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10% of microenterprises in Colombia declared bankruptcy due to the COVID-19 pandemic. A study carried out by the Interactuar Corporation to know the impact of the cessation of activities during the confinement revealed this data. They reveal the percentage of micro-businesses that went bankrupt due to a pandemic.
The survey data also indicates that 65.7% of these companies ran out of cash to finance their operations and that 53% presented a decrease in their sales of more than 50%.
“The results show us that the microenterprise is still very vulnerable and that this pandemic has affected it considerably,” Interactuar’s executive director Fabio Andrés Montoya told Efe.
He affirmed that they hope that the entrepreneurs who had to definitively close their businesses “can reactivate quickly”, but warned that they will face difficulties, including access to credit, and will need special support.
Despite the fact that a significant number of entrepreneurs said they were in a “bankruptcy situation”, the manager considered that some variables are improving in the country, according to the measurement carried out in August.
Along these lines, he highlighted that there are “58% of active micro-enterprises compared to 36% that we saw in the month of May”, so he interprets that companies “are reactivated, have access to the market and are selling a little more “.
Interactuar, which is part of the Micro Company Study Center (CEM) together with the Medellín Chamber of Commerce for Antioquia, the Aburrá Sur Chamber of Commerce, Proantioquia, Comfama and the FGA Guarantee Fund Foundation, supports the creation of micro-enterprises in more than 200 municipalities in the country and serves more than 55,000 entrepreneurs with training and financing.
They reveal the percentage of micro-businesses that went bankrupt due to a pandemic
UNEMPLOYMENT CONCERNS
Among other figures, the survey revealed that companies that created more than two jobs had to reduce their workforce by 44%, while 60% of employers indicated that they require greater access to finance.
“That is an important number of jobs,” said Montoya, who was concerned about the unemployed.
For him, in the midst of the reactivation of the economy that Colombia is experiencing, “there is still a lot of unemployed population,” and he believed that microenterprises could be “a mechanism to obtain income or an emergency job.”
Montoya also indicated that it is urgent to create strategies to reactivate employment in the microenterprise and so that the unemployed can undertake.
He pointed out that the study made it possible to identify the most vulnerable entrepreneurs in the face of the crisis and detect the greatest risks, as well as establish strategies to continue with the accompaniment during their economic reactivation process.
89% of the business fabric in Colombia is made up of micro-businesses; Before the pandemic, this type of business employed 14.5 million people, according to the CEM.
OPTIMISM AND REINVENTION
On the other hand, the study showed that 57.9% of companies have entered the digital economy and 73.2% have implemented implementations to access the market, while 62% improved their operational capacity and 59% of the Entrepreneurs are optimistic about the results for the end of the year.
In that group with positive feelings is Nelson David Londoño, who transformed his embroidery and weaving company during the paralysis due to the coronavirus with the inclusion of services that allowed him to reach new clients and explore other market niches.
“The pandemic was an opportunity; it gave us a boost to do new projects,” the owner of Soluctex told Efe, who complemented the offer and now manufactures business endowments and performs sublimation in the municipality of Carmen de Viboral.
With the quarantine closure, he said, he looked in other directions, tried making masks and looked for a way to reinvent himself when his sales fell.
“Many of our clients threw in the towel and began to close for good because they could not support themselves,” said the entrepreneur.
Faced with this difficulty and after a decade working embroidery with the machinery that he acquired with the financing of Interactuar, Londoño came up with the idea of making business endowments and medical uniforms, in addition to opening a store to supply his own creations.
“We could not live solely on the same customers. With the pandemic we decided to open ourselves to the public and provide other services,” added the innovator.
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