What’s in Store for Your Business After Lockdown?

As we all are aware that the lockdown has been lifted by the Government of Bangladesh, not many of us are fully equipped to sustain our business after lockdown.  The World Health Organisation (WHO) announced COVID-19 a pandemic on 11 th March 2020, and the world has not been the same since. 
Due to the infectious nature of COVID-19, the Government of Bangladesh has closed all institutions except those relating to essential services and the country has been under different degrees of lockdown since March 26 th . However, from 31st of May 2020, the official lockdown has been lifted which now is pushing all the institutions and organizations to re-open. This has naturally had its impact on the various industries of the country which together represent the state of the national economy. 
 

 
Now let’s take a look at what your business after lockdown will look like according to your industry:
SMEs
Small and medium enterprises have been greatly impacted due to the pandemic. While larger companies have completely shifted to home office making the most of digitalization and smart devices, smaller companies are severely struggling with the transition. For them, the disruption caused by COVID-19 spans beyond the scope of a changed lifestyle. The outbreak has spelled disaster for small businesses and start-ups with bills and expenses piling up but no production and revenue to pay it with. There are entrepreneurs and freelance employees with dwindling savings who have no idea from where their next paycheck will come from. 
Malls have been closed meaning many businesses have lost out on capitalizing Pohela Boishakh and might lose out on Eid rush as well. For most businesses, the time of Ramadan leading to Eid-Ul-Fitr is the commercial highlight of the year with the markets usually crowded with excited customers shopping for the festive occasion. While a shutdown is bad for business, the timing has definitely been worse as the businesses need to pay festival bonus and for the additional stock/materials they had previously ordered due to the usually high Eid demand.  
While the government has taken many measures including a Tk200 billion stimulus package and capping interest rate at 9% with the government paying 4% of it for SMEs, due to the vast nature of this sector the benefits might not reach all who need it. With the uncertainty of not knowing when it will be safe to resume business, many firms are at increasing risk of shutting down.
Now that officially everyone is deciding to go back to business, it isn’t necessarily a great circumstance for SMEs who probably didn’t have enough revenue saved up to now start their business after lockdown.

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