Instamojo gives free online courses to help small businesses to go digital during lockdown

• The MSME sector (Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises) is the worst hit due to the Coronavirus lockdown.
  
• As many as 69 million MSMEs are affected by the nationwide lockdown, according to Ravi Venkatesan, chairman of the Global Alliance of Mass Entrepreneurship.
  
• Instamojo, digital solutions provider for MSMEs launched a learning initiative — Mojoversity — that provides free access to online courses on email marketing for small business owners.
  
• Other courses include legal and compliance matters, GST, accounting techniques, funding reports and more.

The ongoing pandemic has affected businesses across the globe, disrupting supply chains. The worst affected is the MSME sector (Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises) with few resources in hand to tide through the troubles.

The nationwide lockdown has already impacted 69 million MSMEs, according to Ravi Venkatesan, chairman of the Global Alliance of Mass Entrepreneurship. In fact, at least one in four MSMEs will not remain operational following the cash crunch due to Coronavirus — if the lockdown period stretches beyond 4-8 weeks.

Given that, going digital has become the need of the hour for small businesses. To facilitate that, Instamojo, digital solutions provider for MSMEs launched a learning initiative — Mojoversity — with free access to online courses on email marketing.

It partnered with Hubspot to curate the course and help small business owners generate leads and grow. The short term course also includes insights on latest email marketing trends, importance of implementation, and technicalities like tracking metrics to prepare for the industry demands.

Other startup courses at Mojoversity

Apart from email marketing, the initiative also includes a course on ‘How to grow your business using Funnels’ — that gives insights to lead generation and management. The course explains ways to generate more leads to grow your online business and increase engagement to convert the viewers into paid customers.

Other courses include legal and compliance matters, GST, accounting techniques, funding reports and more.

The legal and compliance course helps entrepreneurs in avoiding penalties or compliance issues. It includes procedures to obtain licenses and registrations to operate legally, safeguard the small businesses via contracts and more.

Meanwhile, the Reserve Bank of India announced relief measures for MSMEs. The rate cut is expected to trim the borrowing cost for these small businesses and deferring the interests on payments will also help them grow and sustain the lockdown. This will help them with enough working capital to pay urgent bills and wages.

“The much-awaited news from the RBI has brought confidence to the depressed business community. Never before has this country witnessed such a situation, and the steps taken by the RBI is a first-of-its-kind exercise and very timely,” BusinessLine reported citing X Arokianathan, Co-Convenor, MSME Panel, CII-Tamil Nadu.