Menurut Malaysian Global Innovation and Creativity Centre (MaGIC), anggaran 40% perniagaan kecil dan perusahaan social mungkin akan lumpuh jika pandemic ini berlarutan sehingga Hari Raya Aidilfitri. Perniagaan yang paling terkesan adalah dalam kategori seperti akademik, makanan, digital, media, cendermata, dan juga pelancongan. Kenyataan ini adalah perkara yang benar berlaku walaupun ianya sukar untuk ditelani terutamanya kepada peniaga yang baru sahaja ingin berjinak-jinak dalam perniagaan. Sepertimana yang diketahui, Malaysia merupakan negara yang mempunyai keturunan majoriti adalah melayu. Oleh itu, kebanyakkan peniaga kecil pasti ini mengambil kesempatan terhadap perayaan hari raya mahupun ketika bulan puasa. Hal ini kerana ketika bulan puasa, peniaga makanan dapat meningkatkan hasil jualan dengan membuat jualan di bazaar ataupun premis-premis yang disediakan. Namun, virus ini telah memberi kesan kerana tiada lagi penawar yang dapat ditemui telah memyebabkan orang ramai perlu mengelak daripada tempat berkumpul.

Perintah kawalan pergerakkan telah diarahkan pada 18 March 2020 dan tarikh ini merupakan tarikh dimana ianya berdekatan dengan bulan puasa. Oleh itu, majoriti peniaga-peniaga kecil telah membeli barang-barang yang akan dijual ketika bulan puasa kerana permintaan terhadap barang dan makanan adalah tinggi. Namun, modal yang telah dikeluarkan mungkin tidak akan dapat pulangan bahkan ada yang mungkin mendapat kerugian daripada simpanan barang yang tidak dapat dijual. Sebagai peniaga IT pula, mereka akan menerima kejatuhan terhadap permintaan daripada perniaga kecil yang ingin memasarkan produk mereka kerana sesetengah peniagaan tidak dapat dijalankan. Oleh itu, dapat dilihat betapa virus yang wujud ini mampu melumpuhkan perniagaan kecil. Namun sebagai seorang usahawan, kreativiti dan mencari jalan menyelesaian adalah perkara utama yang menjadikan seseorang itu usahawan. Usahawan perlulan mempunyai pemikiran seperti ‘dimana ada kemahuan, disitu ada jalan’ agar langkah-langkah dapat dilakukan bagi mengatasi masalah ini.

Pada pendapat saya, langkah yang boleh dilakukan bagi mengatasi masalah ini adalah dengan memulakan perniagaan atas talian dengan mengunakan media social atau alat telekomunikasi untuk berhubungan dengan pelanggan. Langkah ini dapat meningkatkan kesedaran terhadap pelangan akan perniagaan yang dijalankan dan aliran wang akan terhasil dengan membelian daripada pelanggan. Selain itu, perniaga juga perlu sedar akan bantuan yang diberikan oleh kerajaan kerana MaGIC mendapati bahawa 74.9% tidak mengetahui akan bantuan yang seperti ‘The Covid-19 Special Relief Facility by the central bank and MyCIF P2P by the Securities Commissions’. Di samping itu, kerajaan juga boleh membantu peniaga-peniaga dengan menyediakan satu platform digital ataupun peniagaan e-commerce secara percuma ataupun pada kadar yang berpatutan untuk peniaga memasarkan dan menjalankan perniagaan di atas talian. Akhirnya, pinjaman daripada bank akan memberi kesan yang impak kepada peniaga kecil sekiranya mereka mendapat bantuan dari segi wang agar mereka tidak ketandusan duit ketika kawalan pergerakan dijalankan dan ini secara tidak langsung dapat menangani masalah agar peniaga kecil terus melakukan perniagaannya.

Crisis or opportunity is subjective. Yes, it is definitely a market slump, every business got effected. Think from good perspective, it maybe an opportunity to slow down and think clearer on business vision and how to go further. Before MCO, I think most of the entrepreneurs have planned to transform business by online or virtual resolution, commercialize product through online marketing platform. Covid 19 is just a catalyst to speed up the online revolution plan for the entrepreneurs. Take the MCO time to spend effort to go into online market. Who knows after MCO, it will be another breakthrough of business by online marketing strategy that used during MCO.  

 

Suggestion:
Ensure cash flow can support as long as possible

1. Take more cash in flow
- collect all the debt that is yet to be collected.
- get some loan 
- generate revenue by marketing through online 

 

3. Others
- online learning and training workshop/ course among workers and leaders.  
- cooperate with other entrepreneurs to share their customer source. Eg, Join others FB live/youtube channel (he join yours channel, you join his channel) so as to increase the exposure to market and share the profit together. Sort of things.

Menurutnya, perkara paling utama adalah usahawan perlu menilai semula strategi pemasaran, sasaran jualan, pelan produksi dan aliran tunai. Kata beliau, banyak perniagaan di Malaysia tidak mempunyai pelan pemasaran. Oleh itu dalam keadaan sekarang, usahawan harus duduk dan lakukan pelan pemasaran.

Usahawan adalah sangat digalakkan untuk menggunakan saluran pemasaran yang baharu menggunakan platform dalam talian (online) sebagai medium pemasaran sejajar dengan hasrat kerajaan dalam memastikan kemandirian perniagaan disamping untuk mengurangkan pergerakan rakyat dalam usaha untuk memutuskan rantaian jangkitan Covid-19.

Pada ketika ini, usahawan perlu menghentikan sebarang perancangan mengembangkan perniagaan kerana keadaan secara amnya tidak mengizinkan dan perkara yang lebih penting adalah ada tunai sebagai persiapan untuk sebarang kemungkinan yang bakal berlaku.

Usahawan juga boleh mengambil peluang dengan beralih kepada jualan produk yang diperlukan oleh orang ramai seperti produk sanitasi yang amat diperlukan sekarang untuk memastikan aliran tunai yang berterusan. Namun, harus dipastikan maklumat berkaitan produk itu adalah betul.

Dalam keadaan yang gawat ini terutama bagi usahawan startup, para usahawan dinasihati agar tidak mengambil langkah memberhentikan kakitangan pada ketika ini walaupun keadaan mendesak. Sebaliknya, majikan perlu bersikap telus dengan kakitangan dan menerangkan keadaan yang berlaku kepada syarikat. Perlaksanaan townhall antara majikan dengan pekerja adalah amat digalakkan bagi menerangkan situasi sebenar syarikat selain dapat mencari jalan tengah bagi kedua-dua belah pihak. Cadangan agar kakitangan untuk terus bekerja dari rumah juga boleh dipraktikan dalam usaha meneruskan operasi perniagaan dan pada masa yang sama menyokong kerajaan dalm perlaksanaan Perintah Kawalan Pergerakan (PKP).

Moratorium yang diumumkan oleh kerajaan juga adalah langkah untuk membantu para usahawan dalam memastikan keadaan kewangan syarikat adalah dalam keadaan terkawal ketika negara sedang berperang dengan wabak Covid-19 ini. Oleh itu, para usahawan seharusnya dapat mengambil peluang ini dengan melakukan penstrukturan baharu terhadap aliran kewangan syarikat untuk memastikan perniagaan terus utuh.

Pandemik Covid-19 ini sudah pasti memberi kesan yang signifikan kepada usahawan startup. Walaupun begitu, dengan adanya kerjasama jitu daripada semua pihak, kesan ini dapat diletak pada tahap yang paling minimum.

In my opinion for start up business to deal with this issue is money. They need financial support by making loan or take out their savings and use the concept “Cash is king”.  This is because majority of start up business has too little money to start business as one of the reason the business downfall when this crisis happens. They also don’t face enough experience like this. So, by using the concept of cash is king which means “cash flow , the owner will learn to sustain during this critical time.

 As we know, during RMO almost all premises are closed due to social distancing to avoid covid spreading. So, the profit net of the business will slightly slow down and  might not be able to pay the overhead cost of the premise. Therefore, The start up business owner needs to start business from home to maintain the business profit and do delivery to client house which is more efficient during RMO. 

 Next, they need to change the marketing to commercial their products and services to keep constant sales and cash in to avoid loss. Especially for start up business, Unique and different way of marketing will lead customers in. As we know, this crisis allow people to stay at home and spend their time on surfing internet. By using FB ads, IG ads, Google ads and any platform , the higher of chances people all over the world will get know the business.

 Besides that, BNM (Bank Negara Malaysia)has also provides six months loan moratorium. The moratorium was among the regulatory and supervisory measures imposed by central bank aimed to individuals, SMEs and corporations experiencing temporary financial constraint due to covid-19.This will help the business remain capable maintaining their manpower and continue with their business activities. The government has restructuring of outstanding and loan repayment involves about RM100 billion starting April 1. This will help business owner especially for start up business to face this covid issues without close the business. 

As a newbie entrepreneur, they need to firstly manage their emotion to deal with the crisis of Covid-19. Although it is affecting their business, they need to face this issue positively and keep away from giving up their business easily. Positive spirit should come before having any plans or strategies to handle this pandemic. 

After this, they need to learn and apply the new working policy to operate their business. Those new policies include remote work policy that enable all working members to work remotely by staying in touch even if they are not at the same place. In other words, any meeting or discussion will be conducted virtually instead of physically. Besides, flexible working policy including desk sharing, hotelling and teleworking is able to reduce the operation cost of company (workers’ salary, rental and utilities).

During this pandemic, it is the chance for newbie entrepreneur to utilise the time to promote and strengthen the company presence through many social media channels since most of them are spending their time on surfing internet while staying at home. Besides, newbie entrepreneur can provide some training or talk to their staffs through online.

Find another ways to boost the sale of business. Marketing strategy is playing an important role here. As a business newbie, he or she need to has contingency plan before any unprecedented things happened. For instance, newbie for food and beverage business can use delivery service to continue their business during MCO. Other business like clothes store, bookstore, and electronic store can utilise e-commerce platform to continue generate their profit. Besides, promotion like discount offering or free delivery fees can be applied to gain more business. During MCO, newbie entrepreneur may not earn as much as what they can earn previously but they can still gain some to cover their current operation cost.

LAST CHOICE-GOVERNMENT SUBSIDIES
Malaysia Government had
provided RM600 salary per month for employees provided the requirements is fulfilled. Additionally, utility subsidies and others are also provided. Newbie entrepreneur can choose to accept those subsidies provided to sustain their company.

recently discovered coronavirus- infectious disease. Most people infected with the COVID-19 virus will develop mild to 

moderate respiratory disease and recover without any special treatment being needed. 

Older people and those with underlying medical conditions such as cardiovascular 

disease, diabetes, chronic respiratory disease and cancer are more likely to develop serious illness. Being well educated about the COVID-19 virus, the illness it causes and 

how it spreads is the best way to avoid and slow down transmission.

 Protect yourself and others from contamination by washing your hands or 

regularly using a rub dependent on alcohol, and not touching your skin.

In order to stop the spread of the Covid-19 outbreak, many countries across the world have started implementing very tough measures. Countries and world capital have been put under strict lockdown, bringing a total halt to major industrial production chains.

In Malaysia, many business had to stop their operation because of Covid-19. This is because they did not have employee to work to their business because they worried about their employee's health. 
During this time of 

curfew, several companies were paralysed except supermarket and online delivery services.

Supermarkets and online delivery services have reported a huge growth in demand as customers stockpile goods such as toilet paper, rice and orange juice as the pandemic escalates. However, the buyers have to followed the SOP which has been prescribed by the Malaysian health ministry in order to stop the spread of the Covid-19 outbreak and attack other people.

For me, the young entrepreneurs will effected badly if they did not have plan how to survive in this time. To make sure that their business will survive when this crisis is rampant, they should draw back their business plan such as about how to sell it and so on. In this situation, the use of new marketing platforms using the online platform as a marketing 

tool is strongly advised in line with the Government's aim to ensure business independence.

In this case, the young entrepreneur need to be productive in making decision. Entrepreneurs need to abandon all attempts to expand their company at this stage because the situation is generally unsustainable and, more importantly, cash is in readiness for the potential future.

As a conclusion, Covid-19 does affect every part of our lives. Be productive when make a decision. We don't know how long does the PKP will used in eradication this virus. Hopefully, it is hoped that all the people working together will help the government eradicate the virus by staying at home

 

As most of the people are staying at home during the MCO, I will suggest the newbies and entrepreneurs to utilise the online platform to market their products and offer the delivery services as these two are the best way to maintain the operation of a company. All of the transaction also suggested to be closed through online platform such as online banking system. Apart from that, the delivery service should be offered as it can attract more potential customer. Secondly, the operational cost has to be minimised.  The working hour of worker can be reduced through scheduling instead of cut the number of workers. The most important thing is cannot stop the operation of company during the MCO as it will bring several effects to the company. Thirdly, the entrepreneur must maintain a stable cash flow. Stable cash flow can help the operation of company run smoothly. Fourthly, the flexible working place are suggested to the startup entrepreneur. Flexible working place enable the paperwork be conducted in any suitable place which can reduce the operational cost such as rental fee of office. As a Startup Entrepreneur, I will also focus on make the contingency plan as we don’t know what will be happened in the future. Perfect contigency plan can help to minimise the risks when the unexpected situation happened. 

            

Desired safeguards include hand washing, mouthing while coughing, maintaining distance from others, and 14-day surveillance and isolation for people suspected of being contaminated but our country's Malaysia failed within 14 days and extended to 28 days under the Movement Control (MCO) Order. Efforts to avoid spread include travel bans, quarantines, cancellations, disruptions in activities and cancellations, and the closing of facilities in our country of Malaysia, as well as curfews in China and South Korea, as well as numerous border closures or limitations on incoming travelers, airport screening and train stations, and travel advice on community and school and university areas closed.

According to the Malaysian Global Innovation and Creativity Center (MaGIC), an estimated 40% of small businesses and social enterprises could be crippled if the pandemic continues until the end of Eid Raya Aidilfitri. This pandemic has contributed to global socio-economic instability, postponement and cancelation of cultural, religious and sporting activities, and widespread fears of supply shortages that have triggered panic buying and indirectly forced entrepreneurs to start their own businesses.

Yet we need to position ourselves in a situation where innovative and vital traders are thinking of avoiding the loss and profitability of tackling this problem for our own start-up business. The idea and suggestion that we should do business is that we should all trade online and communicate with consumers what they want.

