October marks the 8th month since lockdown and COVID took over the country, and looking back, MSMEs have held out in the worst of the storm.
MSMEs are optimistic for the festive season too despite the pandemic forcing cost cuts and job losses. An American Express Survey showed that 80% of small business owners are optimistic about surviving the pandemic. 4 out of 5 businesses believe their business will survive even if the pandemic continues.
What has led to this positive outlook among businesses?
What helped MSMEs revive during the pandemic?
Funding jumps despite cash crunch
Despite COVID-19 taking a toll on business operations, investors and Venture Capitalists continue to bet big on startups and small businesses. An FE report stated that there was a 201% jump in investments in Q3 of 2020 as compared to last years quarter. Startups have altogether raised around $14 billion since last year.
How?
- Sequoia capital introduced a programme to support startups called The Guild initiative for startups to learn from experiences of other entrepreneurs
- Chiratae Ventures launched an edition called ‘The Innovators Program’ to support early-stage startups.
New business owners on the rise
COVID gave way for businesses to pivot during the pandemic and opened business opportunities for new ventures like detect grocery and healthcare. Besides this, the Government eased the process of registering a business on the Udyog portal for MSMEs.
Government initiatives –
Champion Portal – Anyone who has a business idea can pitch their business on this platform to acquire funding or investors interest.
Emergency credit line scheme – For both existing businesses and new businesses under the MSME sector, the Government introduced a ₹3 lakh crore funding programme in varied departments and industries to provide any financial assistance to MSMEs to pay wages and continue operations.
Read: How has the ECLGS helped MSMEs so far?
How MSMEs went online
GeM – Over the last 12 months, order volumes on the ‘Amazon of the Government’ – the Government e-marketplace has increased by 89%. As of today, Government departments and ministries have procured goods work Rs 31, 476 crores out of which over Rs. 10,660 crore is from MSME sellers!
Read: Here’s how you can sell your products/services on the GeM platform.
Instamojo X Google Campaign to ‘Make Small Strong’
We have partnered with Google! Google India announced on Wednesday that it partnered with Zoho, Swiggy, Dunzo, Instamojo and others to help SMEs build a strong digital presence and navigate through the challenging environment. SMEs can create websites using Zoho and with Instamojo they can avail the premium online store.
Small businesses have shifted to a stronger online presence since they had to pull shutters down on brick and mortar stores due to the lockdown, and it has proved beneficial.
With increased benefits like social media presence, shipping services and online payments, having an online store is a great way for MSMEs to reach out to their customers during the festive season.
some sweet graph this 🔥🚀 pic.twitter.com/TRyo3w4bmh
— sampad swain (@sampad) August 15, 2020
With the Instamojo premium online store, you get:
- Over 20+ themes for optimum user experience for customers
- Integrated payment gateway with multiple online payment solutions
- SMS and email campaigns to reach out to more customers
- Custom domains and mailbox
- In-built free apps to collect leads and engage with anyone who visits your online store on Instamojo
- Wholesale and referral discounts for the festive season
- SEO marketing tools for campaigns
