SIF, the country’s first super app services and curated products aggregator, opens its platform to create revenue opportunities for displaced Filipino workers and entrepreneurs in light of the COVID-19 pandemic.
With over 40 percent of the country’s adults without jobs, a significant increase of 17 percent brought about by the virus that slowed the economy locally, the threat to financial survival is real. As millions of businesses in the food, service and consumer sector anticipate a more glum third quarter, revenue generation both on a personal and business level has become alarming.
After the quarantine showed strain on the economy and resulted in both employees and business owners transitioning from workplace to home enterprises, the COVID-19 crisis has also accelerated the automation and digitization of most businesses and service providers.
While there are a number of good case studies, many are left in the dark without the resources or skills to transition their businesses to successfully weather the pandemic.
It is in this perspective that the team of SIF devised a plan to provide start-ups, freelancers and even established consultants access to the SIF platform that would offer strong community access to consumers who already preferred to stay home. It also saw the benefit it could lend these entrepreneurs the app’s push marketing, cashless transactions and delivery network thereby, making it easier for new businesses to flourish.
It was all these benefits, coupled with the recognition to play a catalyst role that led SIF to launch The Pivot Project.
“As we were developing the framework for SIF as an independent business, we didn’t know that we were inadvertently developing a model for the Filipino entrepreneur. Naturally, we were engaging businesses and individuals who were already aligned with our vision of providing location-based services such as grooming, beauty & wellness, health, nutrition, fitness that one would usually go out for,” said Luigi Nuñez, SIF founder and chair.
SIF already had an established process for marketing, promotion and transaction for services that were already on the app, all geared to encourage download, registration and purchase of SIF’s offerings long before the pandemic occurred. With the current economic conditions, it was also forced to pivot the original business model into one that addresses a significant national concern.
It remains faithful, however, to its core focus which is to monetize residential assets or unrealized resources not unlike how Airbnb found use for extra rooms in homes or Uber creating a revenue stream from vehicles that were merely parked.
In the case of SIF, it realized that there is a surplus of quality time that can be monetized, whether because they lost their jobs or have reduced work hours and turns it into income via location-based service, teleconsult or empowering start-up enterprises to scale up.
“The Pivot Project is actually a win-win plan for both SIF and those who wish to modernize the operation of their business with a strong online presence and process. Cloud kitchen operators or those who cook amazing dishes from their homes, barbers, retailers on social channels and even professionals can benefit tremendously. In today’s work-from-home model, specialists can still manage to monetize on their extra hours and add income. As for us, we get to offer a wide array of products and services that our users will find convenient,” Nuñez said.
The quarantine and threat of the virus have both contributed to a massive shift in consumer behavior and this is precisely the landscape that SIF was designed to thrive well in.
The Pivot Project, as SIF’s corporate social responsibility program, also tiered its usual revenue model for larger businesses by taking no commission outside of the operational expenses that transactions will incur. The decision further benefits small enterprises who would usually spend a significant amount of expenditure setting up a dynamic promotion and marketing system as well as online cashless payment options on their own.
The app enables users located in other parts of the country to consult or engage the services of professionals such as doctors, teachers, musicians and other consultants with different specializations located elsewhere without having to leave the comfort of their homes. This will also allow those with extra time on their hands to monetize this time according to the number of hours they wish to work.
“We were first out of the gate with this unique model, a hybrid of services and e-commerce, all curated for the market that subscribes to a certain lifestyle, a specific behavior. With the pandemic creating so much uncertainty in the lives of millions of individuals, families and enterprises and with experts projecting a major economic recession, we are heeding the call to help each and every Filipino pivot from being an employee to become their own boss, we just don’t want to help them survive, we want to empower them to thrive given the economic landscape that we’ve evolved into,” Nuñez said.
Brands and individual contractors that will get on board from August to December of this year can obtain a zero-commission partnership, based on their revenue projections, for a period of one to three months under SIF’s Pivot Project.
They will also have the option to offer their products in certain cities in Metro Manila or make it available nationwide, especially useful for individual contractors who prefer to work in a specific area.