Via a variety of social media platforms such as Facebook and Instagram, and can also use our own telecommunications tools to help us indirectly streamline our outbound cash flow and also lift our customers perception that we're still trading. In addition, we will need to formulate our business market strategy to improve our cash flow by promoting our service, such as bid, discount and free delivery, so that we can take advantage of ourselves to draw more customers to benefit. As a result, the potential for young people who want to venture out there by starting an e-book or online class is that we are sitting on the internet at home so that we can build online classes to get more clients, employees and improve our own company with our low cost service.

Not only that, for start-ups who want to start a company, they can also send their products straight to the house without customers coming to the store or calling Cash On Delivery (COD) more easily to attract our outgoing money and also to remind our business customers of their usual operations. Last but not least, asking for support from the Bank or government subsidies once a month will support pay for utilities, workers wages or something else to improve our business.

Estimate the financial impact the Covid-19 crisis is having on your business and develop mitigation strategies. Discuss with your staff, key suppliers and key customers the likely impact of Covid-19 on your business.

Businesses will likely be impacted in the following areas:

·  Sales: Particularly if you have little to no online presence.

·  Staff availability: With people’s movements restricted, their ability to work will be curtailed, particularly if they’re unable to work from home.

·  Supply chain: Particularly if you rely on suppliers from badly impacted parts of the world.

·  Finance: Particularly if your cash reserves are low.

If your business is already impacted, start by listing what those impacts are. If you are not impacted yet, you should still be able to make some informed projections.

In listing those possible impacts, attempt to quantify what those impacts will have on your business and identify possible strategies to mitigate them.

Knowing your business’ financial health assists you in deciding what you can and should do now to better your business’ position through the crisis.

Much information on the business’ financial health and performance can be gained by analyzing your financial statements through financial ratios.

The assumptions used to produce your budget are most likely irrelevant because of the crisis. Working with your accountant, take the list of possible impacts of Covid-19 and re-do your budgets.

Include a range of possible previously unthinkable scenarios, such as a 50-80% decline in sales over three to six months, or a supplier being unable to supply you a key item for six weeks.

Carefully consider how each of those scenarios impacts your cash flow.

Your business will likely struggle with cash flow in the near future. Therefore, act now to improve cash flows.

The first step is to prepare a cash flow forecast, and update that forecast throughout the crisis, possibly weekly. This will give you forewarning of any cash flow problems so you can act early to address them.

To remain viable with less customers about, startup businesses will need to begin selling online or increase how much they sell online.

It is important to investigate different online platforms to see which is suited for your business needs.

Review how best to deliver your products to the customer. Service suppliers should investigate digital solutions to the service delivery to reduce the need for physical interaction. Consequently, choose to close some of your physical locations.

Use the crisis as an opportunity to reflect on your business, how it was being run, how you would like it to run post-crisis and whether it is still right for you.

 

Covid-19 outbreak has been affected market demand due to the increase of the unemployment rate. The current main mission for newbie entrepreneur is to cut down the cost and balance with the decrease of revenue. They can choose to create an online platform for their business, this is because running an online business is required less expense than the physical business. Besides that, because of the restriction of movement and hot summer weather, most of the potential customers are prefer doing the “online shopping” in their own home rather than go out shopping. If newbie entrepreneur able to create a well marketing strategy to promote their services and product through internet, it able to increase the revenue of the business.

The issue of Covid-19 outbreak can be a lesson for the newbie entrepreneur to understand “the business should not rely too heavily on human capital”. This is because the biggest weakness of human capital is that “human may sick but the robot didn’t”. The newbie entrepreneur should keep up with the development of artificial intelligence as well as other modern technology. They should try to import and adopt technology in coordinate business activities in order to decrease the demand of business towards human capital. The application of technology in coordinate business activities able to improve the efficiency of the business and reduce the operation cost.

            Based on the findings that have been made by the Malaysian Global Innovation and Creativity Center (MaGIC), it is estimated that around 40% of Startup entrepreneurs and social enterprises may be paralyzed if Covid-19 continues. Therefore, with the loan moratorium it is expected to enhance the cash flow position especially for the 'STARTUP' entrepreneurs. It is well known that, the failure for a business owner to carry on their business operations, it is possible that they may have difficulty in maintaining their business operations. As a result, it will cause them to terminate their employee to reduce their costs. As a result, it will cause a new entrepreneur to lose their confidence to continue the business. Therefore, the best way is to stay up-to-date and passionate to find the best ideas and alternatives to overcome the problem. Take time to plan carefully on effective strategies and create relevant and achievable business plans. Also, get information from relevant websites to get the best ideas.

            In my view, the best way to ensure that 'STARTUP' entrepreneurs to survive in Covid-19 crisis is to redefine the budget with a new assumption to generate new budgets because the existing budget is irrelevant due to the crisis taking into account the effects of Covid-19. Create and think of various possibilities such as declines in sales over a period of time. Make sure your new budget is reasonable.

            Further, establishing an online business as an alternative due to the current situation where it is not possible to do normal business. While sales may not be as encouraging as selling online, at least, they can still earn income by doing business and survive. Therefore, it is important to choose the right platform based on the business suitability like using social media (Instagram, Facebook, Twitter) to get customers. 

            In addition, 'STARTUP' entrepreneurs should also be aware of all the platforms that can be used as an alternative to conducting business as well as take note of any initiatives taken by the government to help entrepreneurs continue their business. In addition, they can form a group of entrepreneurs to come up with a combination of ideas to continue their business by supporting each other business. 

Suggestion:

As a Startup Entrepreneur, I believe every problem has a solution. There have three main questions that I have to solve, which are:

I think it is a wise decision to transform business by online or virtual resolution, commercialize product via online marketing platform for this technological era. However, everything about money as “No money, no talk”. Cash is KING. As a wise entrepreneur should have to put in place a plan to conserve cash for emergency fund. 

I will first evaluate my cash flow situation to see if layoffs are necessary. If really have to layoffs, the companies should write why an employee is being let go in their termination notice and should offer to draft a letter of recommendation for employees. 

I think government has a vital role for assisting the cash flow of SMEs. Government please to focus more on the matters of SMEs during this critical moment. According to SME Corp. Malaysia, the Malaysian economy consists of 98.5% of SMEs where they contribute 38.3% of the country’s GDP, 66% of the country’s employment and around 17.3% of Malaysia’s exports. They are the backbone of our economy arhhh!! 

1.      Keep calm and optimist  

First and foremost, entrepreneur must keep calm because they should have a clear mindset to plan for the next step. This is hard especially when the cash running out, but panic also cannot solve the problem and might affect your decision making. As the leader of organization, entrepreneur should keep calm and healthier mindset to lead and arrange the employee as well. It also can increase the confidence level of employee toward the organization and survive together. Moreover, entrepreneur should be optimist in find the solution to address the problem.

2.      Keep update the latest information

Entrepreneur should follow up the latest policy and initiatives which announced by government. After that, keep in touch and discuss with the stakeholders on the situation to ensure everyone are clear to the condition, it able to help entrepreneur able to make decision as soon as possible to reduce the loss suffer by the organization.

3.      Make a financial plan

Financial management of an organization is most important at this moment. Entrepreneur should define a financial plan for the 3months to ensure the financial of organization able to support the business at least for 3 months. If not, entrepreneur should secure the financial resources quickly to avoid the money run out and ruin the business. To ensure the effectiveness of the financial plan, entrepreneur need to re-evaluate the plan time to time. 

4.      Find the opportunities

Sometimes crisis will be a new opportunity. Entrepreneur should try to turn the crisis to opportunity. Based on the current business, what should be improve and change on the current business to offering a new connection with client. For example, the online purchase and delivery services are becoming a new opportunity for groceries and food suppliers during the MCO period. Many food and vegetable seller start to provide the online purchase and delivery services to maintain their income. Entrepreneur should think for the business model how to create an opportunity for them at this moment.

5.      Upskill your staff

Entrepreneur also need to think for their staff. Entrepreneur can encourage the staff to improve their skills to make them more productive and efficient through the online course, reading and other ways. 

1.Improve sales by utilising online platform

In this pandemic season, peoples’ movement would be highly limited due to the fear of contracting the virus. Entrepreneur should have utilised all online platforms possible, making their appearances more frequent and highlighting their product specialty to target audience. This is to build up a confident image and reach out to more audience during this movement restricted period where there would be less people visiting physically. Example of online platforms are social media, online shopping platform, delivery apps and more. In this special time, convenience of customers should be prioritised by doing delivery service to establish good customer relationship.

2. Lower down the cost of product

The cost of product should be revised. If possible, cheaper materials should be used if it would achieve the almost similar and satisfactory quality. Besides, the cost of raw materials can be reduced by negotiating with existing suppliers or switching to a new and cheaper supplier.

3.Observe on customers demands and trend 

Customers would switch their demand and trend during this economic crisis. They might have developed a new interest in a certain product. Special discount can be made if they purchas in bulk quantity to encourage a higher cash flow for the sustainability of your business. Moreover, customers’ opinion and suggestions should also be taken into account and acknowledge as their pain would help business to improve even more.

4. Government support scheme 

Government plays a very crucial role in supporting the survivability of SME in this economic crisis. Bank loans or supporting scheme can be outlined to alleviate the financial burden of SME. This will allow them to cover their losses and invest the money into boosting their business. Currently, the good news is that Bank Negara had enforced six month loan deferment on all bank loans. 

5. Contingency plan if company projecting towards worst case scenario

Contingency plans should always be prepared by SME if their current plan did not go as planned. The back-up plan should be more than one to be safe. For example, releasing new products, pay cuts, collaborating with other operators and more. Every entrepreneur should have the mindset of expecting the worst outcome during this crisis so that they would be more prepared if anything strikes. Besides, this is to maintain the continuity of their business so that their business can sustain in long term.

One of the most important things as a business startup is to keep calm and always positive. Change our perceptions towards the problem. Nowadays in times of uncertainty and change, business challenges are not a possibility, but a reality that every business will face sooner or later. I believe that if not COVID -19 there are many challenges that we need to face like globalization, digital transformation, political wrecks, among others factors, making them a more complex issue to deal with.  Hence, knowing how to approach complexity, overcoming obstacles and finding strategic solutions is a necessary skill set for any successful manager.

We should leverage creativity and ideation from the current situation. Nowadays online business has become trendy. Take this advantage to change our business model. During this time, make sure business operations come from home. That is why we must do it online. Maybe we can promote our products through social media and so on.  Not only that we can offer extra service such as delivery. Due to lockdown of course people tend to find any  business operation that offers delivery service. Having initiative is central to become success. Not only is it important for customer acquisition, it helps when we have to solve a problem. 

It is possible to identify multiple possible solutions. Prioritizing them following a simple rule. The most simple , doable solution is far superior to complicated. Once prioritized and selected, start trying solutions until we find the right one. Remember that in this time, we want to cut loss and still can gain benefit. We want to maintain our business operation. So that we can still get profit.

Malaysia Government has provided subsidies and relief for the economic sector. To assist SMEs, including micro-entrepreneurs, the Government and Bank Negara Malaysia will provide additional funds worth RM4.5 billion. I believe that financial institutions will be able to provide the needed support to viable SMEs especially in weathering the current economic challenges. It is our responsibility to utilize the funds from the government. 

My suggestions:

 
 i. Utilise the usage of online platform

Service suppliers should investigate digital solutions to the service delivery to reduce the need for physical interaction. It is important to investigate different online platforms to see which is suited for your business needs. The current main mission for new entrepreneur is to cut down the cost and balance with the decrease of revenue. Create an online platform for their business, this is because running an online business is required less expense than the physical business. Online delivery services have reported a huge growth in demand as customers stockpile goods.

 
ii. Re-strategize and find new marketing strategies

The main thing is that entrepreneurs need to re-evaluate their marketing strategies, sales targets, production plans and cash flows. Many businesses in Malaysia do not have a marketing plan. So in the current situation, entrepreneurs need to sit down and execute a marketing plan. Entrepreneur also should try to turn the crisis to opportunity. Based on the current business, what should be improve and change on the current business to offering a new connection with client. They need to think for the business model how to create an opportunity for them at this moment.

              Selain itu, sebanyak 77% responden terjejas dengan perintah kawalan pergerakan khsusnya kepada Pendidikan dan pelajaran, makanan dan minuman, perisian dan digital teknologi maklumat, media, barang dagangan dan pelancongan. Seramai 35% respondan memerlukan pinjaman, 23.8% inginkan mendapatkan geran atau subsidi dan 3.8% ingin penagguhan bayaran pinjaman dilakukan.

              Pada pendapat saya, bagi usahawan ‘startup’ pada musim Covid-19 ini dengan menjalankan perniagaan atas talian yang menggunakan pergerakan dan tenaga kerja yang minimum. Sebagai contoh, bagi perusahaan seperti kedai makanan dan minuman, mereka boleh mengambil inisiatif dengan melakukan khidmat penghantaran makanan mengikut permintaan pelanggan yang berdekatan. Selain itu, mereka juga boleh menggunakan perkhidmatan ‘GrabFood’ dan ‘Foodpanda’ sepanjang tempoh kawalan pergerakan ini. Di samping itu, sebagai usahawan baru, kita perlulah bijak dalam menyusun strategi seperti meminumkan pengambilan tenaga kerja dengan mengikut keupayaan kita untuk membayar gaji pekerja tersebut. Selain meminimumkan tenaga kerja, usahawan juga perlu membuat rundingan dengan tenaga kerja iaitu dengan membuat potongan gaji pekerja sebanyak 30%-50% dari gaji yang biasa diberikan. Hal ini dapat membantu majikan dalam membuat potongan terhadap perkara-perkara yang tidak penting dilakukan sepanjang krisis ini terjadi.

              Menurut Dzulera Abu Bakar, Ketua Pegawai Eksekutif MAGIC, sokongan kewangan akan diberikan bagi membantu aliran tunai perniagaan. Pihak kerajaan akan mengambil inisiatif membantu perusahaan ‘startup’ seperti membuat pinjaman, mendapatkan geran atau subsidi dan penangguhan bayaran pinjaman selama 6 bulan.

              Sebagai usahawan, bantuan yang diberikan adalah wajar bagi membantu usahawan baru di Malaysia. Menurut bekas penganalisis politik iaitu Norizan Sharif atau Nobisha telah menggariskan beberapa langkah yang boleh dilakukan oleh usahawan kecil sepanjang impak Covid-19 ini berlaku. Antaranya adalah usahawan perlu menilai semula strategi pemasaran, sasaran jualan, pelan produksi dan aliran tunai. 

