Due to the Covid 19 pandemic, economies around the world are in distress. SMEs and startups are vulnerable. EMK Center and Truvalu Enterprises launched free entrepreneurial counselling sessions under the label of E-clinic in June to aid those struggling SMEs and startups. E-clinic is a platform where entrepreneurs received free online counselling regarding all their start-up-related issues. They received treatment about rebranding, product/market development strategy, financial investments, customer insights and many more.
Entrepreneur Oasim Akram said he has poultry firm business, supported by Brac bank, but doesn’t have enough investment for building infrastructure. Also, he wanted investors to focus on a particular sector (dairy, poultry) for investment and with that profit, he wanted to expand his business. Experts suggested him to go for ‘I Farmer,’ a unique organisation that helps the farmers.
Jakir Hossian, who sells jewellery through Daraz, had to use up all his profit and left with zero funding to launch new products due to the pandemic. Without investment, he wasn’t able to build a physical store. According to E-clinic experts, NGO’s, who lends covid recovery ‘Zero Interest Loan’ and other loans can be beneficial to Zakir Hossain.
Shahriar Rahman, who works for event management, is facing difficulties as no events are being held due to the pandemic. He usually works as the middleman for 10/12 sectors and combines them. Session experts told him to indulge in these events using social media platforms.
Ibrahim Khalil, an entrepreneur shared his story of developing ERP software. Due to stiff competition, low cost of software, not enough sales, this project had seen deadlock. Rafi Noor had his online teaching platform where students search for tutors in a holistic manner. But as usual, there is a funding crisis. Experts suggested both of them to go for funding like IDLC venture capital, Bangladesh Angel, GP Accelerator, Toru, BYLC, and Idea for mitigating fund crisis.
Swarna has a Facebook page ‘Magical Art of Silence’ where she indulges special children to paint and to display those paintings in the exhibition. Due to the pandemic, orders fell drastically. On top of that, she had to pay for canvas, raw materials on her own. Experts advised her to maintain transparency of production, order, painting process so that customers sneak a peek at paintings. Entrepreneur Fatima has a micro-manufacturing factory of Jute. She wants to improve in the marketing and finance sector of her business. Solutions given by experts were to go for B2C, to give more product photos on the Facebook page and maintain the transaction process internally/externally through vouchers, calculate business’s profit/loss in a process, and go for Brac bank women investment.
