KALYENEGOSYO: HELPING MAKE DREAMS COME TRUE

KalyeNegosyo successfully launched Batch 2023 at Max’s Restaurant in Forbes Town, BGC, a fun-filled, emotion-packed day full of excitement and gratitude, attended by 80 VIP guests, previous and current mentees. Now on its 10th year, KalyeNegosyo launched Batch 2023 in partnership with the Department of Trade and Industry and DadBudPh Participants are uniquely comprised of DTI-NCR recommended mentees, DadBudPH entrepreneurs and KalyeNegosyo followers and applicants, a first ever collaboration!

KalyeNegosyo board secretary and administrator, Jenny Wieneke led the invocation, with a prayer of thanks for having become stronger amidst trying times.  Founder and President, Jorge Wieneke explained how KalyeNegosyo started as a mentorship program for the street vendors in Makati in 2013.  “We aimed to level-up the lives of street entrepreneurs, legitimize their businesses and make these more sustainable through education and guidance,” said Wieneke  From educating members of the Barangay Sembo community during its first year to reaching as far as Pangasinan, Pampanga, Laguna and Cagayan de Oro, KalyeNegosyo was able to coach entrepreneurs from all walks of life.   Wieneke then welcomed the organization’s new board of trustees: former DTI Secretary Ramon Lopez, former DTI RD Clarke Nebrao and financial expert Irene Oloris.

DTI  NCRO RD Marcy Alcantara expressed how the Department of Trade and Industry has appreciated the efforts of KalyeNegosyo in helping MSMEs improve their businesses.  Sec. Ramon Lopez gave inspirational thoughts and led the mentees of Batch 2023 as they pledged their commitment to the entrepreneurship program.  KalyeNegosyo graduate Nini Bacani and Jaypee Morales, President of the Association of Filipino Franchisers, Inc. shared their experiences on businesses and franchising.  Mr. Joey Ong, founder of DadBudPh gave words of wisdom on the role of dads as entrepreneurs.

“It all emerged from a dream, wanting to give back to the community and sharing the little that God had blessed me and my wife, Jenny, with,” enshused long-time food entrepreneur, GoNegosyo Angelpreneur, Agora Awardee,  MSME Academy Faculty, professor and business consultant, Jorge Wieneke.  “My eyes were opened to the need to create a country of entrepreneurs.  With poverty being the country’s major problem, I felt that the solution would be to create an entrepvolution where even people from the grassroots level become entrepreneurs in their own right.”

Being a GoNegosyo Angelpreneur has inspired Wieneke to pursue this dream, together with the help of his core Angelpreneur friends who all volunteer for and support KalyeNegosyo.  One of the pioneer entrepreneurship programs in the country, KalyeNegosyo  has helped its participants learn from inspirational and experiential anecdotes from actual entrepreneurs through realizations that even successful people were once ordinary, and have also failed, and eventually thrived. “The idea is to inspire them to realize their dreams,  legitimize their businesses and level up their lives.“ said Wieneke.

KalyeNegosyo is backed up by long-time entrepreneurs and MSME advocates, its other Board of Trustees are: Dean Fransisco Lapid, Jorge Wieneke, Jennifer Wieneke, Armand Bengco, Carlo Calimon, Victor Madlangbayan, and Chef Lowell Cauilan. With such a powerhouse, KalyeNegosyo continues to pursue its advocacy of helping as many entrepreneurs as they can, with the belief in the adage ““If you give a man a fish, you feed him for a day. If you teach a man to fish, you feed him for a lifetime.”