THE DYNAMICS OF SMALL HOUSEHOLD ENTERPRISES AMID THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC

Micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs) have repeatedly survived the Indonesian economic crises because of their ability to absorb employment more significantly than larger firms.  MSMEs manage to survive and to compete against similar firms despite lower capital levels and human resource capability. Further, MSMEs dominate economic activities. Hence, it is understandable that the government pays special attention to MSME development.  In this respect, according to the Minister of Cooperatives and SMEs, Teten Masduki (May 2020), about 1,785 cooperatives and 193,713 MSMEs that are affected by COVID-19 need special assistance to recover their business continuity. Further, he indicates that some business sectors enjoy increasing activities, such as hobby-related products (increases by 70%), staple food products (350%), and herbal food products (200%).

The municipal and central governments also focus on assisting small household enterprises in Bali Province amid the COVID-19 pandemic.  However, the provision of direct assistance to affected private employees is still not equally distributed. The governments have launched various policies to help communities cope with the current problems and mainly to ensure the sustainability of small household enterprises, such as providing unconditional cash transfer (BLT – Bantuan Langsung Tunai), offering loans with lower interest rates, allowing small enterprises to delay their loan or installment payments during the pandemic era. However, these central government’s policies are still not equally distributed to the affected communities.

Most of those who work in the tourism sector in Bali Province are heavily affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. Most private firms in this sector reduce their working hours, require their formerly full-time employees to work part-time or in shifts, offer unpaid furlough, or even permanent layoff to their employees. Accordingly, households are motivated to struggle for their survivability creatively. They initiate to run various business activities depending on their creativity and competence. Most of them suddenly engage in selling basic needs, such as eggs,  vegetables, tofu, tempeh, meat, sea fish, and ingredients. Also, some of them sell cakes, ready-to-eat food, fruits, and others. Households initiate these new businesses to ensure the survivability of their households. These business activities can be classified as informal small household enterprises. Facilitated by online technology such as Facebook and Instagram, they can sell their products to their colleagues and neighbors within their surrounding environments. Uniquely, they also exchange their products with their friends, depending on their needs. Further analysis reveals that they have to implement their latent entrepreneurship spirits amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Mutual helps among colleagues, neighbors, and relatives stimulate togetherness and solidarity to survive the COVID-19 pandemic and represent strong social capital among communities.

The sense of the same fate arguably increases the role of social capital in communities that strengthen familial, togetherness, and friendship ties among them. The current dynamics of small household enterprises need to continue, although the end of this pandemic is still far from certain. The dynamics of entrepreneurship is an intangible asset that is not optimally utilized and serves as robust capital for the affected communities.  Hence, stakeholders need to enhance this entrepreneurship spirit as the basic capital. Persistence, hard works, and mutual trusts that are previously insignificant are now crucial in ensuring the continuity of the initiatives if motivated by sincerity and seriousness. Hence, the role of small household enterprises amid the COVID-19 pandemic needs to increase to offer the best solutions to various problems amid the pandemic era.