Record Breaking Startups in 2020: Americans’ Independent Spirit Turns Crisis into Opportunity
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Published 05/28/21 11:35 am by Small Business Center Las Vegas, NV
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Don’t believe the recent socialist leaning rhetoric about the workforce in America. The majority of workers do not prefer to sit at home and collect checks from the government instead of returning to work. That is the current rumor being passed around on social media sites and some state leaders are buying into the hype and refusing federal unemployment aid.
Yesterday, it was reported that twenty-three states refused the additional $300 of federal aid per unemployed to encourage workers to return to work.
News flash! Many workers are not going to return. Who wants to work for an employer that dropped then like a hot biscuit in 2020?
Without a bit of resistance or fight, millions of employers sent workers home without notice and without pay and shut their doors. Now that some of them want to reopen in 2021 employers and politicians that claimed the current situation as the new normal, now expect workers to return to employers that dumped them. What reality are they living in?
A huge group of the American workforce took their financial fate into their own hands and became self-employed or started businesses from home. In 2021, at just eight months old, SBC’s sales revenue grew by more than 275% during the economic shutdown.
Individuals that had been sent home bought file cabinets, storage cabinets, desks, workstations, bookshelves, organizers, and office supplies, to set up workspace in their home for themselves and their children. Most of the year’s inventory was depleted in 2.5 months.
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Individuals rented mailboxes from us and we notarized fictitious firm name certificates for their businesses. We faxed, mailed, and emailed documents for their new businesses, and provided wi-fi and internet assistance to help them navigate the new electronic policies of government agencies. Yes, we have firsthand knowledge of individuals NOT sitting at home but taking their financial fate into their own hands.
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We listened to their stories, and we helped them start their journeys towards financial independence.
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We heard similar stories from people that did not know each other and none of them were okay about sitting at home collecting financial assistance from the government. In fact, many were not receiving help at all from the governments. Customers were in and out of our store so many times faxing and mailing the same documents to the unemployment offices who had claimed they had never received the paperwork. Many waited months and some all year to finally receive the unemployment that was promised to them.
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Family members helped each other by wiring money to those waiting for the government assistance, unemployment, and income tax refunds. After not being able to return to work within a few weeks local economies were shutdown to help flatten a curve, workers were tired of waiting and found ways to earn money from home.
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One customer started a window cleaning business and began cleaning our windows every month. Several customers started selling clothing and small items on the internet and dropped their packages at our store to be mailed out. Some gained employment from businesses that remained open during the shutdown, while others became notaries, or performed some other type of service that was deemed essential during the shutdown.
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While the mainstream media acts as promotion hubs for big corporations moving to Nevada and alternative media acts like the new Enquirer spreading socialist leaning stories about workers that would rather be paid for sitting home than return to work, who is talking about the newly self-employed individuals and home-based business startups in 2020? SBC is one of the few that is telling their story.
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American workers turned the shutdown into an opportunity instead of a crisis. That is the independent spirit of the American workers. Many may have forgotten or were never taught this information but it is the spirit that built America and caused a revolt against Britain.
Many American's are uncomfortable sitting around waiting for permission to do something about their situation. It is that spirit of independence and the right to self-govern (autonomy) that lifts us out of our chairs and into action.
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A few other websites have reported on the number of new startups in 2020, that only serves as evidence that the independent spirit is still alive in the U.S., and that socialism is contrary to the American Way.
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On September 26, 2020, the Wall Street Journal Reported,
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The pandemic closed hundreds of thousands of businesses across the country. But now applications for new U.S. businesses are rising at the fastest rate since 2007…Applications for the employer identification numbers that entrepreneurs need to start a business have passed 3.2 million so far this year, compared with 2.7 million at the same point in 2019…
In December 2020 just three months after the Wallstreet Journal article the Small Business Trends website reported 200,000 more startups than was previously reported.
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New business applications reached over 3.4 million new applications in 2020 up from last year’s figures. Even with the nation experiencing the worst economy since the Great Depression, new business applications have surpassed 2019’s figures. Overall business applications growth was triggered following the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security (CARES) Act was signed into law on March 27.
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And in February 2021, the Economic Innovation Group reported,
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...the Bureau’s Business Formation Statistics series has provided a detailed look at the number and character of new business applications on a weekly basis. Its findings suggest that the pandemic delivered a massive shock to American entrepreneurship that has seriously altered established trends in new business formation. Counter to expectations, 2020 shaped up to be the best year for business applications on record.
In 2020, there was an explosion in new business applications, reaching nearly 4.5 million by year’s end—a 24.3 percent increase from 2019 and 51.0 percent higher than the 2010-19 average.
Although the majority of the growth was in likely non-employers (perhaps as the laid off turned to self-employment opportunities), there was still a noticeable increase in high-propensity business applications as well. These likely employer applications—up 15.5 percent from 2019 and 22.9 percent above their 2010-19 average—are particularly important because they represent the applications for businesses most likely to lead to lasting job growth and innovation.
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https://eig.org/news/the-startup-surge-business-formation-trends-in-2020
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Another myth is that workers are turning down bonuses and higher pay offered by employers because unemployment is paying as much or more for them to sit at home.
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This story completely contradicts the stories I have heard from customers that were excited about returning to work only to be given an employment application when they arrived and offered lower pay if they chose to return to work.
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One SBC customer worked for a large hotel for eighteen years. She worked through the 2020 shutdown and was furloughed for two weeks before returning to work in 2021. Upon her return she was given a job application and told it was just a formality. Yet, after filling it out and returning it to the human resource department, she was offered her old position for $10.00 an hour less than she was earning before the two-week furlough.
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Another worker had been a cook for twenty years at one of the largest hotels here in Las Vegas. When he was called back to work in 2021, they offered him $10.00 per hour to do the job he had done before and none of the benefits he had before. The elderly man refused the offer in spite of not receiving a penny of unemployment during the shutdown. His unemployment application is still pending with the government agency.
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And lastly and most despicable was the story I heard from a customer that was paid for a few months during the shutdown but not allowed to work. After his boss received the PPP loan of millions of dollars he paid his employees for a few of the months they were out of work and when they were allowed to return to work the employees were told that the pay was actually loans that would have to be paid back to the company. Each employees’ paycheck was deducted a certain amount to pay back the company. Later, it was revealed to the employees that the owner of the company file a Forgiveness Application for the PPP Loan he received, and it was approved. The owner would not have to pay back the money he received from the government, but the workers did have to pay back the owner.
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These are just some of the stories I have heard this year from loyal workers that had devoted years of their life to a company or business owner that did not care about them.
For millions of workers they took the hint when they were told to stay home in March 2020. For others, it took returning to work to realize their loyalty and years of hard work didn't matter.
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