More than 82% of businesses have suffered a negative impact on account of COVID-19 and 70% expect it will take almost a year for demand to recover to pre-pandemic levels, a survey showed.
About 60% of the companies surveyed by Dun & Bradstreet said they would require more support measures, including government initiatives, to withstand the adverse impact.
Market access (42%), improving overall productivity (37%) and access to more finance (34%) were cited as the three key challenges that were most likely to hinder small businesses’ recovery.
The survey covered responses from more than 250 small businesses (50% each in manufacturing and services sectors) with annual revenue between ₹100 crore and ₹300 crore across seven major cities in India. The data indicated that about 95% of firms were impacted in April 2020 when the nationwide lockdown was imposed. Even with progressive unlocking, 70% of businesses remained disrupted till August 2020 and 40% till the end of February 2021.
“During our recent survey, small business owners cited three most important support measures they needed to revive their businesses post the pandemic — better credit facility (59%), better marketing support (48%) and adoption of technology (35%),” said Arun Singh, global chief economist, Dun & Bradstreet.
