can add as many pages as possible," Barde further said.
To avail this program, an applicant will shell out an annual service fee of P10,500.
"Next year, we'll go nationwide. Natuwa kami sa response ng mga Kagay-anons, with the number of people who came here, we can really see na Cagayan de Oro has a lot of opportunities (Next year, we'll go nationwide. We were happy with the Kagay-anon's response, with the number of people who came here, we can really see na Cagayan de Oro has a lot of opportunities," Barde said.
One of the participants, Jachylene Jagape, a sales supervisor of a logistics company in Cagayan de Oro, said with the things she learned, she plans to propose a local website to update its customers of their prices and services.
"Advantage siya especially sa isa ka logistics company ang naay website. We plan to create our own domain which would cater possible customers in Northern Mindanao, like updates sa price, for promotion, pero for approval pa ni siya (It's an advantage especially for a logistics company to have a website. We plan to create our own domain which would cater possible customers in Northern Mindanao, like updates sa price, for promotion, but it's still for approval)," Jagape said.
"If you missed the event, our businessmen can always visit any PLDT office or visit our website," Barde said.