Dengan adanya bantuan yang telah diberikan, usahawan – usahawan baru perlu bijak menyusun langkah dalam penggunaan bantuan yang diberikan dengan menyediakan ramalan aliran tunai dan mengemaskini ramalan sepanjang krisis ini terjadi secara mingguan. Hal ini akan memberikan usahawan peringatan tentang sebarang masalah aliran tunai supaya usahawan boleh bertindak lebih awal untuk menangani masalah ini.

Kesimpulannya, pelbagai langkah inisiatif yang boleh dilakukan oleh usahawan ‘startup’ dan perusahaan sosial dalam membantu dalam perniagaan mereka sepnajang impak Covid-19 ini berlaku.

The entrepreneur who can really take advantage of this tough environment (turn into opportunity) that will build the next generation of leaders.

     Next, according to zero profit, startup business person got to do negotiation with the retail landlord in order to make sure can pay the rent within this RMO. At the same time, need to do negotiation with the worker about pay the lesser salary due to this MCO period. The startup business person also need to think future one week which is rate of profit or sale diminished to form budget for the following coming week or month.

     The business person whose does not prepared with this case will effected them. So the mentality from entrepreneur need to change for example if before this do the retail deal change to delivery services with initiative some free gift or free delivery. Entrepreneur too got to do an innovation to provide easier for buyers to purchase the product such as make a new application that will be use for all others entrepreneur.

In conclusion, startup business person got to utilize this RMO as an opportunity to create new innovation that will improve the continuity business.

Regarding to the startup business recommendation, I would like to suggest to utilize the usage of online platform which is can varies from website to social media. This can help to reduce the physical interaction between supplier and seller, and also between seller and buyer. By doing this online platform, the entrepreneur will get to decrease the cost because less expense needed for online business than the physical business. Social media such as Facebook and Instagram are the most common platform to use to promote their business. Besides, the engagement in social media is the highest during this MCO as people tend to stay at their home and surfing the platform. The online delivery and courier services also have the high demand during this time. 

Other than that, entrepreneurs have to plan for new marketing strategies. As a business person, innovation and backup plan are the most important thing to have in the strategies. They have to think the way to make their business easier for both parties and make new connection with them. This way can help the entrepreneurs in facing the difficult situation like this Covid-19 outbreak. 

Second, focus on the products that make customers money or save their money. Which is to say, I should have to be less focus on the product that they are don’t need. Knowing and understanding customer needs is at the centre of every successful business, whether it sells directly to individuals or other businesses. Once have this knowledge, I can use it to persuade potential and existing customers that buying from us is in their best interests. 

Other than that, I think I would use expert and forecast carefully. It is a better approach to understanding what’s going on and what works guided by expert opinion. Expert would be more experience than I which is just a Startup Entrepreneur and expert opinions help decision-makers in the business towards achievement and success which could be avoid the wrong path as an Entrepreneur.

You need to figure out where to invest and where to pull back. A change of plan in your business is a must. Think of what kind of services or products that people need most. Are you able to offer such type of products or services (i.e. hand sanitizer, face mask, food delivery services etc.). Determine your competitive advantages. If yes, your startup have the right resources to allow you to do so, then you should proceed with it. If not, you might need to pull back on doing business and instead invest in somewhere else. One good example is to take the opportunity to really focus in improving your existing product and technology. It is also the best time to train staff by providing them an online learning platform. It will also be one great way to keep your staff busy and reduce uncertainty or panic.

At this moment, you should focus on making your business survive instead of boosting sales or trying something new. Therefore, it is important to have contact and keep a good relationship with existing customer. Follow up work is important, make your clients well-inform of how your business is doing, whether there will be a delay or interruption on the delivery or performance of contractual obligations and assure them that you are trying your best to minimize their loss or risk. You might also focus on the legal aspect, revise the terms of engagement and came up with plans that benefits both parties. If your startup is in a strong financial position, you may opt to offer refund or make your client to agree to delay the performance of obligations to the future (a good way to ensure your sales for the future next few months). If your company is lack of liquidity to offer refund instantly, you might want to defend by claiming force majeure clause.

Judging from the current situation where it is unknown whether the lock down period will be extended, you should come up with ways to keep your business stay afloat. One of the most effective way to diversify your sales channels is by selling your products online. There are various types of platform such as a POS-integrated ecommerce platform, an ecommerce platform like Shopify, Facebook or Instagram, an online marketplace like Lazada or Shopee etc. Offer discount codes, sales promotion or free shipping to lure people to buy your products. Try to run some ads about your products or services, remind people that your startup are with them together to fight this war.                   

 

Pihak kerajaan akan mengambil inisiatif dengan membantu perusahaan baru seperti membuat pinjaman, mendapatkan geran atau subsidi dan penangguhan bayaran pinjaman selama 6 bulan ini secara langsung dapat membantu golongan peniaga kecil dan baru dalam mengharungi Perintah Kawalan Pergerakan ini. Walaupun bantuan telah diberikan oleh pihak kerajaan, para peniaga diharap perlu bijak mengatur langkah dalam menggunakan bantuan yang telah diberikan dengan menyediakan ramalan aliran tunai dan mengemaskini ramalan sepanjang krisis ini terjadi secara mingguan. Hal ini akan memberikan usahawan peringatan tentang sebarang masalah aliran tunai supaya usahawan boleh bertindak lebih awal dan sistematik untuk menangani masalah ini.

Terdapat juga beberapa langkah yang boleh diambil para peniaga. Antaranya ialah mereka digalakkan untuk menggunakan platform baharu seperti di atas talian (online) sebagai medium pemasaran sejajar dengan hasrat kerajaan dalam memastikan kemandirian perniagaan disamping untuk mengurangkan pergerakan rakyat dalam usaha untuk memutuskan rantaian jangkitan Covid-19. Mereka boleh menggunakan media social sedia ada yang biasa digunakan seperti Facebook, Whatsapp dan Twitter sebagai medium mereka untuk menjual produk mereka dan membuat penghantaran secara “Cash on Delivery” ataupun penghantaran ke rumah.

Para peniaga juga boleh mengambil peluang dengan menjual produk yang diperlukan oleh orang ramai seperti produk sanitasi, topeng muka dan sarung tangan iaitu antara barang yang amat diperlukan pada waktu ini demi memastikan aliran tunai yang berterusan. Namun, harus dipastikan maklumat berkaitan produk itu adalah betul. Para peniaga juga disarankan untuk tidak menjual barangan keperluan tersebut dengan kadar harga yang tinggi dan perlu menetapkan had yang sesuai bagi seseorang pembeli tersebut. Ini adalah supaya produk tersebut dapat digunakan oleh ramai pihak dan bukannya beberapa pihak sahaja.

Dalam keadaan yang kritikal ini peniaga dinasihati agar tidak mengambil langkah dengan memberhentikan pekerja mereka pada ketika ini walaupun keadaan mendesak. Sebaliknya, majikan perlu berbincang dengan pekerja mereka dengan menerangkan keadaan yang berlaku kepada syarikat. Ini dapat membantu pekerja supaya faham akan situasi sebenar syarikat selain dapat mencari jalan tengah bagi kedua-dua belah pihak. Cadangan agar pekerja untuk terus bekerja dari rumah juga boleh dipraktikan dalam usaha meneruskan operasi perniagaan dan pada masa yang sama menyokong kerajaan dalm perlaksanaan Perintah Kawalan Pergerakan.

Sesungguhnya tidak ada di antara kita yang inginkan wabak ini untuk melanda seluruh negara. Walaupun wabak ini akan memberi banyak kesan buruk kepada kita semua, kita perlu bekerjasama dengan bertindak dengan bijak dan patuh akan saranan kerajaan supaya tetap tinggal di rumah dan bukanlah keluar rumah tanpa sebarang tujuan. Perkara ini akan membantu sedikit sebanyak dalam membantera COVID-19 yang sedang melanda daripada merebak dengan lebih teruk.

 

1.       Communicate with customer via customer tools

 

Everyone is facing this crisis together, it is more safe and convenient to have transparent communication to deal with customer. An entreprenuer can create application for IOS and Android. For example, for people owning laptop repair business, creating apps will be helpful. This is because during the pandemic, people can contact the entrepreneur via apps regarding service needed and easy for the shop owner/worker to get laptop from their doorstep for repair.

 

 

2.      Cash conservation 

 

New Startups should keep their cash safe and carefully look at costs. According to Tej Kapoor, co-executive president, Fosun RZ Capital (India and Africa) said newbies should have liquid cash equal to about nine months of expenses. However, the focus should not just be on conserving cash but also on how that cash is being used especially during this 

pandemic. This is the time where, we need Cut on marketing spends, customer acquisition costs and put expansion plans on a back footing. At the same time be sensitive towards vendors and others who are at the bottom of the value chain and make payments wherever necessary

 

3.       Fix Your Business Model

It can be difficult, if not impossible, to make changes to our business model when you're growing. Even the idea of raising your prices or adding new products can be overwhelming as you service customers as fast as possible. But now is the perfect time to put changes like these in place. How could we put through a small price increase that can dramatically impact profits when revenue starts to grow or perhaps add a bunch of value to customer to help retention? This is also a prime opportunity to explore ways to add recurring revenue our business model because that will dramatically increase the value of our business. Just like how the entire software industry shifted from service contracts to billing monthly on a software-as-a-service basis, you need to be thinking about how to build that kind of model into your business.

 

4.      Conduct for Post Covid 19 Stage 

As entrepreneur, we need to prepare for post covid 19 stage. We are telling our portfolio companies that things will resume in the next 4-6 weeks, but will still be slow. So it is important to prepare for that phase as well. For Business-to-businessthe slowdown can be relatively longer because customer businesses must have also been hit, affecting the entire cycle. According to Swami of ( Prime Ventures,2020) Many of the customers will also go out of business or downsize their projects. So, startups should prepare for about 30-35 per cent depletion in revenue.

 

 

5.      Can Utilize government help during the pandemic

 

For businesses, the first economic stimulus package focused on boosting key industries suffering the brunt of the pandemic, including travel, hotels, airlines, retail, and theme parks, but many such incentives, such as those to promote tourism, are no longer relevant in the face of a world in lockdown in a worsening pandemic. So the RM100 billion allocated in the new economic stimulus package to support business and expands to cover other sectors is well welcomed. Existing funds to assist small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in maintaining working capital will be increased by RM4.5 billion. Businesses will also appreciate the cash flow relief from the exemption from contributions to the mandatory Human Resources Development Fund (HDRF) for six months, which will free up RM440 million, the deferment of employers’ contributions to the EPF, estimated  at RM10 billion, and subsidies for wages for three months, which will cost the government RM5.9 billion. These wage subsidies for companies will go a long way to stem the retrenchment of workers.

Thus, a startup entrepreneur should figure out ways to survive in this MCO period. It is obvious that everyone is staying at home in this time being. So, this is the right time for all the startup business to start utilizing the online platforms. Be it websites or social medias, those will surely can use to market the businesses. Besides, offering delivery services can also contributes to the sales productions since everyone will buy it from home. 

Other than that, it would be better if ones make a backup plan. What I meant by making a backup plan is that, sometimes all the small businesses need some cash flows so that it could support all the overhead costs that need to be paid. One alternative way is by selling the high- demand products such as masks and hand sanitizers. People would always look up for these in this outbreak period. Even though it will not bring much compare to initial business, but the business needs to survive. 

Last but not least, it would be better if ones take the initiative to minimize the operation costs that included employee salaries, rental fees and production costs. As for the rental fees, it would be better if ones try to negotiate with the landlords to reduce the cost. This will save a lot as the rental fees usually cost more compare to the other costs. In conclusion, there’s no denying that this outbreak has affected a lot of people. But this is the right time for all of us to unite as one and cooperate to survive in this period.

During Movement Control Order, majority of entrepreneur become deadlock and cannot manage their business properly. Some of them maybe choose to closed their business at the end because the profit cannot cover up their expenses especially for newbies. For me, when something like this happen we need to be positive and know how to control our emotion wisely. This is because when we think with emotion, we will make the wrong decision and sometimes regret at the end.  Try to be positive and find the best solution for our problem such as during this era we know that everyone is familiar with internet connection so take the advantage of this technology by making the online business. Example of online business platform that we can use are Facebook, Instagram, Whatsapp, Twitter and many more. Via this platform you can promote your product and make some short teaser to attract your customers. You also can open order for customers and give service to delivery your product for those who is interested with your product or we call it Cash on Delivery(COD). This way is more efficient right now because we know that coronavirus can spread easily and people must have social distancing so avoid that virus. So I think some people much prefer to shopping online as their precaution step. 

Other than that, you also can minimize the operation cost. You maybe can postpone the unimportant event that have been planned so that the allocation of money can be used on urgent matter. Try to negotiate with your workers to cut off maybe 20% from their salary based on sales during MCO and give them bonus after the business become stable. You also can try to negotiate with the supplier to give the discount during pandemics of Covid19. Teach the workers to make online business and maybe they can COD the product according to their area of their home. 

Besides, starting 1 April, Malaysia had announced an economic stimulus package worth RM250 billion which comprises microcredit scheme for SMEs, among other initiative. Of the total, RM100 billion will be used to support businesses through initiative including a government guarantee scheme for the corporate sector. In addition, another RM4.5 billion will be prepared by government and Bank Negara Malaysia(BNM) to support SMEs. This initiative was had by the government to help people maintain with their business. So everyone must use the initiative from the government wisely.

Subsequently, time management is very important to the business, time management is very difficult task for an entrepreneur. I have to make a schedule for everything that i have to do ,after finish of that work, i have to ticked off so that it will become easy to know what i have done and what else i have to do. I have to make a target for days and weeks and try to achieve them. Don’t have to waste time for making decision. Take less time for any process. Working in a team will save the time.

Even with such huge disturbances and danger of disease, your business critically needs new methodologies to work, while guaranteeing securely for each worker.

One methodology promptly rings a bell — telecommuting — to limit human interaction and forestall conceivable danger of transmission.

Be that as it may, can your business keep working with decreased labor, or even with no physical nearness, in the workplace?

Remote access and the executives presents the undeniable answer.

Staff can telecommute or work from a sheltered area, diminishing conceivable disease introduction, yet having consistent access to the organization's assets and administrations. They can in any case discuss essentially with their partners and work offsite to keep up the smooth progression of corporate tasks.

Essentially, it will be business as usual.

Here are some key highlights you ought to consider when hoping to put resources into remote access for your organization.

