Four Recovery Challenges of Small Business Economy

Post pandemic national recovery of the small and medium business economy is neither a number crunching exercise, as economic numbers right now mean little or nothing, nor an academic exercise of economic mindset, as the world has morphed and in critical need of new business-centric entrepreneurial mindset. It is all about entrepreneurialism, its mobilization and deployments of upskilling for innovative excellence and exportability. Big or small economies all must learn fast to survive or else as post pandemic economic recovery will take no prisoners.

The Four Players of Small Business Economies: The balancing act is an art and mobilization of a new science, the small business economy, often grossly misunderstood, dwarfed by gigantic projects, but always divided into four major very special types of players and therefore demands entrepreneurial mindset to decipher critical pathways to success.

One: Founders are the true entrepreneurial risk-takers, job-creators and grassroots prosperity fertilizers. Two: National trade groups and chambers are the umbrella where such founders gather to improve trade-flows. Three: National governments collecting taxes from founders are policy makers to improve the trades. Four: Customers are the buyers that prove the validity of the existence of that small medium enterprise

Facts from across the world; normally, founders of small medium businesses are outcast as out of the box thinkers, risk-takers and not large enough contributors on photo-op trails. Trade associations and chambers treat them for being too small to pay what big corporations pay in membership fees. National economic developments prefer just the lip service compared to how they serve the big corporate players. Customers of small medium businesses are appreciative and loyal to businesses ONLY with superior performances, quality of goods and services of real value.

Why is it so important? These are the four groups constituting four pillars, each with special characters, each needing special handling and not just bundled as “SME Crisis” of sorts, brushed under the rug repeatedly, since the last many decades. This is also not about some flag raising ceremony at local city hall; gala-plastic-award-dinner-night or declaring a flag covered SME week, none of this will work in post pandemic recovery.

Secondly, this is not about some semesters at local university, after all, entrepreneurialism is neither “academic born” nor “academic-centric” it is revolutionary in nature. Weed out and identify true entrepreneurialism, as without it all such academic-bureaucratic-mindset becomes a liability to a nation's economic welfare. Any successful organization anywhere in the world critically needs all sorts of mindsets, from accountancy, bureaucracy, technicalities and psychologies but the foundation and leadership always comes from the entrepreneurial mindsets, study the last 100 successful enterprises across the world. Observe how entrepreneurs always feared and blocked by instructions and bureaucratic mindsets for being out of box thinkers and risk takers.

What needs changing? Today, the economies of the world are the Humpty Dumpty on the wall, while national face-saving hidden in the local small medium business economy. Upskilling 25% of the high potential midsize SME on innovative excellence and upskilling to quadruple their exportability, as the world is an open market to absorb high quality and value. Quick math will prove the speed of return. Of course, without national mobilization of entrepreneurialism on digital platforms of upskilling for innovative excellence and exportability, such are impossible tasks.

Why are new mindsets required? Today outside a miniscule number across the world, most trade associations and chambers still do not have their full membership profiled, fully digitized, nicely featured and creatively accessible for global bounce. Wait a minute, it was never their mandate, but during the last decades the world changed, post-pandemic upside down and now with free flow of digitization the global commerce changed. Therefore, only those trade groups with demonstrable skills to articulate on such topics are serving the economy otherwise slowing growth. Check a few dozen countries around the world, and equally observe the skill sets of their frontline leaderships already mandated to foster growth and save economic progress and notice their puzzlement to such narratives. Post pandemic recovery is only for economic warriors and global-age experts, the rest need urgent help.

Facing new waves of entrepreneurialism, study why right now, how and why so many hundreds of millions new entrepreneurs are on the march. Where are they coming from, which way are they headed. Why is this sudden entrepreneurial migration on such a large scale? How skilled and articulate are the local economic development leadership to swim with such currents and create collaborative programs. The global bounce is inevitable, and brand new waves of new businesses on new models and various platforms will emerge.

Four New Options; Hidden in the new thinking is the future of global diversity of micro-trade, micro-manufacturing and micro exports to save national economies and save restless citizens from populism. Rise of the midsize economy, nation by nation, yet, so feared by the top players of the national economy and their subservient policies. No nation with upskilling will stay in the race, no leadership without meritocracy and mobilization skills will survive. Decipherable only via global logistic chain mindsets, visible only via digitized economies of entrepreneurial mindsets and actionable only via entrepreneurial initiatives, such deployments are meritocratic administrations hungry and global-age leadership starved. This is where mastery of national mobilization of entrepreneurialism on digital platforms of innovative excellence and exportability finds the driver seats.

The search for fearless warriors, identify the frontline teams on national economic developments and differentiate on the lack of understanding on national mobilization of entrepreneurialism, now absence of such a liability to national economic survival. If there are already some 200 nations in the race and some 10,000 cities on the line then why not expand the expansion strategies?

Globally there are some already 100,000-trade-associations, plus there are some 11,000 Chambers of Commerce as they alone have 45 million businesses as members. Why are such numbers important, as most trade groups and national ministries of trade and commerce, export promotion agencies despite decades of existence have grossly missed digitization, not as their fault, but rather too focused on arbitration and trade-facilitation-paperwork mindset? What would it take to create a new mindset; ready to uplift small midsize economy on digital platforms as these institutions are already halfway there?

Post pandemic recovery: The world has already changed recently, entrepreneurialism creating a global borderless tapestry of innovative excellence…as usual, case studies to record such changes not yet published for a while. Post pandemic recovery is now forcing brand new skills, creative mindsets and advanced thinking on national mobilization of entrepreneurialism on digital platforms of upskilling, for innovative excellence for exportability, the new skills and right trajectories will help economies and new elections. Seek out an entrepreneurial leadership mindset and collaborate with accountancy and bureaucratic mindsets to make it win-win. Expothon Africa is tabling a national entrepreneurialism program to mobilize the small medium business economy… study more on Google

The rest is easy

Author of this Feature Article

Naseem Javed