The Startup Navigator

The food crisis is a contemporary problem that has emerged as a major challenge for entrepreneurs across the globe and in Sri Lanka. The term "food crisis" refers to the scarcity of food or the inability of people to access food due to various reasons. The food industry is the home of many entrepreneurs, as the industry itself opens paths for numerous entrepreneurial opportunities. However, entrepreneurs who are involved in food production, processing, distribution, and retailing are facing significant challenges due to the food crisis. Therefore, it is noteworthy to explore the causes of the food crisis, its impact on entrepreneurs, and possible solutions to address the crisis as entrepreneurs in the contemporary business context. The food crisis is caused by a combination of various factors, including climate change, population growth, urbanization, and the depletion of natural resources. Climate change has led to unpredictable weather patterns, such as droughts, floods, an...

  Entrepreneurship is often considered as a pathway to financial freedom and a means to pursue one's passions. However, starting a business is not easy, and many new ventures fail within the first few years. According to sources, around 90% of startups fail, and the reasons behind this high failure rate are diverse. Therefore, it is important to discuss about why the entrepreneurs in the contemporary world fail and suggest some strategies to mitigate those reasons. In the contemporary world human preferences tend to change quickly due to unlimited options available. Therefore, lack of market research is one of the primary reasons why startups fail. Entrepreneurs often assume that everyone will want to buy their product or service. This assumption can lead to a failure as they might be targeting the wrong customer segment, or there might not be a market for their product or service. To mitigate this reason, entrepreneurs should invest time and resources into conducting market re...

Sri Lanka's Tourism Industry in the face of the Current crisis Tourism has continued to develop and diversify over the past few decades and is now one of the fastest growing economic sectors in the world. International tourism arrivals increased to 1.4 billion in 2018 due to a strong global economy, technological advancements in developing. economies, new business frameworks, innovative concepts, and the attractiveness of the country. Tourism is a very important sector of the global economy and contributes significantly to the world’s gross domestic product. Tourism is a major source of employment globally and is a labor-intensive industry. The supporting industries of tourism are accommodation, transport, catering, cultural, hospitality and sports. Sri Lanka has long been known as a popular tourist destination.   More than a hundred different types of wild animals can be seen with scenery comprising of mountains, forests, waterfalls, lakes, coastline, tropical climate, Buddhist he...

                                             Sri Lanka is currently undergoing one of the most severe economic crises since its independence. Some experts argue that it is comparable to India's crisis in 1991. The situation is dire, with foreign exchange reserves covering only three weeks' worth of imports and external debt reaching 23% of GDP. The economy is on the verge of collapse, reminiscent of India's transformative year in 1991, where strong leadership guided the country through dark times. Today, Sri Lanka finds itself in a similar predicament, with food prices skyrocketing since the last quarter of 2021 and reaching record highs in July 2022. The staggering food inflation rate has soared to 90% higher than the previous year. Shockingly, a special report by the World Food Program (WFP) reveals that over 6.2 million Sri Lankans, representing more ...

SMEs provide more job opportunities to the society, and they get a limited amount of external funding compared to big firms. This is not applicable only to developing countries; it is also applicable to developed countries. There are a lot of obstacles in the SME finance journey. Compared to big firms, SMEs are typically more "opaque" due to a lack of publicly available information. As a result of that, banks are having more difficulty evaluating the creditworthiness of SMEs. The banks will be provided collateral loans when necessary institutions exist. If SMEs property rights are weak, they will have greater financial limitations than big firms (Beck, Demirgüç-Kunt, and Maksimovic 2008). Macroeconomic factors can also affect SMEs' finances. As an example, if the government experiences a fiscal deficit, banks tend to find it less risky or more profitable to fund the government rather than lending to the private sector, which also decreases the credit available to SMEs. ...