FOLLOWING a year of surprisingly resilient recovery for the country’s small businesses and individual workers, 2022 is poised to be a year of optimism and recovery.
This is based on Recommend.my’s annual survey which was conducted among 120 small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in the home and local services industry in Malaysia between 15-28 Dec, 2021.
According to the survey, home and local service industries have been considerably challenged for the past two years since the onslaught of the COVID-19 pandemic.
While 18.4% faced difficulty in finding local manpower with the right skills, 17.3% of those surveyed have been impacted heavily due to the rising cost of materials (which is especially prevalent for the home improvement sector) while 13.8% stated that they are uncertain of the customer demand which is heavily influenced by the current situation.
When surveyed, more than half of service providers based in Malaysia that are affiliated with Recommend.my are found to have successfully maintained or even increased their revenue in 2021 when compared to 2020, said the home and local services platform.
“In 2021, the changing trend of home and local services have impacted the industry greatly,” opined Recommend Group co-founder and chief executive officer Jes Min Lua.
“However, through our survey we have found out that 57.5% of our service providers managed to maintain or even increase their revenue in 2021 compared to 2020 which indicates that 2021 was a year of recovery for our service providers.”
Breaking it down further, 20.8% of survey respondents have successfully adapted and increased their revenue by up to 25.0% while 9.2% have increased their revenue by 25-50%.
On the other hand, it is important to take into account that over 17.5% of SMEs surveyed felt a decline in revenue by over 50%.
“The home improvement sector has been hit harder by the pandemic, especially due to rising material costs and reluctance of customers to spend more money,” Lua pointed out.
“Home maintenance vendors however have seen an uptick in average revenue as they are specialised in repairs and simple installations.
“These include electricians, handymen, aircon servicing technicians, and plumbers. One of the contributing factors is that many home maintenance professionals could continue operating during Movement Control Order (MCO) as long as it was for essential repairs such as water leaks and electrical blackouts.”
Lua went on to note that the volume of home and local service projects are expected to increase in 2022 as 60% of businesses are optimistic about recovery by end of the year.
“We are also taking steps to acquire more high-quality service professionals to meet the demand,” she added.
“Recommend Group has already vetted over 10,000 companies and independent service professionals in Malaysia and is actively working with them to standardise service scope and prices, improve service quality, enable cashless payments, and provide strong service warranties and insurance protection.” – Jan 25, 2022
