According to a survey by Gusto.com, almost half of the new US entrepreneurs in 2021 were female. While in 2019 women made up 28% of new business owners, in 2021, the rate increased to 49%.
The positive side of the pandemic
At the beginning of the pandemic, most businesses were born out of necessity, but now more and more people are actively choosing to leave their job and launched their companies.
According to the survey, in 2020, 35% of new entrepreneurs started a business after losing their job. This rate drastically dropped to 14% in 2021. The majority of people this year reported launching their brand to seize pandemic-related opportunities, and more than a third said they willingly quit their job to do so.
New business owners and minorities
Women entrepreneurs coming from Black and Hispanic minorities are also increasing. Black female business owners have tripled from 3% in 2019 to 9% in 2021. Among them, roughly one–third said they started their business to improve their financial stability, a higher percentage than their Hispanic and White counterparts.
Despite this, discrimination remains a problem. According to the survey, 11% of all new entrepreneurs received a private loan to finance their business, in contrast with 8% of Hispanic and 6% of Black businesswomen. In addition, the loan approval rate for Hispanic women was less than half the one for White female entrepreneurs.
