Underlining the crushing impact of the pandemic’s second wave earlier this year on small businesses throughout India, over 70% of MSMEs interviewed for a new survey confirmed that their business suffered a debilitating impact in the aftermath of the second wave. The online survey of 150 MSMEs spread across India was conducted by MSMEx, India’s leading education and growth consulting services platform, to study the impact of covid-19 on the sector.
While 50% of the respondents affirmed that they are yet to fully recover from the ramifications of both waves of the pandemic, nearly 43% MSMEs said they changed their business model to survive the pandemic. When asked about the nature of adjustments made in their businesses, 56% MSME respondents said they were forced to adopt digital for marketing and payments, while 38% said they focused on improving their customer relations. 35% respondents had to take external financial help to support their businesses, while 34% said they moved to a remote working model.
"Our goal for this survey was to identify the breadth and depth of the pandemic’s second wave’s impact on India’s MSME sector, and how we could mitigate this impact and address their problems before another wave hits us. We are glad to see that the small businesses we surveyed have shown tremendous resilience and adaptability to survive. Our observation is that businesses with asset-light models, or those who altered their business models with ease to reduce the cash drain have successfully survived the lockdowns and the aftermath of Covid," said Amit Kumar, CEO and Co-Founder MSMEx.
While 11% respondents said their business has had a positive impact from the pandemic, 15% respondents also said in response to a separate question that their business was performing better than pre-covid times.
When asked about the support received from government schemes and incentives, 50% of the respondents said that the schemes did not help them with sustaining their business through the pandemic. Only 18% of the respondents found government schemes to be supportive. On the contrary, 42% of the respondents said they took financial help from friends and family.
Looking ahead, 42% of the respondents agreed that they need help to address delayed client payments, while 35% wanted government support in the form of lower input costs. 36% of MSMEs surveyed also sought help for dealing with mental stress caused by the unforeseen disruption, underlining the importance of mental health and business coaching and mentorship for running a successful business.
About MSMEx
MSMEx is an EdTech platform for providing Learning, Mentoring and Networking to micro and small Business Owners. Users can attend hundreds of live video sessions and can also talk to experts 1-to-1 over the video calls to get mentorship and advice from highly experienced and curated business experts. If needed these experts may be engaged by business owners for hand holding and execution support. For more information, please visit www.msmex.in
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