COVID-19 is unique in the severity of its impact as it is a humanitarian disaster that has caused both a supply and a demand shock to the global economic system. It has disproportionately affected women entrepreneurs as their firms are younger and smaller. Aim: This study aimed to examine the effect of COVID-19 Pandemic On Women Entrepreneurial Sustainability, Challenges And explore the Post Pandemic Opportunities for women entrepreneurs from informal sector belonging to Patel community, Vadodara, Gujarat.

Methods: We conducted a survey using a survey questionnaire to explore the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic crisis and subsequent lockdown on women business operations and to get their perspective. Data were collected from 40 women entrepreneurs. Variables like Actions taken, Preferred type of assistance, Opportunities identified, Business preparation, Cost-cutting actions taken and Expected time to recovery formed the part of survey questionnaire.

Results: The data from survey show that women entrepreneurs are clearly traumatized by the shock of the COVID-19 crisisIn fact, only about 10% of the women entrepreneurs in the survey stated that they expected to resume normal operations within a year, while the rest said it would take more than one year, and/or that it was too soon to tell. While these women entrepreneurs have scrambled to adapt to the emergency conditions by making significant decreases in spending, they also recognized the opportunities offered by the COVID-19 pandemic and pivoted their business models in order to seize these opportunities. About half of all women entrepreneurs (55%) surveyed said they have identified New markets and have adopted to online marketing and services in a different way. While these women entrepreneurs have scrambled to adapt to the emergency conditions by making significant decreases in spending, they also recognized the opportunities offered by the COVID-19 pandemic and pivoted their business models in order to seize these opportunities.

Conclusion: COVID-19 pandemic has created new opportunities. Contrary to assumptions predicting that women entrepreneurs will primarily adjust their business models to reduce risk, these findings suggest that some women entrepreneurs moved very quickly to capture new business opportunities resulting from the crisis. However, research on women entrepreneurs who pivot their business models to take advantage of the opportunities created from the COVID-19 pandemic is only just emerging.

KEYWORDS: Women Entrepreneurship, India, Challenges, Opportunities, COVID-19.