Impact of Coronavirus on Small Businesses

Small entrepreneurs are amid a churn. It is because the pandemic crisis has significantly changed the business model. Most entrepreneurs lost their business at the beginning of the pandemic because they had to close their stores to primary clientele, i.e., walk-in customers. However, most went online soon.

Many small scale businesses now possess an online store or website that enables consistent transactions. Attributable to the familiarity with online tools and online media, it is convenient to upload products and services for online sales. Since demonetization in 2017, payment mediums have become electronic. It is now helping small scale businesses to receive payments for their services and products without meeting the real buyer.

Even the owners who were not familiar with online business are creating placards and business cards to share on social media and with potential customers. If the only problem to resolve is warehousing and logistics of product delivery and pickup, they are re-working on their business to get a proportional revenue before the COVID-19 crisis. In short, many small scale entrepreneurs are turning around and becoming innovative with their operational methods.

Small entrepreneurs' innovation reaches newer heights because they think of alternative online ways to reach out to customers. In this way, the attitudes of the buyers have drastically changed after the coronavirus pandemic. They are encouraging SMEs to grow and prosper in challenging times.

However, the bigger picture is still pessimistic since the end of this COVID Pandemic is father than our anticipation. Many people in both small and large scale business are still losing their jobs. The current income scenario has given the sharpest acknowledged cuts in recent memory. The small companies that render services, from airlines, hotels, tourism, cosmetic treatments, and restorations to repairs and renovations, are all drastically affected. However, we all know that something is eventually changing.

As a result, the consumption basket is suddenly shrunk, leading many SMEs to fear a massive recessionary result for the Indian economy. On the other hand, the positives are broadly seen in the crisis season. The current innovation seeds hold the power and authority to modify the economic and business narrative. The internet, WiFi, social media, and other technologies that connect and support people have become the saviors for people who cannot imagine their lives and struggles in the new social isolation norm.

As SMEs create and innovate niche in the local markets and as customers showcase preferences for their services and products, the large scale industries will eventually foresee resistance and competition for their products and services. We now doubt whether the advantages of specialization and scale have prompt bulk production, which may have induces more damages.

The creativity and innovation of small scale businesses give a fascinating glimpse. Before the pandemic, the small entrepreneurs would set goals of becoming large and asking for project funding. However, these are not set-targets after the epidemic. There can be a renewed aspect for remaining niche, local, and small.

When the preference asserts, the universal capital investor's market will change. The ideal and much-appreciated SME will not open itself for subscriptions and issue shares. In conclusion, economic profits will make a path in the real market instead of the financial fields. This process is significantly needed to restore the lost business and economic balance.