As India has returned to the pre-pandemic way of operating businesses, the MSMEs in the country are optimistic about their growth and business outcomes, as per Khatabook’s Business sentiment survey.

The Survey sums up the overall sentiment of small and medium business owners in India and their expectations for their business outcomes for the first 6 months of the year 2022. Khatabook studied the business growth witnessed by 15942 MSMEs across every state in the country in Q3 – Q4 2021 and the expected growth for Q1 – Q2 2022.

In Jan 2022, Khatabook announced 1.8 trillion monthly transactions being recorded across their platforms. Through this Business Sentiment Survey, startup aims to identify challenges that the MSME businesses face in India and take necessary actions to aid their growth. The startup is planning to conduct a Business Sentiment Survey with MSMEs every 6 months.

According to the findings of the Khatabook’s Business Sentiment Survey, during the second half of 2021, 41 per cent of the MSME owners in India saw growth in their business while 23 per cent experienced a decline in their business. The findings also revealed that the remaining 36 per cent believed that their business has stayed stagnant.

Furthermore, the Survey revealed that about 54 per cent of the businesses did not face any significant issues during this period. Although, for the remaining 46 per cent, weak demand, financial liquidity, and credit availability still posed a major challenge. The overall sentiment across industries was found to be positive with 68 per cent of the MSMEs expecting better prospects, while only 7 per cent expecting to see a business dip in the first half of 2022.

The states where more businesses thrived in 2021 Q3-Q4 were Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Rajasthan, and Madhya Pradesh. Additionally, as per the findings, manufacturers and retailers were most impacted during this period while the wholesalers prevailed and scored the highest current Confidence Score.

With healthcare and hygiene being a top priority since the pandemic, the businesses in the healthcare and pharma industries witnessed a surge in their profits. Similarly, financial services, marketing-related businesses, and internet services were amongst the businesses that experienced substantial growth. Businesses like education, restaurants, fashion lifestyle and stationery/xerox struggled due to the limited contact guidelines.

Furthermore, the survey revealed that they expect slower progress even in the coming months.

Commenting on the key findings of the survey, Ravish Naresh, CEO and Co-founder, Khatabook, said, “We are committed to understand our merchant users better to provide them with the best digital solutions to make their businesses more efficient and profitable. Business Sentiment Survey is an effort in that direction. We plan to conduct this survey every 6 months to identify the level of confidence for business growth and understand the key challenges for the MSME ecosystem in the country. These findings help us devise a strategy to better equip our users with technological capabilities to ensure that their growth is not stinted.”