71% plan to continue with their new ventures.
by 卡塔尔世界杯常规比赛时间
as the world bemoaned the cruelty and inconvenience of the covid-19 pandemic, a lot of entrepreneurs were making the best of times in the worst of times.
the result: a lot of new small businesses. and each one is an opportunity for an accountant.
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the pandemic years have seen a huge spike in not just covid-19 cases but new business creation, a breathtaking increase of 50 percent, according to a survey from zapier, the software automation company. it started just as existing businesses went into lockdown, and the trend isn’t stopping any more than the virus is.
surprise!
the survey turned up a lot of surprises.
one was the geographic distribution of the new businesses. the southeast – mississippi, georgia, south carolina, louisiana – saw the most dramatic spikes in new enterprises. the survey didn’t look for reasons why, but zapier suggests businesses were able to thrive because the south’s relatively laissez-faire approach to epidemiological control resulted in less economic interruption. the innovation may also have been born of economic necessity in a region where alternative sources of income were important.
also surprising were the factors that led entrepreneurs to crank up a new business. the most common was the extra time they had thanks to quarantines and lockdowns, cited by 77 percent. when they no longer needed to commute or travel and they had the flexibility that comes with working at home, they used their new free time to start businesses.
the second most common – surprise again! – was a desire to contribute to their community and society, cited by an impressive 69 percent. many, for example, saw an opportunity in providing personal protection equipment.
another 65 percent said they wanted to take advantage of the business opportunities presented by the pandemic, such as delivery services and ppe production and distribution.
only 57 percent said they needed to make more money. these were the people laid off, furloughed, or unemployed because of a business closure.
experience counted
less surprising were data showing that the vast majority of those who started a new business had done so in the past. almost half – 48 percent – had already started a business from scratch, and another 25 percent had freelance experience. only 27 percent said it was their first crack at one of america’s most time-honored traditions.
a personal inclination to start a new enterprise might also explain why seven out of 10 business founders were employed when they started their new business. among those 55 years of age or more, 24 percent were retired and 46 percent were employed.
the survey didn’t ask why they chose a time of pandemic to launch a new venture, but one can imagine these exceptionally dynamic workers sneaking a few hours for their own purposes while supposedly doing their employer’s work at home. retirees may have seen an opportunity to get back in the saddle.
technology helped
obviously, these entrepreneurs were finding niches that would not be disrupted by every little virus that came along. almost four out of 10 went into e-commerce. one in five went into professional consulting. only 16 percent invested in a retail business with a physical location.
technology offered significant leverage to people working alone out of a spare bedroom or garage. asked which of several professional tasks is easier now than just three years ago,
- 80 percent said creating a website;
- 75 percent indicated marketing through social media;
- 72 percent said marketing in general;
- 64 percent said automating mundane tasks.
the trend continues
maybe it’s the lingering threat of lockdown and a parade of viral variants, but it might also be a new awareness that starting a business isn’t an impossible dream.
- 90 percent consider their startup successful.
- 88 percent say they’re stable enough to last at least another year.
- 68 percent plan to hire more people in 2022.
- 71 percent plan to return to the workforce but keep their new business going.
the multitude of new businesses are opportunities for accounting firms that are willing to coach newbies as they grow into bigger operations. in that startups are, by definition, small, their accounting and tax needs are within the capability of sole practitioners and small firms. virus or no virus, accountants and new businesses can grow together.