·         Concentrated uninterruptible 24/7 control and monitoring. Aspects of monitoring include alerts on device performance and health, general performance checks and detailed investigations. This in a perfect world can be computerized and led over the web for the board from wherever, whenever. The nonstop control and access empower ceaseless tasks in any event, during normal/man-made catastrophes and unexpected emergencies, for example, plagues. By following remote client and framework occasions, any unusual action or potential cyberattacks will be hailed out and gone to immediately.

 

·         Security and client benefit access /authorization. You as the administrator chief/leader chooses the degrees of access and rights for various staff, with brought together verification and approval abilities. Access and control of gear dependent on client adjustable criteria, coupled by united logging and review trails, help to secure corporate assets and framework trustworthiness.

 

·         Remote and local access with multiple users. Enabling access from smartphones, mobile devices, laptops, PCs or workstations allows control of equipment by different-level personnel over the corporate network for uninterrupted operations

 

·         Remote maintenance. General upkeep of your organization's frameworks can be mostly or completely computerized; in the event that it tends to be done out of sight or after available time, that is a reward.

 

·         Incorporation with existing heterogeneous endeavor frameworks and stages, including OCR innovation and large information investigation. Consistent joining of equipment and programming, which may traverse numerous locales, limit customization and design. This means less time and cost for arrangement and organization.

 

·         Snapshots collection and storage. Supervisors have the ability to automatically collect and save video snapshots from equipment for viewing and share device status with multiple users.

 

·         Different highlights that apply to your specific industry, for example, industrial facility computerization and coordination with complex restrictive procedures.

 

According to Market Research Future, major drivers of the remote access management market are the increasing employee strength globally and the flexibility to work from anywhere, anytime. It is simple, flexible and provides cost-effective licensing. 

To deal with this, the startup entrepreneur needs to hold more cash in their hand. The more cash you hold, the higher the percentage your survive. At this period the entrepreneur are suggest to run their other plan. Before start up any business, every entrepreneur must have a plan to facing any changing. Besides, the entrepreneur also must deal with every party to cut down their operating cost. In dealing between both party it must come with win-win situation. Next, try to get your business online. During this period, the entrepreneur can run everything which can go or work online. The outbreak of the covid 19 have cause the rising of online market and the online market are estimate to reach 3500 million US dollar before 2025. Therefore, the start up business can use this time to start and plan their business online. The entrepreneur also can use this time to marketing their brand online and find more investor to invest in their business. Besides that, the startup entrepreneur also can use this time to train their staff through online in order to improve their knowledge and their skill. The entrepreneur also can use this time to improve their business such as find out the problem and the weakness of their business, hire more high-quality staff and so on. 

In short, during the outbreak of covid 19, the startup entrepreneurs must be calm to found the way to survive from this issue and try to bring your business into online market. The government also must come out some plan to help this Startup entrepreneurs to survive from current situation but the startup entrepreneurs must not too depend on the government as the dropping of current economic. 

Service suppliers should investigate digital solutions to the service delivery to reduce the need for physical interaction. It is important to investigate different online platforms to see which is suited for your business needs. The current main mission for new entrepreneur is to cut down the cost and balance with the decrease of revenue. Create an online platform for their business, this is because running an online business is required less expense than the physical business. Online delivery services have reported a huge growth in demand as customers stockpile goods.

 

Most of the start-up business that can not operate during this period. They are not able to sustain because of the problem of cash flow and their capital is not enough to cover up their expenses as they have to pay for the employee salary and rental fee.

 
Therefore, my suggestion for the start-up entrepreneur :

1. Aware of Customer Demand 

When this crisis occurs, a start-up entrepreneur has to take an opportunity by aware of customer demand according to this situation. As we know, customer demand will change depending on the current situation. They might have developed a new interest in a certain product. Meanwhile, the starT-up entrepreneur also can sell a substitute product with the same function of the demand. This is because customer demand might be difficult to obtain. 

 

Business financial health can assist in deciding what the entrepreneur can and should do now to grow the business through this crisis. In addition, an entrepreneur must observe their financial plan at least for the next three months. This was to make ensure the financial are able to support the business. The entrepreneur also have to avoid the money run out quickly because it can ruin the business due to lack of source of income. Therefore, take an incentive to minimize the cost of operation. For example staff salaries and rental reduction. Try to negotiate with them in a good way. Maybe for the salary, the reduction is only during the MCO and they will get a bonus after this crisis over. 

 

The online platform has widely used around the world. It can promote and straighten the business presence through online platform due to most people now are staying at their home while spend their time surfing the internet. They can sell things through Facebook or Instagram. By operating an online business, they are no need to pay for the shop rental fee and the customers can buy stuff online without have by going out. 

As we know, Malaysia Government has provided subsidies and relief for the economic sector. Government and Bank Negara Malaysia will provide additional funds worth RM4.5 billion to help SMEs, including micro-entrepreneurs. This will allow the start-up entrepreneur to cover their losses and invest the money into boosting their business.

 

 

With movement restricted, and people encouraged to stay at home, F&B businesses are reporting a ~30% increase in food delivery requests. During a COVID-19 lockdown (like now), both businesses and Malaysian consumers are going to need food delivery more than ever. If you’ve ever wondered if you should hop on the food delivery bandwagon – now’s the time. Here are some options 1. Get on a food delivery marketplace like GrabFood or Foodpanda (catch is their service fees go as high as 35%). 2. Enable food delivery for your shop with services such as Beep Delivery by StoreHub (service fees as low as 2%). Promote your food delivery across all your social media channels, send out an SMS blast to your customers, and update your Google My Business profile to get traffic to your site.

The Telegraph reported that according to the World Health Organisation (WHO), banknotes may spread the coronavirus (COVID-19) disease. This is because banknotes change hands often, so they can pick up all sorts of bacteria and viruses. It’s even gotten to the point where China and South Korea are disinfecting/isolating/burning old or dirty notes. So if you’ve ever wanted to try and implement contactless payment options like ewallets in your physical store, now’s the time to do so. Some contactless payment options that you can accept are: Credit card terminal with contactless payWave feature, QR pay, Ewallet. You should still look into offering more contactless payment options even without the coronavirus, because there has been a rise in electronic payment preference over cash recently. Malaysia, for example, saw that 74% are becoming less reliant on cash and prefer to use electronic payment methods instead. Promote your contactless payment options in light of the coronavirus on social media to improve your brand perception online.

People are more reluctant to go out now due to the rise of coronavirus (COVID-19) cases. And less people outdoors means less sales for physical stores. So as a business owner they need to keep generating revenue for their store by sell online. This will allow customers to still shop with you, but, from the comforts of their own homes. It also minimises the risk of a coronavirus infection in your physical store. So set up your online shop with a POS system like StoreHub, which comes with an ecommerce feature that lets you sell both online and offline easily, because it automatically syncs all your available products. This way of stock management lets you know exactly how much total stock you have left. And this is especially important during this time because of ongoing shipment and supplier delays. Once its set up, promote your online shop via social media/SMS/WhatsApp/email so people know that you’re now selling online.

 

Dalam kita tidak sedar, penularan wabak ini secara tidak langsung menghukum ekonomi negara ke tahap yang sangat membimbangkan. Pelbagai sektor terpaksa meminimakan pergerakan urusan mereka malah ada jugak yang terpaksa dihentikan disebabkan penularan wabak ini. Baru-baru ini, Perdana Menteri Malaysia telah mengumumkan Perintah Kawalan Pergerakan (PKP) yang berkuatkuasa mulai 18 Mac hingga 14 April 2020 bagi tujuan memutuskan rantaian penularan Covid-19 ini. Secara tidak langsung perkara ini memberikan kesan kepada pelbagai organisasi yang terpaksa merehatkan sementara urusan mereka. Contohnya sektor pendidikan, pembinaan, pelancongan serta perdagangan. Dalam masa yang sama, kilang-kilang pembuatan bahan binaan juga terpaksa meminimakan pengeluaran mereka kerana kekurangan tenaga buruh untuk mengendalikannya malahan sumber bahan pembuatan yang diambil dan dibeli dari pembekal luar negara oleh sesetengah syarikat pembuatan bahan binaan terjejas akibat negara pembekal juga mengalami krisis wabak yang sama. 

Selain itu, perkara ini turut memberikan kesan kepada perusahaan ‘startup’ dimana pendapatan serta perniagaan mereka juga turut terjejas akibat penularan wabak Covid-119. Berdasarkan kajian oleh Malaysian Global Innovation and Creativity Centre (MaGIC) menyatakan bahawa lebih kurang 40% perniagaan kecil dan perusahaan sosial kemungkinan akan lumpuh sekiranya wabak ini berlarutan sehingga menjelang Aidilfitri tahun ini. Hal ini kerana sepanjang tempoh PKP ini dijalankan, rakyat tidak boleh melakukan sebarang aktiviti yang melibatkan ramai orang malah tidak dibenarkan untuk keluar rumah jika tiada keperluan penting. Hal ini sangat terkesan kepada perniagaan ‘startup’ yang telah mengeluarkan modal yang banyak bagi memulakan perniagaan mereka. Oleh itu, pada pendapat saya terdapat beberapa langkah yang boleh dilakukan dalam memastikan perniagaan mereka masih boleh dilaksanakan walaupun dalam keadaan yang minima.

Sebagai usahawan, kita perlu sentiasa peka dengan keadaan semasa yang melanda negara kita mahupun luar negara. Contohnya, dalam keadaan negara kita yang sedang dilanda dengan wabak Covid-19 ini, setiap usahawan perlu sentiasa mengetahui apa tindakan dan sumbangan kerajaan yang dilaksanakan bagi membantu rakyat. Contohnya, pihak kerajaan telah melakukan inisiatif untuk memberikan penangguhan bayaran pinjaman selama 6 bulan. Perkara ini sedikit sebanyak dapat meringankan sedikit beban usahawan terutamanya usahwan ‘startup’ yang berkaitan dengan aliran tunai perniagaan mereka. Hal ini juga dapat membantu dalam memastikan kelangsungan dalam perniagaan kita.

Seterusnya, menggunakan media sosial sebagai platform utama dalam memasarkan barangan yang dijual. Dalam keadaan yang sebegini, media sosial boleh menjadi punca utama dalam memastikan perniagaan kita sentiasa dipandang dan berjalan seperti biasa. Misalnya, melakukan pemasaran yang menyeluruh berkaitan produk melalui Facebook, Telegram, Twitter dan Whatsapp. Dalam masa yang sama, melakukan khidmat penghantaran (Delivery Service) tetapi terhad kepada kawasan yang berdekatan sahaja untuk menjual produk sama ada makanan atau sebagainya. Walaupun kaedah ini mungkin menimbulkan kerisauan kepada para pelanggan kerana takut untuk bertemu dengan orang lain dalam keadaan sebegini. Namun begitu, sebagai usahawan ‘startup’ kita boleh melaksanakan khidmat penghantaran dengan cara yang lebih kreatif seperti menggalakkan pembeli membuat pembayaran secara ‘online banking’ daripada membayar secara tunai. Kita juga boleh mengamalkan langkah ‘social distancing’ seperti yang diarahkan oleh kerajaan dengan cara kita meletakkan barangan tersebut di pagar rumah, peti surat atau tembok rumah tanpa bertemu dengan pelanggan kita. Kita juga boleh berdiri 1 meter daripada kawasan tersebut untuk memastikan pelanggan kita telah mengambil barangan tersebut. Hal ini dapat meminimumkan kos kerana keperluan pekerja dapat dikurangkan.

Akhir sekali, merangka semula pelan perniagaan dan aliran tunai perniagaan. Sebagai usahawan ‘startup’ sudah pastinya akan mengalami kesukaran dalam waktu sebegini. Oleh itu, kita perlu mengenalpasti dan mengetahui permintaan pelanggan terhadap produk yang dikeluarkan serta meminimumkan kos dengan sebaiknya. Kita perlu mengurangkan kos dan mengambilkira risiko yang akan dialami. Contohnya, kita perlu mengurangkan jumlah pekerja dan meminimakan waktu kerja mereka. 

Secara keseluruhannya, setiap usahawan perlu kreatif dalam memastikan perniagaan mereka dapat dilaksanakan dengan baik walaupun keadaan negara kita amat membimbangkan. Setiap usahawan perlulah optimis dan bertindak dengan segera apabila keadaan sebegini berlaku. Usahawan juga hendaklah mempunyai daya inovasi tinggi dalam menyusun pemasaran produk untuk memastikan perniagaan mereka mampu menembusi pasaran walaupun keadaan semasa menyukarkan penjualan produk mereka.

 

Antara cadangan bagi menangani isu ini ialah :

Terdapat ramai peniaga terutamanya peniaga-peniaga kecil tidak mempunyai pelan pemasaran yang betul dan cekap bagi menguruskan perniagaan yang mereka jalankan. Pelan pemasaran amat penting bagi menghasilkan pendapatan dan produk dapat dijual dengan baik walaupun terdapat krisis covid19.
 

Terdapat segelintir peniaga yang melakukan perniagaan secara “offline” mula terjejas apabila mereka tidak dapat menjual barangan atau produk yang mereka keluarkan. Justeru itu, mereka perlu merancang dan melakukan perniagaan menerusi atas talian bagi memudahkan lagi urusan jual beli.
 

Pada masa kini, ianya adalah tidak wajar untuk merancang bagi meluaskan lagi perniagaan mereka seperti menambah cawangan atau sebagainya kerana ia akan melibatkan kos yang banyak. Dalam keadaan sekarang peniaga seharusnya memberi focus terhadap perniagaan yang sedia ada.
 

Perniagaan startup perlu juga lihat terhadap produk yang mempunyai permintaan yang tinggi pada masa sekarang. Namun, ia haruslah memenuhi piawaian yang ditetapkan dan tidak boleh mengambil mudah terhadap apa yang hendak dijual.
 

Bagi peniaga yang telah mempunyai barangan tersendiri, mereka boleh mengurangkan kos terhadap barangan yang dijual supaya harga yang ditetapkan berpatutan dengan barangan yang dijual. Terdapat ramai peniaga yang mengambil kesempatan dengan meningkatkan kos dan harga barangan sehingga ia boleh menyebabkan kerugian terhadap peniaga itu sendiri.

Akhir sekali, perniagaan startup dan perusahaan sosial perlukan meneruskan melakukan perniagaan mereka dan merancang dengan lebih baik untuk meningkatkan lagi hasil penjualan mereka walaupun terdapat sedikit kesan yang menyebabkan perniagaan mereka terjejas. Dengan adanya pinjaman bank juga dapat membantu peniaga kecil untuk bertahan dalam tempoh kawalan pergerakan dan beberapa bulan akan datang.

