How can entrepreneurships that were born in a pandemic survive?

This is talked about half in jest, half seriously, but we cannot deny that the entrepreneurial vein of Ecuadorians skyrocketed during the period of confinement that we experienced for much of 2020 and gave way to small businesses. Says Gabriel Rovayo, president of the consulting firm Roadmak Solutions.

“Due to the impossibility of going out to stock up on products, for example, family businesses emerged for the distribution of groceries, vegetables, fruits, etc., very well organized, by the way. Others chose to bring out their skills as cooks or chefs and they saved the lives of those whose forte is not cooking. Suppliers of cleaning supplies, alcohol, masks, home delivery services, in short, creativity at its best”.

As an expert in entrepreneurship, and reviewing serious studies on the subject, he affirms that this whole phenomenon is extremely interesting for him. “Before the pandemic, as a country, we were already leaders in entrepreneurship in the region. But, during confinement, 30% of the Ecuadorian population created a business and at the head of these were (and in many cases continue) people or families who incorporated a large part of the innovation and communication technologies, many empirically and others applying what learned in their schools. The challenge was to face COVID-19 and survive not only the disease, but also the need to generate income.”

However, he adds, once the worst of the crisis is over, that total impossibility of leaving homes to prevent contagion, and having reached a point of a new normal, which has allowed us to go out to work, to study, to stock up on necessary products, it is pertinent to ask ourselves: what is the post-COVID future of the enterprises born in the pandemic?

“The responses require timely measures from our authorities to prevent good and creative ideas from dying due to lack of financial support. Ecuadorian entrepreneurship is in a process of internal adjustments under the influence of the health crisis. But the design of public policies and a new regulatory framework in this regard are necessary and urgent. It is more than evident that the Ecuadorian cries out for work and that when we must lend a hand, we do so. That we are not daunted by difficulties and that we are capable of seeing opportunities in crises as complicated as that of COVID-19.

We require a drastic change of direction, with government support in the form of low-interest loans and that citizens have the opportunity to train and stop being digitally illiterate. An Ecuadorian entrepreneur armed with tools on how to maintain a business will make this something transcendent. In this way, the enterprises that survive and give employment to other Ecuadorians will be added. That could be the result of the sum of efforts of all economic and government agents. That is what the true reactivation of the economy is about and what is needed in the country!”

*grovayo@roadmak.com