Microbusinesses boom to fight pandemic downturn

Future. Pandemic pressures have spurred a new wave of business creation, with Americans either needing to find a way to make a paycheck or wanting to change their priorities in the midst of a year of soul-searching. With so many new entrepreneurs, companies and organizations that can help support their hustles may not only find success, but could also become the backbone to long-term economic recovery.

Lose a job, be the boss
What do you do when you’ve lost your job, but still have bills to pay? Start a microbusiness.

• The Peterson Institute for International Economics found that Americans started 4.4 million new businesses in 2020.
• That’s a 24% increase compared to 2019.
• 39% of those businesses are women-owned.

Most of those businesses are what are called microbusinesses — small businesses with 1-9 employees or “solopreneurs, consultants, freelancers, [and] people with a side-hustle.”

The necessity of choice
The variety of jobs that these micro-business owners are pursuing is surprising. ZenBusiness, which helps new entrepreneurs manage all the logistics of starting their hustles, surveyed its customers and found that many are becoming “electricians, realtors, consultants, and online realtors.” And, of course, they are leaning heavily into e-commerce and digital marketing.

ZenBusiness founder and CEO Ross Buhrdorf said that, other than needing a paycheck, starting a business became desirable because “the pandemic made people realize, whether by choice or by necessity, that there are advantages to entrepreneurship, like being able to work from anywhere, set your own hours, and spend more time with family.”