- Maintaining a healthy cash flow is urgent and nothing should be given more attention other than properly managing finance

- Have efficient accounting tools in place and of course, minimize costs. 

- Keeping and maintaining a list of good paymasters. 

 

Currently, majority will be spending all their time at home except for those under essential service category or out for medical help and getting basic necessities. Humans are relational creatures, statistics have shown total users on Zoom, Google Hangout and Meet have increased more than 100% in numbers which shows us how many people are spending time online more than ever before. For me, I will ensure that my presence online will be felt by my potential customers and current investors so that they are confident that we are strong as a business entity by:

- Remaining active on social media with a page or somewhat having celebrities recording a short video to encourage people or just updating latest news

- Utilizing e-shopping and e-conference platforms for advertisement and promotions

- Launching apps is a must to reach the people 

 

Voicing out through proper channels to ask for help assistance and support is important. Next would be ensuring there is no delay or complications in the process of receiving such help, especially from the government bodies. Understanding all law and regulations, terms and conditions as well as always be prepared with necessary documents for applications is important. 

In such a situation, adapting, being flexible and creating a win-win situations would be my priority. Seeking out for potential partners including competitors who are having a different edge which the company doesn’t have would be wise and reasonable. Synergy is needed to survive in such extreme circumstances and come out stronger for the long run.   

My idea or suggestion:

1)      To counter first problem regarding customers, all the start-up must know to use online platform. Not only during this outbreak but online platform is started to gain interest nowadays due to people don’t want to waste their time go shopping and have to face traffic jam and so on.

2)      All business start-up can use this time during COVID-19 whether their product something people need or want. This two term carry different meaning such as a need is something you have to have to survive or complete a task. A want is simply the desire for something, in many cases something to satisfy a need. You need food to survive. From here they can see where is their product belongs to. If their product is something people want such as clothes they need to stop promoting because in this time nobody is care about new design or others. Maybe they need to change their business plan selling food during this outbreak in order to minimize the burden to carried off. Last choice is to stop their business and use their emergency fund to support during a few months before all have been stable.

3)      Utilize all the government help for business. Since government have allocated Rm 100 billion for new economic stimulus package.

1. A Communication Chain. - While following efficient work from home policy, it is important to develop a robust communication under the digital transformation, where, chain in the business to avoid loopholes to ensure an integrated response both internally and externally. There are so many ways that entrepreneur can advertise and sell their product through internet which is by using a social media, such as, WhatsApp, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram etc. The entrepreneur can respond to this new reality by focusing their marketing efforts on the products in the highest demand. Prioritizing the online shopping channels to serve customers who are staying in. If this is done well, the entrepreneur might even see their cash flow improve during these challenging financial times. 

2. Shoppers are focused on the basics. - As the COVID-19 crisis ramps up and people practice social distancing, consumers are pulling back. Shoppers are focused on the basics — the items they need to sustain themselves and their families in this time of travel restrictions and worries about disease transmission.

3. Branding can set the tone for future sales. - Demand is likely to remain subdued during the height of the COVID-19 crisis, but that doesn’t mean it's going away. Indeed, financial experts expect a spike in shopping and product demand once a vaccine is developed or a solid treatment is found.

4. People are concerned about finances. - The COVID-19 crisis has had a far-reaching ripple effect throughout the economy that has sent the stock market reeling. This means that even as people worry about their personal health and that of their loved ones, they’re also stressed about their finances — from credit card bills to owed taxes. Thus, the government can give a discount repayment loan towards those startups entrepreneur and gives a nice facility to them after the situation cool down.  

5. Passive income. - This doesn’t mean that (if you have one) you abandon your traditional business. It simply means that you can probably capitalize on the way that consumers are purchasing, more than you currently are. As today’s business world becomes more and more web focused, creating passive income streams online should be one of your main focuses when building a business in the new economy – whether you’re doing this on your own, or with the help of virtual assistants that manage your blog, or even handle the marketing of your site. There are countless avenues to explore when creating passive income streams, which are: e-books and eCourses, Affiliate and Niche Websites, Membership Programs, Software Development (iPhone & iPad Apps), Consultation Services, and Packing and Selling of Podcasts. 

First, the business owner should
implement a remork work policy to ensure all the team can be online. Then, they can choose the suitable tool such as Trello for organizing task, , DocuSign for seamless signature and Calendly for scheduling for online meeting,  and so on for discussion and distribution of work.

Second, the entrepreneur should prepare
contingency plan to overcome the sudden of short-staffed situation. During the lockdown period, there is possible
for their employee to get infected by coronavirus. So, the business owner should try to be understanding and require to find the way for replacing the infected person position.

Third, the entrepreneur should be proactive and call each of their key business relationships—customers, suppliers, partners, consultants, and anyone else critical to their company. They can ask about the condition of customer and inform the customers about their current situation. By letting the customer know that you want to work with them to find ways for everyone to make it through the current situation and beyond.

Forth, the entrepreneur should shift the sale strategy to online. If they are closing their store, they should find ways to keep employees earning a paycheck by selling on social media, putting their email list to good use or using a video tool to reach new leads.  They can use the digital platforms like WeChat, Lazada, Shopee to engage customers
virtually and increase online sales.

Fifth, the entrepreneur should
pile up all the costs and evaluate the losses in clear and comprehensible
manner. This able to improve their chances of getting reimbursed punctually for business insurance claims and receiving assistance from the federal government or local small business administration.

Conclusion, coronavirus will give
impacted the business, but the risk can be reduce if the entrepreneur had prepared
to make adjustments, like using alternative suppliers or putting certain operations on hold. If their business operate more than one location, they can give
those managers the authority to make operations decisions based on what’s going
on in that area.

                First and foremost, the common thing that a new business has to do during the start-up phase is a proper long-term planning. In order to make sure our business long-lasting, we have to think any possibilities that may happen within the process of developing our business. Plus, during this non-stable economy situation, we cannot expect what may happen in coming two or three years. There might be an inflation occur or a huge drop on the country’s currency. These will definitely affect our business. Thus, to avoid our business from collapse or bankrupt we have to be ready at any condition and any cost. 

                Next, during the start-up phase, we have to always refer to any business expert for their consultation and advices. As stated in the first point above, there will be so many probabilities that may pop-out along the way of our business journey. These kind of problem may have been faced by them who are expert in business field. Plus, it may be difficult for us to think on the solution by ourselves or may be the solution that we think is not effective enough. Hence, we have to refer to the expert to figure out what is the best approach or solution if only any kind of problem happens. 

                Besides, as a beginner in business field with a current unstable situation, we have to be more patient and smart in controlling our emotion. Good in handling emotion means good in handling stress. Working under stress or pressure sometimes can be good as it can be one of the factor that force us to work harder and better. Yet, too much of it may harm ourselves especially on our health. If we always place ourselves in a bad health condition, it may effect our performance and also our business progress may be deteriorating. Therefore, start-up business can be very hard for anyone that have low ability in controlling their emotion or anger. 

                In conclusion, start-up phase is one of the crucial moment where a businessman should draft their plan properly. In addition, businessman itself have to be a high risk taker person as it is normal in a business where sometimes the business that we run is giving profit or lost even though we already plan it very well.  

Governments around the world are already putting together initiatives to support small business owners, and this is something that is evolving on a daily basis. Be up to date with how your governments can help cut costs, as well as other important institutions, such as banks who also have a social responsibility. For example, The Central Bank of Malaysia announced it requested a 6-month moratorium of all bank loans affected by the outbreak, except credit card balances.The MalaysiaDigital Economy Corporation, set-up by the government as part of the country’s digital strategy, offers an extensive list of digital solutions for SMEs by Malaysian tech companies.

 

The cost of product should be revised. If possible, cheaper materials should be used if it would achieve the almost similar and satisfactory quality. Besides, the cost of raw materials can be reduced by negotiating with existing suppliers or switching to a new and cheaper supplier.

 

In this pandemic season,entrepreneur should have utilised all online platforms possible, making their appearances more frequent and highlighting their product specialty to target audience. To remain viable with less customers about, small businesses will need to begin selling online or increase how much they sell online.Review how best to deliver your products to the customer. Service suppliers should investigate digital solutions to the service delivery to reduce the need for physical interaction. Consequently, choose to close some of your physical location.

 

We should expect that the Covid-19 crisis will change our businesses and society in important ways. It is likely to fuel areas like online shopping, online education, and public health investments, for example. It is also likely to change how companies configure their supply chains and reinforce the trend away from dependence on few mega-factories. When the urgent part of the crisis has been navigated, companies should consider what this crisis changes and what they’ve learned so they can reflect them in their plans.

Customers would switch their demand and trend during this economic crisis. They might have developed a new interest in a certain product. Special discount can be made if they purchas in bulk quantity to encourage a higher cash flow for the sustainability of your business. Moreover, customers’ opinion and suggestions should also be taken into account and acknowledge as their pain would help business to improve even more.

A lot of companies haven’t planned for a crisis on this scale, but they need one,. A good plan will cover a number of things, including procedures around remote work. It should spell out how people should work from home and what tools they’ll need to get the job done; how to handle travel; what to do about meetings and more.  It’s also important to include things such as insurance coverage for business closures or trip cancellations, how to get financing when no one is investing, what lines of credit are in place, supply chain alternatives and more.

 

 

Perkara yang seterusnya perlu diambilkira adalah dengan menigkatkan hasil dan mengurangkan perbelanjaan kos operasi. Terdapat ramai peniaga yang mengambil kesempatan dengan meningkatkan kos dan harga barangan sehingga ia boleh menyebabkan kerugian terhadap peniaga itu sendiri. Pembayaran gaji pekerja juga adalah isu yang perlu diambilberat dimana cuba untuk berunding dengan pekerja untuk pengurangan peratusan gaji semasa PKP dan memberi bonus tahunan atau bulanan kepada pekerja selepas berakhirnya PKP. 

Pihak kerajaan telah melakukan inisiatif untuk memberikan penangguhan bayaran pinjaman selama 6 bulan. Usahawan perlu sentiasa mengetahui mengetahui apa tindakan dan sumbangan kerajaan yang dilaksanakan bagi membantu rakyat. Ia dapat meringankan beban dan dapat membantu memastikan kelangsungan dalam perniagaan terutamanaya usahawan startup. Usahawan juga perlu mempunyai pengaruh besar, dimana ushawan boleh bekerjasama dengan usahawan lain untuk berkongsi sumber pelanggan mereka. Contohnya, melakukan FB live, IG live, youtube orang lain supaya dapat  meningkatkan pendedahan ke pasaran dan berkongsi keuntungan bersama serta kelangsungan perniagaan dari semasa ke semasa. Pemikiran yang kreatif dalam memastikan perniagaan mereka dapat dilaksanakan dengan baik dan juga hendaklah mempunyai daya inovasi tinggi dalam menyusun pemasaran produk  walaupun keadaan negara kita amat membimbangkan dan menyukarkan penjualan. 

Dalam dunia perniagaan, keadaan ini serba sedikit memberi impak yang besar kepada para peniaga terutamanya kepada mereka yang baru memulakan perniagaan. Peniaga-peniaga perlu menyusun strategi bagi memastikan perniagaan yang dijalankan dapat diteruskan. Pada pendapat saya, antara langkah yang boleh diambil untuk berdepan situasi sebegini ialah melakukan rancangan perniagaan. Rancangan perniagaan yang tersusun dapat memberi manfaat kepada syarikat. Dalam rancangan perniagaan, apa yang bakal dilakukan dan bagaimana hendak lakukan rancangan tersebut perlulah di tulis secara terperinci supaya objektif sesebuah perniagaan dapat dicapai. Selain itu, simpan wang tunai walau dalam keadaan apa sekalipun. Tujuan menyimpan wang tunai ini adalah untuk memastikan perniagaan sentiasa mempunyai simpanan yang mencukupi jika berlaku sebarang perkara yang tidak diingini. Pemantauan duit keluar masuk juga penting buat mereka yang baru kecimpung dalam dunia perniagaan.

Di samping itu, menjalankan perniagaan di atas talian. Para peniaga boleh membangunkan laman sesawang dengan kreativiti tersendiri bagi memastikan perniagaan dapat diteruskan dalam keadaan sekarang. Aktiviti pemasaran atas talian yang menarik adalah penting dalam menarik perhatian pelanggan. Seterusnya, para peniaga juga perlu sentiasa mendengar serta mendapatkan maklum balas pelanggan dan bertindak dengan segera. Tawaran seratus peratus jaminan buat pelanggan yang tidak berpuas hati adalah salah satu langkah yang terbaik. Namun begitu, peniaga perlu menyatakan prosedur-prosedur secara terperinci untuk membantu pelanggan membuat sebarang aduan. Akhir sekali, sentiasa melakukan kajian terhadap produk dan perkhidmatan baru dan terkini. Sebagai peniaga, perkembangan mengenai aplikasi baru hendaklah diketahui bagi tujuan untuk memudahkan perkhidmatan perniagaan. Ini dapat membantu peniaga menjalankan perniagaan dengan lebih cekap dan baik.

As a newbie entrepreneur, I know 2020 is a challenging year for business due to the coronavirus outbreak. The coronavirus, also known as COVID-19 is first and foremost for human tragedy. It has affected hundreds of thousands of people. According to world health organization (WHO) recorded, the number of people who get the covid-19 is still increasing. This issue have make government to do a decide for control this covid-19 which is movement control order (MCO). In movement control order (MCO), most of the business and entrepreneur had forced to stop their operation temporarily. Thus, the growing of global economy also has been impacted through covid-19.   

To ensure a startup entrepreneur can survival during COVID-19. There have some plans I can do:  

1.         Move sales to online.  

As lockdown period, people had forced to stay at home. Thus, the better ways to continue grow up the business is utilizing online.  For example, a cosmetics company Lin Qing Xuan had closed 40% of its stores and move sales to online. And according to result, the sales have achieved almost 200% growth compared to the sales of previous year. Thus, online is also a good platform for us to continue. We can use some digital platform like Wechat, Whatsapp, Instagram and Facebook to attract customers virtually to increase the sales. 

2.       Keep coping and be prepared  

An entrepreneur is a head of company, we should have a healthier mindset due to our every move and arrangement will affect our staff. Thus, we should keep clam, don panic and take care of ourselves in extraordinary times, thinking about the situation and looking a way what can do to minimize the negative impact. Besides, for those business partner and supplier who are able to stay open, try to talk ahead and explain to them to make plans and be prepared as well.   

