Micro-business Continuity and Resilience Strategies for COVID-19 Crisis: Entrepreneurs' Insight from Bangladesh

Abstract

The contribution of micro-businesses is essential towards economic development in Bangladesh. Micro-enterprises provide income and employment opportunities to the people, especially those with low incomes, and offered more affordable goods and services to the public. The recent outbreak of Covid-19 has severely affected the global and Bangladeshi economy. Primary victims of the Covid-19 outbreak are micro-enterprises compared to large enterprises, as they typically do not have enough financial and managerial resources to cope with a disruption that might carry on for an extended period of time. Additionally, these firms are highly dependent on their routine business transactions and a small number of customers. This article aims to assess the impact of the Covid-19 outbreak on these businesses and provide policy recommendations to reduce business losses and survive through the crisis. Covid-19 pandemics have necessitated several travel bans and restrictive measures. In Bangladesh, the country's resistance movement has the strongest impact on the small business sector. In this manner, many entrepreneurs have to suffer business loss, and reduced income as some supporting sectors such as retail and transportation cease to exist. Therefore, there remains little understanding of a global pandemic's implications on micro-entrepreneurs for business continuity and return-planning efforts. Business Continuity Plan tells the organizations how to act during disasters such as coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19) which organizations usually underestimate can land them in serious troubles.  This study represents micro-entrepreneurs views from Narayanganj, Dhaka, in Bangladesh, about the risks and benefits of mobility as a business continuity strategy. The results of unstructured phone interviews provide insights on the business survival approach and recovery plan of micro-enterprises during and after a crisis. Based on the results of the research, different recovery policy recommendations were proposed to ease the adverse effects of the outbreak on micro-entrepreneurs. The results of this study will hopefully create effective support mechanisms for microentrepreneurs to manage and prosper during and after the crisis.  Although our suggested policy recommendations may not be sufficient to help micro-entrepreneurs go through the ongoing crisis, these measures will help them weather the storm.