The COVID-19 pandemic has severely impacted global business operations. Most importantly, practitioners of small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) have been facing devastating economic shocks emanated from the COVID-19 pandemic. The purposes of this study are to explore the business status of SMEs, business sustenance period, types of problems faced by the practitioners and impact on production volume, due to the COVID-19 pandemic. For these purposes, primary survey data from 284 SMEs in Bangladesh are collected in this study. The survey data are descriptively analyzed using appropriate graphs. This study finds that SMEs are facing several problems such as demand fall (92.96%), cancellation of orders (85.56%), liquidity crisis (74.30%), delayed transportation (72.53%), unsecured working environment (68.31%), raw material shortage (63.73%) and employees’ absenteeism (62.67%). The SMEs face beyond 40% decrease in production volume against the pre-pandemic year. Furthermore, this study formulates several strategic measures, which will certainly guide policymakers and practitioners to combat the COVID-19 economic shocks for the SMEs and also for other industries.

中文翻译：

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COVID-19 对中小企业的影响

COVID-19 大流行严重影响了全球业务运营。最重要的是，中小企业 (SME) 的从业者一直面临着 COVID-19 大流行带来的毁灭性经济冲击。本研究的目的是探讨由于 COVID-19 大流行，中小企业的业务状况、业务维持期、从业者面临的问题类型以及对产量的影响。为此，本研究收集了来自孟加拉国 284 家中小企业的初步调查数据。使用适当的图表对调查数据进行描述性分析。本研究发现，中小企业面临需求下降（92.96%）、订单取消（85.56%）、流动性危机（74.30%）、运输延误（72.53%）、工作环境不安全（68.31%）、原材料等问题。短缺（63. 73%）和员工旷工（62.67%）。与大流行前一年相比，中小企业的产量下降超过 40%。此外，本研究制定了几项战略措施，这必将指导政策制定者和从业者应对中小企业和其他行业的 COVID-19 经济冲击。