New Businesses: The Next Normal

A survey conducted with 'future small business owners,’ defined the people who do not currently own a business but intend to start one.

The survey was conducted in August 2020 with 635 of 1,600 total respondents being 'future small business owners,' which was defined as people who do not currently own a business but intend to start one within the next 12 months.

Additional data from the QuickBooks survey shows that 72% of respondents looking to start a business within the next 12 months feel optimistic about their prospects and 28% of current small business owners say they are selling more products and services online.

As many areas around the world face a second wave of COVID-19 (and a lack of recovery from the first wave), working from home – where possible – remains the status quo for large amounts of the workforce. We know that many companies have pivoted to remote work for the time being and others have made the shift permanent. Looking towards the next normal, we can expect that there will be an increasing number of new businesses that never had a physical working space – they began as a remote workforce and are remaining that way. Compounded by the fact that e-commerce continues to mainstream across categories, this is likely to shift the relationship consumers have with small businesses if physical retail and office spaces are to become more uncommon.

What’s next: Consumers will continue to champion their local community businesses and the brands that will be rewarded will be those that get involved in benefiting their communities. Larger brands, especially, those that have more resources have the opportunity to innovate new tactics and strategies for the future of localized 'phygital' commerce.