Helping small businesses grow fast .

The rapid spread of the novel coronavirus, COVID-19, is severely affecting all aspects of how we communicate, work, produce, trade, consume and live. The economic and social disruption will undermine global growth and disrupt value chains.

The outbreak has not only been in charge of an unparalleled social impact, but it has been followed by downturn & serious economic avalanche impacting the business outlook for quite some time .This may have long-term implications for trade, consumer confidence, investment, employment and overall growth.

Moving forward, it’s important to not just curtail the perils of this downturn & bring back the much required cash flows in the market but create robust processes to reinforce our health systems & ensure life protection against any illness, besides disease caused by Coronavirus. We have to be prepared for a long overhaul on both fronts – health & wealth.

“As always, ordinary people pay the highest price”– Antonio Guterres.

Same applies to the small business, more than the bigger corporations who relatively have strong resource base. The micro, small businesses across the world are increasingly feeling the economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. Some are shut while some on the verge of closing down, struggling to survive.  To help them navigate and tackle the repercussions of the pandemic it’s important to address the following :-

1.   How to help these small & micro businesses survive & grow?What can we do to increase their revenue while controlling costs simultaneously?

2.   Can we improve their efficiency & help them maximise daily savings ?

3.   How can we help the small shop owners, the force behind the rural business venture, come back on track & recover faster?

4.   Do we have solutions that is easier to implement & much easier to scale up without any compromise ?

Same set of business practice may not yield results in these times & hence some , core fundamental shifts needs to be done by these small business.

1.      Online sales are a lifeline

Post COVID 19 impact, more customers are tapping online ordering. Protecting oneself & keeping them away from infection-prone crowded physical market places is need of the hour. Approx. 94% of Indians have visited online retail store on the web & around 75% purchased a product or service online. Its change of habit & learning new skill for the rural micro-trader but it needs to happen if more customers are to be reached & more orders to be fulfilled. It can start with simple Whatsapp to other social media platforms.

2.   Staying in touch with existing customers is essential

I wasn’t surprised to see some of the old traders(local kirana shops doing more business & having large pending orders to be delivered. On probing, I understood this neighbourhood store had started connecting with old set of customers via multiple mediums & querying about general health & family in lockdown. Caring, empathy & agility was at the core of this process & it worked in his favour. Not formal CRM process but traditional method also worked & same could be easily embraced by others too. It’s this time that these local shop owners connect their old database, reach out to more people, be seen & available for their prospective customers.

3.      Cutting unnecessary costs is key. Choose profit multiplying alternatiEV

While the fixed expenses may not be immediately addressed (like shop rentals, salaries in very short term), variable costs can be easily curtailed. Cash conservation is key & all type of extra expense can be prudently avoided. Extra inventory, lesser moving stocks, extra logistics costs, focus on nearby deliveries can really help. One of the major cost is the fuel cost in delivery value chain & switching to much cheaper alternative like escooters can be really good alternative. In today’s scenario, to survive & grow fast on-demand deliveries have to be increased & this will get more revenue. But it’s now wise to continue with traditional vehicle with expensive conventional fuels. - -

-      Why would someone like to pay more for every trip ?

-      Why one has to think of paying for the maintenance in these critical times ?

-      Why does someone have to risk themselves by standing in queue ( when we know how the crowd behaves & how much difficult it is to maintain social distancing?

-      Why would someone not spend money rather on other priority things vs spending on unnecessary fuel?

-      Why should someone make dead trips to the fuel bunk just for filling ? and waste time for this ? ( In rural areas petrol bunks aren’t close by)

Couldn’t the solution be in just switching to electric scooters that can be charged easily at home, go the required distance you wanted, carry as much load as you would require on a scooter, fit the daily passenger & small goods delivery with utmost ease & yet be proudly clean with zero emission. Doesn’t this sounds almost like a boon to solve the short commute logistics problem just with small change that saves today, tomorrow on both fronts -health&wealth?

With electric scooter, a typical last mile delivery person can increase his daily savings by 20-25%, which can save up to whooping 40,000 Rs in a year. With this savings, the cash starved small business can recover the cost of his vehicle in less than 2 years ! 

4.      Be smart . Be responsible. Save tomorrow, today.

The recent catastrophe has impacted health & the cost the world is paying for this unprecedented pandemic is astronomical. By becoming smart & responsible one can only avoid such crisis in future. The voice of millions of #climateactivists has silenced for now but it’s still echoing in our hearts & minds. Every single day of last 2 years, we heard & felt the aftereffects of #climatechange & we can’t take that off from our memories. Acting consciously to prevent such crisis in future is not just obligation but huge responsibility. Using solutions that are affordable isn’t just enough, but it has to be sustainable in long run.Traders & micro businessmen can use escooters to transport their small packs easily in much lesser cost while maintaining the eco-balance of the earth.

             Time to shift to #electric is now.

             Time to embrace the #profit multiplier is now!

#kalkobachao