Entrepreneurship took off during the pandemic. It’s still flying high.
Entrepreneurship took off during the pandemic. It’s still flying high.
One of the side-effects of the pandemic back in 2020 and 2021 was the sheer number of new businesses people were forming. Business applications were off the charts for over two years, according to the Census Bureau.
A lot of that had to do with people being unemployed, or working from home, maybe dreaming about a different kind of life they might want to live. People also received plenty of pandemic relief aid that helped them finance those dreams.
Fast forward five years, and while almost everything else in this economy has returned to pre-pandemic levels, business applications have stayed high. And many entrepreneurs are starting businesses that are adapted to post-pandemic realities.
Less than a year-and-a-half ago, JoEllen Depakakibo launched Pinholita Coffee Van, based in Ojai, California. She opened the business after moving here with her wife and newborn from San Francisco, where she still owns a brick and mortar cafe called Pinhole Coffee.
Depakakibo said a big reason she decided to run her new business out of a van was to improve her work-life balance.
“I can pop up whenever I want to, and not have to open up every single day, and still have time to be with my child,” Depakakibo said.
Running the business out of a van also helps Depakakibo deal with a post-pandemic reality that’s weighing on a lot of businesses: high costs. She said she pays her employees about $20 an hour plus tips. And then, there’s the price of milk and coffee beans.
Depakakibo said those pressures affect both of her businesses. But the van’s overhead is much lower than the cafe’s. It only has one full-time employee other than her. And Depakakibo doesn’t need to stockpile as many supplies.
“I’m just buying less milk at a time, less disposables, less coffee,” Depakakibo said. “I can order just what I need, rather than things in bulk.”
Meanwhile, in Cincinnati, Jordan Anthony-Brown has been running a new business with much higher overhead: a sit-down restaurant called The Aperture.
“We’re settling into our identity a little bit,” Anthony-Brown said. “Definitely more upscale casual, bordering on fine dining, in terms of price point.”
Anthony-Brown said he recently raised his prices from around $65 a person for dinner a year ago to $80 or $90 today. Part of that was to cover the rising costs of food and wages. But Anthony-Brown said it also reflected another post-pandemic reality: people want a fine dining experience. Many of his customers are older, and they’re comfortable paying those prices.
“We have a lot of business people coming in, a lot of private bookings for business dinners that we’re starting to see,” Anthony-Brown said. “And a lot of people in the neighborhood are in that 60 to 70 range, and they just have more disposable income.”
As a result, Anthony-Brown said he’s happy spending more on overhead. He’s buying more expensive ingredients to justify those prices. And he said he’s paying competitive wages, starting at $21 an hour, to make sure his 25 or so employees are happy.
“It’s the number one reason we look to maintain a strong culture, because that trickles down,” Anthony-Brown said. “As the saying goes, ‘Happy employees make for happy guests.’”
Other aspects of the post-pandemic economy have inspired entrepreneurs to start businesses.
“I’ve been really inspired by what was happening in AI, and then, found this application that I thought there was an opportunity for,” said Sean Steigerwald, CEO and founder of CustomerIQ, a software company he started a couple years ago.
The company uses artificial intelligence technology to help businesses record and summarize meetings, emails and other forms of communication.
“I did ask myself the question, like, fast forward 10 to 15 years, do we have more online meetings or less?” Steigerwald said. “And I thought it’s a pretty safe bet that we’d have the same or more.”
Many of the economic challenges people have faced during and since the pandemic prompted Aria Joughin to start their business about a year-and-a-half ago. It’s called MakeWith Hardware and Learning Center in Portland, Oregon, and it teaches people a wide range of do-it-yourself skills.
“We offer workshops on things like drywall repair, on refinishing furniture, sharpening knives, how to change a tire, how to change your oil,” Joughin said.
Joughin said learning these kinds of skills can be helpful for people who’ve struggled amid high inflation, economic uncertainty, and climate-related challenges — especially women, queer and trans folks, and people of color.
“There are barriers in employment, there are barriers to housing, there are so many different kinds of barriers folks are facing to gaining economic stability,” Joughin said.
Joughin said if the business goes well, one day, they hope to expand by opening a hardware store.
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