Business Planning Seminar for Cooperatives

Continuous development of progressive cooperatives in the province of Basilan has remained a key concern for the Department of Agrarian Reform in ARMM. So much have been poured into them in terms of technical assistance through capability building programs as well as financial resources to support the development of agribusiness initiatives among these agrarian reform beneficiaries, yet, the task of providing strategic intervention continues. This is true for less-developed cooperatives that are facing challenges in changing economic environment.

Since rubber is the main commodity, being produced and processed by most of the cooperatives, there is an urgent need to address dependency on a single-income source. The need for these cooperatives to have agri-business activities in order to diversify its income source and mitigate probable drops in rubber prices have become a main concern to government agencies and cooperative leaders alike. Supporting the need for diversification is the provision of business and entrepreneurship training as well as hands-on coaching process that will help in the implementation of strategic projects as well as further strengthening of the cooperatives in the face of external challenges.

 Participants from SCARBIDC ARC

The training program on business planning was geared to help the cooperatives understand the basic of business planning with emphasis on financial management as it impacts the way they manage their businesses. The importance of business planning in today’s world has been emphasized with the compelling need of small business owners or cooperatives and its members understand the need to manage their business activities effectively as they plan for their business’ future and meeting its needs. The training gave the participant better appreciation of the manner how their finances are managed and thus, enabling them to make right business decisions and provide for their future business needs. This is particularly true for a commodity-based business as in the case of rubber cooperatives. The business itself is vulnerable to price swings for rubber and planning ahead of the curve will help ensure the continued viability of their business operations. The training program was designed to address their present needs amidst the financial pressures to stay in business and meeting their financial obligations in a timely manner.  It also addressed the need to handle financial resources and business debts properly.

To augment the proposed business planning training program, an entrepreneurship and financial literacy training component was undertaken. This will complement the training on business planning which helps the participants planning to venture into business earn more income from their investments in small business undertakings. The provision of this training program gave participants another venue to increase their business net worth through the right approach of starting their businesses. This would address typical concerns on managing their risk capital and, at the same time, encourage savings through practical business practices in a less risky manner.

Antonio Peralta of FREEDOM, Inc.

The training was conducted at the helm of Antonio Peralta of the Foundation for Rural Enterprise and Ecology Development of Mindanao (FREEDOM), Inc. and rested on the following aims:

To validate the extent of understanding of business planning and entrepreneurship among the target cooperatives in view of the other training programs previously conducted;

To provide the targeted cooperatives participants with a clear understanding on the importance of business planning and entrepreneurship in their businesses;

To help participants implement a viable business plan that incorporates a financial action plan to help them deal with probable commodity price swings at the same time providing for future contingencies;

To stress the need to have a diversified income stream through other allied undertakings that the target cooperatives may wish to pursue in view of weaning them away from a single-income source; and

To provide the cooperatives participants an in-depth understanding of the processes involved in business planning which includes choosing the type of business they want to undertake through the business coaching process.

 MARBEDCO presents the coop's business plan

A series of workshop were undertaken that tested the participants’ entrepreneurial skills. The participants were also shown the importance of strategic marketing and the highlights of business plan emphasizing different parts as to its organization, manpower, methodology, marketing, and financial aspects. The rubber market trend was presented as well as the cause and effect of climate change that will greatly hurt business.

The training was attended by coop officials from Sta. Clara Agrarian Reform Beneficiaries Integrated Development Cooperative (SCARBIDC), Mangal Agrarian Reform Beneficiaries Development Cooperative (MARBEDCO), Canas Agrarian Reform Beneficiaries Agricultural Development Cooperative (CARBADECO), and Tairan Agrarian Reform Beneficiaries Agricultural Multi-Purpose Cooperative (TARBAMC) with Mahatallang Agrarian Reform Beneficiaries Multi-Purpose Cooperative (MARBEMPCO) as its guest participant.