Cash Flow Management among Micro-Traders: Responses to the COVID-19 Pandemic

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic that struck unexpectedly has reinforced the need for proper cash flow management by micro-businesses. It may be complicated for the business sector to differentiate between business and personal finances if there is no discipline or consistency in financial management. Therefore, this study examines the practice of cash flow management by micro-traders in Kuala Terengganu, Malaysia, before 2020 and examines how their lives were affected during the freeze on economic activity. A quantitative research design was adopted, and the participants for the study were selected using the convenience sampling technique. A survey was conducted in November 2021, and 141 pieces of clean data were obtained. Statistical Package for the Social Sciences software (SPSS) was used to generate descriptive statistics for data analysis. This study determined that micro-traders did not exhibit proper cash flow management, placing them in a critical financial situation when the pandemic crisis was prolonged. The movement control order and the extended COVID-19 pandemic that caused the economic downturn negatively impacted the cash flow of micro-traders and negatively affected their incomes and livelihoods.