Page 101 - Abhivruddhi

The unorganised sector often lacks capital cushion to fall back on which
at times leads to closure of the business.
2.2 How did the micro entrepreneurs deal with such adversities?
A collaborative study by CYDA, Pune, conducted on Covid 19 Effect
on Continuity of Micro Business, in April 2020 shows the impact of such
an adversity on the businesses in the unorganised sector.
The study was conducted during the first lockdown in May 2020 across
300 entrepreneurs in Maharashtra who had a business turnover between
Rs.10,000 to Rs. 1,00,000 per month. This study indicated that 39% of
these businesses were set up recently in 2019, 47% were operational for
more than a year but less than 3 years, and 14% were in business for more
than 3 years. Of these respondents 31% were from the age group 18-
30 years, 53% the 30-40 years, 10% in the 40-50 years category and the
smallest group of 6% were entrepreneurs 50 years and above.
There were many success stories that demonstrated how they overcame
the challenges by innovating and diversifying their products, continuing
to strive to make their business profitable in the unorganised sector.
Owing to the drop in sales during Covid, Sita, a fish vendor in
Mumbai decided to diversify her business by selling homemade papads
and masalas along with the fish. The customers would seek her advice
on which masalas would enhance the taste of the fish they bought and
this innovative approach of diversifying to non-perishable products led
to increased turnover.
Rama, a vegetable vendor, who had a successful business diversified
into selling flowers for puja during the lockdown. In addition, she
innovated her offerings and provided livelihood opportunities to two
other women from her community who cleaned all green vegetables, peel
garlic, kidney beans and peas bought by the customers. This innovation
and also the diversification led to an increase in turnover and also in the
number of customers.
Sita’s and Rama’s stories demonstrate that the entrepreneurs are
resilient and flexible. They adapted quickly to new environment and
identified customers’ new requirements, explored ways to innovate and
survive during difficult times.
The study as well as the case studies bring to light important
characteristics of businesses in the unorganised sector. Small businesses
need to build business strategies, respond to the new requirements of
customers, learn management tactics to face adverse business environment
and adopt financial planning.

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