Coronavirus: Can small businesses survive?
Business Daily
BBC
4.4 • 816 Ratings
🗓️ 27 April 2020
⏱️ 17 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Coronavirus has derailed the global economy, closing entire business chains across the world. Big companies may have the collateral to withstand the storm, but what about smaller ones? We speak to three business owners to find out. Ramjit Ray in Calcutta in India, Victoria Brockelsby in High Wycombe in the UK and Mustafa Jaffer in Allentown in the US. (Picture description: Coronavirus calculator via Getty Images).
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hello, I'm Tamerson Ford. Welcome to Business Daily from the BBC. |
| 0:06.9 | SMEs, small and medium-sized enterprises, account for the majority of businesses globally. |
| 0:14.1 | They employ about half of the world's formal workforce and coronavirus is crushing them. |
| 0:20.5 | We put a lot of our, well, I should say all of our life savings into this. |
| 0:24.9 | But importantly, you know, we have 15 people on our team and we had to furlough a majority |
| 0:29.2 | of them. |
| 0:30.3 | So that hurts the most. |
| 0:31.6 | But the worry doesn't subside as companies look to the future. |
| 0:35.6 | If businesses aren't getting an income and they haven't got the cash flow, |
| 0:39.1 | they're now not planning necessarily for growth this year |
| 0:41.9 | and in fact probably a significant decline in revenue. |
| 0:45.1 | It's such a huge uncertainty. |
| 0:47.8 | From the UK to India to the US, |
| 0:50.5 | we find out how companies are coping. |
| 0:53.4 | That's all in Business Daily from the BBC. |
| 0:59.7 | Hi, I'm Ramjit Reef from Calcutta, India. |
| 1:02.9 | I have a company called Matrix Direct Communications Private Limited. |
| 1:06.8 | Hi, this is Mustafa Jaffer. |
| 1:08.6 | I am one of the co-owners of EBC printing and signs here in |
| 1:12.8 | Allentown, Pennsylvania in the USA. Hello, I'm Victoria Broclesby. I'm co-founder and COO at Origin |
| 1:19.9 | Frames Limited and we're based in High Wycombe in Buckinghamshire, England. Victoria, let's start |
| 1:25.6 | with you. Can you give us an idea of where your company is right now? |
... |
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