Despite a grim economy, applications for new business licenses are on the rise: In California, 442,324 were filed in 2020, a 21.7% increase from the year before, according to an analysis of data that the U.S. Census Bureau developed with economists and the federal reserve.
. . . Why are more people taking the plunge and launching ventures during a global pandemic?
. . . [Mark Herbert, vice president in California for Small Business Majority, a national organization advocating for small businesses] said one possibility is that people whose businesses shut down for good during the crisis might be trying to start over. More than 19,000 businesses closed permanently statewide since March, according to a September Yelp analysis.
If I'm understanding the write-up correctly, 2019 new business licenses in California was around 363,454. So about 79,000 more business licenses were requested. This compares to the closing of 19,000 business shutting in the state between March and September (per Yelp). Of course, I'm sure that Yelp doesn't track every single business closing. But yeah, a significant portion of those 79,000 requests might be related to entrepreneurs trying to re-start their lives.
But others must be deciding that this is the perfect time to leap into business. I'm no entrepreneur, but to me I'd never start a business in the middle of a pandemic. Of course, this is perhaps why I'm not one.
The article interviews entrepreneurs who are restaurant, bakery and cannabis owners. I doubt any of those will be ringing it up on Wall Street with multi-billion dollar stock offerings, but I bet there are a number of other entrepreneurs out there that will be saying in a few years that the pandemic forced them out of their comfort zone and they ended up being billionaires due to it. Good for them.
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