3.       Act now to improve cash flow

We should believe our business will likely struggle with cash flow but not persist indefinitely, especially in current crisis.  Therefore, don’t lose hope and act now to improve cash flows. First, we should prepare a cash flow forecast, and update that forecast throughout the COVID-19, possibly weekly. This is because it will give us forewarning of any cash flow problems so we can act early to address them.

4.       Communication   

 Communicate with all the stakeholders. For examples, clients, suppliers financiers and banker. They are the top priority for business. After established, utilize social media channels, company newsletter and also online website to get the message and share regular updates as the situation may change again. After that, inform staff of any new business processes and also give more concern to staff. For example, asking their recent situation and also body condition. 

5.       Prepare a financial plan  

Every business have the same key expenses such as staff salaries, utility bills, office rent, and etc.  Thus, a strategical financial plan is important. As an entrepreneur, we have to understand how to spend wisely and budgeting carefully. For example, we can make a financial plan for short term and long term. This could ensure that the financial plan can reached the short term target and achieve the mission and vision of the company in long term. Setting up financial reporting systems and helping analyse the reports generated. Proper financial planning means business will need to implement financial reports into daily operations. These reports help focus on the efforts to improve finances and enhance the business’s bottom line. Finally, having a financial planning help you ensure you have adequate income to meet the expenses of the business 

How we can develop the business during the pandemic?

If your sales previously relied on bricks and mortar stores, face-to-face meetings, tradeshows or events it’s time to re-evaluate your marketing strategy.As cities lockdown and people are forced into isolation, one of their best friends becomes the internet. This is your chance to move your digital communication to the next level! People will be seeking updates, answers, and ways to improve their personal and professional life. If your business has a solid digital marketing strategy, you’re in a better position to weather this storm.If you have not invested in an omnichannel digital marketing strategy, with consistently aligned messaging and customer experiences across channels and platforms, it’s not too late to start. If you are already invested in online, consider devoting even more resources to this critically important area.

With social distancing being the preventative measure to contain the crisis, investing or reallocating resources to different sales channels may be the opportunity you have overlooked, until now.If you are selling knowledge and expertise, take the time to build compelling online content that provides prospects with valuable information on how to solve their most pressing problems possibly caused by the crisis, and then make that content available across online channels and throughout the digital ecosystem. This is your chance to build your brand, strengthen relationships, create trust and grow demand for your services.

When your customers feel that you value their business, loyalty and brand preference tend to grow. And when they benefit from valuable advice, focused support and uninterrupted service, they could very well talk about their fantastic customer experience to all their friends and colleagues. And that could mean more referral business for you. Remember, the loyal and well-serviced customer can become your very best brand ambassador. And that kind of marketing doesn’t cost a penny!

During economic uncertainty, we can’t hide our face in the sand and hope it all goes away. How you still maintain and grow your business during a pandemic is by staying focused. You must continue to move forward, but with caution. Identify, then eliminate, unnecessary expenses, outsource non-core competencies and use the extra money to invest and grow in your business.

As the crisis will likely to go on for a while, the authorities are encouraging people to stay home. While some businesses are open to having their workers operate remotely, others cannot.

To brace themselves for the effects of Covid-19, small businesses will need to act decisively and prepare to take advantage of the recovery.

1. Keep informed

Stay abreast of all official information on Covid-19 and any directions public health authorities may issue.

To maintain good decision-making in a difficult environment, you need access to the newest information on your financial state.

Estimate the financial impact the Covid-19 crisis is having on your business and develop mitigation strategies. Discuss with your staff, key suppliers and key customers the likely impact of Covid-19 on your business.

Businesses will likely be impacted in the following areas:

If your business is already impacted, start by listing what those impacts are. If you are not impacted yet, you should still be able to make some informed projections.

In listing those possible impacts, attempt to quantify what those impacts will have on your business and identify possible strategies to mitigate them.

Knowing your business’ financial health assists you in deciding what you can and should do now to better your business’ position through the crisis.

Much information on the business’ financial health and performance can be gained by analysing your financial statements through financial ratios.

The assumptions used to produce your budget are most likely irrelevant because of the crisis. Working with your accountant, take the list of possible impacts of Covid-19 and re-do your budgets.

Include a range of possible previously unthinkable scenarios, such as a 50-80% decline in sales over three to six months, or a supplier being unable to supply you a key item for six weeks.

Carefully consider how each of those scenarios impacts your cash flow.

Your business will likely struggle with cash flow in the near future. Therefore, act now to improve cash flows.

The first step is to prepare a cash flow forecast, and update that forecast throughout the crisis, possibly weekly. This will give you forewarning of any cash flow problems so you can act early to address them.

7. Increase online sales

To remain viable with less customers about, small businesses will need to begin selling online or increase how much they sell online.

It is important to investigate different online platforms to see which is suited for your business needs.

Review how best to deliver your products to the customer. Service suppliers should investigate digital solutions to the service delivery to reduce the need for physical interaction. Consequently, choose to close some of your physical locations.

8. Put in place a contingency plan

Talk to your key suppliers about their delivery reliability during the crisis. Consider their ability to produce the inputs you need, the transportation of the products to you and the agreed costs/prices.

Suppliers might be hit by travel restrictions, so consider setting up alternative suppliers, including local suppliers even if pricier. Source them now and negotiate prices early

Pada pendapat saya, usahawan pemula perlulah menggunakan cara yang berkesan untuk memasarkan produk atau bahan buatan mereka. Dalam situasi sekarang, medium permasaran yang melibatkan face to face adalah tidak berkesan sama sekali dan tidak dibenarkan oleh kerajaan. Oleh itu, cara yang terbaik untuk mempromosikan produk mereka adalah dengan menggunakan saluran media sosial ataupun television kerana pada waktu ini, rakyat Malaysia lebih tertumpu kepada telefon bimbit dan juga television. 

Selain itu, mereka boleh mula menjual produk-produk yang akan menjadi tumpuan rakyat pada waktu ini seperti hand sanitizer, face mask dan produk-produk kesihatan yang lain. Mereka boleh mula mencari pengedar-pengedar bahan ini untuk dijual oleh mereka sebagai usaha niaga yang baru. Seiring dengan perkara ini, usahawan juga perlu memikirkan tentang isu masalah duit yang dihadapi oleh segenap rakyat dia Malaysia. Sememangnya pada waktu ini, mereka tidak akan boros memhabiskan duit mereka untuk perkara-perkara bukan keperluan. Justeru, menjual bahan atau produk yang diperlukan oleh mereka sangat penting dalam menjayakan sesuatu perniagaan. 

Newbie entrepreneurs  need to strategize well. As we do not know when the covid-19 will disappear, careful planning is required. Entrepreneurs need to think of ways to keep their business alive until the end even with covid-19 disease. Look for opportunities as each community still has to spend for their daily needs.

Take this opportunity to make an online sale as the government establishes movement control orders. This is a good marketing strategy for promoting your own product brand. Of course most people will spend time at home. Online sales can be done using social media such as facebook, instagram and the business website itself. This will have a positive impact as the public knows how to shop online and get regular customers.

Additionally, can also provide delivery services. When using social media medium, offer the service. this will indirectly increase the company's sales because people will prefer it.

At this point, you also need to update the company's cash flow. cash flow is an important thing to do. Your business may be struggling with cash flow. So act now to increase your cash flow. The first step is to provide cash flow forecasts, and update forecasts throughout the crisis, perhaps weekly or daily if necessary. This will alert you to any cash flow issues so you can take action to address them early. try to minimize the outflow of cash to avoid significant losses. If possible, deal with the supplier regarding the price of the goods.

Then, do not worry too much and panic about how to survive in the business. Emotional problems are personal and involve ourselves. Although driven by a high degree of professionalism and entrepreneurial spirit but entrepreneur still a normal human being with emotions and feelings. Business problems such as severe loss, loss of customers, small profits and so on can make your spirit fade. So start feeling down and have no motivation to continue your business. Therefore,empty your mind for a moment. Review the intent, purpose and goals of the business. If accompanied by the right intentions, it will give you the strength to continue the business.

In conlusion, don’t think current issue is a burden to our business but think it in positive ways. This is not the end of our journey in business. Use all available methods and opportunities to pursue business activities. There must be a rainbow after the rain. 

1.      Use online platform to keep your business alive

Due to the MCO that has been enforced by the government, people are restricted to go out now and less people outdoors means less sales for physicals stores. So as a business owner, to keep generating revenue for your store, one clear option is to sell online. This will allow customers to still shop with you but from the comforts of their own homes. Use famous online platform such as Lazada and Shopee to attract more customers.

 

2.      Level up your branding and social media game

As a start-up entrepreneur, you need to use your voice and brand during this time to post about what you are doing for your business during this time. You can come up with social media posts such as shoutouts for your loyal customers who shopped with you recently, thanking them for their support.

 

3.      Improve your operations

Estimate the financial impact that covid-19 crisis is having on your business and develop mitigation strategies. Discuss with your staff, key suppliers and customers the likely impact of covid-19 on your business. If your business is already impacted, start by listing what those impacts are. You need to quantify what those impacts will have on your business and identify possible strategies to mitigate them.

With scientists and technologists facing a pandemic the likes of which the world hasn’t seen in over a century, the healthcare and healthtech industries have risen to the challenge, innovating at an astonishing pace. Within days of China releasing the genetic code for COVID-19 in January, laboratories in Asia and Europe had created methods for testing for the virus, and had shared them with their peers around the globe. And just last week, scientists in Singapore announced they had designed a technique to reduce the time it takes to test aspects of vaccines for the coronavirus from months, to just days, hoping to expedite vaccine development. Experts are noticing shifts in the healthcare sector. In a recent op-ed for Becker’s Hospital Review, Thomas J. Graham, MD, former Chief Innovation Officer at Cleveland Clinic, pointed out that dire circumstances surrounding the coronavirus outbreak have generated two key ingredients essential for innovation: collaboration and transparency. 

We see this in the digital space on platforms like GitHub, where scientists from around the globe transparently upload COVID-19 research to share with peers; on the COVID-19 Open Research Dataset (CORD-19), a trove of coronavirus-related material has been uploaded that AI and NLP experts can access to generate new insights. Access to massive coronavirus-related datasets even allowed BlueDot, a small SaaS startup from Toronto, to detect the outbreak nine days before the World Health Organization (WHO). Collaboration elsewhere between Israeli startup Sonovia Ltd and Bar Ilan University led to development of an anti-pathogen, anti-bacterial fabric material used for healthcare worker gear that they claim will kill the virus on contact. In February the team sent their material to China to be tested by local scientists. In an attempt to help governments around the world which are struggling to deal with the volume of requests for COVID-19 tests, startups have come up with innovative solutions.  UK healthtech startup Medshr recently launched LetsBeatCOVID.net, a platform that helps healthcare officials in the UK and US track the spread of the outbreak by inviting people to take quick symptom surveys. It also provides personalized advice for those who upload their information. In the US, Levels, a metabolic health tracking system in beta co-founded by Casey Means, MD, is bringing awareness of glucose monitoring and other metabolic health measures that may influence morbidity rates amongst people infected.

In Puerto Rico, healthcare data solutions company Abartys Health released their PatientLynk platform, enabling universal patient identification and providing significantly faster response times for COVID-19 lab tests. While populations around the world buy precious time by practicing social distancing, it’s this commitment to collaboration, transparency and the pursuit of innovation that will lead to humanity successfully stopping the spread of the virus. 

 

The global reach of coronavirus has inspired innovation from emerging markets as well. Developing countries with more limited resources to combat the COVID-19 outbreak are looking, in part, to local innovators to come up with solutions. Colombia, the Andean nation of 49 million people, counts an estimated 5,300 available ventilators country-wide. These machines are currently a key treatment for patients suffering severe breathing problems caused by the virus, and there is a shortage globally.With the understanding that their country may not be one of the first in line to receive professionally manufactured ventilators, Colombian startup Techfit teamed up with the University of Antioquia in Medellín and dozens of other engineers to create a low-cost, low resource ventilator. According to the project’s leader Mauricio Toro, they’re aiming to build 1,000 mechanical ventilators in one month. The team, dubbed #InnspiraMED, has diaried their journey on a blog, complete with open-source plans they invite other affected nations to use. Thus far, innovators from around Colombia as well as Nicaragua have reached out for more information, and Embry-Riddle University in Florida has also inquired about building a model in the United States, according to the blog. The group is currently seeking funding to scale production of their ventilators. 

 

 

The total extent to which the coronavirus pandemic will affect global society is still unknown. To date, it has bludgeoned healthcare systems worldwide; has forced millions of people out of their jobs; has sent stock markets plummeting; and social distancing and isolation could lead to stress and anxiety amongst the population, the World Health Organization (WHO) has warned. Struck by the magnitude of the coronavirus outbreak, the startup community, sometimes best known for its pursuit of hyper-scalability and mega-profits, is beginning to focus its massive potential on solving societal issues derived from the pandemic. The Portuguese tech community has created a platform to build and fund projects ranging from apps to provide info to healthcare workers, to telemedicine tools, to patient tracking technology. And government-backed tech accelerator, Accelerate Estonia, recently held a hackathon with the country’s innovators to build moonshot projects that can help better prepare the small nation to emerge from the crisis. In Mexico, two of the cities most affected by COVID-19, Guadalajara and Monterrey, are being financially supported by the startup Shopnet, which is reimbursing 10% of the value of purchases from any supermarket, pharmacy or store during the quarantine. Between Sunday, March 15 and Saturday, March 21, a record 3.28 million Americans lost their jobs, according to the US Department of Labor. As the economic fallout of the pandemic intensifies, the startup community is stepping up support. 

 

 

In these circumstances, entrepreneurs couldn’t assume the financing options they previously had available to them will continue to be available. They should undertake scenario planning to better understand how much cash they will need and for how long. Entrepreneurs can use this opportunity to actively engage with their financing partners to ensure their available lines of credit remain available, and to explore new or additional options in case required.

Unfortunate times such as now will be a major wake-up call to all the entrepreneurs, to reconsider their business concept and approach. They should ask themselves if their business model is flexible enough to survive the changes that will come from the COVID-19 pandemic? To survive the current situation and to be prepared for future, entrepreneurs must ensure alternative arrangements with their customers, suppliers, and any other relevant parties so that their business can continue to operate despite of any situations. In today’s digital era, nothing is better than internet when it comes to marketing, flexibility and sustainability. Especially non-essential goods sellers should digitize any of their products or services, and start offering them online.

