FINDLAY, Ohio — Despite the financial woes brought on by the coronavirus pandemic, more than 170,000 new businesses popped up in Ohio in the year 2020.
According to Ohio Secretary of State Frank Larose, that number is up from over 130,000 in 2019, and Dan Scheaffer with Findlay-Hancock County Economic Development said that increase has reflected in northwest Ohio.
Scheaffer said many businesses were mired down with the shutdown and strict COVID-19 restrictions through last spring, but business began to boom during the summer.
Some people who were laid off or furloughed took that downtime to pursue new money-making ventures.
Scheaffer said many of these newly-created small businesses could continue as people get back to work, using it as a form of secondary income.
He said that right now, his office is working with 40-45 active small business projects.
The pandemic has brought about a number of new services, as many locally-owned small businesses began offering things like e-commerce and delivery when before 2020, that was usually a service only offered by larger companies.
"Some of the larger chains, as you know, have take-out, and carry away, and delivery already. So, we were able to do that, and that helped out quite a bit. So, we saw a lot of activity due to COVID in that particular area of e-commerce," Scheaffer said.
He said he expects a good amount of rollover for these new businesses and business models to continue once all pandemic restrictions and mandates have been lifted.