Change Is an Opportunity to Grow

In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, many businesses have suffered. They’ve dealt with mandatory shutdowns during spikes in infections. They’ve adapted to new health and safety regulations that often dramatically change how they do business. They’ve struggled to make all the numbers work, and how to take advantage of federal programs like the PPP and ERC.

But amid all that, it’s also been a boom time for entrepreneurship. And it continues to grow.

After an initial drop during the initial shock of the pandemic, business formations jumped dramatically. Studying the Census Bureau’s data, the Bipartisan Policy Center found that, “Since July 2020, the monthly average for new business applications has been 90 percent higher than the pre-pandemic average from 2004 to February 2020.”

And it’s still going! In July 2021, there were more than 450,000 new business applications, which was an increase over the already-high numbers from June.

While many of those new businesses are people going off on their own, there are also more businesses expecting to hire additional employees: these kinds of businesses are up 32 percent from before the pandemic began.

The increase is broad, covering every demographic group: age, gender, ethnicity, education level, birthplace…you name it, more people are starting businesses.

So what’s driving this? The simple fact is that this has been a time of dramatic change. And while change can be scary, it also provides opportunities. In this case, it has been opportunities for people to think about new ways to do things, new ways to work, new ways to serve others, new ways to be creative.

The entrepreneurial spirit is ascendant, and that means there are more people than ever looking for help. GoSmallBiz is here for you! Whether you’re looking for help with incorporation, marketing tools to reach more customers, or guidance from experts in tax and legal fields, GoSmallBiz has what you need.