A COMPREHENSIVE STUDY OF STARTUPS REDRAFTING THEIR BUSINESS TRACKS AMIDST 'COVID 2019' PANDEMIC

Purpose The present research study keenly investigates systematically, the businesses of the selected startups for financial years 2019-20 & 2020-21 in order to evaluate their business affairs, so as to measure their performance in the gone by months and for the present under ‘Covid 2019’ pandemic ( RQ1), to identify their immediate, medium and long run concerns for their business; to understand the adequacy of their existing support mechanisms and level of preparedness to absorb the shock;(RQ2), to describe their thought off strategy to deal with the situation and new practices likely to be adopted in terms of operations and dealing with labour, employees, customers and other stakeholders;(RQ3), and to reason their optimism in revival of their business and of the economy as a whole(RQ4), Design/Methodology/Approach A study of an organization or business passing through a crisis does require a comprehensive approach covering financial and management strategies that makes the research to make use of both quantitative and qualitative approach. Therefore, the present study has used a combination of quantitative and qualitative aspects as this unpredictable event has a multidimensional effect on the financial and non-financial functions of a business unit. Some directly quantifiable through financial analysis and some based on perception of an individual to be explored and described (Unstructured Interview). 40 startups were selected for the study who are closely associated with BSSS Incubation centre (one of the MSME approved Host Institutions under the scheme of “Support for Entrepreneurial and Managerial Development of MSMEs through Incubators” of Ministry of MSME, Government of India) & its Associate Partners. Findings It has been found that these startups are suffering from liquidity crunch and the government support system did not reach to them the way it needed to be. As the depth and the nature of bad effects of the pandemic vary differently from each other, the detailed findings of the 40 startups are represented in 6 major challenges identified by the researchers based on the detailed review of the available literature. Practical Implication : Startups are getting flourished in Madhya Pradesh by creating lot of employment opportunities. So, there is an urgent need for the revival of the start-ups to safeguard the jobs of large number of employees Originality Value The study will definitely boost the new economic paradigm by accelerating cultural shift in society where being job provider is encouraged rather than being job seeker. Effective analysis of strategies adopted by the successful startups during the pandemic are systematically presented in this research which will help us to redefine and redraft success strategies of budding startups