OPENING A BUSINESS: DO WE EARN OR SPEND MORE?

(Goodpage Weekly Editorial)

Despite the Philippines being an agricultural country, a hefty number of high school graduates are enticed to take up business courses more than any other.

This might be the result of intensive campaigns for Filipinos to try entrepreneurship—resulting from the motivation that most of those who get rich are not the academically-gifted, but the street-smarts.
 This idea devoured so many Filipinos to the point that business wannabes are not only those who completed business courses but also dropouts, and professionals who chose to shift careers.
On the other end, it is in the government's best interest to keep the economy healthy by, among all other things, ensuring an encouraging environment for small and large businesses. Included in the list of government interventions intended to uplift new entrants are tax incentives, creating multiple money streams, and providing a big data hub.

However, it is apparent that government interventions have not been enough to stave off failures in operating a business. This holds true among those who engage in the micro and small category—those who have to secure a loan to finance their ventures.
In Ormoc City, more than 1,000 new businesses opened in January 2018. Ten months later—October—about 300 right away applied for closure, unable to contain heavy losses wrought by competition, and low sales, stiff government control measures—and utter lack of buying capacity among potential customers.

While government appears to intensify its drive to promote investments, stringent control measures imposed by it are actually among the main reasons why businesses flop just as easily as they pop up.
When someone opens a store, for example, one of the most nagging difficulty is building regulations—setback, occupancy documents. You fail in one of these and you fail in everything.

So the question now is simply whether the emphasis is really on motivating would-be businessmen, or exuding a “pildi-gana” stance by luring them into pouring investments at the start of the year—and pushing them to a forced shutdown at the end of the year.

(Credits to Sir Rene De Los Reyes for editing)