 

3.      Revisit capital investment plans. 

With cash flow forecasts in mind, entrepreneurs must focus and consider what is really important in short term only. Capital investments that can be postponed or reconsidered until the situation improves and required to position for the rebound and for creating competitive advantage should be revisited and dropped, since every industry worldwide is currently in survival mode. This might not be the best time being for entrepreneurs, beginners specifically to make any kind of investments.

 

4.      Consider alternate or non-traditional revenue streams. 

Entrepreneurs may consider ways they could temporarily or maybe even permanently replace the continued revenue. For example, if their primary markets are international, how might they pivot to domestic markets, especially if their inventory is perishable? Not only this could reduce some of their top line pressures, it could also mean not having to reduce their cost lines as significantly, not to mention a potentially more diversified revenue mix in the longer term.

 

5.      Up-skill themselves and their staffs

Entrepreneurs can use the lock down period to train themselves or their existing staff on additional skills, which could make them more productive and efficient, rather than hiring more staff. There’s plenty of online courses that are very affordable, and these will allow them to focus on other areas of the business when their department is down- for instance, their sales team could perhaps also help out the marketing team. 

Startups are companies or ventures that are focused around a single product or service that the founders want to bring to market. These companies typically don not have a fully developed business model and, more importantly, lack adequate capital to move on to the next phase of business. Most of these companies are initially funded by their founders. Surviving as a startup may be a roller coaster beneath ordinary circumstances and it has been proven that 40% of startup businesses have been affected by this corona virus infection.

In this situation we need to overcome the crisis with brilliant strategies in order to save and lead our business to survive. First thing we need to enhance our marketing of strategy and we need to plan the strategy that could experience the recently scenarios. For an example, usually we run our business in directly contact so in this situation we can change the strategy of marketing by running the business throughout digital medium such as by making ads throughout media, like Instagram, Facebook, Telegram and Whatapps, taking the orders by online and prepare a Cash On Delivery (COD) services or any postage delivery services. So by this initiative, our customers can still in contact with us and that make our business will be run as usual even though in this recently crisis. So, this idea can help to sustain our business in a good shape during this situation.

Other than that, as a startup entrepreneur, we need to identify and focus on what we can control. Here, we can control and focus on our budget. We need to spend each of penny carefully. Pandemic or no pandemic, this goes without saying for any startup. Every ringgit counts, so spend carefully. As tough as it can be to decide where to cut back, especially regarding areas that were once critical for our business. The primary step is to get ready a cash stream figure, and overhaul that figure all through the crisis, conceivably week after week. This will donate you admonishing of any cash flow issues so you will act early to address them. In a nutshell, planning and go through our business budget are very important to ensure the business from running out of money during this Restriction Movement Order (RM 0) situation. 

Next, we must wisely in taking the opportunity especially in Covid-19 situation which is take advantage of government and lender concessions. It is because governments and banks around the world are advertising all way of concessions to businesses to assist them climate the storm. This incorporates charge breaks, deferral of reimbursements, intrigued free advances, moment resource write-offs, and cash presents. Inform yourself of the accessible concessions in your country, state or region and capitalize presently some time recently the unavoidable handling bottleneck takes impact.  In conclusion, there are many ideas and suggestions that startup entrepreneurs can follow to deal with this issue and this is also one of the things I would recommend for startup entrepreneurs to make sure their business runs as usual even though under the Covid-19 situation.

Think about the next horizons of COVID-19. In the urgency of the moment, it’s easy to lose sight of the actions that might be needed tomorrow and the day after that. The article “Beyond coronavirus; The path to next normal,” explains the five horizons that every executive should use to ensure an organization’s rapid response, adaptation to change, and reemergence in a position of strength. Five stages, leading from the crisis of today to the next normal that will emerge after the battle against coronavirus are Resolve, Resilience, Return, Reimagination, and Reform.

 the need to determine the scale, pace, and depth of action required at the state and business levels

Evolve the nerve center to plan for the next phase. Every assumption underpinning a business is open to question. To take one example, we might be in the midst of the largest drawdown in demand since the Second World War. The pendulum might not swing back fully once the outbreak has relented. Having experienced a new way of living, consumers are recalibrating their spending, increasing the likelihood that spending may permanently shift between categories and that online services could get adopted far faster. Decoding this new normal and ensuring that the company has a strategy to navigate it is an important part of the work of a nerve center. 

At first, entrepreneurs can strategically shift their sales to online. Readily available digital platforms such as Lazada, Amazon, Shoppee and etc comes handy in their business when reaching out their customers. Entrepreneurs should also focus on their official website(s), Facebook or Instagram page (if exist) to enhance their marketing despite their hard times. Nevertheless, entrepreneurs should promote their products to customers and carry out their business affairs with service suppliers over online to reduce the necessity to meet in person.

Entrepreneurs should focus on survival mode. At the moment, raising money and increasing revenue is less likely to happen and therefore, entrepreneurs should place a plan on conserving cash. They must come up with a plan on running their business for at least the next 12 months with the most possible scenario and the best possible scenario. Re-planning on their budgets, cash flow and annual revenue is vital to their leadership team to make many extremely difficult and painful decisions relating to some of their teammates. Entrepreneurs can also seek helps from the governments such as tax deferment for 6 or 12 months and etc.

Despite the facts many cities have been lockdown and employees couldn’t go out to work, entrepreneurs can focus on their wellbeing and ensure their welfare is taken care. Entrepreneurs can give the flexibility to their employees, such as work from home or take extra day leave without jeopardizing the progress of their work. Losing employees can be devastating on longer terms. “A great employee is like a four leaf clover, hard to find & lucky to have”. Employers can also focus on enhancing their employees’ skills such as learning software that are important to their work. There are tons of online courses which could help them much. Employers can also interact with their employees through readily available telecommunications to ensure the productivity of their work. 

Finally, not forgetting about customers/clients. As we are in the midst of pandemic, we should prioritise who our customers/clients are. Entrepreneurs should be proactive and always engage with their customers to retain them. Entrepreneurs can also be transparent with their customers the issue they are facing and come up with a plan on how to constantly provide their service to their customers. If entrepreneurs couldn’t meet the demand from their customers, they should openly speak about it. Having a good repo with your customers is as much important as focusing on your company’s annual revenue.

Sekatan selama hampir sebulan ini memberi impak dan tekanan kepada usahawan dimana usahawan tidak mampu melakukan perkerjaan diluar untuk berhubung dengan pembekal dan pembeli. Walaupun sesetengah perniagaan masih dibuka namun untuk mempunyai pekerja beroperasi dari jauh memang tidak dapat dilakukan.

Meskipun menghadapi waktu sukar pada masa ini, krisis yang dihadapi usahawan startup ketika ini, perlu bijak dan mengambil langkah proaktif untuk meningkatkan pengeluran produk.
 
Sebagai usahawan, pelbagai inisiatif perlu dijalankan sejak Perintah Kawalan Pergerakan dikuatkuasakan. Antaranya ialah:

Ketika di rumah , usahawan  tidak terikat kepada masa 9.00 pagi hingga 5.00 petang, Isnin hingga Jumaat. Di rumah, usahawan boleh  bekerja 24 jam sehari dan tujuh hari seminggu. Jika ada kakitangan wanita atau lelaki yang ada urusan, usahawan perlu faham terhadap pekerjanya tetapi apa yang pekerja perlu fokuskan adalah 'demand and return' hingga malam pekerja  boleh bekerja, berdiskusi, menggerakkan sesetengah polisi dan sebagainya. Tambahan pula, usahawan boleh ada ruang dan masa untuk menyusun strategi perniagaan pada masa hadapan dan memperbaiki kualiti perniagann dan service yang dijalankan sebelum ini.

 2. Kemas kini penyata kewangan

Untuk mengekalkan perniagaan dalam persekitaran yang sukar, usahawan memerlukan akses kepada maklumat terkini mengenai keadaan kewangannya sendiri. Mengetahui kewangan perniagaan dapat membantu dalam memutuskan apa yang boleh dan harus lakukan sekarang untuk memperbaiki kedudukan perniagaan melalui krisis ini. Banyak maklumat mengenai prestasi kewangan perniagaan boleh diperolehi dengan menganalisis penyata kewangan usahawan melalui nisbah kewangan.

3.Senaraikan kesan yang mungkin ke atas perniagaan 

Anggarkan kesan kewangan krisis Covid-19 terhadap perniagaan dan mulakan strategi mitigasi.Bincang dengan kakitangan, pembekal utama dan pelanggan utama kesan Covid-19 mengenai perniagaan usahawan tersebut. Perniagaan mungkin akan memberi kesan kepada bidang jualan, kakitangan, rantaian bekalan dan kewangan. Sekiranya perniagaan usahawan tersebut terjejas, mulakan dengan menyenaraikan apa kesan tersebut.Dalam menyenaraikan kesan-kesan yang mungkin, cubaan untuk mengkuantifikasikan apa kesan yang akan berlaku terhadap perniagaan dan mengenal pasti kemungkinan strategi untuk mengurangkannya.

4. Meningkatkan jualan dalam media sosial dan platform perniagaan

Untuk terus berdaya maju dengan kurang pelanggan, perniagaan kecil perlu mula menjual produk dalam media sosial seperti Facebook, Istagram, Lazada dan Shopee untuk meningkatkan perjualan. Ini adalah penting untuk menyiasat platform dalam media sosial yang berbeza untuk melihat yang sesuai untuk keperluan produk.Semak cara terbaik untuk menyampaikan produk tersebut kepada pelanggan.Pembekal perkhidmatan perlu menyiasat penyelesaian digital untuk penyampaian perkhidmatan untuk mengurangkan keperluan untuk interaksi fizikal.

Melalui langkah ini, Usahawan akan lebih kreatif dan proaktif untuk menguruskan perniagaan mereka. Kesan wabak ini juga, usahawan lebih bersiap siaga untuk menhadapi cabaran akan datang bagi menembusi pasaran mereka.

 

First, as entrepeneurs should always have early action and backup plan in dealing with unexpected event as the Covid-19 outbreak and MCO. This situation also can be used as a time for entrepeneurs to be more creative in their marketing strategies. As most of entrepeneurs are use the online platform to commercialize their business, this is the time to use all of the benefits by using the online platform such as promote the products, communicate with clients, customers and suppliers, create website to conduct the entire business online. The example of online platform is social media such as facebook, instagram, telegram and others. Always interact with customers through the socmed for example using instagram live to ask customers how they were doing at home, updating all the products that available during this outbreak, making sales or promotion as customers loves that most but according to the budget and this can attract the customers. Even if entrepeneurs are not able to make a huge profit, at least the business is always on the move to avoid huge losses. 

 

Other than that, communication is key to collaborative solutions that are win-win for leader and the team. Never make decisions by ownself but always discuss the strategies with business partner or team because everyone have their own opinion and it will help to buildup the business during outbreak. The alternative that may help is to sell basic necessities during MCO such as food, face mask and hand sanitize. This is because the high demand from the public as many stores are out of stock and the goods can be purchased online. Therefore, the customers does not have to leave the house to buy the goods. 

#stayathome #staysafe

Go online. With the MCO and a global lockdown in place, people are spending more time in the comfort of their home than ever. The dramatic surge in online traffic presents lucrative opportunites for businesses worldwide – investing to go online will not go wrong in the current chaotic landscape. As the saying goes, ‘Never waste a good crisis.’

As a Petroleum Engineering student, we are not unfamillliar with major recessions at all. In fact, the cyclic downturns is almost what defines the dynamic Oil and Gas industry. Businesses thrived and survived through the crashes via optimization. Prior to COVID-19, oil and gas companies make more money when oil was 60USD per barrel than when oil was 100USD per barrel. Cutting unnecessary expenses and downsizing the team is never the route every owners wish to take, yet it is crucial to ensure the business survives.

Entrepreneurs or startup business never collapse because they ran out of idea. At least, business ideas are never what a startup company lacks. Financial constraint is what makes business difficult, especially for startups. This is especially true during a crisis at this scale. Nobody is well prepared for this. So, start to weave your safety nets. Do not put all your money into investments or expansions. Cash is king.

Namun, pelaksanaan PKP ini jelas memberi impak yang mendalam terhadap ekonomi negara. Pelabagai sektor perlu meminimumkan pergerakan urusan mereka dan tidak kurang juga ada yang terpaksa menghentikannya atas faktor penularan wabak yang mungkin berlaku. Tambahan pula, tiada sebarang urusan jual beli yang boleh dilakukan kecuali perniagaan atas talian (online) dan pasaraya-pasaraya tertentu sahaja. Rata-rata peniaga meluahkan rasa kesal atas arahan PKP yang boleh menutup periuk nasi mereka tetapi mereka akur kerana turut rasa bertanggungjawab untuk membantu dalam usaha memutuskan rangkaian wabak ini. 

Antara cadangan bagi menangani isu peniaga terjejas ini adalah dengan merancang semula pelan pemasaran perniagaan. Sebagai contoh, penggunaan platform perniagaan atas talian (online) yang sudah popular di Malaysia ini sendiri. Sebagai contoh bagi peniaga kedai makan boleh mengambil pesanan secara atas talian dan menghantar ke lokasi pelanggan. Dengan cara ini, pergerakan sosial dapat dikawal. 

Selain itu, peniaga juga perlu membuat perancangan kewangan mereka semula bagi mengelakkan berlaku kerugian yang besar. Aliran tunai perlu diperkemas agar ianya sentiasa positif bagi memastikan perniagaan masih boleh dibangunkan setelah wabak ini berakhir. 

Akhir sekali, walaupun pengusaha atau peniaga mengalami kerugian oleh kerana wabak yang sedang menular ini, adalah lebih baik bagi mereka untuk bersifat optimis dalam merancang semula perniagaan mereka tanpa mengingkari PKP yang telah ditetapkan kerajaan. Sifat pentingkan diri bagi memastikan perniagaan berjalan seperti biasa perlu dijauhi agar penularan wabak dapat dihentikan. Sokongan dari pihak kerajaan terhadap pengusaha dan peniaga amatlah dititikberatkan bagi memberi sokongan kepada mereka sepanjang tempoh PKP ini dilaksanakan. Semoga wabak ini dapat ditangani dengan baik dan ekonomi Malaysia dapat dipulihkan seperti sediakala. 

 

An increase in cases that continue to occur every day makes Malaysia decide to impose a Movement Control Order from March 18 until the next 28 days, April 14. All activities that involve direct contact and interaction are terminated and restricted. This has a significant impact on all sectors. In the business sector, based on a survey conducted by the Malaysian Global Innovation and Creativity Center (MaGIC), around 40% of startup and social enterprise businesses will be 'collapsed' if the COVID-19 pandemic continues until the Eid Day.

