The COVID-19 pandemic that hit Indonesia for almost two years has caused many changes in the business world. Numerous businesses faced a decline in turnover and even filed for bankruptcies because they were unable to fund their operations. The decrease in people’s income reduces community purchasing power to buy secondary needs. Based on a survey conducted by the Bank Indonesia Representative Office in Solo, business activities are kept on declining until the 4th quarter of 2020. The level of current assets or cash and profitability or operating profit of a business entity had decreased by -2.8% and -25% for the last three consecutive months at the end of the fourth quarter of 2020, respectively.

This statement was conveyed by Lekso Mirmawan, the Head of the Bank Jateng Solo Branch, in a Public Lecture on Banks Performance and Business Development During the Pandemic, organized by the Accounting Study Program, Faculty of Economics and Business (FEB) Universitas Sebelas Maret (UNS), Wednesday, September 15, 2021. Furthermore, he said that the banking sector is one of the sectors required by the government to take part in the national economic recovery. Banks must make internal and external transformations to contribute to the community, customers, or bank debtors.

“One of the strategic efforts taken is to provide credit relaxation to debtors affected by the Covid-19 pandemic. This relaxation is provided in the form of deferment for the payment of principal credit installment within a certain period. At the same time, there was an allowance that let some debtors to only pay for the outstanding interest. Following this pattern, we hope that debtors can survive the crisis, funding their working capital, operational costs, and so on,” he explained.

Another type of relaxation provided is the exemption of principal and interest payment for a certain period. This relaxation is given to companies that are non-essential in nature to encourage entrepreneurs to recover their operations and survive the pandemic.

Additionally, banks are also diverting commercial loans to consumer loans based on a fixed salary installment. This loan aims to stimulate civil servants borrowing by providing low loan interest.

During this pandemic, banks are also facing public distrust issues regarding the customers’ fund’s security. Until today, the banking sector seeks to provide education and information dissemination to convince customers that public funds deposited in banks are guaranteed by the Indonesia Deposit Insurance Corporation (LPS).

Meanwhile, Raja Alkautsar, the Owner of Tanaku Kopi, as the second speaker in the public lecture, which was attended by more than 160 participants, highlights the strategies for those who want to be successful entrepreneurs.

According to him, to establish a business, one must have passion. Passion can be seen when someone is thrilled to do something and is not bored even though he does it for a long time, always enjoying the specific activity. Passion, if honed, will be a great business opportunity.

“People who have passion will be more detailed, do not want to make mistakes, and do not want to lose. Some of the successful people I have met usually carry out their work activities beyond reasonable limits, very hard-working, even when they are hanging out, their discussion revolved around work. They come home just to sleep,” he said.

Raja added that the requirement to become an entrepreneur is to never give up. If you fail, you need to immediately get up again. The pressure in the business world is indeed very high, especially when working with other people because there will be a profit-sharing mechanism.

When starting a business, it is important to visit, record, and analyze competitors’ businesses continuously. Find out why their business is crowded to understand the clues. Most importantly, it is crucial to always provide satisfactory service to the customers. Thus they will always repeat their visits. (Humas FEB).