Doing the Pandemic Pivot : New Businesses Survive - and Even Thrive - During the Pandemic
by LaKay Cornell
It ’ s a widely told story -- the pandemic crushed local businesses , taking a financial toll on so many . Most of the success stories were from mammoth companies such as Amazon , while the stories about small and local businesses were those of sinking ships .
It ’ s true that so many shops , daycares , restaurants and event spaces shut down one after the other . As people lost work , they lost money , and in losing money , they became less and less able to spend . Those that kept their office jobs became work-fromhome warriors . And as social lives dwindled to non-existent , people stopped frequenting their go-to local hangouts .
Considering these circumstances , trying to open or expand a business during this time seemed like an awful idea , or at least one destined to fail . Opening a business and growing that business is hard enough under ideal conditions . According to the Small Business Administration , as of 2019 , 20 % of small businesses fail in the first year , and 50 % fail within five years .
By year 10 , only about 1 / 3 will have made it . On top of all that , businesses were faced with the responsibility of customer safety in an unprecedented time and the unheard-of challenges of creating demand in this new world .
What kinds of businesses could survive in these conditions ? Even thrive ? Was it luck or skill or some combination of both ?
Innovative Solutions
Those who were able and knew how to make a change - even slight - in their business saw a unique window of opportunity . One First Coast example , Intelligent Office , opened a new location in Nocatee in January of this year due to the growth in their Jacksonville location during the pandemic . Intelligent Office provides individual , professional offices where people can come and focus only on their business . There ’ s not much mental math required to see how this was attractive to a demographic of workers who were tired of being
Intelligent Office Ribbon Cutting
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