 

To prevent this from happening, entrepreneurs must take quick actions and steps and change various business strategies. The following are some suggestion for entrepreneur that can be performed:

 

1.    Immediately check your cashflow forecast

Both large and small businesses have cash flow, to avoid the risk of going bankrupt at a time like this the first step that must be done is to check cash flow immediately. By doing this, at least the entrepreneur knows of his financial situation to deal with this pandemic and can help business planning in the future.

2.    Reducing the expenditure and production cost

To reduce the production costs, what can be done is to reduce the production of goods or replace raw materials for production or negotiate with suppliers. For entrepreneurs who have a physical store, you should ask the shop owner again about the rental fee (if you are still renting the store), and ask the government about tax regulations (for those who already have a permanent store)

3.    Utilize the online business

With the government regulation regarding MCO, entrepreneur can utilize online business platforms to continue getting revenue. Entrepreneurs can also use third parties such as e-commerce platform to help with the marketing and shipping of goods to simplify the transaction process.

4.    Reviewing the target market and provide the new innovation

In this condition, by changing the target market will provide some solutions to develop the business. Because the target market will change, where all activities now are carried out at the home. With this change, entrepreneurs can come up with new ideas and innovations which suitable for this condition that are being able to applied in order to make their business continue to grow.

5.    If possible, change the production according to the needs associated with the COVID-19 pandemic

In the midst of this pandemic there will be many special or specific needs that are embraced by the community even the government. For this reason, entrepreneurs can make a contribution as well as get income by following the level of demand from the market by producing and fulfilling these needs. For example, in this current condition, personal protective equipment is sharply increasing in demand,  the clothing entrepreneurs may be able to shift production temporarily to meet these demands.

Proper Financial Health. To improve your financial health you must first take a hard, realistic look at where you’re currently at. Calculate your net worth and figure out where you stand. This includes taking everything you own, such as retirement accounts, vehicles, and other assets and subtracting any and all debts. Then you need to create a budget. With your budget, it’s not enough just to plan for where you’ll be spending, but it’s also important to take a hard and close look at where you already spend. Are there areas where you could cut back? Recurring subscriptions that you don’t really need, such as cable? It’s fortuitous to understand what your “needs” are versus what your “wants” are.

Utilisation of Online Platforms. As many states or even countries have restricted the movement of their citizens to avoid the corona virus from further spreading. In this situation, online businesses can become handy. Entrepreneurs can use the readily available online shopping websites like Lazada, Zalora and many more to advertise and sell their products. As the world is remained shaken up after hearing about this global pandemic, they tend to look for online shopping instead of going out. This enables the entrepreneurs to market their products. Entrepreneurs should bear in mind that selling their products in an online platform helps them to save a lot money. 

Solve a burning problem. Create a business that solves a problem. If you asked most failed business owners what problem they solved, they either can’t answer or the problem they solved wasn’t urgent enough. The problem you solve doesn’t need to be complicated like curing a disease. It can be simple, such as we help people overcome boredom by providing an entertaining experience. But ultimately, you need to know what you’re trying to accomplish with your business. By knowing what burning problem you’re solving, you can use that in your marketing to help people understand how you can help them best during this crisis. For example, if you sell anti-snoring products, you’ll want your ad to show the frustration a snorer can have on a person’s sleep. And then showcase your product as the handy solution that’ll allow them to sleep through the night again.

 

Obsess over customer needs during the crisis.  One of the biggest sources of conflict in business comes from unmet needs. If a customer doesn’t get the service or product they were expecting, their needs won’t be met, and they’ll feel frustrated. The most important business tip when it comes to managing customer relations is to always empathize with the customer. When you recognize their frustration as pain from not having their needs met, it’s easier not to take the insults they hurl at you, personally. Instead, you can focus on trying to listen to what they say by mirroring the intent behind their words. And eventually, you work on coming to a resolution that meets their needs and leaves your customer feeling heard. By doing this instead of simply giving a refund, you open the doors to building a long-term relationship with them even if they were upset with their first experience with your brand.

To afford this situation, critical thinking is much needed to survive. As for me, one of the startup entrepreneurs, I would never discourage to start my own business even in this situation. I would always figure out ways to continue my business. I realize that there nothing would stop myself from starting the business as long as there is technology. To continue my business, I believed the we can use modern technology to the fullest. For example, I would start market my business in any platform that are being exposed for everyone such as Facebook, Instagram and even using Twitter. These powerful platforms are giving advantages for startup entrepreneur and also for SME because these platforms can offer information to the customers with just a click. Therefore, using these platforms, startup entrepreneur and SME did not have to worry about their business as their sells can continue as usual.

Besides doing marketing in any platforms, best services also one of the keys to attract customers. With online business which is a virtual business, we as an entrepreneur need to provide our best service for the customers. For example, provide posting service for the customers who lives far from our place and provide delivery services to those who lives near our place to get the item that they ordered. This will make customers to love and will always support our business as it is easier for them to buy the items with one click and also don’t have to move from one place to another place to get their items. As I observed the reality, packaging of the items also become one important point to attract the customers. Customers nowadays love to have pretty unique things in their hands and therefore we as entrepreneur need to take advantage to sell our items by giving them the best package to satisfy their love. Hence, I believed that there always customers needed our items that we sell as long as it is satisfy their need no matter what condition we are living even during this pandemic outbreak.

In a nutshell, startup entrepreneur and SME should always maintain their business on going and never give up with what we are doing. Honestly, I was worried at first with the condition we are living at the moment. After a while, I started to pick up the situation and adapt myself. I realized that there are so many people out there still support business and give their courage for small entrepreneur to keep doing their business for a living. As time goes by, the business will never die out even in critical situation as long as we never lose interest and always making improvement related to our business. Customers always come first and that on that, we as entrepreneur needed to always generate ideas to satisfy their needs. The business that we are doing may be slow as we expected it to be but with faith to achieve success as an entrepreneur, any situation that point towards us are not the reasons to stop us from continue doing business and I believed this pandemic situation are one of the challenges for us to experience while doing business.

1.       Cost of Operation

-          Workers’ salary play a vital role in term of cost. We may discuss with workers on the matter of salary reduction during this MCO period and promise them to provide extra benefit to them after the situation like having a increment for their annual bonus or free food, products to health care workers. We also can try to negotiate with landlord to get a lower rental payment during this period. 

2.       Maintain the cash inflow

-          As a smart entrepreneur, we can promote our products through poster or live by utilizing social media to let people know more details about our products. Besides, we can also provide the free mask or hand sanitizer with the minimum purchases to customers via online and free delivery to maintain a good customer relationship. A valuable packages with cheaper prices also can provided to customers which may indirectly attract more buyers on our business for further benefits. 

3.       Improvement from different aspects/ Diversity

-          During MCO period, we can collect the surveys from customers on our deficiency for our previous services or some other aspects. We can have more valuable packages which can provide win-win situation and design a more comfortable environment to customers. We can add diversity of services to our customers. For instance, a stationery shop can also provide a design services of the poster, banner or costume.

 

While on the other hand, quite other industries have been gaining profit, and some even have been complaining that number of industries making money out of people's fear. What are the industries that have been benefitting g from this pandemic?

But if we look into a smaller scope, many entrepreneurs are being affected badly. Losing their daily income. Even though, the Government has come up with financial help schemes and postponing the installment payment with or without accumulating interest, not being able to earn money during this pandemic is saddening for them.

But in order to survive during these hard times, there are few practical ways that entrepreneurs can try out. 

As many businesses are going to be focusing on the here and now, struggling to maintain normal running operations, this could be a chance to build a new network of prospective customers. Putting time and effort into generating new leads now will ensure that you have a pool of potential customers to rely on once things have calmed down.

In many parts of the world, the general public is advised to stay at home poses serious difficulties to business. So get creative and brainstorm different ways you can still deliver your service or products. Social media are the perfect platform.

Ask yourself whether your product or service could be of additional use or relevance in the midst of the coronavirus crisis, and adapt your marketing to reflect this. 

Increased and flexible marketing is also crucial right now because many people will wonder whether certain businesses are still operational. 

It’s important to consider not only how to survive as a business during the outbreak, but also to have a strategy in place for what’s going to happen afterward. Don't assume that once the threat to public health has passed, things will just go back to the way they’d been before the outbreak.

In order to strategize effectively and implement all of the above points, a good starting place is a list of challenges your business might face. It’s crucial to strategize for different scenarios and take every possibility into

account.

Once you have your list of challenges, it’s time to develop several solutions to each. It’s impossible to accurately simulate what's exactly going to happen, so it’s better to put the work into the preparation and strategizing now than be caught unawares and

unprepared.

With the potential threat of most, if not all, of your staff working from home at some point, it’s important to plan ahead how to ensure communication will remain as

efficient as possible. Phone calls and chats are not going to be

fast enough, especially with all the home-life distractions. Consider using online platforms for your planning and comms.

These few steps might be helpful to some out there. But those who are staying at home with families should use this opportunity to strengthen their bond, learn new skills, read books and do some other activities. 

Years from now, we'll tell the youth about these ancient days, about how civilization surrendered to the will of humble toxin. Tell stories of how reality paralleled religious prophecies, and how death was at war with our immune system. The story of how isolation was our defense!

 

 

Entrepreneurs who are not facing financial problem should start to plan properly on how to use the money on hand and how long it can last. For the entrepreneurs who are facing financial constraints, minimizing the expenses or reducing the number of employees would help the company survive through this pandemic. If the financial difficulties is getting severe, entrepreneurs would be advised to consider if it is necessary to cease business temporarily to reduce the severity of losses.

 

Due to the Movement Control Order (MCO), people are told to stay home to stop the spread of virus. This is a great chance to utilize the online platform to continue the business. People are spending most of their time online and there are a lot of available platform such as social media and eCommerce marketplaces. It’s important to create another way out to prevent the end of the startup business due to the pandemic.

 

It is indeed a tough time to get through at this COVID-19 economic crisis. But do not take advantages on consumers by raising the prices intentionally or selling counterfeit products to people just to get the profit. The profit obtained by cheating people is just a short-term advantage. Once an entrepreneur lost the trust from consumers, he probably won’t get it back. It would be a huge loss when the pandemic is over. 

As a startup entrepreneur my ideas and suggestions to deal with this issue are;

 

The cost of the product needs to be modified. If possible, cheaper materials would be used if the price will be almost equal and satisfactory. In addition, the cost of raw materials can be decreased by collaborating with existing suppliers or by moving to a better and cheaper supplier.

For example, if in this RMO season, delivery service is needed for groceries or home essentials is needed especially to a family that is working or busy managing others stuff. Special discount can be made if they purchase in bulk quantity to encourage a higher cash flow for the sustainability of your business. Besides, healthcare products such as mask, gloves, hand sanitizer and so on are the most needed demand to embark for a startup entrepreneur.

 

 

Each business has the same core expenditures, such as staff wages, utility bills, office rent, and so on. A strategic financial plan is therefore necessary. As an entrepreneur, we need to consider how to invest wisely and budget carefully. For starters, we can draw up a financial plan for the short and long term. This will indicate that the financial plan is able to fulfill the short-term goal and accomplish the company's mission and vision in the long term. Proper financial planning means the business would need to carry out financial reporting on daily operations. Such reports help to concentrate on measures to boost operations and strengthen the bottom line of business.

Lastly, in these lockdown period, people had forced to stay at home. Thus, the better ways to continue grow up the business is utilizing online. Thus, online sales is also a good platform for us to continue. We can use some digital platform like Shopee, Lazada, Mudah.com, Whatsapp, Instagram, Facebook and so on to attract customers virtually and offering more discounts and great promotions also a competition to increase and boost up the sales. 

 

-Online business

Due to getting an early exposure of Covid-19 pandemic, entrepreneurs had started actively in selling their product using media social such as Facebook, Instagram and Twitter, especially the startup entrepreneurs as they are way more literate in technology, way before the MCO start to practise. This action was a big step in forging a good fanbase through the media social as people nowadays can not stay away from their phone. Therefore, the marketing would cost lesser than an actual advertisement board. This will definitely help in reducing the cost of production and managed to cover the staffs’ monthly payment without fail.

 

-Making a deal that would help in reduction of production and operational cost

Entrepreneurs will find a way to deal with suppliers to try get their raw materials as cheapest as they could since we have no idea how long this MCO will be practised. Next, we could be flexible with our customers in order to gain trust from them so that they won’t stop buying products through media socials. Entrepreneurs can make a new marketing idea that would ensure consumers that their products are safe and clean from any viruses. Other than that, training or courses for staffs can greatly save a lot of money since Malaysia are actively practising online meeting. Therefore entrepreneurs does not need to take care of accommodation nor transportation for their staffs since the training or meeting will be held online. This will help greatly for entrepreneur to ensure the stability of their financial status. 

 

In needed times like this, big companies can take this opportunities to practise some good deeds to human and mother nature itself :-

 

-Giving out help for the needed.

Corporate social responsibility is a must for all businessman or businesswoman. During MCO, there are unfortunate families that does not have enough supply in order to undergo MCO fully prepared. Entrepreneurs can give out help in terms of donation or giving out essentials for the unfortunate families. By killing two birds with one stone, they had done their part in corporate social responsibility and gaining respect and even attract consumers to buy their product. Without consumers, these companies can never exist as they are the ones who bought their products.

 

-Great reduction of energy used.

Since most companies have their own building and offices, through MCO, entrepreneurs can save their companies electrical charges as they are not being used for a whole month, for now. On a bright side, the amount of electric usage will decreased greatly and would help in decreasing the amount of energy waste in the whole world. This resulted in healing the Earth bit by bit, indirectly entrepreneurs helped in making the world a better place.

 

 

 

·        Workers must be encouraged wash their hands on a regular basis and work areas must be wiped cleaned regularly.

·        For anyone feeling sick, there should be zero tolerance sick policy, encourage workers to take days off if sick. 

·        Travelling should be avoided and kept at a bare minimum.

 

·        Involve in online (e-commerce) sales.

·        Promote collaboration with social influencers.

·        Online marketing through social media, update your business page in social media such as Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. People will spend more time at home looking through their gadget screens during the outbreak.

·        Make sure to provide the best delivery options and payment system for consumers.

 

·        Take this time to train existing staff on additional skills, which could make them more productive and efficient.

·        While staying at home, staff can learn additional skills through online courses.

·        Training staffs will allow staffs from one division to help another division. For example, your sales team could perhaps help the marketing team. This flexibility will help in efficiency and teamwork, also raise sentimental value within the workplace.