With many difficulties posed by the Covid-19 pandemic, 1.5 million American entrepreneurs still filed applications for new businesses from July to September 2020, almost twice as many as those who filed in the same quarter of the previous year. Bloomberg reports that applications for new businesses from June to December 2020 were 25 percent more than those filed in the second half of 2019.
Forbes believes that this year is also a good time to set up a business. In January 2021, according to the U.S. Census Bureau, 492,000 entrepreneurs applied for new businesses. This is almost one-third more than the applications filed in the same month in 2020.
If you are among those planning to set up an enterprise this year, you must study the market and the needs you can fill as you decide on what goods or services to offer. Of course, you must consider your skills and capabilities.
The Need for Sanitation and Hygiene
Proper sanitation and hygiene are a must for everyone everywhere to help stop the further spread of Covid-19. People must wear masks when going out of the house and must have handy containers of alcohol or sanitizers to clean their hands regularly whenever soap and water are not available.
You can set up an online business selling alcohol and hand sanitizers in large containers for the home and handy containers for taking outside. You can also sell masks, both disposable and reusable kinds. Masks now come in trendy designs and are often worn to match outfits. You can find sources for fabrics and sew these yourself if you have the skill or, better yet, outsource the manufacturing for scalability. You can also add personal protective equipment (PPE) gear for frontline workers. You must make sure that everything you sell passes health and safety standards.
As commercial facilities start to open, they will need constant and thorough cleaning and disinfecting services that meet the guidelines of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). This is a stable business to get into, but it can be difficult to start from scratch. You can benefit from getting a franchise for commercial cleaning services instead to gain a head start and be up and running sooner. You can service health facilities, nursing homes, and other commercial establishments that are already allowed to operate. As vaccinations continue to roll out, more establishments will reopen and your market will continue to expand.
The Need for Healthy Food and Drinks
Because of the pandemic, people are now more conscious of their health and are seeking healthy food. You can partner with organic food producers and put up an online organic food store. This can even include vegetable and fruit growers. You can be their online marketing arm, and they can send the freshly harvested produce from the farm directly to the buyer.
You can sell various types of coffee beans that you can grind just before sending to the buyer so that they are fresh or sell whole beans to those who want to grind these themselves. You can source different types of tea, including herbal teas and tea blends.
There are different diets that you can cater to, categorizing your product offerings accordingly on your website so that they are easy to search. You can sell products for those who follow a ketogenic diet, vegetarians, and vegans.
The Needs of Parents with School-age Children
When classes moved online and many children began learning from home as their parents were also working from home, those parents suddenly had too much on their hands. You can recruit teachers and offer online tutoring lessons for children of all grade levels.
To keep the children occupied in their free time, and to distract them from the stress of the pandemic, you can offer extracurricular lessons. You can recruit teachers to give lessons in singing and the playing of various musical instruments. You can also recruit teachers to give art lessons in different media and at various levels.
Build Your Business
Choosing what business to get into is a crucial decision and can spell the difference between success and failure. It is important to be very discerning in finding a balance between market needs that are already saturated and those that are wide open and yet have an exceedingly small niche audience that will not bring in enough profit.
If the market for your business has much competition, you must create your unique selling proposition and offer something that is missing from your competitors. This can be you and your passion for your enterprise, your engagement with your customers, and the extra care you provide in delivering your product or service.